As a parent of a newborn or rather an infant, you very well know that when it can be a tough job to put your baby to sleep. On the other hand, you will not be able to get a rest either when your baby is not asleep.
Therefore, you need to follow certain strategies that will aid in putting your baby to sleep in no time. Following some of them may be quite difficult at first, but you will realize that they are very effective once you get the hang of them.
Keep reading to find out what they are, and how you can do them the right way.
Help them understand day and night
Since your baby has been in the womb for a considerably longer period which is undoubtedly dark, differentiating between dark and light is not something your baby would understand.
As a result, your baby will not be aware even when it is night and time to sleep. So, you need to continuously keep the lights off wherever you put your kid to sleep which can help them in getting longer sleep hours.
Thereby, your baby will automatically sleep when it is quite dark in their surroundings.
Rock your baby to sleep
Another effective way of enabling your baby to sleep is by rocking and singing a lullaby. This is because doing this can calm their senses and reduce their level of the hormone cortisol in order to fall asleep quickly.
You can do this in many ways such as by massaging, feeding them, rocking their cot, swaddling them with a swaddle wrap as well as playing soft music. Any of these techniques can be useful to make sure your baby falls asleep fast and get enough sleep too.
Use the sucking reflexes
One way that babies are comforted is by sucking reflexes. This is quite evident when babies who are breastfed tend to stay around for a while even though they are done eating.
However, you can let them do this always which can also hinder their timely sleep. During such an instance consider using a pacifier so that they would get a sucking experience which can be soothing for them to fall asleep. Also, remember to first breastfeed your newborns before you give them the pacifier.
Do not feed them until they fall asleep
As much as it is important to initiate sleep in your baby by feeding them, it is equally important to ensure you feed them only until they feel drowsy.
You must follow this mainly because when your baby gets used to falling asleep right away after being breastfed, they will need to be fed again to help them get back to sleep.
Hence, you can feed until you know your baby is ready to sleep and end it with a lullaby. Keep in mind you still have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed your baby due to their hunger. What needs to be avoided is to soothe them by feeding which can stop them from learning to sleep on their own.
If you are having trouble putting your baby to sleep, the above-mentioned methods will be useful to you especially if you are a new mom. Nevertheless, if you still cannot put them to sleep despite following these methods, it is best to consult a doctor in this regard.