Solving the Fear Factor: What to do when your baby is suddenly afraid of his crib or his room

As parents, the last thing we want is to see our children sad, upset or in pain…in fact, we’ll do anything we can to try to ease their suffering and help them feel safe, happy and loved.

But, as we know, sometimes babies need to learn new habits, and it can be a bumpy road until they realize this is just the new, improved way of doing things. That is definitely the case with learning to sleep.

For babies who have depended on bottles, breastfeeding and rocking to lull them back to dreamland every time they wake up, it can take a while to learn how to do it themselves.

One of the side effects of sleep training is that babies can temporarily protest the crib or their room. It’s no wonder…they associate these things with something they don’t like: having to go to sleep on their own! This is a pretty common complaint, and many parents experience it when their babies or toddlers start The Sleep Sense Program. Some even tell me their babies start to cry the minute they walk them into the bedroom!

The good news is that it’s usually very short term. In fact, I often encourage parents to see it as a great thing. It means their child is very smart, and has figured out that the bedtime routine now means they are getting close to going to bed. This is not necessarily a happy moment for your child, because she doesn’t know how to do this yet and it’s not what she’s used to. It’s only natural that she’s a little anxious.

With time and practice, though, your little one will get better and better at his own skills, and will go to bed happily. In the meantime, just be patient and use soft, soothing tones when you put your baby to sleep. Remind him that it’s just bedtime and that everything will be okay. It often takes a very short time for babies to get over this fear and learn to put themselves to sleep.

When my own children were old enough to walk, they would often just go up to their cribs and point to get in it when they were ready to sleep. That’s when I knew the Sleep Sense Program had really worked its magic; they had become healthy, secure kids who recognized when they were tired and just wanted to go to sleep. This can be the case for any of the Sleep Sense babies, so just hang in there and soon enough your child will be going to bed without a fuss!