Posts Tagged ‘child’

I plan to post a “quick tip” occasionally that will be a quick blog post that has a useful tip pertaining to your child’s sleep. Today’s quick tip is to keep a log of your baby’s sleep for one or two weeks. Log wake times, nap times, nap lengths, and bedtime. Add up the total time baby actually slept (if you are unsure, as long as baby is quiet, count as sleeping). The amount of sleep a child gets in 24 hours stays relatively constant and they will shift sleep from day to night and vice versa (within reason). Once you have your log, you can take the average amount of sleep in 24 hours and use that as a guide when adjusting schedules and setting your expectations on wake-times. For example, if you know your baby gets an average of 13.5 hours in 24 hours and naps 3 hours that day, you can guesstimate (s)he will sleep about 10.5 hours that night. You will likely need to log 1-2 weeks every few months to get an accurate average, as babies change a lot in the first 2-3 years!

Disclaimer: Some babies are more consistent than others. Inconsistent babies might have a large range of the amount of sleep in 24 hours. At least if you keep a log, you know whether this is true or not.

Disclaimer 2: During growth spurts, teething and illnesses, the amount of sleep might be unusually higher or lower. Try to time your logging during a “normal” time. (as much as a baby is “normal”)

For online tracking, you can use Babble Soft. Babble Soft helps you and other caregivers keep track of activities like breastfeeding or bottle feeding schedules, baby sleep patterns, diapers, baby immunization or medicine doses, and baby’s first year photo album. This helps you really get to know your child’s schedule or to show you whether (s)he has one (in the case of inconsistent babies, there just might not be one without your intervention!). Or, you can use good old pencil and paper or track using something like Excel where you can let it calculate the average for you. But, Babble Soft is very affordable and lets you run reports and has charts so you can see information at-a-glance! It’s very easy to use and has a FREE Trial. In addition, they are offering FREE subscriptions to eMail Our Military members as well as access to a discount code for 20% off purchases for non-active military and friends. What a great idea just in time for Memorial Day!

Did you find this Sleep Quick Tip helpful?

I am pleased to announce that the FREE Quick Guide I wrote about last week is now available! You can receive this guide by signing up on our mailing list (Don’t worry, I hate spam as much as you and will never sell your information!). For those who signed up on the mailing list and have not received your guide, please sign up on the mailing list again as I had a technical problem about a week ago. I apologize for the inconvenience. The Quick Guide is a 4-page document outlining a variety of information helpful to parents with challenging sleepers. It’s a short document to give you pertinent information at your fingertips without requiring you to take a lot of time to read it. And, it gives simple instructions to start a sleep training process to help your child sleep.

Topics include quick facts pertaining to:

• How much sleep your child really needs
• Napping and schedules
• Sleep routines
• Explanation of sleep associations
• Night-weaning
• When and how to sleep train
• Descriptions of a variety of sleep training methods (No-Cry to Cry)

If you like the Quick Guide or have questions, you may desire even more detail in the above subjects and more, so please see our e-Book, Detailed Guide to Help Your Child Sleep.

You may also notice a change in the navigation of our site. After some feedback after our initial launch, we decided to make some changes. I hope you like them and I’d love more feedback!

One of the sites I’ve been perusing, as I develop this blog, is IttyBiz, which is an advice blog for small business owners. This week there was an interesting challenge in which she asks us to answer a few questions about what we do. She asks us these questions:

• What’s your game? What do you do?
• Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?
• Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?
• What’s your marketing USP? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?
• What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?

I thought that I could do a special post today answering these questions.

What’s your game? What do you do?

Why thank you for asking. I give advice to parents who have challenging sleepers about how they can help establish healthy sleep habits whereby getting more sleep for both their babies and THEM!

Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?

A little of both, actually. I had a very challenging sleeper as a first-born and once I was able to function again and after months of getting him to sleep well, I made it my mission to help other tired mommies and daddies. I think the “knack” I have is the ability to retain a lot of what I read, take someone else’s situation and philosophies, use my analytical skills, and figure out some advice that can help them. My “knack” is also that I can give advice and support without coming off as a know-it-all, pass judgment or make anyone feel bad for what they’ve done up until this point. Many parents blame themselves and are really hard on themselves. We’ve all been there and when you have a new baby, you do whatever you have to, to survive.

Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?

