Put it on repeat!

We’ve all been told that babies thrive on routine, but does parenting by the clock really work, and what are the positive and negative effects on your baby?

TAKE A HOLISTIC APPROACH TOWARDS YOUR BABY’S ROUTINE – SLEEP, AWAKE TIME AND FEEDING NEED TO BE CONSIDERED AND BE AGE APPROPRIATE.

It’s a fact: having a baby puts your life out of sync. Those crazy first weeks can make you feel pretty out of control on the one hand, and stuck in a groundhog day of repeated tasks on the other. Eat, poo, sleep... eat, poo, sleep – and repeat. One school of parenthood will tell you to go with the flow. In other words, be led by your baby’s needs and cues. The other approach – a parent-led baby schedule – is based around a timetable, or routine. “A routine doesn’t only comprise sleep. It consists of three factors: sleeping, awake time and feeding,” says Jacqui Flint, owner of local routine and sleep guidance service Baby Love. “Take a holistic approach towards your baby’s routine – all three factors need to be considered and need to be age appropriate,” she says. While it’s unrealistic to expect your newborn to sleep through the night, Jacqui recommends starting off the way you want to end off. This means guiding your newborn to an age-appropriate daytime routine from the time you bring him home from hospital.

NIP IT IN THE BUD

Jacqui believes that this kind of structured approach is not only practical, and will help you avoid routine- and sleep-related issues when your baby is older, it’s also healthy for your child. “A newborn who doesn’t get enough sleep will become overstimulated and eventually go into hyper-alert mode,” Jacqui says.

Your baby will cry inconsolably, become fussy, squirm a lot, tug on his ears, rub his eyes or arch his back. “These are all signs that are often misdiagnosed as colic,” she

BY LORI COHEN says. Ensuring your child gets the right amount of sleep for their age could resolve these issues.

The idea is to prevent these signs from kicking in, and Jacqui says this is why Baby Love recommends you put your newborn down to sleep before he starts showing these signs, or feeding him before he cries of hunger. So, while putting your young baby into a routine may sound extreme, it is rather a case of anticipating his needs and guiding him to do what is required at that point in time.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

So when it comes to routines, does the attitude of “never wake a sleeping baby” fly out of the window? While those extra 30 minutes of snooze time may give you the gap to have a shower, Jacqui says that it’s important to wake a newborn during the day (according to the appropriate schedule) in order to get regular feeds in. “The aim of this is to get longer stretches between night feeds. Baby Love also believes the day drives the night, so if a newborn is not feeding frequently during the day, there is a good chance he will wake up numerous times at night to feed,” she says. According to clinical psychologist

Dr Jodi Mindell, who has conducted numerous studies on the impact of sleep in children, daily routines are beneficial. “Research shows that daily routines in general lead to predictable and less stressful environments for young children and are related to parenting competence, improved daytime behaviours, and lower maternal mental distress,” she says. Yup, letting your baby wing it when it comes to sleep could negatively affect the following:

■ LEARNING Sleep is key for the maturation of infants’ brains and consolidation of their memories.

■ GROWTH Babies who get less sleep may gain more fat. “When a baby sleeps, his body produces serotonin, a hormone that makes him physically grow.

“An ongoing lack of the correct type of sleep can lead to growth challenges,” Jacqui says.

A CHANGE OF PACE

The thing about routines is that, as your baby grows and his sleep and nutrition needs change, his “routine” will need adjusting – and your baby may not go along with your plans so easily.

One approach to getting your baby to stick to a sleep routine is sleep training. “This involves trying to teach your child to fall asleep unassisted. Effectively, you want to be able to put your baby into his cot awake and leave the room, and the baby can self soothe and fall asleep by himself, without having to be patted, rocked or fed in order to fall asleep. You’re trying to teach your baby how to link his sleep cycles unassisted. When the baby wakes up in a light sleep cycle, which is very common, he’s able to self soothe and put himself back to sleep unassisted,” Jacqui explains.

How can you get your baby into a sleep routine? “The routine needs to be integrated, so the awake time, feeding time and sleep all need to be age appropriate. In order to establish a routine, no matter the age of a baby, it is important to keep disruptions to a minimum for 21 days. It only takes three days to create a bad habit, but 21 days to establish healthy habits,” she continues.

Guiding a baby to an age-appropriate routine can be implemented from birth. “Some parents prefer to consider this when their baby is a bit older. I believe it is a personal choice. However, from experience, the sooner the better,” Jacqui says.