What is a bedtime ritual?
Bedtime ritual is creating regular sleep time, and it
is an important step towards your baby learning to sleep
without help. Babies and children thrive best on a consistent
sleep routine. This should be started as early as possible,
at least in the first three months, if not earlier.
Older babies are known to have a harder time making
the transition. Experts feel that when a child is four
months old and weighs about fourteen pounds, his system
is ready for training towards restful sleep through
the night. But if you feel confident about starting
a ritual earlier, give it a shot.
The ritual should consist of a series of predictable
events, informing your child that it is time to sleep.
Such rituals will help reduce feelings of anxiety and
create a sense of security and bring about calmness,
all necessary to help your baby fall asleep. For sleep
rituals to be effective, it has to be consistent and
predictable, simple else it will take all night, begin
and end in the child's bedroom, devised to exclude any
form of physical activity and should not exceed one
hour. Try and employ same activities preferably in the
same sequential order every night. For young babies,
you can start with a bath, then a massage, followed
by a change in diaper and into his night attire, dim
the lights and then the feeding (either bottle or breast).
Introduce cues such as talking in soft tones and then
as your baby starts to feel sleepy, say 'Goodnight'.
A good tip is to place infants in their beds when they
are drowsy but awake so they can learn to fall asleep
on their own. With this going on every night, your baby
should catch on to what is expected. As your baby grows
older, the ritual will become longer to incorporate
brushing teeth, story time and others. Going to bed
and waking up should be the same, as far as possible.
Don't keep your child up late just because you have
come home late - you can always spend another part of
the day together i.e. breakfast. Contrary to belief,
children of all ages like routine and quickly adapt
to it.
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