It’s a terrible thing when your child has problems staying asleep in bed for a needed time during the night. However, as parents, you could take some simple measures to overcome this trouble and make it a good night for your child.

We've brought together the best and most up-to-date research about sleep problems to see what treatments work. You can use our information to talk to your doctor and decide which treatments are best for your child.

Children need adequate time for sleep each day

Early-infant sleep is quite different from the sleep of adults. Infants younger than six months spend 50 percent of their sleep time in active rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, compared with 20 percent in adults. Infants enter sleep through an initial active REM stage, in contrast to adults, who don't commonly enter REM sleep until 90 minutes into the sleep cycle. Active REM emerges more often during a sleep cycle in infants, resulting in shorter sleep cycles. Until six months of age, quiet REM (also known as quiet or indeterminate sleep) cannot be subdivided into the four electroencephalographic (EEG) stages known in the mature sleep pattern.

By six months, the infant's sleep architecture closely resembles that of an adult's. After an initial "settling" period that typically takes 10 to 20 minutes, the infant drifts from stage 1 non-REM (NREM) sleep into stage 3 or 4. The infant may return to stage 1 and cycle again. After one to two cycles of NREM sleep, REM is entered at about 60 to 90 minutes. The first one third of the night is mostly deep sleep (NREM stages 3 and 4). The last one half of the night is predominately stage 2 NREM and REM.

In newborns, the amount of sleep is divided fairly equally between night and day. Nighttime sleep gradually becomes consolidated over the first year into a single uninterrupted block of time, and daytime sleep gradually decreases over the first three years (Figure 1).1 By the age of four, most children no longer require a daytime nap. Nighttime sleep requirements also gradually decrease, so that by adolescence they are similar to the sleep needs of an adult.

What can I do to deal with my child’s sleep problems

If you have a newborn baby, this is to be expected. A newborn baby often needs to eat every two or three hours. Normally, your baby's sleeping periods increase little by little.

At the age of five months, there is no need to maintain nightly meals, even though many babies would like to. If you want to teach an older baby to sleep all night, teach it that nothing exciting happens during the night.

If the child wakes up in the night:

•    do not turn the lights on
•    try not to talk to the child or play with them.

If the child needs to be changed, do so with as little fuss as possible. Teach the child that they do not have to eat or drink to fall asleep and that they do not eat at night. This may sound a little harsh but it is the first step towards teaching the child that at night, people sleep! Parents should only do this of course, if they feel it is necessary and that it is the right thing to do for their child.

The amount of sleep your child need

•    Sleep is important for the child's wellbeing.
•    At night, the body produces more of the hormone that stimulates growth. So sleep is important for your child's development as well.
•    Newborn babies sleep up to 16 hours per day. At first, they wake up every two or three hours to feed.
•    From four months old, babies often start to sleep for longer periods of time.
•    From six months old and up to one year, they often sleep five to six hours continuously.
•    Children between one year and five years old sleep up to 12 hours each day.
•    A pre-school child may still need to sleep 10 to 12 hours each day.
•    A schoolchild sleeps about 10 hours each day.
•    It is important to remember that each child's sleeping pattern is different. If a child is one year old and sleeps 10 hours each day, it is perfectly OK, as long as the child is happy and healthy.
•    Before parents start to worry about the amount of time their child sleeps, it is a good idea to look at the sleeping patterns of other family members. There might be a connection.

Advice from experts

Bedtime should be enjoyable for everybody. You can read a story, give the child a cuddle or a warm bath, etc. Develop a routine and stick to it. Never use the bed as a punishment for your child when they have done something wrong. Put your child to bed before they get overtired. The child should feel good, both when it goes to bed and when it wakes up. It is OK if the child settles down slowly in the cot; it does not have to go to sleep immediately. Stroking the baby or rocking it (in a cradle or in your arms) will help to make them sleepy. Dim the lighting or turn the lights off when you put your child to bed.

•    Turn down the television, music and speak quietly.
•    Do not pick your baby up, if they cry, but stay with them. They should not cry themselves to sleep. Always comfort a crying child.
•    Letting your child sleep in your bed may start a habit, which can be difficult to break, but it is often an effective short-term method to help your child sleep.
•    Babies who cry a lot may also have problems that can be treated by a chiropractor.
Sleep training is another option. It can help your child settle at night, learn to settle themselves and reduce waking during the night. Research shows that after a month of sleep training children didn't wake so often during the night, took less time to settle at night and were more likely to get themselves back to sleep after waking at night. Sleep training involves putting your child to bed and ignoring their cries for attention. You might find it upsetting to leave your child to cry, but doing this gradually might be easier.

