BabycareAdvice.com Articles: 10 myths about babies sleep

While searching for answers to your baby's sleeping problems, you are likely to come across many MYTHS related to baby sleep. This brief article aims to dispel the 10 most common myths.

1. Offering your baby cereal in a bottle will help him sleep through the night.

RARELY: Parents are often anxious to start solids (either off a spoon or in a bottle) believing a full tummy will help their baby to sleep through the night, however this rarely helps. Starting solids too soon may upset the nutritional balance of your baby's diet, which could potentially further disturb his sleep.

2. Some babies don't need to sleep during the day.

FALSE: Many parents are told this, often by health professionals, but it's simply NOT true. Some babies will sleep less than others will but ALL babies need to sleep during the day.

3. Co-sleeping is the answer to a baby's sleeping problems.

TRUE & FALSE: There are advantages and disadvantages to co-sleeping. Many children sleep more soundly when a parent is close by, while others will sleep better when they sleep on their own. Co-sleeping is not for every parent. Some parents experience a sense of reassurance in knowing their child is close by and/or feel night time breastfeeding is made easier by co-sleeping. Whereas other parents find co-sleeping may further disturb their own sleep due to concerns for their infant's safety or due to their child's frequent movements during the night.

4. 'High needs' children have trouble sleeping and therefore need parents' help to sleep.

FALSE: There is a difference between WANTS and NEEDS. Although a child's temperament may affect their ability to 'switch off' and fall asleep as well as their ability to stay asleep, ALL children are capable of learning to fall asleep independently. Some children have 'high needs' (particularly babies under the age of 4 months, due to their biological immaturity). However, many babies and children can appear to be 'high needs' BECAUSE they are sleep deprived.

To encourage a child's sleep may require parents to use a different settling method when present methods of settling are not working. (This doesn't mean a parent needs to leave a child to 'cry-it-out'.)

5. If you keep your child awake during the day, he will sleep better at night.

FALSE: Parents are often told this, but in fact, all you will end up with is an over-tired, cranky child who may be find it even more difficult to settle to sleep in the evening. Alternatively he may wake even more frequently during the night.

6. Once a baby reaches a certain weight, he will start to sleep through the night.

FALSE: A child's weight has little bearing on when he will sleep through the night. A child needs to be developmentally ready (physically and psychologically) to sleep through the night. However, this is not to say that many babies and children who continue to wake overnight have not reached the stage of readiness, but continue to wake for other reasons.

7. Removing your baby's pacifier from his mouth AFTER he has fallen asleep with reduce the risk of him waking later.

FALSE: If your child learns to depend on a pacifier to fall asleep, the pacifier then becomes a sleep association for him. Deliberately removing his pacifier AFTER he has fallen asleep will NOT change his dependence on his pacifier TO fall asleep.

It's perfectly normal for all of us (infant, child or adult) to wake between sleep cycles. If your child wakes between sleep cycles to find his pacifier missing (regardless of whether it fell out or you removed it) he will cry for it's return so that he can return to sleep.

8. Children don't suffer from sleep deprivation, only parents do.

FALSE: Children DO suffer from sleep deprivation, but they show this a little differently to adults. Like an adult, a sleep deprived child's attention span is reduced; co-ordination is affected; they easily become frustrated and loose their temper; and also find it difficult to fall asleep. However, unlike adults who tend to slow down and become sluggish when they are sleep deprived, many children become MORE active.

Sleep deprived infants often display distressed behavior, which is commonly mistaken as pain.

9. Moving a child from a crib to a bed will resolve a sleep problem.

RARELY: If your child has a sleep problem in a crib, he's just as likely to have a sleep problem in a bed. Moving your child into a bed in a bid to resolve a sleep problem offers you LESS control and can further complicate the situation as your child can easily climb out of bed.

10. A child will learn to sleep without parents help.

TRUE: Most children do learn to sleep independently - EVENTUALLY. However, for a child to learn to sleep independently WITHOUT effective* encouragement from parents may take up to the age of 3 or 4 years (or older).

*Parents often believe they are offering effective encouragement but in reality without realizing it they can be reinforcing the behavior they wish to change.

HOW WE CAN HELP you to encourage your baby or child to develop healthy sleep habits.