Every time we publish articles about sleep or breast-feeding, we receive many help from mothers:
All these parenting principles are understood, but they are still collapsed by the baby…
The baby’s work and rest are completely irregular, how to eat and how to sleep, if only someone could teach us hand in hand…
In order to satisfy everyone’s wish, we invited Wang Rong, an internationally registered infant sleep consultant, to tell us that babies of different ages should arrange their work and rest scientifically in how.
The considerate teacher Wang Rong not only brought the parenting theory, but also prepared < < the schedule of babies of different ages > > for everyone’s reference based on the practical experience of his two babies. Let’s take a look at it quickly.
The Key to Baby’s Work and Rest Rule, [Eating, Playing and Sleeping]
The imperial sword to let the baby develop a regular work and rest is: [eat, play and sleep].
[Eating, playing and sleeping] means that the baby should arrange his daily life during the day in the order of [eating milk, playing and sleeping].
The model is called EASY, with E for Eat, A for Activity, S for Sleep, and Y for Yourself’s own choice. It was proposed by Tracy Hogg, author of Utility Parenting.
Why is it [eating, playing and sleeping] instead of [playing, eating and sleeping], [eating, sleeping and playing]? Because the other two work and rest modes are really easy to have pits!
1. It is easy to cause milk and sleep crash, or develop the habit of milk and sleep.
For example, the baby is very sleepy, crying and noisy but can’t eat. As a result, he was obviously hungry, but he didn’t eat much, resulting in waking up too early. Neither eat well nor sleep well. This is a typical crash between feeding and sleeping.
2. It is easy to cause physiological problems that interfere with sleep.
For example, when the baby sleeps after eating milk during the day, the baby has hiccups and is not photographed, causing the baby to wake up soon after sleeping by hiccups.
There are also babies who like to pull after eating and will soon fall asleep. As a result, the stool will be washed and made, resulting in excessive fatigue due to missing the best time to fall asleep.
The order of [eating, playing and sleeping] can ensure that the baby not only eats well, but also sleeps well.
Next, let’s talk about how guiding the baby to eat, play and sleep according to age stages.
The first stage: 0 ~ 4 weeks
Sleep characteristics:
1. The baby eats and sleeps most of the time in the first month, and fewer babies have [play] this stage. Most babies sleep at the same rhythm during the day and at night, i.e. Wake up after three hours of sleep during the day and three hours of sleep at night.
2. Sleep problems: Some babies will have black and white reversed, and some babies will have colic from 2 weeks.
[Eat, Play and Sleep] Guiding Countermeasures:
The main task at this stage is to gradually develop regular breast feeding and guide regular sleep.
A few days before the baby is born to breast milk on demand feeding, more stimulation more sucking, in order to establish a stable lactation relationship. Once the lactation relationship stabilizes, it is generally about two weeks after birth, and stable regular feeding can begin.
Some mothers will say: Shouldn’t they feed on demand during the month?
In fact, there is no contradiction between on-demand feeding and on-time feeding. Sufficient breast milk means a stable breast-feeding relationship, so that the baby can eat enough and the breast-feeding relationship is stable. Naturally, it can be gradually guided to on-time feeding.
The frequency of feeding is suggested: breast-feeding every 2.5 ~ 3 hours, and the baby’s waking time during the day should be about 45 minutes. Almost all the days and nights are in sleep.
At this stage, if the baby does not cry to eat milk at night, it is not necessary to cry to eat milk. This shows that the baby already has the ability to distinguish day from night.
On the contrary, if the baby sleeps more than 3 hours during the day, he should cry up and eat milk. Only in this way can the baby be helped to distinguish day and night as soon as possible and correct the problem of black and white inversion.
The second stage: 4 ~ 8 weeks
Sleep characteristics:
1. After the full moon, the baby’s awake time starts to grow longer, about 1 hour; At this stage, the total amount of sleep per day is about 15-16 hours, the total amount during the day is about 5-7 hours, and the total amount at night is about 9-10 hours.
2. Sleep problems: Difficulty in falling asleep, short naps during the day, and babies who sleep incessantly during the month suddenly begin to sleep for 20-30 minutes at this age; Colic and flatulence will reach their peak.
3. Night sleep: About 6-8 weeks, many babies’ black-and-white inversion disappeared, and a small number of angel babies began to sleep for 6-8 hours at the first night in about 6 weeks.
