0:10 - Ways that we can make this easier
0:35 - Infants sleep best at a cooler temperature
0:54 - Make sure that you don't get into a bad routine
1:32 - White noise toys, which really help a baby relax
2:18 - Start a routine even when they're really, really little
Hi folks. My name is Harper Jones with Bow-Tiger and you're watching Saturdays with Harper. Today, I wanted to talk to you guys about getting your infant to fall asleep in their crib, instead of your arms. Now how do we do this, this can be a very difficult and daunting task for especially first time parents, or even second or third time parents with a difficult child, but there are ways that we can make this easier for us and easier for our infant as well. So I just wanted to review some of those ideas with you guys. Now the first thing is, is infants actually like to sleep, and they sleep best at a cooler temperature. Anywhere between 68 and 70 degrees is actually the ideal temperature for your baby to have a nice long sleep. Try to adjust the temperature in your home if you are having difficulty and see if that works.
Another thing that you want to do is make sure that you don't get into a routine of your baby falling asleep in your arms. From the get-go, we need to make sure that when our baby goes to sleep, we are placing them down into their crib or bassinet, and they're falling asleep in that, not in our arms. What else can we do, well we want to make sure that there's no blankets or anything around them. One, because they will be more comfortable. Two, we don't want to put a lot of blankets around due to the possibility of suffocation. It is very, very dangerous to have pillows or a lot of blankets, or anything like that in the crib with your newborn or small infant. What else can we do? There's a lot of toys out there that are available that are made to aid in the sleeping process.
There are white noise, this is one of my favorite toys. There's all different stuffed animals or you can just get different recordings that play white noise, which really, really help a baby relax and fall to sleep. Another thing is you want to make sure that of course the baby is fed, and dry, and burped before he or she goes to sleep, so she is very comfortable, not gassy or anything like that. We can also add other toys, maybe a little mobile above the crib. This is great for the babies once they can really start to see those shapes. It's very tranquilizing almost to them and very, very relaxing and I found that my daughter really did well with that. Another thing is we can start a routine even when they're really, really little for putting them to bed. Maybe we can do some light rocking and some singing, something that's very soothing to your baby.
You'll start to understand their personality and see what they like. Start a routine with them. So then, they also understand that part of this routine is putting them down in their bed. They'll really start to understand it as a safe place, and eventually your baby is going to love going to sleep in their crib. Now another thing is, and as first-time parents, we don't like to hear our baby cry. Babies cry though, that's what they do, that's how they express themselves. So if you want to do anything for the crying baby that is in the crib while you're trying to get he or she to go to sleep is give some assurance. Start with maybe every six or seven minutes going in and just rubbing the baby's back, touching his or her arms, feet, and just letting her know that you're still there and then you leave the room.
Now if the baby still continues to cry, wait another six or seven minutes and then go back in and go through the same process. Eventually the baby is going to fall asleep, and it may seem like he or she is never going to, but I promise eventually, she will. And the more nights that you practice this, the more naps that you practice this, the faster that your baby is going to be accustomed to falling asleep by themselves and this such a great feat and a great step for our babies to accomplish. Now there's tons of other ideas out on the Internet, which you can definitely look up and try, but I do suggest you try these little things if you're having difficulty with your baby sleeping. Now of course if you are watching this video on Facebook or YouTube, I'd ask that you please be sure to check out our blog on bow-tiger.com. Thanks! And we'll see you next week.
