Hi All,
While we are on the subject of sleep, I have to quote a set of instructions
given to new or soon to be parents at a local hospital's parenting class
that focused on sleep. Obviously, I can't mention the hospitals name.
Here goes:
(pg 1)
Why Should Your Child Go to Sleep and Stay Asleep?
Bedtime:
1- Getting enough sleep is important for everyone
2- Parents need time for themselves
3- Bedtime aatmosphere should be a pleasant way to end a day
4- Impact on development - separating
Staying Asleep:
1- Getting enough sleep is important for everyone
2- Impact on development - separation anxiety
3- Parents need time for themselves - disruptions
(pg 2)
Amount of Sleep
Newborn - 16 hours up to four hours at night
By 4 mo old - 15-16 hours up to 8 hours at night
By 6 mo old - 15 hours up to 11 hours at night 2-3
naps
~ 1 yr old - 14 hours 11 hours at night
+ 2 naps
~ 2 yrs old - 13 hours 11 hours at night
+ 1 nap
~ 3 yrs old - 12 hours 10 hours at night
+ 1 nap
~ 5 yrs old - 11 hours at night
6-10 yrs old - 10 hours at night
(pg 3)
Sleep Stages
REM: - Active Sleep
- Dream Stage
- Babies spend 90% <arrow pointing to the right > 50% in
REM
NON REM: - Quiet Sleep
- Deep sleep at beginning and end of night
- Stage associated with sleep walking, talking, terrors
Sleep Cycles - 50-70 minutes with breif arousals
(pg 4) ( here comes the good stuff :/)
Teaching Your Baby to Sleep Well
Newborns:
* Place baby in crib when still awake
* Hold baby for fussing in first three months
* Wake baby for feeds after three hours sleep during day
* Don't feed more frequently than 2 hour intervals
* Give a feeding at your bedtime
* Middle of the night feeding breif and boring
* Don't awaken infant to change diapers during night (except for rash
treatment)
* Don't assume all crying is hunger
* Don't assume only YOU can pacify your baby -- or only you will
2 Months:
* Move crib to a seperate room
* Try to delay middle of the night feedings
(pg 5)
4 Months:
* Only needs 4-5 feedings/day
* Give last feeding at 10-11 p.m.
* Never allow your baby to hold the bottle
* Don't feed during the night
* Make contacts to soothe brief and boring and stretch out length of time
between contacts
* Don't take baby out of crib to comfort
6 Months:
* Provide a "transitional object"
* Leave the door open and a light on
* Provide lots of holding during the day (especially for working parents)
1 year old:
* Establish a pleasant and predictable bedtime routine
* Ignore bedtime tantrums
* Respond to fears - briefly and pleasant
(pg 6)
Causes of Sleep Problems in Babies
1. Frequent daytime feeding
- Demand feeding doesn't mean "Feed the baby whenever she
cries"
2. Leaving a bottle in the bed
3. Nursing the baby to sleep
4. Rocking the baby to sleep
5. Providing entertainment during the night
6. Baby sleeping in parents' bed
7. Seperation fears
8. Changing diapers during the night
9. Excessive daytime naps
(pg 7)
Other Helpful Tips
* When training babies to sleep - Deal with naptime and bedtime first,
then middle of the night awakenings
* If baby can stand in a crib but not get out (remove the bumpers after 6-9
months),
leave her standing
* If baby/toddler can climb out, make the sleeping space safe
(pg 8)
Children 2 Years and up
* Bedtime resistance is often testing limits, not fear of separation
* Old habits with good intentions now are often unpleasant
Bad Bedtime Habits
Parents are:
1- too tired
2- too guilty
3- too distracted
4- too permissive
5- too protective
(pg 9)
Guidelines:
* Establish a bedtime and stick to it
* Provide a bedtime routine ~ 30 minutes
* Establish a calm environment
* Make a rule that child cannot leave bed once put there
* Leave the room
* Don't respond to repeated verbal requests
* Close the door for screaming or leaving the room
- open the door after 1-2 minutes, explain it will stay open when
quiet-- check in every 10-20 minute-- reassure and leave
* Immediately return middle of the night attempts to get into your bed
* Praise whatever improvements in sleep behavior were made
(pg 10)
1 - Set limit
2 - Give a Reason
3 - State a Consequence
Me again!
There are also Handouts given that tell "How to help the trained night
feeder" , "How to help the trained night crier", and "Preventing sleep
problems". I wish I could put them all in here as well, but there is just
too much. They go into detail about the 10 pages I just quoted above. They
are, IMHO, awful! The person who wrote thes things is a proffessor of
pediatrics and MD, can I put his name here? If not, anyone who wants to know
who he is can E-Mail me privately.
Does this sound anything like the Ezzo stuff to any of you?
According to my friend, who attended this class, and left absolutely
horrified, no mention of the negative impacts on BF was made. As we all
know, feeding only 4-5 times a day for a 4 mo old will result in a decreased
milk supply, which of course will lead to use of ABM.
When discussing child fears at bedtime, he mentions that you should try to
find out why your child is frightened, (saw something bad on TV), but never
mentions the fact that the child may be afraid of abandonment from his
parents (seeing as how if the parents had been practicing this style of
parenting (abuse in my opinion) the child ought to be afraid of abandonment
since he'd been ignored and abandoned many times over).
This peron also says " Infants cannot learn to comfort themselves without
some crying. This type of crying is not harmful." Thankfully he at least
tells you to not let your child get hysterical. Sadly, though, infants
should not HAVE to comfort themselves. That's what we are for.
I could go on here, This guy really pushed some major buttons with me!
Had to show you all this anyway.
Screams Ezzo to me!
Jay
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