Things Babies Do While Sleeping That Concern Their Parents

When people imagine a sleeping infant, they think of a baby sound asleep without the slightest hint of stirring. While babies do sometimes sleep this peacefully, they often don’t. Their slumber is punctuated by periodic snorts, rocking, pauses between breaths, and even knocking their heads repeatedly against their cribs. Many new moms and dads are understandably concerned when they witness such things.

These and other activities are common with sleeping infants, and seldom signal a reason to worry. That said, it’s worth learning why they occur, and when you should call your doctor. Below, we’ll describe a few behaviors your baby might display while sleeping, and help you identify whether they indicate a problem.

Moving Back And Forth

Some infants rock when they sleep. You’ll notice them swaying moving back and forth, as if keeping time with a metronome. Babies often do this because the motion is soothing to them. When they sleep, it occurs naturally.

There’s no need for concern unless your little one begins to rock back and forth aggressively; even then, it’s rarely a problem. Tighten the screws on her crib each morning, however, since her constant movement may loosen them.

Light, Steady Snoring

Infants often snore for the same reasons adults snore, including a restricted passageway through their noses. If you hear your little one snoring lightly, and doing so steadily, the cause is likely a congested nose. On the other hand, if your baby’s snoring is erratic, or she does it aggressively, have your doctor examine her air passages. She could be battling obstructive sleep apnea.

Grinding Teeth

Known as bruxism, a lot of babies grind their teeth while sleeping once their first few teeth come in. This typically occurs at six months. The grinding can persist for years. It sounds worse than it is. Teeth, even those of a baby, are incredibly strong. A few years of grinding will rarely damage them, or cause them to become worn (though it can happen). Nor does the activity cause pain for babies.

When you take your little one to her first dental appointment (usually by twelve months), mention the grinding to the dentist. He or she can examine your baby’s teeth for signs of damage.

Hitting Their Heads Against Their Cribs

Of all sleep behaviors, this is the one that most startles new moms and dads. While their babies are sleeping, many of them hit their foreheads or the backs of their heads against the sides of their cribs. They do so gently, so there is seldom need for concern. This does little to console new parents, however.

It is estimated that one in five infants routinely hit their heads while they sleep. Boys are much more likely to engage in the behavior than girls. If you notice your little one banging her head while she sleeps, have your doctor examine her. While problems are rare, and the behavior is usually harmless, it’s better to make certain.

Heavily Perspiring

Many babies sweat while they slumber. They don’t form a light sheen of perspiration – their sweating is copious. It’s common and usually happens when they’re sleeping at their deepest point during the night.

Keep watch over your little one to identify additional signs that may indicate a health problem. For example, if she is sweating and having difficulty breathing, she may have an infection. If the temperature in her room is relatively low, yet she still sweats heavily, her sweating might indicate a problem that could lead to SIDS. Sweating rarely implies anything is wrong with your infant. However, as with a baby who hits her head while sleeping, it is better to make sure.

Don’t be alarmed if your little one displays any of the behaviors described above while she sleeps. Keep a wary eye on her, and call your doctor if you suspect a lingering problem. Realize, however, that babies often sleep fitfully.

Find quality Maternity Clothing and Maternity Dresses from http://www.AppleSeedBoutique.com

Training Your Baby To Sleep Peacefully

If your little one is a newborn, or even a few months old, plan to wake up at odd hours to cater to her needs. She may be afraid, hungry, or uncomfortable and needs you to soothe her back to sleep. If she’s a little older, there’s a good chance she may have grown used to having you there to soothe her. It’s time to train her to fall back asleep on her own.

There are many approaches to helping your baby get a good night’s slumber without waking at night. In this article, we’ll provide a few tactics that have worked for millions of parents. Fair warning: not all of them will be easy and each tactic has both proponents and critics.

Tough Love

This is likely to be tougher on you than it will be on her. The goal is to allow your baby to cry without consoling her when she wakes up. You’ll naturally want to rush into her room and pick her up from her crib. But, if you can withstand her crying for four or five days, she’ll eventually learn to fall back asleep without your help.

One of the reasons this strategy seems to work is because by the time babies reach six months, they have realized that crying brings mom or dad. So, they cry. By allowing them to wail without addressing their call, you’ll eventually teach them that crying is no longer a reliable tactic for them to use.

Scheduling Her Slumber

Babies often wake up during the night because their internal sleeping clock is off. They might be overly-tired, which can actually hamper their ability to sleep peacefully. Or, they might not be sleepy because of several naps they’ve taken during the day. Moms and dads can “fix” their baby’s clock by establishing a slumber schedule. The key is to stick to it as closely as possible.

Keep in mind every infant’s sleeping needs is a little different. Your little one might need four hours during the day and twelve hours at night. Other babies may need more. You’ll need to watch her throughout the day to identify when she gets tired. Before long, her internal clock will take over and help her sleep peacefully until morning.

Wean Her From Your Current Routine

Parents often train their babies to have poor sleeping habits. For example, moms and dads will grow accustomed to giving their little ones a bottle before going to bed. Or, they might read to them or hold them until they fall asleep. The more you do these things, the more your baby will expect them. She’ll eventually be unable to fall asleep without them. Gradually wean her from relying upon these activities. Start by doing them with her an hour prior to her normal bedtime.

