Why do babies sleep almost all the time?

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Lyudmila Sergeevna Sokolova Pediatrician of the highest category

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Article last updated: 05/10/2019

The birth of a child is a long-awaited event for every family. But the happiness of motherhood can be overshadowed by various problems that accompany the baby in the first year of his life. The basic needs of a newborn are food and sleep. Many parents are faced with the problem of poor children's sleep. Some children, on the contrary, sleep often and for a long time. At this time, parents can relax and do all the housework. But if the baby sleeps a lot and eats little, this is an alarming sign indicating a violation of his health.

Food intake standards for a newborn

Every mother wants to know if her baby is hungry, if he is getting enough, and if he has enough milk. To do this, you need to know the norms of food consumption for newborns.

In the first days of his life, a breastfed baby can eat very often - about 10 times a day. In this case, one feeding can take 10-40 minutes.

A newborn has a very small stomach (approximately 7 ml in volume), so 1 teaspoon is enough for the first feeding. The colostrum that a baby eats on the first day is very fatty and nutritious; it is released in small quantities, sufficient for the baby. During the first day, the child eats about 100 ml.

A baby 3-4 days old eats 20-40 g at one feeding. A child born a week ago eats 50-70 g of milk at a time, and a two-week-old baby eats 60-80 g. A month-old baby should eat 90-110 g of milk, and two months - 110-140 g. These indicators are averaged. They should not be taken as a rule, but can be used as a guide.

The amount of milk consumed depends on many factors: the baby’s weight, his state of health, time of day, individual nutritional needs and the degree of fat content of the milk.

Pediatricians assure that with proper breastfeeding, the baby cannot eat too much or too little, since milk is produced exactly as much as he needs.

To calculate how much formula a bottle-fed baby should eat at a time, you can use one of two formulas. In accordance with the first formula, you need to multiply the baby’s age in days by 10. To find out the baby’s daily food intake, you need to multiply the number of days he has lived by 70 (if he weighs more than 3 kg 200 g) or by 80 (if he weighs less than 3.2 kg).

Using another formula, you can divide the baby’s weight by his height in cm. The resulting number will be the approximate amount of food eaten at a time.

One of the easiest ways to check how well a baby is eating is to count the diapers described per day. If there are 12 or more, then there is nothing to worry about.

Causes of sleep disorders

First, you need to make sure that your child is definitely not getting enough sleep. Sometimes it seems to the mother that the child is not sleeping at all. This impression occurs when the baby falls asleep for short periods of time - 15-30 minutes. Then he wakes up and has to be fed and put to sleep again. It becomes most difficult for the mother if the baby prefers to be at the breast during sleep. However, if you add all these periods of time together, it becomes clear: the total sleep time is not so short. Some children, falling asleep for no more than 15 minutes each time, manage to fulfill their daily sleep requirement. This is rare, but it happens. If this is your case, you just need to be patient. When the baby grows up, he will sleep longer and fall asleep without the slightest effort.

If calculations show that you really don’t have enough sleep, you need to take measures to normalize it. What could be the reasons?

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A complete list of reasons why a child does not sleep at night

