There is a kind of collapse called "the baby who sleeps backwards is more suspicious of life than the baby who never sleeps well."
When many mothers talk about their children's sleep problems, they mention "sleep regression" - babies who have slept regularly, excluding the reasons for eating and drinking Lazar's illness, suddenly waking up frequently makes people collapse.
In fact, this stage of 3 to 5 months is the first sleep regression period in the baby's life, which determines the baby's future 80% sleep quality, which is known as the watershed of the "sleeping dregs" and "sleeping god" babies.
Today we invited Zhu Xiaojie, a sleep consultant, to talk about how to deal with this most important and difficult retrogressive period.
Why there is
April Sleep fallout period
Image source: Stand Cool Helo
The main reason for the 4-month sleep regression period is because of the change in the baby's sleep pattern: from the baby's sleep mode to the adult sleep mode.
The sleep stage of your baby at 4 months is simple, with only two levels:
Active sleep ( active sleep ) - light sleep, easy to wake up;
Quiet sleep – deep sleep, difficult to wake up.
Image source: Courtesy of the author
Around 4 months, the baby's sleep pattern will "evolve", from the previous two sleep stages alternate to a more complex cycle of four sleep stages.
The change of sleep mode from easy to hard is a difficult process for the baby itself, which is also the main reason why the baby who was sleeping well suddenly loves to wake up frequently.
Is your baby a sleeper or a sleeper
How to guide is critical
At this stage, babies also have a leap forward in development, which is the recognition of "causality".
For example, when slapping a toy, the toy will make a sound; when the toy falls on the ground, adults will hear the sound of their own crying and help them pick up the toys on the ground.
At this time, the mother is often very broken by the baby, exhausting the eighteen classes of martial arts to coax the car, and the result of the crash of "sleep regression" and "causality" is:
The baby cries and sleeps with milk, hugs and falls asleep again
Over time, the baby has a causal association: the reason why I can sleep again is because of my mother's milk or because my mother is holding it!
Then, as long as the baby wakes up, he will choose to wait for the mother's comfort, forgetting that he also has a certain degree of self-soothing and falling asleep.
Once the baby learns this sleep pattern, the future sleep habits will be more deeply rooted, originally "fake sleeping dregs", but become "real sleeping dregs".
Many babies slump at this stage of age 4 months, in large part because their mother's anxiety leads to excessive reassurance and then becomes a new sleep dependence.
Master these 4 moves
Survive the April sleep regression period
Let go of anxiety and adjust sleep expectations
4 months of sleep fluctuations do not represent the baby's sleep ability to regress, this time the mother should believe in the baby, believe that we helped the baby to establish good sleep habits and sleep ability when we were young, will not disappear overnight.
So, instead of setting your sleep goal as "how to get your baby to sleep," you should adjust it to "how to help your baby adapt to the new sleep pattern as quickly as possible."
Improve your baby's ability to sleep
Parents can continue to use the previous effective reassurance methods for their baby, but do not increase the intensity (duration and frequency) of reassurance, or introduce new and stronger reassurance methods to "make the situation worse".
For example, for babies who can be soothed by tapping/picking up, be careful to use the soothing method of giving milk when you cry.
The strength and weakness of the appeasement method can be seen in the figure below.
In addition, the baby's self-soothing ability during sleep needs to be practiced. Your baby's self-soothing ability can be gradually improved by gradually weakening/withdrawing from the current soothing style, and gentle exercises are more suitable for babies in this age group.
Create a "eat-play-sleep" mode
Establish a "eat-play-sleep" mode at this stage to help your baby get better regular sleep.
Babies at 4 months of age may consider gradually widening the feeding interval and gradually overtaking the 4-hour interval. At 12 to 16 weeks, introduce naps to your baby, and it is recommended to schedule three naps a day: morning + afternoon + evening to help your baby get the right amount of daytime sleep.
In addition to sleeping, exercise is also important
4 months old baby always close their eyes to practice turning over, this kind of big exercise development will make the baby's sleep "worse", it is recommended to arrange a large exercise practice time during the day to help the baby master the turn over as soon as possible.
During the turnover period, the mother should not be too entangled and interfere with the baby's sleeping position, as long as the sleeping environment is safe, let the baby try various sleeping positions.
What should I do if I miss a critical period?
Phased "rescue" is the key
What if a 4-month-old sleep regression mom misses out and has developed a bad sleep habit?
Don't worry! There is also a way to "turn the sleeping dregs back into a sleeping god".
Babies aged 5 to 6 months
At this stage, many babies will have an increase in the number of night milks, and they can meet their extra feeding needs by intensive eating before going to bed.
At about six months, when complementary foods have just been added, the baby will also be uncomfortable with new foods, such as flatulence, constipation and other situations and affect sleep. When parents are investigating the factors that affect sleep, please do not ignore this new link of complementary food.
7~9 months (recommended best time)
For families who hope that their children can sleep in small beds independently, after the addition of stable food supplements to the baby, it is very suitable for the sleep adjustment period, because the factors that may affect sleep at this stage are relatively controllable.
For parents at this stage, I suggest considering a gentle "step-by-step solution":
First control the number of night milks within a reasonable range (1 to 2 times);
Secondly, adjust the way and arrangement of complementary foods added during the day;
Then consider quitting night milk altogether;
Finally, it is to change the baby's sleep behavior.
10 to 12 months
At this time, the baby is in the active stage of big motor development, and it is easy to affect sleep because of these reasons such as standing, standing alone, sitting up, and walking.
If parents decide to adjust the baby's sleep at this stage, then please arrange more targeted exercise activities for the baby during the day. Make sure your baby is already skilled in switching from standing and sitting to lying down before guiding sleep.
The sleep guidance at this stage requires parents to also give their children more patience and waiting.
12 months of age or older
Physiologically speaking, babies basically no longer need to eat at night. For babies over the age of 19, I would recommend a one-size-fits-all approach. Because for older babies, reducing night milk by lengthening the feeding interval will cause them more confusion - "Is it that I haven't cried long enough to feed?"
The advantage of sleep adjustment for children in early childhood is that the effect is faster and the effect is more stable.
Some mothers will feel that "sleeping dregs" and "sleeping spirits" are innate, in fact, many sleeping dregs are caused by parents ignoring the needs of their babies and not keeping up with the pace of their growth.
Know your children better, don't deny yourself, learn to change in better ways, and every family can have a happier sleep.
Content cooperation expert Zhu Xiaojie
IMPI Mother and Baby Sleep Counselor
Audit Expert Gu Jin
BSC Certified Sleep Counselor, New Zealand
Producer: Lan Lan
Typography: Xiao Ho
Title image source: Stand Cool Helo
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