You and your baby, with or without your partner, share an adult bed and sleep together on the same sleeping surface. Bed-sharing with parents is the most common sleeping arrangement worldwide and families may choose to bed-share because of cultural, parenting, or family beliefs. Some experts advocate bed-sharing if done in a ‘safe way’ for several reasons. Bed-sharing will encourage ease of breast-feeding, which has important benefits not only for your baby, but also for you. But there are also risks to be considered, including overheating and overlying.

• Bed-sharing may improve breast-feeding due to the convenience of sleeping next to your baby.
• Babies who breast-feed and bed-share have more arousals, as do their mothers. When your child wakes, you will be more likely to wake also and able to respond easily to his needs.
• If you are breast-feeding your baby in bed and fall asleep, this is a safer place for your baby than if you fall asleep while feeding him in a chair or sofa.

Lauren and Kyle are expecting their first child. Lauren is in her third trimester. They came to our clinic to discuss issues about caring for their newborn, including breast-feeding and co-sleeping. Lauren is hoping to breast-feed her baby. She has researched the pros and cons of breast-feeding and bottle-feeding, and feels that breast-feeding is the healthiest option. However, Lauren and Kyle are confused about whether it is safe or not to co-sleep with the baby in their bed. They want to know what the risks and benefits are of this arrangement.

We reinforced Lauren’s decision to breast-feed as the best way to feed her baby. Breast-feeding has many benefits, both for mothers and babies. We also presented Lauren and Kyle with some of the key information about keeping their baby safe while sleeping, especially what the American and Canadian pediatric societies recommend, based on the evidence about SIDS. We advised them to sleep in the same room as their baby, with the baby in a separate sleeping space but close-by, in a crib or bassinet.

Although some babies can settle on their own, even as newborns, other need to be nurtured to sleep. For the first few months of life, you should help your infant to fall asleep by rocking, cuddling, nursing, and bottle-feeding, or any other soothing, nurturing technique. You cannot ‘spoil’ your baby by providing this comfort, despite what your well-intentioned relatives or friends may tell you. Your baby needs this contact while falling asleep. Babies cannot always soothe themselves independently.

As your child develops more mature sleep patterns by 3 to 4 months of age, you can start to put your baby to bed drowsy but awake. You can still stay with him while he is falling asleep, feeding, rocking, or patting him in his crib, but you can start to decrease the soothing activities that he needed for the first few months of life. As long as your baby is thriving, by the time he is 6 months of age, you can start to decrease his nighttime feeding if you want to encourage longer sleep periods at night, and he will gradually eat more during the day to make up for the changes.

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Younger Infant (4 to 6 Months) Sleep Routine
To establish and maintain good sleep habits for your young infant:

1. Establish a routine, even if it is very short (5 minutes to start), that will help teach your baby that something special happens just before bedtime. This could be as simple as singing the same lullaby or reading the same simple story at bedtime.
2. Keep the routine consistent, putting your baby to bed in the same room. For an infant, consistency would mean that, whenever possible, your baby is in his own crib at home or daycare for naps and bedtime. Depending on your family life, work, and household responsibilities, you may find yourself letting your baby sleep in the car or the stroller frequently. This is not a problem for all babies. However, when possible, you should allow your baby to start her nap at similar times during the day, have a similar bedtime, and sleep in her own crib.
3. Stop feeding your baby when he is drowsy but full. Instead of nursing or feeding him until he is fast asleep, put him in the crib (on his back) drowsy and let him learn to fall asleep without drinking at the same time. If he is bottle-feeding, don’t give him his bottle when you place him in the crib as he falls asleep.
4. Try using a transitional object, such as a blanket or stuffed animal, that lets your child know it is bedtime. For a young infant, this can be sleeping with the same blanket in the crib. For a toddler or older child, this may be a soft stuffed animal or blanket.
5. Give your child cues or signs that lets him know there is a difference between night and day. You want to help your baby to learn that night is for sleeping and day is for being awake. Although he doesn’t know this intuitively, he will learn by recognizing that you interact with him differently at night than during the day. Babies enjoy all the positive attention and cuddling that you provide. If you start to decrease (not stop) this positive interaction at night when your baby wakes up, he will slowly adjust to waking for shorter times at night and anticipate being awake in the daytime for your concentrated attention.
6. Slowly decrease the amount of stimulation (light, noise, cuddling) you give your baby when he wakes during the night and increase the playful times you
   have with him during the day.
7. When you are feeding your infant or changing his diapers during night wakings, keep the room light dim (just enough light to care safely for your
   baby) and speak quietly.

