What should I do if the baby doesn't sleep

Release time : 04/19/2025 09:30:02

The birth of the baby brought great joy to the entire family.

But taking good care of a baby is a job that requires both energy and skills.

Mom can rest when the baby goes to sleep.

When mothers don't sleep when they meet babies, they are really physically and mentally exhausted and have headaches when they take care of them.

What should a baby do if she doesn't sleep? What to do if babies don't sleep? What to do if babies don't sleep during the day? 1. Create a good sleeping environment.

Babies' sleeping rooms should be kept open to the air for freshness of indoor air.

To dim the light in the room, pull down the curtains.

Don't talk loudly in the room, keep it quiet.

2. Develop the habit of sleeping alone during the day.

Half an hour before putting your baby to sleep, try to calm him down, and come to the bed with your baby to prepare the bedding for sleeping. Pay attention to training babies under the age of 1 to be willing to lie down and sleep by themselves when they go to bed, and do not develop the habit of hugging and sleeping.

3. Create a pleasant sleeping atmosphere.

Don't bring toys to the bed while sleeping, don't shake or pat your baby's body, let alone tell tense or scary stories, but you can sing some lullabies to let your baby fall asleep in a relaxed and happy atmosphere.

4. Do not spend too long in bed during the daytime.

Too long sleeping time during the day will affect the sleep effect at night.

Generally speaking, 1 to 2 hours is appropriate.

What to do when your baby won't sleep at night? Babies who don't sleep at night often have a natural circadian rhythm, so parents can adjust their baby's circadian rhythm by following these methods: 1. Avoid letting your baby sleep during the day. Try to play with your baby in the daytime and place them in a brightly lit environment to help them stay awake.

And at night, try to dim the lights and create a quiet environment to make your baby feel comfortable and sleep well.

2. Utilize some sleep medications, communicate with a pediatrician, and administer non-addictive sedatives in appropriate doses during nighttime to help your baby drift off to sleep.

Within about a week, your baby's sleep habits should be adjusted.

(But this method is generally not recommended.) 3. Disregarding a baby's persistent crying at night, if it is determined that there is no illness or pain, and the cry is due to emotional distress seeking comfort, parents may ignore it but must remain calm and watch quietly from beside, allowing the child to grow tired and fall asleep naturally.

After some time, the baby's mind will learn to recognize that when it opens its eyes and sees nothing but darkness, crying won't bring food or comfort.

Parents can change their baby's habit of not sleeping at night by persisting.

The physiological reasons for infants not sleeping include seven common ones: 1. Inappropriate feeding practices.

Eating too much or too little can cause discomfort in the body and make it difficult to sleep.

2. The sleeping environment is not good.

The baby does not sleep well, which might be because the environment of his sleep is noisy and he cannot fall asleep.

Or perhaps it's the excessively bright light that keeps you awake.

If the room temperature is too high or too low, it can cause discomfort for infants and make them unable to sleep.

3. Feeling discomfort.

If the baby's diaper is wet and not changed in time, or if clothes are too tight, blankets too thick, or sleeping position is incorrect, all of these can cause discomfort for the baby, which he will express by screaming.

Therefore, it is advisable to dress infants in loose and soft clothes for sleeping and to keep the blankets appropriately thick.

Change your diapers promptly when they get wet.

4. Lack of security.

Due to the absence of a caregiver, the baby has developed feelings of loneliness or fear, resulting in the child not sleeping.

5. Hypersensitivity to allergens.

Stimulants in the bedroom may cause choking of baby's airway and result in crying.

Stimulants can be cigarette scent, baby powder, mosquito repellent spray, paint, etc.

6. Emotional Infection.

If parents, especially mothers, are emotionally unstable, such as angry, depressed, insomniac, tense and anxious, they will also easily "infect" their children.

If there are changes in family relationships, conflicts among family members, or moves to a new home, it can all cause children to be in a state of emotional tension and therefore cry and not sleep.

7. Activities are too long.

The infant's nervous system is not fully developed, and its inhibitory function is weak.

Therefore, prolonged activities can cause the infant's brain to remain in an excited state for a long time and prevent them from falling asleep.

8. Toothache.

From the age of five months, babies start to grow their first teeth, and by the age of two and a half years, they will have grown all their teeth. This can lead to discomfort due to tooth eruption.

