Dr. Komarovsky about the daytime sleep in a child
The stronger and healthier the child’s sleep, the healthier the whole family. It is no secret that a tatty, nervous, screaming baby and the same, but also sleepy, mother is a wonderful powerful tandem to ruin the lives of each other and all households, young and old. That is why it is important to organize a normal sleep crumbs from the very first days of his life. Everyone understands this. In theory. But how to do it in practice represents only a very small percentage of moms and dads. Dr. Evgeny Komarovsky tells you what to do for this.
About the dream in general
Children need a nap. The kid learns the world, sometimes very actively, and the abundance of impressions greatly exhausts him.
Sleep during the day allows you to recuperate, give rest to the nervous system and the whole organism. It is important to the growing little man, just like food and treatment, if the baby is sick. During sleep, the composition of the blood is renewed, the muscles and the musculoskeletal system relax, the essential enzymes and many vital hormones are produced.
Sleep norm is a rather vague concept, one it nevertheless exists. The baby sleeps longer than the baby after a year. It is considered normal for a newborn to sweetly sniff in the crib after each feeding, for a total of 19-22 hours per day. From 1 to 3 months, the child makes 3-4 days of sleep, taking into account the night they sleep up to 17 hours a day. From 4 months, a child can go to bed 2–3 times for 3 hours during the day, and together with the night in total, he sleeps up to 15–16 hours per day.
At the age of 1 to 2 years old, a child can sleep during the day once, or it can be applied twice for 2-3 hours. To transfer the child to one dream in the afternoon pediatricians recommend from 2 years. At about this time, it is necessary to start a kindergarten visit, so it’s usually easy to make such a transition. The duration of a quiet hour for such a child is from 1 to 3 hours.
However, it is impossible to measure all children by existing standards, because kids have different temperaments, level of impressionability, ability to switch from activity to rest. Maybe that's why the norms remain norms on paper, in fact, statistics differ greatly. But the value of daytime sleep from this is not lost.
Opinion of Dr. Komarovsky
The only thing that does not depend on parents in organizing children's sleep is a diaper, says Yevgeny Komarovsky. If mom and dad did not spare the money and bought a good, high-quality and convenient diaper, then this is already half the success, since it is discomfort and dampness that are the most frequent causes of disturbed children's sleep. There is no need to invent anything, the doctor says, everything has already been created and should benefit both children and adults.
Everything else the parents have to do on their own. Usually, the baby sleeps better at night, if during the day he managed to have a good rest. However, one should not think that a good dream is too long. After all, it is clear that the baby, slept through the whole daylight hours, will stay awake at night. Therefore, proper planning of daytime sleep will help solve some violations of this process at night.
The need for daytime sleep
Official medicine believes that daytime sleep is necessary for a child until he reaches the age of seven. Yevgeny Komarovsky is sure that after five years the child no longer needs daytime dreams. However, if the baby stopped sleeping during the day at 2 years old, then this is a reason to sort out the reasons, make adjustments to the day regimen, and return the day rest back as soon as possible. The child is still too small to lead a normal life from night to night without rest.
Evgeny Komarovsky encourages parents to properly analyze the lifestyle of the baby. Does he eat well, do they overfeed him, does he walk enough in the open air, are the temperatures and humidity in the children's room normal. All these factors, according to the doctor, have the most direct impact on the quality (and quantity!) Of sleep.
Baby's bed should be comfortable, and underwear and pajamas are made of natural fabrics, which are pleasant to the baby and do not interfere with his sleep. The room should be fresh air, the temperature of which does not exceed 20 degrees, and humidity - 50-70%.
More on this will tell Dr. Komarovsky in the video below.
Mode correction
A big mistake of parents - to adapt to the child. The crumbs were brought from the maternity hospital, and mom and dad began to sleep when they were allowed to do so by a small family member. Komarovsky advises immediately transfer the child to the regime that is acceptable to all households, and not vice versa.
Once you decide on nighttime sleep, you can plan a daytime sleep, knowing the average norms of the total amount of time that kids at a given age should spend sleep on. This will require discipline first of all from the parents themselves, because the regime created by them will have to be observed first of all by themselves, then the child will be able to fairly quickly accept the daily routine as something completely natural.
Evgeny Olegovich advises, without doubt and remorse, to wake the kid who had slept in the afternoon so that he would not have problems falling asleep at night, and the daily routine built with such difficulty did not collapse overnight.
In order for the child to go to bed more readily in the afternoon, the doctor recommends thinking about his leisure time in the morning, in the morning. Well, if it will be active games, physical activity, according to age, massage or gymnastics, and be sure to walk in the fresh air. After the child eats in the afternoon, he will not have to persuade him to sleep, he himself will strongly want this.
The less healthy activity - the worse the daytime sleep of the child. Therefore, if parents complain that the child “usually sleeps well during the day, but recently stopped going to bed,” Yevgeny Olegovich advises simply to reconsider his lifestyle, add walks, sports, come up with new entertainment.
Useful tips
Pay special attention to the mattress on which the child sleeps. It should be smooth and not push through. It is best to choose an orthopedic mattress.
Under 2 years old, the child must sleep without a pillow.. This is the recommendation of Evgeny Komarovsky. After two years, parents can, if desired, give the baby a pillow, but its size should not be adults. The optimum is the thickness of the pillow, equal to the size of a children's shoulder.
If no home measures to improve daytime sleep help Komarovsky recommend that you contact a pediatrician, a psychologist and a pediatric neurologist, they will help to identify the hidden causes of sleep disorders and help eliminate them. It is important to do this, without leaving the problem to chance, at least for the reason that sometimes the pain prevents the baby from sleeping at a quiet hour. Find and neutralize - in this situation, the common task of parents and doctors.
