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Baby Frequently Waking Up - Reasons and Remedies
If your baby wakes up every hour at night and catches a glimpse of you every fleeting moment, then it's probably a case of frequent waking. Chances are he may be involving you in his sleep time woes, and it's time to pay some attention. Although frequent waking in babies is a common phenomenon in up to six month-old babies, it could be linked to other reasons too. Here's what you have to know about the subject.
Is it Normal for Babies to Wake Up Frequently and have Short Sleeping Cycles?
Frequent short-sleeping cycles are normal for six-month-old babies and younger infants. Babies sleep very lightly, very lightly, in fact, their sleep duration usually comes in 50-minute chunks after which they wake up and drift away to sleep again. Your baby will slowly learn how to sleep for longer stretches and master how to lull or soothe himself to sleep. Think of this as priming themselves up for longer nap-times or sleep cycles.
In some cases, however, when they wake up, they may not go back to sleep, and it could be linked to various reasons, be it medical or nutrition. We discuss them below.
Reasons why Some Babies are Unable to Sleep Longer?
Here are some of the reasons why newborn wakes up every hour:
1. Nutrition and Diet
Did your baby get to meet his RDA for nutrients and did you feed him well? If your baby's not getting proper nutrition or not eating enough, that could be the reason as hunger is a cause for frequent waking in babies. You may try increasing the amount of food slowly or add breastmilk and observe what happens in their sleep cycles.
2. Make Him Comfortable
Your baby's not at an age where he can speak. Look for signs to see if he's uncomfortable and needs some soothing. His discomfort may stem from bruises or bumps which he receives in the middle of the day, often going unnoticed until late at night since he's busy playing and enjoying himself. These little things may bother him and prevent him from sleeping well.
3. Stomach Pain
Air in the stomach is responsible for frequent waking in babies. The trapped air in tummies leads to stomach pain, this waking them up every so often. Burping is a nice way to fix that.
4. Silent Reflux
Reflux symptoms prevent babies from sleeping well at night. Watch out for silent reflux and ask your doctor for medication recommendations.
5. Noisy Environment
Noisy homes and too much unpleasant sounds during the day makes babies unhappy and unable to settle down at night. Every baby needs a bit of downtime to drift off into slumber.
6. Teething
Teething is a natural physiological process that disrupts sleeping patterns in babies. Teething begins around six months of age and sometimes may continue waking up babies right up to toddler hood.
7. Habit
If your baby's too used to sleeping in irregular patterns, it may have become a habit. You'll have to work on rewiring it, and that takes a bit of patience and time. Habits get hardwired over time, and you'll have to keep in mind that you'll have to change up the routines completely to rewire them.
For example, you can try reducing the duration of their daytime naps to get them ready for their night-time sleep. It's effective, but they may not be happy with it in the beginning.
8. Infections
A baby's immune system is in its developing stages which makes them more prone to catching illnesses, infections, and let's not forget the common cold.
Since your baby is able to grab and move objects, he will be exposing himself to germs more and more as the hours go by. Putting objects in their mouths increases the chances of upper respiratory tract infections and may cause congestion and coughing if he already has a cold.
Diarrhoea, irregular bowel movements, and fever are common waking factors in babies as well. Check with the doctor regarding infections and ask what medications or supplements you could give them. Avoid exposing your baby to people who have contagious infections and practice proper hygiene at home as precautionary measures.
Useful Tips to Help your Baby Get Good Sleep
Here are some useful tips to get your baby a good night's sleep.
1. Feed Him Well
Make sure you give him his breastmilk and formulae and meet the requirement nutritional intakes for the day. This applies to fruits, veggies, lean meats, and dairy. Feed small portions frequently if your baby is facing low appetite to improve it. Read nutrition labels for the formulae and check whether any ingredients cause allergies. Try using sleep aids like pacifiers and ask the doctor regarding medications or nutritional supplements in case you are worried about any nutritional deficiencies.
2. Set A Schedule
Set a sleeping schedule and allow your baby to wind down one hour prior to going to bed. Make him comfortable by singing his favourite nightly tunes and focus on giving them high-quality naps throughout the day.
