Tips for surviving the night with sick kids

12 Comments

It’s that time of year – sickness seems to be lurking around every corner, luring your kids to catch it! I’ve got a miserable 14 month old in the house at the moment who has a bad cold. It’s hard when they’re little and can’t blow their nose, or explain what hurts, so if you have a child who’s anything like mine, then they just tend to cry and whine all day. So by night time, Mum is pretty worn out!

I don’t deal well with disturbed sleep, so last night as we were preparing the kids for bed, I decided to do a few things to make attending to my sick child in the middle of the night a little easier. I thought I’d share my ideas as I’m sure other parents will be in the same boat over the coming months!

– Measure out any medicine they might need in the middle of the night, and have it on hand just in case (particularly if they wake with a fever, which mine did). It saves hunting around for those little syringes in the dark and measuring out the right dose while you’re half asleep. If you don’t need it, it can always be syringed back into the bottle in the morning.

– If you’re expecting that your child might have a particularly restless night (ie. you’ll spend more time out of bed than in), then pop a mattress on the floor next to their cot/bed. That way, if you have to get up a few times, you can just sleep on the floor in their room. I find that I get less cranky if I don’t have to keep getting out of bed, and I can just pop my hand through the bars of the cot and give my bub a pat and shush back to sleep.

– Have a few old towels or cloth nappies at the ready, just in case you have to deal with vomit in the night. It makes for easy clean up, and again, you don’t have to wake the whole house while you hunt for something to use to clean up the mess.

– Double-sheet the bed. I did this in the early days of overnight toilet training, but it’s also useful when they’re sick, just in case you need to change sheets in the night. Basically you make the bed: waterproof mattress protector/sheet/waterproof mattress protector/sheet. So if you need to change the sheets, you can just pull the top two layers off, and you’ll already have a fresh sheet underneath. Most of the time the top sheet misses the action, but maybe have a spare top sheet and blanket handy just in case.

– During those messier illnesses, even having a spare pair of pj’s handy for yourself and the kids is a good idea. I don’t know how many times I’ve caught a feed down my cleavage in the middle of the night!

What are you top tips for surviving the night with sick kids?

Posted by Schmoofie1983, 16th June 2015

12 Comments

- - mom152736 said
  - 01 Sep 2015
    10:05 am
I think i’ll need all this when my LO starts teething in another month or so

- - maryphilip said
  - 29 Jun 2015
    4:57 pm
My 10 months old is currently down with really bad cold, she even lost her voice. poor bubba. I love your tips; I already do the Double sheeting the bed.

- - lepumpkinhead said
  - 18 Jun 2015
    11:40 pm
Great tips, haven’t had many sick nights with my nine year old daughter but my son catches everything under the sun. Going to use these especially the pre measured medicine idea!!

- - mom56312 said
  - 17 Jun 2015
    1:42 pm
I do agree with the double sheeting the beds it so easy just to whip one layer and the under blanket procetor off the bed. I have teo boys that share the same room so when one is sick like that we do swap beds and i stay with the sick kid while the other gets a good nights rest in my bed with daddy. It saves waking up the other child to change the sheets as well as hopefully stops that other chid form picking up the sick bug.
I also leave a litle sick bucket next to their bed and a drink botte full off water next to the bed.
When a childs sick I also get the kid up in the middle of the night as i have found they need to go to the loo more often. I usually carry them to the toilet tell them to go while they are still sleepy and put them back to bed. They fall bak to sleep like it never happened.
- mom94125 replied
  
  17 Jun 2015 , 10:14 pm
  yes this method is great for newborns and diaper leaks
- - EllenG89 said
  - 17 Jun 2015
    6:52 am
What excellent advice! Such a good idea to be prepared

- - mum4107 said
  - 16 Jun 2015
    9:02 pm
Great tips.
I also write down what time they might be due for nurofen or panadol do I don’t have to try and think in the night I just look at the clock and my paper
- Schmoofie1983 replied
  
  17 Jun 2015 , 8:53 pm
  Great idea! That can definitely be a bit of a guessing game in the middle of the night!
- - mom94125 said
  - 16 Jun 2015
    8:09 pm
that is a great ti about pre-measuring the medicine

- - mom57522 said
  - 16 Jun 2015
    8:04 pm
Already big fan of towels and double sheets!

- - Kell said
  - 16 Jun 2015
    7:53 pm
I hope I don’t need this anytime soon

- - BellaB said
  - 16 Jun 2015
    4:58 pm
Double sheeting the bed is one of my lifesavers too.