Should You Sleep Train a Sick Baby? How Illness Affects Sleep
’Tis the season for sniffles. Every year as the weather turns cooler, babies and young children everywhere are exposed to a myriad of germs at daycare, school, the library, you name it. And while most of the time this exposure can be good for building up your little one’s immunity, it also means that your baby or toddler is probably going to get sick. As every parent knows, sick children are often unable to get the sleep they need to feel better. In this FREE webinar, we outline if and how common illnesses can affect your child’s sleep.
Click image to watch webinar.
If your child has a history of illness or becomes ill, it may seem difficult to know whether or not sleep training is a good idea. In this 20-minute video, Baby Sleep Science co-founder Meg Casano, BSN, MA, teaches you how to assess the cause and pattern of your child’s night wakings to determine whether or not they could be caused by an illness or underlying medical issue. She also reviews the most common sleep disruptors, including:
Reflux
Cold/Sniffles/Congestion
Pain/Fever/Ear Infections
Eczema and Other Itching
Allergies/Food Sensitivities
Antibiotics/Diarrhea/Diaper Rash
Asthma/Croup Medications
As Meg explains in the webinar, it’s fine to start or continue sleep training if your child is experiencing a relatively mild illness, but other issues that are “true sleep disruptors” can lead to ineffective results and/or inappropriate expectations if you try to implement a sleep-training plan. In these cases, we recommended that you delay sleep training until your little one’s medical issue has resolved or improved. Meg takes you through each of the disruptors to determine when it’s okay to sleep train and when it would be better to hold off. If you need more help navigating your baby or toddler’s sleep issues, we are always available for one-on-one consults.
Need More Help?
We offer several options for optimizing your child's sleep:
SLEEP TRAINING CLASS (for well babies 6-15 months)
PHONE CONSULTATIONS (with one of our sleep experts)
THE SECRET TO NAPS (downloadable e-book)