The way the last few months have been going in my household, this topic has popped up in my head over and over again and I am finally sitting down to write about it. How do you handle sleep when your child is sick? This is a question I am often asked and such an important topic to discuss. Let’s dive in!
Your little one starts with the sniffles, then the red cheeks, then the night time coughing that breaks your heart. They are struggling to sleep and you want to help, but should you? If you have sleep trained, will this ruin all your hard work? If your child already has problems with independent sleep, will this make it worse? I am here to answer all your sickness concerns.
If you only get one piece of advice out of this blog, let it be this- when your child is sick, everything else goes out the window. Seriously! Yes, I am a sleep consultant, but I am a mom first, and I get it. What is one of the most important things to do when sick? SLEEP! I am way more concerned that your child gets adequate sleep versus how they get said sleep. Now, let’s talk about the three potential scenarios and how to handle each.
1. Your child is sleep trained/ independently sleeping well.
So, you were either blessed with a naturally angelic sleeper, or you put in the work and time to guide your child to become an independent sleeper. But, now they are waking in the night begging for you to come into the room and comfort them. Your parent heart is torn because you want to go in and scoop them up but you are also afraid you will lose all the effort you spent getting to this point. So what do you do?! Stop, breathe, and go take care of your little one. Is it possible a few nights of cuddles, sleeping in their room, etc. may throw them off a little? Yes. Will you ruin everything? Absolutely NOT. Focus on making sure they get adequate sleep, and when they are better, get back to business as usual. You may have a few days of setback, but if you remain consistent and use the techniques from before, you should be back on track shortly.
2. You want to start sleep training.
You’re tired. You have done your research, and you are finally ready to take the plunge. Naturally, your child gets sick just as you are about to begin. Now what? Sorry, but you really shouldn’t start until they are healthy again. To set your child up for success, you need to wait until you have a couple weeks where you can have a normal, consistent schedule in normal conditions. Being sick will make these changes much harder and will likely take longer. In addition, teaching your child independent sleep habits can cause sleep loss in the beginning as they learn, and that is the last thing we want when your child is sick. Get in those extra snuggles, assist with sleep as needed, and then you will be fresh and ready to start when they are feeling better!
3. You are in the middle of sleep training.
This is the most complicated scenario. You started sleep training, and then your little one brings home a bug from school. Do you push through? Do you stop and potentially take a few steps back? This really depends on a few things- how sick is your child? How far along are you? How successful have you been?
If your child is extremely ill and needs you to help them sleep, I would suggest pausing the process and focus on getting them better first. Again, getting the sleep is the most important thing in this case.
If you are a few days in and things are going incredibly well, and your child has some sniffles but is still in good spirits overall, then use your discretion. I have a client who was in this position- her whole family came down with Covid, but her little guy was still feeling decent overall and was doing incredibly well with his sleep. I told her we could absolutely pause until he was better, and support him back to where we stopped if needed, or keep going and see how he responded. She decided to push through and he ROCKED it. He was sleeping so much better overall that he ended up getting more sleep by continuing the process vs pausing and soon was feeling better and sleeping like a champ.
Bottom line here? Use your judgement- you know your kiddo best! Whatever will get them the most sleep while sick is the best option.
I hope this helps you navigate sickness and sleep with your little one. Don’t feel guilty to help when necessary and just focus on making them better. It also doesn’t help that the majority of the time they bring something home, they share with the whole family. So, you are likely battling with multiple sick people in your household at once. Give yourself grace, drink those fluids, and everyone REST UP. As always, if you need extra support getting sleep back, feel free to reach out! Sweet dreams!
Janet