Are you struggling to get your baby to nap well during the day?

Getting your baby down for a nap during the day can be the hardest struggle parents go through and for some, even harder than getting them to sleep at night.

During sleep training I always ask clients to first focus on managing their child’s nighttime sleep, before we focus on the day. This is to ensure parents are not completely exhausted by the time they hit nighttime and are therefore not able to handle sleep training.

However, in order to make your days easier in the mean time, there are some things you can do. If you have tried everything: white noise, swaddling, giving your baby a lovey as well as putting them in a dark room for all naps, try to make sure you are not giving your baby too much awake time.

Specific amounts of awake time will increase as your baby gets older, but in general if you see that your baby is showing signs of tiredness such as rubbing their ears and eyes and pulling at their hair as well as yawning, then your baby has already hit their sleep window and is past the point of being tired. They need to go down for a nap.

If the above techniques are not proving enough, then try placing your baby on their side and doing what I call the ‘ssh and pat’. It means standing next to your baby while they are in their bed and saying ‘sssshh” whilst patting your baby’s back. It can be extremely soothing for your baby and also reduce gas.

Don’t be disheartened though if you are trying this technique for 15 minutes to no avail, keep trying a little bit longer and be consistent over a period of 5-7 days and you should see an improvement in how your baby is able to get themselves to sleep.