The American secret to training children to sleep on their own

Ms. Bich Thuy, a Vietnamese mother living in the US, was extremely surprised to see the children – her friend’s children – now going to bed.

Ms. Thuy said, when she was a child, the whole family of four slept on one bed.

Illustration photo: Depositagift.com.

While in America, when visiting a friend named Alex, she was surprised to see her two children, one 1 and a half years old, one 3 years old, sleeping on their own.

When she and her friend Alex went downstairs to talk, about an hour and a half later, Leah cried.

In fact, in America, every parent knows the `sleep training` method like Alex.

Alex said, this method all comes down to a rule of not instilling bad habits.

That’s why, on the first day of sleep training, after putting the baby in the crib, Alex turned off the light and left the room.

This is the most difficult time for any young parent.

During the first week, when the baby cried, Alex did not go in to comfort the baby right away, but waited 5 minutes before coming in to comfort him, but absolutely did not pick him up.

Alex said that over the next 2 weeks, the time her two babies cried gradually decreased from half an hour to a few minutes, to the point where they stopped crying at all, put them in their cribs, lay still, and after a while fell asleep on their own.

Babies who can fall asleep on their own, but still wake up and cry after 2-3 hours, should not be picked up to rock them.

`I always remember the feeling of comfort when I learned the sleep training lesson from Alex and applied it to my baby girl. Every night I could relax and read a book and sleep until 7 a.m., looking at the camera to see my baby in the crib.

Psychologist Le Khanh, Director of Rong Viet Psychological Consulting and Skills Training Center (Vung Tau), said that the method of training children to sleep on their own is good for both children and parents.

He supports the idea of `not instilling bad habits in your child` when the baby sleeps.

According to experts, knowing how to fall asleep and soothe themselves to sleep is a sign of children’s self-control.

In Vietnam, children under 2-3 years old can still sleep with their parents, then sleep in separate rooms, or if conditions do not allow, let them sleep in the same room but in separate beds.

However, he said that the educational perspectives of the West and the East have differences.

`Each method of education has its own value, none of which is right or wrong. Western children can grow up independently, away from their families, and their parents have difficulty connecting with their children. Our children sometimes

He believes that no matter what method you want to educate your children with, you must consider whether it is suitable for the social context or family conditions, and most importantly, there needs to be communication between everyone in the house right away.

Bich Thuy – Vuong Linh