3. Add White Noise
There is good noise and bad noise. White noise is the former and very useful in drifting babies away to deep sleep. A fan blowing in the corner of the room works to remedy their bedtime woes.
4. Help Him Sleep and Wake Up
Help your baby out by allowing him to learn how to soothe himself to sleep. Softly speak to him when he is waking up and don't suddenly pick him up or hold him. Your baby will gradually learn how to go back to sleep on his own this way, even in your absence.
5. Monitor His Naps
Maybe your little one had too many naps or too much time to sleep throughout the day which is why he hesitates to go back to bed at night. Gradually move his nap times around and ensure that they aren't set too late during the day.
6. Change The Environment
Changing the sleep environment for your baby works wonders for their sleep. Try to establish sleeping cues like turning on the fan as background noise and closing the curtains. Softly speak to your baby before lulling them to sleep and follow through these cues as consistently as possible since your baby will identify them and get ready to sleep.
Minimize environmental noise, turn down the lights and play bedtime songs if needed. Babies love the ambience.
7. Use A Crib Wedge
If your baby's having a hard time sleeping on a flat surface like a traditional crib or mattress, you may try giving a crib wedge a shot. Elevating one end of the mattress works too and placing a crib wedge under that adjusts their sleeping angle, thus allowing them to sleep comfortably.
8. Avoid Eye Contact
No, we're not telling to run away and leave your little one completely alone from the very minute. Eye contact or animated movements stimulate their brains and gets them overexcited. This may prevent them from sleeping and averting your gaze for a while and gradually leave the room after singing bedtime tunes may help.
9. Do Not Hold Him
If your baby happens to wake up in the middle of his sleep, don't hold him up. This wakes them up. Instead, let the fan noise keep playing in the background and give them the time and space they need to fall back asleep.
10. Change Their Diapers
Changing diapers strategically makes your baby feel cosy and worry-free. Thoughts and anguish aside, make sure to change their diapers before a midnight feeding session and re-swaddle him. Changing the diaper after night feedings make it difficult for them to fall back asleep since they get excited. Change it the moment he wakes up and also, it's considered good hygiene.
You can't change your baby's irregular routines in a single day. They just don't work that way. You'll need to give them lots of love, time, and patience to make them feel safe and not uneasy or separation anxiety.
Don't let their naps be too long and make sure they take the time to fall back asleep whenever they wake up. It's the cue you have to watch out for. Ask yourself - do they wake up normally or is something else waking them up? Once you've determined what it is, do what you can to fix it followed by giving time and space. They say it takes 2 weeks to grasp the nuances of a new habit and the same stands for bedtime routines.
If you still feel something's wrong despite trying out the above solutions, then it's best to have your baby checked by a paediatrician.
Also Read:
How to Make Baby Sleep At Night
Ferber Method – Getting Your Baby to Sleep
How to Get Your Baby to Nap
Lullaby Songs for Babies to Sleep
Read more
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5 Lessons From Your Parents To Pass On To Kids
We’re lucky and blessed to have been gifted with parents who taught us how to differentiate the right from wrong, taught good manners, and instilled in us a sense of self-respect. But it’s only when we ourselves become parents that we realise just how much the lessons learned from parents are worth. Just like how they’ve played a huge role in shaping our future, we try to do the same for our children.
Golden Nuggets of Common-Life-Lessons Taught by Parents
1. Be Respectful Towards Others
You can’t be a self-respecting woman if you don’t respect others. And you can’t expect your children to follow suit if you don’t show them how it’s done. Respect both for yourself and for others is perhaps one of the best life lessons your mother taught you. When you teach your children the same concept of respect, what else follows are qualities like obedience, kindness and self-control. Traits that help your children grow up into being well-rounded individuals. The best part? They’ll pass it on to their own children.
2. Good Manners Are Important
Manners are another good life lesson taught by parents. Not only do they raise the social IQ of an individual, but they also teach you to think about the welfare of others. Children learn from their parents and when they see you and your hubby putting the needs of others first and making an effort to maintain decorum, they’re a lot more likely to do the same. You can start by teaching your little ones to say ‘please’, ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’. As they grow, you can introduce more complex concepts like to offer something to someone first, lending a hand, and empathising.
