“take it from the top time,” and she begins the process again.
Parents don’t need to be in bondage to their baby’s sleep needs. The
question certainly is not whether you should nurse your baby. Rather, is
nursing appropriate for inducing sleep each time sleep is needed? We say
no. The practice of nursing the baby to sleep creates an unnecessary
dependency on mom for sleep. This prevents baby from learning how to
achieve sleep on his or her own. With the PDF plan your baby will
establish healthy sleep patterns. When baby is placed in the crib, he or
she is awake. No tiptoeing, breath-holding, or freeze maneuvers required.
Rocking Your Baby to Sleep
First came the rocking chair. Then the clothes dryer. Then the car. This is
not a litany of luxuries, but lullabies. Modern mechanical sleep props like
placing baby on top of a running clothes dryer (really!) or taking baby for
a cruise in the family van are similar to old-fashioned chair rocking. Each
relies on specific stimulation to lull baby to sleep, either initially or after
waking prematurely.
Again, this is not about whether you should rock or cuddle your baby.
We trust that happens regularly. But are you using rocking as a sleep prop
that interferes with your child learning to fall asleep? Similar to rocking a
baby to sleep are a host of mechanical props. For example, someone
discovered that if a baby is placed in an infant seat on top of an operating
dryer, the dryer will create enough vibration to lull the baby to sleep. This
is not a safe or wise practice. Another method is the naptime or nighttime
car ride. In this scenario, the sound of the motor and the vibrating chassis
of the car sends baby to lullaby land. Both approaches sometimes work,
albeit temporarily. That is, they work until the dryer runs out of time, the
car runs out of gas, or you run out of patience.
Sleeping with Your Baby
Since 1997, the American Academy of Pediatrics, National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Consumer Protect