Baby Comforters: Comfort (for baby) and Joy (for parents)

Author: Tizzie Hall
People often ask me what the difference is between a baby "comforter" and an "aid" because I recommend using a sleep comforter and I spend lots of time telling parents that sleeping aids are a definite no-no. In reality, they are both aids in essence but the way I see it, there are two types of aids. You have sleeping aids which may become a problem - such as rocking, patting, feeding or giving your baby a dummy to suck on while going to sleep - and then you have good aids which do not require parental participation.

Aids that require your attention are a problem in my opinion. However, something which provides comfort and which the baby can easily find himself when he wakes in the middle of the night or between sleep cycles can be a parent's best friend.

Every baby finds an aid of some sort to comfort himself with just before he goes to sleep. Unless the parents have introduced the aid themselves, they are usually unaware of just what it is that is comforting their baby at sleep time (with the exception of thumb sucking).

An unintroduced baby comforter could be holding, rubbing or playing peek-a-boo with the sheets or blankets but sometimes it can be a little more complicated. I have seen babies play with the bars on their cots just before falling asleep. That is their comforter and this can cause a problem when you ask one of these babies to fall asleep in a travel cot or anywhere away from their beloved cot bars. If they don't have the bars to play with, they can't fall asleep. Another common comforter is playing with labels or tags on bedding or clothing.

In my "traveling with a baby" article, I mentioned Luke as a case study. As I seem to be coming across more and more babies like Luke, I thought I would use this article to share with you his story in more detail.

Luke's parents contacted me when he was 10 months old. Up until this stage, he had always been a good sleeper. His parents had started Luke on my routines when he was five weeks old. At 10 weeks, he had started to sleep all night and had done so nearly every night since. But now, suddenly, at 10 months he was finding it hard to go to sleep and once asleep he was waking up crying several times throughout the night. I consulted with Luke's parents several times over the phone but we couldn't work out what the problem was so I decided a house visit was the only option. After putting Luke to bed I decided to sneak into his room on all fours and observe him in an effort to work out what the problem was.

At first, things looked OK. They had put Luke to bed and he was lying down looking ready for sleep. I watched him and saw a funny movement in his wrist. He was pulling his fingers up as though he was trying to scratch his wrist before he became frustrated and started to cry. It was not the cry you hear when a baby is fighting sleep. He seemed genuinely upset and had tears so I picked him up and went to talk to his parents. After a few minutes, we realised he was looking for the sleeves of his pajamas but he couldn't find them anywhere as he was now in short-sleeves for summer. It was now obvious to us all what Luke's problem had been. We had spent hours on the phone trying to work out what was different about Luke's environment and I felt very silly that we had not considered the summer pajamas to be an issue. We put Luke back in long sleeves and he started sleeping through the night again.

This was a clear case of a baby who was comforting himself to sleep using an aid that the parents were totally unaware of. It is also a good example of why it is better for parents to choose their baby's comforter for them so you know what it is but it can be just about anything so long as it is safe with him in his cot.