Many times when you bring a baby home from the hospital, you and the baby find yourselves waking in the middle of the night because of the new surroundings. It won’t always be this way though and you can get your baby to sleep through the night if you know what to do. It should be understood that most newborn babies do not sleep through the night for at least the first couple of weeks. However after that, you can help a baby sleep through the night if you use a few well kept mom secrets.

The first thing to realize that babies only wake up when they are hungry, wet, dirty or sick. The easiest way to determine this is to start from the top and work your way down. If they don’t have a fever or have not thrown up, then they are not sick so you can reasonably check that off of your list. The next thing to do is check to see if they are wet or dirty. All moms know how to check for this but I wouldn’t stick my finger in the leg of the diaper to check. You should have a light somewhere near the bassinette or crib so you can check for this. The only thing that is left is hunger.

Many babies wake up because of hunger and because they are used to being fed in the hospital every four hours. Once you get your baby home, you can either continue in this manner or allow the baby to sleep as long as they can without waking them to be fed. If you feed them as much as they want just before putting the down for the night, they will have a full belly and are more apt to begin sleeping through the night. Most doctors tell you not to feed them solid foods such as cereal or baby food until they are at least six months old. How would you like it if you could only drink for six months? You most likely would not like it and could not sleep longer than a few hours without your stomach needing food.

Moms that understand babies know that in order to get a baby to sleep through the night you have to satisfy their tummies. Baby food manufacturers make a box cereal that can be mixed with formula. Old moms call this pablem. Many times this can be used in their formula as a filler. If you mix one tablespoon of the powdered cereal with two ounces of formula, it is enough to give them something solid to digest as well as fill their tummies up and make the formula last. Once they begin a regimen of this your baby will be sleeping through the night. This is the best kept secret of all moms to help a baby sleep through the night. If you try this for a few nights and then back off of the pablem, your baby should still sleep well through the night.