The father of a three-month old boy gave visual evidence online about how he was able to get the infant to quickly fall asleep by using a simple tissue.
Nathan Dailo, who lives in Sydney, Australia, posted a 42-second video that shows him continually gliding the tissue across the infant’s face. Approximately 14 seconds into the process, the infant begins to have problems keeping his eyes open. Within a few more seconds, he’s practically asleep and by the 35-second mark, the infant is now asleep–all after 14 strokes.
Many other parents who have tried this process have also had success, which led to their giving Dailo high praise for making it more widely available to parents of newborns.
The success doesn’t appear to translate to all children in this age, with the parent of a one-year-old saying that she was unable to get the child to go to sleep. That could indicate that the process works only up to a certain age.
Dailo says any light touching on an infant’s forehead will likely also work, though he finds the use of the tissue entertaining.
An American pediatrician, Dafna Ahdoot, attempts to explain the success behind this process, saying, “It’s not the tissue that matters, it’s the motion. You’re basically stimulating the ability to self soothe, which calms him down and helps him go to sleep. It seems like this guy hit the right frequency.”
The video was posted on March 23 and has already had more than 4.8 million views.