Those Tough Nights: Coping When Your Baby Is Unwell

*This is a collaborative post

You might not have thought much beyond preparing for labour in the run-up to your baby being born karma but it’s safe to say that for any new parent, there is a significant learning curve. It’s not just to do with sleepless nights, and learning to function on little sleep, but about those moments when you feel worried about your child, and it seems there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s a massive sense of chaos sometimes, especially when your baby is unwell because this causes a lot of sleep issues for the baby and yourself. Navigating those tough nights when a baby is unwell is not easy, but let’s show you some surefire tactics to help everyone.

Baby Medicine Is Your Savior

Having a bottle of baby cold medicine by your side is going to make a sleepless night much easier. Some parents think that it’s far better for a baby to get over a cold by fighting it naturally, but we have to remember that when we aren’t very well, we’ll take paracetamol, which gives us a fighting chance at not feeling so rubbish. You may wonder if your baby should have cold medicine all of the time but in those situations where they’ve been trying to go to sleep all day, but something is bothering them and you don’t know what, baby medicine makes all of the difference. Just make sure that you stick to the dosage, and make a note of when you last gave the baby medicine. Many parents wonder if it’s okay to give paracetamol and ibuprofen. This is an answer for your doctor, but generally, it is okay, as long as the baby doesn’t have an adverse reaction.

Letting Them Sleep When They Can

You might think that they need to stick to a rigid sleep schedule, especially when they are so young and you’re trying to put these routines in place, but when your child is unwell, it’s important to just let them rest as much as they can. When we feel unwell, we’ve got to listen to our bodies, and sleep is the best thing for anybody to recover.

It’s going to help your child fight infection, and it’s important to remember that when they are awake, that you give them proper nutrition. If you’re breastfeeding them, do what you can to help them feed. They might not want to, in which case, just giving them as much comfort as possible will help them. You might be worried that you are undoing a lot of sleep training, but you can do anything to comfort your child, but if they are on the tail end of an illness, get back into the habit of laying them down when they are awake.

Navigating the Nights They Wake Up

You can spend a lot of time preventing illness but there is no preparation for when your child wakes up in the night and they are seemingly inconsolable. When your children are unwell, and they will wake up more frequently, and even if you’ve given them baby medicine, but they still wake up, you might come to the conclusion that they just need that comfort. If they are going through a leap, and they are unwell, they need that extra bit of comfort from their parents. In which case, putting them in your bed and making sure that they are able to sleep could make all the difference. However, it’s important to make sure you have the right supplies at the side of the bed:

• Baby medicine. 
• Decongestant.
• Baby wipes to wipe up any snot. 
• A spare set of baby clothes in case they are sick. 
• Supplies for yourself, whether this is water, paracetamol, or the remote control!

It is so important to remember that you need to look after yourself as well for me and it can feel very stressful when you’ve got work in the morning and you’ve been up night after night.

But the best approach is to be militant and try to get through the night. When a baby is unwell, it can cause a lot of stress, but it won’t last forever. By keeping a focused head on things, and making sure that we are energised with the right food and hydrated will minimise those tired feelings as much as is humanly possible.

That’s not to say you won’t feel terrible, but learning to navigate these nights is part and parcel of being a parent. It’s certainly stressful when it first happens, but it’s those situations where everybody has to muddle in and work together.