You can think of healthy sleep habits like other good habits in life. Insomnia We teach our children at a young age to follow healthy habits so that they will become part of their daily or evening routines. For example, we may teach our children the habit of brushing their teeth every morning and evening, providing them own toothbrush and toothpaste, placing this in a designated place near the bathroom sink, and establishing a regular time for brushing. Children quickly learn these habits and follow a routine. After a while, there’s no need to talk about the habit; it just gets done., Well, most of the time…

Good sleep hygiene is similar to good dental hygiene. There are habits you need to teach your children so they become routine. Even adults who have sleep problems could start by reviewing these healthy habits to see what they can improve in their own sleep hygiene or sleep health. You may be better prepared to help your child if you do so.

Vivian’s parents brought her to our office because she is always complaining of being tired, and in the last school term, her report card average dropped from a B to a C. Vivian is a 13-year-old girl with trouble settling to sleep at night due to problematic sleep habits. In her house, there is no routine or schedule. The family practices a relaxed, unstructured lifestyle. There are no rules about sleeping and waking.

When it comes to bedtime, Vivian goes to bed when she is tired. This can range from 9:00 p.m. to staying up as late as midnight. She gets to school each morning, but it’s a big struggle. Often she misses breakfast, rushing to get to school on time. She always seems to be tired, even when she tries to catch up on her sleep on the weekends by sleeping until noon. Her parents asked us if we could help.

First, we helped her parents to identify Vivian’s bad sleeping habits, and then we choose one habit at a time to change. We recommended establishing a bedtime routine. This could involve Vivian reading quietly in her bedroom for 30 minutes every night. At Vivian’s age (13 years), she needs between 8.5 and 9.5 hours of sleep. If she has to wake up for school at 7:00 a.m., then she should be asleep between 9:30 and 10:30 p.m. They could start by setting her bedtime routine at 9:30 and lights out at 10:00, so that she can fall asleep by 10:30. After a week of this schedule, Vivian’s bedtime routine could be moved 30 minutes earlier to 9:00 with lights out at 9:30, so that she is consistently falling asleep by 10:00 p.m.

Vivian’s reward for cooperating with this new schedule should be something that she likes to do, rather than money or gifts. For a younger child, a reward could be a sticker chart, and if enough stickers are gained, a reward of special time with parents, a special activity, or time on the computer. For an older child or teenager, the reward could be similar, but chosen by the child/teenager and parents together, such as a movie night with friends. If Vivian does not cooperate, the consequences would be the removal of a privilege, such as computer time or a desired social outing or activity.

Using rewards and consequences, Vivian’s parents gradually changed each problematic behavior and they were able to develop a regular routine and schedule for sleep and wake. Vivian is no longer overly tired during the day and her academic performance has improved.

For you and your child, a more important question than “How much sleep does my child need?” is “How do I know if my child is getting enough sleep?” If children show symptoms of being sleepy during the day,
they are likely not getting enough sleep, regardless of how their sleep duration stacks up against the average child. Sleep quantity is not the only factor to be considered. Sleep quality can also play an important role in determining if your child gets enough good sleep. We can approach an answer to this question by determining symptoms of inadequate sleep and poor quality sleep.

Mistaken Symptoms
When adults are sleepy, they generally look fatigued. In adults, it is easy to recognize the symptoms of fatigue, but this is not always true in children. When children are tired, some may look fatigued like an adult, but others may not look sleepy and instead exhibit other symptoms, which are, at times, the apparent opposite of being tired:

1. Irritable
2. Inattentive
3. Hyperactive
4. Low tolerance to frustration

These symptoms of inadequate sleep may be misdiagnosed as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or a behavioral problem. If your child displays these symptoms, you should first think about his quality and quantity of sleep. Try to determine if he is getting enough sleep or if anything is disturbing his sleep. Is he showing any signs of breathing difficulties at night, which could be the signs of sleep apnea disturbing his sleep? Talk to your doctor about these concerns. If he is getting adequate sleep, without any signs of sleep problems, then you can evaluate with his doctor other causes of these symptoms.

