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Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. In the busy lives we lead, establishing a consistent bedtime routine can often take a back seat. However, the bedtime routine is not just another task to check off the list; it's a powerful tool that can transform those bedtime battles and prepare our little ones for a good night’s sleep! So, let's delve into the importance of a good bedtime routine!
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. This family came to us for a 1:1 parent consultation because sleep deprivation from their 7 month old not sleeping was affecting the whole family. Dad was in the spare room to make sure they weren’t both exhausted all day, their older child wasn’t getting the attention they wanted to give her, mum was exhausted and dreading naps and night-time and little one was grumpy and fractious.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. This is a phrase that I hear a lot from parents when looking at sleep and it can be something which puts parents off working on naps with their little ones.
So, what do I mean by ‘nap trapped’?
Napped trapped is when parents and carers can feel that they are ‘trapped’ at home because their little one needs to be in their cot for their naps and/or due to the timings of the naps it can mean that they are having to miss out of things such as classes, groups or going for a coffee with a friend etc.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Has your child recently moved from a cot to a bed, and now keeps getting up to come and find you? This can be a very common situation that parents find themselves in and often a child can go from sleeping well in their cot to being awake several times per night and refusing to stay in their bed!
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Has your child suddenly started to say, “I’m scared!”, “I don’t like the dark”, or “I’m scared of the dark”? If so, please be reassured that this is a very normal phase of development and can be experienced by lots of children, their parents and carers. Most often the biggest impact of this can be around bedtimes where little ones are typically on their own and it is dark. This sense of fear can have an impact on sleep, bedtimes or even cause waking in the night.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. One area which families can find very challenging during the phases of separation anxiety is bedtimes and naptimes. In this blog we are going to specifically look at how and why separation anxiety might affect bedtimes and sleep.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. It is very common for children (and adults) to experience dreams, bad dreams and nightmares. This is often a normal part of sleeping although it can be very hard to watch or listen to your child if they are having a nightmare or night terror. I am often asked by parents what the best thing is to do to help their child when they are having a nightmare or night terror, but to do this we first need to look at what the difference is between the two.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. The day when clocks change is coming up and it can always be a worry that this is going to have an effect, meaning all your hard work on getting a good sleep routine in place could be ruined. Fear not! There are some easy ways to keep this on track!
This blog specifically focusses on the clock change that we have in October, where we ‘fall back’ and gain an extra hour…or we hope that this would be the case but not always so when we have little ones.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Do you find that you put your little one to bed at night and they go off to sleep, but then wake up anywhere between 20 to 60 mins after they have gone to bed and need resettling? This is often to referred to as a ‘false start bedtime’ and it often means that you have to go back to your little one to resettle them or in some cases repeat the bedtime routine so that they go back off to sleep. For some once your little one is settled after this then they tend to sleep for a longer period, or for some it can be for the remainder of the night.
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