Baby Not Sleeping At All?

 

Baby Not Sleeping At All Tips

This is the second most common complaint said by parents to us The first is obviously "My kid not eating well" which has been covered already You would have seen in internet and you tube how to make your baby sleep in 1 second and deep sleep. Or "simple trick to make your baby sleep well".And you would have followed those tips only to find out that it doesn't work. 

So in this Article I m not going to tell these kind of fake tips I will say few working tips which will help you. In this Article we will see baby's normal sleep pattern how long a baby/child must sleep, causes of poor sleep, and few working tips to make your baby sleep well. A newborn baby will be very active immediately after delivery. And will feed well when offered breast during this time. After this time baby will start to sleep deeply. 

During first 24 hours of life, baby will be tired and may sleep excessively So this is normal, you can try to feed the baby often within 24 hours. Problem starts after first day, baby will sleep well during day time. A normal term baby may even sleep for up to 4 to 6 hours at a time. during this time mom also might have only less milk so you may feel baby is not full so mom will become worried that baby didn't have anything and sleeping a lot Baby will not feed even if you wake the baby and give then during night time, baby will be very active. 

baby will wake up every 15 min to half an hour and you will be forced to feed very frequently Even after feeding baby will be active, will want us to keep in hand If you keep the baby down, baby will start to cry till held in hand again. This cycle will happen throughout the hospital stay. One of the reason for this is, when baby is in mom's womb, baby will be floating in amniotic fluid. 

During day time mom will be moving around so baby will float and will sleep well during day. At nights when mom sleep baby will not have that rocking movement baby will be awake at night. Since this happened for several months in womb, same sleep cycle continues even after birth. Baby will be active during night and sleep during day time. Same pattern continues at home also. Someone must do night duty to take care of the baby. 

Baby will be feeding frequently and will cry if you try to make her sleep. Baby wants to be held at hand. If you keep down thinking that baby has slept, then baby will start to cry again. Baby will immediately become happy once you hold in hand again. Day time baby will again sleep very sound. Will not wake even with lots of noise, and with relatives. 

You might think that its already 2 to 3 hours, tongue/throat may be dry. If you try to wake up and feed, baby will not wake up. It will be sleeping keeping mouth on breast even with stimulation. On top of that, In hospital you would have been advised to feed every 2 hours. So mom will try to feed every 2 hours but it will not happen. 

Mom will become stressed out and baby's sleep will also be disturbed by you. So the most important info is, milk is important for your baby but sleep is also more important. Milk is for body growth and weight. Sleep is for brain growth. And you must know this. So if baby is sleeping well then let her sleep Don't wake up thinking that baby will have dry tongue/throat. So first 1 or 2 months, baby will have sound sleep. Will sleep for at least 16 to 18 hours per day. 

Baby will wake up, feed, pass urine, motion then sleep. These are the only things baby might to initially. Rarely some babies might sleep at night and those moms are lucky. But most of the time this is what happens. By around 2 to 3 months, baby will start to recognize mom's face, will look around a lot. So some babies will try to avoid sleep during day time. Baby will sleep a bit during feeding and will wake up at the end of feeding time. 

So this 5 to 10 minutes sleep will make them fresh.Because as per baby, sleeping during other time may waste the precious time of looking around. So baby will use feeding time for sleeping also. Baby will be happy if we play/talk with them. After play, baby will start to sleep because of tiredness. Night time sleep will start to improve compared to before. 

Baby may sleep for even 3 to 4 hours at nights. But what may happen is baby will start to wake up at specific time at night will be fresh and active and will expect us to play with them. Will play for 2 to 3 hours then again will go to deep sleep early morning. Then will sleep will 8 to 9 am. This timing may change for each and every baby but they will follow their timings perfectly. 

