A full-fledged healthy sleep is the guarantee of normal development of the baby, and sometimes the only reason for parents to rest and gain strength for a new day. What to do if the baby's sleep can not be called strong and the child wakes up at night every hour, depriving all members of the family and themselves the opportunity to have a good rest?
In this article, we will talk about the possible reasons why a child often wakes up at night and what to do if a child wakes up at night and cries.
Why do children wake up at night?
A baby child often wakes up at night to eat. The smaller the age of the crumbs, the smaller the intervals between meals. If a crumb awakens only for food and quietly falls asleep, satisfying hunger - then everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about. Of course, it is quite difficult for parents to wake up for feeding several times a night, but everyone understands that these are the needs of the baby and there is nothing horrible about it.
If a crumb, even if full, continues to cry and cry, most likely, he has something hurts or is scared. Most often, babies are tortured by intestinal gases and colic. In such cases, dill water (a decoction of dill and fennel seeds), and special medicines for the treatment of colic and dysbacteriosis (Espumizan, Kuplaton, etc.) are good. Of course, it is highly undesirable to apply these drugs without consulting a doctor - before starting any treatment, you should undergo a specialist examination, determine an exact diagnosis and choose an adequate treatment regimen. The reason for the night rise can also be cold or heat, a wet diaper, an uncomfortable bed or a chopping tooth.
Completely healthy newborns tend to sleep soundly, not paying too much attention to those around them and the environment. It's enough that he feels warm, dry and he feels full.
Older children begin to realize what is happening around. From this moment on, the quality of their sleep begins to affect their mental activity. That is, very strong emotions and experiences can cause the baby to not fall asleep, toss or scratch his teeth in a dream, often wakes up and cries. To avoid the influence of emotions on sleep, no later than 3-4 hours before sleep, exclude active games and strong emotional loads of any kind (both negative and positive).
When does the child stop waking up at night?
No matter how much you want to get a good night's sleep, a child under 6 months old can not stand the interval between feedings for more than 6 hours. Therefore, it is necessary to wake up at night for feeding. But already by 4 months after birth, in spite of the fact that the total duration of sleep in crumbs does not change much, most of the period of sleep will occur at night. Note that night jerks and even short-term wakefulness in children are not pathologies, if the baby does not cry and does not require the attention of adults, but quietly falls asleep again.
How to wean a child to wake up at night?
Most often, by 8-9 months of life, babies stop waking up at night for feeding. But it does not always happen. Some children continue to wake up eating at night for up to a year or even longer, despite the fact that they have long no longer need night feeding. For parents from 8 months begins a very difficult period - the desire to wean the child from night feeding often fails miserably as soon as the baby begins to cry loudly at night, demanding a dose of milk. Of course, it's much easier to quickly give a bottle or breast than to calm a child and endure his crying, but believe me, it's worth the mischief and wean the baby to eat at night. In the future, the habit of waking up at night will only be fixed, getting rid of it will be even more long and painful.
If the baby stopped eating at night, but still continues to wake up, maybe he is afraid to sleep alone (as often happens with children who used to sleep with their parents, and suddenly were deprived of this opportunity, because adults decided that the child was already big enough, to sleep myself). To accustom to independent sleep is also better gradually - first put a baby bed
Teaching a child to sleep on their own and without night feeding, be consistent and do not rush - only so you can do everything right and minimal emotional trauma for all family members.