Even in the maternity hospital, a mother may notice that her child's breathing sometimes goes astray: it becomes more frequent, then it slows down. After being discharged home, some parents note that their children began to groan in their sleep. In order to help the baby, you need to understand the reasons.
Mom and sleeping baby
Influence of sleep problems on the child's body
Children, like adults, need to get enough sleep. If something interferes with healthy and sound sleep, it will certainly affect your mood. Newborns should sleep up to 20 hours a day, waking up only for feeding. So they gain strength, grow and adapt to the new environment. Sleep disturbances can make your baby nervous and restless. With the help of a cry, he tries to constantly keep his mother near him, wanting to stay in her arms.
The brain, not getting enough time for proper rest, inhibits the formation of neural connections, which will certainly affect the development of the nervous system. Tired of crying, the baby does not find the strength to actively suck on her mother's breast. After 2 minutes of intense sucking, the baby falls asleep from fatigue, and after 15 minutes he wakes up hungry and again demands milk.
Mom in such a rhythm has no opportunity to devote a minute to herself. She is forced to be with the baby all the time, who, tired of a short rest and hunger, can wake up at any moment and demand food.
Attention! Lack of sleep and nutrition does not allow the female body to establish lactation and fully recover after childbirth. Therefore, a situation with a baby's sleep disorder can cause the development of postpartum depression in the mother.
Why does a newborn grunt and wriggle in a dream
Children of the first month of life learn to live in an alien environment for them, so sometimes their breathing can go astray and groaning can appear. This is not a problem and does not require medical attention if the baby is calm and has a good appetite during the day.
The kid groans and presses his legs
Often there are situations when a child groans and struggles in a dream, clearly suffering from this. Then parents need to understand the reasons, which may include:
- stomach ache;
- Difficulty nasal breathing;
- constipation;
- tight and hot clothes;
- improper structure of the nasal septum.
If you cannot independently identify the cause, or its solution requires the help of a specialist, you need to visit a pediatrician.
Causes of groaning and pushing in a month-old baby
Only attentive parents will be able, without outside help, to deal with the night groaning of the child. Most often, adults are able to cope with the problem on their own.
Intestinal colic
The imperfection of the digestive system can affect the well-being of the baby. Increased gas production leads to bloating. The baby may try to release gas, which is why the mother hears sounds similar to groaning.
To reduce the risks of bloating, you need to try to adhere to some rules:
- a nursing mother should not eat legumes (peas, beans, lentils), as well as cabbage, since these products can affect not only her digestion and gas formation, but also the work of the child's digestive tract;
- at night, give the baby a remedy that reduces bloating and facilitates the removal of air bubbles from the intestines;
- feed the baby not on demand, but by the hour, if we are talking about a baby older than 3 weeks (newborns should feed on demand in the first two weeks, because this helps to establish the mother's lactation).
Important! Simethicone-based products are absolutely safe for the health of the child. They are not absorbed into the bloodstream and only show their activity in the large intestine upon contact with air bubbles. By acting on the surface of each bubble, simethicone breaks large air plugs into many small ones, which facilitates their removal through the anus. The drug comes out with the feces unchanged.
Difficulty breathing
Children of the first year of life can only breathe fully through their nose. Therefore, any problems with nasal breathing cause a number of difficulties for the baby. When a newborn grunts in sleep, parents should seriously think about the quality of air their child breathes. If the room is hot and the air is dry and dusty, this will cause the mucus in the baby's nose to dry out and turn into crusts. The nasal passages of infants are much wider than that of an adult, so a large amount of dried mucus can accumulate there. In this case, night breathing will be accompanied by grunting and grunting.
Clean nursery
In addition to the mucus produced by the body, the remains of drunk milk can dry out in the nasopharynx. Due to the fact that babies are not able to eat neatly, they choke from time to time. Milk that has entered the nasopharynx and the posterior parts of the nasal passages remains there, dries up and turns into crusts.
Council. To forget about bad children's sleep and night grunting, you need to take care of the air in the nursery.
Adapting to the environment
The newborns were in the amniotic fluid for 9 months, receiving all the nutrients and oxygen through the umbilical cord. After birth, the system of internal organs began to work in a new way, and the baby began to feel the power of attraction on itself. The completely changed habitat has become an occasion to study your abilities and develop them. You also need to be able to groan. Sometimes children make similar sounds when they feel full and satisfied.
Stool retention
If the mother of a grunting baby notes that the last time she saw a diaper stained with feces was three days ago, she may suspect constipation. In breastfed babies, constipation is extremely rare, if the baby is fed with a mixture, and the mother prepares it out of proportion, the likelihood of constipation is high.
To avoid problems with stool in bottle-fed babies, three rules should be followed:
- Feed by the hour, because overfeeding is the first cause of digestive problems.
- Add the prescribed number of measuring spoons according to the feeding chart on the formula package.
- Do not increase or decrease the amount of water per serving.
Attention! Violation of the prescribed proportions during the preparation of the mixture changes the fat content and nutritional value of the resulting portion. Mom, who thinks that adding extra spoons will make the mixture tastier and more satisfying, provokes the formation of hard lumps of feces, which will lead to constipation.
