Recommendations from pediatricians if a 9-month-old child has poor sleep

Why does my child have difficulty falling asleep at night?

Dr. Komarovsky identifies several enemies of children's sleep:

• Lack of desire to sleep.
• Hunger, thirst and pain. They prevail over the need for sleep.
• Psychological and emotional state of the mother. Scientists have proven that a mother’s depressed state, fatigue, and bad mood negatively affect the child’s sleep.
• Feeling of discomfort (uncomfortable clothes, wet diapers).
• Physical factors (noise, lighting). A child falls asleep poorly and takes a long time at night, usually due to too high a noise level or bright light; dim lights or quiet conversations will not harm his sleep.
• Emotional and physical activity. In the evening, the child should be in a calm state; overexcitement will not benefit his sleep.

To all of the above, you can add a few more reasons why a child may have difficulty falling asleep at night:

One of them is the absence or violation of the developed bedtime ritual. The child should have a clear daily routine, especially in the evening. Then he will associate certain actions, for example, bathing, with sleep.

Insomnia can also appear during transitional periods, when the baby is about to start walking or talking, or is teething. You just need to wait out this period. Sleep will improve on its own.

A change in the environment in the children's room or a child's fear of falling asleep alone can also disturb his peace.

Various diseases can interfere with sleep: asthma, allergies, heartburn, ear infections, colds.

Don't be alarmed by the many reasons why your child has trouble falling asleep at night. The site for mothers supermams.ru will offer you, perhaps, a universal way to solve the problem.

How to help your child sleep?

Children of 8-9 months are extremely active, and this leads to the fact that putting a fidget to bed can be extremely difficult. It is difficult for a child to rebuild his nervous system - even while in a crib, he still craves games and action. It can be difficult for parents to calm down a wild toddler.

What are some ways to get the little naughty boy to sleep? It is important to distribute games wisely throughout the day. In the evening, be sure to exclude all noisy and active games

When dad returns home from work, he wants to coddle and tickle his baby, but active games would be inappropriate in this case too. At this time, the child should immerse himself in a peaceful and calm environment that would put him in a sleepy mood. It is useful and very effective to include some rituals that are observed daily. The baby will immediately understand that bedtime will soon come and it will be much easier to put him to bed. As rituals, you can choose bathing in the bath, dressing in pajamas, reading a fairy tale, stroking massage, etc.

It will be easier to put the fidget to bed if you include rocking in your arms or in the crib in the process. Sometimes a child is capricious only with his mother, then it would be useful to involve his father or other family members in bedtime. Most likely, the whims will fade away and the baby will fall into a peaceful sleep within 5 minutes.

If there are no results, we connect the stroller to the action. You can rock your little one to sleep in it and then transfer it to the crib. Babies who are used to sleeping in a stroller during the day instantly fall asleep in it in the evening.

Conditions that help your child fall asleep quickly

Moms, remember! To achieve the best results, you must comply with one condition: treat the fight against insomnia as a game, and not as a punishment that weighs heavily on your fragile shoulders. Over time, you will develop a habit and will perform many routine actions very quickly and easily.

Prerequisites for good sleep

• Your offspring’s room should be maintained at a comfortable temperature of 18-20 °C and air humidity of 50-70%. If the room is hot, the baby may wake up from thirst.
• Several times a day, and most importantly, before going to bed, you need to ventilate the room. Children sleep better in a cool room than in a stuffy room.
• Before going to bed, it is advisable to do wet cleaning in the nursery.
• When feeding your baby in the evening, give preference to healthy foods: cereals, fruits, fermented milk products, meat (in small quantities). Don't give sweets at night.
• Make sure your baby gets out his energy during the day, otherwise your baby will have trouble falling asleep at night or wake up in the middle of the night.
• When bathing, add soothing aromatic oils or herbal infusions to the water.
• Dress your baby in warm pajamas, change the diaper before bed - create comfortable conditions for him.

We already mentioned above that the child should have a certain bedtime ritual. Now let's describe it in more detail.

Ritual for a child

Every day, an hour and a half before bedtime, do the following:

• take a walk with your child;
• feed him;
• bathe;
• read a fairy tale;
• dim the lights, turn on calm music.

Of course, you can adjust and add something of your own to this list. The main thing for us is to show the basis.

Rhythms of a baby's dreams

Your newborn baby has only one sleep rhythm - his own.
During the first month of a baby’s life, talking about rules and routines is completely pointless.

