Following a regular bedtime routine and sleeping pattern can help a lot in the sleeping behavior of infants and maternal mood.

Results indicate that the establishment of a nightly bedtime routine produced significant reductions in problematic sleep behaviors for infants and toddlers. Improvements were seen in latency and sleep onset and in the number and duration of night wakings. Toddlers were less likely to call out to their parents or get out of their crib/bed during the night. Sleep continuity increased and there was a significant decrease in the number of mothers who rated their child’s sleep as problematic. Maternal mood also significantly improved.

According to the study, sleep problems are one of the most common concerns of parents of young children; approximately 20 to 30 percent of infants and toddlers experience sleep difficulties. Previous studies have found that successful treatment of children’s sleep problems with behavioral interventions also result in improvements in parental well-being.

“There is no question that maternal mood and children’s sleep impact one another. The better a child sleeps and the easier bedtime is, the better a mother’s mood is going to be,” said Mindell. “In addition, a mom who is not feeling tense, depressed, and fatigued is going to be calmer at bedtime, which will help a child settle down to sleep.”

(Source) Science Daily

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Here is a good accessory for parents who use pacifiers to calm down their crying babies. The gums of an infant usually become itchy at their age since their teeth are slowly developing. At times, using the standard baby bottles may not always do the trick as their usual step would be to bite off the nipples of their feeding bottle to ooze that itch.

One thing that parents really hate though is having to get up at night to look after their child. Pacifiers are a good recourse but at times, you may find it hard to get up and look for them. The next thing you know, you cannot go back to sleep.

The Paci-Plushies may seem optional but at least it helps lessen the need of most parents to get up and find pacifiers. Further, you can simply reach out for them and then go back to sleep.

Sleep deprived parents of pacifier using tots know how exhausting it is to get up out of bed several times a night in order to replace missing pacifies for a wailing child. Paci-Plushies™, a plush pacifier holder which allows infants and toddlers to easily find a dropped pacifier, is scheduled to launch at the ABC Kids Expo in September, 2008.

(Source) PR.com

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