Somnipathy in children

This dissertation deals with night insomnia in children. With the growing number of complaints of parents about insomnia in particular in infants and toddlers, this problem becomes very topical and frequently discussed not only among parents themselves but also among the medical workers involved in the child care. No unambiguous cause of why some children sleep well and other children do not has been yet proven. However, experts dealing with these problems present an opinion in the literature that the main cause lies in the incorrect approach of parents to creating sleep habits in their children. They supplement their opinion by a set of recommendations how to avoid or possibly solve the problems by applying the appropriate approach. Our dissertation thus aims at ascertaining how parents' approach affects creating of incorrect sleep habits in infants and toddlers. The other objective consisted in subsequent drawing up of the nursing diagnosis and nursing care plan by means of which the nurses could independently solve the problems related to insomnia in children. A qualitative research based on the contingent valuation method has been carried out. The methods of data collection included the structured interview performed with two small sets of mothers of children. The first set comprised mothers of children with no sleep problems and the second set was composed of mother of children suffering from sleep problems. The prepared questions related in particular to children's sleep habits. Both sets were compared and the data were also subject to the Fisher's exact test. Although it was not possible to prove that inappropriate approach of parents to creating sleep habits in children is the unambiguous cause of the children's sleep problems, we believe that such inappropriate approach is a related factor. This assumption is supported also by the result of the other part of the research, a non-structured interview. This interview from which casuistry was subsequently created was performed by one of the mothers whose child had suffered from sleep problems. The said mother was willing to try to implement the recommended measures and she subsequently described to us how her son's sleep problems attenuated significantly. On the basis of our hypothesis that creation of correct sleep habits might help children suffering from insomnia, despite the fact that no direct relation between the sleep habits of children and their sleep problems has been proven, as the output of this dissertation we have drawn up the above mentioned nursing diagnosis and nursing care plan which could help the nurses independently solve the children's sleep problems. We also believe that it would be appropriate to carry out research in the future dealing with direct evaluation of success or failure of the recommended measures in solving insomnia in infants and toddlers