The norm is to sleep a lot, but since each baby is individual: with its own temperament, character traits and nervous system, there may be deviations in any direction.

Even in a family, one child sleeps more, another less.

Your goal is to monitor your child and not let him overdo it and get overexcited.

When a month-old baby doesn’t sleep well during the day or at night, first make sure that he’s well-fed. Other common causes of disrupted sleep:

1. cold or heat;
2. overexcitement, fatigue;
3. wet, dirty diapers or diapers;
4. colic (for more information on how to cope with colic in a baby, see the course Soft tummy >>>);
5. diseases of the nervous system.

Start building the correct sleep rhythm for your baby after the age of 1-2 months.

You will need to monitor the time between naps, help your baby fall asleep, learn how to prolong naps, and help your baby differentiate between day and night.

You can also help your child sleep well and fall asleep without crying in the online course Calm baby sleep from 0 to 6 months>>>.

Click on the link to find out the full course program and help your baby sleep sweetly.

If a month old baby does not sleep well at night. What to do?

Mom's belly provides ideal conditions for sleep. Let's remember which ones.

In the womb, the baby is in a cramped space, there is twilight and a constant hum. Everything that was familiar and familiar to the baby during the 9 months of pregnancy calms him even now, after childbirth.

Swaddling. This method is thousands of years old. Do not neglect the experience of our ancestors. Be sure to swaddle your baby for the first month of life. This will help him sleep peacefully. Just do it correctly - do not tighten your arms and legs, leave freedom for movement;

In the baby sleep course, I will teach you the free swaddling technique.

• Movement. Most children are unable to fall asleep on their own in their crib. Light rocking in your arms in your arms, stroller, sling will create an atmosphere of movement in the womb;
• White noise. The uniform hum has saved more than one mother when putting her baby to bed. Turn on the water, hair dryer, vacuum cleaner and place the baby in these conditions (read more in the article White noise for a newborn>>>).

1. When you feed your baby at night, do not turn on bright lights, TV or computer. Use a night light with dim, amber light;
2. In the dark, when carrying out the necessary procedures, do not entertain the baby. Try to talk to him less, thereby teaching him to understand that the night is intended for deep sleep;
3. Open the curtains in the morning. During the activity phase, keep your baby in bright natural light.
4. Also, read the important article: The child confused day with night>>>.

Remember that it makes sense to form correct sleep habits only after one month of age, not earlier.

Be sure to monitor your child for signs of fatigue and do not allow him to become overexcited or be exposed to human noise for a long time. By observing your baby, you should learn to recognize signs of overtiredness.

If you keep your child awake for more than he can handle, the result will be a heart-rending cry. In this state, putting the baby to sleep is a real challenge. When you notice that the baby:

• rubs eyes;
• yawns;
• slows down movements;
• stops his gaze and looks into “nowhere”;
• capricious, worried.

Try to immediately create a calm environment and put the child to rest.

If you have trouble falling asleep, try co-sleeping. Sometimes this is the only way to save a child from incessant crying.

Use the tips above and come to a detailed sleep course if your 1-month-old baby doesn’t sleep well at night.

You should expect a miracle only on New Year’s Eve, but you need to take care of your child’s sleep from birth.

• Can a newborn sleep on his stomach?
• Sleep norms for children under one year old
• Baby doesn't sleep well during the day

The need to adhere to the regime

For every nine-month-old baby, there are rules for falling asleep and waking up. Guided by them, parents try to create a proper sleep routine. It must include several stages that require execution. If you don’t do this, you can undermine the emotional background.

Sleep norms and routine

As the baby grows, it spends less and less time sleeping. An alternative is outdoor games and exploring the world around us.

If the child is feeling well, he or she should sleep at least 13 hours throughout the day. At the same time, at night - up to 11 hours, and during the day - 40 minutes 2 or 3 times. If he gets up 2 times during the day, the duration of sleep will increase to 2 hours.

Parents assume that falling asleep occurs according to established norms, but this is far from the truth. Time intervals are just an approximation.

Due to the individual characteristics of the body, the biological rhythm is formed in different ways. Night sleep is sometimes interrupted: the little one may wobble and moan. But these are normal phenomena, because at this moment the phases are rearranged. Parents need to calm their child down by talking to him or petting him.

But if the child often wakes up at night, and a heightened emotional state becomes the norm, then the cause of what is happening should be established. It is different for each baby.

