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Having a newborn child means that many concerns will arise. It doesn’t matter if it is your first baby or if you have had others, worries of all kinds take hold of the parents during this period, mainly related to the baby’s sleep. Doubts on how to roll the baby to sleep better is on the list of the main ones.
An example of this is when the baby starts to have trouble sleeping and it starts to get out of control of the mother and father. To learn how to roll the baby to sleep better we first need to understand what is happening, what is causing this problem, how a baby’s sleep works and the importance of it for him.
How Does Baby Sleep Work?
First of all, it is important to know how a baby’s sleep works and how it changes over a short period of time. Knowing what the patterns are and how they change makes it possible for parents to often understand the sleeping problems that the baby has had, or even come to the conclusion that they are not so serious problems.
It is common knowledge that babies do not usually follow the times we are used to sleep and therefore end up waking up at “inappropriate” times many times. It turns out that they are not used to day and night and it can take months before they can understand this 24-hour cycle, associating it with sleep.
In addition to the sleep schedules not being regulated, there are also the different needs that a baby has. Early in life, we tend to sleep more than we do in adulthood, and we also spend much less time in the deep sleep stage, which explains why babies are often easily awake.
Causes of Difficulty Sleeping in Babies
There are a number of factors that can explain why a baby is having trouble sleeping. Before knowing how to roll up the baby to sleep better, it is also important to understand what are the difficulties that he has and how it affects him at this point in life. Some of the main reasons are:
- Lack of Routine
- Dentition
- Growth
- Separation Anxiety
Let’s talk about each of these points separately to better explain why they can become an issue for your baby’s sleep.
Lack of Routine
In addition to a baby’s sleep patterns being different from ours, he also has no sense of times of the day. A baby’s sleep needs to be controlled by the parents so that he has a routine and is able to develop a pattern that goes on, gradually adapting to what we are used to.
The lack of routine can cause the baby to sleep and wake up at any time or sleep less than necessary for him. Establishing a routine is one of the biggest challenges for parents during this period, and learning how to roll up the baby to sleep better can be an important factor at this time.
Dentition
When a baby’s teeth are growing it is common for discomfort and pain to make him more sensitive, complaining and crying more easily. But despite that, tooth growth rarely causes sleep to be affected, even in very sensitive children this actually happens.
What can happen is, as the children cry a lot during this period, the parents end up leaving more time in their lap or with certain distractions to sleep, which end up making it difficult to sleep alone.
Growth
Similar to what happens with the teeth, the growth of a baby can also leave the child with more pain and discomfort and, consequently, with more pain. The difference is that growth often happens in outbreaks, big growth in a short period, which requires a lot of different parts of the body, including the brain.
And that is exactly why it is more common that, with these growth spurts, babies have more difficulties to sleep . The good news is that these outbreaks pass and, if your baby has regulated sleep, he will likely return to his routine.
Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety is a common phenomenon that happens to all babies. It is the time when he realizes that he and the rest of the things in the world are separate things. That he is a unit, that he has feelings and needs.
The beginning of this perception ends up bringing some anguish to the baby, especially when separating from the mother. Although it seems like a bad thing, it is a very normal phase and requires patience from the parents in order to get the child to sleep without the mother or the father and that he can still have peaceful sleep nonetheless.
Rolling With Baby Underpants
Now that we understand how a baby’s sleep works and what are the main difficulties they can have, we can talk about how to curl up with a baby’s underwear to sleep better.
This technique involves a cloth popularly known as “cueiro”, which is a light cloth made to wrap babies. This works to make them sleep better as it relieves stress and makes babies feel more peaceful and secure.
Rolling up babies in this way as “cigar” or “cocoon” as it is called requires certain care. The biggest one is to be aware of the baby’s position. You should only leave him curled up to sleep when he is on his back. It is not recommended to leave it on its side or face down, as this increases the risk of a baby’s sudden death.
Rolling your baby up to sleep can be a great technique to get him to calm down, regardless of the type of problem he is having to fall asleep. It is important to understand that these problems are often just common phases and that require patience and affection from parents to deal with this until the baby gets used to it.
At the same time, there is a responsibility to deal with a routine and get the son or daughter to get used to sleep schedules.
See also: What is Childhood Bruxism?
My name is Dr. Alexis Hart I am 38 years old, I am the mother of 3 beautiful children! Different ages, different phases 16 years, 12 years and 7 years. In love with motherhood since always, I found it difficult to make my dreams come true, and also some more after I was already a mother.
Since I imagined myself as a mother, in my thoughts everything seemed to be much easier and simpler than it really was, I expected to get pregnant as soon as I wished, but it wasn’t that simple. The first pregnancy was smooth, but my daughter’s birth was very troubled. Joana was born in 2002 with a weight of 2930kg and 45cm, from a very peaceful cesarean delivery but she had already been born with congenital pneumonia due to a broken bag not treated with antibiotics even before delivery.
