When you are completely exhausted and your baby or toddler has been driving you crazy all day, most of us will gladly try any non harmful tactic to help your little one fall asleep. Some of the things that many people try are:

  • Pacifiers or dummies
  • Walking, rocking or driving your baby to sleep
  • Watching T.V. To sleep
  • Nursing your baby to sleep whilst still on the breast
  • Playing a specific tune or piece of music that your baby likes

In the short term, many of these techniques will work a treat but unfortunately they cause more problems in the long run. When your child becomes dependent upon a physical object or set of circumstances to fall asleep they will often wake up distressed if those circumstances are no longer available when they stir in the night.

Imagine if you fell asleep with your favorite pajamas on, in your own bed and you awoke to find yourself fully clothed in another room. Most people would find this change of circumstances to be quite alarming and would fully wake up as soon as they realized what had happened. Although this is an extreme example, the same principles apply for your child.

It is your job to only provide sleep associations that can consistently be met. Some examples are as follows:

  • Providing a cuddly toy
  • Putting your child to bed in the same location every night.
  • Using the same tone of voice and behavior.

If you are already guilty of using some inappropriate sleep aids, you will be well aware of the consequences if you can not find the pacifier etc. The important thing is for you to teach your child to go to sleep on his or her own and to have the skills to self soothe back to sleep when he or she has a partial awakening during the night.

These skills can be taught and you can read more about some gentle, effective methods in my book.

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Filed under: General Sleep Information

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