Very very very tired mommies and daddies. Over 12,000 babies are born every day in the U.S. alone. Many of those babies seem to struggle with learning how to sleep and the parents of those babies are who I would try to help.

What’s your marketing USP? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?

Well, I see many other “sleep consultants” who are very gimmick-y. They claim to help your child sleep in just 3 days or they sell you an eBook, which is basically a one-size-fits-all “program”. First of all, very very very tired mommies and daddies (see previous question) do not have the time, energy, or concentration to read all the books out there on helping a baby sleep. And, everyone’s situation is UNIQUE, so I don’t believe just one book or method will work for every baby. It’s very frustrating to read all these stories about babies who cry for 5 minutes and then sleep all night for the rest of their lives, when that is NOT YOUR reality! That’s where I come in. I’ve read numerous books and have it fresh in my mind (call me your cliffs notes) because of all the advice I give on a daily basis. I take the parent’s situation and figure out the best course of action based on their philosophy as the parent and the baby’s personality and temperament. So, in other words, a parent should buy from me because I offer a one-on-one personal touch, give great advice, and stick with them as they go through it giving them support all along the way.

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?

What’s next is to see if I can get paid for this service. Right now I’m doing all of this for free. So, I’m working on this website to get some good content for parents to read such that I can become a good great online resource that can be passed among many parents. I am in the process of setting up some online services that can be purchased along with a free service, which I will announce very shortly.

I hope that gives you, the readers, a glimpse about all I do. And, I hope that it makes you want to know more.

Learn more about me here and here.

Science Daily recently reported in this article that certain sleep disorders are linked to behavior issues in kids. The study showed that children with sleep disordered breathing such as snoring or sleep apnea and who were also overweight, did not sleep enough, or had another sleep problem such as insomnia, were more likely to have behavior issues.

More than half of the participants with sleep disordered breathing who were studied were either overweight or at risk for being overweight (see this post about the link between sleep and obesity).

In addition 36% were identified as “short sleepers” and almost half had another sleep problem diagnosed in addition to the snoring or sleep apnea. “Forty-seven percent had a history of behavioral problems and 23 percent had a reported diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).” Researchers were surprised that the strongest predictor of behavior problems was not the severity of the sleep apnea or snoring, but the presence of another sleep problem such as insomnia.

Of course, I notice my eldest son’s behavior plummet when he stops getting enough sleep. Just last week he accidentally napped and it resulted in he not falling asleep until 9:45 p.m. and waking at 6:50 p.m. the next day (he usually sleeps about 12 hours). That led to yet another nap and another late night and it snowballed into 2 mornings of one hour tantrums (ugh). Pitiful to watch and it breaks your heart when you know the reason, but can’t do anything much about it. What we ended up doing was skipping rest time on Saturday, so there was no nap and he was able to go to bed at a very good 7 p.m. and he slept until 7:15 or so the next day and we had our happy boy back. So, even though he doesn’t have sleep apnea (that I know of, but he does snore a little), I did not need a study to tell me that less sleep = behavior problems. But, I thought this was an interesting study to share. I am sure there are plenty of parents who feel they are doing all the right things and putting their child to bed early, and although it appears (s)he may be getting enough sleep, if their child has more going on than meets the eye, the parent may not understand the poor behavior. As my son grows and starts school, I can see how sensitive he is to missed sleep and how critical it will be that he get enough.

Do you notice a big spike in behavior problems when your child doesn’t sleep enough?

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In my last post, I discussed Harvard’s findings that less sleep could be linked to obesity, so we know at least one reason you and your baby should get enough sleep. Let’s explore other reasons as stated by Harvard Health.

Learning and memory

Have you ever tried to learn something new when you are tired? It’s hard! Well, the old saying goes that “we learn something new every day”. Babies and toddlers are learning new things probably every minute (I might be exaggerating…I didn’t look it up but I know it’s a LOT!). I notice that as the day wanes on, now that my toddler isn’t napping anymore, it is much harder for him to concentrate and learn new things or even do things he already knows how to do like a jigsaw puzzle he has done many times over. I also notice he gets clumsier. Fortunately, overall, he gets enough sleep and is better able to learn and is actually very smart (yes I am partial, but other people tell me too, I swear!).

