Few of the children love going to bed.
Is that just crumbs unable to resist the dream, covering after a snack of lukewarm milk.
But the children's organism is useful not only night sleep, but also daytime. What problems do parents have when they consider daytime sleep as a must and how do they solve them?
How generally to put children to sleep in order to avoid conflicts with them on this topic?
Children's insomnia: concept
An unpleasant phenomenon that can be diagnosed if a child does not fall asleep for days and nights for several weeks in a row, he often interrupts sleep at night and after a prolonged wakefulness phase occurs, the morning rise is very early accompanied by increased irritation.
Sleep problems in children: causes
Like adults, babies suffer from insomnia for the same reasons.
Only not everyone, by virtue of age, is able to tell about their concerns, therefore, they express their discomfort with weeping and whims.
Typical provocateurs insomnia in children:
- Digestive problems due to a new product or an unsuccessful combination of several. In a breastfed baby, such a consequence occurs due to mom's violation of the nursing diet. Because of the inability to talk, small children can only complain about poor health by crying. With the accumulation of experience, mothers begin to understand his various intonations and are able to see additional signs indicating a sore tummy: leg cramping, desire to sleep upside-down, leg flexion.
- Sleep disturbance, rest in the evening, long sleep from evening to dinner - by the night does not come natural fatigue, which is why it is difficult to fall asleep in the usual time.
- Stress. The fright of a strong sound, a terrible picture seen in reality or in a movie, an experience about conflict with a friend, a feeling of guilt, a tragedy in the family.
The last factor can affect even small children who are not yet able to comprehend the situation - they are able to perfectly sense the general tension of adults around.
- Problems neurological nature.
- A dramatic change in the environment. For example, moving to a separate room, traveling with parents and the resultant failure of the biological clock, starting repairs at neighbors or construction sites near the house, changing kindergarten or school for older children.
- Drug action or early termination of its reception (for example, from allergies that do not give normal breathing).
Why it is impossible to lay day or night?
Prolonged sleep problems often begin when physically the child no longer needs a lot of rest to recover after a period of wakefulness.
If he does not want to go to bed, but soon begins to be capricious due to increased frustration amid fatigue, the reason for not sleeping is something else.
It may be:
- Uncomfortable temperature or humidity. It is difficult even for an adult to sleep in a stuffy room, and children are especially sensitive to heat and dry air, because their mucous membranes are still developing and are not able to quickly produce the proper amount of secretion.
- Lack or excess of light at the appropriate time of day. During the daytime, teasing sun rays that entice you for a walk can interfere, and at night - the light of a street lamp, the moon
- Overstrain due to active behavior shortly before bedtime. Being agitated, satisfied with the result of the game or distressed, the child even lying in bed, recalls the details of the entertainment and is unable to fall asleep from this.
- Hunger or overeating. Pressing the stomach also interferes with sleep, as rumbling because of the absence of the usual meal.
- Jealousy to the parent, brother-sister. Emotions of children are no less strong than in adults, so all of their fears because of unrequited love, lack of attention to yourself they perceive painfully and are very worried.
- No need for long daily rest hours. Sleeping more than normal in the afternoon, at night, the child is unable to fall asleep, because the body is still full of energy.
- View at night looking disturbing cinema, cartoonlistening to dynamic music.
As in the case of the game, memories of recent intellectual entertainment can deprive you of sleep.
- Outdoor game in the evening. Hormones produced during increased activity for a long time interfere with relaxation and the onset of sleep.
- The choice for the evening reading a book with a terrible story. With a hectic imagination of the listener, every character from the book after turning off the light in the room will surely “come to life” in the child’s bedroom, which will cause the baby to sleep only after complete exhaustion, when his brain gets tired of being afraid and “turns off the system” of wakefulness on his own.
- Stagnant air. Low oxygen content always keeps you awake.
- Experience due to a conflict situation.
Why does a child want to sleep all the time?
If this is a baby under 2 years old, then perhaps you are confusing the desire to sleep with manifestations. symptoms of another problem:
- Child rubs his eyes with his fists not only in the case of craving for sleep.
The same action causes excessive dryness of the air in the room, an allergic reaction to something, problems with vision, causing the eyes to irritate the light.
- Increased tearfulness may be the result of teething, painful sensations in the ear-tummy or anywhere else, mom's inability to adjust sleep patterns, latent pathology, nervous system disorders, birth trauma, tense situation in the family.
- Deficiency of nutrients in the diet. Drowsiness is provoked not only by iodine deficiency, but also by a lack of iron, calcium, vitamin D.
Drowsiness in older children is provoked:
- general constant fatigue due to the abundance of circles and other activities;
- anemia;
- inadequate rest at night due to the habit of staying up late to sit with a tablet, computer, or watching TV;
- neurological disease;
- problem in the work of the thyroid gland.
How to lay the kids?
So that the process does not drag on for hours, it is better to follow some rules and make them kind of ritual.
After a while, repeating the procedure will help set the child to sleep even when the baby has not yet had a clear desire to lie down.
Up to 12 months
Laying down baby parent or other relative is desirable:
- Ventilate the room.
