[blindkid] Sleep pattern for blind 5 month old

[Robert Jaquiss]

Hello:

     I don't know if this helps, but my mother told me that when I was two,
I would happily get up in the middle of the night and play. I was totally
blind and it didn't matter if the lights were out.

Regards,

Robert


-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of DrV
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 9:16 PM
To: Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Sleep pattern for blind 5 month old

Hi Alicia,
As a general rule it's normal for a 6 month old to sleep roughly 12 hours
per night & take 2 one hour naps during the day. There is of course a wide
range. A 5 month old will likely sleep a bit more. The exact amount of sleep
probably isn't as important as the quality of how a child acts & engages
while awake.
I trained in General Pediatrics many many many moons ago at a great program.
Based on experience & our interactions with Pediatricians & Pediatric sub
specialists over the years, I think it is fair to say that most of them have
had little training in blindness/VI & most have a suboptimal functional
understanding of blindness & the true spectrum of how it may impact
developmental milestones. There are Developmental Pediatricians, even some
with experience in blindness, but they too may have misconceptions.
Developmental milestones the first year of life tend to focus on birth, 2m,
4m, 6m, 9m & 1yr. There is a lot of overlap & you need to extrapolate for a
5 m/o. Here are links to the CDC Developmental Milestones (
www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-4mo.html &
www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-6mo.html). These
milestones aren't written in stone & vary a bit from site to site & chart to
chart.
A good place to start is with your Pediatrician, though there is a decent
chance he/she won't really be experienced with blindness & the blindness may
throw them off, so make sure that what he/she says seems to make sense.
An early childhood interventionist should also know, but their experience
with totally blind children & judgment can also vary greatly.
Best wishes,
Eric V



On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 12:29 PM, Alicia Trust
<aliciatrust08 at gmail.com>wrote:

> All,
>
> We have a blind baby girl who is 5 months old now. I hate to seem like 
> I'm complaining, but she seems to be sleeping a lot. We don't want to 
> be missing signs of a problem. How much really is too much? I don't 
> remember our sighted daughter (now 4 years old) sleeping so much.
>
> Thanks,
> Alicia and Matt
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