The number one issue for new parents and
their babies is sleep. If you have a six
month old who is having trouble sleeping, there are lots of natural baby care
techniques you can use to help with this problem. I am delighted to welcome Samantha Quinn, a
natural baby care expert and founder of Mumma
Love Organics to share some of her thoughts with us here.
It can be very frustrating for the whole family when your little one wakes in the night and can lead to a very unsettled and overtired infant the next day. The longer it takes to get your baby sleeping, the further away that blissful state appears. As a parent, this vicious cycle can be very frustrating, so it is useful to understand how certain hormones affect your baby’s sleep.
Baby
sleep deprivation
Cortisol
(known as ‘the stress hormone’) is one of the hormones that govern the
sleep/wake cycle. Another is melatonin, which helps to regulate our body
clocks. The level of these two hormones change during the day, with cortisol
peaking in the morning to keep us awake and melatonin increasing as the light
fades. Melatonin helps us to prepare for sleep and settle down for the night.
Working with these hormones will make it that much easier to get your baby to
sleep through the night by encouraging the brain to release melatonin while
restricting the production of cortisol.
The
reason why your baby may be waking in the night is an increase in cortisol.
Babies can often have an increase in cortisol due to the amount of new stimulus
they process daily, but unfortunately when these levels are raise it may
disrupt our sleep cycle, not allowing us to fall into the deep sleep state.
Baby Massage at bedtime is a great way to work
with these hormones by reducing levels of cortisol and increasing levels of
melatonin before bedtime making it easier for your little one to establish
restful sleep. Baby Massage at bedtime is also very beneficial for encouraging
the release of the comforting hormone oxytocin, oxytocin is known as the love
hormone, so when levels of oxytocin are raised within a baby’s body feelings of
trust are elevated. This is incredibly beneficial for attachment issues that
are sometimes the cause of night waking, as the raised levels in hormones leave
an infant feeling confident and calm.
You
may find this research interesting below:
Research into baby massage and lavender oil
Tiffany Field and Maria Hernandez-Reif’s (2007) research into massage’s ability to decrease the appearance of sleep problems in children has shed light on how beneficial carrying a bedtime massage out before bedtime can be.
The study stated that children in the massage therapy group showed “fewer bedtime disruptive behaviors” and a “shorter latency to sleep”. Infants that are settled this way enjoy a deeper, more peaceful night’s rest, which in turn can mean that you do too.
The
effects of bedtime massage can be further enhanced by the infusion of oils into
the child’s bedtime routine, especially by using lavender oil before bed. In a
study by Tiffany Field et al (2008), it was shown that lavender oil reduced the
cortisol (stress) levels of both mother and child, decreased the levels of
crying and enhanced the quality of sleep.
Mumma Love Organics’
baby skin care range has been specially created to promote peaceful sleep in
babies. The comfort and contentment that these products have been designed to
bring will inspire better sleep patterns, especially when used alongside the baby
massage techniques we’ve included on our
site.
I would personally suggest following our gentle bedtime
routine on line and incorporating our products into you nightly routine http://www.mummaloveorganics.com/tips-bedtime-routine.html.
All our products have been dermatologically tested and
are perfect for helping ease the irritation of eczema.
I also hold a question and answer hour on Thursday
evenings at 8pm – 9pm on our Facebook page.
Thanks to Mumma Love Organics for this guest post. As we are experiencing lots of restless/sleepless nights with T (6 weeks), I shall definitely be looking at your bedtime tips!
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