Gail was 4 years old when her parents brought her to our sleep clinic. At that time, she resisted bedtime, which was usually at 8:00 p.m., and by the time she settled down and fell asleep, it was usually 10:00 p.m. Gail attends an afternoon preschool program, and because her mother works from home, she can sleep until 9:00 a.m., therefore getting 11 uninterrupted hours of sleep.

During the day, Gail is a happy, well-adjusted child, but her parents worry that she is not getting enough sleep to stay healthy. After further discussion, ittwas apparent that Gail was not showing any signs of sleep deprivation. She was sleeping within the average for her age category (between 11 and 13 hours).

One of the reasons that Gail was able to get enough sleep (which would not apply to all families) is that her mother works from home, and, therefore, she is able to sleep later in the morning. Gail’s parents were reassured to hear that she was getting enough sleep and learned from attending the clinic that the important question is not “How much sleep should my child get?” but rather “What are the signs that my child is not getting adequate sleep?”

There is no definite age when your child should give up her afternoon nap. It depends on your child. If your child is at daycare and all the other children nap in the afternoon, she will likely continue this pattern until she graduates from day care and starts school.

However, if your child happens to be enrolled in an afternoon preschool, nursery, or kindergarten program, then she will have to give up her afternoon nap, maybe even earlier than you would have chosen. She may then adopt a schedule with one longer nighttime sleep episode.

The best way to know if your child is ready to give up her nap is to watch how she does during the day and if it takes her longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep at naptirne. Notice if she seems well rested. There can be many causes why children have trouble with behavior, attention span, or playing with peers, but remember that one possibility in your toddler and preschooler may be that she is not getting enough sleep and needs longer sleep at night or a regular afternoon nap.

Toddler Sleep Patterns
The sleep-wake cycle continues to develop so that by the time your baby is 2 years old, this pattern should be well developed. Between 1 and 3 years of age, your child now requires about 12 hours of sleep a day You maybe getting up with your toddler at night (like many parents with children of this age), but this is probably now just a habit that yoo and your child have developed.

We know that babies can learn to sleep through the night around 6 months of age, and definitely by the age of 2 years. Your toddler also has the capacity to learn to do this. At this age, sleep should be continuous at night. However, your toddler will still require a nap (usually in the afternoon) so her sleep will occur in two phases an afternoon nap and nighttime sleep.

This is pattern is very natural. In fact, adults in many cultures maintain this pattern of two sleep cycles a day one short sleep in the afternoon and one longer sleep episode at night. For most adults living in North America, the afternoon nap is no longer possible given work schedules.

Your toddler’s sleep patterns will also be changed when she learns to climb out of her crib and starts to sleep in a child- or adult-size bed. This may present new challenges if you are having trouble getting her to sleep at night or to stay in bed.

A good night’s sleep is essential if we are to have a productive day and even your child. One of the keys to sleeping well is to use the right pillow. Follow these simple steps to choose one that suits you and your child pillow that make your child sleep through the night with tossing and turning.

1. Monitor Your Baby Sleeping Style

First, figure out how your baby like to sleep - on your front, on your side, or on your back. The best time to do this is at night when your baby already comfortable in bed. You can also make a note of the position your baby  in when she or he wake up - this is usually the way your baby will have slept for most of the night, so it is your baby natural sleeping style.

2. Find A Selection Of Pillows

Visit a store which is likely to have a large range of different pillows - department stores are usually best for this. Ignoring price for the moment, find a selection of pillows that suit your style. Often, they will be labelled ’side’, ‘front’ or ‘back’, but if not, a front or back sleeper generally needs a thinner, softer pillow, while a side sleeper needs a thicker, firmer one.

3. Try Them Out

Once you’ve chosen a few pillows that meet your criteria, take them over to one of the store’s display beds and test them out by lying on them in your usual sleeping position. Take note of how comfortable they are, and whether your head feels well supported. Also pay attention to whether your neck is in a comfortable position.

4. Buy The Best One

It is often tempting to buy pillows based on their price. However, seeing as you will spend as much as a third of your life lying on your pillow, it makes sense to choose one that is going to be comfortable and give you a good night’s rest, regardless of its price.

