To toy in the crib or not to toy in the crib.......Question of the day!

Ask yourself - do you sleep with toys?

If you’re like most parents, you probably can’t take more than a couple of steps in your house without tripping over a doll, a stuffed animal or a fisher price truck. You are most likely more than familiar with the sensation of getting those hard, tiny Lego pieces embedded in the bottom of your bare foot, or having to spend ten minutes scooping your child’s dripping army of rubber duckies and plastic fish out of the bathtub after she’s had her bath every night.
I often think toy companies must sit around brainstorming all the different places they should convince parents they need to stockpile toys in order to entertain their kids: the car, the living room, the bathtub and the crib, just to name a few.

Of course, toys are a fun and necessary part of any child’s life, but personally I don’t think there should be any toys in the crib at all. The crib is for sleeping. If it’s filled with brightly coloured plush toys or gadgets that strap on to the rails and make sounds or play songs when your child pushes buttons it is all far too distracting and stimulating for bedtime.

Even a mobile is off-limits if you want your child to learn to sleep properly. While the child may seem to be staring calmly and intently at the pretty floating butterflies above her head, the colours and movement are actually firing up her mind and keeping her awake.

If you put your child to bed in a crib-full of toys to amuse himself, he is far less likely to just close his eyes and go to sleep. Bedtime is obviously a time when you want to be helping your babies and toddlers wind down, but instead you may just be winding them up!

Any sleep specialist will tell an adult struggling with insomnia to limit all activities in the bed so that you send a clear message to your body and brain that when you are in this specific location you are meant to sleep. That means putting away phones, iPods, iPads and laptops and turning off the 10:00 news on your TV. The very same holds true for children. While the toys might not seem as stimulating as electronics, your child will play with them when she should be going to sleep, even if she’s tired. Kind of like you staying up later than you should just to check Facebook one more time…

Despite my general no-toys-in-the-bed philosophy, I do make an exception when it comes to that one special “security” toy, like your child’s favourite stuffed animal or plastic Spiderman or frog puppet… whatever it may be. I’m referring only to that one toy that they cart around all day, or stuff in their pocket, or can’t leave the house without. These beloved toys offer soothing comfort and help your child feel relaxed and safe.

Anything you can do to minimize distractions when it’s time for bed will really help as you are establishing good sleep habits and routines. The more simple and plain your child’s surroundings are, the easier it will be for him to drift into dreamland.









Time To Sleep Consulting

Carly Wintle

778-877-6380

http://www.timetosleepconsulting.com/

My child does not sleep well in Daycare!

The Real Challenges of daytime sleep not at home

"My 10 month old does not take good naps at the babysitter's three times a week and is super crabby by the time six o'clock rolls around. Should I just put him down early or should I wait for his normal bedtime?"

I've got three tips around this very common issue:

Tip number one would be to first find out why he's not sleeping well at daycare. I find that a lot of people just bury their head in the sand around daycare and hope for the best. What I tell everyone to do when you're interviewing is find out what do they do around naptime.

Are things scheduled? Do they have a quiet place to sleep? Or is it just, "Oh, if they fall asleep in the stroller, fine," and just going like that? You really need to investigate a little bit and find out if the situation is conducive to what you've created at home.

The second tip would be to find out how they actually get your baby to fall asleep. Some daycares are great and they'll do whatever you tell them to do which, in my opinion, should be the way it is. You're the boss here. You are the parent. You are paying the bill. They should be able to do what you want them to do.

If you come in really clear and say, "Listen, I put this baby down, awake, and he falls asleep on his own. All he needs is a quiet environment and a crib of his own and he'll do great," why wouldn't they want that? That makes their job that much easier.

But some daycares, for whatever reason, have certain policies in place where they don't do that. They wrap the babies or they stroller ride them until they fall asleep and then transfer them.
You need to find out what's going on to getting your baby to sleep in the first place. If it's the total opposite of what you've worked really hard to create, you need to keep looking. Absolutely.


Tip number three around this is, for some babies, they just don't sleep as well when they're out or at daycare or whatever the situation is. None of us do, really. We all sleep better in our own beds, so that makes sense to me.

