What to do if your child does not sleep well at night and during the day

20.09.2013
Tikhomirova Evgenia Nikolaevna

Neurologist

Most often, attacks of fear at night and nightmares occur in children at an early age. These sleep disorders can manifest either as a partial disorder or as a condition such as parasomnia. It is worth noting that most often the manifestation of fear begins within an hour after falling asleep, i.e. in the first phase of deep sleep.

You can tell if a child is having a nightmare by looking at their body language. The body of a child experiencing a nightmare will be tense and elongated; in some cases, a reflex change in the position of the sleeping baby can be observed; sometimes the baby may sit up in bed. Children's night terrors may also be accompanied by crying and screaming. Such manifestations are primarily associated with uncoordinated work of individual parts of the brain.

The child does not sleep well at night

You will find this article so useful that you will want to print it!
Questions are often asked about how much sleep a baby should sleep at 1 month. Let's put the question differently: How much sleep should parents sleep? Many parents, especially mothers, of children under 1 - 3 years old can say: “Getting enough sleep is my dream!” If parents have intermittent, superficial, anxious sleep with frequent violent awakenings, then this is a sure path to chronic stress, fatigue, dissatisfaction, conflicts, and decreased performance.

Therefore, conditions should be created so that parents can sleep a full 8 hours at night. If a child sleeps in bed with his mother or parents, then adults cannot relax completely and for a long time. Only the alternative of getting up to the baby's bedside every few minutes or hours makes it possible to sleep together with the child. This is the only way mothers can literally “fall asleep.”

It is necessary to create the correct physiological regime of sleep and wakefulness, according to the age of the child, as well as taking into account the regime of family members. To create a good night's sleep, you need to create a rational daily routine.

Daily routine for children 1-3 months

Rise at 6-8 o'clock (at 7 o'clock)
After waking up, the child eats, then active wakefulness begins.
A common mistake parents make is to put her to bed immediately after feeding or after a short period of wakefulness (after 1-1 hours). After all, parents don’t want to get up so early, that is, before 8-10 o’clock in the morning.

This leads to the fact that, without getting tired in this short period, the baby does not sleep for long, about 30 minutes - 1 hour. And then the whole daily routine goes wrong. There are short periods of wakefulness (1-2 hours), then short, shallow sleep for a few minutes - 1 hour. Moreover, sleep is often possible only in arms or under the condition of constant rocking in a crib.

We create intervals between sleep of 2-2.5 hours. During this period, the child experiences active or quiet wakefulness.

What can you do with your child during the day when the child is not sleeping?

Walks in the open air.
During walks, you should not only sleep, but also explore and get to know the world around you. By showing and telling about everything that we see in front of us, we teach the baby to be inquisitive, this is the basis of learning.
We play outdoor games and use outdoor structures: ladders, sandbox, slides, swings, carousels. Running, jumping, climbing, cycling, scootering are dynamic games that develop motor dexterity. If a child becomes physically tired after spending enough time in the fresh air, then deep sleep is guaranteed. Create conditions under which the child “runs circles around the playground”, and at this time the mother sits and relaxes for a while, communicating with other mothers. Keep your child safe!
By the evening, active emotional and physical activity should be somewhat limited, avoiding overexcitation.
In the evening, quiet board or floor games, drawing, modeling from plasticine, designing, reading fairy tales with a good ending, quiet music or calm children's songs, a short children's cartoon, short telephone conversations with relatives (grandparents), massage with elements of exercise therapy are suitable.
Parents should sleep 8 hours.

The reason for night crying in a child under one year old

Children under one year of age often cry at night for the following reasons:

Intestinal colic. Every baby has them. Associated with the adaptation of the intestines to new food, mother's breast milk.
Otitis media and other pains. The kid only talks about the fact that something hurts him by screaming.
Teeth cutting. The difficult period of erupting the first teeth can drag on for a long time. This time is accompanied by daytime as well as nighttime whims.
Hunger and thirst. Trivial reasons that can be easily eliminated with intensive feeding.
Absence of mother. The baby is capricious in order to check if his mother will come.
Wet diaper . Discomfort prevents the baby from sleeping as much as the above reasons.
Fears. A child may be frightened by a sharp sound on the street or from neighbors behind the wall.
Environment. The house may be too cold or hot, too dry or humid.

Sometimes a child cries in his sleep because of the experiences he has had during the day. There are also choleric children in the world with a stormy, energetic temperament. It is more difficult for them than others to cope with the processes of inhibition of the nervous system. Choleric people may cry at night because they cannot calm down.

How long does a child sleep

From birth to 3 months - 16 - 20 hours a day;
6 months - 14.5 hours;
12 months - 13.5 hours;
2 years - 13 hours;
4 years - 11.5 hours;
6 years - 9.5 hours;
12 years - 8.5 hours.

