Kids & Company Blog

The Importance of Sleep

Your child and their sleep is one of the most popular parenting topics. Of my eight babies, I had a few great sleepers, some were okay and one or two that were terrible! The last one (maybe because he was my last), came into bed with my husband and I until he was 5!! Clearly I lost some of my resolve that I had with the middle children. As everyone knows the key to success is for the baby to be able to "self soothe" and help themselves to sleep. Easier said than done!

I had many challenges with my first (now 28 years old and having his own challengers with his first!). With my second child I decided to stick to a consistent sleeping routine. From day one I would nurse him to sleep then gently wake him (changing his diaper worked!) and I would then put him back into the bassinet awake and he was ready to put himself back to sleep. It worked very well, he was always a good sleeper and in fact 27 years later, he still loves to sleep!

 

 

This is the first of a series of blogs posts about sleep that I will be posting over the next few weeks. Our final blog post will be from the amazing sleep expert M.E from Wholeplay! We are thrilled to have connected with this fabulous organization. Wholeplay is  going to help us to provide you with the parenting information and advice you want!  Click here to learn more about them! Below is an excerpt from Wholeplay on the importance of sleep:

 

"Why is sleep important?

Anyone who has ever parented or taken care of children knows that how much sleep a young child gets matters!   A fragmented night’s sleep or too short of a nap can make the difference between a happy child, who encounters her day with cooperation and ease, and a miserable child, who melts down and becomes easily frustrated with every request that is made of him. But how much sleep a young child gets does not only affect a child’s mood, it also affects his ability to learn.  Several well-known studies have shown that a lack of quality sleep is connected to poorer performance in test-taking and overall academic success, as it impacts an individual’s ability to take in and retain information. Our youngest learners appear to be particularly vulnerable to a lack of quality sleep, as their physical and cognitive development depends upon getting adequate rest.   For this reason it is crucial that parents help their kids to develop healthy sleep habits from the very beginning.

 

Posted on: Thursday November 14th, 2013

Posted by: Victoria Sopik