My baby does not sleep at night – is it normal?

It is time to sleep and my baby does not sleep. This is like your daily routine and you no longer know what to do. They set off your alarms, is it normal? Is something wrong? Calm fathers and mothers, because we are going to give you answers and we will start by saying that it is more normal than you think.

All infants tend to wake up at night, and the difference between those who sleep through and those who don’t is just their ability to fall asleep on their own.

There are factors that tell us if our baby is resting well or not. If the baby is sleepy all day but does not sleep, if we notice that he cries more than usual and we try to calm him but we cannot, if when he finally sleeps but does not stop moving and we notice him uncomfortable …

All these factors indicate that it may be due to problems in your routine, or excess food, or that the environment is not adequate, or in more extreme cases that you are sick such as infant colic, colds, otitis, …

Assuming that he was ill, and after following the pediatrician’s guidelines he is fully recovered but still does not sleep, then we will have to teach the little one how to sleep and that is where we hope that our advice will help you.

Advice

Our first advice is to consult with your pediatrician, because not all babies need the same hours of sleep, nor do all babies take the same time to fall asleep.

The second tip is to apply routines to your life. Sleep habits are essential to achieve this. Around six weeks we can begin to apply routines preparing them for bedtime.

We can give him a relaxing bath, dinner, sing a lullaby and put him in his crib. The important thing is that it is always at the same time. A good time is to start this routine at 8:00 p.m. The same routine that we apply so that he falls asleep at night, we must apply it during the day and is to wake him up at the same time every morning. It doesn’t matter if we are ten or fifteen minutes late, we mean around that time. In this way the baby will lose fear because he will know what is going to happen.

The temperature of the room must be adequate, it is not good for him to sleep very hot or excessively clothed. The natural cotton pajama set is also important at bedtime. As for what objects we can give him to sleep, it must be an object that he can grab when he wakes up, an appropriate doll for his age and that follows the safety canons, soft or an appropriate blanket for that purpose.

As a third piece of advice we refer to bad sleeping habits. These are often the main cause of babies not sleeping well. Sleep is also learned and it is the parents’ responsibility to establish correct sleep habits so that when the time comes, the baby sleeps well.

Causes why my baby does not sleep at night

• Frequent drinking during the day. On-demand feeding does not mean that every time your baby cries, he or she is hungry.
• Breastfeeding him or giving him the bottle to sleep, can generate that it is the last memory of the baby before going to sleep, so if he wakes up he may think that he needs the maternal warmth again to fall asleep.
• Cradle the child to sleep. Cuddling him is fine, but if we do it until he falls asleep, the baby as usual falls asleep outside his crib, therefore he does not associate the crib with sleep.
• Entertain you overnight. If when he wakes up he cries and this brings with it some advantage such as walking him, rocking him, playing with him … the baby becomes dependent on this help to go back to sleep.
• Excessive daytime naps. A baby can only sleep a certain number of hours a day. Too much sleep during the day can keep you awake at night.

Parents also must understand that in this dream there are no miracles, and that each baby is a world. If my baby does not sleep at night, understand that some babies will fall asleep at four months and others will not sleep until they are a year or two.

And above all and more importantly, any doubt will always be necessary to consult with our pediatrician.