Making your kid sleep without you can be a real challenge, especially when you used to read them bed time stories and you made a habit out of that. But, as you already know any habit can be replaced by another habit. All kids can learn to fall asleep without their parents. It just takes a bit of time and patience. Let’s see a few advises on how to do it:
Set your kid’s biological clock
The first thing you need to do is to set your kid’s biological clock. In order to do that you must establish a routine and respect it every night before sleep. Before your kid goes to bed, make sure that his last couple of hours have been calm and quiet. After an entire day o running through the house this will relax and prepare him for sleep.
Make him a comfortable bed
When your little one reaches bed make sure he meets the coziest thing of the day. Your child, as any other child has a sleeping pattern. Usually they fall into a deep sleep but during the night they might have periods of slight waking. Making him a cozy bed will make him easier to fall back to sleep again. It is also important to have a dark room. Shades or other lights should not disturb him during his sleep.
Prepare him a snack for the night
Some kids need to have a snack that gets them through the night. The best way to do that is to prepare him something not too complex like a piece of toast or warm milk. This of course should happen before they brush their teeth.
Assure that your kid has enough activity during the day. Kids tend to sleep more when they get some good hours of outdoor play, it’s obvious why.
Change your kids sleeping habits
If during the time you helped your kid fall asleep by nursing him, when he will wake up during the night he will need you again to nurse him in order to fall back asleep. Unless you want to do that over and over again you must help your kid sleep without your help. This might be challenging but not impossible. You must find a method to erase the sleep/nursing association from his mind. Tell your kid what’s going to happen: that you will not nurse him anymore because he can fall asleep even without that. It will be a little hard at the begging but with a bit of patience your kid will get over this phase and learn to sleep without being nursed.
Have you tried to make your kid sleep without you? What methods you used?
Very useful tips and tricks. I will deafinitely try them.
Anything is possible! It only takes a lot of patience.
Would not it be easier if we had the time to play with our children until they fall asleep?