Night Terrors:

Most parents have ever had to comfort their children after a nightmare. But, if your child has ever had what is known as night terror, he experienced so much fear that, as much as you did, there was no way to comfort him.

A night terror is a sleep disorder that resembles a nightmare, except that it is much more spectacular. Although night terrors can scare parents enough to witness them, they are often not a cause for concern or the sign of an underlying medical problem.

What are night terrors?

During a typical night, sleep goes through a series of phases. Each is associated with a particular brain activity, and the rapid eye movement phase (MOR or REM) is when most dreams occur.

Night terrors occur during non-REM sleep. Unlike nightmares (which occur during REM sleep), a night terror is not a technical dream, but more likely a sudden reaction of fear that takes place during the transition from one sleep phase to another.

Night terrors usually occur two to three hours after the child reconciles sleep, when the transition takes place from the deeper non-REM sleep phase to the shallowest REM sleep, the stage at which dreams occur. This transition usually happens smoothly. But sometimes the child gets agitated and frightened—and that scary reaction is night terror.

During a night terror, a child can suddenly get in bed and start squealing or screaming as if he is extremely distressed. Breathing and heart rate can speed up, you can start sweating, shaking, and behaving like you are extremely upset and scared. After a few minutes or more, the child calms down and goes back to sleep peacefully.

Unlike nightmares, which are often remembered, the next day the children have no memory of night terror because they were asleep while it happened—and have no mental images to evoke.

What is the cause?

Night terrors are caused by overactivation of the central nervous system (CNS) during sleep. This can occur because the CNS (which regulates brain activity during sleep and wakefulness) is still maturing. Some children inherit a tendency to.

This overactivation; approximately 80% of children who have night terrors have.

a relative who also experienced them or suffered from sleepwalking (a similar type of sleep disorder) during childhood.

Night terrors have been described in children who:

• were very tired, sick, stressed or fatigued.

• Are taking a new drug.

• They slept in a new environment or away from home.

Night terrors are relatively rare — they only affect between 3 and 6% of children, while virtually every child has a nightmare from time to time. Night terrors usually occurs in children between the age of four and twelve but have been reported in children as young as 18 months old. They seem to be a little more common in boys than in girls.

A child may have an isolated night terror episode or several before these types of episodes disappear completely. Most of the time night terrors disappear on their own as the nervous system matures.

Cómo reaccionar ante un terror nocturno.

Night terrors can greatly alarm parents, who often feel powerless not being able to comfort their children. The best way to react to night terror is to wait patiently for it to pass and make sure the child doesn't hurt himself by stirring. Children usually calm down and return to sleep placidity within a few minutes.

It is better not to try to wake the child during a night terror. These attempts don't usually work, and if they work, the child will most likely feel disoriented and confused when he or she wakes up, so he or she will likely find it more difficult to calm down and fall asleep again.

Night terrors have no treatment, but you can help them not happen in the first place. Try the following:

Reduce the stress your child is under.

Set up and maintain a simple, relaxing bedtime routine for your child.

Make sure your child gets enough rest.

Do not let your child get too tired when he's up late.

Understanding night terrors can reduce parents' concerns and help them sleep well at night. But if your child has night terrors repeatedly, talk to your child's pediatrician in case a sleep specialist needs to be consulted.

Source of information:http://kidshealth.org/es/parents/terrors-esp.html

What do I do if my baby wakes up at night?

This is one of the favorited themes and we cover daily in Zzleep My Baby, what happens in the night is a different, private and personal story in the families of the world. We know that approximately 8 out of 10 families suffer from trouble sleeping with their little ones, including sleeping with them, continuous awakenings, long and heavy battles to get them to sleep at the right time, in addition to raising this and adding it to the problem it poses for the couple, half of these couples endure these early years of parents, but many unfortunately end up in separation.

Zzleep My Baby wants to give you some recommendations to know what to do when babies wake up at night below a table with tips and averages of waking up by age.

