For most people, the end of daylight saving time is just a longer than normal day; one where adults are happy to gain an extra hour of sleep. No big deal, right? Not quite, it can be a really big deal if you are a parent of a baby or a young child.  Turning the clock back an hour can cause early wake-ups for babies and young children that can continue  after we “fall back”.  Preparing for the change slowly before turning the clock back can prevent early wake-ups and long term sleep disruptions.  If your child is between the ages of five months and five years with an established bedtime and wake time, problems can be avoided by adjusting your child’s biological clock slowly leading up to the end of daylight saving time. 

What exactly is an established bedtime and wake time?  This means that your child falls asleep and wakes each day at about the same time (within the same 30 minute window). If your baby is currently waking at widely varied times, narrow in on a consistent thirty minute time frame.

Real life example: “My baby falls asleep between 8:00 and 8:30 each night, but can wake anywhere between 6:30 and 8:00 in the morning.”

Good news, you have an established bedtime. Your child is initiating sleep within the same 30 minute window each night and you can help your baby establish a consistent wake time.  Track her wake times each morning and note if she is waking on average closer to 6:30 or 8:00. Depending on this information, decide on a target wake time (a wake time within the same thirty minute window each day) and assist your baby by keeping her in the dark if she wakes before your target time and, yes, wake her if she’s still sleeping past your target time frame. For example if you decide 7:30 is your target wake time, you will keep your baby in her dark, quiet sleep environment until at least 7:15 and wake her, if she is still sleep at 7:45.  Remember, children between five months and five years require between 10.5 and 12 hours of sleep a night. 

Think small changes
Begin preparing a few days before turning the clocks back. A young baby will respond best to small changes of only fifteen minutes a day, where a toddler can most likely handle a thirty minute shift in a single day. Extend bedtime fifteen to thirty minutes later than her normal bedtime on the first night and then another fifteen to thirty minutes later each night on subsequent nights.  Once your child is falling asleep later each night, be sure to extend your child’s target wake time to coincide with their new later bedtime. If they wake earlier than your target time (which they most likely will), the key is to keep them in their sleeping space, in a dark room until the target wake time.  Continue shifting bedtime and wake time each day until your child is falling asleep one hour later than their previous desired bedtime. On November 6th your child will, once again, be going to bed at their previously established bedtime.  Remember, it is important to also shift your child’s nap times in accordance with the shift in bed and wake time.

 
Real life example: “My 18 month old baby wakes every morning around 6:15. I nurse her upon waking and she eats breakfast around 7:30. She eats lunch at about 11:45 and then takes one midday nap from 12:30-2:30. She has an afternoon snack and eats dinner at 5:30. She has a pre-bedtime nursing and is in bed and asleep by 7:30 each night. What can I do to prepare for the upcoming time change so that my baby isn’t waking at 5:15 every day and needs to go to bed by 6:30 in the evening?”

On night one feed your baby dinner at 5:45 and put her to bed at 7:45. She will likely wake the next morning at 6:15 as usual. If you can wait fifteen minutes before going to get her up, great. If she wakes and becomes distressed, you can go to her and stay in her dark room with her holding her or rocking her, delaying the time you nurse and turn on the lights for fifteen minutes until 6:30. You will feed her lunch at 12:00 and put her down for her nap at 1:00. Offer her afternoon snack fifteen minutes later and serve dinner at 6:00. The next night bedtime will be 8:00. Expose your child to lots of light in the evening up until the time they go to bed. Continue to push your child’s schedule later each day in small increments.

You must use darkness and light to reinforce your desired schedule
It is very important that you implement light and darkness to help reinforce the time change.  Why? The circadian rhythm, a main driving force for sleep, is very sensitive to light. Turning bright lights on in the evening up until the time your child goes to bed will help your child’s body tolerate a later bedtime. 

Conversely, dark exposure in the morning is key! Even if your child continues to wake at their biological time in the morning, which on those first days will likely be the case, avoid light exposure during these earlier than desired wake-ups.  The light we are exposed to in the morning “locks in” our circadian rhythm.  The bedroom should be so dark in the morning you would not be able to read.  Delay turning on lights or any screen exposure by 15-30 minutes each morning until your child begins to wake at the desired target wake time, even if you need to sit or play quietly in her dark room.

