Tips for sound sleep

As babies grow older, their sleep needs change. Here’s how to cope with the sudden transition, writes Meg Faure, occupational therapist and parenting author

WHETHER YOUR BABY has always been a good sleeper, you’ve just managed to get her to sleep through the night, or sleep has always been a problem and still is, you will find that in the six-to-12-month age band, new sleep issues arise. Here are the top five sleep problems arising in older babies:

1 SHE’S HUNGRY

Waking for a feed more than once at night may indicate that she is not getting all the nutrition she needs during the day.

It’s very important after six months that your baby gets all the essential fatty acids that are found in the fats contained in protein-rich foods such as meat, dairy, legumes and fish. Ensure that from six months, she’s eating solids that include these protein-rich foods.

2 SHE HAS A BAD HABIT

Bad sleep habits include waking through the night for a dummy. Don’t feel bad about this; many parents are in the same boat.

The way you put your little one down to sleep by six months will be how she expects to be resettled throughout the night, and before you know it, bad habits may develop that are difficult to break. The dummy habit is best broken by teaching your baby to use a sleep soother or comforter independently – a dummy or a comfort object such as a blanket. This takes time and is the first step of sleep training.

3 SHE HAS SEPARATION ANXIETY

If your baby wakes and is soothed as soon as you walk into the nursery, she may be waking due to separation anxiety. Babies are most susceptible to this between eight and 10 months of age. It occurs because your baby does not yet understand object permanence (that something exists even when they can’t see it).

So, when you are out of sight, or when she wakes at night and finds the one she loves the most is not there, she calls to you to come back to make sure you still exist.

To deal with separation anxiety, always say goodbye when you leave, day or night, and play peek-a-boo or hide-and-seek during the day to encourage an understanding of object permanence.

Another good idea is to give your baby a comfort or transition object that she can reach to for comfort when you are not there.

4 SHE’S TEETHING

The first thing that pops into most parents’ head when they have a poor sleeper is that it’s teething.

The truth is that teething is blamed way more than it should be for sleeplessness. The only time teething really causes sleep disruption is between six and 12 months, and even then, most babies actually navigate teeth eruption without too much disruption. For some more sensitive babies, teething can cause unsettled behaviour at night.

If you are sure your baby is teething – has loads of saliva and mucus, is gnawing constantly at her hands, has very smelly poos – then you need to help her with the discomfort at night by using teething gel or a paracetamol-based painkiller.

5 IT’S TIME TO DROP A NAP

Between six and 12 months of age, you may find your baby starts to fight one of his day sleeps.

This occurs when your baby reaches a cusp age at around nine months. Your baby still actually needs three day sleeps but can’t fit them all in her day and still go to bed at 7pm.

The solution is to drop the lateafternoon nap every now and then, making the days with only two sleeps more regular as she gets older, so that you eventually drop a nap. By 11 months, almost all babies are in routines of two sleeps a day.