Why your child’s sleep environment is so important

A good night's sleep is vital for a child's growth and development. As parents, we can play a significant role in ensuring our little ones have a comfortable and conducive sleep environment. In this blog post, we'll explore essential elements for crafting the perfect sleep space, including the benefits of white noise, the importance of a dark room, the use of sleep sacks, the importance of safe sleep practices, and the optimal room temperature for our children.

• The Magic Of White Noise: White noise has proven to be a game-changer for many parents. It works by masking background sounds, creating a consistent and soothing environment for sleep. The gentle hum can mimic the comforting sounds babies hear in the womb, easing them into slumber. Whether through a dedicated white noise machine or a smartphone app, using white noise can help your child fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

• Embrace Darkness: A dark sleep space is crucial for promoting quality sleep, as it triggers the release of melatonin—the hormone responsible for regulating sleep-wake cycles. Melatonin production increases in the absence of light, signalling to our bodies that it's time to sleep. I highly recommend that you invest in blackout curtains or shades to block out external light sources and maintain a serene, dim environment that encourages deeper and more restorative sleep.

• Cozy Sleep Sacks: When it comes to ensuring a safe sleep environment, sleep sacks are a parent's best friend. These wearable blankets keep your child comfortable and warm throughout the night without the risks associated with loose bedding.

• Safe Sleep Practices: Safety should always be a top priority when setting up a sleep environment for your child. Following the ABCs of safe sleep is essential: Alone, on their Back, and in a Crib. Avoid placing pillows, stuffed animals, or thick blankets in the crib, as they pose suffocation hazards. Make sure your child's sleep area is free from any loose bedding or objects in or around your child’s crib.

• Optimal Room Temperature: Maintaining a comfortable room temperature is key to a good night's rest. Experts recommend a temperature between 68 to 72°F (20 to 22°C) for optimal sleep conditions. Dress your child in breathable sleepwear and adjust layers accordingly.

As you can see, creating the perfect sleep environment for your child involves a combination of factors that work harmoniously to promote restful sleep for your little one. Incorporating white noise to soothe and mask distractions, embracing darkness to trigger melatonin production, and using sleep sacks for comfort are essential elements of a sleep space conducive to sleep. Additionally, following safe sleep practices and maintaining a suitable room temperature will further contribute to a restorative and safe sleep experience for your little one. With a carefully curated sleep environment, you can provide your child with the best possible foundation for sleep.

How and when to remove middle of the night feeds

Would you like to learn how to remove middle of the night feeds using gentle, parent-present methods?

If you’re reading this blog post you’re likely ready to start reducing your child’s middle of the night feeds to encourage your little one to sleep longer stretches overnight. Before we can get into the core of this topic, there are a few important details to discuss.

Young babies still need middle of the night feeds to meet their daily caloric intake. If your child is under the age of 4 months or weighs less than 13-15 pounds, your child will likely still need 1-2 middle of the night feeds to meet their daily caloric intake. Every child is different and it’s very important to consult with your doctor before starting the process of removing middle of the night feeds.

Whether your child is only up once overnight or is up eight times, the methods included in this blog post will help reduce your child’s middle of the night wake ups and help your family get the sleep you all need!

There are two main reasons a child will

wake for a feed in the middle of the night:

1: Comfort

2: Genuine Hunger

1: Comfort (The feed-sleep association)

If your child is waking looking for comfort in the middle of the night, your child likely has a feed-sleep association. The feed-sleep association is where a child uses a breast or a bottle while feeding to become drowsy or fall asleep completely. A child with a feed-sleep association will often have difficulty falling asleep independently and will wake more frequently overnight looking to feed back to sleep again. Here are the best ways to gently and responsively remove this association.

1: Encourage your child to stay fully awake for all feeds, day and night. The best way to do this is to move your child’s feeds to the beginning of their wake windows to prevent any drowsiness from occurring.

2: Move your child’s feed to the beginning of their bedtime routine and offer your child’s feed in a well lit space. It’s important your child is fully awake for their bedtime feed to prevent any micro naps prior to bed and to remove any lingering feed-sleep association. Here is what I recommend for bedtime routine:

• Feed (encourage your child to stay fully awake and offer this feed in a well lit space)

• Bath

• Diaper, lotion, PJs

• Book

• Sleep sack

• Sound machine on

• Key phrase (“goodnight, I love you”)

• Place child in crib

• Lights out

  3: Encourage your child to stay fully awake for all middle of the night feeds. Here is the routine I suggest you follow in the middle of the night:

• Pause, Listen, Watch (before rushing to your child, make sure they are fully awake before intervening)

• Lamp on

• Change your child’s diaper and remove their sleep sack

• Feed (focus on your child staying 100% awake)

• Put your child back into their sleep sack

• Place your child back in their sleep space, fully awake.