3. Be Patient and Make Decisions Wisely
One of the important things you may have learned from your dad is patience. Patience to understand situations and people, and make decisions wisely after careful thought. It’s a trait that’s extremely valuable and one you may want to pass on to your children. Teaching them not to make decisions out of anger and frustration and teaching them to evaluate their emotions and actions, will help them not just now but when they grow up into adults.
4. Losing and Winning is Part of Life
Growing up, it’s easy to take life’s losses badly and want to win at everything. But an important thing that you probably learned from your mother is that life’s a journey, filled with ups and downs. As a parent, it’s your turn to pass on this valuable lesson to your kid. This will teach your kid to take failure constructively, and success gracefully. When you lead by example, they’ll apply what you’ve taught them in their own lives.
5. Remain Truthful Always
An honest person doesn’t cheat, lie or defame others. As a parent, you want your children to grow up into people with integrity and dignity. Just as how your parents taught you that dishonesty doesn’t get you anywhere, you can do the same for your children. Lead by example so that they know that no matter how tough it can be to stick to the truth, it can bring them peace of mind.
There are many other common life lessons taught by parents and these are just a few. Remember when your mom and dad insisted that you offer that last cookie to your sister? Or when they insisted that you always greet someone with ‘good morning’? They were the first steps toward inculcating good life lessons in you. Now it’s time for you to do the same with your little darlings. Read more
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10 Most Effective Health Tips for the Men in Your Life
We all know that men usually postpone seeking care and they skip going to the doctor when they fall sick or injure themselves. There always steps you can take to prevent health problems and improve their vitality.
Tips for Men to Stay Healthy
Here are some men’s health tips you could ask them to follow.
1. Getting Enough Sleep
Getting enough sleep is very important. It might get tough for men to meet both the ends from taking the kids to a soccer game, karate practice, and dance recital to putting too much time and effort in the office. They tend to get exhausted and tired. So it is best for them to power down and gets good sleep for seven or eight hours. When they rest well, they will start doing everything else better.
2. Eating Breakfast Well
Fasting might work for some men, but most of them prefer a high-quality breakfast. High quality means that it should contain fruits and veggies with high protein and fibre. You could give them a veggie omelette or a couple of hardboiled eggs with fruit. You could also give them a high protein smoothie, but the important thing is to give them something that fuels their body in the morning. You should give them food containing around 30 grams of protein in the morning. This will help with losing fat and will make their muscles happier. For this, you could give them steak, eggs, yoghurt, or even cottage cheese.
3. Power Down and Start the Day Smarter
It is best when men set their phones and other electronics aside for some time during the day and spend time with the family. Being mentally present is what that matters and have real talks with the people around. Even when they wake up to start a day, instead of checking their phones, they should be introduced to a new routine. They could read a magazine or take a few minutes to bond with the kids. This time with no electronics involved will help to increase their brain function.
4. Get Moving
These are some men’s health tips to lose weight. It is best if they spent at least 30 minutes of their time doing some physical activity every day of the week. Anything counts from taking a jog, walk, to mowing the lawn and they don’t need to become a sports warrior. If they are not usually active, start slowly and gradually build it up. If they are not able to find any time in their busy schedule, then try doing some short bursts of physical activity. They can improve their health by doing a few 10-minute activities several times a day. Slow cardio is a great way to lose fat. So in addition to high-intensity training, they could do anything they love like tennis or swimming.
5. Eat Bacteria
We all know that the body contains trillions of bacteria. These bacteria are called microbiome, and it plays an important role in the health of human. They affect almost everything like the immunity of the skin, health of the heart, digestive health, and vitamin D. This can be altered through antibiotics, diet, and the use of probiotics. For this, you could give them foods that naturally contain probiotic supplements like Kefir and yoghurts and even fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut.
