Baby Sleep Help - Natalie's Response

Mum Zone's resident Sleep Expert Natalie of Sleep and Settle is available to answer some of your questions about settling your baby and more.

Topics include: Sleeping and settling, moving from bassinette to cot, cot to bed, breastfeeding/formula, solids, floorplay for babies and play for toddlers/children, wrapping/sleeping bags/dressing baby, behaviour/tantrums, what's normal? bedroom environments, music, lights, entertainment, mattresses, mattress protectors, sheets, unsettled babies and the 0-12 week afternoon arsenic hours, reflux/colic, teething, worms, toilet training, night terrors/nightmares, the older child issues 5-10 years and single parenting/separation/divorce.

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Reader's Question

My baby (4 months) was sleeping through the night perfectly, however lately he has been waking every 2 hours and crying (sometimes inconsolably). Any suggestions? I just have no answer for the sudden change?? Please help.

Natalie's Response

Hi,

I understand that you would be puzzled about this and wanting your sleep back!

There are a few common reasons for this sudden waking. They are not feeding well, not enough floor play and baby not knowing how to self-settle to sleep.

The most common reason for sudden waking at this age is a stage called "the age of distraction". This is where your baby becomes easily distracted, aware and curious about their environment and their surroundings and turns into a sticky beak!

This curiosity in the light filled busy daytime may start to interfere with the baby's ability to feed properly. Your baby has a quota of milk it requires each 24 hours and whatever milk your baby misses out on during the day they will make up for.... in the night, hence the sudden night waking. You may have noticed that your baby isn't feeding for as long on the breast or drinking as much from the bottle as usual and they are constantly pulling on and off the feed. This can be very frustrating for you because you are noticing that baby isn't drinking as much as usual but may not be sure what to do about it. You also may have noticed that baby feeds better during the night. This is because there are less distractions and it is darker and quieter and you are stimulating baby less than in the day, to encourage them going back to sleep. They are also now hungry! To help create more efficient daytime feeds, feed in a dark, quiet room when it is practical during the day. Sometimes this is really hard, such as in a shopping centre, social function etc. In this situation persist with offering the feed as best you can and offer more frequent feeds or plan to make up with a more efficient feed when at home next. Many mums find draping a bunny rug over the top of the baby, anchoring it under your bra strap helpful in reducing the baby's distraction and helping baby concentrate on the feed. This phase will pass as baby gets older.

The easiest way to help your baby get over the 'age of distraction' and feed better during the day to avoid any unnecessary night waking is to understand the importance of floor play. Floor play is essential for wearing out your baby, making them hungry, encouraging great feeds, great sleeps and developing their body and brain. Basically, when baby has finished their feed and has burped they need to spend a lot of the end of their uptime on the floor having floor play including tummy time.

The other common reason is that baby is aware of their environment and how to get their parents attention and not self-settling to sleep. In an effort to make baby happy and get some sleep it can be easy to fall into some survival habits especially at sleep time for example using a dummy, rocking, feeding, bouncing on a fit ball, taking drives in the car. You may also find that there are several people involved in baby's care and they may all have their own way of settling baby to sleep and back to sleep. If this is the case baby may be getting confused with the different techniques and not able to self settle to sleep or back to sleep on their own. Naturally when they wake in the night they are needing your assistance and help to go back to sleep. Showing your baby how to self-settle to sleep will enable them to self-settle back to sleep and sleep through the night as soon as possible. Once you have established a routine that works for your family it is a great idea to make sure that everyone involved in your baby's care is doing the same thing.

Please note that the average age for babies to sleep through the night 7pm until 7am is ... 9 months. I would expect night feeds at around 11pm, 2-3am and 5-6 am until 9 months of age.

Happy Sleeping,

Natalie

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The opinions expressed on these pages are of a general nature and are by no means a substitute for professional advice. Therefore neither Mum Zone or Natalie Ebrill of Sleep and Settle are liable for any actions pertaining to the use of the supplied information.