Top Tips for Getting Baby Through Daylight Saving Time

03/09/2017

Daylight Savings time is right around the corner – on Sunday March 12, you need to move your clocks forward one hour.  While this makes it easier getting up and at it in the morning after a long dark winter, it means that you are losing an hour.  If you have little ones, this can be challenging on your families sleep routines and your kids might continue waking earlier than normal.

A few tricks our family has are slowing moving up meal and nap times in the few days leading up to the time change.  It is easier for a child to adjust to the hour forward if they are well rested, so try to stick to the regular bedtime and nap time sleep duration’s that they are accustomed to.

Kim West known as “The Sleep Lady”, has some great tips for transitioning your children to the new time on Sunday:

• Slowly Shift Bedtime

In the days leading up to Daylight Saving Time, slowly shifting bedtime in 10 to 15 minute increments until baby is sleeping at their new time. This allows for your child to slowly adjust without making any sudden changes.

• Eliminate Unnecessary Disruptions With The Right Overnight Diaper

Baby spends between 12 to 16 hours of each day asleep, and moisture or temperature change cause disruptions if baby is not wearing the right diaper. In fact, according to P&G, 35 percent of babies wet their diaper before they fall asleep. Babies pee on average 3-4 times per diaper at night and diapers need to be able to handle overnight wetness. Pampers’ diapers feature 12-hours of overnight dryness to keep baby dry, and asleep, no matter the time difference.

• Dramatic Wake Up

For parents whose children are early risers due to the time change, try the “Dramatic Wake Up” – which goes as follows:

o   When your child wakes up, comfort them until their actual wake-up time with the lights off and the room quiet.

o   Leave the room for a full minute until baby’s wake up time arrives, then re-enter dramatically saying “Good Morning,” or by opening the curtains and turning on the lights.

Dramatic Wake Up helps teach your child the appropriate hour for being awake, rather than the time when you soothed them back to sleep.

• Include More Pre-Naps in Baby’s Schedule

“A child that is well rested will transition more easily to a new schedule than a tired, cranky one,” says West. Adding an extra nap to baby’s schedule the week leading up to Daylight Saving Time will make the hour difference easier for you and your child.

• Adjust Meals and Activities to the New Clock Time

As you spring forward an hour, so do all of baby’s other activities. In addition to shifting bedtime in 10 to 15 minute increments the week leading up to Daylight Saving Time, adjust meal time and other important activities as well as those count as important daytime markers for baby.

• Expose Your Baby to Sunlight In The Morning

To reset your child’s circadian rhythms, expose them to sunlight after their new wake up time. A quick walk outside, opening of the blinds or playing near an open window will help their body transition to Daylight Saving Time.

With persistence and consistency, your family should be back on track within a week.  For those families that don’t have super sleep-sensitive kids, you might not need to worry that much about DST, but if you have kids that need an exact bedtime routine every night to function normally (aka – not super cranky!) then definitely move mealtimes, naptimes and bedtimes little by little for a few days leading up to the time change.

*Mommy Connections is a proud member of the Pamper’s Baby Panel