5. Test It At Home

After purchasing your pillow, you should see how it feels now that you’re sleeping on it for real in your own bed. Many stores will give you a refund on a used pillow provided you haven’t had it too long, so don’t feel you are stuck with whatever one you bought.

Choosing a pillow is a very simple process, and by following these steps you will ensure you get the best one for you and your sleeping style.

Living and eating healthier can lead to benefits in every aspect of your life; this includes your sleeping habits. Certain foods will disrupt your sleep schedule and certain foods will allow you to sleep easier, it is just a matter of choosing the right foods at the right time. Eating the right foods can be the best natural sleep aids available to you, as opposed to popping pills to help you sleep that could leave you feeling groggy and run down.

Caffeine can be great when we need to wake up, but can be a curse when we are trying to fall asleep. For sure this have to avoid to your child. Drinking coffee before bed is usually a bad thing, but the after effects of having caffeine late in the afternoon can also lead to problems sleeping. Sugar is another enemy of sleep, because the short burst of energy leads to uneven blood sugar levels and create issues trying to fall asleep or stay asleep.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that is turned into serotonin, which gets converted to melatonin. Melatonin is the natural hormone that helps you sleep. Turkey is infamous for having tryptophan in it, but some carbohydrate snacks like whole grain cracks can help you fall asleep too if used as the bedtime snack. Magnesium is also a natural sedative and a deficiency of it can lead to all sorts of health issues, not just trouble sleeping. Foods that are high in magnesium include dark leafy green vegetables, almonds, cashew, legumes, and seeds.

Taking the time to work on your diet will lead to better sleep as well as an overall better life as your body will be healthier. Natural sleep aids, such as whole grain crackers, will be much better in the long run then popping sleeping pills. Most of the time putting natural things into your body is always better than artificial, but make sure to consider all sorts of sleep aid solutions if you are having trouble sleeping.

A nice warm bath or shower before bedtime is a delightful, relaxing, and healthful way of inducing sleep for children as well as adults. Children tend to get quite dirty during the day, and it is important to cleanse the body thoroughly before climbing into bed. Going to bed with unclean skin and hair is not only unhealthy and unsanitary, it is irritating and, therefore, liable to hinder sleep. Still, whether your child is dirty or not, an evening bath has many additional benefits.

A nightly bath soothes the body, cleanses the skin, invigorates the respiratory system, and relaxes the mind. To make the bath even more relaxing, try adding a few drops of lavender oil to the water. The rich aroma is said to induce deep, restful sleep. Adding a little baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to the water may soothe some irritated skin conditions. Traditionally, some Chinese parents add just a little ginger to the bathwater when the child has a mild upper respiratory infection or cold.

I always advise parents to avoid giving their children bubble baths. Bubble baths may have glamorous associations, thanks to Hollywood movies, and they are heavily marketed to children through television advertising, but they irritate and dry out the skin. Irritated skin means a poor night’s sleep. Bubble baths can even cause urinary tract infections.’ I suspect that many cases of bladder irritation and inflammation, as well as urinary tract irritation, are often misdiagnosed and treated as bacterial infections, when, in fact, they are just the symptoms of irritation caused by bubble baths and harsh soap.

These would be more easily and more appropriately treated by simply stopping the bubble baths rather than misusing antibiotics. I might add, for those American parents who have hear otherwise, that male circumcision does not prevent urinary tract infection in boys nor does female circumcision prevent urinary tract infections in girls, as has been espoused by primitive and misguided teachings. The prevention of urinary tract infections depends on proper nutrition and proper hygiene, part of which means avoiding bubble baths and exposure to harsh chemicals in soap or overly chlorinated pool water. Bathe your child in pure, clean, fresh water.

Some families enjoy climbing into the bathtub together as an enjoyable, playful, harmonious, and healthy family activity You can also increase your child’s enjoyment of the bath by adding toys, such as sailboats other floating toys. Naturally, we would not want our children to play the bathtub with battleships, military submarines, or war instruments any kind at bedtime, as we want to encourage a peaceful, gentle, and relaxed frame of mind.

Although the benefits of soaking the entire body in warm water a obvious, showers are an equally valuable alternative. One benefit of shower is that soapy waste water is immediately washed down the drain sparing your child from wallowing in dirty water. If your child is dirty but prefers a bath to a shower, do as the Japanese do: Get into an empty tub, rinse the body with warm water, soap up, scrub off the dirt, and rinse off completely. Then, fill the tub with warm water in which to soak.

