Routines

Why Routines are the Secret to Confident Parenting

A routine provides structure to your baby’s day in a world where chaos could reign. It sets out times for feeds, play times and naps ensuring that a baby both feeds and sleeps enough through the day.

Cycle

If the word routine conjures up images of a regimented approach to baby care, rest assured that nothing could be further from the truth. The wonder of my routines are that they follow your baby’s natural feeding and sleeping patterns, the patterns a baby might settle into spontaneously over time, but which they can achieve very quickly with a little help and guidance and once a routine is established a baby will enjoy having regular meals and naps. They will feel secure and confident.

Here are my Secrets to Making a Routine Work:

  • Always follow the order of events of the routines. Wake your baby; feed him; play with him; nap time. Try to keep the sequence the same. Consistency is the key
  • When organising a routine that works for your family then stick to the 12 hour rule, so 12 hours of daytime and 12 hours of night time. So your routine can be anything i.e. 6:00 – 18:00, 6:30 – 6:30, 7:00 -19:00, 7.15 -19:15
  • The first feed of the day should always be around the same time. This will depend on what works for your family. You may be early risers and are usually up around 6:00 am or you may follow a more continental approach of 8:00 am
  • All the other timings are flexible so you can relax about following them exactly. Any feed can be given fifteen minutes before or after they are due
  • Always give yourself a minimum of seven days before things slip into place. It may take less
  • If you ever find things slipping drastically and you feel your routine is falling apart, don’t give up! Just start afresh the following morning

Some Other Tips:

  • The biggest problem is parents get day and night mixed up. Midwives tell parents to sleep when their babies sleep. So if your baby sleeps for five hours of the day, of course take advantage of a long nap, but wake after 3 hours. Otherwise your baby will miss out on a feed. Plus babies can only sleep one long stretch in 24 hours, this gets longer as they get older. You want the long stretch of sleep when you are having your long stretch of sleep in the night, so make sure they don’t have too long a nap in the day
  • Feed twins at the same time – day and night
  • Never distract a baby with a toy when feeding – this will create problems later on as your baby will associate feeding with playing. You can use kitchen utensils instead
  • Change their nappy 15 minutes before each feed – so they are awake and therefore have a better feed. Don’t change their nappy too much in the night unless its a dirty one, as this will waken them more fully
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