After babies are born, the first problem that mothers encounter is their sleep problems. In the first few weeks of life, the baby's sleep pattern is very chaotic, the length of sleep varies, there is no fixed time when to fall asleep and when to wake up, and it seems to be the same every day.
How do you put babies to sleep, especially babies under 3 months of age?
We must first understand the sleep characteristics of newborns in order to prescribe the right medicine. This material is used in the Newborn Intelligence Training Camp, which is the most practical skill for both novice parents to raise newborn babies!
Sleep characteristics of newborns
Newborn babies naturally have good sleep habits. They can sleep effortlessly. However, within a week of life, their sleep patterns also change as the brain develops. This change may come from day-night confusion — long sleep during the day and long awake nights.
Newborn babies sleep about 18 hours a day, and these 18 hours are not continuous, but occur in phases of several hours. In general, babies go through 7 "sleep-wake" phases in a day. These stages can be as short as 20 minutes and as long as 5 to 6 hours, starting with a rapid eye movement period, and showing several "rapid eye movement periods-non-rapid eye movement periods" cycles.
Just out of the womb, the baby is insecure.
Some people say that the baby 3 months ago is actually not ready to become a baby to come to the world, but the baby's space in the stomach is too narrow, so it has to grow in another place. So the baby in the first 3 months can be regarded as a "fetus" in a sense.
In this way, the baby may be uncomfortable with all kinds, more of a sudden lack of security, so they all express it by crying.
So how to appease them effectively?
In fact, a kind of "soothing reflex" is needed. The soothing reflex is to create an environment close to the womb, allowing the baby to feel the sensation in the mother's stomach.
I accidentally saw Harvey Karp, M.D. (Dr. Harwickap)'s 5S soothing method, its principle is to stimulate the "quiet reflex nerve" in the baby's body - "soothing reflex", which feels that it does have a miraculous effect on soothing the baby, so I also hope to share it with you.
5S pacifying method
1. Swaddling method - wrap the baby's arm down comfortably
Wrapping up your baby is the first step to soothing, and swaddling is the cornerstone of calm and sleep! Babies under 3 months of age cannot control their arms and legs. Babies don't realize that their limbs are part of their body, and you can immediately soothe them by simply wrapping them up.
This is because proper wrapping can create a strong sense of security in your baby and make your baby feel like back in the womb: safe and warm. At the same time, to prevent the child from shaking his arms and legs to disturb himself.
Swaddling bags can be used for 3 to 4 months, generally by 6 months when the child no longer likes to be wrapped, but some children can use it until 7 to 8 months old. Babies need to feel protected, and arguably even like the feeling of being bound.
Of course, it is only recommended that the package be needed when comforting the baby, and it is a smaller baby. Learn the right way to wrap your swaddling:
2. Side/prone method - let the baby lie on his side or prone
Mistake: Never sleep in a supine position! For small babies, sleeping on their backs is the only safe sleeping position, but it is the worst position to stop the baby from crying. It makes your baby feel insecure, as if he is about to fall. For crying babies, prone lying (lying on your side, pressing your stomach) is most useful. So when the baby is crying, hold the baby, that is, let the baby lie on his stomach and side in your arms to soothe.
※Demonstration
When you have wrapped your baby correctly and your baby still hasn't been able to stabilize emotionally, you need to try to change your baby's position. As long as the posture is right, like a valve, the baby will immediately stop crying. Sharing two poses, hands-on testing has an effect.
Reverse breastfeeding method
This holding method is more suitable for nursing mothers, one hand around the baby's head, the other hand around the baby's buttocks and thighs, so that the baby sideways outward.
Rugby hugging, airplane hugging
This holding method is more suitable for fathers with large arm strength and wide palms, so that the baby lies slightly prone, with the head facing outward, and is careful not to cover the baby's facial features.
3. Booing method - strong, rumbling white noise
Babies hear different sounds in the mother's womb for a long time, and studies have shown that this sound is close to the "boo" sound that people usually make, and it is close to the noise emitted by household appliances such as hair dryers and vacuum cleaners, which is similar to booing, low decibel noise, called "white noise". Therefore, making this sound in the baby's ear (of course, the amount of sound can not be too large) has a good calming effect.
You can try to make a "boo" sound in the ear of the baby who is crying loudly or play the recorded household appliance noise, in principle, the amount of sound should be heard by the baby.
White noise is not 24 hours a day, they only need to be used when your baby is crying badly, or during a day nap or at night. White noise is more suitable for babies under 3 to 4 months.
4, shaking method - rhythmic shaking, from slow shaking to fast and gentle shaking
Babies love a little shaking, like shaking in their mother's belly all day long. A slight shaking refers to a very small shaking in the baby, rather than a large swing, which is the misunderstanding of many novice parents. A small amount of shaking will not hurt the baby, but will make the baby feel comfortable and relaxed.
Many people will wonder, is it accustomed to shaking the baby so that he needs to shake it in the future?
For 10% to 20% of sports-loving babies, stillness is the most intolerable; for "lively" babies, swaddling and rumbling sounds are effective for them in the first month or later, but after that, every 2 to 3 hours, as long as they do not actively shake them or carry them around the room, they become more and more crying. Small, gentle shaking becomes a critical step in turning on the soothing reflex.
In fact, if your baby's crying has been alleviated in the previous method, of course, this method is not needed, but Dr. Haverkap believes that this kind of shaking is not excessive 3 months ago in the case of no action, but it will be gradually reduced after that.
5. Sucking method - suck your nipples, pacifiers, bottles or clean fingers
Sucking is a powerful soothing for your baby. Sucking on breasts, bottles, pacifiers, clean fingers and wrists calms your baby down. Sucking is the fifth "S", when the baby is small, the pacifier is a good thing, and many times it can quiet the baby at once.
In fact, picking up your baby, feeding your baby some milk, and probably sucking most of the time is the first and most used method of soothing. Sucking on warm and sweet milk not only makes your baby's stomach full and happy, but also promotes the secretion of endorphins (a natural "opium") in the brain, bringing a flood of drowsy tryptophan, so many babies are very satisfied with breastfeeding.
You can also try sucking the pacifier, gently pull the nipple out, you will find that every time you pull it out, the baby feels "about to lose this nipple", he will suck more tightly, so that the baby will be drowsy repeatedly.
With the 5S coaxing method, you can trigger the baby's soothing reflex, how to arrange these Ss, are they used alone or together?
In the first week or two, most babies will be very comfortable with swaddling and sucking.
After returning home from the hospital, you can add white noise. Sometimes, for a baby who listens to the sound of the womb continuously for 24 hours before birth, quietness can be weird to him.
When the slow soothing strength is not strong enough, in addition to swaddling and white noise, you can use sucking (you can use a pacifier),
If your baby already has a requirement for a slight shake when he needs to calm down or sleep, he can use a swing chair that can lie flat.
Try more and you'll find out which combination of S works best for you and your baby!
After reading this article, have parents gained anything? Well, today's content ends here, scientific parenting from now on, more infant parenting dry goods are all in the public number: infant and young child parenting knowledge. What more could you possibly want to know about parenting? Welcome to leave a message in the background of the official account!