To sleep train gradually, you first wait two minutes before going to your child. The next time your child wakes up, you wait four minutes before going to them. You then extend the time gradually to a maximum of 20 minutes. Or you can gradually increase the distance between yourself and your child. You may start off sitting next to your child's bed. Then on the next night you move 30 centimetres (one foot) away, and so on until you are outside the bedroom.

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The immune system would regard all germs that come into your body as foreign substance, and then produce the proper antibodies to kill these germs.

Although vaccines contain antigens which may develop into diseases, these antigens are greatly weakened or cleared. That is, they are not enough to cause disease. However, their existence would stimulate the immune system to form antibodies which help protect you from disease in the future.

Vaccines not only help keep your child healthy, they help all children by stamping out serious childhood diseases.

The very reasons for vaccinating your child

Vaccination acts as a bodyguard and prevents your child from getting serious diseases that can cause long-term health problems.

A vaccine works by containing a tiny part of the virus or bacteria that causes the disease. When the vaccine is given, the body's immune system reacts towards the vaccine and forms a protection (antibodies) against it. These antibodies will be ready to protect your child should he or she ever come into contact with that infection.

Safety of vaccination

Vaccines are generally quite safe. The protection provided by vaccines far outweighs the very small risk of serious problems. Vaccines have made many serious childhood diseases rare today. Talk to your family doctor if you have any questions.

The right time for childhood vaccination

Recommendations about when to have your child vaccinated change from time to time. You can get a copy of the most current child  or adolescent vaccination schedules from an organization such as the American Academy of Family Physicians or the American Academy of Pediatrics, or you can ask your family doctor. Vaccinations usually start when your child is 2 months old and most are finished by the time he or she is 6 years old.

Situations in which your child should not be vaccinated

In some special situations, children shouldn't be vaccinated. For example, some vaccines shouldn't be given to children who have certain types of cancer or certain diseases, or who are taking drugs that lower the body's ability to resist infection.

If your child has had a serious reaction to the first shot in a series of shots, your family doctor will probably talk with you about the pros and cons of giving him or her the rest of the shots in the series.

Talk to your doctor if you have any questions about whether your child should receive a vaccine.

What if your child has a fever?

When children have a fever, the vaccination should be postponed. If your child has an ordinary cold, but their temperature is normal, it is safe for the vaccine to be given.

Side effects of vaccinations

No vaccine is free from side-effects. Some parents focus on the side-effects of the vaccines instead of the diseases your child is protected against.

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Before childbirth, you begin parenting the moment your child comes into the world. Should you breast-feed your baby or allow him to drink from the bottle? What kind of food should you feed your baby? All these are major parenting decisions for the parents of young babies.

When your child is very young, your worries are limited to the points mentioned above. However, young children begin to grow and are easy to learn from their surroundings. Since then, your role is not just that of providing food and security, but you also have to be a good model with basic disciplines for your child.

What parents have to remember is to respect them. Mutual respect is vital for parenting. Especially when your child goes wrong, it is necessary and helpful to behave with restraint and decorum. Remember that your child is watching every words and action, and developing along the lines that you are setting out for them.

It is also necessary to get time to cuddle them, play with them and talk with them. They need to feel the comfort of touch, which makes them confident and secure. Because children are curious about everything, you’d better answer their questions as possible as you can so that you can help them grow emotionally and mentally. Otherwise, children learn through play and games. Whenever they are in doubt, encourage your child, which helps to build self-confidence. Do not drag the episode into every conversation, which will demoralize and upset your child. Express love openly.

Actually, there are no set rules, blanket solutions or universal problems in parenting. Parenting evolves as the child develops and as parents gain confidence. Every situation is unique for many occasions. Do what you think is best for your child.

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These days,people are so busy that it can be nearly impossible to prepare a good meal at home.We all care about how to eat better and healthy while eating out. Stopping at a fast food store just to grab a bite to eat in between commitments. After all we may not have enough time to back home and cook a meal for yourself and your family. It is better to eat at home but if you absolutely must eat out you should be a little more picky about what you eat.

It is better to avoid these places altogether for optimal health ,but there are simple adjustments that you can make to make the best of a bad situation .It is really useful to know how to eat better outside.

