when can a baby start to sooth themselves?

When you have tried everything (diaper, birp, food, walk them) and yet they won't go to sleep, when is it ok to just put them down and let them relax themselves to sleep?

Re: when can a baby start to sooth themselves?

every baby is different and only you as a mommy know when it is ok.

I was always a believer that the younger we start the better it is. B/c when they get older, they understand what is going on, they know you are there but just not coming, but younger they don't really understand. A lot of books say to start day 1 for the baby to soothe herself.

With me it was trial and error. Some days if I knew she was tired (and all else failed) i would just let her down and wait for as long as I was comfortable to let her fall asleep. Sometimes it worked, yey, and other times it didn't and I picked her up and went from there. I found that rocking my DD took LONGER than for her to go to sleep on her own - at around 8 weeks - so I would let her down to go to sleep so it would be eaiser for her.

Re: when can a baby start to sooth themselves?

DD is 6 weeks and if she is not crying but awake and it is time to sleep, I put her down. Sometimes she will lie there, look around, and eventually fall asleep. Sometimes she starts to cry and then I will pick her up and continue to try and get her to fall asleep. I don't let her cry at all at this age.

Re: when can a baby start to sooth themselves?

ok, then I am doing the right thing. She is only 4 weeks old and I hate it when she cries and works herself up. I know she is tired cause she's yawning and dosing off, but when I put her down she cries again.

I did not know if I should just put her down, or try to sooth her even more.

Re: when can a baby start to sooth themselves?

I am finding that Ryan will nod off if I don't pick him up immediately (if all his needs are met). I don't let him scream - but I will let him fuss around in a swing/rocker for a bit now to see if he settles himself. Sometimes it works

Re: when can a baby start to sooth themselves?

DS is 4.5 months and usually goes to sleep on his own now, though we put soft music or his white noise machine on to help him often. If he is a little whimpery, we let him go a bit and see if he calms himself down--usually he does, but if he doesn't or the crying escalates, we go and soothe him.

I think around 3 months, maybe earlier, he started really sucking on his fingers, and this helped him soothe himself a lot. He has never liked the pacifier, but the fingers seem to help him.


I've heard you don't let a baby under 6 months or so really wail though--if they are crying hard they probably need you.

Re: when can a baby start to sooth themselves?

DS jsut really recently started to do this, as above poster said, he started sucking his fingers which helped and then we have the soother on the crib and play some lullabies every night at bedtime and leave his night light on. It helps soothe him and doing the exact same thing every night helped establish his routine. I think overall each baby is different but for me he relly was not ablt to until about three months.