Many mothers are faced with the fact that wakefulness in an infant can be active not only during the day, but also at night. A baby can take and not sleep at night even at 3, 4 months, in the first year of life, when there is already a formed schedule of the day. This article will tell you how to change the baby's sleep pattern and return to the usual routine, it is easy to rebuild the baby to comfortable conditions for all family members.
The child has lost sleep
Sleep failure reasons
When the regime is established in a newborn - closer to three months. Mom exhales with relief, because now she can somehow plan her day, and the schedule becomes more specific. Usually, if something starts to get lost, then it can be easily changed or restored. The baby is already distinguishing between day and night, the installation of such a dream takes place, which is close in phases to an adult.
Important! There are some children who do not recognize any sleep and wake schedules. Changing anything with them will take a lot of time and effort. No matter how parents try to shift the time of games and bathing before a night's rest, such babies still wake up when they want and demand entertainment. As a rule, the period passes by itself as they grow older.
The causes of sleep disorders are considered:
- Tummy pain (colic). Increased gas formation and colic, if they appear in the baby, can bother him up to 3-4 months. During such a period, you should not establish any rules, since all the symptoms will pass when the baby's digestive tract is working properly. All he needs now is his mother's care and love.
Colic in infants
- Teething. As a rule, the baby is worried for 2-3 days, a maximum of a week, when the teeth are being cut. There is no need to restore sleep - over time it will improve itself.
Teething - baby pulls everything into his mouth
- Discomfort in the baby. It could be a wet diaper, or the baby has no way to defecate. Children often wake up before the bowel movement in the middle of the night and begin to whimper, be capricious, cry a lot, and scream. You should not put your baby to bed until he has satisfied his physiological needs.
- Great excitement and fatigue. It is important to set the time frame for wakefulness with the baby so as to exclude the baby from overwork. A walk too long, a trip to a shopping center or a group of noisy guests can disrupt the baby's sleep for 2-3 days.
- Mom is not around. Up to 6 months, a child desperately needs the presence of a mother, especially if he has undergone a difficult birth or a cesarean section. Such babies do not want to let their mother go for a second, even when they are sleeping.
- Change of weather. The fontanelle in children is tightened in a year and later, therefore, up to this point, they are very susceptible to changes in nature, react to rain, snow, thunderstorms, full moon and magnetic storms. After the weather is restored, everything quickly returns to normal.
- Wrong daily routine. This is perhaps one of the most common reasons, since sleep rhythms in infants change very quickly. In a month, children are awake for a maximum of 40 minutes a day, at two - already 1.5 hours.
Note! The best solution would be to have a table of dreams and wakefulness for each month of the child in front of his eyes in order to constantly check with it and, if necessary, make adjustments in the mode.
- The kid is learning a new skill. The baby began to crawl, sit, walk - this is an achievement. Children live in such periods in their own way, and rest is disturbed.
How to set sleep mode
How to make a child a routine - clearly structure the time of sleep and wakefulness. It is worth knowing the time limit that a baby can spend without rest, while overexcitation processes will not begin in his nervous system.
Additional Information. If the laying time is correct, then the baby falls asleep without screaming and crying for 5-10 minutes. If the baby does not fall asleep for 20 minutes, then he has gone overboard and is overworked.
Methods for promoting comfortable sleep and falling asleep:
- Be sure to follow the daily routine where there is bathing and feeding before rest. The kid quickly gets used to certain sequences, realizing that soon he will have to sleep, relaxes well and fits without problems.
- Bathing can be carried out with the herbs of a string and chamomile - they perfectly relax the nervous system.
Products and herbs for bathing babies
- Swaddling. Some children sleep more peacefully. Only you cannot swaddle tightly, as was done in Soviet times, you just need to wrap the child in a diaper or special slips, cocoons, where he can move his arms, but not reach for his face.
- To make your baby sleep better, you can leave your robe and T-shirt in the crib - your mother's scent soothes.
- It is important to create in the children's room all conditions for a comfortable rest, not to wrap up the baby so that it does not overheat. Overheating is fraught with negative consequences, a deterioration in the well-being of the baby.
