How to Help Your Baby Sleep Without Being Held
Holding your baby in your arms really puts everything into perspective – at that moment, nothing else exists except for you and your little one. Being able to soothe your baby can be a wonderful bonding moment, but at times, it can put a strain on balancing everything else at home. So it’s perfectly valid to ask how to get the baby to sleep without being held.
Every parenting style is unique. We want our baby products to help parents, especially those who find soothing their child all the time unsustainable due to varying circumstances that affect their work-life balance at home.
At Riff Raff Sleep Toys, our goal is to provide families with a toy that helps get more sleep for the bubbas, mums and dads out there using them. No matter what baby products you’re looking for – from dummy comforters, toys for cot, baby security blankets, newborn toys, teething toys, to baby hooded towels, you’ll find something special in our selection of sleep toys. We will help you find a solution on how to get the baby to sleep without being held.
How to introduce a sleep aid to your baby?
It’s important to remember that Riff Raff sleep toys don’t just instantly put the baby to sleep. The idea behind these toys is that the toy’s look, feel, smell, and sound will reinforce a positive sleep association with bedtime, thereby enabling your baby to rely less on external comfort. But that takes time and effort. Thankfully, we’ve compiled a guide on how to get the baby to sleep without being held, and that includes introducing a comforter to assist your baby during this transition.
Subtly integrate the toy into the routine
We recommend that you don’t introduce any other changes to make the toy’s increasing presence more apparent. Make sure to include their new bedtime buddy whenever you’re feeding or rocking your baby to sleep in your arms. Ensure that the experience is as pleasant as possible so every time your little one sees this toy, it’s a visual comfort. If your little one is a bigger bubba, you can even have them hold the toy’s blanket body and let them feel the soft fabric as part of the weaning process.
Keep the consistency
Do this for every nap time and make it a memorable step during bedtime. Whenever you put your baby to sleep, ensure that they hear their Riff Raff toy’s magical sleepy lullaby or white noise rain with a heartbeat – whichever they respond best to. Keeping this routine ensures that you establish their new buddy as a comforting permanent fixture into their sleep schedule, thus giving them a sense of security that they’re safe even when the parent is not around. This will help expedite the whole process of how to get the baby to sleep without being held.
Wean them off slowly
Like we mentioned earlier, techniques on how to get the baby to sleep without being held takes time, and we encourage you to be patient. After all, you’re equipping your little one with a very helpful skill that can also benefit you in the long run. After a few days of constantly incorporating these plush toys into your baby’s nighttime routine, your scent should have rubbed onto them by now, paving the way for a more successful transfer to cot.
Removing the undesired support successfully will take a glacial pace. First, you’ll want to watch out for the last few moments before they’re asleep: when their eyes are rolling back. If you’re rocking them to sleep, pause the action during these moments, but still let them fall asleep in your arms. Do this each night, reducing the motion bit by bit until it involves only a nice cuddle. Once your baby has gotten used to being calm even without pacifying sensations, you can attempt transferring them to the cot.
Make sure that your baby is oh so close to being asleep, but not entirely when you’re doing this step. Now trigger your Riff Raff Toy’s sweet lullaby. Early on in this attempt, you can make it a well-supported transition; we even encourage you to put one hand on them or at least just make sure they know you’re near so they feel comfortable – this may mean a mattress on the floor as your baby rests in their own sleep space. But remember, there’s no pressure if you need to step in from time to time and play more of a role as you’re building your little one’s habit of self-settling. It’s essential to remember that you’re establishing good sleep habits where possible, and this does not mean you have to neglect them when you don’t want to.
Keep this up for a good five to seven days, and you’re likely to see successful weaning. You have come a long way now in learning how to get your baby to sleep without being held, so when that moment finally comes, feel free to do some champagne-popping celebration!
Where can you get sleep products for babies?
At Riff Raff Sleep Toys, we specialise in providing baby products that help parents find their method to get their baby to sleep without being held. We strive to make the bedtime routine easier for parents in Australia and beyond with our sleep aid toys. Our website has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to shop for multiple items from the comfort of your home. We use Australia Post for all of our shipping – domestic and international – and we offer both regular and express shipping options for your convenience. Order your baby’s best sleep buddy now so you can also experience good sleep!