1. Uncomfortable conditions. Most often it is hot and stuffy. Modern pediatricians are unanimous in the opinion that it is best for a newborn to sleep at a temperature of 18 to 20 degrees. To keep your baby warm, put him to sleep in a flannel diaper or sleeping bag. But the air in the nursery should be fresh and cool. At the same time, make sure that the influx of fresh air does not turn into a draft. You should not place a crib with a child under a split system, or between an open door and window. A slightly open window will be enough.
2. Colic. This is a natural phenomenon common to all small children. If necessary, give your baby a drug to reduce gas formation. For example, Espumisan. Your pediatrician will definitely tell you the dosage. You can make sure that the problem is really colic by looking at a hard and swollen tummy. The child begins to twist his legs, tuck them in and cry. In addition to medications, tummy massage or gentle heat may help. Place your baby on your stomach, stomach to stomach: this will calm him down and fall asleep much faster.
3. Hunger. It happens that the baby eats very little at one feeding. Then he will soon wake up and demand a new portion.
4. Noise, bright light. These irritating factors can disrupt your baby's sleep.
5. Trembling, physiological crying. Many children, half asleep, check whether their mother is nearby or not. If the mother moves too far away and does not react immediately, the baby senses danger and begins to cry in full force. Modern children inherited these reactions from their “wild” ancestors. It was dangerous for babies to be left alone for a long time. And in this way, babies constantly check whether their mother is nearby.
6. Health problems. The most serious of them, leading to sleep disturbances, is intracranial pressure. If all other causes have been eliminated, but sleep has not improved, take your baby to the doctor as soon as possible. The younger the baby, the easier it is to treat many disorders.

These reasons are the main factors that interfere with the sleep of a newborn baby. Below we will give some recommendations on how to make your child sleep more soundly.

If problems persist, seek help from your pediatrician. It’s rare, but it does happen that you need medical help.

Most often, infant sleep disturbances are associated with inappropriate conditions. Try to provide your newborn with comfort while sleeping. This way the baby will rest on his own and let his mother rest.

Why does a newborn sleep a lot and eat little?

Cases when a newborn sleeps almost all the time and eats poorly are not uncommon. The baby needs sleep, as in the first days of his life he adapts to the world around him and rests after the difficult process of childbirth. His mother is most likely happy for her “hearty” milk and her calm, quiet baby, who rarely asks for food. In fact, the baby is quiet not by nature, but because of a lack of strength.

A baby who is not even a month old from birth should eat every 1.5-2 hours. He has a very small stomach that cannot accommodate much food. Rare breastfeeding leads to problems with lactation, the occurrence of mastopathy in the mother, the child’s lack of vital vitamins and microelements, and dehydration of his body.

Most modern pediatricians recommend feeding children not by the hour, but on demand. Moreover, the “first demand” does not have to mean screaming or crying. A sleepy baby may signal his desire to eat in some other way, but the mother may not understand this signal and think that the baby does not need anything since he does not scream.

So you shouldn’t wait for your baby to cry hungry; it’s better to offer him food when he’s sleeping. You don't have to wake him up for this. You can just pick him up and poke his nose into his chest. The baby will hear the smell of milk, open his mouth, find the breast and feed, and then continue to sleep.

How to tell if your baby is sleeping more than normal

Of course, all parents want their baby to be healthy and happy, to sleep more and cry less. Therefore, if the baby sleeps long enough, mom and dad never cease to rejoice. But doctors explain that you need to learn to understand: the baby is just a sleepyhead, nothing bothers him, so he sleeps soundly, or the child does not have the strength and energy to spend active time. The latter situation should definitely alert adults.

A newborn baby sleeps about 20 hours a day. The body adapts to the new world and environment. The child’s organs and systems are adjusted to work: breathing, digestion of food, etc. The brain, perceiving and processing such a huge amount of information, also needs long rest.

However, it is worth knowing that the baby must wake up every 2.5 - 3.5 hours for feeding. After all, the body requires nutrients for full development and replenishment of energy reserves.

Sleep is very important for newborn babies and children of the first year of life.

Doctors recommend that parents study information about the sleep standards of children of different ages. In this case, it will be easier for them to navigate in a given situation. After all, if twenty hours of sleep a day is the norm for a baby in the first month of life, then for a three-month-old baby this may be a cause for concern.

Video: the importance of sleep for a child

Table: sleep norms for children under one year of age

In the first month after birth, the baby may wake up up to 4-5 times a night to eat. This is normal, because... Colostrum in the first few days, and then milk are very quickly absorbed in the baby’s stomach and after a few hours the baby is hungry again. However, with the establishment of lactation, a certain feeding schedule is established. Some children can sleep five to six hours straight at night without waking up for a snack. And this is also considered normal if:

• the baby is active during the day: strives to perform various physical exercises, is interested in toys;
• gains weight according to norms;
• growth indicators are also normal.

