Why do children develop sleep problems?

Why do children develop sleep problems?

Gary Feldman (Medical Director, Stramski Disorders Center, Miller Children's Hospital ) gives expert video advice on: Why won't my child fall asleep at bedtime?; What are the effects of parental sleep loss?; What is the best way for a parent to cope with sleep loss? and more...

When we wake up naturally in the middle of the night, for most of us, as adults we may roll over, we may move the pillow, we may do something, again, we may, kind of, recreate the habit that we had when we went to sleep initially, and we put ourselves back to sleep. Now, for a child, if their sleep habit is, say, drinking a bottle or nursing or having the TV on, and they wake up naturally, which can happen multiple times a night, they wake up and they see that Mommy's not with them anymore, or where is the bottle that they were used to? They actually cannot put themselves back to sleep without having those additional sleep associations. And, so that's when it can become a problem – because a natural waking up at night, the child is unable to put themselves back to sleep because they don't have all those peripheral, habitual things that they're used to.