baby sleep disorder
Tips That Will Help Stop Baby Sleep Disorders
Remy JirekBaby sleep disorders are a common affliction that affects many infants. They can affect the babies by either not allowing them to fall asleep or by disrupting the sleep cycle. The children at the highest risk are infants prone to ear infections and first-born children. Causes for the sleeping disorders can be attributed to the behaviors of the child, such as body rocking or banging their head against the headboard. Another more serious symptom is sleep walking, an occurrence that should be monitored and handled carefully.
A lot of infants have trouble catching some Zzzzs, and this may manifest as their not being able to fall asleep or, when they do fall asleep, having trouble staying asleep. The odds of a baby sleep disorder are higher for boy infants, firstborn children, or infants who are prone to colic or ear infections.
There are many reasons why a baby sleep disorder happens and one such cause may be the anxiety of parents in attending to their firstborn child, which may cause them to let the bedtime routine and other rules get neglected. In the case of boy infants, they are also more prone to contracting many problems such as SIDS, hyperactivity and miscellaneous conditions that can contribute to infant insomnia.
Common Types
Some common baby sleep disorder problems include: Body rocking, which may be considered normal baby behavior as an infant may find the back and forth movement to be a quite soothing way of falling asleep. Trying to stop body rocking is best achieved by using a low key routine, that is one that does not make the baby perceive it to be a challenge to which its response may be to resist and persist with the behavior. In case the baby's rocking is very loud or forceful, a solution may be to move the crib away from the wall.
Also, at as early an age as four months, the baby may take to banging its head against the headboard of the crib. This type of baby sleep disorder can occur when the baby wants to soothe the pain that it's feeling when they are teething or have an ear infection. Though head banging may appear to be painful, in fact the infant isn't feeling any pain. One way of stopping this behavior is to play some soothing sounds such as that from a ticking metronome near the crib.
Sleepwalking, another baby sleep disorder, has not been explained by medical practitioners though as many as fifteen percent of infants will have experienced this sign of a baby sleep disorder. Sleepwalking may occur after an hour or two of falling asleep when the infant is in deep non-dreaming mode and may be caused by sleeping in strange places, getting little sleep during the day, or even from a high fever. The baby seems to be wide-awake when sleepwalking but in fact is not. You should not wake the child from sleep, instead try and guide him back to his bed. Keeping doors shut as well as locking windows will ensure that the child does not injure himself by falling down while sleepwalking.
There are many reasons why a baby sleep disorder happens and one such cause may be the anxiety of parents in attending to their firstborn child, which may cause them to let the bedtime routine and other rules get neglected. In the case of boy infants, they are also more prone to contracting many problems such as SIDS, hyperactivity and miscellaneous conditions that can contribute to infant insomnia.
Common Types
Some common baby sleep disorder problems include: Body rocking, which may be considered normal baby behavior as an infant may find the back and forth movement to be a quite soothing way of falling asleep. Trying to stop body rocking is best achieved by using a low key routine, that is one that does not make the baby perceive it to be a challenge to which its response may be to resist and persist with the behavior. In case the baby's rocking is very loud or forceful, a solution may be to move the crib away from the wall.
Also, at as early an age as four months, the baby may take to banging its head against the headboard of the crib. This type of baby sleep disorder can occur when the baby wants to soothe the pain that it's feeling when they are teething or have an ear infection. Though head banging may appear to be painful, in fact the infant isn't feeling any pain. One way of stopping this behavior is to play some soothing sounds such as that from a ticking metronome near the crib.
Sleepwalking, another baby sleep disorder, has not been explained by medical practitioners though as many as fifteen percent of infants will have experienced this sign of a baby sleep disorder. Sleepwalking may occur after an hour or two of falling asleep when the infant is in deep non-dreaming mode and may be caused by sleeping in strange places, getting little sleep during the day, or even from a high fever. The baby seems to be wide-awake when sleepwalking but in fact is not. You should not wake the child from sleep, instead try and guide him back to his bed. Keeping doors shut as well as locking windows will ensure that the child does not injure himself by falling down while sleepwalking.