13
As mentioned in your comments, perhaps giving her a high-protein snack pre-bedtime. An egg maybe or even a protein shake. You could make a pretty awesome high-protein, pre-bedtime smoothie with peanut or almond butter, yogurt and/or milk and a fruit of some kind.
We know that eating protein helps to sort of stave off hunger by increasing the hormone ...
8
You may not actually be dealing with nightmares. You may be dealing with night terrors. From the NIH website (linked), night terrors are disturbed sleep, usually waking up in a terrified state. They are common from ages 3-7, usually in boys, but not uncommon in girls. The cause is unknown, but the site indicates that stress, emotional tension, fever, or lack ...
8
That sounds relatively normal.
Note that a newborn has no concept of day and night yet - at least in the sense of what is a time for activity or sleeping. Even older babies that have good "sleeping habits" often get an early evening bout of activity - the time window in the evening many working dads (and moms) enjoy.
Also, being put down in the bassinet ...
7
One of my nannies used a trick on me and I have used it since then and it has worked well.
She put her hand in her pocket and handed me an imagined object, an invisible wish stone. And she then told me that I would always have this wish stone with me when I was dreaming. And I could wish for anything and it would happen in the dream. I could even use it to ...
7
As I tend to do around here, here's something nobody has mentioned: It might just be who he is.
Of my kids, 3 of them (20, 18, 10) are normal. My 8 is a morning person. Regardless of bedtime, like staying up late on Friday watchin movies, he's up at 6:30 on Saturday. He also sleeps the heaviest and is easiest to wake up on school days.
Conversely, his 6yo ...
7
One thing to consider is that this may be a case of you thinking "Oh, he's being nocturnal" because you notice it more when he's up at night, whereas when he's awake during the day, that's "normal".
Babies sleep a lot, but in shorter bursts than adults, so "Night-Time" has less meaning to their sleep patterns. According to most sources, a newborn baby ...
6
Put simply - don't allow him to stay up and play that late.
Unfortunately, it isn't always that easy. Other than Andrei's good tips about late afternoon/early evening activity, here are some more suggestions to help (we've got a 5 year old who hates to sleep too).
No toys in the bedroom. Remove as many distractions as possible.
Get a routine and stick to ...
6
If your daughter is gaining weight well, I would just let her self soothe back to sleep and consider it a blessing that she is able to do so. I would not wake her up to feed. I think that if she was really hungry, she would eventually cry.
My own daughter (second child) was also breastfed and began sleeping through the night at 2 months old. She also sucks ...
5
Our child is also five, so first off; My condolences.
We've discovered two main things that keep him getting actually tired at bed time:
First. If we can really get him to run around in the 4-5:30 time frame (about 1-2 hrs before dinner) he really burns up energy.
Second. We try to keep his dinner solidly at least 90 minutes before bed.
We've had him on ...
5
A humidifier helps, but even more effective than that is to apply Vaseline to the nostrils using a Q-tip. Do it every night before going to bed, and hope that eventually he will grow out of it.
5
Looking at her diet it is actually too healthy! Children should get half their calories from fat, and have high protein levels as well. They should get their veggies to be sure, but stoke her up on high energy, long-lasting stuff that "sticks to your ribs" as my grandfather said. Chuck some cheeseburgers and fries her way!
Good dairy fats are something easy ...
4
I think Chrys' comment is correct.
Also, it takes a while for the baby to find and settle into her own personal rhythm, and there is lots of variation between babies. You're probably right that 13 hours per day is on the low side but that doesn't automatically make it something to worry over. Give it two more weeks and you'll see a sleep pattern.
You can ...
answered Nov 15 '13 at 8:21
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
33.6k16 gold badges99 silver badges204 bronze badges
4
Given your description, it is not paranormal, it is NORMAL :)
These are called night terrors, which children in that age have, and they are perfectly normal. You may still want to check this out with your pediatrician, since the normal age for night terrors to develop is 3 years old+ (though children as young as 6 mos. can also have them).
If you want to ...
