Now we are moving onto Sleep Myth #3!
A Baby should sleep through the night at 12 weeks-
While this would be nice, and does happen in some cases with some babies, it can be an unrealistic expectation and just cause stress if it doesn’t happen for you. It isn’t unreasonable for a baby to “need” a feeding during the night till around 9 months of age.This doesn’t mean that a baby can’t be trained out of those night feedings, especially if Mom just isn’t able to do the middle of the night wakings for some reason.
A good rule of thumb, to know if a baby still needs a night feeding, is if they take a full feed and are able to return to sleep right after the feed. If your baby wakes and only drinks a small amount and then passes out, that is a good indication that he/she just uses nursing or the bottle as an aid to fall back to sleep and doesn’t “need” those calories. On the flip side, they may still take a full feed but if they struggle to fall back asleep, especially if they decide to play this can also signal that the waking is starting to become more of a habit then a feeding need.
There are many ways you can help your baby create self soothing skills and/or help them get eliminate unwanted/needed feeds. This is where a Certified Infant and Child Sleep Consultant can help walk you through the process and be there to cheer you one and answer all of your questions.
Sleep Myth #3……Busted!
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