I am asking for a friend...her son moves a lot - she had him seen and was told it is "hyperconnectic" For 4 months old he is constantly moving and jerking. She has an EEG scheduled for Sept 11th to rule out infantile spasms. The specialist doesn't think he has it but they will still do an EEG on him. Anyway because he constantly moves and jerks he wakes himself up every hour and the binky falls out and she goes in and puts it back in his mouth...as you can see no one is getting much sleep. Any suggestions would GREATLY be appreciated. She is thinking of just stopping the binky cold turkey and suffering for awhile til he can hopefully just put himself back to sleep. But any ideas or advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance~
R.
just wanted to thank everyone sooo much for all of your responses!! you are the best-i forwarded everything to her!
My son has medical concerns sleeps in a crib right next to my bed now (hes 2) and up until a few months ago he slept in my bed. Its the ONLY thing that works for us. Its not for everyone but at a point mommy needs to sleep! LOL
the correct term is "hyperkinetic".... There are a number of different hyperkinetic disorders. I would encourage her to have her son evaluated by a pediatric neurologist if he has a lot of excess movement. early treatment is best if he has a movement disorder. Here is a link to some very basic definitions: http://www.cmdg.org/movement_disorder_info.htm
Good luck
Check out www.magicsleepsuit.com. The Magic Sleepsuit was designed by a mom and pediatric physical therapist to help improve sleeping for infants. One feaure is that it helps muffle the startle reflex (moro reflex) that wakes babies prematurely. Maybe this would be helpful for your baby and his movements. This product has been featured and reviewed on this site.
I agree he should lose the bink if he can't possibly keep it in himself. My kids used them only during days in early infancy , but never could keep them in at night either, so we sort of put them in once or twice at night and then turned to cry it out when they got to be 3 months old, which was easy since they ate enough all day, they hardly woke up. He is old enough to make it through the night if he eats to capacity all day. Even if he jerks awake, he will ease himself back to sleep if he's not hungry. If he wakes himself up and he's hungry, he will keep crying.
Feed him as much as he will take all day long, even if he doesn't seem hungry. It will take a few days for his body to register the new fullness.
The jerking and waking himself up are hard challenges, but he may have to learn to sleep despite them which will take time, but he has to do it. i hope they get some sleep soon!
If you want to Google it, it's spelled "Hyperkinetic"--"hyper-", meaning too much, and "kinetic", meaning movement. That's all I know.
Best of luck!
Swaddle! Babies move involuntarily for at least 6 or 8 months, sometimes longers. It's a reflex and is completely normal (in this case, maybe not). However, swaddling is still a great way to help baby feel snuggled in and cozy, and may reduce the jerky movements. Also, sometimes the baby carrier is good for babies who like to feel a little pressure when they sleep, kind of like still being in mommy's belly. Must be strapped in though, which is kind of annoying.
We used to bouncy seat with my son for a while, it helped til he got a little older. Good luck!
Swaddle! Swaddle! Swaddle!
This sounds exactly like my daughter! I swaddled her until she was able to roll over in it at 7 months. A good tight swaddle kept her arms and legs from moving and she would sleep through the night... even after the binky fell out of her mouth. I started out with the 5 S technique described in Harvey Karp's book "Happiest Baby on the Block." Eventually, I only needed one of the S's... Swaddle. When I had to start putting her to sleep unswaddled we began to have problems again with her waking every hour. I tried everything! I was dead set against "cry it out," but nothing else worked. Finally, at 13 months I had enough and I read Ferber's book. I tried his method as described in the book (not exactly what everyone thinks it is). Within 3 nights, my daughter was going to sleep on her own and staying asleep through the night. I wish I had done it at 4 months. The older they get, the harder it is. Hope this helps. Feel free to send me a note if you have any questions.
I know this isn't supposed to be a debate about co-sleeping, but my two cents is that there are safer ways than to hold your baby while you both sleep (even though it worked for another member here). For instance, how about an "Amby Bed"? A little pricey, but REALLY worth it (and solves any reflux issues).
I would also ask your Ped about swaddling. Check out a "Woombie" on Ebay. :)
The only thing I can think of to help them each get more than an hour of sleep at a time is for your friend to hold him while they both sleep. I found this particularly helpful with my 4th. He had such horrible reflux that putting him down was out of the question. In order to save my sanity (I had 3 others under the age of six) I found holding him while slightly reclined (or inclined if you prefer) was my saving grace. I was able to get 7-8 hours of straight sleep/night. It's not the most ideal situation, but a mother has to do what is going to work best for her. My son is now 7 and is a great sleeper. He has been since he grew out of his reflux after the age of 1. Sleeping with her child does not mean he will be spoiled for learning to sleep on his own as he gets older. We've co-slept with our older 4 and are currently doing that with our 4 month old...he sleeps from about 10 until around 7am straight thru.
Best wishes to you, your friend and her baby. I hope they figure out what's going on soon!
EDIT: I'd just like to add that with my now 7yo son, I had tried everything under the sun to get him to sleep on his own. He actually hated to be swaddled. I was desperate enough to hold him while I slept and when we both finally slept the night through we were both in a much better place the next day. Co-sleeping is not for everyone, and many people disagree with it, but I was a better mother once I'd had more than an hour or two of sleep.
the best thing that I can think of is to swaddle him. or cosleep
have her try the "miracle blanket." this worked for my daughter and i tried it when she was either 8 or 12 weeks old (she didn't seem to want to be swaddled earlier on but needed it as she grew). it is a swaddling blanket that stops them from jerking awake. instead of buying or borrowing one, she can try using two blankets to achieve a similar result. respond to me if you would like the instructions how. i'll do my best to explain. good luck!
I would consider swaddling her son, providing they have A/C this time of year. It can be done with a receiving blanket or an official swaddling wrap which can be purchased at Babies R Us.
I've also heard of gadgets that hold binkies in place so she might want to look into that.
I'd have to vote against the co-sleeping though.
I would tell her to swaddle him into a baby burrito! Babies generally like that.
I would be leery of anything to "keep" the binky in his mouth.
Those Kiddopotamus Swaddlers really work for my son. They keep his arms almost immobile when we get the velcro on tight enough, though sometimes his legs still surprise him and wake him up. It took awhile for us to figure them out, but he doesn't wriggle free of them like he did when we swaddled him in a regular blanket.
