Expert / 6 January, 2025 / Christina Walter
When it involves baby sleep, there’s no scarcity of recommendation, however how a lot of it’s truly true? With so many myths floating round, it may be arduous for brand new parents to know what to consider. In this text, we’re partnering with The Lullaby Trust to separate truth from fiction and supply professional recommendation on creating secure, peaceable sleep routines to your baby. Let’s dive in and debunk some frequent baby sleep myths!
Baby Sleep Myths:
Babies might choke on their vomit in the event that they sleep on their backs
Putting your baby on their again to sleep doesn’t put them at higher danger of choking on their very own vomit. Evidence has proven that sleeping your baby on their again is the most secure place for a baby to sleep and reduces the danger of sudden toddler dying syndrome (SIDS). Since The Lullaby Trust’s ‘Back to Sleep’ marketing campaign within the 90s, over 30,000 infants’ lives have been saved.
Your baby needs to be sleeping for 12 hours every evening by six months outdated
Baby sleep patterns fluctuate significantly. Some, particularly new child infants, could sleep for 20 hours throughout a 24-hour interval, and others for 10 hours. Try to not examine your baby to others, as it may be unhelpful as sleep patterns don’t grow to be related between infants till not less than the tip of the primary yr. Factors like teething or starvation as they develop can even imply they wake extra often.
Babies want a pillow to stop flat head syndrome (plagiocephaly)
Pillows improve the danger of SIDS by as much as 2.5 instances. It is far safer to sleep your baby in a transparent, flat, agency, separate sleep house.
If you’re nervous about flat head syndrome, infants ought to have loads of supervised tummy time throughout their waking hours to minimise the time spent on their again. Avoid letting your baby sleep in tougher, contained sleep environments, equivalent to automotive seats. Flathead syndrome sometimes corrects itself inside a yr, however in the event you’re nervous, communicate to your well being skilled.
Buying sure merchandise may also help your baby sleep longer
For drained parents, any product claiming to assist your baby sleep for longer may sound like a good suggestion. But it’s typical for infants underneath one (and typically older) to wake through the evening, significantly if they’re breastfed. Encouraging infants to sleep for longer and extra deeply than regular for his or her stage of growth just isn’t suggested. It might have an effect on their means to get up if one thing is unsuitable, equivalent to their mouth and nostril changing into lined. This lack of ability to wake simply from sleep is regarded as linked to SIDS.
Babies get higher sleep in a separate room
Research has proven that the danger of SIDS is lowered in case your baby sleeps in the identical room as you for the primary six months, day and evening. There are additionally additional advantages to you and your baby. Babies depend on the consolation of being near their parents or carers and wish this through the evening in addition to through the day. Sharing a room with a baby allows parents and carers to reply early to cues equivalent to murmuring or restlessness within the baby, with out them beginning to cry or changing into distressed.
Babies sleep higher with weighted blankets/bedding
The Lullaby Trust advises you keep away from utilizing weighted swaddles, blankets or sleeping luggage. The most secure place for them to sleep is their very own clear, flat, agency, separate sleep house. Weighted sleep merchandise can put infants at higher danger of overheating, which will increase the danger of SIDS. It can even put strain on their chest, not permitting them to increase their chest absolutely for respiration.
Safer Sleep Week 2025, tenth – sixteenth March
One of our key campaigns of the yr is Safer Sleep Week. We know that higher consciousness of safer sleep results in a lower within the variety of infants dying from SIDS, and offers households a safer begin to life. With life-saving messages and safer sleep recommendation, we are going to empower households and professionals with trusted recommendation.
For Safer Sleep Week 2025, we’ll be:
- Exploring baby sleep cycles. How lengthy ought to your baby be sleeping for at their age? When must you search skilled recommendation?
- Busting baby sleep myths. Which myths and merchandise are backed by proof, and which aren’t, or might even be harmful to your baby.
- Supporting parents and carers by way of their very own lack of sleep. We’ll aid you with sleep deprivation, and make it simpler so that you can observe safer sleep together with your baby, even when exhausted.
About us: The Lullaby Trust is a charity that exists to maintain infants secure and maintain grieving households supported. We do that by:
- Empowering parents, carers and professionals with trusted recommendation on baby security together with safer sleep and an infection prevention.
- Funding analysis into sudden and sudden dying of infants and younger youngsters, to avoid wasting lives.
- Offering anybody affected by the sudden or sudden dying of a baby or younger baby a supportive house to grieve, with bereavement assist.
Our Impact
The work we’ve performed over the a long time has lowered the charges of sudden toddler dying syndrome (SIDS) by 81% since 1991. We’ve invested over £12 million into analysis through the years, which paired with nation-conquering safer sleep steerage and consciousness, has saved over 30,000 infants’ lives (since 1991). We is not going to relaxation till no baby dies out of the blue or unexpectedly.
Content in collaboration with The Lullaby Trust.
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