If you find that they do what you ask and they try really hard and he doesn't quite sleep as well, if he's grumpy by six o'clock, then absolutely put him down early. I always say there is no reason why you need to live with a grumpy, tired child to hang on to some magical bedtime that you've created in your mind. Six o'clock, you can have him, do the routine. Get him down through 6:30, and that would be fine.

Because he's not going to daycare every day, then on the days he's home with you and sleeping great, it's no problem to hang on to your normal bedtime. We do want the body clock to get in line with a consistent bedtime; but there is wiggle room around that. It's not set in stone.

On a side note, if your little one is not sleeping great at day care or anywhere for that matter and struggles to sleep through the night then it may be time to read a few of my other blogs or get in touch so we can fix this and sleep becomes one less thing to worry about!


Time To Sleep Consulting

Carly Wintle

778-877-6380

http://www.timetosleepconsulting.com/

Please let the EARLY wake ups STOP!

I don't want to be awake before 6am!

HELP!!!!

Does this sound familiar....are you living this dream right now?

“My one-year-old is waking up at 4:00 AM, and won’t go back to sleep even after I nurse him. He then, struggles to make it to his first nap of the day. He goes to bed at 7:30, and has two solid naps during: the day. How can I fix this?”

First of all, you are not alone in this. This is the number one question that I get from parents every day, their baby’s waking up too early. I have three tips around that for you.

The first would be to have a look at darkness. That’s always the first place I look, especially, as the summer months are upon us, we really need to keep light out. People often think that they’ve got it dark enough, but it can always be darker, because even the slightest change in light variation can stimulate a wake up in anybody. As an adult, you can look at the clock and notice that it’s not time to get up, yet. A baby can’t do that. I want it dark in there. I want it to be as dark as it would be if you walked in, in the very middle of the night. That’s tip number one.

Tip number two, actually, it’s a concern number two,  is the fact that you’re nursing him at 4:00 AM. Given his age, there should be absolutely no reason why your child would need a night feed.
My worry with this is that, that 4:00 AM might actually get earlier and earlier and earlier, instead of buying you more time, because to the baby, there’s no difference between a 2:00 feed and a 4:00 feed. I want you to consider pulling that. There’s absolutely no reason why he would need it unless a it's doctors orders in which case please share with me why! You might actually be stimulating him and waking him up. After his nurse, he goes back to the crib and thinks, “What are we doing here? I feel ready to go. Let’s start the day.” That’s why you’re having the struggles that you are.

Tip number three is the morning nap. You’ve mentioned in your question that he’s having a really hard time making it till his first nap of the day. I find that what can happen is, if a baby wakes up too early in the morning, gets up, starts his day, he’s going to be fatigued fairly quickly. It’s tempting to start putting him down earlier and earlier and earlier for that morning nap. You don’t want to do that. If you do that, you will get stuck in this viscous cycle of him waking up too early, going down for a nap at 7:00 AM, and throwing off your whole day. That will just absolutely mess up with his body clock. You’ll have to have a third nap, which will be completely foreign to him, and it’ll just cause a whole bunch of problems. Even though it’s really tough, and I totally understand that, you’ve got to hang on to his normal nap time. If it’s 09:30 AM, even if he’s been up since 04:30, you’ve got to hang in there until 09:30 as best as you possibly can. My advice would be to give him a bit of fresh air around eight o’clock, make sure that you give him enough snacks and food to keep his energy levels up, to really encourage him to hang in there. It’s similar to if you got up at 04:00 AM, wandered around, maybe had a snack, and then eventually went back to bed and finished your night. That’s what’s happening here, most likely. Hang in there until the first nap of the day. I always suggest that people do not change bedtime. That is super tempting when you’ve got an early riser. You think, “Oh, if we just keep him up late, he’ll sleep later in the morning.” That hardly ever works.
In fact, all you end up doing, then, is creating a huge amount of over-tiredness in your child, which leads to more fragmented sleep and even earlier morning wake ups. Whatever you do, don’t do that.

Easier said than done right? But if you do do it.....the results will follow.

Happy Sleeping beautiful people.


Time To Sleep Consulting

Carly Wintle

778-877-6380

http://www.timetosleepconsulting.com/