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> Things do get a bit better when the child is sleeping longer. After about 6 months you can start techniques to help your child sleep through the night. With
by notdonspaulding 13y ago
> Things do get a bit better when the child is sleeping longer. After about 6 months you can start techniques to help your child sleep through the night.
With the caveat that every child is different, there's no reason to delay "sleep-through-the-night techniques" until a child is 6 months old. We've found that by explicitly managing the eating schedule of our children, they've developed routines that get them sleeping through the night between 8 and 10 weeks.
Newborns are constantly adapting to the world around them. If you have a routine in place, they'll figure out how to adapt to it, and that can translate directly to more sleep for parents and happier parent <-> child bonding times. If it didn't have such a huge impact on parental quality of life, I'd say it doesn't matter how you approach getting them to sleep through the night. But it does have a huge impact, so it's foolish not to consider that when determining your approach to raising a newborn.
- DanBC 13y ago> With the caveat that every child is different, there's no reason to delay "sleep-through-the-night techniques" until a child is 6 months old. I meant 'controlled crying' techniques, which must not be used before the child is 6 months old.
- notdonspaulding 13y agoHadn't ever heard it called "controlled crying" before. It looks like this is also called "self-soothing". From reading the first few articles on a google search of the topic, this looks very similar in nature to the Baby-wise technique of establishing a routine which will cause the child to settle into a nighttime routine and let them sleep through the night. Why wait until the child is 6 months old? I didn't see any reasons given on the (admittedly few) articles I read. Children crave routine, and ISTM that the best time to establish one is as soon as the parents are ready for it.