Pure Parents

Question:

My 6 month old daughter usually takes 2 naps a day of about 1 hour each (but this can vary}.At night she sleeps about 10-11 hours but wakes up once or twice to eat.   Debbie

Response:

If I were you, I’d go to the library +ACY- get out books on sleep problems – however, I think that 6 months is a little too early for sleep training. Dr. Ferber’s +ACI-solve your child’s sleep problems+ACI- (effective but very hard on the parents) and Dr. Sears +ACI-nighttime parenting+ACI- (a gentler approach). If you look at these books, you’ll see that the average 6 month old gets x hours of sleep per day. This means it’s an average – some get more, some get less. If he seems happy and healthy otherwise, then you just got a kid who unfortunately needs less sleep than normal. Heidi

Response:

All babies are different, but I have to say that they still need a good amount of sleep.  I am my kid’s mom to James (3 1/2) and Cameron (15 months), and when James was a baby, I was nursing him at night til he was 8 mos old, every 2 hours!  I also learned he was too old to be doing this.  I was going nuts.  He catnapped all day and was easily woken up.  I finally went to see a therapist because it was affecting my marriage.  He said that I needed to provide a sleep schedule for him so he can develop properly. With all the information they absorb during the day, they need enough sleep to assimilate the new things they learned.  So I put him down for bed at 7 SHARP every night, letting him cry, and for a week it was extremely difficult.  But, I stuck with it.  Then the next week I started putting him down in the morning after breakfast and playtime at 9-11.  Then we would have lunch, playtime and a story.  He would nap again from 2-4.  He was a different child after this!!!!!  It was like I had a life again.  But the key was to put him in his crib, shut the door, put the monitor away and just trust that he needs his sleep.  If you go in there, you are not doing him any favors by going in to pick him up, rock him, all of that.  I did that for long enough.  But instead of knowing that he had to go to sleep, he knew that mommy would eventually come in and pick him up.   So I know that once I established this routine my marriage improved and I felt so much better.  I actually started getting some sleep, and I could get some work done during the day. I hope that this helps!!!! Erin

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Hi. . . > My 6 month old son has never been much of a sleeper, but I’m starting to get > worried that he’s not getting enough sleep.  He takes but > still not sleeping through. > Just out of curiosity. . . > About how much does (did) your 6 month old sleep during a 24-hour period? > Thanks, > Wendy > mom to Hayley (2.5 years old) and Jared (6 months)

Response:

Hi. . . My 6 month old son has never been much of a sleeper, but I’m starting to get worried that he’s not getting enough sleep.  He takes still not sleeping through. Just out of curiosity. . . About how much does (did) your 6 month old sleep during a 24-hour period? Thanks, Wendy mom to Hayley (2.5 years old) and Jared (6 months)

Response:

> Hi. . . > My 6 month old son has never been much of a sleeper, but I’m starting to get > worried that he’s not getting enough sleep.  He takes > still not sleeping through. > Just out of curiosity. . . > About how much does (did) your 6 month old sleep during a 24-hour period? > Thanks, > Wendy > mom to Hayley (2.5 years old) and Jared (6 months)

My older girl was sleeping about 14 hours of the day; 10 hours overnight and two 2 hour naps during the day.  My younger girl is about 12 hours; 10 hours overnight and one 2 hour nap. Every child is different, it sounds like yours still wakes during the night.  That may be it, the stop-start sleep routine may actually be giving him all the sleep he needs until his next nap time.  Maybe you should look up a few methods to try and get him sleeping through the night and he may sleep in a better pattern and for longer. Personally we found that to differentiate between nap time and night time helped to get the girls to sleep through the night and we also try to give them really busy days so that they are nice and tired at bedtime and go to sleep with no fuss.  We also didn’t pick them up straightaway if they started crying in their cots.  We left them for a few minutes and waited, sometimes they have a quick grizzle and then fall asleep. If he’s a happy baby though, why worry. Leonie.

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