My Baby Falls Asleep Standing Up - What Can I Do?
As an adult, if you can fall asleep anywhere, you’re the envy of all your friends. As a baby, it’s not quite so simple. When your baby first learns to stand up, it’s a beautiful development for you to cherish, but unfortunately, some babies can run into a bit of an issue.
Some babies learn to stand up before they know how to sit back down again. That’s fine during the day when you’re there to help them go from a standing to a seating position, but it can cause a few problems during nap times and at night.
That’s when you get a surprisingly common case of standing sleeping baby.
What can you do about it?
As is the case with just about every sleep issue you encounter, there’s a fine line between helping your little one solve this sleeping dilemma and creating a bad habit that could sabotage their sleep.
The solution seems obvious - you go in and lie them down. But if you keep doing the work for them they won’t learn to sit back down themselves. They’ll also learn that standing up and making a fuss is a great way to get mum and dad back into their room. All that can make an initially comical situation very frustrating, very fast.
Thankfully, there is a relatively simple two-step solution to this problem:
Work on their standing-to-sitting skill
The quicker your baby learns how to sit down for themselves, the sooner you’ll both be able to get a good night’s sleep. With that in mind, you should practice sitting down with them as much as you can during their waking hours.
When your baby stands up, put their favourite toy or a treat on the ground nearby to encourage them to return to ground level to get their reward. This is a skill they should master quite quickly.
Show them that sleeping is easier when they lie down
You might think that sleeping lying down is instinctive, but babies can sleep in all sorts of weird and wonderful positions. You don’t want to create a situation where you’re doing all the work for your baby, so rather than physically lying them down, use a repeatable key phrase such as “come lie down” while patting the mattress. That will teach them to do the work themselves and help them realise that lying down is the best way to sleep.
As with any part of the sleep routine, be patient, calm and considered. The hard work will soon pay off and you’ll be able to look back and laugh at the mysterious case of the standing sleeping baby. Please schedule your free consultation to discuss this or any other issues you are experiencing with your baby’s sleep.
