How to Adjust to Daylight Savings

[Jaime]

Many moms post wondering how to adjust their lo's routine when the clock changes for Daylight Savings.  Here are some suggestions:

Fall (when the time falls back 1 hour)

 ***** Put them to bed one hour later that night. 
   this is really the easiest thing to do.  squeeze in a catnap if you need so they can make it.  many babies can stay up late once in a while and it has no adverse effects on their routine the next day.  you may need to go out somewhere (like a walk) so your lo has something to look at - keeps them quietly interested & awake.

 ***** Let them sleep in one hour later the morning before daylight savings. 
    if they normally get up at 7am, see if they'll sleep in till 8am.  you never know.  space out their naps as you would normally and they will go to bed one hour later that night.  back on schedule the next day.

 ***** Change their schedules gradually.
     starting about 2 weeks before daylight savings, keep them up for about 15 minutes later than their normal bedtime.  once they are used to 15 minutes later, extend it another 15 minutes, and so on & so forth until you hit an hour later. 

Spring (when the time springs forward 1 hour)
usually you don't have to do much of anything - just enjoy the one morning you get to sleep in!!!   

you may need to do some tweaking to get back to their normal wakeup & asleep times, but but overall this time change is fairly easy to get used to. 

[Jaime]

Taken from one of Aarismom's posts:

Put your lo's to bed later tonight, about an hour later if you can. Even if it means they need another catnap sometime before bedtime.

In the am, do what you can to soothe them back to sleep. Even if they get 15 mins more of sleep, consider it a victory, and just keep it up. I've been doing this for the last week, and my lo is finally to the point where she's waking an hour later (but then, she LOVES her sleep). However, I think she made the change mostly by herself; it's still dark at 6 am.  If they don't make the change naturally, then you'll just have to keep trying to soothe until they get it. If they don't get it, then you'll probably have to just get them up. Don't give up after 15 mins though; keep trying for a half hour.

After the change tonight, put them back to bed at their normal bedtime every night, regardless of if they wake earlier as a result of the change. If it gets to be more than a week and they still haven't adjusted, you might consider moving bedtime back a half hour or so.

[amayzie]

Posted by HuntersmummyinOz

Adjusting to Daylight Savings Time (DST)- Another idea!

This technique to adjust to DST takes a long time but has been successful helping my Touchy little one adjust to DST. He only ever did 11hrs night sleep and wasn’t one to make up night sleep by going to bed early, etc.  This may also be useful if you have tried some techniques in the above link and you are still finding it hard to get your little one back on track.

Week 1 - Move his entire routine forward 15 minutes (regardless of wake up time), so milk feeds, breaky/lunch/dinner, wind down, naps, bathtime, bedtime, EVERYTHING, move forward 15 mins. After a few days you should notice he starts to wake a little later too, my son usually took closer to a week to start waking later.
Week 2 - Move entire routine forward another 15 minutes.
Week 3 – Move entire routine forward another 15 minutes.
Week 4 – Move entire routine forward another 15 minutes.

By the end of 4 weeks the whole routine (and wake up) should have moved forward an hour, so that when DST change happens, bub is back on the old routine times again. Some bubs that this has been suggested for were able to make the change every 3 days, others have needed 2 weeks on each step.


**Another thing to consider is whether or not you can have a separate Winter and Summer routine. After a few times of changing for DST I got sick of changing it every 6 months so my son now has a 6.30am to 7.30pm routine in Winter and 7.30am to 8.30pm routine in Summer, that way I don’t have to change anything except the clock.