Kids have different sleep issues. For a start, they are able to get out of bed and appear at your bedside making awkward demands. So tackling kids’ sleep problems needs a different method. Generally, the two main issues parents would like to fix as far as child sleep issues are getting them to accept they have to go to sleep and getting them to sleep through the night.
Does the kid have a sleep problem?
The definition of a sleep problem depends on your expectations, ability to manage with disturbed sleep. Some parents are happy to spend 12 hours lying with their children in a giant bed. Some parents want 12 hours of children being neither seen nor heard. So whether you consider your child has a sleep problem will depend where you are on this field.
Similarly, as far as going to sleep is afraid, some parents are happy to sit on the sofa with their little ones until they go to sleep, while others want the children in bed at 7pm so they can watch the news/dramas. So the only person who can answer the question ‘does my child have a sleep problem?’ is You.
Solving child sleep problems
The question of whether or not you want to decide your kid’s sleep problems has a different answer for every family. Some parents think it’s OK not to interfere, but just to wait and see how things turn out.
Some parents think that if sleep training contains the child getting upset or crying a lot, then they’d rather avoid it. They choose to go with the movement and do whatever their child is happiest with, when he or she is ready, they’ll sleep through the night.
This method might mean being actually near the child who is waking during the night or having a bed or mattress on the floor of the child’s bedroom. If you take this style, over time your child can finally be encouraged to move into his own sleeping place, thus avoiding the need for training.
The main benefit is that you avoid putting your child through the pressure of sleep training, which may involve them getting upset. The difficulty is some parents go completely silly if they have to parent 24/7, and these parents might want to take a different method.
If your child has no bedtime routine, get up in the night and yells for a bottle of milk, there is no opinion trying to deal with everything at once. Start by solving one thing at a time. Earlier you start any kind of sleep training, sit down with your child and discuss the situation, actually talking with your kid is necessary.
