Sleepless children: The long day’s journey into night
When young children are still waking at night, parents face a different decision. It is probably better to use the checking procedure, take children back to their own bed and put up with some disturbed nights in the short term. When children have moved into a bed from a cot you do have the option to join them in their room if need be. This avoids the well-known ‘musical beds’ scenario, when child and one parent end up in the big bed, with the other parent in the child’s bed. Obviously this is a personal decision and the odd night when children have had an awful dream or are ill and want to share your bed will probably not set a pattern.
If you’ve succumbed and now need to get the cuckoo back in its own nest, bear in mind that this may take a while. Explain that this bed is for adults and you would like your child to sleep in his or her bed. Be calm and ready to take your child back, perhaps many times, without getting cross.
Accept help
When you start another day after another exhausting night, you wonder how long you can survive with such a limited amount of sleep. So take what help is available. If your partner is willing to take the night shift for you or your parents offer to have a night ‘on duty’, don’t turn it down.
If you get to the end of your tether:
Phone Crysis: 020 7404 5011 – they offer advice and support to families with crying, sleepless and demanding babies.
There are some useful books around:
My child won’t sleep, Jo Douglas and Naomi Richman (Penguin)
Sleepless children, David Haslam (Piatkus).
But read them in the daytime, because at night you’ll need all the shuteye you can get.
previous | 1 | 2 | 3 |
printer friendly
send to a friend
Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Horoscopes| Message Boards | Quizzes | Newsletters | Join
iVillage Ltd is a UK company registered in England & Wales (3837269) at 80-110 New Oxford Street, London WC1 1HB
