Parents and Parenting. When babies wake up at night, even after they no longer need feeding, what do you do?

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Parents and Parenting

Can You Spoil a Child?

Jay Stevens

Parents and Parenting: Crying at night for your baby.

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For an entire life, starting when we are babies, we will wake up from time-to-time at night. Babies wake up, too, even when they no longer need additional night feedings. Every child is different so remember that some babies cry a minute or two everytime they wake up for months or years-a kind of fretful fussing. You will have to learn to sleep through this.

There are some parts of the world where night waking and crying is not a problem. That is not often true for parents in our society.

Night Crying

I often wake up several times during the night. Don't you?

Of course. For our entire life, we will wake up from time-to-time at night.

Babies wake up, too, just as we do. They do this even when they no longer need to be fed at night.

Burton White, Ph.D.,  believes babies learn that crying brings first, comfort, then later,  entertainment. White opines that this natural learning begins to make problems for the parents of the nine-to-ten-month-old child.

According to White, the situation goes like this, "It is extremely common for such a child to begin to wake up at anywhere from 9 pm on through 2 or even 3 am and begin to cry. Of course, there may be times when such crying is due to illness or other physical distress, but very often it is simply the result of the fact that the child is alone, usually in a dimly lit room, is not very sleepy, and hasn't much to do. Therefore, he brings into play the one tool that has alleviated boredom before--the cry."

So, what do you do?

Do you rush to baby's crib or let him/her "cry it out.'

Some of this decision is up to you. Many discipline decisions you will make during your baby's growing-up years will revolve around consistency. This one will, too.

Are you a softy? Just can't listen to baby cry without going nuts? Never consistent about much of anything?

If you know you won't be consistent, don't even start the process of "crying it out." The mixed signals of inconsistency will confuse your baby.

Regardless of whatever else you do, a midnight snack is out. However, any other sleep crutches, including comforting from mom or dad,  will be better for your baby than being confused.

But, many sleep experts contend that babies need to fall back to sleep on their own. And most of them will eventually have to "cry it out" to do this.

An Hour

Listening to a baby cry is heart rending. Even a few minutes can seem like an hour. 

If you can stand an hour or more of crying, do it. This lets baby exhaust himself and give up on possibility of anyone coming. When this happens, an exhausted baby falls back to sleep.

The next night, the crying time will probably be shorter. It should decrease each night until he no longer cries at night merely because he is awake.

This is guaranteed to tear your heart out. Try a fan, music on the radio, or other means to make the crying less audible. Less audible, but not inaudible. You still must see to your baby's safety, of course.

There are other ways to help a crying baby stop. Read on here.

More information about parents and parenting.

What about day crying?

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