My baby doesn't sleep ...... Is it an infant sleep disorder ?

Many infants struggle to sleep through the night, but if your baby is like this, you should not automatically jump to the conclusion that it is due to an infant sleep disorder.

Without a doubt, there are symptoms for infant sleep disorders that you need to be aware of and look out for, but very very frequently, the reason for an infant sleep problem is not an actual sleep disorder but simply that the child hasn't learnt to sleep properly!

In other words, your infant has either been taught bad sleeping habits which now need to be corrected or simply needs to be taught how to get to sleep him or herself without constant rocking, feeding or other intervention from you or your partner.

As an example of this, some parents may feel their child has an infant sleep disorder if he or she constantly wakes during the night and cannot get to sleep unless being rocked by one or the other parent.

Another example is when a baby always requires breast feeding before he or she will go to sleep and will scream and scream until the feed is forthcoming.

In fact, both of the above are examples of poor infant sleep habits and not specific sleep disorders. The poor habits are often inadvertantly taught to the baby during the first weeks of its life by parents who are simply being attentive to their newborn child.  However, as children very quickly learn what they like, and what they have to do to get it, habits such as these are very easily formed.

Infant sleep issues such as these can though be solved quite easily with the use of simple sleep training techniques and without a need for medical intervention.

Of course, if you feel that your infant could be suffering from infant sleep apnea, narcolepsy or some other medical problem then please ensure that you visit your doctor or healthcare professional as soon as is possible.  If you ever have any doubt, that should always be your first port of call as your infant's health is of upmost importance.

To learn a quick and easy way to correct bad infant sleep habits, take a look at The Baby Sleep Solution.