Your baby’s crib will be their central hub for the first years of their lives. But this doesn’t mean your child will take an immediate liking to any crib you purchase.
As such, we want them to be as comfortable as possible, but how to make baby more comfortable in crib? For more information on how to achieve this, here are some ways to ensure comfort in their cribs.
What causes baby to not be comfortable in crib?
You might first be asking yourself, “How do I know that my child is feeling uncomfortable?” There are telling signs that they will give off to signal you that they are not having a good night’s sleep.
The first and most obvious one is them crying at night. Crying sends a message that something is not right with their sleeping area.
There could be many reasons why they are feeling discomfort that you can mitigate when setting up the crib.
Temperature
Let’s start with outside forces that you can control. First off is the temperature of the room.
Overheating can be very dangerous for a child, so keeping their room consistently cool is crucial.
You can use an electric fan or air conditioner to help keep the room cool for your child to sleep properly and comfortably at night.
Lighting
This is more for when your baby is taking an afternoon nap. Keep their room as dimly lit as possible.
But should babies sleep in the dark? Well, a dark room makes it more soothing for them to fall asleep as compared to a bright room that might make them uncomfortable.
Keep the curtains shut and turn off the lights to keep it a conducive environment for your baby to sleep.
Should you wish to check in on them or change their diaper, bring a small lamp or nightlight with you. Make it slightly bright enough for you to see properly but not too bright that it wakes them up.
Hunger
Your baby could also be hungry. To sleep while having an empty stomach is not a good feeling for any age.
Be sure to feed them around thirty minutes before they take their nap or fall asleep at night.
Keep a routine with you
Your baby might be the type to get used to a sleep training habit or have a specific routine to help them fall asleep.
Whatever the case, having a routine around might help your baby sleep better and more soundly at night.
This can be as simple as reading bedtime stories, giving them belly rubs, or singing a lullaby.
How To Make Baby More Comfortable in Crib? Adjusting the crib itself
Now, these are ways to make your baby feel comfortable and easily sleep. But what if the problem is the crib itself?
All those other tips are useful, but it won’t be effective if the crib itself is the one making things uncomfortable.
Here are some ways you can check and adjust your baby’s crib for guaranteed comfort.
Check if the crib is stable and working
Check if the parts of the crib are working and not faulty. See whether stuff like height and weight are optimal and make necessary adjustments that will make your child sleep soundly.
Change things gradually
Another factor in changing a crib could be your child’s age. Your baby is slowly but surely growing. What is comfortable now might be different from a few months ago. The same things apply as time goes by.
This change could be in the comfort of being able to sleep. A certain type of mattress may not be comfortable for them anymore. They may not like the pillows anymore, and so on.
When you consider changing some parts of the crib, make these changes gradual. What this means is don’t make all the changes in one go.
There is a chance that your baby may not take the sudden changes all that well. Regardless of whether or not they may no longer feel comfortable with the crib as it is now, suddenly changing everything might make them feel even more uncomfortable and restless.
Change certain parts of the crib one by one. Leave some days for your baby to get used to each new change to guarantee proper sleep. All the better if the change is unnoticeable for them.
This line of thinking leads to the next tip to follow when making the crib more comfortable.
Limit the amount of changes
This might run contradictory to the last point shown literally a while ago. But don’t worry, it doesn’t.
As mentioned earlier, suddenly changing something might cause your baby to feel a little more uncomfortable than the discomfort that they might be feeling.
Even with the crib calling for some changes, it doesn’t have to be that way. Like how your baby may develop a special connection with a blanket, or toy, the same applies to their crib.
It does make sense as this is where they spend their times napping and sleeping, which make up a big bulk of their day.
Only change parts of the crib that call for changes. Whether it needs fixing or your baby might want something new. If your baby is showing that they are comfortable with how things are with those little changes, then that should be enough.
Make the area appealing
Now when you are going to make some changes, make those changes appealing to your baby.
The goal is to not only make them sleep soundly but also make the area as secure and homey as possible.
Make the environment feel welcoming. You can do this by adding stuffed toys and baby toys (though make sure they are safe for them to play with). The same goes for the crib itself.
Go for mattresses and pillow cases that are soft to the touch and make it comfy to sleep in.
Ambiance is also another way to make the place nice to sleep in. Add music that will help them feel relaxed and at ease when staying in their room, which can lead to better sleep.
Conclusion
Sleep is an important activity for any person, especially babies. To ensure proper sleep, the sleeping area should be comfortable and secure.
We hope this helps you figure out ways to keep your baby’s crib a comfortable place to spend their afternoon naps and sleep during nighttime.