Lavender is a popular flowering plant for its array of health benefits. These flowers are harvested and turned into a myriad of products, including oils, sprays, and cosmetics, to help people relax and unwind. But does lavender help babies sleep?
The benefits of lavender are well-known and used in most adults. It is most commonly used to help people relax after a stressful day or to calm down during a moment of anxiety, plus it encourages those with insomnia to fall asleep.
However, while the benefits of lavender are highly useful for adults, teenagers, and children, one question still remains – does lavender help babies sleep?
If your little one is struggling with sleep and spends most of their night screaming or crying (rendering a sleepless night for the parents), you might be wondering if you can surround your child with lavender products to help them sleep. Here is how to safely administer lavender to help babies sleep!
Does Lavender Help Babies Sleep?
In short, yes – lavender helps babies sleep! Lavender, along with other essential oils, is a great way to encourage babies to sleep as well as reduce stress and improve their mood.
If you’re worried about why your newborn isn’t sleeping, be assured that this is completely normal. When babies are in the womb, all they see is dark.
Humans are equipped with a nerve of cells that associate darkness with sleep, so when a baby is born, their whole sleep cycle goes out the window. They have to restart their internal clock, which is why they struggle to sleep during the night.
Dealing with a sleepless baby isn’t easy. It affects everyone and everything, because not only can you or your baby sleep during the night, but their lack of sleep results in mood changes, anxiety, and often a lack of appetite for your little one.
It makes sense why parents would try anything to help their babies sleep, but it’s important to make sure you do things safely.
As we all know, being a newborn is the most vulnerable stage of our lives. Immune systems have barely developed and their skin is the most sensitive it will ever be, which is why parents sometimes refrain from adding ointments, oils, or other liquids to their baby’s delicate skin.
After all, baby skin is very different from adult skin. But does lavender help babies sleep? And is it safe?
When it comes to putting a lavender product on your baby’s skin to sleep, the general rule of thumb is to only give them lavender when they are at least 3 months old.
The reason why lavender can be used on babies at such a young age is because lavender is a herbal plant-based remedy that is rarely ever harmful and can help babies sleep.
Lavender can be used in a variety of ways, including:
Lavender oil
Lavender lotion
Lavender spray
Dried lavender buds
Lavender tablets
Each product comes with their own dosage requirements. While the potency of lavender might not affect your baby’s health, you’ve got to think about the other ingredients in the product that could.
Lavender Oil
Lavender oil is arguably the most popular type of lavender product to improve sleeping. Adults will rub droplets of lavender oil into their pressure points on their head, neck, and wrists to encourage a restful sleep.
While it’s safe for adults, you might not want to immediately rub lavender oil into your baby’s skin. This is because you never know if their skin is going to have a reaction to it. So, you will have to dilute the lavender oil to prevent a negative reaction.
But does lavender help babies sleep? And how can you use it? The best way to use lavender oil to help your baby sleep is to pour a few droplets of the oil into their bath.
Most routines consist of giving your baby a warm bath before bed, and adding some droplets of lavender oil to the water helps to dilute the oil and relax your baby.
Not only will the scent of the lavender oil encourage a feeling of drowsiness, but lavender oil is also said to help the symptoms of pain and colic.
If your baby is struggling with discomfort from colic (or another health issue), lavender oil is said to relax the muscles and provide a type of pain-relief to help babies sleep better.
Lavender Lotion
Lavender is often infused into lotions, cleansers, and liquid soaps for the plant’s natural skin-healing properties. This is because lavender gently helps to reduce redness as well as acne.
While babies are far too young to experience acne, they can still receive the benefits of lavender lotion to keep their skin super soft and help babies sleep better.
The key is to find lavender lotions that are appropriate for babies, as adult-appropriate lotions will contain ingredients that aren’t suitable for your baby’s skin.
Lavender Spray
Lavender spray is typically made of lavender essential oil, water, and sometimes an alcohol such as vodka.
While a few sprays of lavender spray on your baby’s pillow won’t harm them too much even with the alcohol, it’s better to be safe than sorry and create your own lavender spray solution.
To do this, get a spray bottle and create a solution of lavender essential oil and water. You can adjust this solution to be as strong or as weak as you like. Some people like to add the buds of dried lavender, too.
Spray this on your baby’s pillow and allow for it to dry before putting your baby to sleep.
Dried Lavender Buds
Dried lavender buds are basically lavender in its purest form (except for fresh lavender, of course!). We recommend filling a sock or cloth bag with dried lavender buds and putting this in the drawer filled with your baby’s sleeping clothes.
This should allow the lavender scent to gently adhere to your baby’s pajamas, which will help them associate the smell with sleep rest and help babies sleep better.
Lavender Tablets
While lavender tablets and pills are useful for adults, they cannot be given to a baby. Fortunately, there are other lavender alternatives that are baby-safe!
Conclusion
If you’ve ever used lavender to help you sleep, but have wondered does lavender help babies sleep, you’ll be happy to know that lavender can also work to help your baby sleep. The key is to make sure the lavender is diluted enough for your baby’s sensitive skin and is safe to use.
My name is Joyce Bailey, and I am a mother of two wonderful children. When I had my first child five years ago, at first I struggled to know which method of parenting I wanted to adopt. Traditional parenting just did not seem right for my family.
