This is an automatically translated article.
4-year-old children have trouble sleeping can stem from many reasons such as changes in sleep, not used to sleeping away from their mother or due to a lack of necessary nutrients. Difficulty sleeping due to micronutrient deficiency will affect the comprehensive development of children, so parents need to find a way to overcome it quickly and effectively.
1. Reasons why 4-year-olds have trouble sleeping
The cause of 4-year-old children having difficulty sleeping due to lack of nutrients is because:
When children are not provided with adequate calcium according to the recommended needs, children may experience problems related to the musculoskeletal system, that makes it easy for children to have muscle and joint pain, toss and toss and toss and turn, to have trouble falling asleep, and even when sleeping, they don't sleep deeply and are often startled. 4-year-old children who have difficulty sleeping due to calcium deficiency often have signs such as hair loss, rickets, cramps, difficulty falling asleep and not sleeping deeply. To improve children's calcium needs, parents can add some calcium-rich foods to their children's diets such as yogurt, soy, cheese or calcium-rich milk, shrimp, crabs, etc. Magnesium deficiency: This trace element will help children maintain the activities of the organs in the body. Moreover, this substance also plays an important role in perfecting brain function, ensuring a healthy cardiovascular system. Helps to relax the body and mind, making it easier to fall asleep as well as have a deeper sleep. Not only that, magnesium is also involved in the process of increasing GABA levels - a chemical neurotransmitter in the brain. So when a 4-year-old child sleeps less, he can immediately think of a magnesium deficiency for the child. Possible signs of this deficiency include being bored, lazy to play, lethargic, having eyelid twitching or cramping, sometimes even having an irregular heartbeat or having a problem. skin diseases... To help children get enough magnesium according to their recommended needs, parents can choose some foods rich in this nutrient such as spinach, nuts, cereals, meat, fish, milk and food products made from milk. Protein is made up of amino acids and is also the basic building block of cells in the body. Two food sources of protein are quite rich: animals and plants. In particular, protein derived from animals often contains all the amino acids needed by the body and is easier to absorb. These amino acids play a major role in the formation of chemical neurotransmitters in the brain such as GABA, endorphins, serotonin ... to make the mind feel refreshed, comfortable and help children have a deeper sleep. When a child lacks protein, he or she may find that the child often has difficulty sleeping, or wakes up startled, has poor concentration, slow reactions, constant cravings, muscle aches, etc. Parents can choose from a variety of foods. rich in protein to provide children's meals such as oats, broccoli, almonds, eggs, beef, chicken, milk... Fat: Many parents often ignore this group of nutrients without know that it helps children's neurons to be formed and develop optimally. Moreover, fat also plays a major role in absorbing fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K.... Fat also contains many valuable nutrients such as DHA, EPA, ARA. , ... is very necessary for the brain development of children . When children lack fat, it can make them feel tired, uncomfortable, and difficult to fall asleep. Parents can add fat to their children's meals through foods such as fatty meats, salmon, fish oil, marine animal fats, or unsaturated fats from milk, cheese, vegetable oils , butter, milk, eggs, nuts... Vitamin D: When children lack vitamin D, they will often not sleep deeply or startle, teething slowly and may lose hair... Vitamin D also has a function. important in calcium absorption. To improve vitamin D deficiency in children, it can be supplemented by early sunbathing or adding vitamin D to the diet from foods, including fish, milk, egg yolks.... Iron: Iron deficiency will cause brain problems for 4-year-old children such as signs of anxiety, fear, cognitive decline, fatigue and insomnia. In addition, there are also manifestations of pale skin, poor concentration, weight loss, digestive disorders... Zinc: This micronutrient has many effects in ensuring the body's metabolism. , helps to grow and restore good cells, improve the immune system. Besides, if the child lacks zinc, it can make the child's sleep poor quality, or cry at night.
Trẻ 4 tuổi khó ngủ cũng có thể do sự thiếu hụt magie
2. Sleep time of 4 year olds
At different ages, children's sleep time will be different. A 4-year-old child needs about 10 to 12 hours of sleep a day. In addition to ensuring a sufficient amount of sleep time for children, parents need to pay attention to children's need to go to bed on time, especially sleep at night. Parents should not let children stay up too late, because it will cause growth hormone to be unable to be secreted, causing growth retardation in children. This hormone is most often secreted between 11 and 12 o'clock at night when children are fast asleep.
Besides, the child's time to get up the next day too late also affects breakfast, sunbathing time or being late for daily activities such as going to school.
Khi trẻ 4 tuổi khó ngủ, cha mẹ nên xây dựng cho trẻ một chế độ dinh dưỡng cân bằng và hợp lý
3. Measures to help 4-year-olds sleep better
According to the recommendations of nutritionists, children at this age are very anorexic and prefer to drink milk instead of rice. This will cause children to be nutritionally deficient, affecting the quality of sleep of 4-year-old children.
To help children have a guaranteed sleep in both quantity and quality, parents should build a balanced and reasonable nutrition for children. Milk can provide children with nutrients, but will not be able to get the nutrients they need at this age. Therefore, parents should provide more nutritious foods in addition to milk, including: Calcium, magnesium, fat, zinc, vitamins, protein... In case the child is lazy to eat, parents should divide the meals. children eat during the day to provide adequate amounts of food as well as nutritional needs as recommended.
Parents should create a reasonable sleep schedule for their children, make it a habit for them to have a fixed bedtime and at that time the child will fall asleep on his own. Moreover, parents should also adjust and avoid the fact that children sleeping a lot during the day will affect sleep at night.
Building a cool, quiet sleeping space for children will help them fall asleep easily. Turn off all electronic devices such as TVs, computers, and phones 2 hours before bedtime to help children sleep more deeply.
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