To infant babies, sleeps in the
daytime is as important as sleeps in night.
The number of periods for sleeping in daytime for babies
Babies
from 4 months to 1 year old
They will have some short sleeps (at least
2 sleeps /day) – one is in the middle of morning and the other is in noon. Many
babies need more short sleep in the late afternoon. Sleep in the daytime of
most of babies in this period is over 3 hours/day.
They
will have some short sleeps (at least 2 sleeps /day)
Over 1 year old
At this age, babies can sleep in the
morning and in the noon or in the afternoon about 1-2 hours. Then, babies only
need a sleep in the noon.
Ways that help babies have a good sleep in daytime
Help
babies sleep comfortably
Environment requires dark, quiet and cool
enough or warm enough to encourage babies to have good sleep.
Lay
babies when they are sleepy
When baby’s eyelid hand down or it uses
hands to rub eyes continuously; yawning, sniveling glassy feeling, these are
signs of baby’s sleep.
When
baby’s eyelid hand down or baby uses hands to rub eyes continuously; yawning,
sniveling glassy feeling, these are signs that baby is sleepy.
You need to lay babies and lull to help them
sleep immediately because if you lasts, they will be very sleepy and cry, tired
and difficult to sooth. If you let babies sleep early, it’s difficult for you
to sooth because they have not slept yet.
Avoid
swinging or giving suck to babies to help them sleep
If babies tend to sleep when hold and swayed
by their mother, breast-fed or bottle-fed, you should try to change a little.
You can change to reading or lulling when babies lie in cage (or bed).
Let babies
safe
Check baby’s sleeping place to ensure
safeness.
Unify
You should let babies sleep at fixed time they
are familiar to. When they have enough development, they can adjust to schedule
of sleeping in daytime. For example, they can eliminate sleep in the morning or
the late afternoon and only keep sleep in the noon.
Babies are whining in sleep
Most of babies are whining and grimace a
little in sleep; however, they themselves can sleep again and they wait their
mother sooth. If babies cry over one minute, you should sooth them and give them
more time to sleep.
Most
of babies are whining and grimace a little in sleep
If babies are near to tears when you put them
to lie or they cry in sleeping although their diaper isn’t wet, it isn’t ill or
hungry, you should be patient and solve. In addition, babies have activities in
sleep such as convulsion of hands and legs, smiling, smacking the lips, chewing
or crying… Mothers can confuse baby’s movement in sleep with signs that it
needs to wake up or eat. You should wait in some minutes to see that babies
continue sleeping or not instead of picking them up.
Time when you need to interfere baby’s sleep
Some babies have confusion about daytime
and night, so they often sleep more in daytime. At that time, mothers need to
wake babies up if realizing that they have enough sleep in daytime. You
shouldn’t let babies sleep in 3-4 hours, especially babies that often sleep in
the late afternoon. If babies sleep a lot at noon, in the evening, it’s
difficult for them to sleep or they don’t have a good sleep or will stay up
late.