How long should a child sleep during the day?

Considering that 8 hours are spent on daytime sleep, the duration of daytime sleep is:

From birth to 3 months - 8 - 14 hours;

How long does a child sleep in:

1 month - on average 11 hours during the day and 8 hours at night;
6 months - 6.5 hours;
12 months - 5.5 hours;
2 years - 5 hours;
4 years - 3.5 hours;
6 years - 1.5 hours;
From 12 years of age - no nap required.

How long does it take to fall asleep

It takes time to fall asleep - from a few seconds to 20-30 minutes. These are the bedtime norms for adults and children.

If the time to fall asleep extends beyond 30 minutes, then this condition is called difficulty falling asleep.

How to prepare your child for bed

Please note that the duration of night sleep will be 8 hours: optimally from 10 pm to 6 am or from 11 pm to 7 am. Therefore, every evening we plan time and distribute activities, systematically leading to sleep. Calm rather than exciting games in the evening are encouraged. When dad or mom comes home from work, which means an emotional outburst, no later than 1 hour before going to bed. Warm (at a temperature of 37.5 - 38 ° C), soothing hygienic bath before bed for 5-15 minutes, as an important daily ritual before bed.

Can a baby sleep with mom?

For children from birth to 3 years old, the most reasonable thing is to sleep in a crib, located in the parents' bedroom at arm's length from the mother.

Some babies after 1 year can easily sleep in a children's room, separate from their parents' bedroom. For most children, sleeping in a separate bedroom is comfortable from 2 to 3 years old.

Ideally going to bed looks like this:

The parents put the baby in the crib, read a fairy tale, or sing a lullaby, or calmly talk about good things, and leave the room. And looking into the room after 5-10 minutes, they observe the baby sleeping peacefully.

Most doctors do not recommend co-sleeping in a parent's bed.

Under these conditions, the mother does not rest completely, but tension and anxiety remain. There are also tragic cases where an exhausted mother, in deep uncontrollable sleep, covered the child with her body, which led to the suffocation of the baby. There is even a popular term for this phenomenon, “fell asleep.” And in my medical practice there was such a tragic incident. It is important to instill in a child from early childhood the skill of falling asleep and sleeping alone in his own bed.

Sleeping in a crib

Parents often ask the doctor: “How to teach a child to fall asleep at 1–3 months?” We answer: “We teach you a daily routine from an early age.”

How to create a daily routine for children from infancy

Correctly distribute the intervals between sleep and wakefulness, using information about age-related sleep needs.

Create a daily routine through external actions: when the child wakes up, you need to change the conditions.

And it becomes clear to the child that a period of wakefulness has begun.

Our actions during waking hours:

we lift the child out of bed, wash, change clothes;
feed;
turn on the lights, increase the sound level (we talk louder and more emotionally, turn on the music);
we play, engage in active activities, go for a walk, swim;
We leave the child alone for a while so that he can lie down and play on his own.

How does a child understand that he should fall asleep?

We wait for the moment according to the regime when the baby is tired enough. Moreover, if he was not active enough motorly, and his waking time is over, then he is overtired emotionally, but not physically tired. This makes it difficult to go to sleep.

Task: for healthy sleep, it is necessary to create sufficient motor activity while awake - massage, walk, bathing, active crawling, exercise, exercise therapy, feeding.

If, while awake, the baby is held in his arms most of the time, rocked a little, and passed one by one to other family members, then only the adults will become physically tired.

Our actions during bedtime:

wash or bathe, change clothes;
sometimes (not always) we feed;
put to bed;
we stop playing;
dim the lights, lower the sound level (quieter, less emotional, talk calmly, drawn out and affectionately, turn off the music, TV and other extraneous sounds);
you can rock for a short time in your arms, in a crib, in a stroller;
you can create conditions for sleeping in the fresh air (outside in a stroller, on a loggia in a crib);
don't forget to ventilate the room.

It is important to ensure that the air in your child's bedroom is moist and cool.

Frequent ventilation. If it’s cold outside, then ventilate the empty room. If there is no draft, then you can sleep with the windows slightly open.
Heating regulators optimize the room temperature. Simple techniques are known - covering excessively hot batteries using wet diapers.
Daily wet cleaning is ideal.
Optimal humidity will be created by special air humidifiers. You can measure air parameters using a hygrometer and thermometer.

The recommended optimal air temperature for sleeping in a children's room is 16 - 20 °C.

The optimal relative humidity in the bedroom is 50 - 70%.

If our actions before bed are of the same, stereotypical nature, then the child creates a bedtime ritual. He quickly gets used to this sequence of events and falls asleep quickly and deeply.

If the child has not been awake enough time, or is not physically tired, or is emotionally overtired, then in order to fall asleep, he cries for a long time and loudly before going to bed. He may worry every time he falls asleep. This is already part of his bedtime ritual. He cannot sleep without crying, providing a release, an outlet for unspent energy.

