What could be sweeter than a baby’s sleep? But children's sleep is fraught with its own questions and problems. For example, where is the best place for a newborn to sleep? Many parents put a newborn baby in bed next to them. But it cannot last forever. Sooner or later you have to think about how to teach a child to sleep in his crib.
Do I need a joint sleep
Moms with babies often choose joint sleep. The child at this time often wakes up, the mother has to feed him several times a night. In the case of joint sleep, it is much more convenient to feed the baby - you do not need to get out of bed, take the baby out of the crib. True, sometimes it happens that for a comfortable sleep the baby needs enough space.
Although he is small, he gradually pushes his father out of bed. It simply becomes uncomfortable for him to sleep, but he is not on maternity leave and he still has to go to work. Therefore, dad moves to another room, leaving mom with a child. A man can feel abandoned - not only does the baby get all the attention during the day, but he also has to sleep alone at night.
Another disadvantage of this joint sleep is the risk that the mother can crush the baby with her body. The probability of this is very small, because recently born women sleep sensitively. But the constant fear for the safety of the child and his posture can further upset the mother’s sleep. In the end, the question is ripening on how to teach a child to sleep in his crib.
Better time to move
One way or another, sharing a dream with parents is a common way. Therefore, sooner or later, the question is ripening about when it is time for the baby to sleep separately in the crib. How to teach a child to such a change in life? This is best done before six months. At 6-7 months, the child, in theory, should already be resettled.
Visual memory at this age is not yet so developed, and the baby will easily get used to a new place. If a child is a year old, how to teach him to sleep in a crib is still not such a difficult question, although it may be more difficult than with very small ones. Some doctors give advice, on the contrary, do not do it too early - up to 6-8 months. At this time, there is a transition to complementary foods and a mode appears in the child’s diet. Therefore, he wakes up less often and requires feeding at night.
When weaning from joint sleep, you need to not only adhere to general recommendations, but also navigate in a real situation. There are times when no innovations should appear in a child’s life. For example, the baby is sick or weaned. This is stress for a child, and you should not aggravate it. Better to wait for a more favorable moment.
For older children, such stressful periods can be the birth of a brother or sister, accustoming to a pot, and even entering a kindergarten. But up to this point, it is still desirable to solve the problem.
Difficulties with older children
If the baby is one and a half or two years old, then such a retraining can turn into a real war. At 2-3 years old, fears are observed in children, for example the fear of the dark. The latter is a natural phenomenon. Once upon a time, ancient people had to take turns on duty at night so that predators or snakes did not attack the sleeping people. The booming imagination of children can draw many scary creatures that await them at night. In no case should you scare a child and tell him horror stories for the night.
If the relocation to a separate bed occurs in 3-4 years, then this will be an even more emotional moment. The child may be jealous. Parents decided to be with each other, and he is sent to sleep separately. Especially if the crib is in another room. The kid may think that he is rejected.
Extra bed
One of the modern solutions, how to create a smooth transition from sharing sleep to sleep in a crib and to protect the child from being crushed by a sleeping mother, may be an extra bed.
On the one hand, it does not have a side, it has a small height and is tightly attached to an adult bed. Therefore, it turns out that the baby seems to be lying next to his mother, he can feel her soothing touch, but at the same time he already has his own place.
The question of how to teach a child to sleep in his crib becomes much simpler. He already sleeps in her! At some point, you can unfasten the crib and put the side in place. So the child will already be sleeping separately.
How to wean babies from sharing sleep
How to teach a baby to sleep in a crib? It is necessary to develop a conditioned reflex to falling asleep in a bed without a mother. For this, it is important to lay the baby only when he is really tired and wants to sleep, even if it sometimes violates the regimen. After all, when a child does not want to sleep, he tosses and turns, cries, asks for his hands.
To make this habit even stronger, you need to create a baby's expectation of sleep. To do this, there are rituals of going to bed. These actions should be calming, relaxing. For example, it can be a bath and a light massage. You can sing a lullaby to your baby. Quiet, soothing music is also suitable for some children.
The room should be twilight, it is best to turn on the nightlight - it will not be too bright, but there will not be complete darkness, in which it will be difficult to carefully put the baby in the crib. Feeding and games are best done in other places - then the child will get used to the fact that the bed is the place for sleeping. How to teach a one-year-old baby to sleep in a crib? About the same.
