In part two of our discussion on helping kids sleep through the night, pediatric sleep expert Dr. Craig Canapari and sleep consultant Arielle Greenleaf tackle night wakings and feedings. (You can find part 1 here, including a video of both episodes). They provide guidance on when night feeds may or may not be necessary, how to handle night nursing for comfort vs nutrition, and tips for transitioning toddlers away from nighttime calories.
Key Takeaways:
– Only a small percentage of sleep issues are caused by medical problems. Most kids need some type of sleep training or behavioral intervention.
– Check with your pediatrician before dropping night feeds – make sure your child is getting enough calories during the day first.
– Night nursing is about more than nutrition – it also provides comfort. Wean slowly if desired.
– Toddlers generally don’t need extra calories at night. But there is little guidance given on transitioning from milk feeds to solids at this age.
Notable Quotes:
“I always like to say I am not, if a sleep consultant starts working with someone and says, without any digging, we’re going to eliminate all feedings overnight really fast, we’re just gonna take ’em all away, run for your life.” – Arielle Greenleaf
“Honestly, a normally growing child over a year of age doesn’t really need those calories at night. And if you find that you are meaning to give milk or anything else during the night you, I give you permission to cut it out and you may want to wean it slowly.” – Dr. Craig Canapari
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Transcript
Copy of Audio sleep throught the night part 2
[00:00:00] Craig Canapari MD: Welcome to the Sleep Edit, a podcast devoted to helping tired kids and parents sleep better. We focus on actionable evidence-based sleep advice, so everyone in your home can sleep through the night. Now, a quick disclaimer, this podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice.
[00:00:27] No doctor patient relationship is formed. The use of this information and the materials linked to this podcast and any associated video content are at the user’s own risk. The content on the show is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical help for any medical condition they have.
[00:00:52] Or that their children may have, they should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions. Nothing stated here [00:01:00] reflects the views of our employers or the employees of our guests. Enjoy the show.
[00:01:09]
[00:01:09] Craig Canapari MD: Welcome back to the sleep edit. I’m Dr. Canapari. I’m a pediatric sleep expert and author. This is the second part of. The episode with never really Greenleaf, my friend, and the very wise sleep consultant. About the important topic of how to get your child to sleep through the night. The first episode, we discussed the definition of sleeping through the night and what you expect at different ages, sleep onset association disorder, which is the problem that we are generally trying to treat with any sort of behavioral sleep intervention. How having the wrong bedtime can wake your baby up during the night. And medical problems that wake your child up. During the night. So, if you haven’t heard that episode yet, I suggest you go back and listen to that, one first, before continuing with this episode.[00:02:00]
[00:02:03] Arielle Greenleaf: Well, Craig, I have a question for you. What percentage of children have actual medical problems, and then what percentage of normally developing healthy children have need some sort of a behavioral intervention
[00:02:25] Craig Canapari MD: The first one was what percentage of children presenting have actual medical problems? And it’s a really good question, right? Because I could tell you like 1- 3% of children will have sleep apnea, right?
[00:02:38] If they’re obese and they snore, it’s closer to 50%. All comers like presenting to the sleep lab, I’m not sure if anyone has those numbers. But what we see in the, in sleep world is a lot of these problems are multifactorial. And that’s just a fancy way of saying there’s actually more than one cause.
[00:02:54] In medicine we love Occam’s Razor. We’re like, it’s the most which is just stating that simplest single [00:03:00] explanation is the cause of what’s going on. Butnever reallyally as one of my mentors used to say, the patient can have as many problems as they damn well please. So don’t get hung up on that.
[00:03:10] There has to be just one explanation though often, usually there is most children are pretty healthy and, sorry, what was the second part of your
[00:03:17] Arielle Greenleaf: I guess the second part of my question is. There’s there, having been in this industry for almost a decade and seeing such a rise in the industry and a need for sleep support, behavioral, non-medical, I’m wondering what percentage of the average developing child in the United States needs some sort of what, or maybe it’s the parents, maybe the question is, do you think it would be beneficial for parents to have more of an understanding of how to handle sleep to avoid things spiraling out of control?
[00:03:59] [00:04:00] Because I feel like there’s a surge in the need for behavioral sleep specialists like myself.
[00:04:08] I would agree, and there’s a lot of different studies that have looked at this but I’ve seen anywhere between 20 and 50% of parents being concerned enough to tal...
