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Understanding Sleep Disorders in Babies
Certain sleep disorders occur both in children and adults. However, parents should understand that the symptoms displayed by a baby suffering from a sleep disorder are very different from those displayed by an adult. Sleep disorders can affect kids in almost any family, and this is why it is important to stay informed and consult a health professional if you are concerned. It has been only during the past few decades that pediatricians and physicians have begun recognizing sleep disorders in children. Earlier, these disorders were overlooked and usually dismissed as a common childhood problem that would be overcome with age. The two most common causes of sleep disorders in babies are behavioral problems and parasomnias. The most commonly reported disorders include night terrors, somnambulism, nocturnal enuresis, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and narcolepsy. Parasomnias are a group of disorders that take place around sleep. Parasomnias may occur with arousal, partial arousal or sleep transition. They are characterized by abnormal polysomnography and are often passed on through genes. Most parasomnias are a manifestation of central nervous system activations, and as a result they are expressed primarily through motor behaviors or autonomic arousal. When people sleep, they cycle between rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. In REM, your eyes move around fast, you dont move your body much, and you dream. In normal sleep, a child cycles between light sleep and deep sleep. Infants go through a complete sleep cycle about every 50-60 minutes, so they are in light sleep and could wake up many times each night! Newborns just sleep any old time, on and off, all through the day and night. By age four months, your baby will probably be sleeping a 6-8 hour chunk at night, and by age 6 months, about 10-12 hours. But thats not to say that they wont wake up during that time. Most babies still wake up at least once a night even at age nine months. Some can get back to sleep by themselves, and some need you to help them fall back asleep. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a terrifying child sleep disorder that occurs when a healthy baby stops breathing during sleep, requiring some kind of stimulation to start breathing again. Typically, infants who have been identified as "high risk" need to sleep with a breathing monitor that has an alarm that sounds the moment breathing stops. Sometimes the alarm is enough to startle the infant awake, causing her to resume normal breathing. If not, additional assistance may be required. SIDS is responsible for roughly 50 deaths per 100,000 births in the United States; as frightening as SIDS is, its responsible for far fewer deaths than those related to congenital disorders or disorders related to short gestation. Medical researchers do not yet know the cause of this disorder. However, there are many theories as to the cause, including genetic factors, poor bonding or nurturing, chaotic home environments, and drug or alcohol use -- either during pregnancy by the mother or prior to conception in either the mother or the father. Doctors have advised that babies should always sleep on a firm mattress, never on a pillow, waterbed, sheepskin or other soft surface. Parents should avoid using fluffy blankets, comforters, stuffed toys or pillows near the baby to prevent rebreathing. Keep the babys room at a temperature that feels comfortable for an adult in a short-sleeve shirt. To avoid overheating, cover the baby only with a light blanket that reaches no further than the shoulders. Some researchers suggest that a baby who gets too warm could go into a deeper sleep, making it more difficult to awaken. Mothers are advised to breastfeed their babies. SIDS is the leading cause of death in infants between 1 month and 1 year of age. Most SIDS deaths occur when a baby is between 1 and 4 months of age. African American children are two to three times more likely than white babies to die of SIDS, and Native American babies are about three times more susceptible. Also, more boys are SIDS victims than girls. Children seem to outgrow this disorder, and the chances of surviving it are greatly increased by early medical intervention. If you notice irregular breathing in your infant while sleeping, consult the child's pediatrician immediately.
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