Sleep/bedtime for toddlers

While it is sometimes a gift to be able to sleep right next to your toddler while they nap or sleep - unless you have to - do not make it a habit.

As you start….so shall you end.

If you want your toddler to become a great sleeper, keep up what you started in their first year. Try to help them to develop enough strategies that they can soothe themselves to sleep under many different circumstances, not just by your side.

As a child develops language, symbolic thinking and memory - they are able to call to mind previous verbal, and non-verbal experiences, and to have an internal representation of their closest relationships - often with mom, dad or a sibling.

Start with a routine for bedtime. Choose a time. Plan to start winding down and have two or three things that make bedtime a ‘known’ moment. Pj’s, brush teeth, books and songs. For the toddlers three short board books - two of your choosing - maybe one new, and one the same (it’s true EVERY night) and one, if bedtime is done in a timely way (something your toddler can help to make happen) they can choose. Then sing the same three short songs.

This routine becomes something the child will rely on - when you are home, travelling, or if you are there or out for the evening. They can sing the song with another caregiver - or even eventually to themselves. You are giving that child the building blocks to soothe themselves as they develop. You may be giving them the gift of reading before bed as part of a sleep routine they will carry into old age!

There is a lot more to say about sleep for toddlers and older children - check out the next blog posts!