What if I don’t have the flexibility in my schedule to shift before we turn the clocks back?
Don’t panic! Many people have work and school schedules to adhere to where starting the day later than normal isn’t possible.  Expect that on Sunday November 6th your child will be waking up an hour earlier than she normally does. Even though it will mean an extra-long day for both of you, try to keep her schedule as close to normal as possible according to the clock. This will be difficult, as you child’s body will be ready for sleep an hour before her typical nap and bedtime. Even if you shift her schedule so that she is napping and going to bed thirty minutes earlier according to the clock, biologically, she will be going to sleep thirty minutes later.

Real life example “We turned the clocks back an hour last night and this morning my baby woke at 5:30 instead of 6:30! She usually naps at 12:30 and goes to bed at 7:30, but I’m not sure she’ll be able to adjust to the change so quickly.”

Changing your baby’s schedule by a full hour will be challenging. Even though your baby woke at 5:30 this morning, you can push her through and offer her nap at 12:00 today and then put her to bed at 7:00. The following day, keep her in the dark until the desired morning wake time and offer her nap and bedtime at your regular times of 12:30 and 7:30. This way, you will have shifted 30 minutes a day to allow for your baby’s body to biologically adjust to the new clock time.

Want the cliff note version of this post?  Here it is:
If your child has an established bedtime and wake time start shifting their schedule fifteen minutes later each night a few days before end of daylight saving. Use lots of light exposure up until bedtime to reinforce this change. Shift their target wake time fifteen minutes later each morning by using dark exposure.  On the night of November 5, 2016 your child will be going to sleep an hour later than her normal bedtime, but when she wakes in the morning, she will biologically be adjusted to the new clock time.

It's 3:30 in the morning and it’s happening again. You have just barely fallen back to sleep. This is the third time since collapsing into bed at 11:45. You stare at the monitor, hold your breath and silently beg your little angel. “Please. Just do it. I know you can do it. Suck on that pacifier, close those gorgeous eyes and go back to sleep. PLEASE.”  The begging is unsuccessful…again. You’re lifting your one thousand pound legs off the side of the bed when you hear it. It’s a familiar sound, but you know it simply cannot be. “Is that? Are you kidding me? No. Can that really be f*#cking snoring?”  Your exhaustion immediately turns to rage. A kind of anger you were not capable of prior to the measly four hours of sleep a night that is your new reality. And so you very rationally think, “If the baby isn’t sleeping, and I’m not sleeping, well dammit all, nobody’s sleeping!” Those legs that felt so heavy moments ago become weightless as they fly across the covers and kick your snoring partner awake.

The picture painted here, or some version of it, has likely felt familiar to every parent at one point or another. If I’ve said it to one family, I’ve said it to one hundred, decision making in the middle of the night is never a good idea. Avoid those ugly, bleary eyed, middle of the night arguments with some proactive daytime discussions.

Prior to nightfall, plan out who will respond when.  What makes sense logistically? If both parents work, perhaps splitting the night in half is the answer. One parent responds to all wake-ups prior to two o’clock and the other parent responds for the remainder of the night. If only one parent works, it might make most sense for the non-working parent to attend to baby’s needs during the work week. While the other parent is designated the responder on weekends. The key here, is that the plan is created together, in advance and is mutually agreed upon.

Discuss what needs to happen when.  Many of those middle of the night arguments occur because partners disagree over why their baby woke in the first place. Map out appropriate feeding times. Share with one another what non-feeding soothing strategies have been successful: swaddling, rocking, bouncing, swaying, etc. State whether it’s expected that baby is going to spend the whole night in one location or a hybrid of multiple locations. If the latter is the case, decide together, what those safe and appropriate locations are. Such as a crib for the first part of the night and a bassinet for the remainder of the night.

Keep a log with daily feedings and diapering patterns to help with planning. This will eliminate unnecessarily waking your partner in the night with questions.  A newborn’s needs will vary greatly from that of an infants and a toddler’s needs will be different still. Remember to adjust your plan as your family grows and changes.

To assume that one parent over another will be responsible for all nighttime duties is a recipe for familial stress and resentment. If it seems impossible to create a mutually agreed upon plan, perhaps it’s best to seek help from an unbiased, well rested third party...ahem, someone such as a professional sleep consultant.
 
