A newborn does not sleep all day. Painful causes of sleep and crying disorders. What are the reasons that prevent the child from falling asleep
From the moment of birth, the most key signal for a child until he learns to speak normally and explain himself in words is crying. V early age it refers to the universal mechanism of communication, with it the baby expresses a whole palette of his feelings and emotions, demonstrates his desires and emotions. Often there is such a situation that the newborn often screams and cries, not giving rest to himself and his parents. What can be associated with sleep problems and his screams? How to recognize the child's signals and eliminate their causes in a timely manner?
Table of contents:Development of crying and sleep problems
For a newborn baby, crying is a way of signaling any unpleasant, uncomfortable, or painful sensation.
When a newborn is healthy and well-fed, nothing bothers him, he spends most of the time in the first weeks of his life in a dream. Therefore, mostly due to crying, the child expresses his emotions, complains of poor health, and parents should not ignore such signals.
But young parents often do not understand why the child is screaming, sobbing inconsolably and unable to fall asleep. Gradually, over time, they already by the intonation and strength of the cry, its tone and behavior, the crumbs distinguish the source of the problems. There are relatively simple and easily treatable causes of lack of sleep and crying, although more serious, painful, and dangerous conditions are possible.
The main causes of crying in newborns
There are quite physiological and obvious reasons for crying in children, because of which he cannot sleep. These include:
When applied to the breast or when the baby is given a bottle with the mixture, it calms down and calms down. Babies can also quench their thirst by applying to the breast, and for this, artificial people need to be given some water in a bottle. At first, until an approximate feeding rhythm has been established, the baby may often cry when he is hungry.
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It is important not to ignore the requirements of the crumbs, waiting for a certain hour to feed, otherwise crying will turn into hysterics, during which it will be extremely difficult to calm and feed a raging baby. If the baby was immediately understood and fed on time, he usually falls asleep.
Crying and sleep problems when overexcited
Most often, the child cannot sleep and screams, cries due to overexcitation... His nervous system she is very vulnerable and immature, she often needs rest in order to restore her working capacity, control the work of all organs and systems and develop.
Depletion of nervous processes occurs the sooner, the younger the crumbs.
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If, at the same time as fatigue, the child received too many new impressions and emotions, this will lead to even greater fatigue of his nervous system. As a result, the child cannot sleep, although he is very tired, because of which he screams, cries and cannot calm down. As a result, tantrums are formed with choking screams and crying, which greatly frightens the parents.
It is important not to allow overwork and tantrums., monitoring the condition and well-being of the crumbs. This can be achieved by observing a strict daily regimen, where there will be enough time for sleep, all the necessary hygiene procedures and all the conditions for a comfortable stay and falling asleep. This is a cozy and clean room, well ventilated, with a comfortable temperature and humidity. You should not create crumbs of perfect silence for sleep from birth, he should sleep with normal conditions family life, this will help make sleep less sensitive and intermittent.
To prevent the child from becoming overexcited, doctors do not recommend his presence at noisy and public events, concerts and on long trips. It is worth at least for the first time to protect it from a large number of guests and strangers. This will not only give the child peace of mind, but also protect against unnecessary encounters with infections, which can also disrupt sleep and lead to crying.
If the child is tired after visiting the guests, did not sleep for a long time and screamed, you need to pick him up, attach him to the chest, swing in his arms and calm him down. Some children are helped by a tight swaddle or wrapped in a blanket, others - a warm bath, relaxing and soothing to the baby.
Sleep and crying problems in vigilance disorders
Often, the child cannot sleep and constantly cries when he has problems with natural needs - defecation or urination. Many children may cry or whimper before emptying their bladder, even if there are no health problems, simply not understanding what is happening to them and being afraid of this fact. There is no need to worry in this case, usually it is light whimpering followed by wetting the diaper. However, sleep disorders and constant crying, twisting legs and screaming when urinating, or straining too much before getting your pants wet is a warning sign. This can be a sign of abnormalities in the structure of the urinary tract, inflammation in the area of the bladder walls, and in boys - problems with the penis and its structure.
If the child is constantly restless, the process of urine excretion leads to screaming, while the body temperature also rises, you should immediately consult a doctor and get tested (at least general ones).
Often, problems with bowel movements also lead to sleep disturbances and crying with screams. Especially against the background of artificial feeding, which leads, with an incorrect selection of the mixture, its inaccurate dilution or with a lack of fluid in the body, to. Defecation is especially unpleasant in the presence of cracks in the anus, due to straining and tight stools. In this case, the baby will toss and turn and groan, frown and scream violently, especially against the background of a long absence of a chair. From screams and constant fruitless attempts, the baby does not sleep well, his tummy is swollen, and it is important to consult a doctor to identify and eliminate the causes of constipation.