Tips to Combat the Global Health Crisis

Tips to Combat the Global Health Crisis

How are you and how do you feel in this time of World Health Crisis, surely you are like me thinking about your children and trying to keep them free from all diseases as far as possible. definitely, the Corona Virus 19 marks another chapter in our history and, as always, a moment to become aware and resume the good habits of Health.
It is now our mission as mothers and preachers of good habits to inform and remember the benefits that you can get by sleeping better, for now, the little ones are not at high risk but what the future holds, you don't know that so raising and growing children with good habits we give them one more weapon to face any situation!
Here a list of the 10 benefits that are obtained by sleeping well, for the young ones and adults, remember that a good rest is essential if we want to keep going and have a healthy life.

1. Improvement of the immune system

Immunological processes are regulated by the circadian cycle. That is, in 24 hour cycles. Lack of sleep and the stress it causes, interfere with its proper functioning, leaving us unprotected against external invaders. In other words: going to bed at the same time and sleeping for the necessary hours are worth like an antibiotic, but without side effects.

2. It lengthens life

Sleeping 7 to 8 hours a day is also related to longevity.

3. Good humor and positivism

When we sleep poorly, we are irritable and much less sociable, as if the crowd bothered us. Good humor in crisis situations and a positive attitude is very important in emergency situations.

4. Improve memory and attention:

Getting good rest also makes it easier to process and memorize knowledge more effectively. Sports boost:
Sleep is part of training. It is useless to give everything while running or pedaling, if then there is no proportional rest. It is the natural way for the muscle to grow back stronger. But for that you need a restful sleep that allows the regeneration of those muscles.

5. Mental agility

Lack of sleep increases the response time, also increases the risk of making mistakes or having uncontrolled responses. It is essential to get enough sleep if you are going to drive.

6. More creativity

Those same neural processes pave the way for us to draw out all of our imaginations. If you have to spend a whole day entertaining and creating activities for your children, it is important to sleep well.

7. Physical repair

During deep sleep, the body practically blocks all your senses. The heart rate falls, the respiratory rate drops and the blood pressure decreases and the growth hormone is released, responsible for organizing the repair of damaged tissues throughout the day, which is the reason why after a night of restful sleep wounds improve.

8. Weight control

Science has shown that spending too much time awake is associated with higher food intake to stay awake, being able to gain up to 0.8 kilos in five sleepless nights.

9. Reinforce knowledge

While you sleep, the brain organizes all the stimuli of the day, eliminating the useless ones and archiving the necessary ones.

10.Protect the heart
People with insomnia have been shown to have the highest blood pressure and heart rate.

Are you not sleeping well and in quarantine? Now is the time that we have to take advantage of and teach little ones to sleep, 2 weeks at home is all we need to follow routines and introduce good habits.
Europe 40% on any service! Contact me to get your discount code! Whatsapp with your name, location at +61409622424 Thank you, be optimistic, happy and positive! Do it for the little ones.
Greetings from Australia.
Liliana Amaro-Children's Sleep Coach

What are Quality naps?

There is a big difference between the 20-minute naps and Quality naps, 20 minutes of nap in the car seat when you go to do errands or visit someone is not a good nap, much less for a baby, they really do not know how long they have been asleep and perhaps they feel they have rested but in reality it is not so, fatigue will continue to accumulate and it is likely that you will suffer the consequences of having a baby with accumulated fatigue later.
Nowadays we see many babies with these patterns, in the afternoon we find crying babies, fuzzy, difficult and those who fail to fall asleep easily at bedtime or at night.
Try to get your baby to take 1 or 2 good quality naps for more than 1 hour depending on age, this will help your baby sleep better at night and be happier during the day.
Remember that we have our sleep calculator to check the number of naps your baby should take according to his age.https://www.zzleepmybaby.com/sleep-calculator

Dad at Bed Time👨

From experience, I know that most of the families that have children for the first time go through this (Of course there are exceptions and I know them well) anyway it never hurts to read these tips that are super valuable for the Man of the house to participate hands-on bedtime.
If you are an advocate of Attachment Parenting, you know that they recommend the Balance and with this it refers to EVERYTHING among some important points, caring for baby, caring for the partner, self-care. So in this, it is super important to achieve balance and share responsibilities and not because dad goes to work all day the care of the baby must be exclusive to the mother.Let me begin:

1. Breastfeeding is an exclusive activity of the mother but the father can participate in this, helping the mother by carrying the baby, changing the diaper before or after being breastfed and putting him to sleep.