6. Staying Hydrated
You could give them fruits that have high water content like cucumbers, watermelon, melons, greens, and other veggies that have around 90 per cent water. For a few calories, it has a high density of nutrients. This means that the foods complete them without filling them up. Another way to stay hydrated is by drinking a lot of water. Give them a large cup of water with ice cubes every morning before drinking their morning tea or coffee. This is a very healthy practice.
7. Don’t Use Tobacco
Tobacco is a known cause for cancer, and it contains more than 4000 chemicals. Smoking also increases the risk of lung problems, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other major problems. Some people think that chewing tobacco is safer, but they are wrong. Tobacco, when chewed, will cause major health problems like cancer (carcinogen). It could cause gum disease and loosens the teeth. Infertility is also another problem linked to chewing tobacco. If they have a habit of chewing or smoking tobacco, then it best to ask them to quit or talk to a health care professional to help them stop the habit. They could consider nicotine replacement therapy products.
8. Using Sunscreen
Check out these men’s health tips for lasting longer in the sun. Most men skip this step whether they are on vacation or for a normal day to day routine. They don’t take skin cancer as a real issue. Studies indicate that going outdoors without wearing a good quality sunscreen every day could cause 24 per cent more wrinkles. Also, note that the contents in the sunscreen they use must be effective and safe. They could also protect their skin by avoiding staying in the sun for too long and reapplying the sunscreen. They should contain SPF 15 or higher which will protect them from UVB and UVA rays.
9. Think About Safety
Safety is critical in everything they do. When they move heavy objects like furniture or heavy objects, ask them to use their legs and knees instead of their backs for leverage. Make sure they wear protective gears for their ears and eyes when they work on machines like lawn mowers and leaf blowers. Overexposure to noise could cause problems to their ears. When going skiing or a ride on the bike, ask them to wear helmets.
10. Learn to Manage Stress
Most men tend to define themselves by their career. This has a chance of increasing their stress levels. When they are stressed for a long period, it can cause problems for their physical or emotional health. You will be able to notice early warning signs of stress, such as tension on their shoulders and neck, irritability, clenching their hands into fists or grinding their teeth. When this is the case, they can consider doing healthy activities to de-stress. Taking deep breaths will calm them down and invigorates the mind. They could also meditate or try something new like yoga. Quiet time is also good.
Maintaining an optimal weight is important. So look into men’s health tips to gain weight. For this, make sure the men in your life include weight training exercises in their routine.
Also Read:
How to Keep Calm in Stressful Situations
Tips on How to Overcome Sleep Deprivation
How to Hydrate Your Body during Day Time Read more
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Our Bundle of Joy Arrived Like an Angel in Pink!
Almost a year ago around the same date, we had begun our journey together from 2 to 3.
Reports from the doctor confirmed that I was pregnant. Both my husband and I were awaiting a beautiful baby. Started the journey with a lot of inhibitions, calculating the age of the little soul within me each day, thinking would it be a Princess or a Prince who will fill our lives with joy forever. This life-changing event would not have been any easier if my dear husband had not been with me. He took every step I took, everything I wanted, every need of mine, he took care of. He stepped up from being a husband to being a mom, friend, guide and doctor for me.
Our belief to have a healthy pregnancy was to act as normal as possible in our day to day life. I definitely felt lethargic sometimes but active most of the time. Only then I realised, Pregnancy, carrying a baby within you is not a tough thing at all. We would hear a lot of stories during pregnancy, but no one shares the good stories only to make us more worried. So here I am sharing my most memorable moment of life.
We always chose natural birth over a C-Sec which is more common these days. Hats off to those mothers who opt for C-Sec as that is not easy at all. Unfortunately, their understanding is they would be able to take the pain of C-Sec than Normal. But to all the expectant mothers I must say Pain in standard delivery is only something that you can take, it not unbearable. If I can say “God only gives so much pain that you can take” so please think twice before opting for a C-Sec assuming you cannot go through the pain.
