Many mothers have started to give their babies the guidance of a regular routine after reading the previous articles. Many babies have the ability to fall asleep on their own. Some babies are even able to stop drinking night milk and sleep through the night.
However, mothers must have noticed that their babies are becoming more energetic, especially after they can sit and stand. He seems to be difficult to do the EASY mode of "eating, playing and sleeping" regular work and rest. What should we do at this time? Do you want to continue the EASY mode?
1 Signs of concurrent napping
The majority (84%) of 6-month-olds take 2 naps per day; the vast majority of 9-month-olds take only 1 to 2 naps per day. Seventeen percent of children at 1 week of age take only one nap per day; 56% of 15-month-olds take only one nap per day. Most 21-month-olds take only one nap per day.
-- Healthy Sleepy Habits, Happy Child
According to the EASY eating, playing, and sleeping pattern, babies generally enter a 4-hour routine by 6 months of age. Three naps a day at each interval is just enough to satisfy the EASY pattern cycle.
And after 7 to 9 months, the baby's energy becomes vigorous. Many parents will find that when it's bedtime, their baby won't go to sleep and it's hard to continue the eating, playing and sleeping pattern. In fact, this is the time to merge napping. This means that the work and rest may also need to be adjusted.
I had a table in my previous article.
(The above table is for reference only. Each baby has its own rules, please carefully observe and analyze to your own baby prevail.)
2 Adjustment of the merge napping and regular work and rest
3 naps merged to 2 naps time: 7~10 months
2 naps merged to 1 nap time: 10~15 months
(Each baby's time is different, so adjust according to your baby's performance)
Common problems
The baby is supposed to go to bed after eating for 1.5 to 2 hours, but he or she is not sleepy and delays until almost 3 to 4 hours. Should I let my baby sleep or eat at this time? If you sleep, the 4-hour time interval is broken, and the rest is all messed up, what should we do? If the baby is sleepy after eating, will it cause milk sleep?
First of all, if such a problem occurs frequently, it means that the baby should now enter the rest pattern of 1~2 sleeps a day. Then eat play sleep also need to make adjustments accordingly. You can flexibly change into eat - play - eat - play - sleep - play - eat, eating time is still fixed, daytime sleep time is fixed to adjust to 10:00 am - 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm every day -5 o'clock (adjust according to your own situation, here is just an example)
The number of naps during the day becomes less and the time lengthens. This deformation of the work and rest is actually a regular work and rest.
There are two methods of merge naps.
- Human intervention to guide
If you find that your baby's bedtime and mealtime often overlap, and your baby is hungry and sleepy this happens often. Then you can try to guide the appropriate intervention.You can give your baby a full meal first, and after the meal a little activity will put your baby to sleep. You can also change the meal time and wait for your baby to wake up before eating. In short, the appropriate guidance, the baby's new routine fixed to eat and sleep time can be separated. Such guidance is usually effective in 3 to 7 days.
- Natural sleep
If your baby is only sleeping less, but the bedtime and mealtime are just separated. In most cases, you don't need to intervene too much, but just observe your baby's state carefully. If he starts to show signs of sleepiness, just put him to bed right away and let him sleep. All you need to do is to keep track of your baby's new sleep pattern for a few days and try to make sure that your baby falls asleep at the same time every day. If he or she does not fall asleep at the same time, intervene a little to adjust it.
For some babies, the mother will find that the 4-hour meal baby will be a little distracted. He likes to play when eating, then it may indicate that the baby is not hungry.
There are two ways to deal with inattentive eating solutions.
- Maintain 4-hour intervals.
French people whether adults or infants 4 meals a day, 4 hours once is fixed. But in the breakfast, afternoon tea part of the food is less, the focus on lunch every day, dinner is mainly about light (this is also the French to maintain a good body skills). So, the method is to give the baby four meals a day can be adjusted. Lunch can be given a little more rich, and afternoon tea a little less. This spacing out, the baby will still feel hungry at 4 hours, full of interest in eating. It will be more focused on eating, rather than become the little devil at the table.
- Spacing out the time to three meals a day.
Everyone's habit is to have three meals a day, and it's good for both parents and babies to keep the baby's routine consistent with the family rhythm as early as possible. But babies grow rapidly in the process, some parents will not spare their babies too long between meals, or feed snacks in the middle. These can lead to babies not really feeling hungry by mealtime, inattentive or treating food as a toy. In fact, after 10 months of age, it is perfectly fine to gradually transition your baby to three meals a day, but the process is gradual and not a one-step process. There may be a situation where the baby eats 3 meals one day and 4 meals another day, parents need not be confused, the general direction of the transition to three meals will be fine.
