As a parent when your baby starts sleeping through the night after what seems like months of night feedings, you feel like a new person.
Then you do your best to keep your little one into a settled sleep routine and everything seems rosy for a while until something comes along to disrupt it.. like the clocks changing!
But fear not, with the clocks due to change next weekend we’ve enlisted the help of Belfast Sleep consultant Susan Wallace, who runs Settled Petals.
Settled Petals offers a range of services to help exhausted mums and dads with their baby and toddler sleep related queries, from frequent night waking to early morning waking and everything in between, Susan is on hand to help.
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She also runs baby massage and baby yoga classes as well as sleep workshops across the country to help with all sleep related queries parents may have. So if you’re worried about the effect the clocks changing will have on your babies sleep routine then Susan has issued the following advice to help.
Susan said: “The clocks will spring forward on Sunday March 31 and I know there are lots of worried parents out there. But to ensure that this does not have a detrimental impact on your infants sleep, I suggest you move their entire schedule earlier by 10 minutes per day for 6 days.
“So if your baby’s bed time is currently 7pm, make the following changes starting 6 days before:
Day 1: 7pm
Day 2: 6.50pm
Day 3: 6.40pm
Day 4: 6.30pm
Day 5: 6.20pm
Day 6: 6.10pm
Day 7: Day light savings - the new 7pm
“To promote the least disruption possible, I suggest you shift your child's entire schedule earlier by 10 minutes each day, including naps and meal times. Another tip would be using blackout blinds as it will be lighter at bedtime, to encourage melatonin production.”
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If you want to find out more about the help and advice that Susan can offer visit her dedicated Settled Petals page on Facebook for more.
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