4
Oh, the joys of the night-waking toddler. My daughter was a terrible sleeper and woke at all kinds of random, crazy times. Rarely did she ever sleep for more than three hours at a time and she often woke us, wandered the house or turned on the tv by herself. She never went outside though, thankfully.
First, if they haven't already done so, I would recommend ...
4
I'm not a pediatrician, but it DOES sound like night-terrors. She's right at the age where night-terrors typically start, and her behavior sounds like it's incredibly out of the ordinary. Some children who are in the middle of a night terror can appear to be awake (eyes open, up and moving around, etc.), but they're not.
This is a great YouTube video by ...
4
Perhaps this is just a difficult time and she is getting used to be separate from her mother (after all she has been with you her whole life) now she must learn to be separate. I think babies learn very quickly that if they cry they get comfort, and so if she is crying at night repeatedly then perhaps she has already learned this ;)
I don't think crying ...
3
Most modern baby monitors use digital transmission (most often the DECT standard). This means that you can have two identical devices turned on right next to each other, and you only have to figure out which receiver is connected to which base unit.
answered May 10 '12 at 12:54
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
33.6k16 gold badges99 silver badges204 bronze badges
3
Our son started doing something similar but not quite as bad. It turned out that is was largely due to his bed. He apparently could not get comfortable and it was becoming too small for him. We went out and purchased a larger bed for him and the number of instances of that happening have gone way down. He was in a toddler bed before and he moved into a full ...
3
our daughter had, what we were told were, night terrors. we were advised to not wake her or try to understand what she was saying. we simply made sure she was safe, sang a song, and left the room. she seemed to grow out of it. believe me it is hard to leave them - she would be screaming and seem to be in pain, but i was told, and believe, that she was not ...
3
See http://www.purplecrying.info. In short, it's a phase all children go through, some more severely than others, but the crying is a natural part of a baby's development. It helps baby's lungs develop, helps the baby bond with its parents (or whomever shows up when the crying starts), and in trying to soothe your baby you'll introduce visual, aural and ...
3
That sounds like an absolute NIGHTMARE. If he's not a fan of loud noises, they could also add door alarms so that if he opens off-limits doors, the alarm goes off (doesn't have to be a full security system, and I know there are door alarm systems where you can turn the alert on and off).
I honestly don't believe a simple lock on the bedroom door for a child ...
3
It looks like Kari Gunnarsson has about half of what my answer would be in a really fun way. Put simply - teach your child he can control his dreams once he knows it is a dream! Best advice I was ever given as a child myself too!
I would Add a couple more things though too.
If there is something specific in the dreams that are scary and your child can ...
3
Some ideas you could consider (these are all based on personal experience):
prewarm the crib with a warm hot water bottle
get the baby to sleep in a sling-type carrier, and when it's time to transfer to the crib, bend over and undo the carrier at the shoulder, so you can gently set the baby and the sling down on the crib together.
noise machine or radio ...
3
At this age, a smaller bassinet with close sides might feel more comfortable than a giant crib.
3
This sounds quite normal. If you are sleeping in the same room as the baby, they can smell your lactation and in my experience then tend to wake up more and tend to be more hungry. Cosleeping also intensifies you response to their cries, every whimper you are instant access, which debatably creates a situation where the little one doesn't have time to learn ...
3
Oof, that sounds miserable. I am not a doctor, and this is not a forum for medical advice, yet that report sounds like it may be worth talking to a doctor, if it is disruptive to normal sleep.
There are myriad, innumerable causes for problematic sleep patterns in little ones, a lot of which involve situational/circumstantial stimuli around lights/screens, ...
3
Night noise is linked to insomnia and lower sleep duration. This link is mostly supported by multiple research studies. This association was considered substantial enough for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to issue the night noise guidelines in 2009 (see below). I show 2 relevant research studies below, but one can quickly find multiple other research ...
2
About one in forty children aged 7 will wet the bed at night.
This website gives some information about bedwetting, including information about treatments.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Bedwetting/Pages/Introduction.aspx
sweet food could stimulate production of urine while salty food could decrease it.
Do not give your seven year old child salty food ...
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