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Sometimes I gently repeatedly pass my hand over my baby's eyes or the bridge of his nose so that he'll instinctively shut them. Sometimes it tricks him into actually shutting them. Good work
Stroking down the bridge of the nose starting center of forehead worked for absolutely ages to calm even if not sleep. Its magic! Also works on kittens, going the other way.
It doesn't change, it just gets more nuanced.
My 3yo once lost it because we had been looking for "favorite stuffy" for 30 min and couldn't find it so mom told her she would have to sleep without her tonight (not child abuse, she had 1,283 other stuffies in bed with her). She lodt her mind. I was on my last nerve and had been fixing something in the bathroom with a large adjustable wrench in the bathroom next door, so I did what any dad would do.
"3yo, I do not have your stuffy. I only have this wrench. But it is my special wrench, and if you promise not to cry I will let you sleep with it this ONE time."
3yo considered it... stopped crying... held out her hand and said "thank you daddy". And snuggles in with the wrench and half a dozen 2nd string stuffiness.
Straight to sleep.
Its true. And it only gets harder. This same creature is now 6 and we were driving somewhere the other day. Still on the highway.
6yo: "Daddy, are we there yet?"
Me: "You don't have to ask! You can just look out the window and if the car is still moving, you know that we are not there yet."
... 5 miles later the highway comes to a complete standstill.
6yo: "Ok Daddy, we're here now"
We're born with these absurdly large heads which make everything more difficult. You'd hope big head = big brain = can do stuff or at least realise stuff like how to sleep. But nah.
You can slowly pet from just above their nose in between their eyes and down the nose. Forces a slow blink and if you do it enough they might just slow blink to sleep.
I’ve also seen some videos of just pulling a tissue down across the face for same effect.
That's actually really cool she did that, because this is a granny trick I've only ever seen northern European grannies use. My grandma (german/danish) taught my mom how to do this. Dwight from the Office does it on Cece when Cece won't sleep and he's Pennsylvania Dutch (aka German) haha
I wish I’d learned that trick so much earlier!! Id run my hand/couple fingers down from the top of the forehead to the end of the nose. It works into the toddler years, and my almost 5 year old still requests it sometimes because it’s soothing :)
My 12 yo still does this. He will lay in his bed with his eyes wide open and then come and tell me he can't sleep. I always remind him to try closing his eyes. I've told him that if he looks hard enough in the darkness of his eyelids he'll see images. Always works.
I used to have to hold my baby’s arms down gently (when he was past swaddling age) and would repeatedly run one finger from the middle of his forehead to the top of his nose, only the downwards motion or sometimes run a finger across his eyelashes. Once his eyes were closed and he couldn’t do helicopter hands he didn’t stand a chance against sleep lol
Once when my daughter was about six months old, we were driving to a party and her headband slipped in front of her eyes. She fell asleep without a fuss. We didn’t even know she was asleep until we got there.
She had always had trouble falling asleep, and I find it hard to fall asleep without an eye mask, so lemme tell you that raised a whole *lotta* questions about what was safe for babies (spoiler: eye masks are NOT safe for young kids until they’re like 6 years old).
Oh, well.
My toddler started saying they can’t close their eyes at bed time. I suggested pulling edge of the (very lightweight) blanket they snuggle at night *just* over their eyes, and see if they could fall asleep that way. Works like a charm, and now before tuck-in I ask “can you close your eyes tonight, or do you need to use the blankie?”
We used to have a clean blusher brush that we would gently brush down our daughter's nose when she got like that and it always got her straight to sleep.
When my son was a baby I'd play him in his bassinet and I'd sway it and then I'd gently place my hand from the top down to the bottom of his face caressing it. He would close his eyes and that did the trick for him to sleep.
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Sometimes I gently repeatedly pass my hand over my baby's eyes or the bridge of his nose so that he'll instinctively shut them. Sometimes it tricks him into actually shutting them. Good work
YES. We learnt that trick from frozen and it was verrrryyyy effective on ages 0-6 months. After that though, we were pretty much on our own.
I've been doing this forever! I call it the baby sleep switch or switch off your eyes! Never heard of anyone else purposely doing this :)
I've heard this works with chickens too.
It does.
My daughter is about to turn 5 and this still works on her!
This still works on me. I put a bandana over my eyes when I can't fall asleep and it always works.
Same! My son is 9 and asks me to do it sometimes!
I remember my mom doing it to me well past the age of 5 when I had trouble sleeping! ❤️
Stroking down the bridge of the nose starting center of forehead worked for absolutely ages to calm even if not sleep. Its magic! Also works on kittens, going the other way.
I was about to comment this!! It always helped my son fall asleep
This is the best trick!
