While the Christmas holidays is all sorts of lovely, it's often a busy time with a flurry of activities, and more relaxed routines than normal.
And while we want to embrace all the chilled out holiday vibes, there is no denying that when it comes to babies and young kids, sleep can be disturbed, and we all know just how demanding over-tired and underslept children can be.
Visitors, travelling, staying away from home for the holidays, can all push bedtime out – it can take its toll, but luckily, paediatric sleep expert and author of The Baby Sleep Solution and
Baby Elegance ambassador Lucy Wolfe has shared her top tips for helping to “staycation Proof” your child's sleep with us.
Here is what she had to say:
Getting ready for your trip
Ideally, in the run-up to travels or holidays, it’s best to have young children optimally rested. That way they will be more tolerant of changes and lost sleep. Whether this is your first holiday or staycation with children or your family has grown in numbers, you may find that you have to make decisions about travel times, visits, how late you stay, how far away you are going and where you will stay.
Ultimately you will know your own child best, but if you observe that your child seems sensitive to being overtired then you will need to maintain your current sleep practices as much as possible. Of course, you all need to have fun – that is what holidays are for. But your fun could be impaired if your young child starts to resist sleep, wake frequently and become fussy with their food because they have built up a sleep debt.
Avoid big changes
I am aware that lots of parents may decide the holidays might be a good time to ditch the dummy or the bottle, given that they are off work, and feel like they have more time on their hands to deal with this – but I would proceed with caution.
This is a huge adjustment and may affect everyone’s enjoyment of your holiday or trip. This change may impact their sleep ability, specifically if they are used to using the dummy or bottle at sleep time. My advice would be to save big changes like this for when you are back home and have more established routines.
Don't stress too much
I don’t recommend that you work on your child’s sleep this time of year unless you will be able to be home on time for bedtime every evening, won’t miss daytime sleep and if you are not planning on staying away from home, even if just for a night or two. Any of these elements will affect your efforts and may make it hard to establish different sleep practices, changes like this are best addressed when you are back in your own home again.