- At night, feedings are quiet and the lights are off. During the day, on the contrary, in the process you need to talk to the baby so that he quickly begins to distinguish between day and night.
Important! The mother's task is to monitor the development of the baby. The baby itself will not change its rhythms, parents should help with this.
How to change and restore sleep patterns
If the baby's sleep pattern suddenly gets lost, you need to help restore it, because everyone suffers from this. There are five rules that will quickly return or change the rest regime:
- You should not give a child a long sleep during the day, especially if this dream is after dinner. At night, then you will have to actively play with the baby and pay attention to him.
- Analyze the feeding system. For example, if it is very satisfying to feed a baby in the late afternoon, then before going to bed he will naturally eat less and wake up from hunger at night. It is important to keep track of the penultimate and last feedings before bedtime. If the baby eats well before going on vacation, he will sleep soundly.
- Prepare the room in the evening. It is imperative to ventilate and achieve a temperature of 22 degrees, in the summer it is permissible to leave the window open (if at night + 16-18 degrees). No lanterns, moon or searchlights should shine on the sleeping place. All night lights should also be removed - this negatively affects the production of the hormone melatonin.
- The baby in the crib should be comfortable - not hot, not cold. Bed linen should be made from natural fabrics only, and diapers should absorb liquid well.
- During the day, the baby should be active, mobile. Parents should pay a lot of attention to him: play, do exercises, gymnastics. If the baby moves little during the day and sleeps constantly, it is logical that there will be problems with the regime.
Important! There should be no active games before going to bed, otherwise the child will be overexcited and will fall asleep for a long time.
Charging with a baby
Tips for creating a comfortable sleep environment
The quality of rest is directly influenced not only by the established correct regime, but also by comfortable conditions.
What is important for a good and sound sleep:
- The optimum temperature is 18-22 degrees. When the baby is hot, he will constantly cry. Do not wrap it up, if possible, disconnect or adjust batteries that are too hot. The nose and legs may be cool, this is not an indicator, like hiccups, that the baby is cold. If the base of the neck in the back of the baby is warm, he is comfortable. It is best not to cover babies until 6 months of age to avoid Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
- Humidity - 40-60%. If the air is dry, then cracks will form in the crumbs in the nose, the child will constantly wake up from thirst. It is advisable to purchase humidifiers for the room. They are steam, ultrasonic, cold type, "air wash".
- Shine. From 3-4 months, the child begins to independently produce the sleep hormone - melatonin, which depends on the lighting. If it is too bright, then the hormone will be small, as a result, the baby will not sleep. For this reason, an hour before bedtime, you should dim the lights throughout the apartment, and sleep in the dark at night. If the baby is worried about nightmares, then it is permissible to take a night light, but with an orange or yellow light. During the day, a child should not sleep in the dark, just cover the windows with curtains. So the baby has a reaction: "I will have to rest soon."
Dim light is important for good sleep
- Noise. Newborns hear vibration in sound but only respond to very loud or violent vibrations. They sleep peacefully to the sound of TV or the conversations of adults. As the baby grows up, it begins to distinguish sounds, and the dream becomes more sensitive. For many mothers, the salvation is "white noise" - it "cuts off" extraneous sounds during rest, and nothing bothers the baby. Also, "white noise" is very close to the sounds that the baby heard in the womb, therefore, hearing familiar sounds, he quickly calms down and almost instantly falls asleep.
Note! Pediatricians' recommendations “not to teach a child to sleep in silence” are not always appropriate. All children are different, with their own temperament and character, level of sensitivity and excitability. If very insignificant sounds interfere with the baby's sleep, then it is better to organize silence for him.
In matters of sleep management, the most important thing is to be able to adjust comfort for both the child and the whole family. In order to have few problems in the future, in the very first month, the mother should watch the baby, track the time of his sleep, feedings, wakefulness, then establish a routine, which, if necessary, can always be easily adjusted in the desired direction. The faster the schedule of the day is set, the easier it is for the baby to develop and grow.