4. Night milk frequency: generally 2 ~ 3 times.
[Eat, Play and Sleep] Guiding Countermeasures:
Beginning to introduce [eating, playing and sleeping], the awake time of this month’s age is about 1 hour, after deducting half an hour of nursing time, the baby still has half an hour to play.
Be sure to pay attention to the rule of nap during the day: sleep signals will appear about one hour after waking up, and nap should be arranged immediately at this time.
The feeding time can be arranged according to 3 ~ 3.5 hours.
Many babies who cannot fix their sleep time at night can slowly fix their sleep time at night by introducing sleep procedures.
No matter how long the baby can sleep during the day, he will cry for more than 3 hours, so that the problem of black and white reversal will not continue.
You can arrange the 3-hour feeding time each time after waking up from a small sleep, and arrange a 3-hour cycle according to the feeding time. You can try to lengthen the feeding time to 3.5 hours.
However, due to the irregular nap time, the nursing time sometimes collides with the nap time.
The third stage: 8 weeks to 4 months
Sleep characteristics:
1. This stage is an important stage for the formation and guidance of sleep rules.
Most babies will form a unique rule in 3 ~ 4 months or so, and the waking time during the day is extended from 1 hour to 1.5 hours. The total amount of sleep is about 15 ~ 16 hours, sleep at night is about 10 ~ 11 hours, and sleep during the day is about 5 ~ 6 hours.
2. Sleep problem: Starting from 10 weeks, most babies’ colic begins to relieve and will eventually disappear in about 4 months. Some of them will continue to suffer from flatulence until supplementary foods are added.
3. Night sleep: Starting from 8 weeks, many babies can sleep for 6-8 hours at the first night, and other angel babies can sleep for the whole night. Many babies fall asleep automatically from 6: 00 to 8: 00 in the evening.
4. Night milk frequency: generally 1 ~ 2 times.
[Eat, Play and Sleep] Guiding Countermeasures:
This stage is the consolidation and formation stage of eating, playing and sleeping.
After 1.5 hours of waking up, the baby’s nursing time also generally began to shorten. The baby has more than one hour to explore and practice.
Some babies’ sleep signals begin to weaken from 3 months old. At this time, they mainly arrange naps by point.
The feeding time can be lengthened to 3.5 ~ 4 hours, thus the cycle of [eating, playing and sleeping] becomes 4 hours.
During the day, I still took a nap for more than 3 hours and woke up gently.
Babies who are used to sleeping short need to be guided to a long sleep of more than one hour at this stage so as not to be too tired during the day.
This stage of the baby awake time can be arranged to go out, at least 1 ~ 2 times a day, each time about 1 hour. Don’t go out can lie prone.
Schedule Suggestions:
From this stage onwards, a regular schedule of work and rest can be established. The following schedule of work and rest is a case made according to the rules of [eating, playing and sleeping] for reference.
Attention: Each baby’s internal rhythm is different. We should pay more attention to observation and recording in order to find out the baby’s unique work and rest rules.
Schedule Suggestions:
7: 00: Get up and nurse
9: 00 ~ 10: 00: Nap
11:00: Breastfeeding
12: 00 ~ 14: 00: Nap
15:00: Breastfeeding
16: 00 ~ 16: 30: Nap
19:00: Nursing
19:30: Sleep at night
3:00: Breastfeeding
The fourth stage: 4 ~ 6 months
Sleep characteristics:
1. At this stage, the baby’s sleep mode changes to the adult mode. During the day, the baby starts to work and rest regularly. The total amount of sleep is about 14-15 hours, the daytime nap time is 3-5 hours, the awake time is about 2-2.5 hours, the nap time is 3 times, and the night sleep time is 10-11 hours.
2. Sleep problems: About 4 months of sleep retrogression period, frequent night awakening, naps begin to shorten. If not corrected in time, this retrogression mode will continue, and other babies will have problems of waking up early and getting up in the middle of the night to play.
3. Night milk times: 1 ~ 2 times.
[Eat, Play and Sleep] Guiding Countermeasures:
At this stage, many babies’ sleep signals disappear, and they mainly arrange naps according to their waking time. And began to slowly fix the time of each little sleep.
The feeding time has become every 4 hours, and the feeding time needs to be fixed to prepare for adding supplementary foods.
During the day, it is still the same, taking a nap for more than 3 hours and waking up gently.
