Expert shares 'minimum' parenting trick to get children to sleep in the night
When you're constantly being woken up by your child's cries throughout the night, you might easily become frustrated and rush into thier room to get the little one back to sleep, trying anything and everything you can think of to get them to doze back off.
But according to an expert, this speedy approach and leaping into problem-solving mode might not actually be as beneficial as you think.
Sleep consultant, Jennifer Robinson, has shared her top tips for gentle sleep training with the Mirror, to help parents who may be struggling with their little one constantly waking up throughout the night.
The expert claims it's good to start with the 'minimum' when sleep training (stock photo) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)The 34-year-old from St. Albans, Hertfordshire, has two children of her own and was inspired to become a sleep consultant after receiving help from one when her son wouldn't sleep.
She's since gone on to set up her own business as the Happy Sleep Coach and has helped numerous parents get their kids to sleep through the night.
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As part of her process, she encourages mums and dads to start by taking a more minimal approach when their child wakes up.
Jennifer said: "In the night many of us have gotten into the habit of you wake up and go running into your child's room when they start crying and try to get them to sleep as quickly as possible in any way that you can. You might shush them, or pick them up and start rocking them but sometimes this can actually be more stimulating than helpful.
"Going in calmly and quietly and just starting at the minimum before you build up your responses can be really helpful."
Jennifer has two children of her own (Jennifer Robinson)
The mum was inspired to become a sleep coach after receiving help from one with her son (Jennifer Robinson)So what does doing the minimum look like here?
The expert claims she always encourages the mums and dads she works with to make an 'in the night plan' and write down the actions they may need to take.
"Your initial action will be that you go in, assess them, check that they're ok and whether they need a nappy change or anything like that.
"From there you start with the absolute minimum, so you could try and comfort your child and then leave the room or start by patting and shushing them instead of going in whole hog and picking them up, rocking them and feeding them."
She continues: "So it's just about consistency, work out what you'd want to do initially and what you'd do after half an hour and then you need to do this every single night.
"And it will need to be exactly the same routine between both parents if you're taking it in turns. Your routine is key."
Jennifer goes on to share how the routine you put in place before bedtime is also crucial and the steps you put in place also need to be the same every night.
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"Baths aren't always crucial before bedtime, it's more important to get them to bed at the right time," she explains. "If you're running late it's better to skip the bath and get them into the bedroom environment and feeling nice and calm.
"Keeping the room dark can help, keep the lights dimmed while you're getting them ready for bed and if you're trying to move away from feeding them to sleep, make sure you have an activity in between the feed and going to bed, such as reading a story."
The expert adds that you should never be afraid to bring a bedtime forward and warns that if your child is regularly waking up very early in the morning, at 4am or 5am, it's not a sign that they had too much sleep - it's actually that they're overtired and need to go to bed earlier, not later.
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