Video: Doctor Komarovsky about children's sleep standards

Reasons why a baby may feed infrequently

The most common reason that a baby does not eat well is improper attachment to the breast. Today, not all maternity hospitals help establish breastfeeding.

There can be several problems with milk:

1. Deficiency : When a baby is not put to the breast correctly, milk is produced in insufficient quantities for him. A lactation consultant can help solve this problem. To increase the amount of milk produced by the mammary glands, it is necessary to put the baby to the breast as often as possible, the mother must establish close contact with him. To restore lactation, you should pump more often, drink more fluids, and drink special fennel-based teas. If the baby gains little weight, you will have to switch to mixed feeding. First, the mother offers the baby one breast, then the other, and then supplements with formula.
2. Overabundance : when there is too much milk, it flows in a strong stream into the baby’s mouth, he begins to choke, gets scared and refuses to breastfeed. To solve this problem, you need to pump a little before feeding.
3. Change in taste : Milk may change its taste if mom eats something spicy, salty or sour. The same can happen after taking medications or becoming pregnant.

The second reason is if there is some kind of pathology, for example, the child may not be able to suck at all. But such problems are usually identified in the maternity hospital. A short frenulum of the tongue (the membrane that attaches the tongue to the bottom of the mouth) or a cleft palate can prevent milk from being sucked out. It may not be completely split, but only in the depths of the mouth, which is difficult to notice. Some babies are born with a weak sucking reflex that develops gradually.

The third reason is that a newborn may have difficulty latching on the breast if any medications were used during childbirth, for example, the painkiller Promedol. It enters the mother’s bloodstream, then into the baby’s body and after birth is not removed from it for a long time, affecting the baby’s ability to suck.

The fourth common reason is that when a baby is sick, he sleeps a lot, as the body loses energy in the fight against the disease and replenishes it. If he has a cold, his stuffy nose prevents him from sucking milk.

Fifth, the baby will not be able to eat normally when he has colic, dysbiosis or otitis media. But in this case, his sleep will also be disrupted.

The sixth reason is that problems with feeding occur due to thrush (stomatitis). It is painful for the baby to suck, so he may refuse the breast and sleep for a long time due to loss of strength. To diagnose the disease, it is worth looking into the baby’s mouth. There you can find white spots that increase in size over time, and underneath them there is red mucous. A baby can become infected with stomatitis from its mother during childbirth. This disease occurs due to damage to the mucous membrane or the entry of microbes into the mouth from dirty objects (a pacifier or a toy that has fallen on the floor). The disease requires treatment prescribed by a pediatrician.

At home, you can prepare your own medicine for stomatitis. To do this, add a teaspoon of baking soda to a glass of cool boiled water. The resulting solution is used to treat the mother’s breasts and the baby’s oral cavity.

Why do babies sleep almost all the time?

A restful sleep is necessary not only for the babies themselves, but also for their parents. Many of those who have children can remember the sleepless nights and difficulties associated with getting the little ones to fall asleep peacefully.

Until about six months, the baby sleeps 16-20 hours a day, in short intervals from half an hour to several hours. Within a few days after birth, children often sleep more at night than during the day. By two to three months, many babies sleep almost all night or lie quietly, which allows parents to gradually enter the usual rhythm of life. But older babies are no longer so easy to put into bed so that they fall asleep or lie quietly, resting.

In the first months of his life, a child actively learns about the world, studies it, and perceives attempts to put him to bed as separation from objects and things that interest him, and not at all as an opportunity to relax in order to study the world around him with renewed vigor. Therefore, babies can cry, pull their arms, gurgle - do everything so as not to be put in a crib.

