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Baby Sleep (0-12 months) icon

Baby Sleep (0-12 months)


  • How to make the days work when you have a low sleep need baby?
  • Do babies become overtired and overstimulated?
  • What to do if your baby only sleeps in the carrier or when being held?
  • Will 'capping' daytime naps help with sleep problems when you have a baby?
  • Why won't your baby go down to sleep during the day?
  • Why won't your baby breastfeed off to sleep during the day?
  • Why won't your bottle fed baby feed off to sleep during the day?
  • Is it best to sleep your baby in a cot during the day?
  • What to do about baby sleep when you have an older child or other children who need your attention?
  • How can you get the best out of mothers’ groups or parents' groups when you have baby sleep problems?
  • What to do about naps when your baby is in childcare?
  • What to do when you need baby to sleep so that you can get your paid work done?
  • What to do about daytime sleeps if you're weaning your baby from the breast?

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  • Baby Sleep (0-12 months)
  • S2: Daytimes
  • CH 3: FAQs

What to do about baby sleep when you have an older child or other children who need your attention?

Dr Pamela Douglas22nd of Aug 202321st of May 2024

Father carrying baby in daylight in the kitchen while toddler looks on

Sometimes families are warned to keep the older child out of the way as much as possible when a new baby comes into the house. They might be advised to have one parent take the older child out much of the day, leaving the mother alone with the new baby in the house for long periods of time. Having a lot of support in the early days can make an enormous difference for a woman with a new baby, and especially when there is an older sibling. Every family has their own style and makes their own decisions. There isn't a right or wrong.

But after the first couple of weeks, newborns are usually showing signs of a voracious hunger for rich and changing sensory motor stimulation. Inside the house, a new baby often dials up because his sensory needs aren't met.

Have you heard mothers or primary carers comment that everything was easier with their second child? I think this is because the second born has to fit in with family life - there's no other option - and amazingly, she does! Naps occur on the go during the day, as the primary carer does the kindy or school drop-off or takes the older child to music class or soccer practice. Breastfeeds or feeds are frequent and flexible. The new baby follows along, in and out of the car, in and out of the carrier or the pram, and is dialled down by the rich sensory nourishment of all these small daily adventures.

Things tend to go well when parents expect the new baby to fit into their ordinary daily life outside the home, as they go about meeting their own needs or the needs of their older child or children. They are using the two baby sleep superpowers (of frequent flexible feeds, and rich and changing sensory motor stimulation) to keep baby dialled down. The days, though busy and still often exhausting, become as relaxed and as enjoyable as possible.

You could say this is taking off the sleep lens, and putting on the sensory lens. It's an important way to grow joy in early life, even when your hands are already full with an older child or children and a new little one has arrived.

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How can you get the best out of mothers’ groups or parents' groups when you have baby sleep problems?

three young mothers with their babies talking to each other

Experiment with a a few different strategies when you're out looking for a mothers' or parents' group (or two) to join!

Joining groups with other mothers or parents has been shown in the research to really help our emotional and mental well-being once we've had a baby. Face-to-face groups are best (in no small part because of the sensory nourishment that getting out of the house provides for your baby), but this discussion might also be useful for online groups.

It's quite common for women to tell me that they don’t like to go to parents’…

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