Dr. Laura Secret
#1, Sleep
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Lots of people tend to ask me what the most important tips are when it comes to parenthood. There’s some obvious ones and some that I typically say, but one of the most important things I can tell you in parenthood that you should pay attention to often goes unnoticed, if for no other reason than it’s so commonly dealt with. That topic is sleep.
Now not only is your child’s sleep important, but your sleep is important. So let’s first talk about children. We have always known that sleep is important. Any parent can tell you that a sleep deprived child tends to be crankier, doesn’t eat well and just tends to be more challenging, but science is now telling us that sleep is important for everything from being a healthy weight to doing well in school and all sorts of other things.
So, starting with your child, make sure that when you have a newborn, set your expectations where they should be because we know that newborns wake up very frequently. They need to eat every couple of hours. In that early month or two your baby should be waking up. In fact, in the newborn period your baby’s job is to eat and to sleep and anything else is extra.
Also pay attention to the fact that we know that babies as early as two or three months are known to be able to fall asleep independently, which I do believe is a key to good sleep habits. Falling asleep independently means without a bottle, without having to be rocked, without having to be nursed to fall asleep, but being laid on their backs in a safe crib and able to fall asleep on their own. And they may coo and make noise and play with their hands and things for awhile. That’s great because they’re learning to fall asleep independently.
You’d like to think all kids are born knowing how to sleep, but some of them need to learn how to fall asleep independently. Once they do that, we know in the second half of the year of that first year of life your child should be able to sleep pretty much through the night with maybe that one early morning 2:00 am feeding, but even then that should phase out over the end of that last year.
By the time kids are one year old, they should be able to sleep through the night. They certainly need a couple more hours of sleep than you do at night and from then on you want to make a healthy bedtime routine part of your every day activity. I highly recommend making books a part of every bedtime and separating anything to do with food or drink from your baby’s sleep or from your child’s sleep habits.
The other thing I’ll point out is that as kids get older they start to tell you that they don’t need as much sleep. This is especially true as your kids are getting through elementary age and heading into the tween and teenage. Just remember that those children at that age actually need more sleep than they did in years prior. So don’t let them convince you otherwise.
Again, we know that good sleep feeds into everything from a healthy diet, being an active, healthy child to doing well in school, as well as not fighting quite so many battles with their parents.
The other thing when it comes to sleep is your sleep. In the name of good parenthood you do not need to sacrifice your ability to get sleep. Just like your children, you will function better. You will do better, whether it’s at work or at home coping with some of the routine challenges of parenthood, if you make sure to put sleep at the top of your priority list as well.
So that’s one of my most important tips about parenthood that’s all too easy to forget, especially when you’re sleep deprived, but make sure sleep’s on the top of your list.
Laura A Jana, MD
www.drlaurajana.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kiddocjana
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