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Possums Baby Sleep 101 icon

Possums Baby Sleep 101


  • Introduction to this brief & simple section of The Possums Baby Sleep Program
  • Key things to know about babies' sleep
  • The dial on your baby's nervous system
  • Babies' sleep needs
  • Differences in babies' sleep
  • Normal baby night waking
  • Night waking in babies - how much is too much?
  • Babies' body clock
  • Babies' sleep pressure
  • Babies need sensory nourishment
  • Babies' bedtime
  • Feeds and cuddles help babies sleep
  • Babies and sleep safety
  • Key steps to help with babies' sleep
  • Set a regular wake-up time for your baby
  • Baby sleep superpower #1: milk = sleep
  • Baby sleep superpower #2: rich stimulation = sleep
  • Let your baby nap on the go
  • Active evenings help babies' night sleep

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  • Possums Baby Sleep 101
  • S1: Possums baby sleep 101 (brief & simple)

Baby sleep superpower #1: milk = sleep

Dr Pamela Douglas9th of Jul 202317th of May 2024

black and white photo of baby breastfeeding

This page is part of a collection of short articles called Brief & simple, which together make up a quick summary of The Possums Sleep Program in plain language. For comprehensive information and support, please go to The essentials section of The Possums Sleep Program, and begin to work your way through the program's online text and videos.

You have two tools (which we can call your superpowers!) for making baby sleep as easy as possible.

  1. Plenty of milk

  2. Rich sensory stimulation

Superpower #1 for healthy sleep is plenty of milk in the tummy if your baby is under six months. After six months, solids will have a role to play as well. Sleep happens most easily in the first year of life if you offer frequent and flexible breast or bottle feeds, and feed your baby to sleep.

That's not to say your baby will always fall asleep with milk, but quite often they do, especially when very little.

Acknowledgements

I'm grateful to Professor Sophie Havighurst, Ros June, and Caroline Ma at Mindful, The University of Melbourne, for their feedback on the articles in the Brief & simple section of The Possums Sleep Program. They helped to keep the language plain and the concepts as accessible as possible. For comprehensive information and support, please go to The essentials section of The Possums Sleep Program, and begin to work your way through the program's online text and videos.

Recommended resources

Frequent flexible breastfeeds help make baby sleep easy

Breastfeeding your baby to sleep doesn't cause bad habits

Frequent flexible bottle feeds help make sleep easy if you're not direct breastfeeding (and baby is under five months of age)

Feeding your bottle fed baby to sleep doesn't cause bad habits

About paced bottle feeding

When is your baby ready for solids?

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Baby sleep superpower #2: rich stimulation = sleep

baby and mother outside walking on the street

This page is part of a collection of short articles called Brief & simple, which together make up a quick summary of The Possums Sleep Program in plain language. For comprehensive information and support, please go to The essentials section of The Possums Sleep Program, and begin to work your way through the program's online text and videos.

Your superpower #2 for healthy sleep is making sure that your baby has plenty of rich and changing sensory adventures.

It's hard work keeping your baby dialled down inside at home. When your baby dials up at home, you might think it's because your…

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