The pediatrician explained why the baby sleeps only 20-30 minutes and how to fix it

Some parents are faced with a situation where the child wakes up 20-30 minutes after styling, cries and can not go into a long sleep. Russian pediatrician Ekaterina Kaysina explained the reasons for short sleep and called the main mistakes that prevent prolonging sleep.

According to the pediatrician, if a child wakes up awake and active after 20-30 minutes of sleep, then this is not a problem.

- If your baby sleeps 20-30 minutes, then wakes up cheerful, active and everything is fine, it is enough, believe me, nothing to do with it, says Ekaterina Kaysina. As a rule, constant motion sickness, attempts to prolong sleep, the use of all methods at once can just irritate him, irritate you. Instead of actively staying awake and learning new skills, the child will cry, scream, and resist the next phase of sleep. But there are children who clearly did not get enough sleep after a short sleep, and then the problem must be solved.

The doctor listed errors that interfere with sleep.

Too long wakefulness

- Children get tired pretty quickly. If we are talking about the first month of life, wakefulness takes an average of 20-30 minutes, in rare cases 45 minutes. Sleep consultants and modern somnologists recommend stacking the child at the first sign of fatigue, but at the same time look at the timer. One child may lose eyes, another may yawn, a third may curl up, and another may stretch sweetly. If you do not notice signs of fatigue, ignored them, with a high degree of probability the child will soon be very difficult to lay. And, as parents themselves describe, it will be like dancing with tambourines, explained the pediatrician.

Too brief wakefulness

- We did not treat the child individually, did not find out what intervals he has, how much he really gets tired, and start the child early to lay. This also causes resistance, said Ekaterina Kaysina.

The child falls asleep in some conditions and wakes up in others

- Imagine you fell asleep in your bed and woke up in your car. Scary? Well, the baby is about as scared. I fell asleep in your arms and woke up alone in the crib. If at the time of gluing dreams were not the usual conditions in which he fell asleep, the child may be scared, cry and interrupt his sleep, explained the doctor.

Too many stimuli before bed

- If we talk about children up to 3-4 months, then we divide wakefulness into three parts. The first two-thirds are activities, games, swimming. And the last third is when we dim the lights, talk more smoothly, quietly, we can turn on the lullaby quietly, turn the child to his face, hug, stroke. This slows down, calms the nervous system and adjusts to a sleepy mood. Also, nervous systems can overexcite various multimedia devices: projector, TV, phone, tablet. Neurologists say that children under the average age of 2-3 years are not recommended to watch cartoons. They are very much overexcited, disperse the nervous system, said the pediatrician.

Discomfortable conditions for sleep

- The first is the microclimate. The thermometer should be 20-22 degrees, humidity - 40-60%. Pay attention to whether the neck is hot at the back, whether the skin is red under the diaper, whether there is a spot rash. If the child is hot, reduce the temperature and create comfortable conditions. The next point is what it covers or swaddles. Children from birth to 3-4 months very often prevents sleep reflex Moro – shuddering at a loud sound. In this case, we consider a tight swaddling of the upper extremities, and so the child feels calmer, said Ekaterina Kaysina.

Too many methods to prolong sleep

Mom at the same time and grabs the child in his arms, and begins to put to his chest, and hiss, and walk, and rock. One of these methods would probably help. You don’t have to arrange an orchestra or concert for a child at this time. Try gradually one, second, third method. Maybe you just need to stay close and put a pen on your tummy, and the child will then take and fall asleep, the pediatrician advises.

Separately, the doctor warned about sleepy child syndrome.

- A sleeping child is not always the norm. This condition occurs in infants who don’t get enough nutrition and simply don’t have the strength to wake up and eat. If you notice that your child sleeps clearly longer than other children, it is very difficult to wake him up, he is sluggish, moody and quickly disconnects, immediately contact the pediatrician.