Why do children not sleep well?

Since children's nervous systems are not fully developed, they cannot withstand external stimulation such as sound and light for a long time, so they need a longer sleep to rest and relieve stress. Moreover, children's growth hormone secretion is mainly concentrated during sleep. Many parents hope that their children can have a good sleep, so that they can get temporary relief from their children's noise and crying. However, many children often do not sleep well, and often cry and jump continuously. What is the reason if children do not sleep well? How should parents respond?

Reasons and solutions for children not sleeping well

1. Intestinal colic

Symptoms: Common in infants less than three months old, who cry for hours, have flushed faces, clenched hands, and wave their limbs around. It is most common in the evening and at night.

Cause: This phenomenon is related to the fact that the nerves that control the baby's stomach and intestines are not yet mature or the baby is allergic to milk. After three months, the situation usually improves, so parents should not panic too much.

Solution: Generally, babies are not allergic to breast milk, and breastfed babies are less likely to suffer from colic, so mothers are encouraged to breastfeed exclusively.

2. Shaking your head at night

Symptoms: This is a regular shaking of the head or body that usually begins at nine months of age, with a male to female ratio of about three to one, and most disappears by four years of age.

Cause: It is speculated that it may be a self-stimulation of the vestibular balance nerve, which is often regarded as an excessive physiological phenomenon rather than a pathological condition and does not require treatment.

Solution: Strengthen care, such as adding pads to the head of the bed and bed rails.

3. Night terrors

Symptoms: It is common in young children and is a non-rapid eye movement sleep disorder. It mostly happens in the first half of the night. The child suddenly sits up, screams, looks confused, has no response to the outside world, has dull eyes, and may be accompanied by symptoms of autonomic nervous excitement such as accelerated heartbeat and breathing, sweating, etc., which lasts for about a few minutes. The child is difficult to be comforted by the parents, and when he wakes up, he cannot explain why he is so frightened.

Causes: These night terrors are sometimes triggered by illness, stress, or lack of sleep, but sometimes there is no obvious cause. Most people fall asleep peacefully after an attack, and this phenomenon almost always heals in the future.

Solution: Parents do not need to panic and try to shake the child violently to wake him up, because even if he is woken up, he will not know what happened and it will be useless. Be careful not to get too excited before going to bed.

4. Frequent diaper changes

Performance: The survey results found that more than 50% of babies wearing traditional cloth diapers need to have their diapers changed more than 3 times a night, and 42% need 5-15 minutes to fall asleep again after each diaper change. Another group of babies wore high-quality diapers, which significantly reduced the number of nighttime diaper changes and the frequency of nighttime sleep interruptions.

Solution: Use baby diapers.