This bedtime option is difficult for the baby and parents. You can avoid sleep disturbances only by following these instructions, understanding the physiology of sleep and the need for a rational regimen.

How to help a child?

If crying occurs frequently at night, you should take your preschooler to the doctor. The child, of course, will not be happy to visit people in white coats, but it is still worth getting checked.

Interesting to know! “If we look at children’s tears without bias, we can find out the following: with crying, the baby’s lungs are trained, and the tears themselves have an antibacterial effect.”

This is where the benefits of tears end, and only problems begin. When the cause of whims does not lie in health, you need to look for the answer either in the psyche or in the environment.

Children should sleep in a cool (18-20 degrees) room with humidified air. Heat or cold are uncomfortable conditions, so they can interfere with sweet sleep.

From time to time a child cries in his sleep and does not wake up, then the problem lies in the plane of the child’s psyche. If there are scandals or a nervous atmosphere in the house, the baby’s nightly tears are guaranteed.

The most common mistakes that lead to sleep disturbances

The daily routine is not defined, chaotic, different, there is no clear routine, parents do not know when to put the child to bed. Parents call this regime: “free”, “we don’t have a regime”, “every day is different for us”, “we were told that a free regime and free feeding are useful”, “You ask such questions, doctor! How do I know when we wake up and what time we go to bed? We have a regime as it turns out.” What can I say?

Complaints about sleep disturbances

With this option, the most common complaints during an appointment with a neurologist are:

for restless sleep;
superficial and short daytime sleep of 20 minutes - 1 hour;
sleeps only in his mother's arms;
frequent awakenings at night every 30 minutes - 1 hour;
rolling up crying during the day;
poor or higher than normal weight gain (from overfeeding, due to frequent breastfeeding as the only sedative);
during the day the child is restless and capricious;
sometimes less inquisitive; sometimes masters motor and speech skills later.

The life of the child and parents is less harmonious, less calm and happy; a lot of effort is required to maintain calm in the family.

The daily routine does not correspond to age standards: short periods of wakefulness, as a result, short and shallow sleep.

The daily routine develops according to this scenario

The child wakes up at 6 o'clock for feeding; then the parents' attempt to put him to sleep and let everyone sleep longer. Sleep together for another 1-2 hours. Then comes a period of wakefulness for 1-2 hours. This period of time is short and insufficient to physically tire the child. Not tired enough, the baby cannot sleep for a long time.

Parents mistakenly believe that if a child begins to be capricious during the day, then he wants to sleep or eat every time.

If the child is capricious or tired, then you should change the type of activity: go for a walk outside; start doing exercise therapy; change a toy; wash; move to another room; change clothes; play or sing a children's song and much more.

But parents, following misconceptions, lull, rock, and put a tired child to sleep through breastfeeding. Only short sleep is possible, because the child cannot sleep longer. After a short sleep, the baby has not recovered sufficiently and does not have enough strength to stay awake for a long time. And again there are whims, and in the evening there is obvious anxiety.

The advice in such cases of sleep disturbance is this: you should gradually, 5-15 minutes each time, lengthen the periods of wakefulness over the course of a week. Create the correct physiological daily routine. And daytime and nighttime sleep returns to normal after this.

So, here is an approximate daily routine for children of different ages:

Daily routine for children from birth to 3 months

Sleep per day 16–20 hours (sleep 8 + 2.5 + 3 + 2.5 = 16); The waking period per day is 8-4 hours.

Get up at 6 o'clock.
1 period of wakefulness 2-2.5 hours - from 6 to 8 hours.
1 nap (short) - 2.5 hours (8 to 10-30 hours).
2 wakefulness period 2.5 hours - from 10-30 to 13 hours.
2 naps (long) - 2.5 - 3 hours (13 to 16 hours).
3 wakefulness period 2 hours - from 16 to 18 hours.
3 sleep (short) - 2.5 hours (18 to 20-30 hours).
4 wakefulness period 1.5 hours - from 20-30 to 22 hours.
Night sleep (with possible periods of awakening up to 3-4 times; ideally 0-1 times per night wakes up and eats) - 8 hours (22 to 6 hours).

Daily routine for 6 month old babies

Sleep per day 14.5 hours (sleep 8 +2 + 2.5 + 2= 14); The waking period per day is 9.5 hours.

Get up at 6 o'clock.
1 period of wakefulness 3-3.5 hours - from 6 to 9.5 hours.
1 nap (short) - 2 hours (9-30 to 11-30 hours).
2 wakefulness period 3-3.5 hours - from 11-30 to 14-30 hours.
2 naps (long) - 2.5 - 3 hours (14-30 to 17 hours).
3 wakefulness period 3-3.5 hours - from 17 to 20-30 hours.
3 sleep (short) - 2 hours (18 to 20 hours).
4 waking period 2 hours - from 20 to 22 hours.
Night sleep (with possible periods of waking up to 2-4 times; ideally 0-1 times per night wakes up and eats) - 8 hours (22 to 6 hours).

