Good sleeping habits are important for your baby's

physical and emotional well-being. An important part of

establishing good sleeping habits is the sleep environment –

where your child sleeps, the kind of crib or 

baby bed,

the type of mattress, and so on.


Creating a safe sleep environment will also reduce the

risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), which is when a

baby younger than one year of age dies unexpectedly while

sleeping. Putting your baby to sleep on his back reduces the

risk of SIDS.


The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that babies

under one year of age sleep on their backs in cribs that meet

Canadian Government safety standards. Babies should not sleep

in their parents’ bed, which is called bedsharing. Adult

beds are not safe for babies. Many large-scale studies have

shown that bedsharing can put babies at greater risk for

entrapment and suffocation.


If you want your baby to be near you during the night,

you can put a crib in your room, next to your bed. This is

called cosleeping. Many mothers find that this makes night-

time breastfeeding easier. This type of sleeping arrangement

may also further reduce the risk of SIDS.


Whatever you choose, here are some things you should know

to help you and your baby get a good and safe night's

sleep.


General guidelines

For the first year of your baby’s life, the

safest place to sleep is in the child’s own 

baby

crib, on her back.

When your baby can turn over on his own, there’s

no need to force your baby into the back sleep position. Foam

wedges or towel rolls to keep babies on their side should not

be used.

Infants should never sleep on pillows, air

mattresses, waterbeds, cushions, soft materials or loose

bedding. Even when you are travelling, your baby must have a

safe place to sleep. Car seats and infant carriers are not to

be used to replace the crib for your baby’s sleep.


A baby should sleep in a room that is quiet, dark

and at a slightly cool temperature.


Consider dressing your baby in sleepers so that

you don’t need a blanket to cover her.

Keep your baby away from cigarette smoke. Babies

whose mothers smoked during pregnancy, and babies who

continue to be exposed to smoke after birth are at an

increased risk of SIDS.

Never nap or sleep with your baby or let your

baby sleep alone on a couch, sofa or armchair. This increases

the risk of suffocation.


Babies under one year of age should sleep on their backs

in their own cribs


Be sure your 

baby

cot meets government safety standards. 

Place your baby to sleep on his back on a firm,

flat surface. Do not use eiderdowns (a comforter filled with

a type of down), comforters, bulky blankets, bumper pads or

pillow-like items in your baby’s bed.


Do not leave a bottle of milk or juice in your baby

’s bed.


Establish a calming bedtime routine that is

consistent and predictable.

Try to keep nap times and bedtime the same every

day, even on weekends.

Set aside 10 min to 30 min to do something special

with your baby before bed. Depending on your baby’s age,

this could be a quiet talk, quiet play or reading.


Allow infants to fall asleep on their own so that

they can learn to comfort themselves.

The practical benefits of bed sharing are obvious. Not

only are parents close by to respond to the baby if something

goes wrong, but co-sleeping makes it easier for

the breastfeeding mom to nurse throughout the

night. Then, of course, there's the irresistible sweet

intimacy of it. "There is an instinctive need for the

mother to be close to her baby," says Cynthia Epps,

M.S., a certified lactation educator at the Pump Station in

Santa Monica, Calif. Working women who don't get to see

their babies all day may be especially attracted to co-

sleeping to make up for the missed contact. "Keeping the

baby close, with skin-to-skin contact, calms the

baby," says Epps. "And it can cement the emotional

bond between mother and child."

What about sharing a bed with older children, for

whom co-sleeping poses no significant health risks? Samantha

Gadsden, a birth doula in Caerphilly, Wales, shares a

bed with her three children, even though the U.K.'s

National Health Service shares the AAP's stance against

co-sleeping. When other risk factors are not present,

official discouraging of co-sleeping is "coercion and

scare-mongering, and treating women like they are not

intelligent," Gadsden told BBC News in November 2018.

"It's biologically normal to co-sleep," she

said, adding that parents should be informed of the pros, as

wells as the cons, of bed-sharing, including the potential

benefit of helping babies to regulate their breathing and

temperature.


How Much Sleep Do Babies Need?


Sleep patterns will change over the first

year of a baby’s life, including the number of hours of

sleep needed and the duration of sleep periods throughout the

day and night.

0 to 3 months: It’s normal for newborns

to spend 14 to 17 hours1 asleep in a 24-hour day,

broken into shorter periods to accommodate feeding, diaper

changes, and interaction with their family. Breastfed infants

usually need to eat more frequently than bottle-fed

infants2, about every 2 hours versus every 3 hours.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine3 advises

parents not to worry if their newborn’s sleep pattern doesn

’t match the projections, as these amounts can vary before

the first 4 months.

3 to 6 months: Starting at around 3

months of age, an infant’s daily sleep needs drop to 12 to

15 hours. Around this time, sleep also starts consolidating

into longer periods4 as babies are able to go

longer without feeding. Sometime during this period is when

most babies start to sleep through the night, though

there are exceptions to the rule.


6 to 12 months: From 6 months onward,

babies do the bulk of their sleeping at night. However, other

issues such as teething, growth spurts, illnesses, or sleep

regressions may start leading to nighttime awakenings.

Parents may opt to use more specific sleep-training

strategies if babies aren’t sleeping through the night

at this stage.