When to start baby self soothing
Newborn Sleep: The Importance of Self-Soothing | Parents
One of the most important skills a baby can learn is the fine art of falling asleep on
his own. In the first 8 to 12 weeks of life, if your baby can do this easily, by all means,
start to practice putting him down awake and letting him fall into a deep sleep without
your extra help. If, however he seems to really need the extra rocking, body contact or sucking
to fall asleep, these early weeks are the ones to give him just that. Babies like adults,
go through cycles of deep sleep, light sleep and brief wakings throughout the night. Adults
hardly notice these shifts and generally get through a night without disruption. In the
first few months when babies are meant to feed throughout the night, this will not present
a problem. They will however need to learn how to fall asleep and how to get back to
sleep on their own after these normal intermitted night wakings. When you hold back from always
being the soother, you are allowing your baby to develop a self- soothing habit that will
be his for the rest of childhood. By 4 months, babies also have an increased capacity for
memory and can learn from repeated experiences. While he did not come into the world knowing
how to settle himself to sleep, he is now capable of learning. The teaching is easier
before a baby makes fixed associations to how he goes to sleep and before he learns
to sit, crawl or pull himself to standing.