 
 

Each morning I wake excited to start another day in the world of parenting. Making promises to myself to remain present, patient and, well, extra patient. As a parent of young children, you really can’t have enough patience, can you? After I have asked my children what they want for breakfast for the third time  (with no answer), packed healthy (sort of) lunches and shuffled my family out the door breathless, I feel a good portion of the patience and zest I began the day with has already been significantly depleted.  
Fast forward through the rest of the day. Between work demands, home demands and general life and parenting demands, I cannot wait for the moment I am kissing my little cherubs while they slumber peacefully in their beds.  But wait. It dawns on me about the same time every day, just after dinner and before baths, I realize I still have to leap that last looming, mountainous hurdle called bedtime.  We all feel it at the end of the day. You are so close you can taste it. But that bucket of patience you started the day with has just one last glimmering drop in the bottom. In his hit book, with the same title, Adam Mansbach dared to say what we are all thinking in those last moments of the day, “Go the F**k to Sleep.”

Why is it that I, along with all of my friends and nearly every family I have consulted with, find bedtime to be the most challenging segment of the day? For one, everyone is tired, plain and simple. People who are tired, both big and small, exhibit hindered coping skills.  Routine tasks such as diaper changing, teeth brushing, dressing in pajamas, and choosing bedtime books are really no different than the other countless tasks you have successfully managed throughout the day. They just feel different because you are so darn tired.

I’m not sure if bedtime will ever be easy, but here are a few ideas to help make the most challenging part of the day just a little less challenging.

• Just as you might pick out clothes the night before in hopes your morning runs more smoothly, use the same concept, but in reverse. It will be much easier for you and your child to make a decision on pajamas, books, lovies and stories during the day when everyone’s sleep pressure is lower and you still have the will to say no. No, tutus, bathing suits and batman costumes are not necessarily the best choices for night ware.
• Implement a routine, a routine within your routine, and if necessary, a routine inside that routine. You get the point. Babies and young children rely heavily on consistency and predictability. It is stress reducing for everyone when you can all cruise through bedtime on autopilot. So please, stay the course. If you brushed teeth to the Raffi song last night and the night before that, then it’s Raffi again tonight.
• Stay consistent within fifteen minutes of your child’s typical bedtime. We’ve all been there. It’s been a hell of a day and you are sure you cannot physically or emotionally make it to your child’s regular bedtime. It’s just too far away. Then the idea hits you. This is exactly how Edison must have felt with the invention of the light bulb. You think, “I’m going to do bedtime an hour early tonight. After all, my baby can’t tell time…or can she?” Sometimes, this tactic works. If your child has accrued some sleep debt throughout the day or week, she may be able to fall asleep an hour early with no trouble. However, if it is only you that is exhausted, and your baby has been getting the rest she needs, it is likely you are going to be asking your child to do something she cannot. She may not be able to read a clock, but her biological clock reliably tells her body when it is time to sleep.  It may seem like a brilliant idea at first, but there’s a good chance putting your child to bed an hour early may backfire. A young baby can become frustrated and upset with a longer than normal duration of awake time in her crib, while an older child may begin popping up out of bed until she is able to fall asleep.  The only thing more tedious than bedtime, is a prolonged bedtime with unhappy protesting children. 
• Set the mood.  Think lounge, not night club. Slow things down, dim the lights, play some soft music, and incorporate a massage. Sounds heavenly, no? Your baby will think so too. Less is more when it comes to your child’s sleep environment. Keep it cool, dark, quiet and safe. Don’t be fooled by sheep that make noise and then shut off on a timer or sound machines with whales singing, crickets chirping or waves crashing. When it’s time to turn the lights out, turn the lights out. All the lights. As well as the music and the whales. Continuous white noise that is turned on at bedtime and stays on throughout the night can help block extraneous sounds. Birds chirping can be lovely, but not at five in the morning.
• No “rough housing” at bedtime. This one may seem like a no brainer, but some parents report their baby or child gets a “second wind” leading up to bedtime, exhibiting silly or energetic behavior. This is the time they love to be chased around the house or tossed up in the air. Don’t be fooled. This energetic, giddy or rambunctious behavior can actually be a symptom of exhaustion in young children and a signal your child is becoming overtired.  This is exactly the time you want to turn yourself into “nighttime mom or dad” and take things down a notch instead of ramp it up. When in doubt, bore them to sleep.

