How can I teach my baby to self-soothe?

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How to teach my baby to self-soothe?

There is nothing I have not done to get my babies to sleep. We rocked them, sung for them, and even did the weird dances to make them fall asleep at the midnight. Each of my babies had their own favorite way of being soothed. One wanted to be patted on the back and others loved being rocked and sung to sleep. There were the days they changed their minds and did not stop crying until they felt like so. I am sure you have also gone through these struggles of soothing a baby and wondered when he will be able to self-soothe. 

As parents, we get very little rest and still got a lot on our plates. It is not possible to spend months and years without proper sleep at night so teaching your baby to self-soothe as soon as possible is an important task. All the babies have their own timeline of hitting milestones but we can help them to reach those milestones faster. In this article, I will discuss some tips to teach your baby to self-soothe so you can have a good rest for a while. 

The first step of teaching your baby to self-soothe is creating a safe sleeping environment for him. Self-soothing will have your baby sleeping alone and unsupervised for a long time. Hence, make sure there is no chance for an accident in his surrounding.

 A baby should sleep in a crib that has no comforters such as blankets, soft toys, or pillows. If you are using a mattress cover, it should be a fitted sheet perfectly matched to the size of the mattress. Never leave your baby unattended to self-soothe in a car seat, baby swing, or a rocker. Parenting is not easy, especially in newborn days. But the safety of your little one should come at first. 

CONTENT

1.   Wait till the right time

2.   Establish a bedtime routine and a regular bedtime.

3.   Security blankets and soft toys.

4.   Create a comfortable and safe sleeping environment.

5.   Do not feed your baby to sleep.

6.   Let them fall asleep in the crib, not in your arms.

1.    Wait till the right time

Newborns need to be fed at short intervals for the first three months of their life. In this period, it is hard for you to teach them to self-soothe as they will wake up frequently for feeds. When a baby turns six months, he will be able to sleep for longer, at least for 8 hours in a stretch. This age will be the perfect time to start helping your baby to self-soothe. But you can start a bit early if your baby is showing signs of self-soothing skills before six months of age. 

Separation anxiety appears in its climax when a baby is between 8 to 9 months of age. Self-soothing skills should be introduced before this age so they will not find it hard to be without their favorite caregiver. 

2.    Establish a bedtime routine and a regular bedtime.

Babies cannot understand the words that we speak to them. But they can learn much by observing what is happening around them. Consistency can play a major role in teaching your baby when to sleep. Once he has understood that the night is for sleep, he will not expect an adult to appear and soothe him as before. It will not happen at once, but with time they will adapt to it. 

A bedtime routine does not have to be complicated or time-consuming. You can give him a bath and read a book every day before putting him to sleep. A consistent bedtime routine will signal the baby’s mind and body that it is the time to sleep.

A consistent bedtime is as important as a bedtime routine. When the baby is put to sleep at the same time for several days, the body rhythm of the baby will adjust accordingly. In few weeks, the baby will start to be sleepy at his exact bedtime and sleep with no parental intervention.  

3.    Security blankets and soft toys. 

It is not recommended to leave soft toys, pillows, and blankets in a baby’s crib for the first year of their life. They can be suffocation hazards to your baby and lead to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) risks. A pacifier will be the safest option to go with until the baby turns one. Pacifiers are considered great support to teach the babies to self-soothe. 

 But if your baby is old enough, you can offer a security blanket or a soft toy that your baby has developed a strong attachment with to make him feel safe.

How to teach my baby to self-soothe?

4.    Create a comfortable and safe sleeping environment. 

As I mentioned in the beginning, the safety of the sleeping environment should be the first point to consider in teaching your baby to self-soothe. You have to make sure that it is comfortable as well as the safety. 

The room that the baby sleeps in should be dark and free of disturbances. Do whatever you can to minimize the loud noises in the house while the baby is asleep. White noise will help you to cut off the auditory disturbances and it will also be a clue for the baby to know his bedtime. If your baby sleeps well, he will not be bothered to wake up in the middle of the night and cry until an adult comes to soothe him. 

5.    Do not feed your baby to sleep. 

If you are planning to teach your baby to self-soothe and he is not in an age where frequent feeds are necessary, do not feed the baby to make him fall asleep. Feeding your baby to sleep is not considered self-soothing. Include feeding as an earlier step of the bedtime routine will help to fix this habit.  

The babies who are fed to sleep will definitely have an attachment to feeds as a method of soothing. The first days of getting your baby to sleep without a feed will not be easy as he will miss the feeling of sucking milk and the warm snuggles from the parents or the caregiver. To make the transition comfortable for the baby, you can stand by the crib and sing to him, pat him or just talk to him to show that you are there.    

6.    Let them fall asleep in the crib, not in your arms. 

The baby should be allowed to fall asleep in the crib and wake up in the crib without parental intervention in the meantime. If you are making your baby fall asleep in your arms, he will wake up to a different environment than the one he fell asleep in. It will confuse and distress the baby, needing an adult to soothe him.

 The baby will also become dependent on an adult to fall asleep if he is kept in your arms until asleep. There will be a high chance that your baby will wake up when you transfer him from the arms to the crib. Considering all these problems, it will be easier to make your baby fall asleep in the crib than in your arms. 

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