section 5
A safe place to sleep and play
10-12 months
meeting
27
Let’s review:
Once the meeting starts, welcome everyone and ask the participants: • Who can help us remember what we talked about in our last meeting? • Who was able to do the activity at home that we asked you to do at the end of the meeting? How did it go? • Does anyone have questions or concerns after doing the activity?
What are we going to Learn? About the importance of setting a regular sleeping schedule for babies and learning how to create a safe environment for them to move freely.
LET’S TALK ABOUT IT! We are going to look at some pictures, so we can talk about what we all know about this topic.
When do babies sleep and when are they awake? What do you think a healthy sleeping schedule for a baby should be? Why?
How do you make sure something bad (like an accident, a fall, etc.) won’t happen to your baby? Have you ever had an accident with a baby? What practical things do you think you could do to create a safer place for your baby in your homes?
section 5 / 10-12 months • meeting 27
6
Activity:
“Sleeping and playing well” WHAT WE’LL DO: What we’ll need: Start with a discussion about how much a baby should sleep at this age. Then give the following • Flipchart paper with suggestions information about the number of suggested hours (see below) of sleep for a baby. • Newborn: sleeps between 20-22 hours daily • A 6 month old: sleeps between 15 and 16 hours daily • A 10 month old: sleeps between 13-14 hours daily • Ask the group to share their opinions on these suggestions based on their own experience. Then ask them to share what they have found to be the best ways to make sure their baby sleeps well, in a calm and safe environment. • Next ask about the dangers that babies of this age could be exposed to. What can we do to prevent these dangers? (Review Meeting 22) • Place the flipchart with the suggestions (see below) to create a safe environment, where a baby can have both plenty of room to move, while at the same time decreasing potential dangers. The participants can take turns reading and discussing each suggestion, enriching it with their own experiences.
SUGGESTIONS FOR CREATING A SAFE ENVIRONMENT: • Make sure insecticides and pesticides are in sealed airtight bottles and kept out of the baby’s reach. • Never leave the baby alone or in the care of other children, because they don’t measure danger in the same way as adults. • Never let your baby go close to the stove or oven, many accidents happen when children are allowed in the kitchen area while you are cooking and looking after the baby. • When the baby is crawling be careful that the baby doesn’t pull tablecloths off of tables. Also make sure that small objects are on high shelves out of the baby’s reach, even when the baby is standing, as the baby could choke on them. • Never let the baby sleep close to lit candles or a gas lantern. Don’t leave the baby alone in a room with a candle burning, even if it appears that the baby is sleeping deeply, as they can wake up anytime. • Spray your house regularly with insecticide to avoid the presence of poisonous spiders, scorpions and ants. • Place electrical outlets high on the wall out of the baby’s reach (or cover them).
Facilitator’s Manual
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Summing Up:
What did we learn today? Now, we’ll review what we discussed today. • How do you feel after this meeting? Why? • What are the two most important things you’ve learned today? • What will you do differently based on what you learned during the meeting? • What did you like the most? Are there things you didn’t like? • Do you have any remaining concerns or questions about what we talked about? To finish, what would you recommend to improve today’s meeting when we do it again with another group. (Explain that answering this question will help the meeting be even better in the future for parents with small children.)
To do at home:
• Tell mothers to make sure that their babies are sleeping enough and on a regular schedule. • With the family, review the places where it is okay for the baby to play and sleep, and make sure possible dangers are removed.
Basic information for the facilitator: Learning more about a safe place to sleep and play: 1- The need to sleep varies tremendously among babies. Babies that are used to sleeping for
relatively long periods of time keep sleeping in this way. At the same time, those that normally stay awake probably will continue in that pattern. In general the number of hours that a baby sleeps in a day will go down, as they get older. Most 6 month-old babies sleep approximately 13 hours a day, although the amount of sleep can range from 9-18 hours. Sleeping and eating are still associated and babies don’t necessarily sleep after each time they eat. A typical sleep pattern consists of sleep for 10 to 12 hours at night, interrupted by a few moments when the baby awakes, and 1 or 2 naps during the day. Some of these sleep interruptions come from external situations like noise or change in temperature. However, at this age most sleep interruptions are due to things that disturb the baby.
section 5 / 10-12 months •meeting 27
8 Until approximately 6 months of age babies sleep when they need it. Nothing except hunger, sickness, or pain will keep them awake. Between 6 and 9 months babies can keep themselves awake because of an emotion, tension or because they don’t want to “disconnect” from the world. It is not rare for babies to have trouble sleeping during this period, as babies can become so tired that it is hard for them to relax enough to sleep.
2-
In order to have a suitable place for the baby to sleep, its good for the baby to start finding
their own ways of calming down and lulling themselves to sleep, for example; sucking on something, hugging a blanket or favorite object, making rhythmic movements, or playing with their hair. These ways of calming themselves give the baby a source of independent security that can help them become less dependent on adults and allows the baby to not become get into the pattern of thinking the only way to calm down is with the help of others. Babies respond to routines, those who take care of them need to establish sleeping routines for them and not just wait until they fall down from exhaustion. Some ways to form good habits are; organize a routine, keep the room dark and quiet, and sing soft songs.
3- Babies are active and need a safe place to live. Babies love to explore and this is a important
desire that one should encourage, and help develop their curiosity, as it is essential for a child’s future learning potential. Parents and adults entrusted with caretaking should not wait until they see a danger, as it isn’t until they are three that children begin to understand the concept of danger. Until that happens, adults caring for children are completely responsible for their safety. It doesn’t make sense to tell a baby not to touch something like a stove, pieces of glass, matches or knives because they don’t understand the language or the concept of being careful.
4- Those taking care of the baby should place a barrier around ovens and stoves and it’s
preferable to not let babies go into the kitchen at all. Always keep water tanks closed off with secure lids. Also make sure there are barriers or fences around any body of water such as gutters or streams. Objects for cutting such as knives, scissors and saws should be kept on high shelves out of children’s reach. Caretakers should take note of their development and know when children reach an age when they’re able to understand the concept of danger. Children older than 4 should be able to understand instructions about what not to touch or when to be careful, but don’t expect this of younger children.
Facilitator’s Manual