A few weeks ago we talked in Babies and more of the behavior of babies during the night, who often wake up, explaining that it is normal behavior and also saying that when they wake up at night, the ideal thing for them to take sleep before and not reveal themselves is to attend them, that is, avoid The advice of letting them cry, that all it does is then it costs more to sleep.
As a start we usually sleep in their arms, and as when they wake up, to attend them, we also take them in their arms, it ends up happening that many babies, I would say that most, they only fall asleep if it is in the arms of their parents. As many parents may think that this is a problem and as many professionals also consider it that way, they recommend that babies fall asleep in their cribs, so that they do not get used to us, we are going to talk about it today, if it is really a problem and if something needs to be done.
Many professionals say yes
Many health professionals say yes, it is not good for them to fall asleep in our arms (they do not say why, but they say it is a problem), and explain that the ideal is that they sleep alone in their cribs. Let's say that according to them (I speak of some psychologists, pediatricians, nurses and even child sleep experts theorists) we can hold them a little to calm them down, but without getting them to sleep, which is something they have to do alone in the cradle, so that do not relate arms to sleep.
In addition, if it ends up happening that the children ask for arms to sleep, the fault is of the parents for having accustomed them. As children, they may have colic and we take them to calm them until they sleep, or as they are upset about many things, when they grow up and these discomforts disappear, the vices and manias that we have imposed on them persist in their memory (that is, they do not mind anything , but keep asking for arms).
But it is not really a problem
But nevertheless, sleeping in our arms is not really a problem for children, because it does not affect them in any way. They do not become more dependent, nor after five years they must continue sleeping in their arms, they do not walk later, nor do they find it difficult to distinguish colors later or anything like that.
In fact, we should know if there is really a causal relationship between our arms when they are babies and the fact that they can only fall asleep in older arms. I say this because it is very likely that most parents try to have their child sleep alone in the crib or bassinet and, seeing that the baby becomes restless, ends up taking him in his arms to reassure him. At that time it is not the father who teaches him to fall asleep in his arms, but the baby who says: “or you sleep, or I don't know how to sleep alone“.
And although there are many babies who do it, who do not ask for arms, there are many who do and who, or are in the arms of mom, suckling to sleep, or are in the arms of dad, after breastfeeding, to fall asleep . These babies, if you try to leave them awake so that they end up falling asleep in the crib, as a rule, or do not fall asleep and simply begin to cry, or sleep for a little while and then immediately wake up.
There is nothing to do, just wait
Therefore, to the question “what do I do?” The best answer is any. If a child falls asleep only in his arms because being alone cannot fall asleep we must understand that he is a more restless baby than others who needs contact to be calm, or perhaps that he is a baby more linked to his parents, thanking the contact and the love of arms that hold him, in addition to the smell and warmth of our bodies.
Personally, I believe that every father and mother should look for the best way to get their baby to sleep. For my part I really enjoy having my children sleeping on top of me, so much so that many naps do them (and have done) in my arms. They could have slept perhaps in the crib after falling asleep in our arms, but as with Jon, the first, the invention came out of grief, we decided that he would continue sleeping in our arms and that he would also remain there until he woke up (I talk about naps) At night, after falling asleep, we lay in bed and he stayed with us, to assist him as soon as necessary and could continue sleeping. After the first, we have done the same with the medium and the small and, as I say, sleeping children in our arms has not been a problem, but a solution which we have ended up enjoying a lot.
