Creating a Safe and Effective Sleeping Environment
Sleep is vital for the health and wellbeing of babies and their parents. Getting your baby to sleep quickly, easily and for reasonable periods of time (depending on their age) makes it easier for you to get sleep yourself, but also for you to plan and manage your days without feeling like you have spent most of them trying to settle your little one.
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Parents of young children are advised to have their babies sleeping in their room in a cot or a crib near to their bed, the child should be sleeping on their back, not be too hot and not have any blankets or sheets that are at risk of covering their head. All of this advice is based upon research which shows that each of these actions helps to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (cot death, or SIDS). This all sounds easy enough but what do you do when your baby only seems to want to sleep in your arms or on their tummy? Is it safe to give your baby a dummy to go to sleep? There are lots of common behavioural traits amongst babies that make these rules difficult to follow sometimes. Our articles offer you information on safe and effective ways of encouraging your baby to settle and to sleep soundly.
Some parents worry about how a baby will manage in a house with other siblings. For your first baby it is easier to keep the house quiet and to find them a room that they can call their own, but don't worry about your subsequent children never getting any peace. Babies brought into a loud and busy household become accustomed to the permanent hum of noise and often find it more settling than silence. Many parents even find that babies can move into a room with a sibling quite easily. Whatever your situation there is a manageable approach to sleeping that will suit you. We can't promise you a magic answer that miraculously gets you long unbroken nights' sleep but we have plenty of advice to help you start heading in that direction!
