What to do if your baby cries in the middle of the night? Reasons why your baby cries in the middle of the night

Many parents are troubled by their newborns crying in the middle of the night. Since newborns cannot speak, they can only express many of their needs through crying. Today, I will teach you how to deal with babies crying in the middle of the night.

Reasons why babies cry

Newborn babies cry in a certain pattern. According to American doctors, babies under 6 months old will not cry because they are being spoiled. Their crying is often to convey their needs to their parents. Once you understand the pattern of a baby's crying, it is not difficult to tell the baby to "shut up." Generally speaking, newborn babies cry for the following reasons:

1. Hunger

As the saying goes, food is the first necessity of the people, and babies are no exception. Being hungry is basically one of the main reasons for babies to cry. Don’t blindly follow the book’s advice to feed on time. This is just dogmatism. Every baby is different. Feeding should be done on demand. Feed when the baby is hungry. It is very simple to judge whether the baby is hungry. The mother just needs to pay attention to whether the baby is restless? Start smacking his lips? The most effective way is for the mother to put her hand near the baby’s mouth. The hungry baby will quickly turn his head to look for the mother’s hand, or see the baby put his hand into his mouth to suck. These are telling the mother: I am hungry!

2. Changing Diapers

This is also one of the main reasons for newborns to cry. Just imagine that the baby's little bottom is wet or sticky, irritating the baby's delicate skin. Naturally, the baby will feel uncomfortable and cry. No wonder! Generally, when mothers are feeding, they can basically feel that the baby's little bottom suddenly becomes warm, or hear a "puff" sound. In nine cases out of ten, it is time to change the diaper. For slightly older babies, when they poop, mothers will see that their faces turn red, their little hands clenched, and their whole body exerts strength. When their expressions relax, it means that the work is done and it is the parents' turn to change the diaper.

3. Sleeping

Normally, a newborn baby will fall asleep after eating and will not cry. However, under special circumstances, such as when someone comes to the house, the baby will be overly excited and naturally overly tired. At this time, he can't fall asleep and starts crying hysterically: Therefore, one thing new mothers should pay attention to is not to overstimulate your baby, give the baby a relatively quiet and not too noisy space, and try to develop a regular living habit, so that your baby will cry less.

4. Flatulence

The gastrointestinal development of newborns is incomplete, so flatulence is a common phenomenon. Babies swallow air when drinking milk. There are other unknown reasons, such as breastfeeding mothers eating too much gas-producing food, which can cause gastrointestinal flatulence in babies. If there is gas in the stomach that cannot be discharged, the baby will naturally cry. Mild cases may be vomiting, and the air is discharged along with the vomited milk. Severe cases are diagnosed as colic by American doctors. In fact, the baby's stomach is uncomfortable with bloating, causing hysterical crying for several hours in a row. At this time, the mother observes the baby's stomach, which is generally hard and bulging. This problem sounds very serious, but in fact, as long as you help the baby to discharge the gas in the stomach, everything will be fine.

5. Sickness

When the mother meets all the physiological needs of the new baby, but the baby still cries, then you should consider whether the child is sick. The simplest way is to measure the temperature and observe whether the child is wilting, whether the lips are purple, whether breathing is difficult, whether there are red spots on the body, etc. Generally, if these signs of illness appear, you must see a doctor. In the United States, doctors generally recommend that mothers measure rectal temperature because it is closest to the body temperature. Newborns have poor body temperature regulation ability. Generally, if the rectal temperature exceeds 38 degrees, it indicates that there is an infection in the body and it is necessary to go to the emergency room. This mother must not ignore it.

Some babies suddenly wake up in the middle of the night, crying and restless, with unusually tense expressions, which is mostly related to emotional stimulation during the day. Parents should relax during the day, hug or touch the baby more, and create a quiet and comfortable living environment for the baby to prevent the baby from being overexcited.

Don't be too quiet during the day

Some babies do not exercise enough during the day and will not fall asleep at night and cry constantly. You should consider increasing the amount of activity during the day so that they can fall asleep quietly at night when they are tired. When the baby is awake after eating during the day, the mother should chat with the baby more, tease the baby, or let the baby look at black and white pictures, so that the baby can gradually develop a good habit of being awake during the day and sleeping at night.

