Babies - Fresh Air, Outings and Sleep : Part 3

The Mother and Her Child
by William S. Sadler, M.D., Lena K. Sadler, M.D.

(Page 24 of 42)

Bedtime and Sleeping Position

Bedtime is regulated somewhat by the hour of rising in the morning. Usually, up to two years, baby is put to bed from five to six P. M. Regularity is urged in maintaining the bedtime hour.

The seven o'clock bedtime hour is later established and continued until the young child attains school age, when retiring at the curfew hour of eight o'clock gives our boy or girl from ten to eleven hours of sleep, which is essential to proper growth, calm nerves, and an unruffled temper.

The first few days finds our little fellow sleeping nine-tenths of his time. Let him lie on his right side, for this favors the complete closure of the fetal heart valve, the foramen oval.

Whether baby lies on his stomach, his side, or with the hands over his head is of little or no consequence. His position should be changed first from one side to the other until he is old enough to turn himself.

Waking Up at Night

Before baby is three months old, he should receive nourishment during the night at nine and twelve, and again at six in the morning. After four or five months a healthy child should not be fed between the hours of ten P. M. and six A. M. At this age, many children sleep right through from six P. M. to six A. M. without food.

After five months, if a healthy baby awakens between ten P. M. and six A. M. warm water may be given from a bottle; he soon forgets about this and the night's sleep becomes unbroken. There are many other reasons than the need of food that cause the wakefulness of the child; and since the baby should, after a few months, sleep undisturbed and peacefully, if he is wakeful and restless - crying out in a peevish whine - and then quiets down for a few moments only to cry out again, you may suspect one of a half-dozen different things. Let us, therefore, summarize the things which may disturb baby's sleep:

1. Lack of Fresh Air. Babies cannot sleep peacefully in a hot, stuffy room, or in a room filled with the fumes of an oil lamp turned low. A crying fretful baby often quiets down as if by magic, providing he is not hungry and the diaper is dry, when taken into a cool room with fresh air. After the first two months the temperature of the sleeping room should be fairly cool and fresh.

2. Clothes and Bedding. The night clothes may be irritating and causing perspiration, while the bedding may be wrapped too snugly about the child. If baby's neck is warm and moist, you may know that he is too warm. If the diaper is wet it should be changed at once. One of the worst habits a baby can possibly get into is to become so accustomed to a wet diaper that it does not annoy him. In cold weather he is changed under the bed clothing without exposure or chilling. It may be the bedding is cold and, if so, it should be warmed up by the use of the photophore previously described, or by means of the flannel-covered hot water bottle.

3. The Food. Too little, too much, or the wrong kind of food, will disturb baby's sleep. Indigestion is very easily produced in babies who are improperly fed. For instance, the mother's milk may be lacking in nourishment and baby may really be hungry; or, as in the case of a bottle-fed baby, it is usually due to over feeding. Many mothers we have known who sleep with their babies or who sleep very near them, nurse them every time they wake up or murmur, and this soon becomes one of the biggest causes of disturbed sleep.

4. Spoiling. A lighted nursery or bedroom, rocking to sleep, jolting the carriage over a door sill or up and down, the habit of picking baby up the moment he cries, late romping - any and all of these may disturb sleep, as well as unsettle the tender nervous system of the child, therefore laying the foundation for future nervousness, neurasthenia, and possibly hysteria. This is particularly true in the case of the children who have nervous parents.

5. Reflex Causes. Wakefulness is sometimes due to reflex nervous causes such as the need for circumcision, or the presence of adenoids, enlarged tonsils or worms. Does baby have to breathe through his mouth? Then you may suspect adenoids or other conditions which should be removed.

6. Chronic Disorders. The presence of scurvy or syphilis causes the child to cry out sharply as if in acute pain, while in older children tuberculosis of the spine or hip is attended by a sharp, painful crying out during sleep. Malnutrition or anemia are also conditions which greatly disturb sleep.

7. Soothing Syrups. Untold trouble, both physical and nervous, is bound to follow the giving of soothing syrups. These medicines soothe by knocking the nerves senseless and never by removing the cause. They contain morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs which deaden pain, and are most dangerous to give baby.

Daily Naps

The morning nap from the sixth month on should be from two to three hours long, out on the porch, well protected; while the afternoon nap may be from one to one and a half hours long with an interval of two or three hours before bedtime. The child should be wakened at regular intervals for feedings during the day - every three hours until he is six months old, and then every four hours. These naps should be taken in a cool place - on the porch, on the roof, in the yard, under a tree, or on the protected fire escape.

If the nap is to be taken indoors, then lower the windows from the top and darken the room. All children should take daily naps until they are five or six years old

About the Author

Dr. William S. Sadler M.D. was a well-known American psychiatrist and college teacher in the school of medicine at the University of Chicago. For over sixty years he practiced his profession in Chicago, thirty-three years being associated in practice with his wife, Dr Lena Kellogg Sadler. The doctors were pioneers in the research on the mysterious Urantia Papers.