There is one sentence in the English language which will consistently inspire awe, jealousy, anger, bewilderment and desperation.
It’s when one mother says to another: “My baby sleeps through the night.”
We all want our children to be good sleepers, ideally from the baby stage.
We also sort-of understand that for the first six months of baby’s life, we are probably going to spend quite a few nights watching Netflix at 3am, with a breastfeeding baby attached to us, settling a screaming child in the night or changing a dirty nappy at dawn.
But we’ll also take any help we can get if it means an extra couple of hours - we’ll even take 30 minutes - of restful, uninterrupted sleep.
We’ve created a series of parenting videos like this one on sleep hacks to give parents some expert tips and ideas on ways to settle baby and turn bedtime into a pleasant experience, not a never-ending battle.
If you find that your baby is restless and agitated, baby massage is recommended by experts as a useful way to soothe little one. And you can easily do it at home.
One technique to try is the “I-L-U” massage: using some cream or oil, draw the letter “I,” an upside-down letter “L” and an upside-down “U” on baby’s tummy. Use gentle, firm strokes, massage from under the ribs to the belly button and repeat the motions six to eight times. This should settle and relax baby and get them ready for bed.
Sleep is just as important for older children - watch our video to see which sleep aid does the trick to keep kids in bed until it’s time to get up.