Pam Clark, from The Child Sleep Company shares her top tips

If you are struggling with your child’s sleep, my top tips are:

1: Choose an early bedtime – around 7pm is ideal

Early bedtimes help ensure that children do not become overtired, which not only makes it more difficult for them to fall asleep, but also results in more restless sleep during the night and early wakings in the morning.

2: Put your child to sleep in the same place every night (and for naps where relevant)

This will help your child feel secure and act as a cue for sleep, helping them to settle down more easily and have better quality sleep.

3: Create a predictable bedtime routine

A bedtime routine is an excellent cue to your child that it is time to prepare for sleep. It should be around 30 minutes in length, have a consistent set of steps that you both enjoy and should end in your child’s bedroom.

4: Put your child to bed AWAKE

This may seem difficult, but it’s actually the most important step! It’s only by letting your child fall asleep WITHOUT your help at bedtime, that they learn the independent sleep skills necessary to stay asleep all night.

5: If your child wakes during the night, wait a few minutes before intervening

Most children make some noise during the night as they move between sleep cycles. If you rush in at the slightest noise, they will not learn how to fall back to sleep on their own.

6: Stick to a consistent daily schedule as much as possible

Skipping naps and late bedtimes will affect the next 24-hour cycle as your child becomes increasingly over-tired. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that naps are not important, or that keeping your child up late will help them sleep longer at night.

You can also find more information on the Sleep Blog on my website: www.childsleepcompany.co.uk

About the Author:

Pam Clark is a Certified Sleep Sense^TM Consultant and the founder of the Child Sleep Company (www.childsleepcompany.co.uk).

Niamh O’ Reilly from ‘The Nursery’ Top 10 tips on how to help your little ones sleep.

Having trouble getting your baby/toddler to sleep at night?

Need some structures in your day to help get the balance right?

There are very simple and effective ways of dealing with baby’s sleep routines, feeding habits and behavioural issues. If such things are depriving YOU of sleep, I have set out my top tips that might help the battle!

As any new parent knows along with the joy of having a child comes a host of new worries and fears. Quite often parents return to the workforce exhausted and are trying to resume life from where they left off.  If your child isn’t sleeping, this can be truly traumatic!  Cultivating good habits in the early years and discovering techniques to change them can make life much easier. It is easy to feel alone and upset if your child is not sleeping and you find yourself pounding the floors late at night.  You feel like you are the only person in the world with sleepless nights.  Please be assured that this is not the case.  Children who are not sleeping can often disrupt an entire household, leaving parents and siblings struggling to get through the day. But it’s also important to note that children NEED sleep to optimise their development.  5am wake ups every day for a week accumulates and becomes the loss of an entire nights sleep at the end of a week!

TOP SLEEP TIPS

1. Always put your child down to bed awake (or at least awake enough so that they know where they are!)
2. Ensure good last feeds of the day
3. Don’t worry if your child grizzles (not screaming furiously) when you put them down – give them an opportunity to settle themselves
4. Use soother at beginning of sleep and don’t put back in again unless necessary to re-settle
5. Maximise the difference between day and night (use lights and curtains/black out blinds to your advantage).  Avoid night lights if you don’t need them.  DARK ROOM!
6. Help your child to develop their own internal body clock
7. Have a regular bedtime routine – It is the anchor of your day
8. Ensure the bedroom is a peaceful place
9. Check temperature of bedroom (too cold is better than too hot)Once baby is weaned (around 5/6 months), they should be able to start sleeping through the night

Niamh@thenursery.ie

www.thenursery.ie

www.facebook.com/thenurseryirl

twitter:@nurserydublin

or follow her blog www.nurserydublin.wordpress.com

Wise words From ROSPA blind cords safety campaign, reduce the risks today!

Why do blind cords pose such a risk?

Research indicates that most accidental deaths involving blind cords happen in the bedroom and occur in children between 16 months and 36 months old, with the majority (more than half) happening at around 23 months.

These toddlers are mobile, but their heads still weigh proportionately more than their bodies compared to adults and their muscular control is not yet fully developed, which makes them more prone to be unable to free themselves if they become entangled.

In addition, toddlers’ windpipes have not yet fully developed and are smaller and less rigid than those of adults and older children. This means that they suffocate far more quickly if their necks are constricted.

As with drowning, toddlers can be strangled quickly and quietly by looped cords with carers in close proximity, potentially unaware of what is happening.

To reduce the risk posed by looped cords, including blind cords, cords should be kept out of the reach of children.

Make it safe!

• Install blinds that do not have a cord, particularly in a child’s bedroom
• Do not place a child’s cot, bed, playpen or high chair near a window
• Pull cords on curtains and blinds should be kept short and kept out of reach
• Tie up the cords or use one of the many cleats, cord tidies, clips or ties that are available
• Do not hang toys or objects that could be a hazard on the cot or bed
• Don’t hang drawstring bags where a small child could get their head through the loop of the drawstring.

Sign the petition to get cords banned today!!

Amoralia London are Giving away one of our blinds worth up to £75 :)

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How we started Custom Blackout Blinds

At the tender age of 33 (ha ha) I had a son….. Then I realised he didn’t really understand what time it was ever and why do they fight sleep when they are so clearly tired!

At three months old I realised that I had no sleep and was tired and grumpy,’ there must be a way I cried’ then after reading one hundred books on how to get babies to sleep all night. I discovered that it needed to be dark very dark! We lived in a swish basement flat with posh Victorian pine shutters. Wow what a revelation….. Needless to say I discovered dark rooms make babies sleep.

Then we ran out of space and decided to buy a nice house lovely big windows garden etc….. oh cripes windows! Windows big ones! So I hung up some blackout material which fell down. I stuck it up it fell down. I discovered sew on Velcro ooh, And then I didn’t like the material so I covered it some nice fabric…. ooh it looks smart and stays up! Wow!

Coffee mornings: all new mothers talk about is sleep ,the luxury of sleep and how much we wanted some. My friends loved the sort of blind and I started to make them for them. And well the rest is history, my dear friend made me a website and I joined twitter… then I was asked to do a quick write up about why I started Custom black out blinds.. I never ever thought I would have my own business. But here we are and life is good…. all hail to the technical revolution of mummy bloggers and twitter I’m sure they didn’t know how it would all take off and the entrepreneurial spirit of the recession has sort of made us adapt.