Dear Readers,
Denise M at age 23 years is a new mother. Her baby is now eight weeks old but Denise has had to go back out to work. Denise says this baby just won't sleep at night. He wakes her two or three times a night to be fed! Denise says she feels tired all the time as she breast feeds at night. She finds it hard not to fall asleep at work during the days! Denise asks Lifeline what can she do to encourage the baby to sleep longer hours.
Many mothers with young infants share Denises' about just how to deal with frequently interrupted sleep which is causing sleep deprivation.
BABIES HAVE OWN SCHEDULE
The basic physiological functioning of babies with regard to eating and sleeping differs significantly from older children and adults. Babies have their own schedules of eating and sleeping which are basic and instinctual, and which are not very trainable although some manipulation of the schedule is possible.
By leaving a baby to cry at nights (after checking that nothing else is wrong) some infants can be encouraged to sleep through the nights by eight weeks old. However, infants wake because they are hungry at approximately four hour intervals, and young infants do not recognise day and night so cannot be trained to sleep mainly at nights. However, by about six weeks old most babies will take their longest sleep period during the night.
If infants and toddlers are allowed to sleep too long during the days they will stay up late at nights. A nap in the day that lasts an extra 15 minutes can keep a youngster up for a extra hour or more at nights.
WAKING BABY FROM DAYTIME NAP
Waking a child from a day time nap might be preferable to struggling to get the child to sleep at night. This actually defines one of the complexities that exists at home when the baby sitter or home assistant tries to keep the baby asleep as long as possible so that they can get on with their other chores. This means that the baby is quite fresh in the evenings when the tired mother gets in from the office hoping to spend a defined period, with the baby before getting her own sleep. It just doesn't happen.
ADDITIONAL UNDERSTANDING
Research has shown that many infants will begin to sleep through the night at about four months. And about 25 per cent of babies will still wake in the nights at age one year. Parents need to have this additional understanding of their infants' normal development to prevent them having unreasonable expectations! And forcing a baby to sleep at nights by leaving them to cry can result in the mother loosing her breast milk.
As long as eating and sleeping are connected, night waking will mean night feeding. Another fact is that breast-fed babies feed more often than bottled-fed babies.
As four hours is usually the longest period a young infant goes between feed, then a mother usually has to get up at least ONCE during her normal sleeping hours to feed the baby. If the mother wakes the baby up and feeds it just before she goes to bed herself at eleven o'clock this usually means that the baby will require a 3a.m. feed and then, hopefully, not again until 7a.m. when the household is usually awake and preparing for the new day's activities. When this doesn't work, then feed the infant as soon as it awakes at night , without delay.
When a baby is left to cry it becomes tired and then when ultimately fed will only have a small amount before falling asleep but as it is still hungry it will soon wake again! Giving water at nights and not milk will only help if the baby is thirsty, not if it is also hungry.
What really is needed is 'Healthy Lifestyles' with a less pressured existence for the mother, or for both parents when especially the mother has enough time to stay home with the infant and enjoy this 'different' time in life, when the mother can also sleep in the day time when the child is sleep.
The support of other family members is crucial so that the mother's time can be devoted to the child. If care of the child is her only job then the experience is usually not only acceptable, but remarkable.
Write Lifeline
P.O Box 1731
Kingston 8
A.J.M.
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