Newborn Baby Care and Needs

Posts Tagged ‘Newborn Sleep’

Newborn Sleep on Mother's chest

About Newborn Sleep

 

 

 

Executive summary of Steven Dowshen, MD. Review on Newborn Sleep.    

How Long Newborn Babies Sleep

As babies grow, their periods of wakefulness increase. At first, these short stretches of 3 to 4 hours of sleep may be frustrating for you as they interfere with your sleep pattern. Many pediatricians recommend that a parent not let a newborn sleep too long without feeding. In practical terms, that means offering a feeding to your baby every 3 to 4 hours or so, and possibly more often for smaller or premature babies.

 Where and How a Baby Should Sleep

Although many cultures endorse cosleeping, there is a risk that the baby can suffocate or strangle, and studies have shown that there’s a higher incidence of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) in households where the baby slept in the parents’ bed.

How we sleep is based in large part on habit and what our bodies use as the signals that it is time to sleep. Always putting your baby in the crib for sleeping will help signal to the infant that this is the place for sleep. Always keep sleep safety in mind. The AAP recommends that healthy infants be placed on their backs to sleep, not on their stomachs. It is now also recommended that premature infants sleep only on their backs.

It is thought that some babies sleeping on their stomachs may have a greater tendency toward sleep obstruction and rebreathing their own carbon dioxide because they are less likely to rouse themselves to change head positions. If your baby has a medical condition, there may be an exception to these recommendations. Your baby’s doctor can best advise you on the right sleep position for your little one.

Encouraging Your Newborn’s Sleep

You can help adjust your baby’s body clock toward sleeping at night by avoiding stimulation during nighttime feedings and diaper changes. Overly tired infants often have more trouble sleeping than those who’ve had an appropriate amount of sleep during the day. So, keeping your baby up in hopes that he or she will sleep better at night will not necessarily work.

What if your baby is fussy? It’s OK to rock, cuddle, and sing as your baby is settling down. For the first months of your baby’s life, “spoiling” is definitely not a problem. By 2 months most babies are sleeping 6 to 8 hours through the night. If your baby isn’t sleeping through the night by 4 months, talk with your doctor about how you can help this to happen.

Check with your doctor if you have questions about how much (or how little) your baby is sleeping.