Baby Sleep Tips: Teaching Your Baby The Difference Between Night And Day

With some gentle coaching from you, your baby can start to learn about the difference between day and night in her first two weeks. Follow the next six steps to get her sleeping habits on the right track today:

1 - During the day, get your baby outside as much as possible for a healthy dose of daylight. If he's sleeping, the feel of fresh air on his skin will stimulate him. When indoors, keep the house bright and draw back the curtains. Turn the lights on if it's winter. All of this will start to regulate his body clock.

2 - When your baby is awake (for a very short time in the early weeks) interact with him, talk to him, stroke his skin and place your face near his so he can see you. At this age, there's no need for any stimulation other than being close to his family. Just being held is stimulating for an infant.

3 - Night time should be dark and quiet. Use a night light when feeding your baby and don't engage with him too much. A cuddle and feed and straight back to bed will set him up for healthy sleeping habits in the next few months. Only change his nappy if you really need to and keep your voice low.

4 - Prepare your baby for nap and bed times by completing a short routine before each sleep. Although they won't mean much to your baby at first, he will soon learn what is about to happen next and this will help him to transition from awake to asleep as he gets older.

The night time routine could involve a bath, sleepsuit, feed and bed. At nap time a shortened version of this, such as a quick face wash, nappy change and milk feed will be enough.

5 - Help your baby learn to self soothe by introducing sleep props that don't need your presence. A baby sleep CD that plays a steady heartbeat, white noise or the rhythm of the sea are all effective in helping to lull him to sleep and to transition between sleep cycles.

A great sleep cue to introduce from the beginning is a baby comforter. Choose something that you can cuddle up to baby with when feeding and when your baby is older and fully mobile you can pop it in the cot with him so he feels safe without you there.

Later, you can detach it and give to him for cuddles. And when you feel it is safe, you can leave it with him at sleep times too. Baby comforters have been proven to help babies sleep through the night from an early age.

Baby sleeping bags are useful as part of the bedtime routine and will also stop your baby waking with the cold at night.

6 - Give your baby a safe place to sleep. A first your baby will fall asleep whenever he's tired, no matter where he is. But soon he will need a place to nap and sleep at night that is consistent and helps him to get the rest he needs.

But you should decide on where you want him to sleep at night and during the day as early as possible and start putting him down to sleep there so that it becomes a familiar, safe place for him. It doesn't have to be every sleep time at first. But gradually get him used to falling asleep in the same place every night and nap time.

It's easier to start by establishing good sleeping habits than it is to put things right later on.