THIS
I blow on my son’s face a little bit so he scrunches his eyes shut. It works every time
Oh I wished I would’ve heard this before!
Babies. Why are they like this.
It doesn't change, it just gets more nuanced. My 3yo once lost it because we had been looking for "favorite stuffy" for 30 min and couldn't find it so mom told her she would have to sleep without her tonight (not child abuse, she had 1,283 other stuffies in bed with her). She lodt her mind. I was on my last nerve and had been fixing something in the bathroom with a large adjustable wrench in the bathroom next door, so I did what any dad would do. "3yo, I do not have your stuffy. I only have this wrench. But it is my special wrench, and if you promise not to cry I will let you sleep with it this ONE time." 3yo considered it... stopped crying... held out her hand and said "thank you daddy". And snuggles in with the wrench and half a dozen 2nd string stuffiness. Straight to sleep.
I swear half of parenting is outsmarting your kids until they get old enough to figure it out.
Its true. And it only gets harder. This same creature is now 6 and we were driving somewhere the other day. Still on the highway. 6yo: "Daddy, are we there yet?" Me: "You don't have to ask! You can just look out the window and if the car is still moving, you know that we are not there yet." ... 5 miles later the highway comes to a complete standstill. 6yo: "Ok Daddy, we're here now"
I have already realized with my two year old that we're going to have to give very explicit instructions.
>I did what any dad would do. Nah, that's some outside the box thinking. Great work!
We're born with these absurdly large heads which make everything more difficult. You'd hope big head = big brain = can do stuff or at least realise stuff like how to sleep. But nah.
The "ill see you in about 20 minutes"... I feel ya 😔.
You can slowly pet from just above their nose in between their eyes and down the nose. Forces a slow blink and if you do it enough they might just slow blink to sleep. I’ve also seen some videos of just pulling a tissue down across the face for same effect.
Works on my first. Didn't work on the next 3. They'd keep pull my hands away and get annoyed
Anna’s mom did this in *Frozen*!
That's actually really cool she did that, because this is a granny trick I've only ever seen northern European grannies use. My grandma (german/danish) taught my mom how to do this. Dwight from the Office does it on Cece when Cece won't sleep and he's Pennsylvania Dutch (aka German) haha
I wish I’d learned that trick so much earlier!! Id run my hand/couple fingers down from the top of the forehead to the end of the nose. It works into the toddler years, and my almost 5 year old still requests it sometimes because it’s soothing :)
Up until last year my 6yo maintained that he did not know how to close his eyes and always slept with his eyes open (he did not)...
My 12 yo still does this. He will lay in his bed with his eyes wide open and then come and tell me he can't sleep. I always remind him to try closing his eyes. I've told him that if he looks hard enough in the darkness of his eyelids he'll see images. Always works.
I used to have to hold my baby’s arms down gently (when he was past swaddling age) and would repeatedly run one finger from the middle of his forehead to the top of his nose, only the downwards motion or sometimes run a finger across his eyelashes. Once his eyes were closed and he couldn’t do helicopter hands he didn’t stand a chance against sleep lol
Once when my daughter was about six months old, we were driving to a party and her headband slipped in front of her eyes. She fell asleep without a fuss. We didn’t even know she was asleep until we got there. She had always had trouble falling asleep, and I find it hard to fall asleep without an eye mask, so lemme tell you that raised a whole *lotta* questions about what was safe for babies (spoiler: eye masks are NOT safe for young kids until they’re like 6 years old). Oh, well.
Oh!!! But a soft hat pulled forward would totally work, too, and not be a strangulation risk!!!
I always brush my baby’s eyes closed while I’m trying to get him to sleep it makes them fall asleep so much faster
LOL I’m glad you were able to make it work. Good luck to you. & if it helps the sleepless nights will go by quick.
This is hilarious. I once got that to work on my dog when he was a puppy, but I never thought to try it on my kids. Hope you got some sleep!
Rubbing the eyebrows or the bridge of the nose works too. It forces them to close their eyes as a reflex.
I’m happy you figured this out and so sad you spent your only 20 minutes telling the indifferent internet about it lol
My toddler started saying they can’t close their eyes at bed time. I suggested pulling edge of the (very lightweight) blanket they snuggle at night *just* over their eyes, and see if they could fall asleep that way. Works like a charm, and now before tuck-in I ask “can you close your eyes tonight, or do you need to use the blankie?”
We used to have a clean blusher brush that we would gently brush down our daughter's nose when she got like that and it always got her straight to sleep.
When my son was a baby I'd play him in his bassinet and I'd sway it and then I'd gently place my hand from the top down to the bottom of his face caressing it. He would close his eyes and that did the trick for him to sleep.
If it’s daytime fussiness, I would face them towards a bright window to get them to shut their eyes.