Читать книгу Help Your Baby to Sleep - Penney Hames - Страница 14

Very common. Somewhere between a fifth and a third of all families say they have a sleeping problem during the pre-school years (Messer and Richards, 1993). Of course it’s not always the same children waking all the time. For example, only 5% of children have a sleeping problem which lasts from their first to their second birthday.

‘At 14 months Erica just suddenly got it and slept … well, like a baby at last. I don’t know what we did but I’m definitely going to do the same thing with the next one.’

Karen

The fact is that some sleep problems last for months, some for years and some come and go but, roughly speaking, sleeping problems fade away as your child gets older.

‘With your first baby you go in with the expectation that the baby will sleep for four hours at a time, and you believe that you can be your own person in that time. When your baby isn’t that sleepy you think it’s you, or that your baby is weird, or that there’s something wrong. At toddler group last week we looked around and everyone looked tired and we said how many of you have been up all night? I think it was about 80% of the mothers who put their hands up. You could see the other mothers, the other 20%, looking round and thinking: “What’s wrong with my baby, why does he sleep?’

Teresa, mother of three, who tried ‘everything’ with her first

Although many children with sleep problems improve without specific treatment, many improve a lot more quickly with a little help.

‘Some babies just do it, and I kept thinking: “He’ll just do it.” People kept saying “He’ll do it when …” and I kept living for those milestones.’

Karen, mother of David