While it’s possible, for most parents, bathing their baby in their cute little baby bathtub, and putting them in their cot where they calmly fall asleep, sounds like a fairy-tale. In fact, for most, the biggest change in our everyday life when we become parents is the lack of sleep. You think you can imagine it before, but when it happens to you, you realise that no, you couldn’t have possibly imagined it would turn out to be this way.
Sleepless nights can ruin everything. On top of making both you and your baby tired, they make you irritable, nervous, stressed out, and worst of all, not able to completely enjoy this beautiful new journey of yours. This is why anything that can help you and your baby girl or baby boy get a good night sleep is nothing short of precious.
1. Soothing Noises Machines for a Feeling of Safety
Playing white, pink or brown noise is a great way to help your baby fall asleep and keep them sleep better and longer. These and other types of noises create a womb-like environment, which makes the baby feel comfortable and safe. They also help drown out other sounds, like conversations, phones, doorbells, outside noises, and so on. There are many different types of noise machines, as well as other products that can help soothe a baby with noises.
One very intriguing sleep aid for baby girls and boys are Lulla Dolls, a product described as a sleeping companion. This beautiful soft doll imitates the closeness of the parent or the caregiver, by producing soothing real-life sounds, like heartbeats or breathing. Some products will allow you to record your voice whispering, talking or singing to the baby, to help them fall back asleep if they wake up during the night. Some also feature lullabies or sounds like trains, rain, ocean waves, birds, frogs, crickets, etc.
Some products soothe babies by recreating the feeling of being in a car, which helps a lot of babies fall asleep. It’s a small item that’s placed on the mattress by the baby’s face. It generates low-frequency vibrations that soothe the baby, and are proven to help babies fall asleep. The gentle vibrations that pass through the mattress also produce soothing sounds.
2. Humidifiers for Soothing Scents and Clean Air
Other useful products when it comes to helping your child feel safe and relaxed, fall asleep and sleep longer, are diffusers and humidifiers. Everyone can be woken up by dry air, and especially babies, and humidifiers are a great way to keep the air humid. You can add a drop or two of a health-promoting and relaxing essential oil in a diffuser for some aromatherapy benefits. Many people use essential oils in aromatherapy, but they have been used for their healing powers, as well as their calming and stress relieving effects for millennia.
Some of these healthy and safe sleep aids for babies also purify the air. Furthermore, you can get inventive baby products that combine more functions in one single object. For instance, there are products like humidifiers that also generate different soothing lights to improve sleeping, they may also double as noise machines, playing different types of sounds helpful for babies’ sleeping, they may feature a sound recorder, etc.
3. Blackout Blinds for a Healthy Circadian Rhythm
When it’s dark, we are meant to sleep. Darkness makes our pineal gland start producing melatonin, and this helps our body regulate our circadian rhythm. That is the natural process that synchronises our 24-hour sleep-wake cycle with day and night. However, we aren’t born with a developed circadian rhythm, and when we are babies, we need to learn the difference between day and night. All of this is why children need darkness to sleep.
A good sleeping habit is vital to children’s mental and physical health. Keeping the nursery dark is a great way to enable your child’s, and while you are at it, your own good night sleep. You can use blackout blinds to block out the natural morning or evening light to help your baby develop an internal sleep clock.
4. Dummies to Calm Their Nerves
Probably the most commonly used sleep aid for baby girls and boys around the world, dummies come in so many different forms nowadays, that they make it much easier for the baby to find them if they drop them during the night. While they are growing comfortably in the womb, babies develop the sucking reflex, which helps them feed after they are born. This is one of the reasons why dummies, also known as pacifiers, are helpful when it comes to settling the baby. Typically, they feature a rubber or a silicone nipple, which is attached to a plastic with a ring or a handle, to prevent swallowing and choking.
Babies often drop their dummy, and they may wake up because of this. However, nowadays some products offer some ingenious solutions to this problem. For instance, there are beautiful soft dolls with one or more dummies, soothers or teethers attached to them, which can make beautiful, safe comforters.
5. Warmth for a Happy Tummy
Babies often can’t sleep because of tummy pains and cramps. There are many different things you can do to ease their pain and finally get some sleep. But sometimes, nothing seems to help. That’s why you can also get a baby aid, like a heated belt, which will warm up your baby’s tummy, while also providing pressure. This will help your baby’s body to relax, as well as distract it from the pain. Apart from helping ease the pain, the warmth is also soothing, it provides comfort, and it makes your baby feel safe.