Arrange your sleep time during the day

Don't let your baby sleep too long during the day, especially don't let him sleep from morning to afternoon, so that he falls asleep early at night and wakes up crying in the middle of the night. In this case, you can wake the baby in the morning and adjust the nap time appropriately to ensure that he is sleepy at night and does not wake up in the middle of the night.

Seek medical help promptly

Actively treat night crying caused by illness. This type of night crying is often useless, so once you find that your baby is abnormal, you should ask a doctor to help check it in time for further diagnosis and early treatment. If your baby has colic, you can pick up the baby and rock him gently regularly, and gently massage the baby's belly, or put a towel on the baby's stomach to relieve the discomfort.

Common reasons why babies cry

1. Calcium deficiency

Children who are calcium deficient often cry at night. In the past, due to lack of medical knowledge, people believed that if a child cried at night, they could put a note outside saying "Heaven and earth, there is a crying child at home..." and the child would get better. This method is obviously not effective. In addition to crying at night, children who are calcium deficient will also have corresponding symptoms, such as excessive sweating, bald spots on the back of the head, square skull, late closure of the fontanelle, beaded ribs, etc. Supplement vitamin D and calcium for the child, and let the child get more sun, and the child will get better.

2. Fright

When a child is frightened, he often wakes up from his sleep and cries at night. When a child cries, he often shows fear. In life, it is not difficult to find out what caused the child to be frightened. The solution is to comfort the child, tell the child that there is nothing to be afraid of, and temporarily prevent the child from directly contacting the object or person that frightens him. Slowly, the child will fall asleep peacefully.

3. Illness

Children will cry in bed during many illnesses, such as colds and various acute infectious diseases. Some chronic diseases, such as anemia and tuberculosis, can also make children cry in their sleep because of discomfort. In addition, children often cry at night if they have a stuffy nose or pinworms. If the disease is caused by an illness, the child will fall asleep peacefully as long as the primary disease is cured.

4. Clothing and bedding factors

If the child is covered too thickly, he will be irritated by the heat and cry; if the child is covered too lightly, the cold stimulation will also make the child cry. If the mattress is not laid flat, the clothes are too tight or the belt of the clothes rubs against the child, the child will cry. In addition, you should also check if there is anything on the bed that is rubbing or poking the child. As long as you find the cause, the child will feel comfortable and the crying will stop.

5. Hunger

Crying at a relatively regular interval is related to the child's hunger. For breastfeeding mothers, there is no need to stick to the interval between feedings. When the child is hungry, let the child eat. If the child falls asleep while feeding, you can tap the child's feet to let the child eat and sleep. For bottle-fed children, you should consider increasing the amount of milk you feed appropriately and check the quality of the milk to see if too much water is added.

6. Urinary retention

Older children are trained to control their urination, but they still cannot get up to urinate at night. Sometimes they will say they need to urinate, but most of the time they cry to indicate that they need to urinate. Parents only need to understand this pattern and hold their children to urinate, and the children will go back to sleep. If parents do not understand the meaning of their children's crying, the children may wet the bed.

7. Day and night reversal

Some children sleep a lot during the day and are very energetic at night. When parents ignore them because they are tired, the children will cry to protest. The correct way is to reduce the child's sleep time during the day and play with the child more. The child's sleep will improve at night. After a period of time, the child's life will become regular, and he will be excited during the day and sleep well at night.

8. Need to be caressed

Some children cry to act like a spoiled brat, and they use crying to attract their parents' attention, so that their parents can hug them or give them affection. The parents of these children are often too busy at work and have little time to take care of their children, or they emphasize the "independence" training of their children one-sidedly, which makes their children "skin hungry". As long as the parents give the children more affection and caress, the children's needs will be met and they will stop crying.

What to do if your baby cries in the middle of the night

What are some ways to deal with babies crying and not sleeping at night? For anxious babies, you may try the following methods:

1. "Silence therapy". For some babies, excessive excitement during the day may lead to crying in the middle of the night. For these babies, the "silence therapy" can be used, that is, talking less to the baby during the day, and interacting with the baby with a silent smile, so as to calm the baby who was originally highly nervous due to excessive care.

2. Family members should not say anything that will cause the mother to be anxious. A considerate tone towards the mother and the baby can help both parties relax their tension, and the phenomenon of crying in the middle of the night will gradually disappear.

3. Calcium deficiency in children is also an important factor causing night crying in children. It can be treated by supplementing calcium and vitamin D.