The Sleep Nanny Podcast

Lucy Shrimpton

Welcome to the home of the Sensory Sleep Methodology™ This is where you’ll hear support for parents and caregivers with healthy childhood sleep development. read less
Kids & FamilyKids & Family

Episodes

What You Didn't Know About Tongue-Tie WIth Sammy Berry
12-09-2024
What You Didn't Know About Tongue-Tie WIth Sammy Berry
In 2011, Sammy qualified as a midwife and have since worked within the NHS. After experiencing tongue-tie with all three of their children, with the youngest requiring a division, they developed a strong interest and passion for supporting families in overcoming the challenges that tongue-tie can bring. They studied a postgraduate specialist course, ‘Advanced Clinical Skills in Tongue-Tie (Ankyloglossia) Management,’ at the University of Wolverhampton, and completed their practical training under the supervision of a consultant neonatologist and an experienced registered midwife/frenulotomist. Medications or milk thickeners do not cure reflux! While they can help alleviate symptoms, they do not address the underlying cause. Having been through this as a parent, it's important to recognize that although reflux is common, it is not normal. Consider this: if an adult or toddler went to the GP and reported severe pain or physical sickness every time they ate, would the GP simply prescribe medication or suggest adding a thickener to drinks? Absolutely not! They would investigate the root cause to understand what is happening. You wouldn’t be satisfied with the response, “You’re still gaining weight” or “You’ll grow out of it.” So why is this acceptable for babies? Babies need support to identify the source of their discomfort, and as parents, we also need help to address these causes, both mentally and physically. Finding the cause isn’t always easy—many factors can contribute to reflux. Specialists often highlight that a major overlooked cause is tongue-tie or oral dysfunction. Poor oral function can increase air intake, which worsens reflux. Additionally, other conditions such as CMPA (Cow's Milk Protein Allergy) or dysphagia may play a role. So don't settle for just treating the symptoms—seek the right support to find the cause!   Find Sammy here - https://www.instagram.com/tonguetiespecialist
My Baby Doesn’t Sleep Enough
13-09-2022
My Baby Doesn’t Sleep Enough
In this blog, we are going to be addressing the fact that you’ve recognized that your baby doesn’t sleep enough, or your little one doesn’t sleep enough. So we’re going to find out why. Where is it in 24 hours that the lack of sleep is coming from? Because understanding this is key.  In the previous blog we started talking about overtiredness and what that does, and the effect of overtiredness. So today, we are going to fully understand where the overtiredness could be coming from.  First of all, could it be lack of daytime sleep? That’s the first one I want you to think about. Is your child under three? If they are, then they probably do still need some daytime sleep. And don’t get me wrong, sometimes they need daytime sleep beyond age three as well. But if they are under three, then it’s pretty much a sure thing that they do need some. And if that’s the case, how much should that be, at this current age and stage that they are? How much daytime sleep would be beneficial for them? And in what sections? How many? How many naps and how long would they be, if they’re going to be doing the best sleep they can do? So if we can understand that we can then understand whether they’re getting enough or not. That immediately gives us a fixing point like, “Ah, okay, my two-year-old, let’s say, is having a half an hour nap in the day.” Okay brilliant, we’ve identified a problem. It’s not enough sleep for a two-year-old, we need to be aiming more towards the two-hour mark. So we already go, “Oh right, okay. That’s what I need to do to help to fix things.” It could be the amount, but it could also be the quality. So you might think, “Oh no, my child gets loads of sleep. They get the exact amount that they need for their age and stage.” But if the quality of that sleep isn’t great that could be the problem. It could be the timing as well. So what if they’re getting the quantity overall, but the quality is poor and it’s in little snatched naps of light sleep. And perhaps, in their case, it’s not restorative enough, and the quality of sleep is down. Also, motion sleep, so the sleep that you have on the go, in the pushchair, or the car, or on the move, motion sleep often won’t give the same quality of sleep as a proper sleep space and ideal sleep environment. It can, but often it doesn’t. So that could be the key and the thing that is causing your little one to be overtired. So these are all things that you can look at and explore to spot it with your little one where’s that overtiredness coming from.  The other thing with timing to look at is if they’re awake for too long between sleeps. So sometimes people will tell me, “Yep, they’re getting enough sleep.” And they are, they’re getting enough. Let’s go back to our two-year-old, perhaps they’re getting nearly two hours every day and it’s brilliant, but they’re taking that a bit late in the day. So actually, from their morning wake-up time until the start of that nap time, if that window of awakeness is too long, even if they’re getting the ideal amount of nap after that, the very fact that wake window is too long could be the reason for their overtiredness, even if they are getting enough naptime. So timing does play a part in this as well.  