There’s no two ways about it, bedtime just isn’t an easy time of day. The sleep consultant in me would tell you to try the above mentioned and seek out professional advice if bedtime at your house is truly unbearable for everyone involved. The mom in me would share a saying that I heard early on in my parenting career and try hard to always remember, “The days are long, but the years are short.”

I cannot give you an exact date, but I know it was around the time that my son had just turned two. It was the same time that we gave his crib to his six month old sister and moved him into his own “big boy bed.” The first time it happened, it was such a surprise to my husband and me that we thought surely something must be wrong. Was he was scared or not feeling well? Perhaps it was those pesky two year molars causing pain? It certainly had nothing to do with my second time mom’s guilt or that I had just given his bed away to his new sibling. So there he was, in the middle of the night, standing at the side of our bed, his angelic little face peeking up, asking to climb in with us. “Of course you can. Snuggle on in the middle, just for tonight.” Back to sleep we went. The three of us cozied together, just that one time. Now Groundhog Day that scenario nearly every night for roughly seven years. You read that correctly. Seven years.

I’d like to back track a little and say that at the time my son started habitually waking every night and climbing into my bed, I had not been trained as a professional sleep consultant. If I knew then, what I know now, would I have done things differently? Absolutely. For starters, I never would have transitioned him out of his crib at two years old. Unless maybe he was climbing out on his own, which he was not. I would have waited until he was at least three years old or older, and acquired another crib for my second child. The first night he appeared in my room, I would have returned him to his own bed to avoid creating a nightly habit.  If that hadn’t worked, I might have put a gate in his doorway and followed up with random positive reinforcement in the morning.  I look back at the above scenario and I can see exactly why and how it started, in addition to why and how it never stopped. But as my mother in law says, “when you know better, you do better.”

By no doing of my own, appearances from our nightly visitor eventually lessened. He now sleeps in his own bed, all night, every night. While I was not practicing as a sleep consultant when this all began, I certainly had the knowledge and training to make a change long before now. So why, you ask, as a professional sleep consultant, did I let this go on ? The answer plain and simple, is that for our family, it was not a problem.

Of course, I would get the occasional snarky comment from a family member or friend, “I can’t believe he’s still coming into your bed, don’t you do this for a living?” I feel lucky knowing all that I do about sleep and child development. If our family’s sleeping arrangements ever became a problem for both me and my husband or for our son, I would know how to make changes. To feel empowered as a parent is to not only have the tools, but to know how and when to use them.  Remember, if it’s not a problem for your family, then it’s not a problem at all.

By Kristen Carhart

If you are a parent of a young child, then we do not need to tell you that sleep challenges can be one of the most taxing aspects of parenting. Many parents accept the bone tired feeling that is expected with a newborn, but what happens when your baby is 6 months old, 9 months old, 18 months old or 3 years old and older and you still are not getting close to enough sleep? What then? Often parents talk to their pediatrician, read books and websites, ask other parents. But this often confuses people more because everyone offers conflicting advice; it is difficult to choose a strategy and to know exactly how to implement it. Maybe you feel as though you have tried everything and nothing has worked. Perhaps you and your partner are at odds about how to handle the problem and you find yourselves up in the night arguing over what to do.
Hiring a professional sleep consultant is an option that many families don’t know even exists.  Working with an experienced sleep consultant improves results because there is so much more to sleep than just the approach.  Development, schedule, environment, routines and approach are all reviewed and mapped out to support success.  Here are some things a sleep consultant will address that can make all the difference:

1. Expectations: The amount and duration a baby or child sleeps changes many times from birth to early childhood. A reliable sleep consultant will have sound knowledge of infant and child development and will be able to guide you on realistic sleep expectations for your baby or young child.
2. Information overload:  It can be daunting to filter through the mass amounts of information that is posted and published regarding babies and sleep. A reliable sleep consultant will be able to do some of the filtering for you. In addition, they will learn about your child and your family and can answer questions specific to your unique challenges and circumstances.
3. Strategies not working: One of the most common things we hear from clients is, “we’ve tried everything and nothing has worked.” Contrary to popular belief, there are many different strategies that can work to get your child to go to sleep and stay asleep. Consistency is the key ingredient in any successful approach. We find parents may give up too soon on any one approach. A sleep consultant will give you a realistic timeline regarding how soon you will see changes once you begin implementing a strategy. The time line will depend on the style of plan and on the individual child.
4. Parents who disagree:  A professional sleep consultant can be a great third party for a couple who is in disagreement with how to approach the problem. We do not make our best decisions in the middle of the night with only a couple of hours sleep.  This is exactly what so many parents find themselves doing night after night. Working with a sleep consultant will help parents create a pro-active plan to follow so each parent knows the approach and response to use night after night.

