Many parents find themselves at a loss when it comes to determining what time their child should go to bed. It does seem that everyone has a different opinion on this. If you are a mother, you may find that your mother and your best friend have different thoughts on when your children should go to bed. No matter what, the goal is to make sure that your children are getting enough rest so that they can thrive.
Before you can figure out the bedtime schedule though, you first have to determine just how much sleep your child needs. The amount of time a child needs for sleep is based on his or her age. A baby between newborn and three months of age needs about fourteen to eighteen hours of sleep. A baby that is between three months and six months of age should have anywhere between fourteen hours and sixteen hours of sleep. Twelve to fourteen hours of sleep is required for children between six months to two years old. Then there are the toddlers between two and five years old who must have ten to twelve hours of sleep.
Now that you have determined the amount of time your child needs for adequate sleep you can calculate when bedtime should be. Start by figuring out what time the child needs to wake up in the morning. If you have to get the child up for daycare or preschool, you need to figure out what time you have to wake him or her up in order to leave on time. From there, you will want to count backwards. This will give you the time that your child needs to be in bed each night.
You may find that the bedtime schedule needs to be adjusted a little. This is natural because each child is different. If you begin to find that your child has a very hard time waking up in the morning or throws a lot of tantrums, you may need to adjust the bedtime again. Do not be discouraged if it takes you a couple of weeks to get the exact recipe down for the perfect bedtime schedule, as this is natural. Once you figure out exactly how much sleep your individual child needs, you will all be much happier.
As a toddler bed time will generally be earlier, however as your child ages you will find that he or she will need less sleep. An indicator of this will be waking up extra early in the morning on a consistent basis. When this happens you have two options. You can either start your day earlier than normal or you can make bedtime a little bit later at night. If your child is waking up a half hour early each morning then you will want to put him other to bed a half hour later to bring balance.
Now that you know what time bedtime should be you can finally have a little time to yourself at night and wake up in the mornings with a child that is refreshed and happy to start the day.
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