Poor sleep and crying with colic
In the period from about three weeks of age to three months, when the intestinal wall gradually matures and the microflora begins to form, many children suffer from, which literally harass some children and deprive them of rest and sleep. Colic is not a disease, it is a temporary and transient phenomenon associated with the accumulation of gas in the intestines... They stretch the bowel loops and irritate pain receptors, which creates spasm and discomfort, especially in the late afternoon, when the nervous system is already tired and irritated. Against the background of colic, the child often does not sleep well, wakes up crying and screams, in the evening, periods of crying can last up to several hours until the spasms and pain subside.
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Signs of colic will be sharp crying and screaming with tightening of the legs and straining, reddening of the face, bulging fontanelle, sometimes with transitions to hysterics. The cry is sharp and loud, painful, with arching in the arms, tension of the tummy.
It is important that parents know how to lend to the baby in order to alleviate his condition. It is necessary to massage the tummy, bend the legs, helping the discharge of gases, wear it on your hands with your tummy down, rock and soothe. If colic has become daily and strong, sometimes you can help with medications that a doctor can advise, they are selected individually, they do not always help and not all children.
Temperature violations as a cause of crying
If adults, having a perfect thermoregulation system and the ability to dress or undress according to the weather, do not suffer greatly from temperature fluctuations, then for newborns this is serious problem... They are extremely uncomfortable both in freezing and overheating conditions, but they themselves cannot unwrap or dress warmly, and therefore do not sleep well and cry. At an early age, hypothermia is dangerous, if it is strong and prolonged, and for this it is necessary that the baby be undressed for at least half an hour in an extremely cool room, or even in the cold. In other cases, with light freezing, children, due to awakening, screaming and crying, active movements of their legs and arms, against this background, activate metabolism and warm up. This is a defense mechanism. After they have calmed down and warmed up, sleep will return to normal.
But overheating for a child is much more dangerous than light freezing, since in this case the protective mechanisms do not work, especially if there is a tight swaddling or a large amount of clothes carefully worn on the baby by mothers and grandmothers.
Overheating leads to inhibition of metabolic processes, suppression of immunity and impaired brain development.
During the neonatal period and the first six months, the mechanisms of sweating are imperfect, the baby cannot fully cool the body. Then sleep suffers, the baby cannot fall asleep and screams, cries, blushes. In the area of skin folds against the background of overheating, there may be diaper rash and prickly heat on the body, which only increases the discomfort and suffering of the crumbs. Itching and pain of the skin, redness and the risk of infection further interfere with sleep and constantly provoke crying. In this case, it will be constant and monotonous, on one note, with a transition to whining, or flow into hysteria.
Restless sleep and crying
Many parents are extremely concerned about bad dream children with constant awakening and crying in their sleep, after which it is difficult to put them back to bed. This is due to several reasons, usually easily eliminated and not dangerous, but requiring the attention of mom and dad. It:
You should not wait for the complete awakening and screams of the crumbs, you need to immediately respond to his signals by picking up and soothing, putting a pacifier on your chest or giving a bottle. This will help not to go into tantrums and calm down, calmly falling asleep.
External causes, discomfort and crying
If the baby is not hungry and tired, while he cries and does not want to sleep, the reasons for this may be quite commonplace inconvenience from wet diapers, a leaking or overflowing diaper, rubbing the seams of clothes. It is important to select diapers by size in a timely manner, so that they do not press or rub the delicate skin, as well as change them in a timely manner, so that stool and urine do not irritate the perineum and lead to painful sensations.
Painful causes of sleep and crying disorders
May cause poor restless sleep or difficulty falling asleep, as well as tantrums and crying, the presence of skin diseases, or. So, against the background of skin pathologies and allergic rashes, severe itching of the skin usually occurs, which simply does not allow sleep, the child screams, rubs against the bed, worries, you can alleviate his condition by contacting a doctor and determining the cause of the skin lesion, using local or systemic drugs against inflammation and itching, allergies.
When the baby is asleep, the mother rests or does housework. Some newborns spend half the day in the cradle, others have less desire to sleep - the need for daytime sleep depends on individual characteristics organism. If a child is full of energy, smiles happily and is not capricious, it means he is getting enough sleep! What if he doesn't sleep all day? Should I be alarmed?
How important is a nap of the day?
Often, newborns sleep 3-4 hours during the day and wake up when they start to feel hungry. This regimen lasts up to 1.5-2 months of age, then the amount of time the baby needs to sleep is reduced.
