Everyday I meet exhausted parents. Parents who have tried their hardest, responded to their baby or toddlers every need during the night. Crossing their fingers hoping that they will soon outgrow their night waking and start to sleep in longer stretches. But they don’t. They continue to wake. Sometimes it even gets more frequent.

xavier-sotomayor-192007There is only so long that any person can function without a solid night of sleep. Sleep deprivation is a form of torture. Yet parents of babies and young children are often the butt of jokes or elevated to hero status if they endure endless months of constant night waking. What if I told you that it doesn’t have to be this way. That only newborn babies are meant to wake every two, three or four hours for a feed. That once you are past the three month mark expecting your baby to sleep for a chunk of solid sleep is totally normal... let alone a six month old, nine month old or twelve month old. By a year of age your baby naturally is meant to get a lot of their nutrition from food with top up milk during the day. Night feeds should regularly be a thing of the past if they day time nutrition is up to scratch.

Parenting is a huge task, it takes a lot of energy, patience and motivation to play, talk to and care for your baby/toddler. If you are awake frequently during the night how are you going to manage this during the day. Not to mention the tears, both theirs and yours. Frequent night waking for a parent when their baby no longer nutritionally needs to wake for a feed is a strong cause of depression in mums. Once we show and lovingly teach your baby how to go to sleep and they start to sleep as long as they need until they do need a feed during the night your signs of depression simply disappear. I am privileged to see this everyday in my clinic with mothers. Amazingly not only does a mothers emotional health improve so does baby’s. You will see the best of your baby’s personality and their physical development will amaze you, there will be leaps and bounds once your baby is able to sleep as long as they need to. Parents come back to tell me how their baby started talking, or stacking blocks or crawling or simply learned, they tell me how the grizzling, tired baby has disappeared and how they have a happy, smiling, engaging baby. Your baby is just as tired as you are but really doesn’t not how to roll over and go back to sleep. If you would like to find out more, learn some strategies that really work then we frequently have workshops, for a fraction of the cost of a one-on-one consult in my clinic. Registration is through my website www.babysmiles.com.au/shop.  Otherwise please call our clinic on 47 212022 and see Nicole for a essentials consult.... Sleep is essential to emotional development for babies and parents.

Baby Settling & Sleep Workshop ~ Sat 23 Sept @ 9:30am ~ Learn more

Toddle Settling & Sleep Workshop ~ Sat 23 Sept @ 1:30pm ~ Learn more

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