Although, there will be a time when your baby will give up night-feeding on his own (by the time he’s three month old), do not expect or insist the baby to give them up altogether, all of a sudden.

But if your child is now three months old, and he still nurses or feeds himself with a bottle before bedtime, and if he needs to eat again several more times during the night, then the extra feedings may let the child wake up again and again. If this is the case, this can be decreased by decreasing the number of these feedings.

However in some cases, it would not be wise to eliminate these feedings suddenly. For instance if your baby takes in a substantial amount of food – from extended feedings at the breast, or bottles that adds up to more than eight ounces during the whole night, then he has learned that there are certain times in the night which are his meal times.

The amount of milk or juice your child takes during the night may be something to be looked upon. If he finishes four full eight ounce bottles, it should be noted that it is a large amount     for even an adult to consume overnight.

Solving the problem

If you feel that over and unnecessary feedings at night are disrupting your child’s sleep, you will be relaxed to know that although such feedings can lead to severe sleep disturbances, the problem is the easiest to fix. For this, two things need to be addressed. The first simple method iis to reduce or omit the night time feedings to avoid sleep-disrupting effects. The second is to associate your child with the new sleep methods so that he can fall asleep without being held, without eating, and without getting in mind sucking on the breast or the bottle. These can be done one by one or all together.

Majorly, to fix the problem caused by the feedings, you should start by gradually decreasing the number of times you feed the child at night, the amount of feedings or both. Stopping the feedings suddenly can cause problems, so do not stop the feedings suddenly. Rather gradually add a new habit by eliminating the old gradually.

The ultimate goal of yours is to alter your child’s feelings of hunger out of the nightime and shift to the daytime. Once you see that the child feeds only once at night, you can choose to stop that feed right away since the amount of food intake during the night now will be very small.

If you are working on the sleep association and hunger patterns simultaneously, try to put your child to sleep as soon as you are done with the feeding, even if he wakes up and begins to cry. If you nurse him and he sleeps next to you, try and make him sleep a little far so that he learns to fall asleep without a habit of using your breast as a sleep agent. You’ve just fed him, so he is not hungry. Now you are only changing his expectations of what happens while he falls asleep or making him habitual of sleeping after the feed.

If this goes well for a week, you will be successful in cutting down or even succeed in eliminating the nighttime feed. After this, continue with the technique of progressive waiting whenever he wakes up at night (except the feeding time) until these wakings stop. This habit will also get eliminated in a few days.

I want out! That is the message you will receive from your toddler and there might be many ways he will tell this to you when he is ready to wave a good bye to the crib and say hello to the big-kid bed. This might be indicated when your child shows a verbal displeasure or more likely he would start climbing out of the crib.

So, What is the next step now?

First, you should resist your own desire to move him too early. Most experts recommend doing so at the age of 3. You should not take this step unless your child starts climbing out of the crib or needs more space than given in a crib. His body is growing at a notable rate- it’s better to keep him in the crib which allows him to feel safe.

By doing this, your child will feel comfortable taking giant developmental leaps during the day but still come back to the security of his old crib at night.

Moreover, until the age of 3, toddlers are very impulsive. It will be very difficult for your child to understand and to be able to follow the directions or rules like staying in bed all night and it will make sleeping in a bed a real challenge for him. If you transition to a bed before the child reaches the age 3, plan on waking up to a little visitor next to your bed every morning you wake up.

So, there are few steps to follow to shift the transition of your child from crib to bed. These are:

1 Create a strongbox environment:

A proper attention should be paid to the safety of your child’s room as well as the adjacent areas that he may be able to visit in the middle of the night. All the windows should be secured, the stairs and any step stools that can fall or are dangerous to the child’s safety. Installing a safety gate to your child’s door can also be done adding up to his safety. You can even install a small light to direct him in the night so that he can orient himself and avoid hurting himself in the night.