Daily routine for 12 month old children

Sleep per day 13.5 hours (sleep 8 + 2 + 3.5 = 13.5); The waking period per day is 10.5 hours.

Get up at 6 o'clock.
1 waking period 3.5 - 4 hours - from 6 to 10 o'clock.
1 nap (short) - 2 hours (10 to 12 hours).
2nd period of wakefulness is 3.5-4 hours - from 12 to 15-30 hours.
2 naps (long) - 3.5 hours (15-30 to 19 hours).
3 wakefulness period 3 hours - from 19 to 22 hours.
Night sleep (with possible periods of awakening up to 2-4 times; ideally wakes up 0-1 times per night, no need to feed at night) - 8 hours (22 to 6 hours).

Children's daily routine at 2 years old

Sleep 13 hours per day (sleep 10 + 3 = 13); The waking period per day is 11 hours.

Get up at 7 o'clock.
1 waking period 5 hours - from 7 to 12 hours.
1 nap - 3 hours (12 to 15 hours).
2 wakefulness period 6 hours - from 15 to 21 hours.
Night sleep (with possible periods of awakening up to 2-3 times; ideally wakes up 0-1 times per night, do not feed at night) - 10 hours (21 to 7 hours).

Children's daily routine at 4 years old

Sleep per day 11.5 hours (sleep 9 + 2.5 = 11.5); The waking period per day is 12.5 hours.

Get up at 7 o'clock.
1 waking period 6 hours - from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
1 nap – 2.5 hours (13 to 15.5 hours).
2 wakefulness period 7.5 hours - from 15.5 to 22 hours.
Night sleep (with possible periods of waking up to 1-2 times; ideally 0-1 times per night wakes up, but not every night) - 9 hours (21 to 7 hours).

Children's daily routine at 6 years old

Sleep per day 9.5 hours (night sleep 9.5 hours, without daytime sleep); The waking period per day is 14.5 hours.

Get up at 7 o'clock.
1 waking period is 14.5 hours - from 7 to 21 hours 30 minutes.
Night sleep (with possible periods of awakening up to 1-2 times, but not every night; ideally 0-1 times a week wakes up at night, but not every week) - 9.5 hours (21 hours 30 minutes to 7 hours).

Daily routine for children aged 12

Sleep per day 8.5 hours (night sleep 8.5 hours, no daytime sleep); The waking period per day is 15.5 hours.

Get up at 7 o'clock.
1 waking period is 15.5 hours - from 7 to 22 hours 30 minutes.
Night sleep (with possible periods of awakening up to 1-2 times; ideally 0-1 times a week wakes up at night) - 9.5 hours (22 hours 30 minutes to 7 hours).

Some parents are afraid to wake up their child.

Why does a one-year-old baby wake up every night and cry in his sleep?

This question often confuses new parents, and they throw up their hands, not knowing what to do. Should I consult a doctor or look for the cause on my own?

The most ridiculous conclusion they can make is to increase the load on the baby every day so much that he (as they believe) sleeps like a log all night.

This is a really effective method, but only when your baby is 3-4 years old or older. Despite the fact that doctors constantly warn about the dangers of this method, a huge number of new mothers and fathers make this mistake every year. After all, the only alternative option is to understand the reasons, and not every parent wants to waste their time.

There are only 5 main reasons. We will first list them and then analyze them in more detail so that you can confidently find the reason why your child cries in his sleep at night.

illness or illness;
inconvenience and lack of comfortable sleeping conditions.
childhood fears and nightmares;
overexcitement;
psychological irritation.

Now let's look at each reason separately.

How can you wake up a child?

If sleep time is over, you can open the door in the bedroom and start talking quietly; pat the child on the head or back; call him by name. If gentle measures do not help, then after 3-5 minutes you can lift him into your arms.

If we do not wake up the child on time, this may lead to a time shift in the daily routine; difficulties in subsequent falling asleep; less restful and deep sleep at night; less active and more negative mood while awake.

One of the common mistakes parents make is not a rational feeding regimen.

Let's figure out what physiological feeding mode at night means.

When to feed your baby at night from birth to 3 months:

A child under 3 months of age can wake up at night and eat 1-2 times. A 6-7 hour night break between feedings is desirable. Parents often wake up their children at night to feed them. Or they offer to feed after the child’s first inactive demand, encouraging him to wake up at night.

If the child is gaining enough weight, that is, does not suffer from malnutrition, IUGR, then it is better to refuse one night feeding.

From 3 to 6 months it is possible to feed the baby once a night.

