My Child Is An Early Bird – Can I Do Something About It?
Getting up in the morning is one of the hardest problems to fix, if not the hardest. If you’re wondering why, it’s because after a good night’s sleep your baby has more energy to fight sleep in the morning.
And the truth is, we all doze off in the last hour of our sleep, preparing to start the day again.
However, remember that your child is waking up early unless he is not getting enough time to rest at night due to his age and body type. In other words, if your child sleeps from 7 o’clock to 6 o’clock in the morning, it is a good schedule for him, although it may feel early to you.
We cannot ask our children to sleep more than 11 hours a night. Their bodies are usually resting after such a long sleep, and they cannot do much.
Also remember this fact: if your child wakes up even 10/½ hours, if he is relaxed and alert in the morning and makes it easy to sleep, then he is getting enough rest.
Problems arise if your child sleeps from 7 pm to 5:30 am. In this case, you should push bedtime later by adding 15 minutes, and then check to see if your child can sleep in the morning, Warning, however: Making bedtime often has the opposite effect of causing your child to wake up early.
This is why things should be done slowly.
Here are some ideas you can try if your child is an early bird:
- Make sure your child’s room is very dark.
- If there are any noises that might wake him up—such as garbage trucks, barking dogs, sprinklers—put some white noise in the room and turn the volume up high to shield him from these noises.
- Remove all stimulating toys from your child’s crib or bed, which can be distracting when the sun sets in his room.
- If you’re checking on your baby in the last hour before it’s time, your conversation can prevent sleep. Don’t look at him like it’s been an hour since he woke up.
- Make sure that bedtime is not too late for your child’s age. Adjust your bedtime by adding 15 minutes, and see what happens in the morning. In this way, you will allow your child to sleep later, since he will not be too tired when he sleeps. If they wake up early, go back to your bedtime. If moving bedtime doesn’t have an impact on bedtime, you may want to consider using an earlier bedtime to help your child get enough sleep at night for his age.
- Make sure your child is not hungry. If you have a baby under 12 months old and you have just started breastfeeding, you can delay this process to give him more time. Also, be careful to make sure that you offer the breast or bottle often during the day to help him transition from his previous night feeding to daytime, so that he is not hungry at night.
