Lullaby Babies Blog » Babies wake during night http://www.lullaby-babies.co.uk/blog Lullaby Babies Blog with tips on how to help your baby sleep and news about our products Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:31:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Understanding why babies wake during the night http://www.lullaby-babies.co.uk/blog/2008/04/understanding-why-babies-wake-during-the-night/ http://www.lullaby-babies.co.uk/blog/2008/04/understanding-why-babies-wake-during-the-night/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:29:58 +0000 lullabybabies http://babysleep.wordpress.com/?p=25 It is important that we understand the reasons why newborn babies wake in the night. In the first few months they have many essential needs, yet their ability to communicate is extremely low. For example, their miniscule tummies digest milk extremely quickly and if the stimulus for hunger does not wake the baby, he will not get the level of nourishment needed at that vulnerable age (Sears 2006). Likewise, babies are still learning to regulate temperature and it’s an important survival mechanism that they awaken if they are too cold or hot during the night. The same applies to many stimuli that also have the potential to wake the baby. Therefore, these mechanisms are not there just to annoy the parents, but to ensure the well-being of the baby! As we are next dragging ourselves out of bed to tend to baby, we should take comfort in the fact that his innate, built-in defence-mechanisms are evidently working just fine!

W. Sears (2006). “8 INFANT SLEEP FACTS EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW.” (09/10/07).

]]> http://www.lullaby-babies.co.uk/blog/2008/04/understanding-why-babies-wake-during-the-night/feed/ 0