Eight Tips for Easing Separation Anxiety
Raising kids is a high-stakes responsibility, and in this age of social media and easy access to information about anything and everything, parents are easily overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and inadequacy.
As a sleep consultant, I see this all the time from parents whose babies aren’t sleeping well.
Eight Tips for Easing Separation Anxiety
Raising kids is a high-stakes responsibility, and in this age of social media and easy access to information about anything and everything, parents are easily overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and inadequacy. As a sleep consultant, I see this all the time from parents whose babies aren’t sleeping well.
One of the other major contributors to the, “I’m doing something wrong,” sensation is separation anxiety; that oh-so-challenging part of a child’s life when they start to completely flip their lids whenever Mum’s not around.
Quarantine Survival Guide for Parents Home Schooling
What can I say? These past few months have been…
WOW. Am I right?
Just wow.
If you’re in the same boat as most parents in the world, you’ve had to accommodate the fact that your kids were suddenly and unexpectedly given an extra four months of summer holiday.
And to top it all off, they’re unable to leave the house. Read more
One of the central rules of sleep training is that you should allow your little one to develop their abilities to fall asleep on their own. So it can cause a real “Should I or shouldn’t I” moment when you look at the baby monitor and see that your child has pushed themselves into an uncomfortable looking ball against the side of their cot.
I get asked this question a lot, and I have two answers for you.
First of all, the clinical one. If your child’s six months or older, gaining weight as expected, and your doctor says you’re okay to end night time feeds, then go ahead and give it a shot.
But that doesn’t really answer your question, does it? Because that information is readily available on about a thousand different websites. If that was all you needed to know, you’d know it already.
Chances are, what you’re really asking is, “Why does my baby refuse to give up his night feeds?”
Because if you’d pulled his night feeds and he just accepted it and started sleeping through the night, you wouldn’t be online looking for information about it. You’d either be in bed, enjoying eight hours of blissful, uninterrupted sleep, or you’d be at the playground, telling all the other moms how easily your little guy gave up night feeds, and how this whole parenting thing is such a breeze!
(Don’t do that though. Moms hate that.)
Have you ever heard the story of Catherine O’Leary’s Cow?
Back in 1871, the Chicago Tribune reported that the cause of the great Chicago Fire was a cow, Catherine O’Leary’s cow to be precise, kicking over a lantern in the barn while it was being milked.
Unfortunately, the Tribune admitted later on that it had completely fabricated the story, but that didn’t stop people from blaming Catherine and her cow from being widely blamed for one of the greatest disasters in US history.
What’s this got to do with teething, you ask?
Nothing really, except that they’re both victims of some unnecessary scapegoating.
One of the most aggravating situations I see parents running into when they’re sleep training is the sudden onset of a minor illness when they’re finally seeing some progress.
After months of sleep issues, they finally decide to take the initiative and get serious about getting their baby onto a schedule, baby starts getting the hang of it, the whole family is starting to see longer periods of consolidated sleep, and everyone’s getting ready to break out the champagne…
And then BAM! Baby gets a cold, or an ear infection, or a bout of diarrhoea, or one of the other seven thousand illnesses that babies are prone to, and the whole thing goes off the rails.
My nephew baby Tate is now 4 months old. I have taught him the skill of sleep since he reached the appropriate birth weight, which was about a month ago.
For the sceptics that do not think it is easy to get a 4 month old to sleep from 7pm – 7am, watch how very easy it is
I have taught many parents around the world, how to pass on to their children the skill of sleep.
Read the real life testimonials on Facebook or on this website from parents whom are now getting the sleep they deserve.
Most parents coping with young kids and sleep issues are desperate for any solution to their nightly trials, and there are countless tinctures, sprays and salves that promise to soothe your child into a peaceful slumber.
To me, this is not unlike to the staggering number of natural weight-loss products on the market: there is no shortage of companies trying to make big bucks selling quick fixes. But do they really work? Read more
This week’s question is from Tammy. She writes:
“My in-laws are coming to visit for a week and are under the impression that babies will sleep through anything and that they just need to “get used to” the noise. What are your thoughts on this issue? Is it possible for it to be too noisy for baby?” Read more
Certified Sleep Consultant in tunbridge wells, maidstone, west malling, kings hill, tunbridge wells, London, uk.