2 Choose a suitable mattress:

Visit a mattress store or any other store that sells the mattress and let your child help you choose the mattress of the bed. All the key safety features should be kept in the mind like it should be a twin size mattress and box spring. Also, there should be safety rails on the sides. It should be height adjustable so that you can keep it low to the floor until your child gets used to the bed. Choose fun sheets and nice vibrant pillow covers that adds up to the liveliness of your child.

3 Remove/dismantle the crib:

Once you are done purchasing the new bed and it comes home, ask your child to help you dismantle the crib. This way, he will feel himself as part of the transition process and he will be able to say a bye to the crib.

4 Setting up the new bed:

Important thing thing to keep in mind while putting the new bed in the room is to put the bed in the corner of the room so that two of its sides remain safe as the back part and one side would be stuck to the wall when kept in a corner. Add up the rails to the exposed side of the bed. This way your child will feel safe as he used to feel in the crib.

5 Explain your child the bedtime rules:

If your child is verbal or he has not slept before in the bed, try to talk and explain to him the rules of bedtime. Tell him that he is a big boy now and he needs to understand when to go to sleep and only wake up with the sun nice and bright outside.

6 Make an extra bedtime routine for your child:

During the initial days, when your child just starts sleeping in his new bed, take an extra 10 minutes of reading time together to make him feel comfortable in his new environment. By doing this, you will make your child feel safe. If your child shows excitement about the new bed from the very start, you’re one of those lucky people who has done a good job and made this transition look easy.

Understanding co-sleeping- Co-sleeping is a practice of child sleeping together with parents.

This topic of co-sleeping has always been very controversial between the people.

Some of them think that co-sleeping is right and very natural way to raise a child, bringing a secure attachment between the child and the parents’ along with making a stronger bond.

While some people find co-sleeping risky, ridiculous and dangerous, which they do not want for their family.

Finding a correct answer to this is tough. Let’s try and understand few things to understand co-sleeping better.

So there has always been a mix result of the surveys which have been made on the topic of co-sleeping.

There have been families who have reported that their babies were not able to sleep properly or had a sound sleep because of their parents sleeping nearby while others reported that their child slept better together with them rather than making the child sleep in the crib.

The topic of co-sleeping however is personal. It is the family who has to decide to opt for co-sleeping or not, making sure that the child sleeps well which ultimately results in the child’s good health.

Also, the spouse should have good understandings and careful thinking as to co-sleeping is right for their family or not.

So, when it comes to deciding co-sleeping there are few questions that you can ask to yourselves that will make the decision better. They are:

• What is the nature of spouse? Do we both or any one of more tend to stay active during sleeping?
• Is co-sleeping a habit of the family or we will start it because you strongly believe in the same?
• Can we remain quiet and sleep after the child sleeps or we have a habit of sleeping late and watching something late night?
• Will we able to feed child often during the night or it will be difficult for us doing the same?
• Do we agree to get into the bed only when our child does to ensure the safety of the child?
• Does sleeping next to the child allow us to feel more connected to the child? Especially for the working parents?

After this, Let us take a look to the advantages and the disadvantages of Co-sleeping.

 ADVANTAGES:

• Ensures that the child is close and safe whenever parents wake up in middle of the night.
• Sleeping together makes sure the child has immediate support on any sleep related problem.
• Enjoying sound sleep because parents do not have to get up and walk to child if there is any night waking.
• Increased time spending with the child and also better sleep for the parents as well.

DISADVANTAGES:

• If the child is restless then parents may not be able to sleep properly.
• Sleeping improperly could lead to frustration and angriness and parents might end up sleeping in different rooms
• The sleep cycle of an adult and children are different so it can lead to a problem.
• Parents have to sacrifice a lot to their evening activities as children have an early bed time.
• Privacy of the parents might be restricted.
• There is an increased chances of the child to get affected from SIDS and other related causes.

So, the decision of co-sleeping is purely personal and has nothing to do with the other’s experiences or their thoughts for the same. It has to be purely your family or your mutual understandings to opt for co-sleeping or not and the better results of the same.