- Ensure the comfort of the arrangement of the crib.
- Change the baby's diapers so that the sleep does not have to be interrupted by the need to change the diaper.
- “Catch Zen”: young children perfectly read the emotions of adults and mirror them. Therefore, it is very difficult to put an infant to sleep when he himself is disturbed.
- Prepare for feeding the child (if he is an artificialist, prepare a bottle of food).
- Warm your hands if cold.
- Make quiet indoor lighting.
- To rock the baby or just stay with him before falling asleep.
- When putting the child to give up the idea to tell him a funny story or sing a vigorous song.
Babies 5-7 months. The algorithm of actions is the same as when laying babies.
The only thing is, if parents practice sleeping in a separate room without a long hold on their hands, then once having achieved the desired result from the procedure, one should not change it, if one wants, for any reason, to squeeze the child longer in his arms. Wake up - chat.
1-2 years
By this time in the family bedtime rituals are formedwhich should not be broken.
Fresh air in the room and the friendly attitude of the parent are also relevant.
4-5 years
At this age already do not practice heavy snacks before bedtime. The rest of the procedure is similar to the recommended tips described above.
- The sleeping room should be ventilated.
- For relaxation before bedtime it is useful to read books with a calm plot.
- You should not give your child a lot of drinking before bedtime (except for the days when there is a summer heat).
- Sweets, smoked foods and spicy foods invigorate no worse than action films and comic books, so exclude these factors two hours before bedtime.
- Before a night's sleep, it is useful to carry out relaxing water treatments. For example, rinsing your feet with cool water or a warm bath.
5-9 years old
Not all children need daytime sleep at this age, so if the child is totally against it, then insist pointlessly.
It is possible that in case of cloudy weather or feeling unwell he will agree to take a nap, and not even once a day, but when everything returns to normal, he only wants to sleep at night.
Music to sleep
Still, music is a pleasant and useful food for the mind, so listening to songs better to postpone for periods of wakefulness.
During sleep, you need to create the brain conditions for free reset "pantry" to store information.
Moreover, having taught the child to sleep "accompanied by" great composers, there is a risk to provoke a problem with falling asleep in the futurewhen to turn on the music of the grown-up child will have nowhere or no hand, but it’s necessary to sleep.
How to wean walk to their parents?
Does the child go to sleep with their parents? The situation is common and sometimes scary. Imagine you are asleep and suddenly you are suddenly awakened by the persistent feeling that there is someone else in the dark room.
The main reasons for children's guest visits:
- Recently the baby was sleeping in the same room with his parents. Now he is bored, afraid of loneliness, or just wants a mum to his mom and dad.
- The child is going through period of falling in love with a parent of the opposite sex and thus trying to push the second. The situation is normal, if you timely and correctly respond to this behavior.
- The lack of heating of the room. The issue is decided by the purchase of warm pajamas, an extra blanket or a mobile safe heater.
- The baby is scared. It is necessary to find out the cause of the phobia and convincingly prove the absence of cause for concern.
Of course, every time you get out of bed and take away or carry a baby in his room to adults do not want. But it is necessary to do this when the baby tries to occupy the parental place to sleep.
This is the only way to instill in the child an understanding of the fact that he should sleep only in his house. Naturally, the relocation of the child must be carried out as kindly as possible.
Problems with the toilet
How to teach a child to wake up at night in the toilet?
If there is a problem of bedwetting at the age of 2 years, it makes sense to get tested for latent infection, the degree of maturity of the nervous system and the presence of psychological trauma.
How to try wipe wet sheets on their own:
- Before bedtime don't water child abundantly.
- For the night give a small piece of something. salty. For example, canned cucumber.
- Raise baby 3 hours after falling asleepto take him to the toilet. If at that moment the child does not want to go to the toilet, you can offer him to hold his feet in warm water or listen to the splashing of water in the faucet. And do not forget about the fact that the cold rim of the seat on the toilet does not contribute to muscle relaxation.
- Sure to praise the child, if woke up in a dry bed and not make a tantrum, if there was a "flooding". The nervous tension of a child, naturally also experiencing a lack of skill, will only aggravate the problem.
Why does the child before bed often run to the toilet?
Most often it's just attempts to delay sleep and extend timeuntil you sit with the baby.
But sometimes running between the bedroom and the toilet means:
- bladder problem due to diabetes, inflammation, or frozen kidneys;
- too much drinks during dinner or before bedtime;
- constipation;
- not enough comfortable temperature in bed, which causes general hypothermia and urge to urinate;
- the child likes something in the interior of the toilet (important after a good repair and installation of a light bulb with an interesting design).
These are adults don't mind taking an extra nap and with anguish they recall the times when their long sleep provoked violent positive emotions in all surrounding adults.
Naturally, as a child, the extra “communication with the pillow” also caused protest and outrage in you.
Most likely, this was due to the inability of adults to provide you with the right atmosphere for rest. Do not repeat their mistakes - put your children to bed correctly.
How to put the baby to sleep without tears and whims, as well as to teach to sleep separately from parents:
