Post No.: 0752
Furrywisepuppy says:
A child’s sleep requirement changes significantly with age. The amount decreases gradually from infancy onwards, but increases slightly again during puberty, then decreases after that into adulthood.
Newborns need about 14-18 hours/day. Older infants need about 10-16 hours/day. By 12 years of age, the average is about 9 hours/day. Achieving these figures can vary culturally but not because of when people wake up (which is pretty constant across cultures) but because of when people go to bed. In order for a pre-schooler to get his/her recommended 10-11 hours of sleep and wake up at 7am, he/she will need to be in bed by 8pm or likely earlier since many kids take longer than the average person to get to sleep. Children who sleep less than this amount tend to need substantial naps during the day.
One must note that, unlike adults, infants don’t yet have an established internal sleep clock. For adults, sleep is governed by an internal body clock or circadian rhythm, which is constantly calibrated by the amount of blue light they receive and when during the day; as well as by the times they eat and most move about or exercise to a lesser degree. For infants, their internal body clock or circadian rhythm plays a weaker role – for them, the most important factor is when they eat, which they need to wake up to do every few hours, especially early in infancy. Perceptually, a parent’s own sleep quality can affect how well they think their child is sleeping – if you’re not sleeping well, you’ll be more likely to believe that your child also isn’t sleeping well, even when they’re fine.
The primary cause of death for infants between 1 and 12 months old is ‘sudden infant death syndrome’ (SIDS) during the night. It can affect otherwise healthy infants without any real warning signs. Although still not conclusive, some risk factors include brain abnormalities, a low birth weight, respiratory infections and one’s family history. But the main risks appear to be environmental – SIDS is commonly understood to be due to some underlying biological vulnerability that’s triggered by certain environmental conditions such as passive smoke, sleeping on the belly and sleeping on soft surfaces with lots of soft stuffed toys or bedding, which can result in accidental suffocation or strangulation i.e. unsafe sleeping environments.
‘Sudden unexplained death in childhood’ (SUDC) relates to unexplained deaths in children between the ages of 1 and 17 years old. The cause(s) of SUDC is even more mysterious than SIDS, although a pattern appears to be that it affects boys more than girls and could be related to febrile seizures and/or heart arrhythmias whilst they’re asleep. Far more research is presently required to investigate SUDC.
Interestingly, SIDS appears to be correlated with factors such as the family’s socio-economic status and ethnicity or culture, which might be because different groups tend to employ different sleep practices or being poor means not being able to afford the right materials or space to create a safe sleeping environment (e.g. a proper crib with a firm surface, narrowly-spaced bars and bedding that isn’t too soft, and decent room temperature controls to avoid overheating). The differences between ethnic groups may not be limited to SIDS but other conditions like premature births and maternal deaths from pregnancy-related causes too. But it’s likely not down to genetics because SIDS can be all but eliminated by some simple changes in parenting practices – avoid co-sleeping or sharing a bed with your baby, do place them onto their backs to sleep, and turn on a fan in the infant’s room or otherwise ensure that the air is smoke free. There is also some mixed evidence that shows that breastfeeding decreases the risk too.
Well there is so much debate about whether ‘co-sleeping’ or bed-sharing is safe with babies. Some experts claim that co-sleeping can be fine if done safely – which means placing the infant on his/her back and making sure that he/she cannot become snared or trapped in bedding or furniture, being fully aware of where your body is and where the infant’s body is, and again ensuring that it’s a smoke-free environment.
Is it cruel for a baby to sleep alone? Not even young fluffy lion cubs sleep alone.
The practice of co-sleeping partially originated from a philosophy called ‘attachment parenting’, which focuses on creating a secure attachment bond with one’s child via continuous empathy, closeness and touch, by co-sleeping, breastfeeding, baby-carrying and other such practices. A secure attachment bond from a child to their parent/main caregiver is correlated with many positive social and relationship outcomes later in life but there’s no data that suggests that co-sleeping affects their attachment type at all. Some pros for co-sleeping, though, are that mothers are better able to get more sleep since attending to and breastfeeding their child is much easier; and evidence from rats suggest a range of physiological benefits for both the mother and offspring when co-sleeping (but of course humans aren’t rats).
The cons are a vastly increased risk of SIDS due to accidental suffocation, strangulation or overheating, however. So if you want to stay close to your infant when you sleep then you could still sleep in the same room as them without sharing a bed. Consider a pacifier, breastfeed (if you can), ensure that all routine immunisations are up to date, and avoid smoking, alcohol or illicit drug use, too.
Whatever your choice as a parent, you’ll eventually want your child to sleep in his/her own separate bedroom. But this transition may not go smoothly as infants often wake up during the night and cry until soothed. In early infancy, they do this because they need feeding. But later in infancy, they can do this even when they’re not hungry, wet or otherwise disturbed, but purely out of habit. In fact, waking up and crying can become a reinforced habit if parents continually reward their crying child by attending to and comforting their child whenever they cry, hence crying in distress can increase over time rather than decrease because of the parent’s own behaviour.
Is it fine for an infant to cry all night? Crying is a sign of distress.
For a baby, carrying them and walking gently for about 5 minutes, then (crucially) holding them for a further 5-8 minutes while you’re seated, before placing them back down to bed, has been found to be the best method for soothing them. Never shake a baby, no matter how frustrated you may feel. Of course, first check if they’re hungry, need a nappy/diaper change or it’s something like colic (stomach cramp) first. If their cries sound different than normal or they cannot be soothed or distracted then seek medical assistance.
Infants around 4-5 months old no longer need constant feeding throughout the night though. So for infants older than 6 months old, ‘controlled crying’ is a technique where you – when you first hear your child cry – don’t comfort them until maybe 5 minutes later if the crying has not ceased by that time; then gradually build up to longer durations of waiting before responding. Whatever age a person is though – consistent routines and good sleep hygiene are crucial.
Very similarly, the ‘Ferber method’ is a technique used to train a child to self-soothe before receiving external comfort from a parent – this involves attending to and comforting the child at regular fixed intervals, which become progressively longer as the program continues, instead of rushing to them every time they cry. So let them cry it out to an extent. This should lead to a gradual extinction of the crying behaviour because the reward for crying (your comfort) is removed, hence the association between crying and the reward diminishes, with the idea that the infant learns to self-soothe rather than become overly-reliant on their parent. This regular fixed schedule must be strictly adhered to for this technique to work because random comfort schedules tend to increase crying behaviours.
There is no evidence to suggest that such techniques will lead to greater stress reactivity, abnormal patterns of trust or any long-term negative physical, psychological or psychosocial consequences for the child – in fact, it reduces the amount of time it takes children to fall asleep without undue fuzzy stress, with the benefits that sleeping better or longer bring. Sleep deprivation is correlated with a huge host of negative health and cognitive outcomes, like poorer working memory performances, mood, dietary choices and a weaker immune system. Although the infant will suffer during the minutes while they cry – in the long term they will overall cry less since they’ll no longer be relying on crying to elicit comfort. For both the parent and child, it’s a case of ‘short-term pain, long-term gain’ to sleep-train the child via such techniques – so build up the courage and discipline to stick it out as a parent.
In the end though, the most important thing seems to be the consistency in one’s approach, and going with the method one thinks will be the most effective for one’s own child and situation. No single behavioural approach will always bring about the best results for everyone; albeit the prior odds will suggest that one should assume that the most statistically commonly effective technique should work most effectively for one’s child too.
For some, different strategies can be as equally effective as each other. After 5 years, sleep-trained and untrained children look similar. ‘Ferberizing’ can train your child to sleep through the night if your child is constantly waking, has trouble sleeping or has an inconsistent sleep schedule – but it’s not the only option and may not suit everyone. So the other key is that if one method isn’t working then try another, and make sure you don’t deviate from the prescribed instructions in any way (i.e. never capitulate to comfort your child outside of the plan) otherwise you’ll not have actually given it a fair and decent chance to work.
These issues of co-sleeping and letting your child cry at night can lead to quite strong yet polarised opinions, even from experts. The above expresses the current state of the best advice I can find in these areas as of writing but one should keep up to date with the latest evidence-based research in this area. And if one puts in this kind of effort and does the best one can for one’s child then no one can ask for anything more.
Woof!
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