The ailments we will discuss today are:

• teething
• developmental milestone
• restless leg syndrome
• nightmares / night terrors
• reflux / colic

Teething

We often see that our little ones can suffer from teething and that this can cause sleep problems. They experience discomfort from the pressure on their gums. They experience more discomfort during the night.

In addition to improve their sleeping behavior, you also often see that the little ones, for example, refuse to eat, need you more close and do not act very active and happy in their behavior. It is therefore important to give them that closeness and love that they need at that moment.

If the little ones have trouble sleeping at night and wake up more often, it helps to use more hands-on techniques. Which means that you work more with touches to calm them down, because then they do want you to be more close to them to comfort them.

In the moments before your little one goes to sleep, it is helpful to offer them a cooling teether. This relieves the complaints, making falling asleep easier. You can also use pain relieving gels, suitable for babies. Always ask for advice from a doctor or the pediatrician first.

Sleeping methods that use more of a “hands on” technique are, for example:

• shush pat method (click here for more information and step by step instructions on how to use this technique)
• pick up / put down method (click here for more information and step by step instructions on how to use this technique)

It is important that, as soon as your little one feels better, you reduce the “hands on”. This so that you get through the sleep regression as quickly as possible, but you prevent your little one from creating new sleeping habits.

Developmental Milestone

Developmental milestones can also cause sleep regressions. These developmental milestones take place sporadically, with especially during the first year of life containing many moments where your little one develops mentally, physically and emotionally. 

The best thing you can do during a sleep regression in a developmental milestone is to stick to your day and night structure as much as possible. This helps you to get through the sleep regression as quickly as possible, whereby your little one and you as a parent experience as little discomfort as possible. The more you switch in the schedule, the longer the sleep regression lasts.

Your little one will need you more close during his developmental milestones. As a result, it can also be helpful to make more use of hands-on techniques, as explained under the heading “teething”. Make sure that you continuously consider how much closeness your little one needs in order to resume independent sleeping as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you will create new sleeping habits, which will only keep the sleep regression going.

Restless leg syndrome

Does your little one move a lot restlessly with his legs and do you notice that this is interfering with his sleep? Then it may be that your little one suffers from the so-called “restless leg syndrome”.

The most important thing you can do in this case is to make sure that your little one gets at least 30 minutes of time before going to sleep to relax by the use of a wind down ritual. More about creating relaxation through a wind down ritual can be found here.

If your little one has not been able to relax enough before going to sleep, he will experience more restless feelings in his legs during the night and will wake up crying because of discomfort. 

What you can also do is to cool the legs of your little one before going to sleep. This so the unpleasant feeling in the legs decreases, he can relax and fall asleep more easily. 

Night mares / Night terrors

To briefly discuss nightmares and night terrors, it is important to know that you use the same day and night structure as much as possible. In addition, it helps them to use a wind down ritual of at least 30 minutes, so that your little one gets the chance to reduce the stimuli of the past hours. You can find more about the wind down ritual here. This ensures more relaxation, so that your little one can sleep through the night more easily and has less problems with dreaming. Aroma diffusers can also help with this. This gives them more opportunities to relax, also directly when they wake up in the night. For more information you can contact us.

It can also be helpful to use a weighted sleeping bag or weighted blanket. For this we always advise to contact us or the pediatrician, as the weight of the blanket must be adjusted to the age of your little one.

Reflux / Colic

Reflux and colic cramps can cause a lot of sleep problems. If we look at little ones with Reflux complaints, it can help to put the bed up 30 degrees, so that he is less bothered by the rising acid.

Try to feed your little one 30 minutes before going to sleep, preferably using split feedings. This means that your little one gets small amounts of feedings during the day, so that the chance of rising acid is lower.

Little ones who suffer from Reflux or colic cramps simply need more closeness and more touch. They experience pain stimuli that they cannot yet place themselves and need your help to relax. For that reason, we recommend more ‘hands on’ techniques. As explained under the heading “teething”. It is important that you put them awake in bed to prevent the sleep association of rocking to sleep.

Reflux and colic often involve many individual factors in each child, so it is important that you always contact the pediatrician for more information.

For colic it can certainly be helpful to use the following products:

• Sab Simplex
• Infacol

For both you must first request information from the pediatrician or the drugstore.

It is also helpful to use drinking bottles in which a so-called anti-colic system has been processed. This ensures that your little one gets less air while drinking, so that he will suffer less from colic.