Newborn Sleep Essentials

A Guide to Help you Calm your Fussy Newborn

Dr. Harvey Karp is my go-to for all things newborn sleep and gives us an excellent guide for how to help settle little ones when it seems impossible. These techniques are to be used once you know that your baby is well fed and not crying out of hunger.

Sucking- Sucking can be referring to eating or sucking on a pacifier. Sucking turns on their calming reflex. It has been shown that non-nutritive sucking lessens stress and can stimulate pain-relieving chemicals in a baby’s brain.

Swaddle- A swaddle is used to stop the baby’s Moro reflex from jerking them awake and to keep their arms from flailing so that they can pay attention to the other S’s. The baby’s arms should be straight down at their side and the blanket should be tucked and folded as tightly as possible. After folding the swaddle, the blanket shouldn’t be able to loosen and pop back open as this is a risk for suffocation. Newborn swaddles are useful here too for those extra squirmy arms. As soon as your newborn is too long to be swaddled in a blanket, the safest thing to use is a zip up or velcro swaddle so that there are never any loose blankets in the bassinet or crib.

Side settle- Dr. Karp suggests that settling a baby in the side/stomach position stops the panicky feeling of falling. Putting a baby straight down into their bassinet on their back may make them feel like they’re in a free fall and set off their Moro reflex. Make sure the baby has been fed before rolling onto their side and that you are only using the side position for settling in your arms or in the bassinet before rolling them onto their backs for sleeping. Again, for sleeping, BACK IS BEST and the only safe way to sleep unattended to help prevent SIDS.

Shushing- When your baby is swaddled and you’re working on settling them to sleep, set up a white noise machine 2 feet from the baby’s head so that it triggers the calming reflex. The volume should be set to be a bit louder than the baby’s screams. The ideal volume is 60 decibels.

Swinging- The swinging motion mimics the movement that the baby felt in the womb, and this activates their calming reflex. This can be done using a swinging motion in your arms, in a sling or carrier, or in an infant swing.

Using these techniques together are a sure way to help calm your baby and get them off to sleep!