Sleep Deprivation in Children

People usually sleep deprivation only occur on adult, where the sufferers have to work in shifts or seasoned jobs. However,sleep deprivation in children happens too and the effects of this kind of sleep problem are really devastating. In this post, you will find out what are the effects of sleep deprivation in children and what can you do to deal with this problem.

Effects of sleep deprivation in children

ment_316″>Sleep Deprivation Can Ruin The Kid’s Studying Ability

The first noticeable effect of sleep deprivation in children is the reduction in studying results. You may receive bad reports from school. It is quite hard to notice if the kids are in 1st or 2nd grades because at this time, the work load is not a lot so kids with sleep deprivation in children can handle quite well. However, at higher grades, when they need to use a lot of brain power and concentration, the effects of sleep deprivation can be significant.
Lack of sleep impairs the brain ability to make decision, focus and analyze. This doesn’t happen only in kids but also in adult. The kids will also find it hard to control the feeling and they usually have unreasonable angers.

Sleep deprivation in children

There are a lot of reasons for a child to stay late. If he/she hasn’t gone to school yet, a comic book, video games or TV can keep them stay late. When the kids go to school, the amount of homework can be the reason forces them to stay late. Whichever the reason, they all cause sleep deprivation in children. If you have a sleepless night, you will know how badly you feel in the next day, so do the kids.

How to deal with sleep deprivation in children

While the effects of sleep deprivation in children can be very devastating, you will be happy to know that it is not too hard to manage this situation.
It is very important to have a sleep schedule for the kids to follow. You must know that young children need more sleep than adult so be sure to arrange time for them to sleep enough the amount required at their age. It is very important to be strict when the kids begging for “a little more” or “just one hour” to stay late.
If you found out a sleep deprivation in children because of the big workload, it is very important to teach them how to manage the works so they will have time to sleep enough. If your children have already had a lot of work at school to do, don’t add to many tasks for them. A child with enough sleep will perform way better than ones who don’t have adequate rest daily.
Sleep deprivation in children is subjective problem. With that said, you can totally manage it if you have a good schedule to manage your work and good discipline to follow the sleeping routine when there are a lot interesting things to do. As the senior, you should help the kids manage their work and remind them to go to bed at the right time.

Children and sweets: are they harmful?

