Baby care basics

The advantages of having regular routines

As babies become more used to their surroundings, parents should start establishing regular daily routines for them. Having regular feeding, bathing and sleeping hours can make the environment predictable and instill a sense of security in your baby. By providing your baby with a stable environment, she will less likely develop behavioural and emotional problems. It will also be easier for you to understand her temperament and behavioural pattern.

Characteristics of babies' sleep

While the “job” of babies is eating and sleeping, you need to learn more about the characteristics of your baby's sleep and establish a regular sleeping routine for her.

Just as inside the mother's womb, babies sleep whenever they are tired without taking note of day or night in their first couple of months. They have short sleep periods of 3 to 5 hours in length. They also wake up easily from time to time as about half of their sleep time is in the light sleep state.

When they are 3 months old, they can sleep for longer hours. Two-third of their sleep takes place at night time. When they reach 6 months old, around 50% of the babies can sleep at night for 6 hours.

Sleeping hours

The sleeping hours will change as our child grows:

*Reference: WHO guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

The ideal and safe sleep environment

Room temperature and ventilation

• Room temperature should be comfortable with good ventilation.
• Do not put on too much clothing or blankets for your baby as she may not be able to sleep when feeling too warm.
• Check the baby's nape of her neck. Feeling just warm means that your baby is comfortable. If there is sweat, it may mean that it is too warm for your baby.

Sounds

Babies can fall asleep even if the surroundings are not completely quiet. Playing soft music or humming a lullaby to your baby may help her fall asleep.

Beddings

• Cotton bed sheets and blankets are the best for babies by reducing the chance of allergies
• Tucking the sides of the blanket underneath the mattress can avoid the blanket being shifted over to cover your baby's head and prevent suffocation.
• You may swaddle your baby in a blanket to make him feel secure. However, swaddling too tightly can affect breathing and will trap body heat. Also make sure your baby's head and face are not covered. Similarly, if swaddling too loosely which may increase the risk of having the baby's airway being obstructed and his body being strangulated. Let your baby sleep in supine position when swaddled. If the baby attempts to roll, do not use swaddling to prevent any accidents.

Learning how to sleep

Differentiating day and night

Babies cannot tell day from night. How to teach babies to stay active during daytime and go to sleep at night seems to be a big challenge for parents. To help your baby establish her daily routine, you may start by emphasizing the difference between day and night through lighting and introducing a regular schedule.

Light

• There should be difference in the lighting at different times of the day – keep the room well-lit in the daytime and dim or turn off the lights when it is time to sleep at night or around bedtime.
• Some babies may wake up crying for feeling scared of the darkness. You may keep a night-light on to reassure your baby.

Regular daily routines

• When your baby is awake in the daytime, you may play and talk actively with her to prevent her from sleeping too much during the day. When your baby gets tired as shown by having drooping eyelids, rubbing her face against you or yawning, let your baby sleep.
• Try to arrange your household chores and other activities and minimise evening activities for your baby, such that you could settle her down after feeding her. You can hum a tune or talk to your baby to calm her down. Then put your baby in bed and let her fall asleep on her own.

Establishing bedtime routine

• When your baby has reached 2 to 3 months old, you can try to set up a regular bedtime routine for her and let her fall asleep on her own at the end of these activities, so that she can learn to associate these activities with going to sleep.
• When babies are used to falling asleep in their bed, it is easier for them to fall back to sleep even if they wake up in the middle of the night.
• You can set up an individualized bedtime routine for your baby according to her temperament and daily routines.

Poor Sleeping Habits

Never let your baby develop poor sleeping habits. For instance, some babies can only fall asleep when they are in their parents' arms or bed, being rocked or fed. Once these undesirable sleep patterns have developed into your baby's routines, she would depend completely on your attention and company to fall asleep every night; she would also hardly fall back to sleep without your warm embrace or comfort derived from nursing / sucking.

What happen if your baby falls asleep during feeding?

• It is common for babies to fall asleep during feeding, especially those under 1 month old who need to be fed frequently.
• If your baby falls asleep during feeding, you can stop feeding her. Put her on bed after burping your baby without waking her up. You can feed her a bit earlier next time so that your baby won't be too tired at feeding time.
  
• As your baby needs less frequent night feeding when she grows, it would be a good time for you to establish a sleep routine for your baby to help her sleep on her own.
• If your baby wakes up and cries at night, you need to find out what she needs, such as changing a wet nappy, company or feeding. You should not feed your baby if she is not hungry to avoid your baby depending on comfort nursing to fall back to sleep.

Note: Establishing a successful sleep routine for your baby involves steps of having the baby fed, nappy changed and putting her in bed when she starts to show signs of tiredness. There is no quick fix to baby's sleeping problems. Therefore, in developing a sleep routine for your baby, you need to be patient and persistent and pay attention to factors that may affect your baby's sleep.

Baby's safe sleeping position and environment

Preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or cot death is the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death of a baby with unknown cause. SIDS is a major cause for sleep-related death in babies which most commonly affects babies in the first 6 months, with its risk peaking at 1 to 4 months of age. Sleeping on the back gives your baby the best protection from SIDS. In addition, a smoke-free environment, vaccinations and breastfeeding can also reduce the risk of SIDS in your baby.

Other causes of sleep-related accidents in infancy include suffocation, fall from bed, etc.

How to create a safe sleep environment?

Ensuring the safety of your baby's sleep environment is of paramount importance. An unsafe sleep environment can be fatal to your baby.

Here is a checklist of a safe sleep environment for babies. How many of these measures are you taking at home?

• Sleep with your baby in the same room in separate beds

  

• The distance between the bars of the crib should be less than 6cm (2.5 inches)
• Remember to pull up and lock the rail of the crib when you leave your baby alone in the crib

  

• The size of the mattress should be fitted in the crib to prevent baby from rolling into the gap
• Make sure your baby's face and head cannot get covered by the blanket to prevent smothering and overheating
• Let your baby wear light and comfortable clothing at bedtime
• Keep the room well-ventilated with comfortable temperature for your baby

The following 4 situations may threaten your baby's sleep safety. ‘Watch out' and ‘Don't do' these:

• Mattress that are too soft and thick – baby may easily roll over to a face-down position which may lead to suffocation.
• Use baby pillow or let baby sleep on big, soft and fluffy beddings or objects. These include light, soft blankets or duvets, sheep skin, bean bag chair, bumper, pillows or stuffed toys. Your baby could be smothered easily when covered by these soft objects.
• Place things other than beddings (e.g. toys and clothing) in the baby crib.
• Put on too much clothing or cover your baby with too many blankets – the baby may feel overheated.