My son, who is almost 2 years old, currently has a cold. No fever (yet) - but coughing, yucky nose, the basics. Anyway, any time he has a cold, his sleep completely goes down the drain. He is typically an excellent sleeper (goes down on his own, sleeps all night with very rare awakenings, long/consolidated sleep, etc.) but during even a mild cold he wakes very often crying hysterically and is very difficult to sooth. It's sort of only a half-awake type thing but he just screams his little head off :( which of course makes coughing worse. Sometimes, because he's only half awake I think, I have to leave him to get him to settle down. It's very sad and he sleeps very little, waking every hour many times.
Just wondering others' experiences and HOW MUCH does a cold mess with your toddler's sleep? Should it be this disruptive?
along with the humidifier and saline drops/spray in the nose, I love Breathe-Right nasal strips for kids. Made a world a difference in how my kids sleep when they have a cold. And they think they're fun to wear.
Yep. Sounds pretty typical to me.
Bring him in the bathroom while a steaming hot shower is running before bed. This will help. Get jammies on, brush teeth, read books, etc to keep him busy. The steam is good to breathe in.
Use a humidifier in his room and keep the door closed to keep in moisture.
Clean out his nose before bed. Have him blow it if he can...or use the booger sucker. (Interesting note- Crying while using booger sucker (aka nasal aspirator) is actually helpful! Tears run into nose thru tear ducts and help moisturize/loosen mucus.)
Our dr said a small pillow at this age (our DS is 22mo) can help to elevate head and relieve a little stuffiness.
Low-key activities during the day and more rest time/downtime since he will be tired...and even if you do everything you can, he still won't sleep as well as normal.
Good luck! This too shall pass. Hang in there!
Oh, yes, my son is the same way. When he was younger, I would sometimes sleep in a recliner or on the couch and hold him propped up in my arms to make it easier for him to breathe. Now that he is 5, I'll use 3 or 4 pillows to elevate him. It's miserable!
Sounds like he needs to sleep with his head elevated. Maybe he gets earaches with his colds which hurt more when lying down.
Thats normal! I mean if you think about it, who's sleep DOESN'T get disrupted when you have a cold? Especially for little ones because their noses are so small.
My son is currently getting over a sinus infection and an ear infection. We are using a humidifier with Vicks in it, and lots of Little Cold's Chest rub, Tylenol for fever, and we elevated his crib mattress with a pillow under it.
After his nightly warm bath I sucked his nose really well, and put in saline drops this helped dry his nose.
All this has really helped our guy. He still wakes up but not as much.
I hope your son gets better soon!
I don't know if it's "normal" but this was definitely my experience. My guy just turned four and has always been a great sleeper - except when he was sick. When he was your son's age and got a cold, it was so miserable. The good news is that as he's gotten older, he understands so much more about what's happening and knows it's not going to last forever. I think when they're toddlers, it's just so much harder because they don't know what's going on and they don't know why mommy and daddy can't just fix it.
We usually ended up doing whatever seemed to help at the moment - let him sleep in our bed or took turns in his room or just sat up and held him sitting up so he could breathe. We used to dread the sniffles because we knew it meant a week of not sleeping followed by another difficult week of dealing with a sleep-deprived toddler and getting him back to being well-rested. It really does get better, though, I promise! Hang in there.
