An introduction to the Ellen Barron Family Centre

Transcript

The Ellen Barron Family Centre provides support for parents experiencing significant parenting challenges including ongoing sleep issues with their infants and young children.

Reception staff: Hi. Welcome to Ellen Barron. My name is Rebecca. We have a little bit of paperwork to do with you. Probably take about 5 or 10 minutes to run through and then we'll get you settled.

These videos relate to responsive settling strategies that we use to help parents gain confidence with their parenting. It's very normal for a baby to wake during the day and night between sleep cycles. Newborn babies need to be fed regularly and over time the duration between nighttime feeds gradually extends until the baby no longer requires to be fed.

Waking during the night is normal for both babies and adults. Most will go back to sleep and not even remember that they've woken.

Night waking only becomes a problem when the baby won't go back to sleep themselves. Often they'll wake at the end of each sleep cycle and cry until a parent comforts them back to sleep. When this pattern is persistent the baby becomes overtired and then it becomes more difficult to get the baby back to sleep. We understand how exhausted parents can become after months of disturbed sleep.

It is important to know that as a parent you are not doing anything wrong. In the first instance you should ensure your baby is well and that there is no underlying medical cause for your baby to wake.

Once you are happy that your baby is healthy, look at how your baby goes to sleep in the first place.

Are you nursing your baby until they fall asleep, or maybe patting your baby off to sleep, or feeding them each time they wake? Parents need to be able to read their baby's cues for tiredness and hunger. Sometimes parents will misinterpret these cues which leads to, for example, a parent feeding a baby when in fact they're overtired.

Your baby's cues will normally tell you 'I'm getting tired now'.  For example, your baby may become disinterested or start to yawn. These cues are very important because if you miss them, your baby will become over tired and more difficult to settle.

You can obtain more information on how to recognise your baby's cues from your Child Health Nurse or by browsing this website. The following videos have been developed for use in this supported environment of the Ellen Barron Family Centre.

It is very important to have support when implementing settling strategies with your infant or toddler. Before using these strategies at home, please seek support from your Child Health Nurse, your general practitioner or by calling 13 Health (13 43 25 84).