27 Brilliant Ideas To Put Your Baby To Sleep
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You don’t ask your baby to come to sleep. You try hard at it.
One moment he yawns, you think he is simply going to doze off. At the next, he is pulsating with every distraction possible.
But we make it simpler for you. No tricks or abracadabra. Just a little common sense and you are done.
Your baby has gone to sleep at last.
Here are little tidbits on what you will need to do:
- Make the room soundproof. Check the acoustics. If there is a need, have some experts come over and fix the problem. Better still, before you have your baby, you can work on it and get the room done.
- Make sure you use opaque or blackout curtains beneath the glossy ones you might have installed.
- Dim the lights towards evening. You could use night lamps.
- Don’t let your baby get too exhausted to go cranky. Look for signs. Rubbing eyes, yawning, a quiet look, drowsy eyes, and little moaning are signs of your baby ready to sleep. Don’t let him stay awake until the crankiness takes over and leaves him crying hard.
- Rock your baby in a gentle rhythmic pattern. If you are rocking your baby in arms, make sure you have swaddled him or holding him in soft cushion layers.
- Set your baby on a regular biological clock. For instance, feeding or bathing in time will lead to sleeping on time as well. Ensure that towards the end of the day you are slowing down a bit to build up that sleepy instinct in your kid.
- Use bassinet or baby cot bumpers if your baby is over six months old, very active and keeps rolling around in his sleep. It would keep them away from hitting against the rails.
- Don’t make your baby go to sleep empty stomach or semi-fed. Feed him plenty so he doesn’t wake up every hourly.
- Don’t talk to your baby. A soft lullaby is fine. Or create a little rhyme while inserting your baby’s name. Babies are fond of hearing their names being called out. But again, don’t be loud – else they will jump out from the near-slumber mode. Or a little shush in the ear will do.
- Don’t be funny with your baby at 8 in the evening.
- Make sure you clean your baby’s nostrils with every bath while handling him with care – if you are adept at the art. Else use nose drops to clean up. A stuffy nose can keep your baby waking up intermittently.
- Make sure that your baby feels snuggly and warm if the temperatures are down. Ensure that the room temperature is just perfect on a wintery night – check the room heaters, keep a stock of warm clothes and baby blankets. If summers are in, your baby should be wearing well-aerated and soft clothes. Cottons are the key. Clean up your air conditioners before summers arrive and keep your fan out of dust and rust.
- Use quality diapers that don’t need frequent changing unless it’s poop. If you are using cloth diapers make sure they are multilayered. For those babies who haven’t started tossing around in bed, you could also use absorbent mats if you fear he gets diaper rashes.
- It’s important that your house, and especially your baby’s room and accessories are free of dust, bugs and mites. Vacuum cleaning is a must every single day. It’s the best way to keep away most air-bone or dust-born allergies.
- Identify where your baby sleeps the best – in your bed, in his bassinet, or when the bassinet is attached to your bed, or separately in his cozy little room in the baby sized bed.
- Observe your baby’s bowel movements – are they regular? If not, ask a doctor to prescribe a laxative for his age.
- Burp the baby after every meal. It helps your baby away from getting colicy. It might relieve acid reflux in the nights.
- At times, your baby might want to suckle in the middle of the night – even if it doesn’t mean he is hungry. Use a pacifier in this case.
- An oil massage followed by a prolonged hot bath (just hot enough for your baby), will make him fall asleep really quick.
- Also, any cleaning must always be done with warm water. There is nothing worse than cold water that can send your baby into shudders.
- If you have to do your chores before you can help your baby sleep, put him in a sling and do your own thing. Your movements and the warmth will make him fall asleep.
- Pretend to fall asleep with your baby while you pat him gently.
- Don’t look into your baby’s eyes while you are doing this.
- Use a baby monitor so that you can watch the baby while doing your own thing without having to peep into his room every now and then. You never know, sometimes even a tip-toe could wake him up.
- If your baby hasn’t weaned, breastfeeding is perfect at any time your baby needs it. Else keep a sterilized feeding bottle, formula milk and warm water handy and ready to mix and serve in the nights. Unable to give quick feed will wake the baby with lenghty cries.
- Forget to install or taking television, radio, mobile phones or laptops into the nursery. It’s not only the noise, but also the rays that emit from these electronics that keep your kids agitated.
- Ensure that your baby doesn’t have infant sleep apnea. If you think so, see your pediatrician.
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