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Tips on how to handle your child’s sleep when “Springing Forward” DST! ClockBaby

It’s that time again….

You finally have your child sleeping well on a great schedule (or maybe you don’t !) Now, this weekend ; March 10th to be exact we set our clocks forward. It’s bad enough that we lose an hour of sleep, and to make matters worse… it may mess up our kid’s schedule as well??

I am happy to be the bearer of great news.. if you survived “falling back” then “springing forward” will be a piece of cake!

This time change is the less “disruptive” of the two, and here are a few tips on how to deal with it in regards to your child’s sleep:

1. Sleep Environment: As the days will be getting longer and that sunshine will be beaming through those windows well past the “bedtime” hour, make sure that you keep your child’s sleep environment conducive to sleep. That means we want to make sure we are using our blackout blinds and ensuring that the room is super dark at that bedtime hour. You may want to start “darkening” the house an hour or so before bedtime so that your child has that visual cue that bedtime is approaching.
2. Schedule: Thankfully, it is not necessary to play around with your schedule too much with this one. If your child is an early riser (5:30-6:30am) then yippee! No more super early mornings for you !If your child is still on two naps a day, you can follow a “cold turkey” approach and just get them onto their usual nap schedule as per the new time. If your baby is very schedule sensitive, you can start by bringing that first nap back 30 minutes earlier (as per the new time) so that it is a more gradual transition that will regulate itself as their body adjusts to the new time.If your child is on one nap a day, you shouldn’t need to adjust anything, and follow the new clock right away.
3. Social cues: What is important is consistency in your everyday routines. These routines serve as strong cues to our children. Keeping the same order in your day to day routine such as playtime, mealtimes, bath times will all help ease into the new time change without any hiccups!

Lastly, be consistent and be patient. Within a few days, everyone in the house will be well adjusted and the worry about daylight savings time will be a distant memory.. until the fall that is …

Tracy Braunstein – certified infant and child sleep consultant contributed this article to twww.theparentingtoolbox.ca
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