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When your baby awakens, develop a nighttime parenting approach that respects your baby's need for nighttime trust and comfort, in addition to the need for baby and parents to quickly get back to sleep.
While some babies are self-soothers, being able to resettle easily and quickly without outside help, others (especially those high-need babies with more persistent personalities) need a helping hand (or breast, or whatever tool you can muster up). Try these back-to-sleep comforters .
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 Laying on of hands
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Determine what your baby's nighttime temperament is. Is your baby a born self-soother who awakens, whimpers, squirms, and then resettles by herself? Or is your baby, if not promptly attended to, one whose cries escalate and becomes angry and difficult to resettle?
If you can get to your baby quickly before she completely awakens, you may be able to resettle her back to sleep with a firm laying on of hands. To add the finishing touch, put your baby's back or bottom rhythmically to match your heartbeat. Remove your hands gradually – first one and then the other – easing the pressure slowly so as not to startle baby awake.
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Honor your partner with his share of nighttime parenting
| It's important for babies to get used to father's way of comforting and being put to sleep (and back to sleep) in father's arms, otherwise mothers burn out. A father's participation in nighttime parenting is especially important for the breastfeeding infant who assumes the luxury that "mom's diner" is open all night. |
Detect hidden medical causes of night waking
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If you've tried all these techniques and your infant is still waking up frequently – and painfully – suspect there may be an underlying medical problem contributing to your baby's night waking.
One of the most common hidden medical causes of night waking (and colicky behavior) in babies is a condition known as gastroesophageal reflux (GER). Due to a weakness of a circular band of muscle where the esophagus joins the stomach, irritating stomach acids are regurgitated into baby's esophagus, causing pain like adults would call heartburn.
Clues that your baby may be suffering from GER are: painful bursts of night waking fussiness, particularly after eating; frequent spitting up (although not all babies with GER spit up regularly); frequent bouts of colicky, abdominal pain; frequent bouts of unexplained wheezing; and hearing throaty sounds after feeding. Another hidden medical cause of night waking is allergies to formula or dairy products, either in milk-based formulas or in dairy products in a breastfeeding mother's diet.
Clues that milk allergies may be causing night waking (and colicky behavior) are bloating, diarrhea and a red rash around baby's anus, in addition to many of the signs described above under GER.
If your baby is not only waking up frequently, but waking up "in pain," discuss these two medical possibilities with your doctor, since both can be diagnosed and treated, giving everyone in the family a more peaceful night's sleep.
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| The above tools not only help your short-term goal of getting your baby to sleep, but, more importantly, create a healthy sleep attitude that lasts a lifetime. |
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