Sleep consultants are not one size fits all. Some specialize in just one approach, while others offer a variety of strategies. Some consultants work in your home, while others offer virtual consultations via skype and telephone. Sleep consultants also have a variety of backgrounds from nursing and healthcare to education and psychology for example. As is true with working with any professional, finding someone you trust is key. At Early Parenting Partners we pride ourselves with matching a plan to a family while also considering the needs and temperament of the child.  If you think you would benefit from a phone based sleep consult please contact us.  If you are looking for something different you can find more sleep support @ Internationalsleep.org .  This is the homepage for The Association of Professional Sleep Consultants where you can find a list of sleep consultants from across the world. 
 

The holidays are upon us. According to the US Bureau of transportation and Statistics, “the Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year’s holiday periods are among the busiest long-distance travel periods of the year”.  If you are among the thousands of families traveling this holiday season, here are some ways to maintain healthy sleep habits for your young baby or toddler.

When a child's sleep environment changes, you can expect more wake-ups. These wake-ups are nature’s way of keeping your baby safe. We are supposed to wake fully if something in our sleep environment feels “wrong”. It will be helpful to respond to your child exactly as you would if you were in your home environment. The consistency in your response will assure your child that everything is normal and they can safely fall back to sleep. Your baby’s temperament will also dictate how easily they adjust to falling asleep and staying asleep in an unfamiliar environment.

You can create a sleep inducing environment even while staying at someone’s home or in a hotel. We know you may be thinking, “My entire family is sleeping in the same room. There is nothing sleep inducing about that!” Well, it certainly will not be the same as home, but there are some things you can do to put the odds of a good night’s sleep in your favor.

Make the room dark. Most hotels have black-out curtains, but if you are staying at someone’s home and the room does not have black out drapes, you can darken the windows yourself. Hang large black garbage bags over the window secured with painters tape so that you will not do any damage.  Large beach towels, or sheets hung over windows can also darken a room sufficiently.

Plan ahead what type of bed your baby or child will be sleeping in and check that it is safe and age appropriate.  A portable “pack and play” style crib may be appropriate for an infant or young toddler, while a child-size air mattress can be a great option for a preschooler. Most hotels have cribs and cots available for use, but always call ahead to make sure the cribs are safe and make arrangements in advance.

Place your child’s bed as far away from your sleep space as possible. As long as it’s safe, walk-in closets and bathrooms are fair game. 

Create a white noise barrier between your bed and your child’s. A small stationary fan, white noise machine or white noise app placed between the beds will help with disturbances from each other throughout the night.

If possible, give your child some time to explore their sleep environment before it’s actually time to sleep. Giving them time to look around while you are there, will help to create positive associations with the sleep space. This will help every child, even babies as young as 5 months.

Maintain a predictable bedtime routine during your travels. Keeping the bedtime routine similar to home, will indicate to your child, that even though this is a different place, the routines and expectations are the same.   Remember to bring along familiar blankets, age appropriate lovies, pacifiers or books. The familiarity of these objects will be very comforting to your child while she is learning to fall asleep in a different environment.

If your baby is having a difficult time falling asleep, simply repeat the bedtime routine.  Repeating the routine over is better than responding in a way you wouldn’t normally do at home such as rocking a young baby to sleep or sleeping in the same bed with a toddler. A response like this can elicit bedtime troubles long after you get back home.  

Maintaining pre-sleep routines may be possible, but sticking to regular timing of sleep may prove to be more difficult while away for the holidays.  If keeping to your baby’s nap schedule is too difficult, try baby wearing, strolling or car rides to ensure your child naps at her regular time, even if it’s not in an ideal location. Letting your child sleep at times when you know her body is ready for sleep will make for a happier baby hence a happier mommy. 

If traveling creates new sleep challenges that linger when you come back home and you need help getting your child’s sleep back on track, please contact us at www.earlyparentingpartners.com to schedule an individualized sleep consultation.

As professional sleep consultants, we work with many families who have never experienced sleep challenges with their child until they move them from the crib to the bed. There are a few questions you should ask yourself before embarking on this transition.

