Changing Sleep Patterns for Older Babies and Toddlers

So you tried hard to establish a sleep habit for your child and discover the perfect strategy for getting him or her to sleep through the night – and it lastly works! For some time, that is. Many parents realize that at some point their kid won’t sleep through the night, no matter how good they’ve been lately.

Experts talk about these durations as “sleep regressions,” and the majority of infants go through some of them: one at about four months, one at about 9 months, one at about 18 months, and another at about 24 months. They’re a normal part of a baby’s growth.

Many parents see later sleep regressions more challenging to deal with – all things considered, crying baby is a lot less noisy compared to when a toddler or older baby cries, plus an infant can’t run across a room in the middle of the night! But here are a few points to keep in mind concerning your toddler or older baby and their sleep patterns.

The first is that mentally and physically, your child’s desires are evolving. When they develop, babies will need much less sleep. Babies may sleep for about sixteen hours, whilst an average two-year-old sleeps around 12 hours per night. Adapting to this changing need could disrupt their sleep patterns. Furthermore, while they mature, babies start to take much more curiosity about the world around them. They will not want to miss anything that’s occurring through the day. This is why many two-year-olds all of a sudden stop napping in the daytime, changing their sleep patterns because of this.

Another thing is that because of their emotional and mental development, small children are more vulnerable to fear and anxiety. Many younger children suffer separation anxiety (the fear of being away from parents or guardians), and as a toddler, this might come back – so your two-year-old might get nervous when he or she wakes up in the middle of the night and you aren’t there. What’s more, many youngsters become frightened of the dark or start having bad dreams or nightmares at about this age.

The final point is that older babies and toddlers are dealing with a lot of transformations that could impact their sleep. At around age of two, lots of children start preschool or child care because parents go back to work, or their parents also have another baby. This could often result in stress and anxiety in addition to a alternation in the whole family’s agenda. Changing from the crib to a toddler bed also can feel new and different making it harder for a child to get to sleep or stay asleep. And also, simply because children start to become more conscious of their own bodies at this age, they might start noticing dirty nappies more. Determining the causes can help you support your youngster adjust to the changes in his or her life and help you both to build a new routine for sleeping.

To understand the reasons your baby cries, go to MakeBabyStopCrying.com and get lots of useful information about parenting.

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