While we sleep, our basic bodily functions continue. Although our breathing takes on a different rhythm when we sleep, our need to breathe is just as vital. Certain sleeping positions promote good breathing, while others can hinder breathing. As they reach maturity, children will find their preferred sleeping position, or at least their preferred position for falling asleep, but for infants, only one sleeping position seems to be entirely safe.

Infants should sleep on their backs in the so-called “supine position.” Sleeping on the abdomen (“prone sleeping”) is associated with SIDS. In fact, the dramatic reduction in the rate of SIDS in recent years is attributed to the worldwide medical campaign to educate parents about the dangers of prone sleeping.

The problem with prone sleeping seems to be that it can lead to difficulties with breathing. A baby can smother himself under his own weight, especially if sleeping on a soft mattress or a waterbed, or on any nonfirm surface. One of the many great benefits of sleeping with your baby is that it allows you to monitor the infant’s sleeping position.

A mother who finds that her baby unconsciously turns onto his abdomen during the night can gently return her baby to the supine position. Sleeping on the back is also better for the child’s posture, as it encourages a straight back with correct curves for a strong healthy body Also, sleeping on the back enables the small infant to awaken and still be able to look around at the environment.

If an infant awakens on his abdomen, he will rub his head into the sheet with every movement. Many a rash on a baby’s cheeks is resolve simply by changing to the supine position, especially when the infant is drooling and the sheet under his head becomes wet.

In summary, help your child get a good night’s sleep by making your child sleeping environment a sanctuary from the distractions of life and a bastion of comfort and safety Our internal environment is a reflection of our external environment, and vice versa. Foster the feelings of security and confidence that will help your child sleep by making his bedroom clean, neat, peaceful, and safe from all perils and dangers.

Ideally, your child should sleep in a pair of 100 percent cotton pajmas or nightshirt, or in the nude. Your child’s personal preferences, your family tradition, or weather conditions will determine what is most appropriate at any given time of year.

The most important thing is that sleepwear should be clean, comfortable, and nonrestricting, yet not so billowy that a child could get tangled up and risk suffocation. Because infants do not yet have the muscle power or coordination to free themselves from clothing constrictions, form-fitting sleepers or nudity (with diaper if necessary) would seem to be among the right choices.

This is not the place to address in detail the tremendous controversy over the question of fire safety and children’s sleepwear, but a few words are in order. Out of fear of fire, some parents have been encouraged to put their children in sleepwear that is advertised as being flame retardant. In fact, the government requires that newly manufactured garments designated and sold as children’s sleepwear should be both flame retardant and self-extinguishing.

The government, however, does not compel parents to dress their children in these sorts of garments. Most flame-retardant sleep garments are made of polyester that has been treated with flame retardant chemicals, such as Tris (tris [2,3dibromopropyl phosphate or tris [2-chloroethyl phosphate).

Unfortunately, this chemical is carcinogenic. It can be absorbed through the skin or through the mouth if a child sucks or chews on a piece of a fabric treated with this chemical. There are also tremendous disadvantages to artificial fibers, which are uncomfortable and hot. Against the skin, they cause the body to sweat but not allow the sweat to evaporate. These conditions will only aggravate your child, promote unhealthiness, and make sleep difficult.

We all acknowledge that it is far better for your child’s health to clad in 100 percent, chemical-free natural fibers, such as cotton or Iinen, but parents will have to weigh the risks and do what they think is be in their particular situation. Still, putting your child in chemically treated, 100 percent artificial fibers is no substitute for taking all the common sense precautions you can to make your house fire safe.

Nighttime house fires are almost always caused by preventable accidents, such as carelessly dropped cigarettes, unattended candles, accumulated garbage, overburdened electrical outlets, or portable electric heaters that have been left illuminated at night. None of these things is inevitable. Each is the result of negligence on the part of parents and can and should be prevented.

As a parent, it is your responsibility to do everything you can to reduce the risk of fire in your house, and this includes installing a smoke detector in your child’s room, conducting regular fire drills, and outlining the evacuation plans for your child in the event of a fire.

I think that it is better to use a little common sense and prevent fires in the first place than to argue over what sort of sleep garments burn slower. Telephone your local fire department to get the latest tips on making your house as safe from fire as possible