When is the best time?
If your child is happily sleeping in a crib and you have no reason to change the sleeping arrangements, we recommend your toddler stay in the crib for as long as possible, and definitely until age three.

Why is it a good idea to transition?
Safety: If your toddler is climbing out of their crib, or attempting to climb out, and safety is an issue, then it may be time to make the transition.  There are a couple of strategies you can try first, however, that may buy you some more time.

If you witness your little one begin to attempt this feat before they’re actually able, try patting the crib mattress and firmly saying “legs down” or place your child’s leg down every time they lift it to climb out of the crib.  It is important that you stay in the room the entire time while implementing this approach.  Repeat the instruction and follow through by putting your child’s leg back down into the crib every time they lift it.  You are staying calm and neutral in demeanor while using this tactic, but are very clear in your message that climbing out is not OK. After a few days of doing this your child may stop attempting to climb out. You only leave the room when your toddler is asleep or almost asleep, laying down on the mattress.

Depending on the crib, simply changing the crib position can prevent a climb out. If your child’s crib has a low and high side, push the lower side against the wall and leave the higher side facing away from the wall.  Also, some crib mattresses can be lowered down very close to the floor. Double check that your mattress is on the lowest setting.

Use a snug fitting sleep sack. Dressing your child in a wearable blanket or “sleep sack” that does not have extra leg room can prevent them from being able to raise their leg high enough to get it over the rail, and potentially climb or fall out.

If you implement the above suggestions and your child is still determined to climb out of the crib, it is time to transition.

Potty training: If sleeping in a crib is hindering your child from successfully becoming potty trained, then transitioning must be considered.

A new sibling: This is a tricky one! Many families feel the need to transition their older child when a new sibling is coming. We would, however, first recommend that you either borrow or buy an additional crib if your older child is under age three. If, financially and logistically, this is not possible, plan to transition your older child at least 3 months before the new baby arrives. This will give you some time to make any necessary adjustments if problems do arise.  It will also help prevent an association between moving out of their crib and the arrival of their new sibling.

What can I do to best prepare for this transition?

Make the room safe. Your child’s bedroom should be as safe a sleep space as their crib was. The freedom of being able to get out of bed and leave the room may be overwhelming for some children. A gate placed in the doorway can offer assurance to both of you that they will be safe sleeping in their new bed.  It is essential that the gate is presented as a positive tool; something that will be there to help him or her stay safe in their room at night and for naps.

Empower your toddler by letting them help pick out their new bedding and put the sheets on together.

Allow time during the day for your child to explore their new sleep space, perhaps by sitting on the bed together reading books.

Stay consistent with your bedtime routine. The novelty of sleeping in the new “big kid” bed will be exciting for your child. There is no need to change your routine if it was working, and the familiarity of the routine will be comforting.

Bedtime is important. Keep track of when your child is actually initiating sleep for a few nights prior to the transition. The time that they have been falling asleep each night is the best time to put your child to bed for the first few nights. This will insure they are ready for sleep when they go to bed, cutting down on the likelihood they will pop up out of bed.

Talking to other parents who have recently made the transition can be very helpful. Hello Mamas is a “parent connecting” website where you can find other parents who are going through the same experience. Learning what has worked and what hasn’t for other families can be invaluable.

This may be an emotional transition for you, but it is an exciting time and a wonderful step toward independence and greater responsibility for your child.

Is your baby or toddler waking too early? Have early morning wake-ups been an issue, or especially exasperated since the end of daylight savings?  If so, it is likely your child’s body needs help adjusting to the new clock time.  How do you make this adjustment?  In simple terms, it is a matter of manipulating light exposure in both the evening and the morning, but there are a few things to consider first. If your child had a predictable sleep schedule prior to changing the clocks back with a set bedtime and wake time, then likely changing times of light and dark exposure will help shift your child’s body clock. If this is not the case, then this approach alone will not fix the problem.  You may want to consider an individualized sleep consult to create a plan that addresses things such as schedule, environment or a sleep association. If it is simply about light and dark exposure here is the scoop on how to fix it:

Light at night and absence of light in the morning is critical to helping your child sleep longer in the morning.  Why? The circadian rhythm, a main driving force for sleep, is very sensitive to light, especially in the early morning hours. If your child has been waking earlier than desired, and has been exposed to light either because their room is too light or they are leaving their dark room, their early wake time has been “locked in”, even though your child’s body may need to sleep longer.  How much light is too much? The bedroom should be so dark in the morning that you are unable to tell the difference from the middle of the night to the morning hours in the room.  If the room is dark, then the key is to keep your child in the room until the target wake time.  How do you do that?  There are two ways.  The first way is to allow your child to wake and keep them in the sleep space until the target time, despite protests. The second option is to go into your child’s room and lay down next to the crib or bed and stay with them until the target wake time.  With consistency, the process usually takes 4 to 7 days.

