When you’ve got a great sleeper on your hands, especially when you’ve worked hard to teach the skill of independent sleep, illness can throw you for a loop. How do you maintain your child’s sleep skills when they are sick?
Maintaining sleep skills during illness is a combination of allowing your child the opportunity to sleep independently while meeting their needs. This often means the sleep “rules” go out the window temporarily.
How To Manage Sleep When Your Child Is Sick
Kids Need More Sleep When They’re Sick
Stop paying so much attention to their awake window or naptime and bedtime and let their bodies sleep.
If you’ve got a preschooler who doesn’t typically nap, offer one when they aren’t feeling well
Allow your child or baby to nap for a longer period of time
Let them sleep in later in the morning
Put them to bed earlier if they are showing signs of being tired
Make Adjustments To The Bedtime Routine
Having a consistent bedtime routine is Healthy Sleep 101 for babies and kids. When they are sick, it’s not just about the structure of the routine to prepare them for bed, it’s about making sure they are as comfortable as possible and all of their needs are met so that they can get a good night’s sleep and heal.
What do you need to do to prepare your kiddo for sleep?
Would a humidifier be helpful? Make sure it’s cool air, not hot
Clear the nose! Use a Nose Frida, bulb, etc., to ensure they can breathe through their nose
Pain or fever meds? Check with your doctor, of course
Extra pillows are often helpful if your child needs to be propped up when congested
Box of tissue
Cup of water
Layering the sheets with a moisture barrier can be helpful if your child has been vomiting
The biggest suggestion I can make is to allow your kiddo the opportunity to fall asleep on their own. This is what they’ve been doing for months or years. They know how to do it so don’t assume they are going to need it to be any other way. Give them the chance and then make adjustments if need be.
What About The Middle Of The Night?
Typically, I advise parents to wait a few minutes before going into their child’s room when there is a night waking. This allows a child the opportunity of getting into another sleep cycle on their own. If you’ve taught your kiddo independent sleep skills, you have seen them do just that.
When your child is sick, forgo the waiting period. Attend to their needs without hesitation. They might simply need their nose wiped, a sip of water, a little comfort, and are often able to get right back to sleep.
Rules Are Meant To Be Broken
Well….only when necessary.
As mentioned earlier, I always suggest allowing your child to fall asleep on their own in their own bed or crib when they are sick. If they are great sleepers, they typically have no problem falling asleep without help and sleep best in their own bed.
If you are really concerned about them and want to be near them, throw an air mattress on the floor and you sleep in their room instead of bringing them to your bed. Once again, they will sleep best in their own bed.
Something that’s not going to work, and I get it. There are times when your child is going to need to be held to sleep or they are so sick you bring them into your bed to be extra close. Let it happen and just get through it all until everyone is healthy.
If you need to revisit the method of sleep training that you used initially, do that. Your child will pick it up quickly and you’ll be back to having an amazing independent sleeper in less than a week.