After birth your baby gets to know a whole new world. Babies have to learn to sleep regularly. It is completely normal in the first few months of life for your child to need a lot of help falling asleep and to wake up frequently at night. Only if this does not slowly improve by the age of 6 or 8 months, experts do speak of a sleeping problem.

There are problems falling asleep and problems staying asleep.

A problem falling asleep means:

• Your baby can only fall asleep if you help him or her a lot (e.g., carrying him or her around for a long time).
• Falling asleep always takes a long time (more than 30 minutes).
• The difficulties have not only occurred a few times, but have lasted longer than 1 month.
• The situation is burdening for you or your baby or the relationship between you and your baby.

A problem maintaining sleep means:

• Your baby wakes up several times or for long periods almost every night.
• When they wakes up at night, they cannot go back to sleep on their own and always need a lot of help.
• The difficulties do not only occur a few times, but have lasted longer than 1 month.
• The situation is burdening for you and your baby or the relationship between you and your baby.

It can be very stressful for you as a parent if you can no longer get enough sleep yourself because your child is crying and not sleeping.

No matter how old your baby is, you can always seek professional help if you are worried or the situation becomes too difficult for you. For acute crisis situations, you will find an emergency plan with emergency contacts in the Emergency & Help section.