Bedtime can be a very difficult time for many parents when the kids refuse to go to bed or stay in their beds. Many parents throw their hands up in the air and say “we just give in to their demands as long as we can have peace and quiet and get to have a restful evening as well, once the kids fall asleep”
Some useful information about children and sleep:
- Kids who regularly sleep more than 8 to 9 hours tend to have stronger immune systems.
- Kids who sleep less than 9 hours a night are more likely to be overweight as not getting enough sleep may throw off their metabolism in ways that make it easier to gain weight.
- Kids who sleep poorly often have behaviour problems and trouble concentrating.
- Most school-age kids need 10 or 11 hours of sleep each night
Tips for getting kids to bed and sleeping in their beds until the next morning
- Create a bed time routine, which is followed most of the days of the week.
- Create your own structure, eg: bath time, dinner, television watching for 30 minutes, teeth brushing and going to the toilet, story time in bed and 5-10 minutes of talking time with parent, goodnight kiss and parent leaves bedroom.
- Try to stick to the bedtime routine as often as possible to create the pattern and predictability.
- Be a consistent parent about bed time routine.
- Guard against activities before bed time that arouses a child’s brain activity’
- Read a bed time story or tell your own stories as this creates a warm fuzzy feeling for kids and help them to switch off, to enable them to fall asleep.
- Do not lie with your child to help your child to fall asleep otherwise your child will go into lighter sleep patterns somewhere during the night , realise you are not there and go in search of you.
- Encourage your child to stay in bed. Reassure them that you will check every 5 minutes. Do check in every 5 minutes.
- Give your child choices of what to do if they take some time to fall asleep. Let them choose to “read” their book, talk to their toy or choose to have one or two toys in bed. Any form of a choice gives a child the feeling of power and control.
- Have a night light on for your child.
- Close the curtains properly and close windows if the wind moves the curtains.
- Give your child a torch if your child needs to feel more in control of the dark.
- Take your child back to bed every time they walk over to your bed, to encourage self nurturance, the ability to self smooth and to grow in independence.
- Encourage and acknowledge good sleeping behaviour in your child. It is a gift for life!
- Persevere as this too will pass and good sleeping patterns will soon be the norm for the family.
Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to stay updated with more, you can:
- Subscribe to our free weekly Jozikids newsletter for parents in Gauteng
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
4 Responses
It does not sound as if she needs the milk at night. So you are right in asking whether you should stop the formula at night to stop her from waking. She most possibly wales up for the formula. It will be difficult, but persevere and once you decide to take it away, do not give in again
Dear Ilze, please give your advice :
My daughter of 2 wakes at night wanting a (formula) bottle. She wakes 2-3 times a nightasking for “milk” ( She doesnt get “milk” during day, just water and solid foods) . She is a decent eater( fish fingers, pasta, veg, yoghurt) , weighs 12kg, is very active and a bright, well spoken little child. She doesnt want to be held at night – just wants the “milk” bottle. My attempts to eradicvate the night waking have been to dilute the formula to about 1/10th so its mainly water . Question: Shall i stop formula all toghether (in an attempt to stop her waking?)
Hi
My daughter has a year and a half baby girl, she does not sleep, wakes up at least 4 times a night, with the result my daughter has got adrenal burnout, please please help! thank you
Babies who do not sleep through the night can deprive mom’s of sleep and therefore it is wise to get baby to sleep better, but that is easier said than done. Some parents do control crying and let their babies cry without giving in and therefore teaching the child to self sooth and learn to fall asleep. Other parents give in to their child’s crying and then the child does not learn to self sooth and depends on the mom to fall asleep. Parents can also offer comfort to their child who wakes up by being with the child without picking the child up. In this instance the parent offers comfort with little interaction and tries to not make the interaction too nice for the child, so the child learns to sooth themselves down enough to fall asleep by themselves; a great gift first for the child and secondly for the parent. It takes perseverance and consistant behaviour.