Safe Remedies to Help Your Child Feel Better and Sleep Soundly

You want your child to get the most out of their rest time in bed because you’re a good parent and good parents think like that.

Sleep can be taken for granted at times, but we must never let it fall down the pecking order because it plays such a pivotal role that you simply can’t function well without it. Children especially need good sleep as their bodies are still growing and evolving with each day that passes.

This is their time to rest and recharge. So, what happens if getting off to sleep is a little on the tricky side? well, you can turn to some safe remedies that have the potential to send your little ones into sound slumber each evening, leaving them happy and healthy.

If they are struggling to get high-quality sleep, it’s only natural as a parent to fret over the situation, but you need not when you use these tips to find successful sleep and make your child (and you) feel better.

How much sleep does my child need?

A general guideline for you to follow…

·       14 to 18 years old: 8 to 10 hours a night

·       6 to 13 years old: 9 to 11 hours a night

·       3 to 5 years old: 11 to 13 hours a night

·       1 to 2 years old: 11 to 14 hours a night

·       4 to 11 months old: 9 to 12 hours at night, plus naps

·       0 to 3 months old: 10 ½ to 18 hours each day

Think about what your children eat

Fortunately, there’s a wave of experts and professionals who are putting their expertise out there for parents to benefit from when it comes to healthy eating. Children learn from their parents, so it’s important that you lead by example, but while you’re doing this, you might want to get clued up on the foods that will help with rest.

You might not know, but magnesium holds particularly strong abilities when it comes to sleep. This powerful mineral can be added to their diet as a safe remedy that will help to induce sleep.

Almonds, avocados, bananas, black beans, yoghurt and quinoa are all wonderful sources of magnesium you can turn to.

Obviously, you need to make sure that your child isn’t eating meals right before bedtime as this will interrupt their sleep, but get the meals right and feed the little ones at the correct time and you’re on to a winner.

Let’s get active!

Study upon study will reinforce the same result and that is that a high level of children is inactive. One study showed around 75% of children between the ages of 5 and 10 get less than an hour of physical exercise per day. Now, this just so happens to be the same amount of time parents admit to letting their children sit in front of a screen.

Inactivity and addictive behaviour to screen and tech come with a whole variety of bad health warnings and these are issues are not something children should have in their lives, so as parents, it’s your responsibility to get them active.

Using up energy during the day allows for your child to experience better sleep in the evening.

Try herbal remedies

This might apply to the children who are slightly older, but as long as they are able to handle hot drinks, you can give it a go.

Drinking herbal teas can be a really effective way of finding sweet slumber for your precious ones. Try a few and see what/if any do the trick. Camomile, lavender and passionflower are all proven aids to sleep, so get the kettle on a couple of hours before bed and share a herbal brew!

Have you thought about sleep sounds?

Soothing, calming sounds are capable of putting even the most restless child to sleep. Think about implementing sleep sounds through a specific sound machine. You can also opt to download a free sound app onto a smart device or playing free audio through a YouTube video. If you choose the latter, make sure the screen is face down so that the light doesn’t disturb your child’s sleep.

Sleepwalking

Sleepwalking is something that is massively misunderstood and if your child suffers from this condition, it is very important you make your home safe for them.

Make A Sleep Routine

Finally, a sleep routine is a safe natural remedy for bad sleep. Humans crave routine; even if your children don’t know it, they do. Set a sensible time to begin the bedtime routine and stick to it every night, even on weekends. Before you know it, it will just be a natural occurrence of an evening and they’ll want to do it because they’ll feel better for it each day.

It’s worth just giving your kids a little reminder around a quarter of an hour before the routine is about to start as this will give them time to prepare and finish whatever they are doing.

Be sure to plan in a trip to the loo before you send them to bed and think about reading them a story to settle them as they drift off to the Land of Nod.