Does your baby have trouble going to sleep or staying asleep? Unfortunately for exhausted parents, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, says that may not change anytime soon.
The U.S. study found that babies with sleep issues are several times more likely to still have difficulties when they are toddlers compared to babies who sleep well.
Many children have an occasional nightmare, or trouble falling asleep – that’s not considered a sleep problem. When nightmares, waking up during the night, trouble falling to sleep, or the inability to sleep in the child’s own bed happen on a continuous basis then parents and children are exhausted, and that’s a major problem.
Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio found that 1in10 children under the age of 3 have sleep problems.
"Oftentimes the message is, 'Don't worry about Susie, this is typical and it will get better,'" said lead author Kelly Byars, a pediatric psychologist. But her team found, and other experts agreed, that frequently it doesn't.
Sleep problems "definitely start early, and (the researchers) showed that sleep problems persist over years," said Lisa Meltzer, a pediatric sleep specialist at National Jewish Health in Colorado, who was not involved in the study.
"Children don't outgrow sleep problems, and their data shows this quite clearly."
The news agency, Reuters, describes how the study was conducted.
During the study, researchers surveyed more than 250 mothers about their children's sleep behaviors when the children were six, 12, 24 and 36 months old.
If the children started out with no sleep problems, chances were good that none would develop, the study found.
But 21 to 35 out of every 100 children with a sleep problem continued to have issues later on.
The researchers also found that the types of sleep problems shifted as the children grew older.
When the children were under two years old, the most common issues reported included trouble falling and staying asleep. At age three, the children more frequently had nightmares and restlessness.
While formal sleep disorders are considered more medically serious, Byars said that sleep problems can have an impact on children's mood, attention, learning and development -- not to mention the sleep of parents.
"Sleep needs to be a priority for the entire family. Parents need to have consistent bedtimes, wake times and consistent bedtime routines. Research has shown that all those things are very important," Meltzer said.
So what is a parent to do?
Since most first time parents are learning as they go, they often overlook helping their baby establish a consistent sleep routine.
Pediatrics.about.com offers this advice for parents or caregivers.
Create a schedule and stick to it. A tried and true method for helping your baby learn to fall asleep is to work on your bedtime routine and teach your baby to fall asleep on his own. This usually means falling asleep without rocking, nursing, or drinking a bottle. You can still do all of those things, just move them to a little earlier in your bedtime routine and put your baby down in his crib while he is drowsy, but still awake.
Next, be consistent and try to do all of the same things, in the same way, at the same time each evening.
If your baby doesn't settle down after a few minutes, try to comfort him quickly and put him back down before he falls asleep. He should eventually learn to fall asleep on his own and comfort himself back to sleep if he wakes up at night.
Sleeping on a schedule is actually a new experience for babies. It’s something they have to learn how to do.
There are a couple of things that parents should NOT do when trying to get their infant to sleep comfortably.
These include:
- Giving your baby solid foods at an early age in the belief that she is waking during the night because she is hungry. There's no research to support this, and you'll just condition her to want to eat during the night.
- Eliminating naps during the daytime. Don't do it. This risks making your baby overtired, which will make it harder for her to fall and stay asleep.
- Putting your baby to bed later. Like eliminating naps, this will likely make your baby overly tired, making it harder for her to fall asleep. In fact, for many babies, an earlier bedtime leads to a more restful night's sleep.
- Never co-sleep with your infant. This arrangement can make breast-feeding easier and can help the mother rest. But there is controversy about whether bed sharing decreases or increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Other safety issues, such as accidental entrapment or suffocation, may be more likely to occur in an adult bed.
- Do not lay your baby on its stomach to sleep. Laying your infant on his or her back reduces the risk of SIDS, which is more common among premature infants than full-term infants.
If you have any concerns about your baby’s sleep habits or problems, be sure and talk to your pediatrician.
Sources: http://news.yahoo.com/babies-sleep-problems-may-persist-over-years-study-040942902.html
