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Getting a baby to sleep
We all know there are going to be sleepless nights when we have a baby. However, six months on, if your baby is still waking in the night, you reach the stage where you wonder if there is any need for the waking, or whether it is just a habit for the baby. Surely, if the baby is eating solids and drinking the required amount of milk a day, the waking is not hunger, it is just waking - and expecting to be fed because that\'s what always happens.
A search of the net shows that a lot of people feel that it is acceptable for a baby to regularly wake through the night - and expect to be fed - even when they are several years old. Now, call me odd, but this smacks of leaving a child in nappies at 4, even 5 (I have seen this done) because the child isn\'t \'ready\'. What is ready? When the child says \'I no longer want this nappy on\'? What happened to toilet training, where we teach a child to go to the toilet? One step further - why is it acceptable for a child to wake of a night, expecting to be fed, beyond the age of several months? If we can toilet train, surely we can sleep train?Since the baby wakes and wants a bottle of milk, it pays to make sure that the waking does not equate to real hunger. Make sure your baby is eating enough through the day and it will make it easier to teach your baby to sleep through the night. I found an e-book which claims to guide you in how to teach your baby to sleep through the night. As it is reasonably priced, I decided to trial the methods and document any successes and failures here for the benefit of others who feel their baby should be sleeping through the night and not wake and expect to be fed just because they are awake. This e-book claims to teach your child to sleep in a weekend. To me, this is well worth the investment - under $20, and a few nights of broken sleep instead of endless waking through the night. To teach your child how to sleep in just a few nights, click here for an instantly downloadable book.
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