There is plenty of information regarding baby sleep. However, not all of the information is true. Today, we will be debunking some of the common baby sleep myths. It is important for us to understand the facts of baby sleep to help our babies sleep better.
Baby Sleep Myth #1: Not Letting Babies Nap Will Help Them Sleep Better At Night
Babies become more irritable when you deny them of their naps. They will have a harder time falling asleep at night as well. It is important to develop a nap routine for your baby. Why? A nap routine can help your baby get better sleep as it helps them to develop healthy sleep habits. Furthermore, naps play an essential part of a child’s physical and emotional growth.
Baby Sleep Myth #2: Babies Will Outgrow Those Night Waking
Research has shown that 84% of babies with sleep issues will continue having them until they are 3 years old. Waking up by sleep association is one of the common reasons. Parents unintentionally cause this. Sometimes we have good intentions to help our child, but it may result in the contrary. When the child becomes used to someone comforting them when they are awake in the night, they would not know how to go back to sleep on their own. As time drags on, the problem might worsen depending on the situation.
Teething can also lead to night waking. Just like why adults feel more chronic pain at night, children find teething pain more unbearable at night too. Because there are lesser distractions, combined with the exhaustion, the pain intensifies.
Nightmares also cause night waking. Once children grow older – their imagination gets better, they start to gain a better perception of the world and their surroundings. Thus, babies get nightmares as a result of becoming more aware of their senses and it leads them to be wary or afraid of the unknown.
Baby Sleep Myth #3: Drinking Formula Milk Or Rice Cereals Help Babies Sleep Longer At Night
There is no evidence that this is true. Drinking formula milk to help babies sleep better depends on the babies’ reaction to the formula. If the baby reacts badly to the formula and has a stomach-ache, it will result in a bad night’s of sleep.
An experiment was done by Macknin ML, Medendorp SV, Maier MC, where they studied how feeding infants rice cereal before bedtimes affected their sleep. One hundred and six infants were fed before bedtime. They recorded the infant’s sleep for one 24-hour period per week. They found that there were no obvious changes in how this affected the infant’s sleep. Thus, feeding infant rice cereals before bedtime does not help infants sleep better.
Baby Sleep Myth #4: It Is Too Late To Sleep Train My Toddler
It is never too late to foster healthy sleep habits. Sleep training is to help your baby build good sleeping habits, it’s the same as developing healthy eating habits. It is never too late to practice healthy habits!
Baby Sleep Myth #5: Sleep Training Is About Letting My Baby “Crying It Out”
Most people associate sleep training with “Crying it out”, however that is an old way of thinking. Today, sleep training refers to a wide range of approaches to help babies get better sleep. It includes gentle methods of teaching your baby good sleeping habits. Gentle methods include developing a sleep routine for your baby and slow removal of parental presence.
These are some of the common baby sleep myths. We hoped that we have debunked them and allowed you to have a clearer understanding of baby sleep. To learn more about how I can help you get your little one to sleep well, you can book a FREE 20 mins discovery call with me.
I have met many parents over the years and while many agrees with baby sleep training, some are a bit Read more
So you may not mind waking up at night for the night time feed because it doesn’t take too long Read more
8 years ago, my twins were born and nothing could have prepared me for their arrivals. Like any first time Read more
Is white noise actually good for your baby's sleep? Let’s talk about what we actually know about white noise. From Read more