Carbohydrates are not only sugar…

Sugar plays an important role in children’s food. After all it is a known source of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are a group of food substances in which they allocate simple carbohydrates and compound carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates (glucose, fructose, maltose, sucrose) are mainly sweet substances which we receive from fruits, honey, sweets. Compound carbohydrates — mainly unsweetened substances arriving to us with vegetables, porridges, bread. Getting to an organism, they are split under the influence of a saliva in a mouth and stomach, and definitively processed and soaked up in small intestines.
So-called indigestible compound carbohydrates (food fibres) are not acquired. They promote normal work of intestines, help deducing cholesterol, heavy metals and alien substances possessing ability to cause oncological diseases.
Sources of food fibres in food for children younger age (till 3 years) are fruits, vegetables, groats, and after 3-4 years bread of a rough grinding (with bran) is added to them. The End-product of carbohydrates splitting is glucose, widely known for everyone. In the pure state it is contained in fruits, and the sweeter fruit is, the more glucose it contains. Glucose is a universal energy source and one of appetite stimulators. At decrease of its level in blood a feeling of hunger appears. There are three basic directions of glucose use in an organism:
1.               It is a “fuel” for work of all organs.
2.               It is put by in liver cells and muscles.
3.               It turns to fat when the quantity of its receipt is superfluous.
Carbohydrates are necessary to a child not only as suppliers of energy, but also as sources of vitamins (vitamin C, beta carotin, folic acid), some mineral salts (potassium, iron), food fibres (which have preventive effect against constipations in children), organic acids improving the process of digestion. A preschool child should receive 300 g vegetables and 150 g fruits per day.
Sugar does not carry food value in itself, having thus high caloric content. The share of carbohydrates in a food allowance of children substantially depends on age. At children of the first year of life their maintenance makes 40 percent. And after a year increases to 60 percent, of which no more than 10 percent makes sugar, including sugar containing in confectionery products.
When and how should you give delicacies?
Love for sweets is put in a child at genetic level. The first food in a baby’s life is breast milk, which is sweet due to milk sugar — lactose. At artificial feeding a child receives lactose and maltose with formula. Feeding up introduction expands assortment of carbohydrates sources — fruit and vegetable juice, mashed potatoes, porridges, which completely cover requirements of a children’s organism for carbohydrates. As a rule, they do not contain some table sugar — sucrose, and desire of some parents to sweeten this or that dish to the taste that a child would eat more, is absolutely inadmissible. Such behaviour of adults can lead to a distortion of flavouring sensations in a child, refusal of unsweetened dishes and as consequence — overeating, overweight.
After 1 year parents can enter a small amount of table sugar, and also sweets in allowance. For children from 1 year till 3 years the quantity of sugar makes 40 g a day, from 3 till 6 years — 50 g. You can start acquaintance to sweets with various mousses, cooked on a berry-fruit basis (from fresh and frozen berries and fruits). Then it is possible to try zephyr, fruit candy, and also various kinds of jams.
From 3-4 years (not earlier) it is possible to offer a grown up kid pies and cakes, which do not contain creams on a fatty basis, and low-fat grades of ice-cream. Quantity of sweets is regulated: from 1 year till 3 years — 10 g a  day, and from 3 till 6 years — 15 g.  Their use should not have a character of encouragement for a child and, of course, you should give them after a basic food intake or for a mid-morning snack.
Before 4-year age it is impossible to give children caramel and sugar candies, as there is a risk to choke. As to chocolate and cocoa, and also marshmallow in chocolate and so on, before three-year age it is better for a child not to face them . Chocolate contains a lot of fat and creates loading for stomach fermentative system and pancreas. At all it is not recommended to use it small аллергикам and to children with the changed functions of a pancreas. If there are no contra-indications since three years it is possible to give a little white and a milk chocolate, and from 5-6 years — its other kinds.

Apian delicacy
Let’s speak about honey. It possesses not only high nutritional value ( at the expense of easily acquired sugars — glucose and fructose, its caloric content reaches 335 kcal/100g), but also curative properties. Flower honey influences digestive organs favorably, improving secretory and impellent activity of a stomach and other bodies, stimulates appetite and renders some relaxative action on a digestive tract.
Besides, honey possesses antimicrobic properties concerning a number of the bacteria causing infringement of intestinal microflora, raises stability of an organism to some viruses, renders anti-inflammatory and expectorant effect at diseases of respiratory ways.
However, honey use in a food of preschool children is limited by its high allergenicity. Till 3 years the honey use as an independent product is inexpedient. It can enter into various products of a children’s food of industrial production (porridges or cookies), but its quantity there is insignificant. After 3 years it is possible to enter honey into a food of children, but occasionally, no more than 1-2 teaspoons, adding it in some dishes, as a delicacy. If a child suffers an allergy, it is possible to use a natural delicacy only after additional consultation of the attending physician.
Bitter consequences of a sweet life
Treating a child with various sweets, it is necessary to remember that their superfluous consumption can lead to a number of diseases. For example, to caries — progressing destruction of firm fabrics of a tooth with formation of defect in the form of a cavity. Scientists proved that sucrose possesses the expressed ability to cause this illness. Low frequency of caries at children is observed in that case when the sugar consumption level makes nearby 30 g per day, what approximately corresponds to physiological norm of its consumption.
Another problem is adiposity caused by superfluous food intake in comparison with level of power expenditure, so-called alimentary adiposity. Thus a child’s body weight exceeds normal values for the given age on 20 percents and more. Such children have functional changes of the central nervous system, endocrine glands, immunity decreases, risk of development of a diabetes and cardiovascular diseases raises. There are also psychological consequences of adiposity: it often reduces a child’s self-estimation, leads to depression.
How to live without sugar?
The problem of obesity and diabetes forced scientists to be engaged in a search of sweet substances which could replace sugar and possess low caloric content or a total absence of calories. Such substances are divided in sugar substitutes (fructose, xylitol, sorbite) and intensive sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame, cyclamate, sucralose, acesulfame).
Sugar substitutes:
·    Fructose — natural fruit sugar. It is 1,7 times sweeter than usual sugar. On caloric content it is comparable to it, however owing to the fact that fructose is sweeter, quantity of its use is lower. Besides , it is acquired by cells, without demanding an insulin hormone and consequently is used in dietary food, including food for sick with diabetes.
·     Sorbite. It is contained in apples, pears, peaches. Can cause abdominal distension and diarrhoeia, what interferes with its wide use in food.
·      Ksilit (Е 967). It is applied as sweetener in a chewing gum.
Intensive sweeteners — substances of not sugar nature. As for sweet, they exceed sugar in some hundreds times. Thus have zero caloric content. This is especially favourable in drink manufacture.
ООН incorporated committee recommends their safe daily doses, depending on nature of intensive sweeteners:
·   Aspartam — 40mg/kg.
·   Saccharin — 5 mg/kg.
·   Tsiklamaty — 11 mg/kg.
·   Sukraloza — 18 mg/kg.
·   Atsesulfam To — 8 mg/kg.
As for intensive sweeteners, despite of recommended safe norms of their consumption, a child under 7 years should better avoid products which structure includes them. Especially this concerns aerated drinks. Naturally, parents do not accustom their children to sweets meaningly. Irrational nutrition starts with attempts to solve a small appetite problem. Children, unlike adults, have no a habit to eat regularly. Their appetite can differ every day. This distinction can be connected with physical activity.
Pediatrists consider that there is no necessity to persuade or force child to eat. There are no voluntary starving children. However, it is not necessary to give in to a myth that a child himself chooses the food necessary for him instinctively. Parents can (and should!) generate their love to a correct diet in the early childhood. A kid needs to impart taste to vegetables, fruits, soups and porridges. And finally, it is impossible to follow a chuld’s tastes, offering him sweets and confectionery products, if he refuses meal.