2: Genuine Hunger

Even if you remove the feed-sleep association, your child may continue to wake throughout the night because your child is genuinely hungry. This genuine hunger in the middle of the night usually means your child is relying on nighttime calories because your child is not getting enough daytime calories. Start by focusing on increasing your child’s daytime calories before reducing and removing night feeds. Next, you’ll start to decrease the amount of milk your child is getting in the middle of the night, while continuing to increase your child’s daytime calories. Of course this looks rather different depending on if your child is bottle feeding or breastfeeding. Here’s a break-down of what to expect depending of how you feed your child.

BOTTLE FEEDING: If you’re bottle feeding your child it’s easier to know how many ounces your child is getting overnight. I suggest you start by reducing your child’s bottles by 1 ounce every 1-2 nights. Any ounces you remove from your child’s nighttime feeds need to be added back into your child’s daytime bottles. For example, if you reduce two of your child’s bottles overnight, for a total of 2 ounces, those 2 ounces need to be added to your child’s daytime bottles.

BREASTFEEDING: If breastfeeding, it’s a little harder to know how many ounces your child is getting overnight. I suggest you start by reducing the amount of time you nurse for in the middle of the night. For example, if you normally nurse your child for 10 minutes at each overnight feed, you can start by reducing to only 8 minutes at each overnight feed, then to 6 minutes, then to 4 minutes, and so on. While removing overnight feeds it’s important your child is getting enough calories throughout the day. I suggest adding 1 extra feed into your child’s day when you begin removing overnight calories. If your child is getting more than 12-15 minutes of nursing overnight, I suggest you add 2 extra daytime feeds.

Parent FAQs

Here are two common FAQs from previous clients to help guide you through this transition:

Q: My child only knows how to fall asleep nursing, how do I get my child to sleep now?

A: I suggest you start with rocking your child to sleep while you are removing the feed-sleep association and moving calories from nighttime to daytime. After you’re confident that the feed-sleep association has been removed and the calories have been successfully transferred, you can move on to teaching independent sleep.

Q: What do I do if my child falls asleep as soon as I begin offering a feed?

A: Try to gain your child’s attention by talking to your child, tickling your child or holding a toy for your child to look at. If nothing is working to keep your child awake and engaged during their feed, go ahead and put your child back to bed. A child who is genuinely hungry is going to feed for at least 3-4 minutes before getting drowsy. A child who has a feed-sleep association is going to want to get drowsy during their feed in order to fall back to sleep.

FALL BACK!

Daylight savings time is quickly approaching! While the majority of the population will receive a blissful, extra hour of sleep, most children will be experiencing a whole hour less overnight sleep, usually accompanied with an early morning!

Every year I get a TON of questions asking for the best way to handle daylight savings and a child’s sleep. For this reason, I have written a blog post to help you navigate the sleep interruptions that can accompany Daylight Savings Time.

If you have children four months and older, my advice is to start adjusting your child’s schedule by 15 minute increments, for the four days leading up to Daylight Savings Time. I suggest starting this change at bedtime and continuing these adjustments for morning wake-up time and naps the following day.

If you’re on a 7pm-7am schedule, here is an example of how your schedule will look as you move towards daylight savings time. This is an example schedule for a 5 month old.

• Tuesday, November 1st (no change/regular schedule)

  7:00……………..Wake

  9:15-10:45…….Nap

  1:00-2:00……..Nap

  4:15-4:45………Catnap

  7:00………………Bedtime

• Wednesday, November 2nd (15 minute change)

  7:00……………..Wake

  9:15-10:45…….Nap

  1:00-2:00……..Nap

  4:15-4:45………Catnap

  7:15………………Bedtime

• Thursday, November 3rd (15 minute change)

  7:15……………..Wake

  9:30-11:00…….Nap

  1:15-2:15……..Nap

  4:30-5:00………Catnap

  7:30………………Bedtime

• Friday, November 4th (15 minute change)

  7:30……………..Wake

  9:45-11:15…….Nap

  1:30-2:30……..Nap

  4:45-5:15………Catnap

  7:45………………Bedtime

• Saturday, November 5th (15 minute change)

  7:45……………..Wake

  10:00-11:30…….Nap

  1:45-2:45……..Nap

  5:00-5:30………Catnap

  8:00………………Bedtime

  -DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME-

• Sunday, November 6th (new time + back to original schedule)

  7:00……………..Wake

  9:15-10:45…….Nap

  1:00-2:00……..Nap

  4:15-4:45………Catnap

  7:00………………Bed

Although, I usually recommend that this adjustment happens before Daylight Savings Time begins, you can also make these adjustments after Daylight Savings Time too! Push your child’s schedule back in 15-minute increments each day until your child is back on their previous schedule.

