Changing baby sleep habits

Changing baby sleep habits

How to help your baby change sleep habits or associations - for peaceful happy sleepers

Changing sleep associations

You rock your baby to sleep each nap and each night and you’re sick of it! Or your baby has outgrown the dummy. Or you’ve decided that it’s time to stop feeding to sleep. You need to change your baby’s sleep associations. Sleep associations are also called sleep aids, prompts, sleep routine, anything that says to your baby ‘it’s time for sleep’.  

Changing sleep associations is probably one of the most common difficulties parents struggle with in regard to their little ones’ sleep.

You can change your baby’s sleep associations! 

After all, no one rocks their teenager to sleep each night, do they? You need to plan, be prepared for some resistance, and have patience. Babies are adaptable and resilient.

1. Identify the sleep association or habit you need to change

2. Pick the best time to make changes.

3. Avoid changes while baby is ill or there are big upheavals at home

4. Decide on your approach, based on your baby’s temperament. Cold turkey? Change by degrees? Identify alternative ways to comfort your baby to ease the transition

5. Celebrate little wins and be prepared for setbacks as you take slow, baby steps towards better sleep! 

Babies and toddlers love routine or habit - changing sleep habits takes time

Habits make their world predictable. Habits help them judge what will happen and this gives them security and comfort. So when we want to change what they know, they will not like it initially even if it is in their best interests. A tired baby doesn’t know that making a change will mean better sleep. They just know that it is different to what they know and trust.

How long it takes to change a sleep association depends on many factors:

how the parents feel beliefs and values baby’s temperament how long the practice has been going on what the practice is. 

As your baby grows and develops there will be changes that you need to make to their sleep habits. These are in addition to changing any sleep associations that aren’t working for you (like rocking your baby to sleep all the time). Milestones include:

1. Learning to roll - it is safest to stop swaddling your baby with arms in when he or she learns to roll Learning to climb - once your baby starts climbing it’s time to move from a cot to a bed. 
   
   
   If sleep is a battleground for you and your baby or toddler then something needs to change. You and your baby deserve great sleep and awesome days. Our Toddler Tricks video series outlines lots of helpful sleep strategies and troubleshooting for common sleep issues.
    

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