My child was a great sleeper & all of a sudden stopped sleeping through the night- why & what to do?

My child was always a good sleeper and now we’re up all night rocking, feeding, holding.

What happened?!

The good news is- that having trouble sleeping during the night is temporary.

The bad news is that if you change your response at night, then their expectations change and it CAN become long-term.

There could be many reasons why your child could be having trouble at sleeping at night, some of these include: schedule (sleep needs have changed, overtired, under-tired), environment, development of skills (sleep regression), overstimulation, cold, sickness ect.

It will likely happen as your baby grows. Sleep is not constant but sensitive to many things.

We as adults often still have trouble some nights, especially when we are overly stressed and overstimulated.

While we can’t avoid these types of disruptions, understanding what is happening and what to do, will make bouncing back so much easier.

Now the reality is that sometimes you will have to change the way your baby sleeps and help them, ie. travel, sickness ect. That’s okay!

However, we as humans form associations very quickly.

Sleep Associations are: conditions that the child learns to need in order to fall asleep (such as rocking, nursing, or lying next to a parent). These same sleep associations are then needed in order to fall back to sleep at each wake up.

When you want to get back to sleeping independently, you must change the way your child falls asleep. If you continue to assist they will have no idea that this is not the way they should be sleeping. You have to take the lead to show them.

This is where having a sleep plan is critical. The simplistic answer is just stop doing what you are doing to help and let them fall asleep on their own but I’m a parent and I know it’s not that easy.

So instead, first eliminate anything that can make it even more difficult for them and set them up for success. Look at schedule (is it age appropriate? are they sleeping enough during the day or too much? are periods of awake time to long or short?), environment (is it as conducive to sleep as possible?), calorie allocations (is your child dependent on getting their calories at night? do you need a weaning plan?), make sure they are not sick and only then start to implement a sleep training technique (no this does not mean cry-it-out) that you feel comfortable with. There are many options on how to do this. I help thousands of families choose very responsive methods that fit their comfort level.

It’s important you go back to a predictable, consistent response so they understand what to expect and are not confused or dependent on crying to be helped back to sleep.

https://www.lilbabysleep.ca/freeschedules

Implement your plan for a week and you will see that your little one will see the pattern and get it really quickly! Then you can all enjoy sleep again making your entire family happier!

If you need a plan you can get a step-by-step plan and support through the entire process here: Your Dream Plan.

or book a call and I can guide you in choosing what will work best for your family.

There are alway options and yes you can go back to sleeping all night and feeling rested. xx

Lily

Your Pediatric Sleep Consultant