You may feel that your baby's sleep is less, but usually after 2 to 3 months, its sufficient if baby sleeps for 12 to 14 hours. If you calculate the 10/15 minutes sleep time, then the total sleep time might reach at least 10 to 12 hours. After 6 months, the problem increases. Day time baby will be very active, energetic, won't think about sleep. 

We may not be able to cope up with the baby's need to play. If baby doesn't sleep during noon, baby will start to get very fuzzy during evening. We can't console, baby will start to cry for everything. And till baby sleeps at night, it will be a hell for parents. So most parents, will make baby sleep after 12 to 1 pm. If baby sleeps during this time then its well and good. They will sleep for 4 to 5 hours.But if baby is not sleepy, its almost impossible to make her sleep even if you try all methods. 

Baby may seem to sleep while rocking but once you stop, within few minutes, baby will wake up and cry. Which means, baby is not tired and is still energetic. And if we don't decrease this excess energy by playing with them , the will not sleep. But during day time, we won't have time and will be doing other work. So it will be difficult to spend time with baby due to this. 

So parents will try to force their baby to sleep so that they can do their work. So if you do this, baby will have half sleep and will fail to have sound sleep. even during night, then it will be a vicious cycle. After 6 months, the normal sleep duration of baby drastically decreases. During initial months, baby will sleep a lot But now baby will want to play actively if you make baby sleep forcefully, baby will become angry and cry. So by this time most baby will have their major sleep during night time. Even now many babies will wake up middle of night and will expect us to play. 

And it may be impossible for us to do that. After this 1 or 2 hours, baby will start to sleep again. Parents don't understand this pattern and will try to make that baby sleep without depleting its energy. This results in waste of energy for you and it can feel torturous for baby ultimately baby will not seem to sleep sound. Almost same thing happens between 1 to 2 years also. 

If you have been to a function or if lots of relatives came to your house, or if there are lots of children available to play, if you notice, baby will be playing with others and after some time they will say that baby slept off and will hand over her to you. The reason for this is you will be busy with other work there will be many persons to hold the baby and play with her. So baby will be playing and after some time baby will become tired and will sleep sound by them self. 

So when baby sleep after tiring out, baby will sleep for long. After 2 years, if baby doesn't sleep then we are also a reason for that. you will give mobile because baby is disturbing you. They will be watching it till you come to sleep this will stimulate child's brain through eyes. So after that child will have difficulty falling sleep. When children start to go to school, they may not sleep in afternoon so they will sleep at night well. 

This will be relaxing for you. After that beyond 5 years, they will be seeing mobile a lot. Parents will also come late to sleep after finishing the work. So child will initiate sleep only after that. But since child has been seeing mobile, they won't sleep till midnight. Parents will complain to us that child is using mobile a lot and not sleeping, "it takes almost 12 midnight" This is completely our fault. So if children/baby doesn't sleep then it means they aren't sleepy. 

During this time if you play with them, they will play actively. So if a baby/child doesn't sleep due to a problem/disease, they will have poor activity, poor weight gain, poor development. Will be fuzzy and not consolable. So most of the time, the so called "Less sleep" will not be a problem actually. Because we are expecting the child to sleep excessively than normal. So how to know that baby is sleepy? most parents especially moms will identify it easily. 

They can differentiate between sleep and hunger cry. These are the signs that baby is sleepy Baby will be clam, silent, decreased activity, will rub eyes, ears, will yarn. If we miss this time, then baby will start to be fuzzy and cry. "Ok Ok, so what about the tips which you have promised to make baby sleep?" I will say but before that one important disclaimer. These tips are to make a baby to attain their normal sleep requirement. 

If you expect bigger babies to sleep for more than 16 hours then it won't happen. From our side, Firstly we need to see whether child is sleepy and then only you must make her sleep. If you force child/baby to sleep without baby feeling sleepy, just because you are busy or because baby may become fuzzy in evening, it wont work. Sleep place must be silent, with dim light. If baby has disturbed sleep due to frequent urination, you can use diaper. 

