Many a parent has made excuses for a cranky child because the little one missed a precious nap. ?Or perhaps the parent has dropped everything, barely obeying the speed limit, so the tired tot makes it home in time for some afternoon ZZZs.
There is no doubt about it: Napping is an important part of your toddler's day -- and yours. You count on nap time to get things done, and your child needs to recharge and reboot or everyone will suffer the consequences. But why are naps so critical to youngsters, when will they outgrow them, and how can you make sure naps don't interfere with a good night's sleep?
By following WebMD's no-nonsense, expert-approved napping guide, that's how.
"Napping conserves energy," explains Charles Shubin, MD, medical director of the Children's Health Center of Mercy Family Care in Baltimore and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland, also in Baltimore. "When going through a growth spurt, an infant or toddler will sleep more and eat more because the energy demand that growth creates is tremendous," says Shubin, also an assistant professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
"To grow, we need adequate calories and ample sleep, and that is why babies sleep more than we do," he tells WebMD. As toddlers get older, they will eat and sleep less, says Shubin.
Some of this sleeping is done as naps, while some of it takes the form of nighttime sleep. Exactly how it is divided depends largely on the child's age and developmental stage, he says.
For example, newborns sleep between feedings all day and all night long, he says. "At around 3 months, they will start developing a day/night variation and their longer sleep will hopefully be at night." This typically doesn't happen much earlier because newborns need to eat every few hours and just can't get the stretch they need at night.
"Infants sleep 16 to 20 hours per day, and as time goes on, they outgrow sleeping all day long and only take two naps -- one in the morning and one in the afternoon," says Susan Zafarlotfi, PhD, the clinical director of the Institute for Sleep and Wake Disorders at the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.
Naps tend to work themselves out, agrees Greg Yapalater, MD, a New York City pediatrician in private practice. This pattern usually is established when the child is an infant and often revolves around feeding schedules. This helps shape the schedule going forward. "You are probably feeding every three hours, which is four bottles a day, so things start falling into place and then what you are going to do about naps becomes very straightforward," he says. For example, some parents may choose an hour after the first bottle for the morning nap and then an hour after the midday bottle for the afternoon nap.
"If your child goes to day care, shoot for the same schedule that the facility imposes regarding naps," suggests Rafael Pelayo, MD, an associate professor of sleep medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a sleep specialist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, both in Palo Alto, Calif.
No comments:
Post a Comment