After 6 months, with the introduction of solid foods, your baby can already sleep through the night, as long as there is no pediatric recommendation for them to be fed during the night. However, many babies still wake up at least twice during the night and only go back to sleep with their parents’ help1. Is this your case? In today’s post I want to talk with Famivita’s readers about night awakenings, so dreaded by parents who, without restorative nights of sleep, end up exhausted and irritable. Basically, these awakenings happen for four reasons: hunger, discomfort, illness, or incorrect sleep associations. Let’s look at each of these and what to do in each case.

Hunger

It will happen if your baby did not eat properly during the day, or even if they have not yet gotten used to solid foods and still have milk as their main source of nutrition.

What to do: In these cases, parents can reinforce daytime meals so the baby does not start to make up for it at night (many start to feed more at night than during the day).

Discomfort

There might be something disturbing your baby’s sleep, like a dirty diaper, tight pajamas, cold, heat, or constant external noises. Going back to sleep after a sleep cycle ends can be very difficult. Usually, this is the cause for awakenings in babies who normally sleep well, but on some nights they wake up frequently.

What to do: It is always important to observe if your baby is in a comfortable and appropriate sleep environment, to avoid frequent awakenings during the night.

Illness

If your baby is having trouble breathing, fever, or any other health problem, their night sleep can be quite affected, as well as their appetite.

What to do: In these cases there is nothing to do. The best thing is to observe and attend to the baby’s needs.

Incorrect sleep associations

This is the main cause of awakenings. If your baby falls asleep nursing, needs to be rocked, or sleeps in the parents’ bed and is later moved to the crib already asleep, night awakenings happen very frequently. Learning to sleep is something your baby needs to learn. It is very common for parents to do their children’s part in these cases.

What to do: First, it’s good to remember that many babies fall asleep this way but can sleep for many hours at a stretch. If that’s your case, there’s nothing wrong with letting your baby fall asleep this way. However, if awakenings are constant, your baby needs a sleep environment that makes them feel secure and promotes self-soothing development, meaning, they need to learn to fall asleep on their own2.

The baby needs a sleep environment that makes them feel secure and promotes the development of self-soothing.
In these situations, they should in fact be placed in the crib while still awake, and any sleep props need to be eliminated. In these situations, the help of a sleep consultant is important, as there are very gentle techniques, where crying is avoided with care and patience, and parents give the baby the opportunity to develop this skill of sleeping well.

Unfortunately, without parental intervention, few babies start sleeping through the night naturally before 18 months. That’s why it’s important to do something to improve your baby’s sleep quality. Besides rest, sleep is important for your child’s physical and psychological growth and development3, and many consequences of sleep deprivation are only noticed when they start learning to read and write!

Michele Melão is a certified infant sleep consultant and baby planner by the International Academy of Baby Planner Professionals (IABPP) and International Maternity Institute (IMI), California. (maternitycoach.com.br) – a consultancy specialized in various services for pregnant women and babies.

See also: The Importance of a Sleep Routine

Photo: Thibaud Saintin