Safe sleep for your baby, calm sleep – advice for parents.
Right amount of sleep is very important for a newborn baby’s development. Read practical advice from a midwife and interesting information about baby’s safe sleep.
It is possible that when you found out that you were pregnant you had certain specific assumptions and plans concerning what kind of parents you wanted to become and how the newborn baby would fit into your life. The sleeping habits of a newborn are mainly the consequence of their temperament that it is impossible to change. The temperament constitutes part of personality that is innate and genetically determined. It constitutes an important factor which affects the style of night-time parenthood that you will choose.
Your baby should be accustomed to lying on their back immediately after they are born.
The issues concerning sleep safety are unchanging. Firstly the little one should be accustomed to lying on their back immediately after they are born, so it is best to start even before you leave the maternity ward. Previously there were concerns that a child lying on their back may choke more easily, which is not true. Do not put your baby to sleep on their tummy. You should also avoid the side position because the baby can easily turn on their front. Lying on their back is the only safe sleeping position for your newborn. In America a catchy recommendation of “back to sleep” is currently in fashion.
The infant may, of course, lie and play on their tummy because this way they test their motor skills. But only when they are awake and under your care. From the moment the baby can turn from their back to their tummy by themselves, you no longer have to get up at night and turn them around. You should rather create opportunities for them to practice this movement during the day.
Your baby needs an appropriate bed meant just for infants, with a suitably hard mattress and a blanket or sleeping bag they can be covered with, and nothing more than that. They do not need pillows, duvets, sheepskins, wedge-type loose mattress covers for sleeping.
All you need as a cover for your baby is a cotton or cotton-bamboo baby blanket.
All you need as a cover for your baby is a cotton or cotton-bamboo blanket. And during hot summer nights dress them in just light pyjamas or just a bodysuit; you can cover the baby with a very thin bamboo blanket. Bamboo blanket has thermoregulation properties and on hot days maintains the temperature 2 degrees below that of the surroundings. Place the baby in their bed but sleep nearby. How many parents do you know who regret that they did not spend more time with their children when they were little?
“If I were in my baby’s place, how would I like to fall asleep?”
During the first six months of life, the safest place for the baby’s sleep is their bed in their parents’ bedroom. You should definitely sleep within an earshot from your baby until they are one. Children who are subjected to heartless methods of letting them cry themselves to sleep do “sleep through the night” earlier. However, their sleep is very fitfully and as a result usually have more problems with sleeping as toddlers and pre-schoolers.