PART 2
We have been discussing the 5 most common reasons in Part 1 of this Blog - So lets continue with the remainder 6 most common reasons that babies and children wake up multiple times in the night and how to fix them. They are:
6. Sickness and/or teething – Anyone who is under the weather wants more attention when they’re sick or in pain. During this time give your baby more cuddles and connect with them more than usual, even letting them sleep on you, (if you’re awake) to make them feel better. Being more upright will often help their breathing if they’re congested. Don’t be afraid to give them pain relief, like Baby Panadol or SM33 gel if you think they’re teething. Teething will stop any baby from sleeping well. Teething usually starts around 6 months but is very individual. Once you see that tooth has broken through, or they are no longer sick, then it’s back to your normal sleep routine. Often this change in routine becomes the norm and then when we try to go back to what we were doing before, the baby complains, and this makes it harder for parents to be persistent.
are they in pain? or are they sick?
Are they in pain? Or are they sick? (@princesspeaimages)
7. Change in routine – When it’s time to let those arms out of the swaddle because your baby is starting to roll onto their tummies. This new-found freedom often stops the baby from being able to relax and finds waving their arms in the air much more exciting than falling asleep. Some parents will try a slowly slowly approach with one arm taken out at a time, but even this can feel so different for the baby.
8. Change in environment – Holidays, moving house, moving bedrooms to moving from a cot to a big bed. All of these symbolise a change in routine for the baby/child and as you know they are creatures of habit, so we need to give them time to adjust to their new surroundings. Funnily enough, often baby’s sleep beautifully whilst on holidays and it’s only when they get back home that the night waking’s start. I believe it’s because the parents are relaxed on holidays and the child picks up on these reduced stress levels and so they too relax.
9. Lack of skill to self soothe – this is a common reason when babies stir at the end of a sleep cycle and can’t get themselves back to sleep, even though they really want to. Overtired babies make for restless sleep (read frequent waking’s) and early risers. These babies would sleep for longer stretches if they just had the skill to self soothe.
Can your baby self soothe?
10. Sleep Associations – This is a big one! Feeding to sleep, rocking, patting, bouncing, wearing your baby, driving in the car, walking in the pram, using a dummy and/or lying next to your baby/child (I’ve even had parents get into the cot with their baby!) These are what I consider to be “bad” sleep associations because they require your physical presence to be there to get your baby to sleep. Your baby loves routine this is why it’s so easy to get into these bad sleep associations because they work effectively for most of the time, so we keep repeating the process but what we’re saying is “this is how you go to sleep” and then when we become too tired to continue we try and change this, and because it’s not the normal routine your baby complains, and …. we go back to what we were doing before in a never-ending cycle! Ideally, the goal is to get your baby to fall asleep without your help! This then means teaching your baby ways of “good” sleep associations that they can do themselves at anytime they stir or come to the end of a sleep cycle. Try these - having a regular bedtime routine for every sleep (day or night), having a sleep toy (if they are older than 6 months), or if they are younger than 6 months - using an item of clothing you wore the day before as the bottom sheet in their bassinet, using white noise, sucking their thumb, playing with their hair, earlobe, or tag on their sleep toy, and/or covering part of their face with their muslin cloth (tactile reassurance).
are you using sleep associations to help your baby fall asleep?
11. Medical Conditions – this can be the beginning of us using bad sleep associations to settle our babies as they are usually suffering and are uncomfortable. Within a few weeks some babies start to display signs of an immature digestive system with lots of gas, farting, writhing, and generally being unsettled and/or screaming in pain. By about 3 weeks we can start to see colic, with purple crying and exhausted babies unable to sleep because of their pain. Some babies will have Silent Reflux or Gastric Oesophageal Reflux Disease (GORD), which is often medicated to try and reduce symptoms to get these babies sleeping. One of the most overlooked medical conditions is Paediatric Disordered Breathing commonly referred to as Sleep Apnoea but in children it is seen as mouth breathing or tilting their heads back while they sleep and/or snoring and are often diagnosed with large tonsils and adenoids. I remember one Paediatrician saying to me that he loved it when families would go camping as this would give the parents the opportunity to hear how their children slept (rather than being in a house and the children in their own bedrooms) or more importantly how they breathed while they slept. This is so important, as a child who is having difficulties breathing at night then can’t function and learn during the day, they’re either “naughty” or “disruptive” or have “attention disorder” and are “always having a meltdown/temper tantrum” and “no appetite” or “bedwetting” because they are chronically tired. If there is any query about these diseases, then having a referral to a Paediatrician in the first instance is a very good idea – no amount of sleep training will help a baby/child who has a medical issue.
does your baby have an underlying medical issue?
If you would like help, assistance, and support with your baby’s night waking’s – I can be there for you and together we will get your family sleeping!
