How to Fix a Sleep Schedule When Baby is Sick
How to Fix a Sleep Schedule When Baby is Sick
By: Holly Bollinger
What if Baby Gets Sick?
After months of sleep issues, they finally decide to take the initiative and get serious about getting their baby onto a sleep schedule. Once the baby starts getting the hang of it, the whole family is starting to see longer periods of consolidated sleep, and everyone’s getting ready to break out the champagne...
And then BAM! Baby gets a cold, or an ear infection, starts teething, has diarrhea, a baby cold, or one of the other seven thousand illnesses that babies are prone to, and the whole thing goes off the rails.
And given how often babies get sick, it’s hardly a surprise. I’m always telling my clients to plan on starting the program when they have a couple of weeks that they can really devote to the sleep training, but you can’t create a sleep schedule around an illness. So, when it happens, it can really take the wind out of everyone’s sails.
What you shouldn’t do when a sick baby won’t sleep
Be Prepared For Baby Not Sleeping
First off, be prepared if your baby won’t sleep and if your little one wakes frequently while he or she is ill. All babies wake during the night. With good independent sleep skills, they typically make an adjustment to get comfortable, grab their lovie and fall back to sleep. However, if the baby is sick, they’re likely uncomfortable and will need some attention upon waking.
Resist The Temptation To Bring Baby Into Your Bed
My biggest suggestion to parents is to resist the temptation to bring baby into your bed. If you’re really concerned and want to be in the same room as them through the night, I suggest you bring an inflatable mattress or a camping pad into their room and sleep on the floor. Keeping them in their own room with familiar sleeping conditions will be much less disruptive than moving them into your room, and you don’t run the risk of them getting used to sleeping in your bed.
Do Not Give In To Offering Sleep Props
Second, do NOT give in to the temptation to start offering any sleep props or baby sleep aids that you might have recently taken away. A sleep prop is anything a baby uses to help him or her drift off to sleep- for example, the bottle, a pacifier, a mountain of toys, etc. I know it’s tough, because obviously you want to offer them any kind of comfort you can while they’re feeling miserable, but you really don’t want to reintroduce those things they were dependent on prior to starting sleep training. It can be really confusing and is often even more difficult to break the association the second time around.
How to Soothe Your Sick Baby
Offer As Much Comfort As Needed
Now, let me just point out that I’m not saying that you can’t offer more night time comfort to your baby while they’re sick. On the contrary, I completely recommend it. You should absolutely feel free to go in and check on them more often, take care of any needs they might have, and even give them a little cuddle or a rocking session in order to comfort them.
Just be vigilant and be sure to put them back into bed before they fall back to sleep. Otherwise, you run the risk of them developing those associations where falling asleep requires a rocking session or a cuddle, and then you’re back to square one.
You may notice a slight sleep regression when the illness has passed, but not to worry. Your baby has learned some great sleep skills at this point and will probably only need a slight reminder of how things go before they’ll be back into their routine and sleeping soundly through the night again. Just get back to the program, reintroduce the old bedtime routine, and you’ll be seeing those same wonderful results in no time.
Blog Contributor: Holly Bollinger and Founder of Bollinger Sleep Consulting
