Top tips to get your child to sleep.

1) The Bedroom

Pay attention to your child’s bedroom. A cool dark quiet room is ideal. Remove most toys, games, televisions, computers, and radios if your child is having trouble falling asleep or is frequently up at night. Climb into your child’s bed to see how their bedroom feels from their viewpoint.

2) The Bed, Bedding and Pillows

Providing your child with good bedding and comfortable bedclothes is vitally important to ensure their growing bodies get the support that they need for a comfy night’s sleep.

3) The Bedtime Routine

A bed time routine is a powerful “cue” that it is time to sleep. It needs to be simple. A complicated routine that requires a parent to be present makes it hard for a child to go back to sleep. Try writing out the bedtime routine to make it consistent. Share these “scripts” with other caregivers like baby-sitters, grandparents and dads

4) Exercise

An hour of moderate exercise daily will help your child sleep better. You can break the hour up into 4 chunks of 15 minute slots.

5) Sleepy foods

Food that will help induce sleep include poultry ,oats, bananas, honey and green leafy vegetables. Include some of these in the evening meal followed by a glass of warm milk.