Reasons and countermeasures for baby sleeping unsteadily

Baby sleep problems and solutions

1. Lack of microelements

The decrease of blood calcium may cause the cerebrum and the vegetal neural excitability, so baby does not sleep well at night. Baby needs to complement the calcium and vitamin D. If baby is lacking of calcium, his forehead will not close well; if he is lacking of zinc, the corner of his mouth will fester.

2. Too hot or too cold
3. Too dry and there’s booger in nose
4. Don’t let baby playing too excitedly before sleep, keep baby going to bed on time

A half or one hour before baby going to sleep, you should quiet down the baby. Don’t let your baby play too excitedly before go to sleep and don’t even amuse baby excessively, so as to avoid that baby cannot fall asleep due to overexcited and nervous. Don’t let your baby watch the exciting TV program. Don’t tell terrible stories and don’t give him new toys to play. You should create a good sleeping environment for your baby. Room temperature must be suitable and the room should be quiet, low light. The blanket baby covers with should be light, soft and dry. And let baby micturate before going to sleep.

5. Pay attention to whether there’re pinworms outside baby’s anus or not
6. Many mothers may think that babies are hungry when they see babies wake up by crying, and then give babies breastfeeding. Actually this is a very bad habit. Instead, this will make children form a habit of breast-feeding when wake up at night.
7. Indigestion, excessive internal heat or eat too much in the evening may also cause inquietude when sleep. It is suggested that feed baby porridge, noodle and other solid food at least two or three hours before baby going to sleep. Before go to bed, baby could drink some milk.
8. Breast-feeding baby is longing for mother’s milk.(It is a circumstance existing in many breast-feeding babies)
9. If breast-feeding is required at night, pay attention to below points:

Try your best to keep the environment quiet. When feeding milk or changing diaper at night, do not let the child wake up completely(it is better to keep him on semi-sleep condition). So that after feeding or changing diaper, baby will fall asleep easily.

Reduce the number of breastfeeding. Do not let children form the habit of feeding at night.

10. If baby wakes up at night because he wants to pee, I think you should use diaper for him, so that baby’s sleep won’t be affected by pee. If you use diaper for your baby, remember don’t wrap it too tight.
11. Put your baby into baby bed promptly when you find that baby has sleepiness

It is better to let baby fall asleep by himself. If each time you hold baby in the arm or shake him into sleep, then every time when he wakes up at night, he will let you hold him or shake him before he can fall asleep.

12. Don’t let the baby fall asleep with pacifier

Pacifier is used for sucking milk, but not for sleep. If baby fall asleep with pacifier, before you put him on the bed, you should draw out the pacifier gently.

13. Don’t give a timely response when baby of 4 to 6 months is crying. Just wait a few minutes. Because most of kids will fall asleep naturally a few minutes after they wake up at night. If baby keeps crying, parents should go to comfort him, but don’t turn on the light, don’t amuse baby or hold him or shake him. If he cries more, come and check him 2 minutes later and consider whether baby is hungry, urinary, fever or having other disease etc.

If baby has not other reasons of discomfort, a large part of the reason baby often wakes up at night is that he gets used to it. If you hold or feed him immediately every time he wakes up, it would become a vicious circle. It is suggested that when he wakes up at night, do not hold him immediately or tease him, you should clap him and think about ways to pacify him to fall asleep. Usually baby in a languid state will fall asleep slowly.

When baby becomes bigger, sometimes he wakes up at night and murmuring. At the very beginning, if you always hold him, then he wakes up completely, and he needs a long time to fall asleep again. Maybe he is dreaming, so we sit aside and watch him, don’t bother him. And for a while, no sounds, he falls asleep again.

14. Uncomfortable quilt or sleeping posture
15. Separation anxiety

It is the most serious when baby in 9-18 months. In addition to the performance of attaching(do not want to be separated with) to his parents and the people who are very familiar with. He is afraid of meeting strangers and has a strong consciousness of protecting himself in a strange environment, (My son’s performance: very active at home, non-stop for a moment, laughing and shouting, just like a little overlord; but when he is outside, his expression, speech and manner are all serious. And as soon as the stranger teases him, he curls his lip and wants to cry.) He wakes up most at night; his sleep is light and keeps alert to external. (My son often cries in the middle of night without waking up, sometimes he turns over and sits up shortly after fall asleep, or 4 or 5 A.M. in the morning before he real awakes. He cries when he cannot see us. Usually I hold him and pat him gently and then put him in his bed, he will fall asleep within 1 minute.)

But if he cries out at night when he is flurried and this method is not working, the only thing we can do is to wait until he gets tired and falls asleep by himself. There are no such effective methods that can help. As it is one of the phases for baby growth and development. (Of course there are differences among babies. Some babies have no such problems). Just to mention some proposals and hope they will help you:

• Coaxing baby before he sleeps. Don’t pat your baby for a long time and should leave before baby fall asleep. Let your baby sleep by himself without held by parents.
• During the daytime, you should spend enough time to play with your baby, and let him/her aware that father and mother very love him/her and will give him/her enough love and care.
• Play blindman's buff with baby and let him realize that even though he cannot see his father and mother, actually they are around him.
• Take him outdoor frequently; don’t let your baby stuffy at home everyday and only familiar with the home environment.