However, in last years all more moms are faced with a situation when a child from birth practically does not sleep during the day! V best case such mothers get 40-50 minutes of silence 2-3 times a day. This sleep pattern is troubling, but before you panic, it’s worth asking, “Why does your little one sleep little during the day?”
Reasons for the wakefulness of the baby
- Sleep disorder caused by physical or psychological reasons.
- Individual characteristics of the newborn's body.
Babies who have enough daytime sleep are distinguished by active behavior, smiling, a pronounced desire to learn about the world. It is best for them to sleep in a stroller while walking on fresh air... At the same time, motion sickness of the mother at home or holding it to the breast does not produce any effect. It is important to calculate how much the child generally sleeps during the day. If the total amount of sleep exceeds 15 hours, then there is no cause for alarm. 
When can we talk about sleep disorder?
In cases of obvious sleep disorder, the newborn may not sleep for 5 hours without falling asleep for a second! And when he does fall asleep, he can wake up every 7-10 minutes. This means that the baby rests only in the REM sleep phase and does not reach the deep sleep phase.
If the baby sleeps little during the day and shows signs of overexcitement (whims, tears, screams, aggressive behavior, anxiety), it is worth consulting a pediatrician or neurologist.
What are the reasons for keeping the child from falling asleep?
Does your baby sleep badly during the day? There can be many reasons. The most common variation is discomfort.
- Violations of sanitary standards.
It is often enough to change temperature regime, ventilate the room more often and do wet cleaning to significantly improve the quality of your baby's sleep. Temperature norm for an infant in the first year of life is 20-22 degrees Celsius. The intensive development of the brain requires sufficient oxygen in the room, which is why it is so important to frequently ventilate the room.
- Psychological discomfort.
The newborn falls asleep calmly under background noise- music, washing machine, hair dryer, conversations of adults. But it reacts painfully to harsh sounds and bright light. The room in which the baby falls asleep must be darkened with blackout curtains or blinds. He just as often does not sleep during the day because of the bustle - a large number of guests, excessive activity of the mother.
A woman's desire to feel useful during a maternity leave is highly commendable. But it is harmful to the psychological atmosphere. If the desire to “wash, decorate, change everything” becomes a neurosis - it's time to calm down! Mom will relax - the child will relax and will be able to sleep peacefully.
Often a newborn after birth experiences severe loneliness - he does not hear his mother's heartbeat, he is not physically connected to her. In this case, the mother needs to more often take the baby in her arms, rock him, sing lullabies and fall asleep next to him. A month or two after birth, the child realizes that he is loved and will calm down. Daytime sleep is gradually returning to normal.
- Physiological reasons.
Colic, flatulence causes the child painful sensations... He still cannot "tell" about them, so he simply does not sleep because of the pain. In this case, newborns are naughty, cry and look tired. You can improve the condition of the baby with a warm heating pad placed on the tummy and a soothing massage.
Asymptomatic sleep disturbance can be a harbinger of neurological disease. Therefore, a neurologist should be consulted if the infant is restless.
And young parents, meanwhile, are going crazy with fatigue and worries, coming up with more and more new reasons every minute, one more terrible than the other. In most cases, everything is much more commonplace.
If a newborn did not know how to cry, he would not have survived. Therefore, for a newly born child, crying is perfectly normal instinct... Rather, worry if the child is suspicious. silent, lethargic, sleepy…
Reasons why a newborn does not sleep and cries
But the cry of a baby is never unreasonable. There are three main reasons why a baby cries.The first reason. The newborn does not sleep and cries because he is afraid.
A human being, unlike the animal world, is not able to survive on its own. Therefore, at the level of instinct, the child has the function to sound an alarm if he is left alone. This is why it is so important to take him in your arms so that he feels secure and calm. A little later, it will be enough for him to see his mother next to him, but only when he is born, he is not capable of such an analysis - he needs tactile sensations.
The second reason. The newborn does not sleep and cries because he is hungry.
While the child is a newborn, he eats very little and therefore may want to eat much earlier than 3 hours later, as they say in the books. To develop lactation and normal weight gain, the newborn can be kept at the breast at least 24 hours a day. When he learns to eat in large portions, when the mother has a lot of milk, then you can start thinking about feeding regimes.
The third reason. The newborn is awake and crying because of discomfort.
This can include internal discomfort - usually colic, or external - cold, wet diapers, something is pressing etc. It can be difficult to understand what exactly bothers the baby, but you should not be angry or annoyed with him because of this, you need to try to understand him. And sometimes the child just wants to speak out in this way - after all, there is no other way yet.