Timing is something that can easily be overlooked or ignored because you think, “They get the sleep eventually.” Yeah, but that extended wakeful period may have already done the harm and cause the overtiredness. When you look at bedtime itself. Is bedtime late, a bit too late or irregular? Does it move around a lot? That could be another reason for overtiredness, a bedtime that isn’t consistent, or that is too late for a little one.  Most 0 to 6 year olds, some seven-year-olds, will do best with a bedtime around 7:00 PM. That’s if you operate a kind of a day in the life of where you want to wake up between 6:00 AM and 7:00 AM, maybe you have school or preschool, or you are working, and then wind down, your evening meal or whatever, and then to sleep around 7:00 PM, somewhere between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, for sure. Absolutely, somewhere between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, for anyone, I would say, 0 to 10 years. You may get a few on the older side that can cope with a slightly later bedtime, but generally speaking, from 0 to 10 years, I would say somewhere between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, it’s going to fit really, really well. 7:00 PM’s great, right down the middle. The last one that you could look at in terms, if you’re trying to figure out, where is this overtiredness coming from? I know my child’s overtired, I figured that out in the last episode, but where is it coming from? Could it be disturbed nights? Do you have lots of wake ups going on in the night, lots of disruption? Are they up and down? Are they having wakeful periods in the night?  That, in itself, is going to cause overtiredness because not only do they lose those bits of sleep when they wake up, but the very fact that they’re having them means that the sleep cycles are not thorough and they’re not nourishing. We cycle through our sleep like this. And if they’re spending a lot of time up here, they’re not getting their deep, nourishing sleep and having that restorative effect. So it could be the disturbed nights, okay? So have a think about those, see which it could be for you. If this has helped you go, “Ah yes, it’s that,” then brilliant, because you can then move on into my blog, where I’m going to be sharing with you how to actually fix that, how to get them to sleep more. Take our Quiz and get your free custom sleep plan today!
Travelling And Kids Sleep
26-07-2022
Travelling And Kids Sleep
https://youtu.be/lx4Kmk1UcVk To conclude my little series on traveling with your little ones and maintaining the best sleep possible, this post is all about the return home. These tips are going to help you to get your little one’s sleep back on track and get them sleeping really nicely at home when you’ve returned from travel or being away, or on a holiday, or something like that. Number one, the journey home itself. So when you’re coming home a bit like the journey out, you have this random day, it’s a transitional day. It’s going to be a day where you may find you or your child might get more sleep than usual, you might get less sleep than usual. It doesn’t matter, it’s a transition. It’s when you get back, that really makes the difference in getting back into your routine. When you come back, try if possible, it’s not always possible, but try if you can to factor in a recovery day. That’s the day after the travel day. So you’ve got your travel day and then a recovery day. If you can, if your timetable allows. That’s going to give you the opportunity to just play with timing, whatever time we start, the day is fine. Wake up when your body clock’s ready. And then, look at, where are we now? What time is it? Right, based on this wake-up time we need to have, or not have naps. Based on what happens there, we need to do what we need to do in order for bedtime to happen at that time, which is your time at home. So having that recovery day, it’s like having a buffer zone to really sort it all back out. The second thing is home routine right away. Get into your home routine right away. Once you’ve got back and you’ve done that, you’re going to be starting to think, right it’s breakfast time at this time, this is our dinner time, this is when bedtime is. Just get back into that routine and rhythm. And particularly when it comes to your bedtime routine for little ones and the environment that they’re in. If they are in their own room, if they spent a week sleeping in a room with a sibling, but normally at home, they’re on their own, it’s hard and fast rules back to normal. That’s where you sleep, your bed, your room. If they are usually in their own cot, but they’ve been sleeping in a bed or a different sleep setting or in with parents on a holiday, back to normal, back to their own sleep space. Whatever the rules are at home, they need to come back right away. The third thing to remind you of is jet lag. If you have changed time zones, especially big ones, jet lag can last a week. It can take a week to really get back to normal. But you’re going to encourage that along and you’re going to help that along faster by getting into your local time and your routine based on the time zone you’re back in. And by getting into those cues, the environments, the meal times, all those things that make up the home routine. Catch-ups as well. If you are, or your little one is tired, more than usual, have little catch-ups. It’s okay. Don’t think you’ve got to keep your little one awake to maintain the perfect bedtime if they’re tired, just because perhaps they don’t usually nap or they’ve had their usual amount of naps. If there’s additional tiredness there, a little catch-up sleep, really won’t hurt. And then still go ahead with your normal bedtime, so you can get that back onto the normal path. Take care and I hope that this helps you and your little one if you are travelling soon. Take our Quiz and get your free custom sleep plan today!