Your little one will inevitably get poorly at some point, but it can have an impact on their sleep (we as adults know being ill can either massively increase or decrease the amount of sleep we get!).
If you’ve been trying to make some improvements with your little ones sleep, I know it can be frustrating when they get poorly. Even if you haven’t and it’s just meant sleep has totally gone to sh*t, I wanted to reassure you that any efforts you’ve been putting in place will not be wasted - they’ll get back on track when they’re feeling better.
But trying to carry on making changes while you’re quite literally in the thick of it, may be futile.
When kids are poorly you may find they…
Find it harder to settle to sleep.
Sleep more, or even less.
Find naps hard or even fight them altogether.
If you’ve been working on sleep, you may find they revert back to their ‘default’ sleep behaviour.
Wake more for feeds/drinks.
We all know how we feel as adults to be poorly, so it’s completely normal and appropriate to up your level of intervention and comfort to them as they work through the illness, whatever this may be.
My recommendation would be to help facilitate sleep or rest however you can to get through the illness (a very tired AND poorly child isn’t a fab combo as you know!), that probably means lots of contact naps and cuddles galore.
Hopefully the symptoms of the cold or whatever illness they have should pass quickly and if you want you can get back on track with anything you were implementing sleep wise. But like with anything if it escalates into something more sinister, or you’re at all concerned, then get in touch with your usual doctor.
If you’d like some support with your little ones sleep, please do check out my sleep support packages, or hop on your free 15 minute introductory call. Or in the meantime, head over to my Instagram page for all my latest free help and tips.
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