Why routines for babies really do work

Fran Chavasse, author of new book The Tresillian Sleep Book believes routines can be a good way to ease your baby into feeling settled and sleepy. Here, she explains why...

'Babies are little learner human beings - they're not an entirely different species, although it can feel like that at times!

As a result, babies like routines just like we all do. They can be very flexible but having certain things in your life that you can predict gets you into a really good daily rhythm. 

For example, when you go to bed you probably go around the same time every night - you have a rough bed time. You might have a shower, read a book, clean your teeth, turn all the lights out in the house and get into bed. That's a routine. 

Babies are no different. If they know what is happening next then they will feel secure. To go from being wide awake to trying to sleep suddenly in a loud and bright environment, they won't understand what is happening and as a result, they will find it hard to settle.

I am not suggesting you do everything at a certain time of the day and you time it with a watch, but I suggesting that if you do things in the same order every day like meals and getting up, then your baby will come to know what happens next and they understand when they should be sleeping and when they should be awake.

Say you feed them and make it a sociable time (just like it is for us) and then give them some play time before say a bath and then dim the bedroom lights and make it a quiet time before bed sleep should come a little easier.'

The Tresillian Sleep Book is available at all good bookshops and at ABC online.