From 6 months and older, night feeding is not physiologically required for the child.

The child cries at night in his sleep after a year

After a year of life, the beloved child ceases to be a baby and turns into a mischievous toddler who can also whine and throw tantrums in the dark. Here the reasons for the behavior are as follows:

Someone ate too much . Overeating at night does not allow the child’s body to relax, since the stomach is forced to digest food, hence the whims of the night with nightmares.
Fear of the dark or monsters . Something or someone could frighten a preschooler so much that when darkness falls, the fear seems real to the child.
Pain and illness. Sometimes crying at night is the first symptom of a disease.
Someone played a lot. Not only gadgets strain a baby’s central nervous system; even simple active games before bed can lead to nighttime crying. Here a good old book of fairy tales will help you cope with your whims.
Changing teeth. Children's teeth grow or become permanent from birth to adolescence. It is not surprising that even at two or three years old a toddler can be capricious because of them.
Beginning ARVI. Perhaps the child has a sharp sore throat at night, so his crying is completely justified.

Now it becomes clear why the child cries at night when he needs to rest. It remains to understand what parents should do with all this.

Why does the baby wake up at night?

He wants to be held, communicate, suck, cradle, rock, feel warm, change body position, the child needs the attention of mom and dad. If he is accustomed to such attention, then he insists on demanding it. His demands are increasing as they are satisfied.

What to do when the baby wakes up and cries?

We set the rules ourselves, according to common sense.
You should not use your mother’s breast every time you cry as a pacifier to calm you down; the baby needs breastfeeding as essential nutrition.
You should not overfeed by applying to the breast or giving a bottle of formula every time the baby moves, makes the first sound, or loudly cries. Frequent night feedings lead to regurgitation, abdominal pain, restlessness, increased urination and bowel movements, additional diaper changes, and excess weight gain. These reasons cause sleep disturbance.

Breast-feeding

You can try feeding him a little more heartily at night, increasing the amount of food eaten by 10% so that you can sleep longer. And to do this, try to underfeed by 10% at the previous feeding. So your appetite may increase before night.
Dad shouldn’t carry the baby in his arms for half the night and not sleep himself, because he has to work tomorrow.

If SUDDENLY your baby's calm sleep has changed to hysterical crying at night (most often, it is difficult to wake up the child and bring him to his senses), then parents should pay attention to several possible reasons for such “nightly” behavior.

And at the same time help your child survive this period:

Know how to behave as parents at NIGHT
Know what is good for a child DAYtime

If you think that this problem is only yours, then you are deeply mistaken. At the moment, doctors and psychologists note mass appeals on this matter (but our mothers, and even more so, our grandmothers, suffered from this much less often).

Of course, you can dismiss everything as nightmares (and to some extent this is true), but nightmares are not a cause, but a consequence.

When a child (and even an adult) receives severe stress or lives in a state of stress (i.e. constant nervous tension), the unconscious tries to respond to this state, incl. and in nightmares.

The article is long (several posts), and the night may be approaching for you, so I will immediately write how to properly respond to your baby’s nighttime crying (hysterics). And in the morning, with a fresh mind, you will finish reading both the reasons and the daily actions.

ATTENTION! When a child begins to cry in his sleep (scream sharply), under no circumstances wake him up to calm him down.

You are required to BE CLOSE to your baby and make sure he doesn't get hit if he starts to crawl or move. Many people know that if they take a baby in their arms, the child kicks, breaks out, bends, like a stretched string. Those. his reaction to your reassurances is exactly the opposite.

PLEASE understand (and try not to get angry or irritated - this will only make the situation worse) that your child is very disoriented at this moment.

Even if it seems to you that he is awake, he is under the influence of a nightmare, and your attempts to calm him down are simply a continuation of the horror that is unfolding in his head. He may shout sharply, resist you - and only because he cannot distinguish a dream from reality.

A child's brain (unlike an adult's brain) cannot switch quickly IMMEDIATELY after waking up. It takes him time to understand: what is happening is unreal, his mother is nearby, and everything is fine.

So, YOUR behavior at NIGHT:

you are present nearby
protect your child from injuries and falls
try quietly humming a lullaby (to which he usually fell asleep as a baby)
or quietly and recitatively read a prayer
or quietly, softly, gently call the child by name (without changing intonation, maintaining the same rhythm)
or say quietly and softly: “Mom is nearby, we are together, mom is nearby, we are together...”

IMPORTANT! Every child is unique (and so is their nightmare). Therefore, if you see that your chanting, prayer, calling by name is affecting for the worse (the screaming intensifies), then do it all SILENTLY - ABOUT YOURSELF. Call and calm the child’s soul, and she will hear you without words. We'll deal with the individual later today.

When the child begins to calm down and come to his senses, lie down next to him and stay with him until he calmly falls asleep.