In order to instill the later wake up in the morning, you will also need to increase your child’s light exposure at night.  Make sure to keep the house and bedroom as bright as possible up until bedtime.  For older children it may even require that you push bedtime later by 30-60 minutes to add additional light exposure.  This will help the body adjust to the new time change.  As we previously noted, this is the simple explanation for your child waking too early, but sleep can be complicated, so if these adjustments don’t warrant a change, professional sleep support may be needed to get your family the improved sleep your looking for.

The common story we hear when working with families who are struggling with their child's selective eating habits, is that their child, was once a really good eater. When their child approached toddler hood however, mealtimes became a battle of wills filled with annoyance, anger, disappointment and even tears. 

When this shift happens, parents become discouraged and begin to fall into the trap of feeding their child anything, just to get them to eat. As mothers, we know all too well what it feels like to prepare and serve a healthy meal only to be met with resistance and complaints. It's a desperate feeling to think your child is not eating enough food and it is out of desperation that parents begin to consider giving their children anything, just so they will take in some calories.

It is normal for children to become selective and resistant to new foods and is more beneficial to focus attention on 
what your child is eating rather than how much. Having this information will help you stay the course, even through those moments of doubt. 

What to Know:

• Toddler's nutritional requirements and appetites decrease so they are eating far less than they were when they were younger and their eating patterns are highly unpredictable. The most rapid growth in early childhood happens between birth and two years. The average 2-5 year old only gains 4.5-6.5 pounds annually.

• A child's stomach is the size of his or her clenched fist, so consumption of large quantities of food at once is unrealistic.
• It is best to look at what a child has eaten over the course of a week rather than a day.
• The best marker for a child's eating habits is their overall health and development. If your child is healthy, developing well and demonstrates typical behavior, this is a strong indication that they are in fact getting exactly what they need nutritionally.
• Fat? Yes. Fat is a critical part of any child's diet. The brain is still developing at 5 years of age (90% developed) and a child uses more fat for energy than an adult.
• Developmentally so much is changing in young children's lives that they begin to desire sameness for security and comfort, and this desire for sameness creates a rigidity around food.
• Taste buds are more sensitive when you are younger, some foods just don't taste good.
• It is developmentally appropriate to experience some food phobia between the ages of 2 and 6. Yes, it is a real thing, called "neophobia", which is the fear of new foods. Hundreds of years ago it was a good thing because children who were off exploring would not eat harmful things in the environment.
• During this time in life children are beginning to gain independence and are aware they are separate from their parents. In order to be separate one must have control, so they begin to control the things they can.
• Calories are not important, the sources of the calories are very important.  All calories are not created equal.

So now you have some of the facts. It is very normal for young children refuse foods and to eat less. But what they eat does matter. Filling up on snacks that do not have nutrients can impact their health, weight and development and can actually make them hungrier effecting their mood and disposition. One of the most important things you can do is to understand why your child has become selective and to concentrate on offering them food that is packed with nutrients. 

Here Are Some Things You Can Do to Make Every Bite Count

• Watch your child's eating pattern. Provide them with the most food when they are hungry.

• Consider only saving "snack foods" when you are on the go.
• Avoid having your child fill up on juice and milk at or between meals.
• Add good fats to existing favorite foods. For example if your child likes French toast, make sure to use pads of butter. If they love dipping, offer a nut butter, bean dip or hummus as a dipping sauce.
• Find the most nutritious version of your child's preferred food. If they are only eating carbohydrates, make sure to use grain products that are not refined. For example, Kamut pasta, whole wheat pasta, or sprouted wheat bagels.
• Keep healthy foods readily available so that when your child is hungry you are less inclined to go for a convenience food. For specific meal and snack ideas visit our Pinterest page or book an individualized consultation for support.