If the cheeks and chin of the child have obvious drooling rash, gum swelling, tenderness and slight fever, they may be due to the pain from teething, which causes restlessness.

Once the child's teeth come in, they will have a better sleep.

When babies don't sleep, the problem mostly lies with their parents.

If the physiological reasons for a baby's inability to sleep have been ruled out, mothers should be cautious that their baby may not be sleeping because they are ill.

1. Whether the infant has been diagnosed with rickets.

Due to the lack of timely supplementation with Vitamin A preparations and auxiliary foods after birth, breastfeeding alone could not meet the needs of the child's growth and development. Consequently, the child developed rickets during the night, crying incessantly.

The treatment involves supplementing with vitamin D preparations and promptly incorporating additional foods and increasing exposure to sunlight.

2. Are you suffering from intestinal spasm?

Due to the large amount of gas accumulated in the abdomen, it cannot be expelled and causes abdominal pain.

This condition often occurs at night, with infants curling up their legs and crying out in great pain.

The treatment is to have the infant in a prone position with a pillow under the abdomen during an attack.

To reduce intestinal gas, hold the baby upright after feeding and pat his back gently to help him burp.

In addition, reduce intestinal gas by not exceeding a sugar content of 5-8% in milk.

3. Is there a case of enterobiasis?

The roundworms live in the human intestines, and often crawl around the anus at night to lay eggs. Babies cry because of the itching at the anus.

If you have been diagnosed with pinworms, it is important to take medication to eliminate the parasites. Additionally, you should wash your bottom frequently and apply anthelmintic cream, change underwear regularly, and air out bedding.

4. Is there a deficiency in trace elements?

Deficiency of trace elements can cause excitation in the brain and vegetative nervous system, resulting in babies' sleeplessness. It is necessary to supplement calcium and vitamin D.

If you lack calcium, your baby's halogen door will not close well.

If zinc is deficient, the corners of the mouth will generally fester.

5. Are you feeling sick with a fever?

If the baby's head is hot and flushed, or if a cold and fever can trouble the baby to sleep.

6. Are you feeling irritated or restless?

Infants who are not fond of sleeping could also be due to overconsumption of formula milk, which causes irritability and restlessness.

At this point, it is advisable to allow him to drink an appropriate amount of Xiao Qixing Cha (available in pharmacies under brands such as San Gong Zi and Derivatives). Generally, this should achieve the effect of clearing heat.

>> Babies not sleeping? Here are some tips to help you get your baby to sleep. To ensure your baby gets a good night's rest, many mothers have tried various methods and don't care if the techniques are correct or not.

The editor has compiled some bad habits of infants' sleep: 1. Sleeping with the breast or bottle.

Some children have a compulsion to suck their mother's nipples or breast milk bottles in order to fall asleep at night.

So that's how it works, the child wakes up and instinctively nipples or sucks on the breast.

Such an excessively frequent eating habit may easily cause the child's gastrointestinal function disorder.

Secondly, the child's mouth is still "blocked" by the nipple after falling asleep, and it is also easy to breathe poorly, resulting in reduced sleep quality and may even cause suffocation.

In addition, this bad habit may also affect the normal development of your child's gums and the cleanliness of your mouth.

2. The environment is too quiet.

Babies generally begin to consciously develop their ability to resist interference when they are 3-4 months old.

However, research has shown that about 30% of infants do not learn to resist distractions.

They often find it hard to fall asleep when there is even a slight disturbance, or they wake up in their sleep.

Actually, infants will naturally fall asleep in the background of "family noise," and parents need not worry about making any noise by stepping on their toes in the room.

Otherwise, children are likely to develop bad sleep habits: only in artificially created "extreme" quiet environments can they fall asleep; however, this kind of environment is difficult to find in reality.

3. The blanket is too thick.

Some parents intentionally cover their children with thick blankets in the cold winter to keep them warm, but they often overlook that too heavy blankets can be quite burdensome, and may even cause difficulty breathing.

Moreover, an excessively high temperature in the blankets can actually cause the child to become restless and even cry continuously, which also affects their sleep quality.

Having children sleep in an overly warm environment from a young age may also reduce their body's resistance to cold, potentially causing them to become "weak-kneed" as adults.