Using diaper is not a problem but you need to give proper diaper care. Some babies may start to cry suddenly from sleep. Difficult to console, there are many reasons for this. Most parents consider this as abdomen colic but another common reason is dreams. Yes, babies may wake up and cry due to bad dreams. It will take some time for the baby to settle down. These are the things that can happen occasionally not to worry. In western countries, in order that baby is not been disturbed during sleep, they use something called white noise. 

The white noise instrument will produce a low volume constant noise. This will prevent outside noise from disturbing the baby. Its a recent advancement in many developed countries.Our ancestors were using this for a very long time. Its called "Lullaby aka Thaalaatu in tamil" This helps baby to sleep easily and will be very useful. These days most mothers don't use lullaby because they don't even know it. The specialty of this lullaby is in local language lullaby, there will be sounds like "Ra,Ri" these sound vibrations might help babies to go to sleep easily.` 

If you notice lullaby, the tone will be almost same and continuous. There won't be any long pauses. So this ensures sound sleep for the baby and out side noise will not disturb your baby. Another advantage is that it acts as a conditioning reflex. That is, if we follow it daily, baby will realize that its sleep time once they hear lullaby. Our ancestors were following easy techniques, but we have forgotten all those. Its better to make baby sleep in same place. 

If you keep in hand for sleep and then make lie down, baby will wake easily. Recommendation is to make baby sleep in same place where baby falls asleep. Babies will wake up if you change/swap place. So our ancestors had easy solution for this also. They will use cloth hammock and make baby sleep. After that they will leave the baby in it and go. 

This traditional cloth hammock is good for baby. It will cover the baby as a whole and baby will sleep comfortably in it. Next if you massage baby or bath the baby after massage, baby will sleep deeply which you would have noted. Next, baby will sleep well if fed full. But this will not be a problem for our moms. they will feed the baby whenever they get an opportunity. Next easy method is swaddling. Initially i was skeptical about this method but most parents say that babies sleep well without disturbance relatively. It involves wrapping baby well with a cloth. (Like shown here). 

Next, if you wear tight clothing, it may irritate baby and may not sleep. If you remove these then baby may be happy and sleep well. If you cover again, baby may wake up. So you can leave the baby as such. Unless its cold when you must use cap,socks,mittens etc. After 1 year, you can make baby lie in a place, dim light, and can tell rhymes, lullaby etc. But don't make eye contact with the baby, because they might get excited and will become active again. 

So repetition of same rhymes or song may make them sleep. For bigger children, stop all screen stimulation 1 or 2 hours before the intended sleep time. You must go to sleep with the child If you don't sleep with them then it won't happen. If you have come this far into the video then I will say few special tips. Its not necessary to teach a baby to sleep, they will sleep if feeling sleepy. 

Don't worry. Next don't make baby sleep minding time, all babies don't follow same timings. Few babies may sleep for long time. Few babies may sleep less, but these babies will take small frequent naps. These short naps will be deep sleep unlike adults, who will go to deep sleep after some time. But these babies will start with deep sleep from the go, so these short naps will be sufficient for them. 

Next, if you search online, many claim that their baby slept well just by following one simple trick. Please don't believe such claims. Making baby sleep is not very complicated and no easy trick is involved. Only one thing to be noted by parents, make baby sleeping situation when they feel sleepy. If you follow this one step, then baby will take care of its own needs. If baby/child is with full energy, if you try to make them sleep without depleting their energy, then it will seem impossible. 

So we must play with them till they are tired (or you become!!!!) then make them sleep which will work. In this fast world, most of the parents dont have time for that. Those days people were living in joint family and there will be many persons to take care of the baby and so (we wont be tired) kid will be allowed to get tired and will sleep. And we also will not get tired. Now all has changed, and we are not in a position to spend time with them. Resulting in all sort of problems and stress. So I think I have covered everything related to sleep. If you have any doubt, you can ask in comment, I will answer.