In some cases, it is difficult to put the babies to sleep. It could prove quite tiresome for both baby and parents. Trying out some easy different methods in baby’s bedtime schedule can work wonders for his sleep patterns.

Parents’ favorite sleep strategies mainly include:

Maintain a regular pattern of bedtime rituals.

• Allow the baby to learn to fall asleep on his own.

However each baby is different and so the most commonly accepted ways may not work for each one. So sometimes the parents have to find what is most suitable for them and their babies.

• Using a monotonous noise: Some babies get soothed by common household sounds like that of a vacuum cleaner or radio static, blow dryer, whirring fan etc. Devices having different sounds like ocean rolling, heartbeats, rain etc are commercially available which help in soothing. Some innovative parents tape the sounds that sooth their babies and play it at baby’s bedtime.
• Helpful hints: some babies sleep peacefully with a pacifier. Sometimes if a heating bottle or heating pad is placed in baby’s bed before sleep time (& removed before putting the baby in) the warmth helps baby settle for the night. One of the imaginative parents’ favorite sleep strategies could be covering baby with mother’s used shirt, the illusion of mother’s proximity helps in soothing the baby all through the night.
• A different bed: Some parents found that baby’s car seat placed in the crib can make a restless child sleep quietly for hours.
• Differentiating day and night: From the beginning some parents maintain separate behavior or atmosphere at day and night. During day the house is kept bright, normal household sounds are continued and conversations are carried out in normal voices. Whereas at night, lighting is dimmer, the house is quieter and family voices are gentler.
• Signals: Some parents find the sleep signals like yawning, rubbing eyes, pulling ear etc helpful in putting the baby to sleep on time before he overtires himself.
• Changes according to individual baby: As all babies are not same, some may have different time schedule than normal ones. When parents understand and allow this, babies sleep quietly for long hours.
• Co-sleeping: One of the parents’ favorite sleep strategies is sharing the family bed and they find that babies are secure in the warmth and parents, too, can relax knowing that the child is safe with them.
• Maintaining consistency: Parents feel that if the bedtime, naptimes are maintained, even when the family is away from the home, the consistency in timings helps child in settling without any fuss.
• Crying it out: Parents follow this Ferber method and allow the baby to cry for some short period and then go in to talk to the baby but without picking him up. Many parents find that this method work for their babies. Initially the baby cries and calms down when parents talk to him, but within a week baby stops crying and goes to sleep on his own.