4. Fall asleep while humming.

It is naturally beautiful and sweet for a child to fall asleep to the humming sound of a mother's lullaby, but it is not advisable to get children used to the fact that they can only fall asleep safely by hearing the humming sound.

A good sleep habit for children is to fall asleep naturally and wake up naturally, not to rely on parents to help them fall asleep.

5. Staying up too long during the day.

Children who sleep too much during the day tend to have difficulty sleeping at night, often crying and becoming upset if they are not pleased with something. This causes parents to spend their nights unable to sleep.

Research has confirmed that children who sleep less than they should in the evening and are excessively drowsy during the day not only have slower growth, but also poorer attention, memory, creativity, and motor skills.

Moreover, lack of sleep at night can disrupt the normal secretion of growth hormones, impair the immune system, cause endocrine disorders, and lead to metabolic problems, making it easy to gain weight.

If a baby is sleeping too much during the day, parents can consciously wake him up or play with him for a bit longer to help counteract "circadian rhythm".

When babies experience sleep disorders, what should a mother do? 6. Frequently changing caregivers.

Some families, due to adults' work schedules, often change the person responsible for taking care of their child to sleep. Sometimes it is Dad, sometimes Mom, sometimes Grandma, and sometimes a nanny... However, it's unknown that for children under half a year old, they tend to regard the person responsible for taking care of them to sleep as "the most beloved relative," which makes it difficult for them to quickly adapt to frequent changes.

Staying up too late.

The reason why a considerable proportion of infants and young children go to bed too late is largely due to their parents going to bed late.

According to statistics, the average sleep duration for infants and toddlers in China is 1 hour less than that of American children of the same age. A primary reason for this is that parents are more fond of "nightlife" and generally stay up late, leading their children to similarly shorten their evening sleep times, resulting in various "behavioral insomnia". Specifically, it manifests as refusal to go to bed at the designated time, prolonging the time until sleep can be achieved, or experiencing difficulty falling asleep for extended periods of time.

Research also indicates that children who stay up late at night are more likely to be aggressive, and may also have symptoms such as hyperactivity, poor self-control, lack of concentration, and unstable emotions.

8. Parents should not overly "supervise" their child at bedtime.

After a soothing bedtime ritual (such as patting or massaging the child's back, playing soft and soothing music) is completed, parents can leave the room while the child remains awake.

Otherwise, the child will be accustomed to attaching his sleep to the parent's "overlook". As long as the parent is not there, he will be furious and cry loudly.

9. "Shaking to Sleep".

When a child cries, some young mothers use their "family skills" to soothe the baby: They hug or rock the child in their arms or swaddle them, even when the child cries louder, they rock harder.

It is important to understand that such practices can be extremely harmful to children. Excessive shaking can cause the baby's brain to vibrate continuously within the skull cavity, leading to minor impacts on brain growth and potentially severe injuries if the brain collides with the harder skull bones. This can result in intracranial hemorrhage, which is particularly dangerous for children under one year old.

10. Cuddled up with the child to sleep.

Some young mothers are very fond of their children and like to hold them close while they sleep.

However, this can lead to the child not being able to breathe enough fresh air, inhaling more of the mother's exhaled exhaust, which is detrimental to their growth and health, and may also transmit the mother's illnesses.

In addition, sleeping with a child can limit its free movement, making it difficult to stretch and limbs, which negatively affects the circulation of blood and growth.

Establishing Good Sleep Habits for Your Baby: 3 Key Methods Generally speaking, babies have a certain regularity in their sleep schedule.

According to research findings abroad, newborns spend most of their time sleeping, with an average daily sleep duration of 18-22 hours.

As babies grow older, their sleep time gradually decreases.

2-5 months baby, sleep time is about 15-18 hours; 6-12 months of age baby, sleep time is about 14-16 hours.

Certainly, as different babies may vary in individuality, their sleeping durations will also exhibit different manifestations.

At present, there is no established reference value for sleep duration in China.

According to the survey of children's sleep in China in 2006, because of regional differences, the average sleep time of our children is two hours less than that of foreign countries.

Understanding sleep patterns to ensure your baby gets a restful night's sleep. The information provided in this text is for reference only.

In case of discomfort, it is recommended to seek medical attention immediately. The diagnosis and treatment should be based on the medical consultation in person.