Magic pillow
There is one way associated with the use of pillows. This pillow will create a transitional stage between the presence of mom and separation from her. It is necessary to feed the baby on a pillow, wait until he falls asleep. Let him sleep for 15-20 minutes - during this time he will be able to plunge into a deep sleep. Then you can begin a cunning maneuver: you need to carefully transfer the baby to the crib along with a pillow that retains the warmth of her mother’s body, the smell of her skin and milk. Maternal heat can also be transferred using a heated blanket or diaper.
Cozy cocoon
How to teach a month old baby to sleep in a crib? Some mothers say that children fall asleep perfectly when they find themselves in a confined space. No wonder. For 9 months the fetus spent in the womb, which in the end became very cramped.
Free space can scare the child and cause a feeling of insecurity. Will you fall asleep with such a feeling? If you think about it, we adults also need comfort. We can love open spaces of nature or grandiose halls with high ceilings. But when we go to bed, we are most pleased with a small cozy room and a warm blanket.
Many people like to sleep curled up all their lives. So, for babies there are special cribs and cots that meet this need. For example, a Cocoonababy crib is placed inside a regular crib.
It has a rounded shape, so it resembles a small white bathtub made of fabric. At the same time, its structure corresponds to the bends of the baby body. For example, the legs below the knees are slightly raised, and it is very convenient to keep them in a bent position, which is physiological for newborns.
We teach a child older than 2 years
How to teach a child to sleep in his crib if he is already out of infancy? Big kids need other tips. The kid is already more consciously approaching what is happening, so he can not simply not pay attention to the relocation. But to understand why this is done, he can not do it. Therefore, the child may be offended by the parents, especially if his resettlement was aggressive.
At the same time, you can’t indulge too much the children's whims. What will it be like for parents if the child, taking advantage of their gentleness, will sleep with them until school itself? This is unlikely to affect the atmosphere in the family!
Children over two years old may be interested. For example, in one mom, this happened by accident. She ordered a crib, and they brought her, but still did not carry a mattress. The crib was empty. Mom told her daughter that she had a wonderful bed where she would sleep, like a big one, she just had to wait. The wait fueled the interest of the girl, and she herself went to bed in a new place with pleasure. But this situation is unplanned.
And if parents take the initiative in their hands, they can try to take advantage of such methods. So that the child experiences positive emotions for the new crib, you can go with him to the store and offer to choose yourself. There are many cots with an original design - in the form of cars, ships, trains, fairy houses.
You can do so - buy a crib and pack it in paper, decorate with a bow on top. The child will simply languish with curiosity, what kind of gift is inside. You can add beautiful and cheerful bedding, pajamas, a night lamp and even a soft toy to the crib. This plush friend will be able to become an assistant to put the baby to bed. The kid needs affection before bedtime, it is important for him to hug someone. He will cling to his beloved and familiar toy.
If friends have cots, you can go visit and see. Maybe a friend will show off his original crib.
Day and night
Accustoming to a new crib should begin with a nap. How to teach a child to sleep in the crib during the day? You can close the curtains, tell a fairy tale. Starting to lay the child in the afternoon, you can avoid children's fears associated with darkness.
When you decide that it is time to lay the baby there and at night, the bed will be already familiar and cozy place for him. How to teach a child to sleep in a crib at night? Turning to a night's sleep, it is worth turning on the nightlight, reading good and not scary tales at night.
What you should not do
Some rash actions of parents can slow down the process of learning, and some can aggravate children's fears and grievances, even lead to a neurosis. What you should not do is scare the child. You don’t even have to jokingly talk about Babayka or a bedside monster. The child’s vivid imagination does not know how to distinguish fiction from reality, and he can take shadows falling from the window or sounds rushing from the neighbors' apartment as signs of dangerous creatures.
It is not worth it to shame the baby, reproach him with cowardice, and all the more shame before friends and relatives. A child cannot simply take and “turn off” his fear. He simply pushes him inside, making sure that adults cannot be trusted in their feelings, and will consider himself truly small, weak and cowardly. You need to act more delicately.
But excessive softness can lead to the fact that the child will remain with his parents to listen to a fairy tale and fall asleep on their bed or ask to sleep with them one night. As a result, the “relocation” will be postponed indefinitely.