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You should see the looks on my clients' faces when I tell them
that their babies shouldn’t be having more than two hours of
awake time until they are 10 months old. It is like I have said
that a dragon just appeared at my door. I am always hearing,
“Well, my little Timmy can stay awake for four hours and he still
doesn’t look tired.”
Well, poor little Timmy probably doesn’t look tired after being up for four hours because he has gone into overdrive from too much stimulation.
Let's start by looking at what causes over-stimulation.
Keeping Baby Awake for Too Long
To set the record straight, here is a general guideline for how long your little one should go between naps:
0 to 6 weeks: 45 minutes to 1 hour
6 to 12 weeks: 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes
3 to 6 months: 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes
6 to 10 months: 2 hours to 2 hours and 30 minutes
10 to 12 months: 2 hours and 30 minutes to 3 hours
Toys, Toys and More Toys
As new parents, we read magazines, use the Internet and watch TV shows that are telling us that we need to be stimulating our babies’ brains. We need to be reading to them, putting them under the play mat and basically keeping them entertained all the time—but this just isn't true. In fact, if we are always doing the stimulating for them, how are they going to learn how to stimulate themselves?
Most of the above-mentioned paraphernalia is way too over-stimulating to a baby’s little brain anyway. To a newborn baby, everything he sees—a tree, a car, a ceiling fan, a face, a table—is something he has never seen before. His nervous system is immature, delicate and very sensitive to being over-stimulated. Because everything is new to a baby, we do not need to work at stimulating them. Babies, especially newborns, are like a raw, exposed nerve—too much light, too many sounds, too many faces, or even too much touch can send them over the edge into being over-stimulated.
General Hustle and Bustle
Keep company to a minimum when you have a young baby and limit errands to one or two a day. Make sure your baby has plenty of alone time in a bassinet or on a blanket on the floor with nothing else, or maybe just one or two small toys. I am not telling you to leave the room and go cook dinner, but you could fold the clothes or read a magazine while he is lying down having some fun.
Now without all that extra stimulation, I can guarantee you that your baby will nap better and have an easier time going to bed at night.
So stop trying to make your kid the smartest baby on the block and let him sleep more. I bet that extra sleep will do more good for him than any learning toy ever could!
Kathy Sinclair, CNCS, CPD, CLE, CHBE, graduated from Australia’s prestigious Charlton Brown Nanny College and began her professional career as a nanny in 1993. Kathy developed her specialty with infant sleep while working as a newborn care specialist in Los Angeles. Currently the founder of Baby Sleep Solutions, Kathy provides one-on-one individualized sleep consultations, leads Mommy & Infant groups for new moms, and lectures on sleep in and around Los Angeles. She lives in Ventura, Calif., with her husband and three dogs. She may be contacted through her website at www.babysleepsolutionsla.com.
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