Baby sleep and sickness... nothing can mess up a good sleep routine like a sick child! And boy do kids get sick a lot. I remember, before I had kids, how I would brag about never getting sick. Now my kids (and myself) wind up sick multiple times each winter! Getting sick is also a common set back for sleep so I want to help you so you know the best way to handle a sick child and the best way to get on track afterwards, if needed.

First order of business, when you suspect that your child might be sick, is to discern what level of sickness you are dealing with

Are you dealing with some sniffles and a cough? Fever? Ear infection? Stomach bug? I want you to discern the severity of the symptoms so that you can treat and comfort with the same intensity. The truth is, if your child simply has a cold and sniffles but is fine otherwise, you probably don’t want to do much intervening.

I don’t know about your kids, but mine seem to have stuffy noses for most of the winter months and if I introduced unhelpful habits each time that happened, we’d never make any headway with sleep!

I’m also trusting you to use your parental judgment. Please keep in mind that this is simply a blog post written to a general audience. YOU are the parent and YOU know when something doesn’t seem right. Always trust that judgement and act accordingly when dealing with sick littles.

Once you’ve decided how severe your child’s sickness is, obviously we want to treat it and help them feel better

See your doctor and/or administer your pediatrician’s dosage of medicine when applicable. Keep the fluids coming. Get your child plenty of rest to recover.

Next, decide if your help to fall asleep is needed and necessary

If your child has been sleep trained for a while, it is very possible that they just won’t nap or sleep well within your arms. And that’s okay. My two were always like that. Since we had set up healthy sleep habits from the beginning, they’ve almost always slept alone and fallen asleep alone, even when sick. I knew they would get better rest that way and it just wasn’t an issue. If that’s you, go with it!

If you’re on the other end of the spectrum and your child is sick and struggling to fall asleep without your help or presence, that’s okay too.  Go ahead and offer support and comfort to them when they need it. Remember, sleep is really important for their bodies as they recover.

But I do encourage you to be curious about how much help they actually need from you. Can they fall asleep with your hand just resting on their tummy? Do they need the whole rock/bounce/shushing charade just to fall asleep? Always be curious.

Also be mindful. If nursing was a previous sleep crutch for them and you’d really rather not go back down that road, then don’t offer nursing as a way to put them to sleep. Comfort them? Yes, of course. Pick them up? Sure, if it helps! But maybe you decide that offering nursing to sleep is just going to add more heartache on the other side of this sickness.

Or maybe that pacifier used to be a culprit of short naps and night wakings but you ditched it a while back and have never been happier! Avoid adding that back in now. Find a different way to comfort if you can.

Another good example of being mindful is to avoid bringing your child into your bed during times of sickness. Maybe you’d like to remain close to your child while they are sick? That’s okay. Instead of pulling them out of their sleep space and into yours, take a mattress or sleeping bag and join them in their room. That way they can continue using their usual sleep space and that’s one less thing you have to backtrack on later!

One final suggestion during times of sickness

Like I mentioned above, sleep is vital for recovery during times of sickness. And it’s likely that your baby will sleep more than normal when they are sick. It’s okay to let them sleep a bit longer than they normally would.

Typically I suggest cutting naps off at the 2 hour mark for good sleep hygiene, but in the case of sickness, I say it’s okay to let them go past that mark. I would consider waking them if they get closer to 3 hours of napping. 

Remember, fluids and nutrition are important too and we don’t want them to miss out on that during the day. It’s also important to remember that while naps are essential for babies and young children, night sleep is king. It’s the most restorative sleep they can get.

So if they’ve napped all day long and then stay up extra late at night, we’ve replaced their restorative night sleep with less restorative day sleep and that’s not an ideal trade off. 

Let’s jump ahead now and talk about once your child is feeling better

Maybe you fell into some unhelpful habits while they were sick. First, I want you to repeat after me: “It’s okay to comfort and help my child when they are sick. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Ok, now that we are on the same page, you will probably need to do some retraining to get back on track with sleep. The good news is that it will go a lot quicker than it did the first time you sleep trained. Here are some of my guidelines for retraining:

1. Make sure your child is back to their usual self. They are no longer sick. They are no longer uncomfortable.

2. Grab a sleep coaching method. This may be the one you previously used or you may decide to try a different method instead.

3. Be mindful that your child is older and more capable than they were the last time you sleep trained. This means they may do better with less intervention or a more hands-off approach. Remember, you aren’t re-teaching them how to sleep, rather you are re-setting the expectations around sleep.

4. You’re probably looking at 2-4 nights of consistency on your end before they are back to their usual self!

Hope this was helpful and don’t forget, for children who are independent sleepers already, I offer troubleshooting calls so that you don’t have to go through this alone!