The No-cry Sleep Solution (19 page)

Learn Basic Sleep Facts

49

What About Nighttime Feedings?

We have all heard about those three-month-old babies who sleep ten to twelve straight hours every night, without waking to eat.

Why these babies sleep so soundly is a mystery. But, when we hear about these amazing babies, we assume
all
babies can and should do this, and we become very discouraged when our five month old, eight month old, or twelve month old is
still
waking up twice a night for feeding.

To my surprise, sleep specialists—even the toughest cry-it-out advocates—agree that up to twelve months of age,
some
children truly
are
hungry after sleeping for about four hours. They recommend that if your child wakes up hungry, you should promptly respond by feeding her.

Mother-Speak

“Sometimes when Carrson would wake up in the night I’d actually hear his tummy growling.”

Pia, mother of eight-month-old Carrson

Experts also agree that to grow and thrive, a baby may not only want but may also
need
one or two night feedings up to about nine months of age. Dr. Sears says that even an eighteen-month-old child may need a before-bed feeding to set aside his hunger until morning. Of course, it can be difficult to know if your baby is hungry or just looking to use nursing or a bottle for comfort. As you follow the steps in this book, your baby will begin to wake up less often just for comfort and your company, and it will become more obvious when he is waking up because he is hungry.

As a baby’s system matures she will be able to go for longer periods at night without eating. This is a biological process. Up until

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The No-Cry Sleep Solution

Mother-Speak

“When Emily was able to understand my questions I would ask her ‘Are you hungry?’ If she said yes, I would take her downstairs to the kitchen for a snack. This was short-lived because she learned she’d rather stay in bed.”

Christine, mother of eighteen-month-old Emily

that time, research shows that feeding a baby solid food at night doesn’t help her sleep longer—although some mothers do swear that it makes a difference with their babies. If your doctor gives you the go-ahead to feed your baby solids, you can experiment with this. Don’t rush it, though. Babies who start solids too early tend to develop more food allergies, so it’s not wise to start too soon.

So it stands to reason that if your baby has slept about four hours, wakes, and appears hungry, you should consider feeding him. (This is especially important if your baby is younger than four months old.) Maybe he will then sleep another four hours instead of waking frequently from hunger! Also, some babies go through growth spurts when they are eating more during the day, and they may eat more at night, too.

What Are Realistic Expectations?

Most
babies awaken two to three times a night up to six months, and once or twice a night up to one year; some awaken once a night from one to two years old. A baby is considered to be sleeping through the night when she sleeps five consecutive hours, typically from midnight to 5:00 a.m. While this may not be
your
definition of sleeping through the night, it is the reasonable yard-

Learn Basic Sleep Facts

51

stick by which we measure Baby’s sleep. That’s five hours—
not
the eight, ten, or twelve hours we may wish for! The difficult aspect of this is that if you put your baby down to sleep at 7:00 p.m., you probably then go about catching up on your daily tasks. Just about the time you head for bed, your baby has already slept four or five hours and may be ready for your attention.

The good news is that, if your baby is biologically ready, you can encourage progress toward that five-hour milestone; once your baby reaches it, you can take steps to lengthen this nighttime stretch. This book will tell you how.

What Is the
Right
Way to Teach a

Baby to Sleep?

William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D., considered the world’s leading authority on sleep, sleep deprivation, and sleep disorders, and founder of the world’s first sleep disorder center at Stanford University, explains in
The Promise of Sleep
(Dell Trade Paperback, 2000):

No scientific experiments have been done on how best to train an infant to sleep, but I can make a few conjectures. I doubt that a regular pattern of sleeping and being awake can ever be imposed on infants immediately after birth or that anyone should even try. Their biological clocks seem to need to mature before they can keep track of the time of day. But the same kinds of cues that work for us should work on infants’ clocks as they are maturing.