Best Way to Create a Bedtime Routines for Your Baby

You can avoid many sleep problems by helping your baby develop good sleeping habits. Even if it’s been hard to get her into a good night-time routine when she was younger, six months is not too late to start. And although illness, or even a change of environment, may unsettle her, once she’s recovered or you are back in familiar surroundings, your baby should soon settle back into her old routine.

There are several methods you can try to help your baby get to sleep, and encourage her to learn how to sleep through the night without needing attention from you.

Follow a bedtime routine

The first step to helping your baby sleep well at night is to make sure she has a regular bedtime routine. By the age of six months she has a greater understanding of the world, and is starting to recognize her daily rituals.

Let her cuddle a comfort

Now your baby can roll over unaided, you may like to try putting her to sleep with a special comfort blanket, a muslin square, or a soft toy that meets all the required safely standards – but make sure that she can’t be smothered by the toy. If a favourite teddy or something similar is wailing in bed for her every night, she’ll quickly start to associate it with going to sleep. And after a while, if she wakes in the night, the teddy’s comforting presence may help her drop off again. Try cuddling the teddy yourself so that it smells of you, then she’ll feel like she has a little piece of you with her during the night.

Say goodnight while she’s awake

Rocking, cuddling, or feeding a baby to sleep are major causes of sleep problems. Although it’s tempting to let your baby fall asleep in your arms, this won’t help her learn how to drop off to sleep again on her own when she wakes in the night. The key to developing a good sleeping pattern is to put her to bed when she’s calm but still awake, give her a kiss goodnight, and leave the room.

Let her cry for a while

Most babies, especially those who are used to dropping off in a parent’s arms, have trouble sleeping this way to begin with. If your baby cries out as you leave the room, try not to go back immediately. She needs a chance to cry, stop crying, and then lie there until sleep comes. When her crying sounds more desperate, go back, kiss her, tell her she’s okay, and then leave again. You may have to do this repeatedly over several hours before your baby finally drops off. Bui it’s worth persevering now, and for the next few nights. By the sixth or seventh night, most babies will learn that they are fine without you and discover that they can get themselves to sleep.

It can be much harder to stay calm if your baby wakes in the night. Sometimes rocking or feeding her back to sleep will seem like the fastest and easiest option, but this will prolong – not solve – the problem of night-time waking. Instead, resolve to follow the same technique as before: go to her, check she’s safe, kiss her, and reassure her that she’s okay before leaving the room again. At six months old your baby should be secure enough in your love for her to accept being left on her own. Although you’ll find it emotionally and physically exhausting initially, remember that it is worth persevering! For most babies, it doesn’t take more than a few nights to break the night-waking habit.