For every parent couple, parenting is sometimes overwhelming, wondering if you're going to raise your child well? Sometimes a parent wishes the child had the ability to say what is wrong or what they want. Stress cues can help you understand situations correctly.
STRESS CUES:
Coughing Spitting up
Gagging Frowning
Hiccoughing Sighing
Gasping Shut down
Arching back Stop sign
Yawning Sneezing
Splaying fingers and toes Irregular breathing
It is very important to calm the child when any of these stress cues are present. If you notice one or more of the stress cues in your child it is important to calm the baby first before trying, for example, to feed the infant further. The little one needs to be stimulated first and the following calming techniques can come in handy.
CALM YOUR CHILD:
There are a few strategies a parent can use to calm a child.
Regulate the environment
Reduce noise or lightning.
Decrease interaction.
Eliminate any screen time (on any device including TVs, Tablets, cell phones, and laptops).
Allow self-calming strategies.
Sucking of their own hands.
Touching their own face, hair or ears.
Gazing at any objects that appear to calm baby.
A baby may prefer certain body positions.
Looking at your own hands.
Bringing hands together or towards the midline.
Massage, movement, and touch.
Visual stimulation, change the scenery. (Take the child for a walk)
Use soothing sounds.
Feed your baby and ensure that you burp your baby well after a feed.
Check the nappy.
When the baby is stressed during feeds
Give baby a break, stop feeding.
Change the feeding position.
Ensure the baby is aligned, slightly flexed, well supported.
INFANT SLEEP / AWAKE STATES:
It is important to look at the sleep stages through which the infant moves daily to understand what the effect of sensory stimuli has on your infant. There are 2 sleep stages namely deep sleep and light sleep, during sleep stages the infant responds differently to stimuli such as a doorbell. In the deep sleep stage, the infant will be asleep but in the light sleep stage.
The waking stage includes drowsy sleep, calm alert, active alert, and crying. The drowsy states are just before or just after sleep and the eyes still look heavy. During calm-alert, the infant has minimal movements and focuses on specific interactions. During the active-alert stage, more movements are present. The active alert can easily switch to crying.
Any stimulation such as loud noises can cause infants to be awake on movements in stages from deep sleep to light sleep and even awake.
Soothing stimulation can cause the infant to drift off into sleep stages. For example, soft music can become a drowsy little and even go back to sleep.
INFANT STATE DESCRIPTION IMPLICATION ON BREASTFEEDING
Deep or quiet sleep Closed eyes with no Only intense stimuli
movements will arouse baby
Regular breathing Do not attempt to
Relaxed feed
Absent body movement
Light / awake sleep Closed eyes with More easily aroused by stimuli
rapid eye movement Not alert enough to feed
Most infants sleep in this state
Irregular breathing
Sucking, smiling
Grimacing, yawning
Slight muscular twitching
Drowsy May have open eyes Stimuli may arouse infant
Irregular breathing but they May enjoy non-nutritious
may return to sleep sucking
Variable body movements
with mild startles
Quiet alert Eyes are bright and Excellent time to
wide-open initiate feeding before
Responsive to stimuli baby becomes fussy and
Minimal body activity agitated
Active alert Eyes are open More sensitive to stimuli
Comfortable Initiate feeding before
Rapid and irregular breathing progress to crying
Change nappy
Hold and talk quietly
Discomfort
Babies are active
Crying Eyes are open or Talk, quietly rocking
tightly closed infant before attempting
Hold, swaddle, comfort baby to feed
Irregular breathing
Talk, quietly rocking
Crying
Movements of extremities
SLEEP CYCLES
The behaviour of the be better understood if the sleep cycles are understood. Sleep is divided into light or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and deep or Non-REM sleep.
The sleep cycle is from deep sleep to light sleep and back to the deep sleep stage. The sleep cycle can last from 45 to 90 minutes in total. Sleep cycles can be linked to and differ by age. You move through a few sleep cycles during a full night's sleep and move from deep sleep to light sleep and back to deep sleep.
Most babies start to form a sleeping pattern for the day from 6 weeks onwards. A flexible daytime sleep routine can easily be formed by watching how long the baby is awake per day. The time from waking up until the next sleep is determined by the age of the baby. A newborn only manages to be awake for a short period of time and the older infants become, the longer they can stay awake.
Some babies do not establish a regular bedtime, and from catnap and never sleep longer than 60 minutes without waking up. when the baby wakes up in the light sleep phase, they cannot move back to the deep sleep phase. the babies also never combine more than one sleep cycle. The result is that the baby gets tired and very irritated.
Some sleep problems are due to separation anxiety. If the baby is struggling with sleep, it is advisable to get sleep coaching.
AWAKE TIME BETWEEN SLEEP
0 - 6 Weeks 45 Minutes
6 - 16 Weeks 45 - 80 Minutes
4 - 7 Months 90- 150 Minutes
7 - 12 Months 2 - 3 Hours
1 - 2 Years 31/4 - 41/2 Hours
2 - 3 Years 41/2 - 5 Hours
3 - 5 Years 5 - 7 Hours
SLEEP TIMES
1 Month 45 Minutes - 3 Hours
2 - 3 Months 45 Minutes - 3 Hours
3 - 4 Months 45 Minutes - 3 Hours
4 - 6 Months 45 Minutes - 2 Hours
7 - 9 Months 45 Minutes - 2 Hours
9 - 12 Months 45 Minutes - 2 Hours
1 - 2 Years 1 - 2.5 Hours
3 - 4 Years 1 - 2.5 Hours
TO ALERT BABY
Rock the baby gently from side to side or up and down with head support.
Establish non-nutritious sucking on a pacifier or finger.
Skin-to-skin care and feeding.
SET THE STAGE FOR SLEEP
Limit awake time
Establish a sleep zone
Regulate your baby's sensory environment
White noise
A stuffed toy or piece of clothing that smells of parents
Lullabies
Darkroom at night and closed curtains for daytime naps
Bedtime routine:
A calm warm bath
Wrap baby tightly in a warm towel to dry
Massage baby in a dimly lit sleeping space
Maintain a calm atmosphere at all times
Don't take the baby out of the bedroom but instead play quietly in the room
When giving the last feed, turn the lights off and complete the feed in the dark
Put baby to bed awake but drowsy
REFERENCES
Hettie Grove; Born to Breastfeed, Born to Breastfed; 2016
IECA; The ICEA guide to pregnancy and birth; 2011
Jill and Nils Bergman; Hold your Prem; 2010
Jan Riordan and Karen Warmbach; Human Lactation and Breastfeed; 2010
Megan Faure and Ann Richardson; Baby sense, 2002 - 2010