When your baby won’t go to sleep, you can’t sleep either. Either the noise will keep you awake, or your normal and natural worry and concern as a parent will keep you awake. When that happens, there are some things that you can try to do to get your baby go to sleep, and there are some things that you should never do.
Here are some things you shouldn’t do when your baby won’t sleep:
- Don’t get angry. It can be easy to become excited and emotional when you don’t have enough sleep. Some studies suggest that new parents lose about half of the sleep that they should get over the first two years after their child is born. This can lead to extreme frustration, which can sometimes lead to anger and resentment. You need to be able to keep those kinds of negative emotions in check. Never handle your baby when you’re angry, and try to avoid yelling at your infant in so far as it’s possible.
- Don’t abuse medications. According to some experts, the most common form of child abuse is actually over-medicating a child. Some parents will slip their child too much cough syrup or allergy medication. This is not only irresponsible as a parent, it can even be dangerous. Giving your child too much medication can cause physical problems and, in some cases, even death.
- Don’t assume you can always make your baby go back to sleep. Sometimes, a baby is just awake. She may not be ready to go to sleep. It could be that she napped for a long time earlier in the day and just isn’t tired, or it could be that she was so overly stimulated during the day that her immature nervous system is still processing everything that went on.
Ultimately, your baby will fall asleep. In the meantime, you need to do what you can to make sure that she’s safe, healthy, and that she has a relaxing environment in which to try to fall asleep.