The baby can not sleep through the night. The parents are overtired. Stress and frustration quickly spread. Then maybe the baby blues also comes along. It is often difficult for many parents to enjoy their first time together with their baby.
Parents need to get to the bottom of the problem. There are many reasons, from pain during the growth, wrong baby bed, hunger, or noise from outside.
It doesn’t work without patience. Sometimes it is worth asking others for help – especially when your nerves are on edge. The stress is transferred to the child and makes them restless in turn.
Oftentimes, the baby just feels insecure or alone in their bed. Small tricks like a warm grain pillow can be the solution.
In this guide, we explain what causes the baby cannot sleep through the night and what you can do about it.
The baby can not sleep well
Basically, parents should be aware that it is perfectly normal if, for example, a 6-month-old baby can not sleep through the night. Many parents also have to learn first whether the child is really awake or maybe just sleeping restlessly or making noises while sleeping. Taking the child out of bed with every slightest noise or small movement and “waking them up really well” would be fatal because it is often unnecessary.
We adults, too, sometimes wake up at night, turn around and fall asleep again after a short time. It’s no different with a baby! In any case, do not switch on the light when you are awake at night. Light or a lot of noises (music, a lot of talking to the child) only make the child more awake instead of bringing them back to sleep.
But sometimes there are real needs behind it. Is it possible that the baby may wake up at night because of hunger? If he is hungry despite evening porridge or breastfeeding at night, this can be a sign that it is either too early to sleep through and that breastfeeding must be carried out at least once during the night (do not place too high demands on your child and leave it alone Give him time) or the meal in the evening was not enough.
The following tricks can also help if the baby cannot sleep through the night:
In the evening / at night During the day In the beginning, stay close to your baby so that you can calm them down with just your presence. Put the baby in bed only to sleep. So it connects the bed with sleeping and not with other activities. Get some rest before going to bed. Loud music or the television shouldn’t wake up the child. Make your child tired in the evening. Exercise (especially in the fresh air) can generate good, consistent sleep. Warmth can help you sleep. A warm grain pillow is ideal if, for example, the child has often only found sleep through physical contact. Pay close attention to the diet. This should not lead to abdominal pain or flatulence, which prevents the child from falling asleep and then sleeping through the night.
Sometimes pain is also the reason
Is your nine-month-old baby not sleeping through the night? Maybe his teeth are currently bothering him or he suddenly has a new growth spurt?
As a rule, it is said that a baby often has a growth spurt even in the 55th week of life. If a 1-year-old baby who has always slept well suddenly becomes very restless at night, this may be an indication.
The baby has not slept through since he was given complimentary food or porridge? Then this can be a sign that the child cannot tolerate the food and, for example, has a stomachache.
Sometimes the complementary food is given too quickly or in too high a quantity so that the gastrointestinal tract is still unable to cope with digestion properly and it leads to pain or gas.
Baby bed
Some children initially feel strange and uncomfortable in their own bed (and their own room). No wonder, because the child lay securely in the womb before life began and was therefore never alone.
Often the mum’s contact is enough to calm the child (especially internally) and brings them back to sleep.
There are also flexible extra beds with a side opening that adapt to the parent’s bed. With such baby beds, you always have contact with the newborn and you have to get up significantly less at night to calm the baby.
If the baby has slept through the night, but suddenly no longer, you should get help from others. Often we become “blind” in our own apartment:
Maybe the baby is drawn to his cot?
Does the neighbor dog bark regularly at night, which scares the child?
Or rush hour traffic outside the window starts after 5 a.m. every morning, waking your child.
Sometimes situations change, but we are not even aware of them. Help from others (grandma, best friend) can also be a good help.
Important questions and answers
I’ve tried so much and yet my baby doesn’t sleep through the night, what else can I do?
The 11-month-old baby can not sleep through all the tricks and the needs also all seem to be met? Often parents forget the most natural of all reasons: the baby may just not be tired at all! If you let your 10-month-old baby sleep again and again during the day, it makes sense that he is not tired in the evening.
Make a small list and write down how many hours a day your child sleeps for a few days. Sometimes it helps to skip one or the other sleep phase and keep the child busy during this time. Then it is usually automatically tired in the evening.
Advantages and disadvantages of “keeping awake” during the day
The baby gets so tired during the day that it usually sleeps much better in the evening – and then sleeps through the night.
This makes it easier for the child to get used to the day-night rhythm more quickly – also when it comes to eating.
The parents come to rest themselves in the evening because the child can finally sleep through the night.