2. When a mother is extremely exhausted, an essential recommendation is the use of a breast pump so the father can administer the milk during the night that way the mother can sleep more. It is notorious that the mother will have excess milk but an hour or two more of continuous sleep will make a difference! (If you don't know what to do but are interested, contact me l.amaro@zzleepmybaby.com ) . If the baby is formula-fed then there is not any excuses.

3. My GOLDEN tip is to take turns at night to put the little ones to bed, that means freedom to sleep early, take a bath, read, relax or why not watch a movie!

4. Do not criticize or point out what your partner is doing, this can result in a lack of security and disinterest since everything that Dad does is wrong. Be Careful this always happens when we are overtired and in a bad mood. Dad has another way of being and we must give him the opportunity.

5. Worry about the bonding between the father and the children, integrating them into activities and especially in the Bedtime Routine generate an incomparable bond, trust and security. (I remember that my dad told me stories every night and I loved it) It also serves as a relaxing time for everyone and "free" time for mom.

Day Light Saving = An Early Riser Child

For many parents with young children, this likely means waking up calls as their children rise with the sun. Yes I’m afraid to say that my experience every year I get to work with many families going through this phase of early wakings.

Happens to Everyone!

Last week going to the Gym around 5:30 am I got surprised on the side of my driveway by a Dad carrying his baby.

Early walks with baby

Two Suggestions!

This is an effect that we Australians experience as the sun rises very early! Yes before 5:00 am and of course the young children with general good sleep habits are very set to the circadian rhythms dictated by the day and night. So if you wonder what can be done to avoid this? I have couple of suggestions to try:

Here:

1.Is go to bed early and follow the circadian rhythms: this means go to bed as soon is getting dark and rise with the sun, plenty of things to do like a fresh walk, enjoy a coffee. This advice is the most recommendable as you will get a lot of sleep and also you will be ready when your child is up and running.
 
2.Make the room of your child very very dark and I don’t allow to say is not possible! Everything is possible if you want to do it: you can get dark and thick curtains (blackouts), get a piece of dark fabric, dark paper anyway If you wish to rest for longer you can find the way.
 

Let's Get Started

Happy to help.

It is important to mention that this suggestions will work when the child is a good sleeper with no recurrent problems at night, when this early wakings are like the top of the cherry then you should be looking in to fix the core and root of the problem in order to achieve more hours sleep independently of the waking up time.
You are not convince on what to do and need more sleep in the mornings?
Contact me by email: l.amaro@zzleepmybaby.com Or
phone/text : +61 0409622424
If you want to know more about me: www.zzleepmybaby.com

24 Hours time line to create a Sleep Routine

In this basic time line you can learn the best and recommended times for your child to have a nap, eat and go to bed . This time line will be changing as your child grows and the naps suddenly will be reduce until they end n just one NAP at mid day (around 12-15 months).

Also bare in mind that the newborns have feeding times during the night, but essentially by 6 months you want to achieve a routine similar to this time line.

Time Line for a 24 hr Routine

Is your kid an early riser?

Is your kid an early riser?

It has been proven by any of us that here in Australia many Kids become an early riser as summer days hit this side of the hemisphere and you wonder why this happens. Some regions understand and have accepted and every summer they change the clock to summertime, this helps to make use the daylight more efficiently and if you think it is logic in sense of sleep.

Our bodies follow circadian rhythms and are just logical that when the body receives some sort of light since noise and change of temperature it feels like waking time. This especially for younger kids and babies.

So here are some tips to make easy those early waking times.

·         Move bedtime earlier 15-30 minutes

·         Make sure the windows or room remains dark as possible in the morning

·        Hot? make sure the room is ventilated

·         If you hear a call in the morning before a reasonable waking time, wait a few minutes before responding.

·         If you have a kid under 3-keep it in the cot-wait the longest possible, he/she may resettle without help (make sure room is dark) If there is a window and they can see daylight is more likely they don’t want to sleep back.

·         If you have a kid sleeping in a bed- reward to staying bed until the desired time

·         Place a digital clock and teach the number to recognize, so that means is time to get up.

·         If still dark and he is waking up, after waiting: go to room explain that is not the time to get up and try to resettle.

·         If none of the above work for you-then is time to reinstate a mid-day NAP

If you have any questions or need a hand for any of these situations, please call or email always happy to help.

Liliana Amaro

0409622424

l.amaro@zzleepmybaby.com