It’s a really confusing experience when your child, who you know must be tired, seems to fight tooth and nail to avoid being put to bed, and once they’re in there, they do anything and everything except actually go to sleep.
If you’re one of the many parents who’s seeing this behavior in your little one, I’ve got some tips here that will help your child go to sleep without a battle, quickly.
Lets discuss some culprits that cause naptime battles and their solutions that can prevent it from happening.
- NOT ENOUGH DARKNESS IN THE ROOM
The room, where your baby sleeps, needs to be pitch dark. By this I mean it should be so dark that you won’t be even able to see your hand in the darkness. I say this because even a teeny tiny ray of light can wake them up.
- TIGHT CLOTHING
Before you put your babies down for a nap, make sure they are in comfortable loose clothing, maybe their jammies, so they get a good rested sleep. Bonus tip: Use a sleep sack even for naps.
- TOO MUCH OR TOO LESS AWAKE TIME
Most common issue with babies is either they are overtired because of a very long awake time between naps or too less of an awake time that leads to lower sleep pressure.
In order for the optimum sleep pressure, follow the age appropriate wake windows. Push the timings by 15 minutes each day to make the change very gentle on them.
Here is a wake window chart that will help you:
- NO FEED BEFORE THE NAP
Another very common culprit for short naps or naptime battle is feeding the babies before their nap. This leads to the feed-sleep association which in turn leads to a baby who wants to be held and fed before nap and not letting go of the mum and a short nap because they won’t find the comfort of breast or bottle as soon as they come to the lighter stage of sleep.
The tip here is to feed them AFTER they wake up from their nap. This will prevent the feed to become a sleep prop. You can switch the feed with book reading during the naptime routine. Keep in mind, the naptime routine needs to be very brief (10-15mins).
- GIVE IT TIME
Lastly, give it atleast a week to see a change in your little one’s sleep. Sleep changes don’t come instantaneously. We are changing the body clock and their environment. Do what you have to do and trust the process. It will come around.
I offer 1-1 coaching for parents who are struggling with their little one’s sleep. The result is you get a champion sleeper sleeping 10-12 hours through the night and having longer naps in the day.
Book a FREE call with me if you need help!
Happy sleep!