During the sober time, arrange to go out for a walk twice, one for at least one hour.
Schedule Suggestions:
5:00/6:00: Breastfeeding
7:00: Get up
8: 00: Supplementary Food
9: 30 ~ 10: 30: Nap
10:30: Snack Fruit
12:00: Breastfeeding
13: 30 ~ 15: 30: Nap
16:00: Supplementary Food + Milk
18:30: Milk
19:00: Sleep at night
The fifth stage: 6 ~ 9 months
Sleep characteristics:
1. The baby’s sleep has completely become the sleep mode of adults. At this stage, the baby’s awake time during the day is 2.5-3 hours. The total sleep amount is about 14-15 hours, 2.5-4 hours during the day and 10-12 hours at night.
2. Sleep problems: The development of large sports such as teething, climbing and standing will lead to difficulty in falling asleep, short naps during the day and frequent nights at night. The dusk sleep will gradually disappear after 6-9 months. If the baby sleeps longer during the nap, the dusk sleep can also be removed artificially.
3. Night milk frequency: After the supplementary food is added and stabilized, theoretically the baby no longer needs any night milk. Some babies who have less night milk frequency will automatically postpone the night milk to 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning, thus realizing the automatic withdrawal of night milk.
[Eat, Play and Sleep] Guiding Countermeasures:
At this time, many babies have no sleep signal at all, and take naps during the day according to the awake time.
The feeding time is 4 hours, and supplementary food time needs to be added at this time. At the beginning of 6 months, supplementary food can be added once, and 6 and a half months to 7 months, two meals of supplementary food can be introduced. The schedule of supplementary food can be combined with the previous feeding time, and the future will replace milk to become a meal.
If the evening sleep disappears, you can arrange to fall asleep half an hour earlier at night and still fall asleep during the day. You can take a nap for more than 3 hours and wake up gently.
Arrange 2 walks, one for at least one hour.
Schedule Suggestions:
5:00/6:00: Breastfeeding
7:00: Get up
8: 00: Supplementary Food
9: 30 ~ 10: 30: Nap
10:30: Snack Fruit
12:00: Breastfeeding
13: 30 ~ 15: 30: Nap
16:00: Supplementary Food + Milk
18:30: Milk
19:00: Sleep at night
The sixth stage: 9 ~ 12 months
Sleep characteristics:
If the guidance was good before, congratulations to the parents, it is time to liberate.
1. Close to one year old, supplementary food can be arranged for three meals a day. Some babies will automatically cut off their morning milk.
2. At this stage, the awake time during the day is 3-3.5 hours, the overall sleep amount is 13-14 hours, the daytime is 2.5-3 hours, and the sleep time at night is 11-12 hours.
3. Sleep problems: Some babies will have [false sleep] at about 10 months old. That is, the baby suddenly starts to sleep during the day. This situation does not last long, and the baby will sleep again twice.
4. Abstaining from night milk.
[Eat, Play and Sleep] Guiding Countermeasures:
At this stage, naps are still arranged according to the waking time.
With the increase of supplementary food intake, the number of times the baby eats milk will be reduced to 3 times.
There is no need to sleep at dusk, just arrange a nap in the morning and one nap in the afternoon.
The sleep time at night is still fixed between 7 and 8 o’clock. The sleep time at night cannot be delayed because of the increase of the month age, because this stage is only the decrease of the sleep demand during the day, and the sleep demand at night still exists.
Schedule Suggestions:
7: 00: Get up and nurse
8:00: Breakfast
10: 00 ~ 10: 45: Nap
12:00: Lunch
13:00: Breastfeeding
13: 30 ~ 15: 30: Nap
15:30: Fruit Snacks
17:00: Dinner
18:30: Breastfeeding
19:00: Sleep at night
Summary:
In the overall guidance process of the baby’s work and rest and [eating, playing and sleeping], mothers should not only understand scientific sleep knowledge for their own judgment, but also adjust the arrangement in combination with the baby’s own internal work and rest rhythm, and should not be too dogmatic.
The baby is not a machine and will not follow a set rule and time every day. The baby’s work and rest are regular and cannot be achieved in one day. If the occasional work and rest are affected by going out for injections for a day or two, the overall situation will not be affected and there is no need to be too anxious.
What if the baby didn’t have time to establish a scientific schedule before?
It is never too late to guide scientifically and adjust gradually.