1) Take your time: if you feel full in your stomach and you don’t need to still eat, because you have already overeaten. It's not hard to adjust. There are little tricks you can start implementing today such as chewing your food thoroughly, enjoying conversation with others, and putting your fork down between bites. This will slow down how fast you eat and you can also enjoy your food that much more.

2) Substitution: Most fast food chains in order to cater to children so there are a lot of these places with offering substitute for certain side items and drinks. For instance, at Chick-Fil-A you can opt for a milk and fruit instead of the traditional fries and soda. This would decrease your child's calorie intake by over 400 calories.

7) Awareness: Ask for a nutrition guide when you're at a restaurant.. Look at everything that comes along with what you are about to eat. You'll be surprised and at times a little disgusted. Chances are it will not seem worth it to you.Be aware.

3) On the side: If you eat at a Chinese restaurant ,you can get your sauce on the side.Because sweet and sour chicken is covered with sweet and sour sauce , it only takes a minimal amount just to get the taste. You can also ask your waiter or waitress to put your salad dressing on the side of your side salad.

2)Not to bring the bread: Bread is full of calories and fat as it is often slathered with butter. Too often people get full on bread before they even receive their meals. If you're at a restaurant where they give you free bread ,ask your server not to bring it. 

4) Don't worry: A lot of people supersize because it makes sense economically.Sometimes you can change your way. You also get more calories and fat. Plus the regular meals are already way more food than your body needs at one time anyway.

6)Make good decisions: It is better to avoid these places altogether for optimal health . For example, if you have fries make it a rule to not have the hot fudge sundae for dessert.

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Genetic factors: asthma tends to run in families, and many people with asthma also have other allergic conditions such as rhinitis (inflammation of the nose lining). "Allergy" is a hypersensitivity to some proteins foreign to the body: a small dose of the "allergen" will produce a violent reaction in the person concerned.

Environmental factors: in wealthy, hygienic Western countries, most babies are not exposed to bacterial infections that "kick start" the immmune system in early life and may be important in directing the immune system away from allergic responses. They also grow up in warm, well-furnished, carpeted homes that don't allow much airflow. This encourages the rapid breeding of large numbers of house dust mites in bedding, carpets and furnishings. Many children, instead of playing outside in fresh air, spend most of their time indoors. This further increases dust mite sensitisation. Exposure to tobacco smoke, whether during the mother's pregnancy or in early childhood, predisposes children to developing asthma. It also makes their symptoms more severe. Children can also become sensitised to animals, pollens moulds and dust in the environment if they are genetically predisposed.

Dietary changes: changes in diet in Western countries, such as a high proportion of processed foods, a higher salt intake, a lower antioxidant intake and a lack of fresh oily fish (lower intake of omega-3 fatty acids) may contribute to the development of asthma.

• Only 2% if childhood asthmatics carry it into adulthood.

Unfortunately for those 2%, it is often very severe, though this is no hard and fast "rule". I, too, am not referencing things like exercise induced asthma.

I am talking about people who can die without medications, from inhalers, to corticosteroids, to nebulizer medications of various kinds, to epi shots the patient keeps in their homes to self-administer in case of dire emergency.

Even if a child is one of the unlucky 2%, there are medications to control it. The adult also has to be very knowledgeable about the condition and know when and how to use the medications. The adult must also know when to head to the ER STAT.

• Most asthmatics I know like this actually know more than most GPs.

Adding to the significance of nocturnal asthma is increasing data that fatal attacks are more common at night. Several studies show a greater incidence of severe and fatal attacks between midnight and eight A.M. This data has prompted greater investigation into the source and treatment of nocturnal asthma.

What Causes Nocturnal Asthma?

At one time it was thought nocturnal asthma was caused by the "wearing off" of medication during the night. Further research has shown that many factors are involved.

Adrenal Connection

It is well documented that there is a natural rhythm of the body in which many organs function differently during the night. The adrenal gland is no exception. During sleep the adrenal gland manufactures less cortisone and epinephrine, causing a drop in their blood levels. Both of these substances are protective against asthma to a certain extent and the dip in blood levels may be one explanation for nocturnal asthma attacks.

Drugs are bad for your entire body, from your hair and skin to your bones and organs. Not to mention the fact that they weaken your immune system, so if a person already has a serious condition like asthma it can definitely make it worse. 

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