And in the morning, run to the computer to study the REASONS, find a situation that suits you, correct the situation and SLEEP QUIETLY.

To be continued in the next post

Rubric by Kachanova N.A. Happy parents

PART 2. The first reason why children scream at night - Read HERE
why a child screams at night

Bathing

Swimming before bed has the most beneficial effect on sleep, you just need to follow some simple rules:

The temperature of the water in the bathroom is 36.5 - 37 ° C - this is a moderately hardening, soothing, relaxing hygienic bath. A therapeutic soothing (sedative) bath is useful when sedative herbs, pine needles, sea salt, and essential oils are additionally used.

Read the article on how to conduct coniferous-sea baths.

When the temperature of the water in the bath decreases or increases, the child may become agitated or depressed, when the child becomes overly active or lethargic, capricious.

The optimal bath temperature for a child can be determined by selection. This should be done in cases where parents notice that after bathing the child is agitated, crying, and has trouble falling asleep.

The second option for getting out of the situation of excitement after an evening bath: bathing should be moved to an earlier period, in the first half of the day or before 1 or 2 days of sleep. Again, we install using the selection method.

As you age, your response to baths may change.

Massage and physical therapy are carried out by parents before bathing; the load is set to moderate, as tolerated.

After a warm bath, the pink-cheeked baby, wrapped in a large towel, is happy and relaxed. Having changed him into comfortable clothes for sleeping (diaper for children under 1 year and a jumpsuit), fed him well, all we have to do is put him in a child’s bed. Hoping everyone can sleep soundly for the rest of the night. We wish the same to you all by giving these tips!

Sedative herbal baths

From dried sedative herbs (motherwort, valerian, peony root, mint, lemon balm, oregano, St. John's wort, hops) we make a collection in free proportion or take one of the herbs in the amount of 1 tablespoon. Pour 1 liter of boiling water into the container with the soothing collection, let it brew for 30 minutes - 1 hour. Next, filter the resulting sedative infusion through a sieve. Pour the resulting infusion into a small baby bath and add about 10 liters of warm water at a temperature of 36.5 - 37 °C.

We bathe the child in a sedative bath for 5 - 20 minutes (as tolerated), adding warmer water if necessary and maintaining the required water temperature. After the bath, you can rinse your child with 1 liter of water from a mug or under low pressure with a warm shower. Wrap in a large bath towel.

We carry out sedative herbal baths every other day or 2-3 times a week, for 10 days. Then, after 10 days, the herbs can be changed, as they become addictive and their effect is not felt. If necessary, after 1 month you can return to the previous sedative herb.

If a collection of 3 or more herbs is used, the sedative effect remains; It is not necessary to replace the grass with another one.

Sedative baths are indicated for excitable children as a gentle, often harmless, effective, traditional, proven, inexpensive, widespread, favorite therapeutic and prophylactic remedy.

If an individual adverse reaction occurs (allergies, rashes, agitation), you should cancel the baths and consult a doctor.

