Why does my baby cry at night?

What should I do if my baby starts crying at night? Taking care of a child is quite tiring. I believe that people who have been parents or have taken care of children can truly feel and identify with this feeling. Especially when the child is crying and refuses to sleep at night when he should, the baby starts crying and keeps crying at night. I can't do anything about the child and I feel so sleepy and exhausted. Why does this happen?

Generally, there are the following situations.

1. Physiological crying: The child's diaper is wet or wrapped too tightly, the child is hungry, thirsty, the indoor temperature is not suitable, the bedding is too thick, etc., which will make the child feel uncomfortable and cry. In this case, as long as parents eliminate the adverse stimulation in time, the child will soon fall asleep quietly. In addition, some children will cry incessantly when they go to bed at night. If parents can patiently coax them to sleep, the children will fall asleep peacefully soon.

2. Inability to adapt to the environment Some children cannot adapt to the natural environment and have their day and night reversed. He sleeps when his parents work during the day, and "works" when his parents rest at night. If you pick up the child and play with him, the crying will stop. For this type of child, some sedatives can be used to adjust the rest and sleep time, and if necessary, a child health doctor should be asked for some guidance.

3. Insufficient exercise during the day. Some children do not exercise enough during the day and refuse to fall asleep at night and cry constantly. These children should increase their activity level during the day so that they will be tired and fall asleep peacefully at night.

4. Improper arrangement of nap time. Some children cannot get up in the morning and take a nap at 2-3 in the afternoon. Or the nap time is too early, so they fall asleep early at night. When they wake up in the middle of the night, they cry if no one is there to play with them. These children can be woken up earlier in the morning and their nap time can be adjusted appropriately so that they feel sleepy at night and can sleep soundly until dawn.

5. Impact of diseases Certain diseases can also affect children’s sleep at night. Therefore, we must start with the primary disease and actively prevent and treat it.

Babies with rickets are often irritable and restless at night, and no amount of coaxing from their parents is of any use. Some babies will suddenly wake up in the middle of the night, crying and making noises, with extremely nervous expressions. This is mostly because they are too excited or stimulated during the day, and they dream about what they thought about during the day.

6. For children with pinworm disease, pinworms will crawl to the anus at night to lay eggs, causing extreme itching of the skin. The children will also become irritable and cry constantly.

Parents with this type of problem report that their babies need to be held, patted, rocked, walked around or fed with a pacifier before falling asleep. He wakes up as soon as I put him in bed. I need to hold, pat and rock him for a long time until he falls asleep. Such children often wake up and cry at night.

In fact, this is caused by parents making their babies develop bad sleeping habits. Because the sleeping habits of holding, patting, rocking or sucking on a pacifier have been developed before going to sleep during the day or at night. When babies wake up between sleep cycles at night, babies with good sleep habits will automatically adjust themselves to the next sleep cycle without their parents even noticing. However, babies who develop the above conditioned habits will require their parents to get up and hold them, or pat them before they can fall asleep again when they wake up at night. Even if they are not hungry, they will suck on the nipple and fall asleep after a few sucks, otherwise they will cry and make a fuss. What should we do in this situation? Parents need to be patient and persist for 2-3 days to cultivate the baby's habit of falling asleep on his own. Starting from the daytime, put the baby who is about to fall asleep in the crib. If he cries, you can comfort him with words and expressions by the bed. Let the baby cry for a while, then pick him up to comfort him, put him down and let him cry again. Let him cry longer the second time before picking him up, and gradually extend the time before responding. The baby learns to fall asleep on his own until he feels that his parents will not hug him even if he cries again. The same goes for breaking the habit of sleeping with a pacifier. Once you develop the habit of falling asleep on your own, you will sleep well at night.

Some children like to stay up late, which makes working parents miserable. The child cries at night and disturbs the neighbors. Whenever the neighbors ask if the child is ill, the parents feel a sense of loss and think they are not able to raise the child well.

In the pediatric clinic, there are many patients who bring their children to the clinic because of crying at night, and there are also many mothers who consult about this issue. When the doctor asks them how to deal with it, many of them always feel helpless. Here are a few suggestions that I hope will be helpful to parents.

Understanding is the most important

1. Excluding diseases, the most common cause of night crying is unknown. Therefore, it is difficult to find a solution. Even if parents get some methods from parenting books, night parenting manuals, seeing a doctor, consultations, etc., they often don't work when they are used on their own children. It is a fact that it is difficult for parents to find ways to cope with their children.

2. Faced with this reality, tired parents will feel frustrated in raising their children. In fact, night crying has nothing to do with parental upbringing. It is very difficult for babies to sleep through the night. Some babies do not cry after waking up, and they can be helped to pee, fed, or simply fall asleep on their own without their parents' supervision. But some babies just keep crying and won’t stop until they’ve cried enough, no matter what their parents do. If parents have this understanding, they will not be angry about their children's night waking.

3. No matter what causes the child to cry at night, it is wrong for parents to ignore it. Crying is the language of babies. When a child cries, he is communicating with his parents. However, if parents refuse to communicate with their children, this will greatly undermine the child's self-esteem.

Although it may produce effects in the short term, it is not good for the child's future growth. I don't agree with this negative approach.

A mother said, "Last night, my child woke up and cried again, but we ignored him. After crying for more than ten minutes, he fell asleep. It was a good idea." However, the mother did not expect that this would be detrimental to the child's growth. If the child gives in, it means he does not trust himself, and it will also lead to distrust of his relatives and others. When they grow up, this crisis of trust will make children become withdrawn, difficult to get along with others, and have poor social interaction skills.

It is unwise to let your child cry endlessly for fear of spoiling him/her. Practice has shown that the more responsive the parents are when a child wakes up and cries, the shorter the child cries and the younger the age at which the child stops making noises at night.

The above are the answers to the question about why babies cry at night. I hope it can be helpful to everyone. As mentioned above, there are many reasons why babies cry at night. Each situation is different, and the coping methods are also different, requiring parents to be flexible. In short, I believe that as long as parents are careful and patient enough, I believe these things are not a big deal, and as long as there is love and companionship, I believe children will grow up healthily.