The ease with which your little one falls asleep – and remains asleep until morning – is largely in your hands. While the strategies above may be difficult in the beginning, they will help your infant learn how to soothe herself into slumber.

Find quality Maternity Clothes and Maternity Jeans from AppleSeedBoutique.com

Breastfeeding Moms- Are you willing to start speaking as if breastfeeding were the norm?

So instead of saying that breastfeeding is best. It should be breastfeeding is normal and formula is inferior. Maybe if we all started speaking as if breastfeeding is normal more people would do it. Instead of thinking breastfeeding is something extra, or special you could do for your baby people will just see it as normal.

For example: Not breastfeeding increases the risk of allergies, obesity, etc.

Do you think if people began speaking as if breastfeeding is normal more people would be willing to breastfeed, or less likely to fall for the fantasy that formula is okay.

Ways to Help Children Distinguish Between Right and Wrong

“My 5 year old has just started school. Before school she was always polite, caring, helpful. Since going to school, while she still appears to be so with her teachers (so they say), she now really pushes the boundaries at home. Some kids at school have taught her to swear, talk back, talk about sex in very broad terms. She talks back and while fundamentally she is still a wonderful and very smart little girl, her smarts have turned into “smarty-pants”.

You might not sure how I should teach her to make the right choices about right vs. wrong. She has already missed school at the insistence of her 5 year old friend. How can you help her when she is not under your watchful eye at school? How do I ensure she will make the right choice on her own?

Hmmm, how indeed? Let’s look at the underlying principles.

Kids, like you and me, are doing their best to succeed in life. So their behaviors are their attempts to get good results for themselves, as they themselves would define them. Those “good results” might be to satisfy basic urges such as hunger and warmth, they might be to get approval and love – from their parents, or from their friends, or they might be simply to have fun and excitement.

They will demonstrate the behavior they believe will get them the need they have at that time.

Of course, not all behaviors are successful – and that is the whole learning process. Constantly through life we are experimenting with behaviors to find the ones that work best for us. In choosing what behaviors to experiment with, we take input from past experiences, from what we have been told, and from what we have seen others do (in real life and on TV) and we combine this with the skills, abilities, and personality that we have. From all of this we get a range of possible behaviors, and out of those we pick what we hope will serve us best.

After experimenting we will find the behaviors that meet our needs. We will use these behaviors to get what we want. The more we achieve a good result with a behavior, the more we demonstrate that behavior.

Returning to your 5 year old daughter. This behavior is a sign that she is in the process of experimenting. She is in a new situation at school and this has expanded her world. She is not sure how to react and is excited and nervous at the same time. She is testing different behaviors to determine which behaviors will end in an intended result.

Your daughter will most likely try a range of behaviors. Many of which will not occur ever again as they didn’t work. Some behaviors will become a part of her usual behavior. Which behaviors will your daughter stick to? It really depends on the results of each experience. She is at an age where having your approval and love is very important to her. She needs to see your reaction to her behaviors. Outside reactions from others also play a role. For example, punishments and rewards can be a big influence on her behavior. She will seek the approval of you, her teachers, and her friends.

You have a great deal of influence as her parent. When she is this young she will listen to you. Later on is another story. Your influence appears in two ways.

1. Your emotional reaction to her behaviors. Do you approve or disapprove of her behaviors?

2. Your control of external factors. You can decide what school she goes to, and the types of people she will meet at school and in your neighborhood. You can also impose rewards, punishments, and constraints (such as permissions to do or not do activities).

Putting all this together, and taking a strategic overview, these are the types of questions you would want to be asking yourself:

Does this look like it is just an experimental phase that will almost certainly pass? If so, then don’t get too stressed about it all – enjoy the phase of watching your kids growing up and exploring the world. (Hey, I remember sneaking out from home at about 7 to go and play in the school playground, in the dark, at about 9pm. I even put pillows in my bed to deceive my parents. And I turned out okay … I think…)

Bear in mind that if you over-react to things like her swearing that may, in itself, actually make the behavior seems MORE exciting rather than less. Generally, “chilling out” is the better way to go.

If you feel as if her bad behavior is escalating too much then you need to do something to combat it.

When this happens you will need to rely on your opinion of the situation. Are you doing all the things you can as a parent? Make sure that you are a positive role model. Remember, you have a significant influence on her.

Check out the school and your neighborhood. How have the children who were raised in this neighborhood do when they grew up? Do they become productive adults or do most of the kids spend their days being in trouble for most of their teenage years?

Take the time to talk with parents and teachers at school. Each school has a culture and perhaps your daughter is trying to fit into this culture. How concerned are the teachers? Does the behavior of most kids at the school improve as they grow up out their phases?

Unfortunately, you can’t watch over every influence in your child’s life. You also can’t be 100% sure that your daughter will learn right from wrong. However, you can improve the odds of this. Your influence as a parent is great and you should be a positive role model for your child.

Great Parenting Tips Don’t stress about your child’s bad behavior issues any more. Discover the proper techniques and strategies to assist you have a joyous, peaceful household. Parenting Tips On Discipline