How Much Sleep Do Children Need?

Are your kids ready for school? You have bought the clothes, supplies and stocked the pantry. But, what about what happens the night before? Sleep is just as integral to a great day as the other items listed above.

The Importance of Sleep
Many people think of sleep as an interruption in their day. However, sleep is actually much more important than that. Here are some facts about sleep.
During sleep the body repairs itself. Each day’s activities place wear and tear on the body, whether we know it or not. You don’t have to show bumps and bruises to affect changes inside the body.
At night, the body shuts down all non-vital systems so it can get to work. Damage to cells and organs are attended to during the sleep cycle. Different brain chemicals are secreted to ensure that you get to sleep and stay that way.
The average person needs about eight hours of sleep each night. For children, teens and older people this number can vary depending on age, but most aren’t even getting the minimum requirement.
Without enough sleep, the body begins to show visible signs of wear. Your brain can’t focus and concentration at work and at school becomes an issue.
The immune system can become compromised. Lack of proper time to repair can lead to increased illness and stress-related problems.

With all of that said, how much sleep does your child need?
Preschoolers
Preschool age children are attending an educational setting at least half a day. With the increased activity, they may need longer periods of rest. In this age group, 10 to 12 hours a night is recommended. Since this is almost half the day, they may not need to take a nap in the middle of the day.
Young School-Age Children
Attending school for a full day can be a shock to their system. Your child may come home tired and sleepy after their first few full days of class. At this age, children require about the same amount of sleep as when they were preschoolers.
A nap time is built into many school schedules. You can compensate by lowering their nightly sleep regimen by an hour or so. The nap can leave them ready for activity when they come home. This period of time is important as it lets them wind down from school before bedtime.
Teens
Teenagers still need at least eight to nine hours of sleep a night. Often, activities keep them from achieving this on a regular basis, but it is a must. Trying to catch up on sleep on the weekend never works and can leave a permanent deficit that affects their waking activities.
For all school-age children, set a regular bedtime and try to stick to it. This will ensure that enough sleep is received to promote health, concentration and a positive mood.