What Should I Do When My Baby is Sick?
I was talking to my friend last week who has a 4 month old with RSV. She hadn’t slept for 2 weeks because she wanted to make sure he was breathing okay in the night. She also had been holding him night and day because it was the only way he could get comfortable.
She told me she was worried that she had messed up his sleep because of it. He had been sleeping so great before he got sick and she was afraid that now those skills would be gone and she would have to start all over.
To her surprise, once he was feeling better, he adjusted back after one night and was sleeping like a champ!
No Sleep Training During Sickness!
I can’t stress this enough: when your baby is sick, ALL the rules go out the window.
Snuggle them as much as they need. Rock them to sleep. Hold them for naps. Do whatever you want or need to do to get through the sickness until they feel better.
They are going to sleep again. YOU are going to sleep again. It’s going to be okay. Just take care of your sweet baby during sickness and don’t worry about the rest!
Cold & Flu Season Tips
Here are some helpful tips and tricks for cold and flu season (and now, the unending “Covid season!”)
Prevention. It’s 100% okay to tell people no if they ask to hold your baby! If you don’t want germs spread to your new baby, just say no. Also, wash hands wash hands wash hands and wear masks whenever you’re in a public place.
If/when your baby does get sick, throw all the sleep training rules out the window. Yes, you can rock your baby to sleep and hold them all night if you’d like. Yes, you can hold them for naps. Yes, they can take extra long naps with little wake time. And yes, you can do all of this guilt-free.
Humidifiers, Maty’s baby vapor rub, elderberry syrup, Indian Healing Clay, and Hylands cold and cough are some of my favorite remedies.
When they feel better, you may need to reinforce a few sleep-training rules again. But for me, it’s totally worth the extra snuggles while they’re sick.