Practical Tips for Helping Babies Sleep
When it comes to helping your baby sleep, it sometimes feels like a guessing game.
How do we create the perfect little nest for our babies to peacefully slumber? Are they too hot or too cold? Do they need more layers or less (and what on earth is a TOG rating)? And what can I do to help my baby sleep better when they’re sick or on the go?
If you’re a little confused about how to make your baby comfortable for rest, we’ve curated our top articles and tips on helping baby sleep.
Start by dressing baby appropriately for the room temperature
One of our best tips to help baby sleep is controlling their nursery temperature. A baby’s room should be between 16°C and 20°C, but if you want to be bang on, 18°C is the ‘just right’ temperature for a nursery. It’s pretty hard to gauge this by feel, so it’s best to pop a room thermometer in your baby’s nursery, and you’ll be able to tell at a glance if the room is too chilly or too warm.
Once you know baby’s room temperature, you’ll be able to select the right combination of TOG-rated swaddle/sleeping bag/pouch and bodywear layers to make their body temperature most optimal for sleep. Hot tip: choose natural, organic fibres for baby’s sensitive skin!
Learn about TOGs and how to dress baby for sleep in different temperatures.
Start by dressing baby appropriately for the room temperature
Try creating a sleep-time routine
You’ve probably heard that babies love routine, and we tend to be in agreement. Establishing a sleep routine of FEED PLAY SLEEP - a sequence of activities you complete every time you’re preparing baby for sleep - may help ease your bub into a sleepy state faster.
Hot tip: sometimes babies need more sleep than usual, so Understanding baby’s sleep cues is important for knowing when to skip the PLAY step.
Try creating a sleep-time routine
Make baby’s sleep environment dark and quiet
Just like many adults, babies tend to sleep best in dark, quiet rooms. Window Blockout Blinds (great for travel) are fantastic for darkening a room, and white noise machines can be very useful for helping babies settle—particularly in the first three months when they need extra support with falling asleep.
Explore the Benefits of White Noise and Window Blockout Blinds on improving infant sleep.
Make baby’s sleep environment dark and quiet
All about swaddling and different arm positions during sleep
If you have a newborn or are planning for a new baby, explore the best ways to swaddle to help control the Moro (startle) reflex, along with different arm positions for sleep: swaddled in, arms up or arms out.
Learn all about swaddling and sleep positions in our ultimate guide to swaddling.
All about swaddling and different arm positions during sleep
The link between food and sleep
Many factors influence sleep—and sleep difficulties—but nutrition is an affordable strategy we can use to help support the sleep process. For infants who are eating solids, a few tweaks to your ingredients and how you prepare them can make a difference when it comes to serving the best food for sleep.
Read what nutritionist Steph Geddes advises are the best macro and micronutrients for sleep.
The link between food and sleep
Reducing eczema flare-ups for fewer sleep disruptions
Having itchy skin is an understandable reason why some babies can’t sleep. But what is eczema, what causes it, and what can be done to help ease baby’s discomfort? In this article, written for Eczema Awareness Week, we hear from D.r Golly (Dr Daniel Golshevsky), a Melbourne-based paediatrician and father of three, who specialises in unsettled babies and poor sleep.
Reducing eczema flare-ups for fewer sleep disruptions
Help baby sleep when travelling/on the go
Managing quality sleep at home can be tough, but sleep on the go is another challenge! We spoke to two sleep experts for their top tips for maintaining routine and sleep when travelling or for daily outings on the go.
Read baby sleep consultant Steph Gouin's tips for helping baby sleep when travelling and paediatrician Dr Golly’s advice for naps and safe sleep on the go.
Help baby sleep when travelling/on the go
Daylight Saving approaching? Prepare in advance
Just when you’ve gotten into a sleep routine - BAM! Daylight Saving hits. Our advice? Ease into and out of Daylight Saving, which, yes, requires some forethought! In these two articles, we interviewed the parents of ergoPouch to find out what strategies have worked best for them.
Here are our tips for easing into daylight saving and out of daylight saving.
Daylight Saving approaching? Prepare in advance
Navigating sleep during the holiday season
Holiday breaks, like the period around Christmas, often include more time out of the home and out of baby’s routine as you visit friends and family. And let’s not forget about the excitement of older kids on Christmas Eve!
Known as the Gentle Sleep Specialist, Tara Mitchell (a former paediatric nurse of 15 years) has compiled her top tips for maximising sleep during common periods of disruption: the holidays.
Read Tara’s tips for navigating sleep during the silly season.