The child is 1 year old. Cries at night. How to help

Overload Most often, children cry due to emotional overload. The cry is hysterical, the child may not open his eyes, it is impossible to hear it. When trying to hug or caress the baby, he bends over, fights back, and screams even louder. Inevitable overloads The simplest example: A child began to walk. Mom and dad are happy, but their emotions cannot be compared with the euphoria of the baby, for whom new horizons have opened, who has overcome gravity and his own body. Such strong impressions do not have time to “assimilate” during the day and fade away by night. Hence sudden awakenings, frightening dreams, etc. In a word, a child, even in ideal conditions, can cry bitterly at night or while going to bed during the next leap in development: he began to sit, crawl, walk, etc. Please note that the child’s sleep is different from that of adult. Most of it occurs in the fast phase. Accordingly, sleep is superficial, muscles can contract - arms and legs tremble, and this sometimes wakes up the child. Parental mistakes 1 year is one of the most powerful leaps in physical development, and the baby’s emotions are not ready for such a load. There is even a special word for this age - toddler. Unfortunately, adults overestimate the “maturity” of a child and in 90% of cases make at least one mistake in raising a toddler. What not to do: 1. Play active games before bed: tickling, catch-up, pillow fight, etc. 2. Watch “daytime” cartoons, expressively, like in the theater, read a story or choose an emotional story for the night. 3. Scold, punish the child or quarrel among themselves. 4. Keep your child busy all day with activities and/or entertainment. 5. Allow them to watch a lot of bright cartoons during the day and play on the phone for a long time. Why? All these activities lead to the fact that emotions accumulate and do not have time to be assimilated - hence disturbing sleep, nightmares or sudden awakening and crying. What needs to be done It is clear that children aged 1–3 are restless on their own and find so many adventures that they have trouble sleeping at night. But you can help them calm down a little by 21.00: 1. Alternate bright events and study so that there are breaks of 1-2 hours. Usually this is enough to process the emotions. How can you tell if your child is rested? He was excited after the event, then passive or capricious, then calm, then calmly discussing the event with an adult (the answers, however, come down to “yes”, “no”, because the baby does not have enough words). 2. For the day, choose educational, understandable, interesting, but calm cartoons: “Little Kids”, “Woods”, “Mimimishki”, etc. And limit screen time to 15-20 minutes a day. 3. Emotional or impressionable children should not have cartoons at all. Maximum – 1 episode per day. You will have to replace the time with joint creativity in the kitchen, a walk or a home sports complex. 4. Be attentive, like Stirlitz, and start packing at the first signs of fatigue. Sometimes it’s 10 minutes that you need to use up. 5. Refuse executions at night. Express your dissatisfaction and immediately make peace with your child. Otherwise, you will not have time to get enough sleep: at night you will be awakened by frightened crying, which will be difficult to stop. 6. Before going to bed, take a calm walk around the house - fresh air, a monotonous step and the same landscape lull even an adult to sleep. 7. Select and observe a “good night” ritual. Emotional, excitable and especially hyperactive natures require special patience. The best thing for them is an unwavering ritual extended over time. For sanguine and phlegmatic people there is no such problem. For emotionally strong children, 30 minutes is enough to switch to the night mode and calmly lie down under the covers. Examples of rituals Extended rhythm: 1. Play, for example, Twister. 2. Watch part of the cartoon. 3. Brush your teeth. 4. Watch the second part of the cartoon and drink warm milk. 5. Wash. 6. Finish watching the cartoon and go to bed. 7. Recall all the events of the day and discuss their significance. 8. Listen to a song and fall asleep. Clear rhythm: 1. Collect toys. 2. Brush your teeth and wash. 3. Kiss dad / mom / grandma / cat good night. 4. Lie in bed and listen to a fairy tale. 5. Fall asleep. Disorientation What is it? This is when a child wakes up and cannot immediately understand where he is, who is nearby, or what is happening. Most often this happens if the child is abruptly awakened during the transition to deep sleep. Who wakes him up? Himself. Children aged 1 year often toss and turn a lot, even sit down, and less often, they walk. Then the REM phase of sleep gives way to deep sleep, and the child does not lie down neatly, but falls or begins to fall - wakes up abruptly - gets lost - cries. The second variant of disorientation is when the child had a bad dream, he woke up, but not yet completely. It seems to him that the terrible situation continues. This causes the most desperate and hysterical crying. Health problems In addition to dreams and emotions, a child is often awakened by illnesses: 1. Difficulty breathing: ▪ due to a runny nose or allergies; ▪ enlarged adenoids; ▪ swelling of the throat due to allergies or laryngitis; ▪ inflammation and swelling of the throat due to accumulated runny nose due to acute respiratory viral infections / acute respiratory infections / pharyngitis. 2. Pain when swallowing. 3. Colic or severe gas formation in the intestines. 4. Gastritis-like condition, or stomach irritation. 5. Itching from insect bites or allergies. 6. High temperature, fever. 7. Pain in the gums due to teething. It is not considered a pathology, but the sprouting of nerve endings can be very painful. This reason is rarely written in reference books, but it happens. You can recognize it by a jump in tactile sensitivity: you used to wear any kind of thing, now you cry from wool or even just from rough flannel, you used to sleep under any blanket, now only under satin. This child does not like ribbed tights, he constantly adjusts or takes off his socks, and complains about the seam on his toes. Sometimes the muscles do not have time to grow behind the bones or vice versa - this can also be painful or painful. During the day, the child does not notice the problem because he is carried away by other things, but at night the sensations become more acute. Discomfort Don't forget about this factor. The child is cold, he has a wet bed or a damp, stuffy pillow, the child is hot or he is tangled in a blanket, there is not enough air in the room. The child may become hysterical, tossing and turning and jerking his arms and legs. May cry protractedly or intermittently, without waking up, toss and turn, and arch. What to do in case of hysterics Unfortunately, it is impossible to avoid crying at night with a guarantee. What to do when a child cries at night, flounders in bed, screams? First, rule out emotional reasons: 1. Stroke the child on the head, with your fingertips, above the bridge of the nose, on the cheek or ear. Here are the “pacifying” zones. 2. Be nearby, insuring the child so that he does not hit himself; you can put him in your bed if it is clean and the child is in pajamas. 3. For 10–15 minutes, repeat his name monotonously and affectionately, read a poem, a prayer, or hum a song that the child usually falls asleep to. Something that will calm both you and him. 4. Check if the bed is dry and level, if the room is not stuffy and cold, if the baby is not entangled in a blanket, if his nose is buried in a pillow or blanket so that he cannot breathe. Check whether the nose is breathing calmly, whether swelling or a runny nose is interfering (detected by snoring, sniffling, sometimes children desperately rub their nose without waking up - trying to ease their breathing). 5. If everything is in order in the crib and room, and calming did not help, check your forehead with your lips, feel your stomach and legs. Perhaps the child has a fever, colic, or something hurts. A few examples 1. Cold feet - put on socks. 2. Cold feet and hot forehead - put on socks and take the temperature. Listen to your breathing. 3. Stuffed nose - place a sofa cushion so that your head is higher than your feet. If the child knows how, persuade him to blow his nose. Place a product with eucalyptus next to it (an adult perceives the smell as weak, it does not sting the eyes - this is enough). 4. It helps a lot for colic if you put your baby on his stomach. For safety, the mother lies with her back on the pillow - so, half-sitting, she will have a good rest, but will not fall asleep deeply and will feel if the child slides under her side. 5. A warm heating pad also helps with colic, but who would keep it on a sore tummy half the night? 6. Unfortunately, nighttime tantrums do not always go away quickly. Doctors allow you to worry seriously only after an hour of continuous, heart-rending crying... But you still need to survive this hour. Summarizing advice to parents of a one-year-old child - maintain a measured daily routine and nightly ritual, be internally calm yourself, so that your confidence is passed on to the child. The main thing for the baby is your love and support. The rest will come with experience.

