Though training children to sleep on their own has been prevalent for a long time, many parents often hesitate to adopt infant sleep training methods thinking the long-term emotional harms associated with the whole technique.
But, according to a new study, the behavioral sleep techniques are safe for enabling children to settle themselves to sleep.
The study published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday examined the safety issues of the popular infant sleep training technique "controlled comforting" and "camping out" and found them safe to teach babies to sleep themselves.
In controlled comforting technique or graduated extinction, parents leave the child in bed and leave the room for a short period and later return to the room to comfort him/her. The parent increases the interval related to comforting the child each night, thus making the infant used to sleeping alone.
In camping out the parent initially sits with the child on a chair and as the child fell asleep he/she slowly moves out of the room.
"Parents can feel reassured that using sleep interventions like controlled comforting and camping out are effective and safe. Given that the techniques work for most families and are cost-effective, parents and health professionals can feel confident using these sleep techniques to manage infant sleep," lead researcher Dr. Anna Price from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne, said in a statement.
For the analysis, the researchers included 225 infants, seven months of age, having sleep problems. All the participants of the study reported undergoing one of the two infant sleeping methods.
Price and colleagues followed the children for six years. They couldn't find any of these techniques posing any harm to the mental and behavior development of the child. On the other hand, they found these methods improving children's sleep quality and also mother's mental health and sleep patterns.
Following are some recommendations from NHS Choices to help parents solve some sleep problems among children:
* Fix an appropriate sleeping time for the child
* Fix and control the time parent spend with the child before he/she sleeps- put the habit of reading only one story and then say goodnight.
* Making the child comfortable on bed by providing the presence of their favorite toy or dummy.
* In case the child cries, allow them to do so for at least five to 10 minutes before returning and comforting them.
* Put dim light in the room.
* Keep water bottle within the child's reach.
* Put the child back to bed immediately when they get up than taking him/her around the house.