Another common question around Daylight Savings Time is, “do I need to adjust my newborn’s schedule?”. Not at all. Since a newborn’s circadian rhythm is not fully developed, no change needs to be made.

Although “falling back” at Daylight Savings Time can cause some anxiety for parents, applying these adjustment will make this transition seamless. You’ll hardly notice the Time Change at all!

The Four Month Sleep Regression

The Four Month Sleep Regression is one of the most commonly talked about regressions. Why, you may ask? During this regression babies go through a huge neurological change, often referred to as a developmental leap. Unlike other developmental leaps, the four month sleep regression creates a permanent change in a baby’s sleep cycles because a baby is transitioning away from newborn sleep cycles. This will result in baby being much more aware of their surroundings during middle of the night wake ups. Very often, babies who were previously sleeping well will begin to have frequent night wake ups. This is also why sleep props can begin to become a struggle around this age. So how do we navigate this regression? Here are a 7 tips to help you navigate this regression.

1: Limit distractions while feeding.

Now that your baby is much more aware of what is happening around them, you may need to go into a quiet room or feed baby in a place without as many distractions. A baby who isn't getting enough calories during the day will often wake in the middle of the night to make up for lost calories.

2: Reduce sleep props and teach baby independent sleep.

After the four month sleep regression, babies are much more aware of what is happening around them. Every time they wake from a sleep cycle they will need their sleep prop in order to fall asleep again. This can lead to one very tired baby and an exhausted mama!

3: Baby should be fully awake when placed in their crib at nap and bed time.

A baby’s first stage of sleep is very light; so light, in fact, that a baby’s first stage of sleep can often be mistaken for drowsiness. If baby is zoning out, is opening and closing their eye lids very slowly, or if baby is resting their head on your shoulder, chances are they are already in their first stage of sleep. If baby is already in the first stage of sleep when put down in bed, they will often wake after one sleep cycle looking for you. Imagine how you would feel if you fell asleep in your bed and woke up on the living room couch!

4: Follow age appropriate wake windows.

A baby who is four months old should be getting around 2 hours of wake time. If baby has too much wake time they will end up with a build up of cortisol in their system which makes it very difficult for a baby to fall asleep and stay asleep. In contrast to this, if a baby is under tired they will also have trouble taking full naps or may wake shortly after they fall asleep at bedtime. They simply won’t be tired enough to stay asleep.

5: Implement a bedtime and naptime routine.

Having a bedtime and nap time routine signals to your baby that it’s time for sleep. A 20-30 minute routine usually works best at bedtime. I recommend the following schedule; feed, bath, PJs, book, place in crib. Did you notice how I separated the feed and when you lay baby in their crib by 15-20 minutes? This helps prevent the feed to sleep association. A 5-10 minute nap time routine usually works best. I recommend the following schedule; book, sleep sack, in crib. Keep all lights dim for nap and bedtime routines.

6: Sleep Environment.

Implement a dark - I mean VERY dark - sleep environment. Go into your baby’s room, place your hand in front of your face and wait 5 seconds. Can you see your hand? If yes, then the room isn’t dark enough. Even a small amount of light sneaking in can decrease melatonin in a baby’s system and wake baby fully when they transition between sleep cycles.

I also recommend using a white noise machine. Now baby is more aware of what is happening around them, using a white noise machine will also block out any outside noise that may wake baby while they are transitioning between sleep cycles.

7: Don't rush in.

Did you know that it can take a baby as long as 10 minutes to transition between sleep cycles? Did you know that babies will sometimes fuss or even cry while they are transitioning through sleep cycles, even if they’re still in a light sleep? By waiting 10 minutes to go into baby’s room you are giving baby the opportunity to sooth themselves and put themselves back to sleep. By going in right away you are potentially waking baby or not giving baby the opportunity to learn to put themselves back to sleep.

Although the four month sleep regression can be one of the most dreaded regressions, some babies hardly experience any changes. If you have implemented healthy sleep habits before the 4 month sleep regression starts, chances are you will glide through without too many interruptions to your baby’s sleep.

I hope these tips help your current sleep situation. If you’re in the heart of the 4 month sleep regression and would like additional support, I’m here to help. If you’re interested in working together, send me an email or book a free 15 minute consultation with me.

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