When a child is capricious, you really want to pick him up, rock him, and calm him down, but excessive care and consolation of the baby will not lead to the child learning to fall asleep on his own. Act as your mother's heart tells you, but remember that the routine for the child is important. Sit next to your baby, tell him a story, quietly sing a lullaby, say good night. The baby will feel that you are nearby and have not disappeared anywhere, he will feel protected.

Gradually leave the room, but not immediately, but step by step. Then the baby will fall asleep peacefully. By the way, it is during the stage of deep restful sleep that growth hormone is produced, which is so important for children.

Remember that babies have shorter phases of shallow and deep sleep than adults. At first, the baby's sleep is light: smiles and grimaces run across his face, his eyelids twitch. This sleep can be interrupted by the slightest touch, noise, or discomfort. The deep sleep phase begins 20-30 minutes after falling asleep and lasts about an hour.

When a child sleeps deeply, he practically does not react to external and internal stimuli, so in infants this sleep phase is shorter than in adults. The child’s brain wakes up the baby as soon as he is deeply asleep, so that in a shallow sleep the baby can draw attention to his problem - his gums itch, his nose gets clogged or he burps, or maybe he is hungry, he feels hot, or it’s time to change his diaper. In addition to the response function, shallow sleep is useful for the development of a child’s brain: in dreams, the baby sees visual images, which promotes mental development.

Therefore, sleep is very important for babies, and we should try to make it comfortable. To do this, you need to try to help the child fall asleep quickly so that he learns to fall asleep on his own. By the end of the first year, most children are already accustomed to long night sleep and two short naps: in the morning and in the afternoon. After a year, babies sleep about 12-14 hours a day. We can help our children get used to this sleep routine.

• From the first weeks of your bedtime together, develop your evening rituals so that your baby can then determine the difference between day and night.
• Put your baby to bed at approximately the same time every night.
• The last feeding should be immediately before bedtime so that the baby does not wake up at night from feeling hungry.
• You can play a little with the baby or read him a fairy tale, but make sure the baby is next to his crib. This way he will gradually get used to the fact that it is time for sleep.
• If the room is cool and the crib is cold, then it is better to wrap the baby in a diaper or blanket before going to bed (during play or feeding) so that after warm mother’s hands he does not end up in a cold place.

An important factor is the convenience of clothing and the comfort of the baby: if he is uncomfortable in the undershirts, the diaper is hard, and the diaper is not fastened correctly or slips off, then all this can lead to the fact that the child will not be able to fall asleep until all the inconveniences are eliminated, he will be capricious and cry. Clothes for children should be made of natural fabrics, comfortable cut, and stitched with soft threads.

Particular attention should be paid to diapers.

Diapers come in different brands and manufacturers. They differ in size, absorption rate, type of fasteners, surface (breathable or regular), and can be designed for different weights and different ages. If a child has very sensitive skin, it is often difficult to choose a diaper that does not cause allergies. In this case, you can use diapers that do not contain superabsorbents. For example, special Bella Baby Happy diapers, made in the form of a regular rectangular pad that is inserted into the sliders.

The baby's skin is very delicate, and every mother wants to keep it healthy. It is very important that the materials used in diapers have increased softness and ensure maximum dryness. Bella Baby Happy diapers are designed to meet all requirements.

• To provide absolute comfort and protection, they use a unique, very soft non-woven fabric called “Touch of Velvet”.
• Baby's delicate skin remains naturally dry and healthy thanks to the super-breathable surface of the diapers.
• Ideal comfort is ensured by a special distribution layer that promotes rapid and uniform absorption of moisture.
• Elastic bands around the legs protect against any leaks and provide the child with freedom of movement.
• Thanks to the elastic waistbands at the front and back and convenient fasteners, the diaper fits perfectly.
• These are diapers that feature 12 different interesting designs that develop your baby's imagination.
• And in each large and medium package you will find bags for used diapers.

Do not forget that it is best to buy diapers for babies in pharmacies, special departments with children's hygiene products, where they monitor the temperature regime and maintain the appropriate level of humidity.

Material provided by the Happy club.