3 Misconceptions about parenting
Some moms will say: children should be left to nature, what guidance intervention is also too cruel, your method does not apply to my baby.
Here I need to clarify a few points.
- A certain amount of guidance is necessary
Insufficient naps are costly for children. 4 to 8 month old who do not take adequate naps can have problems with concentration and activity that does not last. 3 year old who never or rarely take naps can be very maladaptive and even develop ADHD traits. Thus, for your child's future academic success and social adjustment, you should ensure that he or she has adequate naps.
-- Healthy Sleepy Habits, Happy Child
The impact of the quality of sleep on the baby's mood is obvious. This is clearly evident from Ethan.
During the day when only he and I are at home, he will find a corner to sleep by himself after he is tired of playing, 2 naps a day, and a good mood all day.
And on the weekends, dad is at home all the time someone is playing with her. And he would be excited. Often misses bedtime and naps become very short. Eating is also no longer regular, and he becomes cranky and cries easily.
The contrast is so obvious that it makes me more confident to tell you that the good or bad sleep and regular routine of the baby has a huge impact on the baby's personality and mood. And this is when our proper guidance is especially important!
- Some moms think that guidance intervention is too cruel, please reflect on whether you yourself have adopted or understood to become polarized guidance?
I have had many moms write to me privately, asking about specific operations. I realized that maybe the previous article was written too strictly, and some moms tend to go into the misconception of parenting strictly according to the schedule after reading the article.
Here I have to clarify again: flexibility is very important! A schedule is a tool, not a goal! A regular routine is guided by your baby's needs and performance, with a good grasp of the general direction and a certain amount of leeway in the small details. That is to say, the big picture must be careful, but the extensive places should also be extensive.
We guide the baby to regular rest, in fact, is to give the baby to develop a stable biological clock. A stable biological clock, not to mention for children, is also beneficial to adults.
This is like you stay up all night, irregular work and rest and sleep early and wake up regular work and rest in these two states, which one do you think is healthier? Which one is more emotionally stable? Which one you will not be constipated, colds, diarrhea and other problems constantly?
Our body is a system, the regular operation of this system is our best maintenance, and as adults we have the ability to do self-adjustment. For small children, parents have the responsibility to help their babies in line with their own rules to do the appropriate guidance.
Proper guidance does not have any cruelty at all, but will make the baby's mood great and body great every day. As for some people did not try to experience the sweetness of regular work and rest, they said "to the baby all kinds of intervention, the baby is very painful, there is a psychological shadow, crying and nobody cares" and so on, then I can only say that you think a little too much.
- My method does not necessarily apply to your baby.
This I absolutely admit, every time I write an article will be considered again and again. There are a lot of methods that I think are good but may not be generalizable and are only personal experience that I have kept out of the article. The ones that can be written in the article are those that have been discussed by many experts, various moms' experiences and self-practices and found to be really scientific and useful before they are taken out and written in the article.
However, I still have to say: scientific parenting is not a one-liner. Any article on parenting is for reference only.
In fact, every mother is her own parenting expert. Because a baby is a person, not a machine, there can't be a one-size-fits-all instruction manual that applies to every baby.
I'm just an ordinary mom who likes to share. In order to have something to go on, I always consult a lot of books before I write an article, and even then I have to say: this may not necessarily apply to your baby.
But is there still a need to write? Do mothers still need to read it?
Of course there is a need to write and read. And I think every mother who loves to share, whether or not they agree with you, is also encouraged to write. Because no one is forcing you to follow these moms' methods, but they are giving you new ideas and ways to do things. You don't try, just imagination, and who is to say it must be wrong?
(This paragraph may be written in a more hostile manner. Because some people do not think and start talking nonsense.)
- No need to be serious in parenting issues
In the issue of parenting too indulgent and too strict are not good, both are easy to go to extremes. The most difficult thing here is the "degree", and it is most important to find the right balance for your baby. The most important thing is to find the right balance for your baby. Control the general direction, set certain boundaries for your child, and let your child develop freely within those boundaries.
When Ethan started climbing high, some people would say it was too dangerous to climb that high. What they don't see is that I've already covered the whole room with sponge mats and keep an eye on him all the time. Potential dangers have been eliminated. The rest he can play freely. But only allowed to climb up and down in this one room, other unprotected places will not let him do as he pleases.
This is within certain boundaries, grasping the big and letting go of the small. The safety guarantee should be more serious, let the child develop freely within the safety range.
In the same way, the general idea is the same when it comes to regular routine. We as parents grasp the big picture, do not be serious in the schedule, in the details must be random and flexible, give children a little flexibility.
This article is rather long, this is also a little supplement to the previous article.
The end
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