My 8 month baby has refused to sleep in her crib. Mums, please help?
Esther Kimani Staff
It’s the most natural thing in the world to sleep with your child, rock or feed your child to sleep, but doing this doesn’t help him stay asleep all night – many children who fall asleep this way awaken repeatedly. These disruptions are often caused at least partially by their dependence on certain conditions, or “sleep associations” – anything your child associates with falling asleep, including being held, rocking, sucking or falling asleep with a parent. Throughout the night, your child drifts into lighter sleep phases to check out her environment. During these “partial arousals,” she’s not fully conscious-and as long as nothing has changed significantly since she fell asleep, she returns to deeper sleep. But for many children, if something is different, this raises a red flag and she will need you to recreate the same conditions that were present when she fell asleep in the first place. Not all associations are bad; what’s important is that your child can recreate them on his own and put himself back to sleep. You may need to move the crib from your room for now and teach her to fall asleep in her own space.