I have only followed what my midwife told me and did not listen to any of the old wives tales. I did my physical and breathing exercises each day along with some walking and mopping the floor. Kept my diet healthy and my mind relaxed with some devotional music expecting my baby will like it and kick me inside; however, she seemed to like Big Boss more and kicked me each time I saw the show. (Advice- This is all you need to do if your pregnant. All the doctors told me “Your Pregnant not a patient” so all the ladies out there stay calm and happy like you do every other day.)
One beautiful morning around 6:30 am, my dear little soul within me decided to see her Mom and Dad and the heavenly world. She gave a clue she was coming, and hence we landed in the Hospital. Then comes the most crucial moment, the doctor announced that my baby is going to be out by Noon which made me nervous. Once again my husband proved that he is the best man ever and stood by me holding my hand for the next 6 hours when I was in labour.
After a while, I didn’t know what happened, but I had a bunch of people around me asking me to breathe so I stay calm to bring the baby out. Then I hear a voice from the doctor …. It’s a Girl. Wooohoooo I delivered a princess, I got life into this world, and I felt complete.
In seconds I had transformed from a woman to a MOM.
And here is my angel ...
Disclaimer: The views, opinions and positions (including content in any form) expressed within this post are those of the author alone. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The responsibility for intellectual property rights of this content rests with the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with him/her. Read more
Dr Laxmi Chavan-Sawant has added a new answer
Trying To Conceive
9 hours ago
Q. hi have one question
LT 10x18mm and RT 18x20mm and ET 6.5
what it mean??? and should I start intercourse
Dr Laxmi Chavan-Sawant
Ayurvedic Gynaecologist
8 hours ago
A. since you are right follicle is 18 mm yes of course you can start with your intercourse for conception as in 1 to 2 days
their maybe rupture of the follicle by which your sperm should be present there for conception
Dr Ghouse has added a new answer
Guardian of 0 children
8 hours ago
Q. #asktheexpert
why baby vomit
Dr Ghouse
Paediatrician
8 hours ago
A. for babies less than 6 months may not be a problem. small babies will be having lot of gas because of various reasons it is advisable to do burping of the baby immediately after feeding please give colimex DF drops to the baby they are safe
Dr Laxmi Chavan-Sawant has added a new answer
Expecting Mom due in 1 month
8 hours ago
Q. i am 35 weeks 3 days pregnant... my ultrasound report shows that "fl and hl are shorter compared to bpd"... is this anything to worry
Dr Laxmi Chavan-Sawant
Ayurvedic Gynaecologist
4 hours ago
A. You should have proper consultation with your treating doctor , as some examination or investigations may be needful, so that proper medications can be given And the treatment can be done very properly.
needs proper follow-up for this
Dr Laxmi Chavan-Sawant has added a new answer
Guardian of 0 children
8 hours ago
Q. I am 9 week pregnant and I have runny nose very badly can I use cetirizine tablet?
Dr Laxmi Chavan-Sawant
Ayurvedic Gynaecologist
4 hours ago
A. use nasal drops , that acts faster .
You should have proper consultation with your treating doctor , as some examination or investigations may be needful, so that proper medications can be given And the treatment can be done very properly.
Dr Laxmi Chavan-Sawant has added a new answer
Trying To Conceive
8 hours ago
Q. hi,
my LT 10x18mm and RT 18x20mm and ET 6.5 , what if I intercourse after 2 days, can I do intercourse in ovulation day can become a pregent .
on ovulation day if we intercourse can become a pregent..pls advice..
Dr Laxmi Chavan-Sawant
Ayurvedic Gynaecologist
4 hours ago
A. since the follicle size is 18 to 20 mm your ovulation may occur within 24 hours also so if you have intercourse with in that time it will be more effective to get conceived
your endometrial growth is not good enough for conception but still you can just try
Sai Prasanthi R L has added a new answer
Guardian of 0 children
7 hours ago
Q. Hlw dr its my 6th month pregnency can i intimate with my partner
Sai Prasanthi R L
Mom of a 10 yr 2 m old boy
6 hours ago
A. Hello dear! If your pregnancy is going on fine without any high risk factors then it’s okay. Still, would advise you to check with your doctor once before going further. Maintain a good personal hygiene routine and a healthy lifestyle
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