Advice on 5 Month Old Sleep Crawler?

Hi S.,
I'm a chiropractor, and working on pediatric patients is a passion of mine. I have definitly seen this type of behavior in my patients. Shasha is may be going through a growth spurt, does she seem to eat more lately? Trying to walk definitly may be involved, allowing her to crawl during the day, if you can, would be very good for her.Did you have any complications during your pregnancy or during the birth (i.e Backlabor, c-section, difficulty, or even super fast or easy delivery)? If so, you might want to have her upper neck checked by a chiropractor specializing in pediatric. Often what happens is the upper neck vertebrae become rotated, better known as "subluxated",this often happens in-utero, and can affect the child's temperment as well as SLEEP patterns, even eating/digestion habits may be affected.

I know this was a lot of info at once, but many factors go into helping us grow up, figured i'd give you a few of them. Hope this helped. Have a fantastic and memorable time with your wonderful new friend!

my son did the same thing, when he started rolling over he kept us up all night for about a week showing us his new trick, once he found out he could also do it during the day he began sleeping again. His dr told us that if he rolls onto his stomach in his sleep thats OK, you can leave him there just continue putting him down on his back.

good luck this is just one of the many phases to come!

Dear S.,
I remember when my kids did such things as your little one. It turned out they were on the verge of the next physical stage. What I did was be sure my kids had plenty of crawling time during the day. My son crawled continuously all over teh house, perfecting his new skills for about two hours, then fell fast asleep for 3 hours, then ate like a horse! He was really happy with his new-found freedom, yet was calm and busy.

(Have you read the book Touchpoints by T. Barry Brazelton? In this book he talks about milestones in development. These are times when the child is about to have a growth spurt of some sort, whether physical, language, or cognitive. It also gives suggestions about how to support the child's development without going crazy as a parent. I found it very helpful during the first three years.)

My daughter is the same age and went through exactly the same thing. After some research I learned that all babies wake through the night. The ones that cry are the ones that can't sooth themselves back to sleep. My little one would roll over, get stuck and her cover would come off. Such a big change in comfort was frustrating when she woke her up. I realized the worst thing I could do was picking her up. It kept her from learning how to fall asleep on her own. So instead I did a couple other things. First, I put a little room heater in her nursery and set it on 75 degrees. I also got her some thick warm feety pajamas so she wouldn't need a blanket. I then put a night light in her room so when she woke it wasn't so scary being in the dark. I also got her a sound machine that makes rain noises. It really soothes her back to sleep great and it stays on all night. It was difficult to hear her cry, but if I gave at least 5-10 min she would fall asleep on her own. If all else fails and she didn't fall back asleep after a few min I would go in and pat her back (while she was on her tummy)until she fell back asleep. Now she will sleep on her tummy, side, back or where ever her movements take her. She also learned to roll back over both ways after a few days. If any of this works for you, let me know. I'm curious if any of my methods work for any one else. Well, good luck!

My daughter was the exact same sleeper. When she yells she is probably hitting her head in the crib and or she is uncomfortable. I did not worry about her sleeping on her belly by then. It is generally the first couple of months you have to worry about sids. My main concern was is she cold so i would wake up all the time to cover her. She hated the sleep sacks. Good luck.