Safety

I am sure everyone has experienced moments during the day when you practically fall asleep mid-stride. If you are driving a car, operating on someone, or bringing an airplane in for a landing, this could lead to dire consequences if you haven’t gotten enough sleep or are chronically sleep-deprived/fatigued. I remember one mom I helped who said she had run two stop signs (with her baby in the car) because her baby just would not sleep and she (and the baby) were severely overtired. She knew she had to make some changes if only for their safety!

Mood

One reason I don’t make my husband get up at night with the babies (besides the fact I nurse and there isn’t too much he can do anyway) is that if one of us is getting enough sleep, that person (hubby) is better able to “handle” the one who is sleep-deprived and moody (me). My toddler’s behavior and crankiness level change A LOT when he isn’t getting enough sleep. We have many more meltdowns and tantrums.

Illness

You are more prone to illness when you don’t get enough sleep. Your immune system is not functioning at the highest ability. This goes for your baby and toddler too and who wants to get up all night with a sick child? Obviously we won’t be able to ward off all illnesses, but even a few puts a little more sanity back in your favor.

How much sleep children need

Weissbluth’s book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, says that from 4 to 11 months old, babies need about 14 hours in 24 hours, on average (11-12 hours nighttime and 2-3 hours daytime). By two years old, that total is just a bit under 13 and by four years old about 12 1/2. So, you see it doesn’t change very much in the first few years. Ferber’s book, Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems, has slightly lower averages, but fairly comparable. All babies are different and these are just averages, but you can see that babies and children do need a lot of sleep. Adults need 7-8 hours each night. I can’t remember the last time I was able to get 8 for more than one night in a row! Oh yes I can. It was before I had kids.

How much sleep does your family get?

Time reported a few days ago that a Harvard study just concluded that too little sleep in babies and toddlers might be linked to obesity. And, they said, TV viewing heightened the effect. No surprise there. At first I was skeptical about this study of the link between sleep and obesity. After all, we are also living in a fast food era, watch hours of television, sit behind a computer for hours blogging, tweeting, and surfing the ‘net. Even if you are reading a book (you know…one that is made of paper and you don’t have to click to go to the next page), you are sitting. There are a lot of factors at play here with what is making our country obese. The CDC reports that adults aged 20–74 years the prevalence of obesity increased from 15.0% (in the 1976–1980 survey) to 32.9% (in the 2003–2004 survey) and children aged 2–5 years, the prevalence of overweight increased from 5.0% to 13.9%. So, I think we can all agree we DO have a weight problem, but what is the real driving force?

A good friend of mine and I were discussing this study and I expressed my skepticism. Although I am obsessed with sleep, my data analyst/scientific mind was having trouble getting away from too many variables and the inability for them to really study just ONE facet of a complicated toddler’s life. But, I thought this would be an appropriate place to at least explore how sleep can possibly be linked to obesity. I thought it was worth mentioning to you as another reason to get your children to get as much sleep as they need. As a bonus, if you are watching your own weight, it gives you a reason to get in that bed!

As my friend pointed out when supporting this article, circadian rhythms play a part in appetite suppressant while we sleep. Circadian rhythms are our bodies way of controlling when we sleep, get hungry, our mood and when we get IN the mood. Our bodies release hormones leptin and ghrelin to signal to our body we are full and hungry, respectively. When we don’t sleep enough, leptin levels go down and it has been shown that those of us without a circadian rhythm disorder, will get a spike of ghrelin in the middle of the night. This explains why I’d need to go out and eat after clubbing waaay back in the day, but I digress. So, naturally, if you aren’t sleeping when you should be and you get this surge of ghrelin, you can expect to get hungry and, most likely, eat. Simple as that. So, unless you go running after that late night snack or your toddler plays hard after his/her late night snack (when (s)he should be sleeping) and doesn’t sit down to watch Dora or Diego, you can see that you are more likely to eat too much that day.

What I have still concluded for myself and my family is that sleep is ever more important in our lives, but so is what we eat and how active we are. But, then that’s not news. We hear it over and over and over again…so why aren’t we all listening? I have an idea. Let’s make treadmills net, twitter and blog-enabled! Not a bad idea for you inventors out there…

I want to thank my friend for inspiring what to write in this post. I’d link to her blog, but I don’t think she has one. I’m sure hers would be very interesting, though. She has a lot of interesting thoughts.

Thoughts?

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