Children's naps

Monitor your child's morning sleep and make sure he sleeps at the right time. Try to ensure that babies fall asleep no earlier than 9:00, and older children no earlier than 9:15-9:30. If you see that your child sleeps too long in the morning, then it would be wise not to allow him to sleep too long in the afternoon. Afternoon naps are ultimately much more important because they are longer and align with baby's natural sleep cycles. Somewhere between the ninth and twelfth month, most babies need to cut back on their morning naps, and some may need to eliminate them altogether, especially if they sleep until 7:30-7:45. Other children may need a 10-15 minute nap. To eliminate morning naps, try reducing them by 10 minutes every three or four days until your baby is sleeping just 20 to 25 minutes at nine months. If your child is very tired, you can move up the time of second breakfast and put your child to bed earlier.

Child development level at 8 months

At 8 months, the baby shows his individual characteristics, which are the first signs of independence. He observes the world around him with interest; everything seems mysterious to him. During this period, the child increasingly uses movements, facial expressions, gestures and thus expresses his feelings. He can tinker with toys for a long time, look at them and taste them.

Despite the fact that children are different, there are still certain general criteria in their development that are considered normal. The following indicators are typical for a baby at 8 months:

• In terms of physical development, an 8-month-old child can stand up, sit down, and point his finger at objects that interest him. He rolls over from his back to his tummy without any problems.
• Emotional development at this age also does not stand still. The baby actively shows his emotions, can show his attitude towards loved ones, delight or rejection of any situation. Every minute his mood changes.
• Sensory development is expressed in throwing toys on the floor and watching how parents pick them up.
• Psychological development can be judged by the child’s facial expressions, which convey the entire gamut of his mood. At this age, he distinguishes his loved ones from strangers. He tends to understand music and clap his hands after listening to it.

Causes of poor sleep

If, after observing, you notice that the baby slept less than expected, you need to find out the cause of the violation. It can be either completely harmless or require immediate medical intervention.

Let's consider the factors that prevent a child from sleeping normally:

• The baby is growing up quickly. It is at the end of the 7th and beginning of the 8th week that there is a sharp increase in the size of the baby’s brain and the circumference of his head. All senses also begin to be actively involved in understanding the surrounding world; the baby learns for the first time that he has hands, he begins to look at them often and move his fingers. Such changes can interfere with normal sleep, but, as a rule, by 10 weeks the baby becomes calmer and his sleep pattern returns to normal.
• Indigestion. Feeding a baby at 2 months occurs by the hour or on demand. His digestive system is still developing, so the process of digesting food sometimes becomes a real test for the baby; gases accumulate in the tummy, which cause sharp pain. This can disrupt daytime sleep and cause irritability in the baby.
• Too much sleep at night. A one-month-old baby can already develop an understanding of the alternation of day and night; from this time, the babies begin to adapt to the biorhythm of their parents. If it is more convenient for the mother to have the baby sleep longer at night, she can put him to bed earlier or wake him up later in the morning. In this case, the duration of daytime sleep will be reduced, but it will be compensated by night rest.
• Unfavorable microclimate. An air temperature of 19-21° C and a humidity of 60-70% is considered optimal for the baby. If he begins to jerk his legs and arms sharply, goose bumps appear on his skin, and sleep becomes short, it means that the child is cold. A sweaty back and red cheeks indicate that the room is too hot. Dry air can cause breathing problems that lead to sleep disturbances.
• Nervous situation. Two-month-old babies mentally sense the moral situation in the house and the fluctuations in their mother’s mood. They cannot fall asleep normally if adults argue, upset each other, or get angry. The emotional background of babies is very fragile; even a conversation in a raised voice can disturb its balance.
• Health problems. Illnesses can also cause insomnia. Recognizing them is quite simple; sleep problems are accompanied by symptoms such as irritability, refusal to eat, weight loss, increased body temperature, pale skin color and other manifestations.

The importance of the psychological atmosphere for normal sleep

The psychological climate in the family affects the baby during the period of intrauterine development. Therefore, mother should avoid stress and conflicts. Conversations in a raised voice are unacceptable in front of a child, even at the age of two months. He does not understand words at all, but is frightened by sharp sounds and movements.

