KIDS GUIDE 2019

BUMPS & BEYOND

LET’S TALK ABOUT SLEEP For many mums, sleep is the holy grail of the first few months of parenting. Thankfully, our bodies produce hormones to help us get through the hours of lost sleep – plus, babies generally become better sleepers as they get older, needing fewer night feeds. If you’re finding the opposite is true and you need toothpicks to prop your eyes open, here’s some info and insights that might help! The scenarios... Babies and toddlers can experience a range of sleep issues; among the common ones are: not falling asleep unless rocked, patted, bounced, pushed in a pushchair or driven in a car; not falling asleep for up to an hour or more; waking at the same time every night and not going back to sleep again for an hour or more; waking several times during the night; only sleeping if co-sleeping with a parent; waking at the crack of dawn or earlier; still waking for a night feed when older than nine months; continually getting out of bed; only napping in a pushchair or baby sling, not in the cot. The options...

Some parents prefer not to subject their babies and toddlers to sleep training, especially if they think it involves leaving them to “cry it out”. However, sleep training has been shown to improve the lives of many parents and little ones within a very short time. Plus, not all sleep training involves leaving them to wail the night away, which can tug at the heartstrings! The books... There’s a range of books out there too, which outline various sleep-training methods. Here are a handful of the more popular ones: Gina Ford, The Contented Little Baby Book Harvey Karp, The Happiest Baby on the Block Sheyne Rowley, Dream Baby Guide Richard Ferber, Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems Robin Barker, Baby Love Tracey Hogg, Secrets of the Baby Whisperer

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