Physiological features
The child may push during bowel movements, this is not an indication for contacting a doctor, if the process itself does not bother the baby. When a child draws his legs, cries, groans, but cannot empty the intestines, you should seek help.
In addition to bowel problems, a newborn may grunt and push in sleep, because he feels the need to stretch, straighten his arms and legs, especially if he is often swaddled.
Stretching
Hot and tight clothes
Babies, unable to express their thoughts through speech, are forced to communicate with adults in body language. Often babies grunt, grunt and fidget, which mothers dress in several layers of thick clothing. The undershirt can constrain the movement of the chest and abdomen, making it difficult to breathe. The kid experiences discomfort due to the fact that his movements are constrained by clothes.
In addition, in a warm room, it is most comfortable for a baby to be in one diaper, without sliders and overalls. Children have a different attitude to the temperature regime of the room than adults: where the mother is cool, the baby feels good, if the adult is warm, the child is most likely hot. The baby, suffering from heat, will toss and turn all night.
Important! Overheating is dangerous for children. Therefore, each time, changing clothes for a child, you need to evaluate the color of his skin: if it is red, it means that he was hot, and dressing needs to be easier.
How to help a child
The first and most important rule to ensure comfortable nasal breathing of the baby is to maintain the optimal air parameters in the room. Pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky does not get tired of reminding young parents about the kind of air a child should breathe at home:
- relative air humidity - from 55 to 70%;
- temperature - from 18˚C to 22˚C;
- compulsory airing for 15 minutes before bedtime.
Hygrometer thermometer
If adults provide their child with comfortable conditions for breathing, then the nasal mucus will not dry out, but will actively perform its functions, including:
- increased local immunity;
- moisturizing the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract;
- preparation of inhaled air for the process of gas exchange in the lungs.
Having eliminated the cause of the drying out of the mucous membranes, parents will no longer hear their child grunt and grunt in a dream due to the formed crusts.
Interesting! Many adults are surprised to note an improvement in their own health and a decrease in the number of seasonal ARVI diseases when using a moisturizer. This is due to the fact that liquid nasal mucus contains a huge amount of substances that actively suppress the reproduction of pathogenic microbes.
To eliminate intestinal problems, mom can help the baby with the help of special exercises:
- 15 minutes before the start of feeding, the baby must be laid out on the stomach so that air comes out of the stomach. This will reduce the intensity of the regurgitation and reduce the amount of air trapped in the intestines.
- After feeding, raise the baby to an upright position so that the air trapped in the esophagus is released.
- 30 minutes after feeding, stroke the baby's tummy around the navel clockwise for 10 minutes.
Swimming in a large bath before bedtime can successfully eliminate two causes of night grunting at once, because being in a room with high humidity, diving and accidental water ingress into the nose helps to remove excess mucus from the nasal passages and clear the airways from crusts. In addition, the body, being under water, is subjected to insignificant gravitational pressure, which means that it is easier for the intestines and other internal organs to perform their functions.
When to contact specialists
Infant constipation should alert parents if it happens regularly. With proper feeding and adherence to the regime, the baby should not have problems with defecation. If all conditions are met, the absence of a chair is a reason for contacting a doctor. If necessary, the pediatrician will prescribe lactulose syrup or glycerin suppositories to facilitate bowel movement.
There are also congenital bowel pathologies that interfere with patency, and therefore the child may groan and push, but there will still be no stool. Loud piercing crying, blood from the anus, vomiting and absence of stool for more than 5 days are reasons to seek medical help. If the examination shows that the baby has congenital obstruction, an operation will be prescribed, during which the surgeon will remove the inactive fragment of the intestine. Such operations are performed annually in 10% of infants, after which the quality of life of babies increases significantly.
Lack of weight is another symptom that requires immediate specialist intervention. If, with adequate nutrition, the child of the first year of life does not gain 500-800 g per month, this requires attention from the pediatrician.
In addition to underweight, the baby may experience:
- vomiting;
- diarrhea (more than 3 bowel movements per day);
- bubbling in the stomach.
Attention! Congenital lactase deficiency is uncommon, but those babies who are diagnosed with it experience severe abdominal pain, and after each feeding they begin to cry, moan and bend over.
Diagnosis of lactase deficiency means that the baby will have to be fed with lactose-free formulas to relieve him of intestinal pain and allow food to be absorbed in the body.
If the parents cannot find out the reason for the grunting sounds during sleep in an infant, an otolaryngologist consultation is required. It is possible to identify an abnormal structure of the nasal septa if grunting sounds appear when:
- the baby has no intestinal problems;
- weight gain meets the standards;
- the humidifier works properly at home;
- take a walk with the child regularly.
A simple operation will relieve the child of breathing problems. Mom will immediately notice that the baby has stopped moaning and throwing the breast while sucking.
Curvature of the nasal septum
Do not ignore the strange behavior of the child. If the baby begins to grunt, grunt or creak, you need to understand the reasons in order to understand what adults need to do.
Remember! Most of the problems are easily solved by normalizing the microclimate, feeding regime and active games.