The main rules that are aimed at creating comfortable conditions in the family:

• Mom needs to get enough sleep, eat well and pay attention to herself.
• Artificial babies cannot be limited in the time they apply the bottle; they need to satisfy their physiological needs for sucking.
• Natural cats feed on demand, allow the baby to sleep on the chest for 10 minutes.
• Approach the baby as soon as you hear him cry.
• Stick to a daily routine that is based on the biorhythms of the youngest family member.
• You cannot organize holidays with a large number of people who will pay excessive attention to the baby.

Advice! To ensure a restful and sound sleep during the day, go to bed with your baby. If you cannot create silence in the house because of other children or relatives, take your baby for walks outside. If you have problems with the nervous system or increased tone, regularly visit a neurologist.

What to do if something goes wrong

Your baby can't stay awake in the afternoon because he only sleeps for 40 to 60 minutes in the afternoon. In this case, it is best to let him sleep for 30 minutes after feeding at 14:30, and then 30 minutes at 16:30. Thanks to this, the child should not become overtired and irritable, and you can return to the 17:00 routine and put the child to bed normally at 19:00. If your baby slept between 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm, he will be able to go back to sleep at 6:00 pm. With a small child you just have to accept it. I suggest you move the feeding from 5:00 pm to 4:30 pm and put him to bed at 6:00 pm. An older child may go to bed between 6:15-6:30 p.m., and I suggest you reschedule your afternoon snack and bath time accordingly. When your child gets older and can refuse the afternoon nap, you can put him to bed again at 19:00.

If you've adjusted his routine to allow him to sleep more by eliminating afternoon naps, you can follow my recommendations at the beginning of each routine for maximizing the amount of naps during the day. Always try to get your baby to wake up at 5:00 pm if you want to put him to bed at 7:00 pm.

Checklist

Eliminate hunger as a possible reason for waking up. Check to see if your child is thirsty - offer him water before he goes to bed. Correct any sleep associations, such as falling asleep in a car seat, and ensure that your baby goes to bed in the dark when he or she is well fed. Try to have this happen at the same time - this way the child will develop the right habits. You will need patience. Make sure the room is really dark and there is no light in it. If your older child's return from daycare or school at 12-12:30 means that the baby won't be able to be put down in the dark, at least try to put him down in a car seat or stroller in the quietest part of the house. Rule out other reasons for waking up, such as noise or the blanket not being tucked in properly.

Remember that babies under six months have a very strong Moro reflex, so it is very important to carefully tuck the blanket on your baby, even if he does not wake up on his own.

When you go through all the reasons listed in the checklist and give time for change to take place, you may find yourself among the few parents who continue to have problems. These babies are usually older than six months and have developed strong misassociations with sleep. I must stress that this is a last resort and should not be used in mild cases, and certainly should not be used without the advice of your doctor or health visitor, who can recommend a sleep clinic.

How to teach a 1 year old baby

He already knows where his crib is, but continues to sleep with his parents. Of course, here the son or daughter feels protected. It’s warm and cozy to be between two dearest and most loving people.

Although he already understands words, it is not easy to separate him from his parents' bed .

Let's figure out how to teach a one-year-old child to fall asleep on his own. You can use the Estiville method .

It consists of leaving the baby in the crib to fall asleep and not giving in to his tears and pleas.

So that he does not feel abandoned, you can enter the room from time to time - more often at first, but reducing the interval every day.

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Reasonable actions of parents

There are many methods by which caring parents can ensure and normalize their child’s sleep. One method or another is suitable for each case. In order for your baby to fall asleep quickly and not toss and turn in his sleep, you must follow these recommendations:

Find the cause of his overexcitation and try to eliminate it. It is necessary to spend enough time with your baby in the fresh air. When bathing your child in the evening, use herbs that soothe. Chamomile and valerian have proven themselves well in this regard. A child should not be allowed to go hungry. Only a well-fed baby can sleep peacefully. As the child grows up, it is necessary to reconsider his sleep schedule. If previously a baby fell asleep at 21 o'clock, then with age he may need more time to stay awake

In such cases, it is better to move the night's sleep to half an hour to an hour. It is important to maintain a normal microclimate in the room. If you have hives that wake your baby up with itching, it is necessary to eliminate this skin problem. During teething, it is advisable to use special means to numb the baby’s gums. The mother should try to be less nervous; her mood is transmitted to the child. The baby's falling asleep and waking up should be accompanied by a smile and gentle words. Such an environment is conducive, the child does not experience the fear of loneliness.