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Which bed is better for a child to sleep on?

Choosing a bed for a child

Standard children's beds suit the child well. The choice is up to the parents. It is important to approach the choice wisely; convenience for the child and parents is the guideline for choice.

Choosing a children's mattress: its density should be medium. An overly soft mattress leads to squeezing and bending of the body when lying down. The spine should lie straight along the line, without unnecessary bending, maintaining only physiological curves. An overly hard mattress is also uncomfortable and uncomfortable for a child.

What pillow should a child sleep on?

Choosing a baby pillow

The height of the pillow should be such that there is no tilting of the head to the side when lying on the side; There was no backward bending when lying on the back.

So, a pillow with a height of 2-3 cm is suitable for a child from birth to 3 months.

You can make such a pillow yourself: take a synthetic padding polyester, fold it into 4 layers and sew it into a pillowcase 20 by 40 cm. It is preferable to purchase a special low pillow for newborns.

We often recommend an orthopedic pillow for newborns, with a recess for the back of the head, in order to form a physiological cervical lordosis.

Orthopedic pillow from birth to 6 months

The head fits comfortably into such a pillow, like a testicle in a socket, reducing the likelihood of secondary deformation of the skull. Often we see when examining a child after 1-3 months that the back of the head is “skewed” due to the forced position of the head on its side (torticollis).

While positional treatment using an orthopedic pillow smooths out tension in the posterior cervical muscles, forming a slight, correct forward bend of the neck.

For a child 6-18 months old, we place a 4-6 cm pillow: this is already 8 layers of padding polyester.

There are doctors who say that children under 2 years of age do not need to sleep on a pillow. It is also more comfortable to sleep in the stomach position without a pillow. Try it! An individual approach is a selection method.

From 1.5 years old, we use pillows of standard sizes 40 by 60 cm, with a thickness equal to the width of the child’s shoulder, if you lightly press on the pillow.

Which pillow to sleep on

We select bedding for children in cute children's patterns, from soft natural (cotton, viscose) fabrics. For washing we use hypoallergenic special washing powders for children's clothes, using additional rinsing, followed by double-sided ironing.

Frequency of washing (changing) linen, depending on soiling: daily several times a day, but at least once a week.

Such measures may be less significant with age, in the absence of a negative reaction.

Talking about diapers

Diapers mean comfort and healthy baby skin, freedom from multiple changes of diapers and cloth diapers throughout the day and night.

Let us remember that in the era before the invention of diapers, it was necessary to stock up on 24-48 warm and light diapers for a newborn, and now 6-15 may be sufficient.

We select disposable diapers according to the principle: comfortable, sized, reliably moisture-proof, safe.

A child wearing a disposable diaper wakes up less often at night, but there are also pitfalls - it is more difficult to correctly instill neatness skills by 1.5 - 2 years.

The article also uses freely available advice from the famous pediatrician E.O. Komarovsky.

In what cases should you consult a doctor?

In most cases, nightmares in children go away on their own, but in some cases they may be a reason to consult a doctor. Parents should consult a doctor if:

the child experiences seizures more than once a week;
if the attack lasts more than 45 minutes or persists after preventive awakening;
if the child begins to walk in his sleep, thereby putting himself in danger;
if during an attack the child experiences muscle tension, twitching, and drooling;
if the “nightmares” begin during the second, third, etc. sleep cycle;
if the child’s night fears are remembered and persist throughout the day.

Clinical Brain Institute Rating: 5/5 — 1 votes

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