Night waking

Initially babies require one or two feeds during the night. Most will barely wake to feed, do so efficiently and swiftly return to sleep. This physical reuirement gradually reduces to one night feed and then to sleeping through. Formula fed babies should be able to sleep through by about six to nine months. Breast fed babies often seek a night feed for longer. As long as night feeds can be completed without prolonged waking most mums will cope well.

Some mothers try to eliminate a feed by replacing it with water. While this may work in a few cases, replacing one "reward" with another does no eliminate the waking. Whether water, formula or breast feeds are given the infant is picked up, cuddled into mum and has a period of intense closeness which some come to rely on.
 
When you wish to eliminate a night feed it is more often successfull when done by a gradual reduction in either the volume of formula, or duration of breast feed. This way the child learns that there is less reason to wake. Consequently they start to sleep longer.

Not all night waking is about feeding. Some children seek the reassurance of a parent when they have had a bad dream. Night terrors affect children who have not had sufficent sleep in 24 hours or have had experiences which they found traumatic. Some are simply poor sleepers who tend to use night sleep as a period of "naps" and as a result they wake regularly throughout the night and the parent has to intervene to get the little one back to sleep. Some have developed the belief that they cannot return to sleep without parental intervention.

How parents should deal with night waking depends on the sleep history and the possible causes of the waking. This, along with looking at  the parental response helps in the development of a plan to eliminate these regular night wakings. As with many sleep difficulties it is not true that one remedy will work for every child. 

If you would like help to resolve your child's sleep difficulties contact us ;- Info@dream-angus.com