Your Toddler is Ready for a Bedtime Glow Up ✨
So it’s a complete shock when we decide it’s time to shake things up:
saying goodbye to diapers
going back to work full time and heading off to daycare
maybe even eating with a fork instead of their fingers!!
…the hits just keep coming.
I know when it comes to bedtime you may not be as ready to adjust your routine, the predictable nature of what may be: bath, then milk and snuggles, then bed. But just like learning to eat with a fork, new bedtime skills are important to the development of independence and can offer an opportunity to tackle sleep issues leftover from babyhood.
Provide a lot more wind downtime. Slowing down earlier in the evening can make a huge difference for your little whirlwind. If you incorporate screen time in your evening it should end at least 1 hour before their established bedtime. Other ways to slow down include dimming the lights in the entire house, offering a bath time with a spa-like, calm atmosphere, and finally making sure their room is set up for sleep and no longer a “play zone”.
Start the switch from milk to water. This one is a toughy I know and I am not saying go cold turkey, but start the process slowly. By 2 years old your child will need a regular toothbrushing routine and drinking milk right before sleep complicates things. So this is a great time to wean from the night bottle. A simple way to replace milk at bedtime is to offer an insulated water bottle of warm water to drink while you read stories. Then move their nightly milk to before bath and toothbrushing time.
Add in a LOT of choices. Your toddler wants to be in charge of their newfound independence, so incorporate small choices into your bedtime routine. You can start by asking what color they want their bathwater to be (use food coloring!), and move on to who will brush their teeth, them? or you? Finally and most importantly they choose a book and you choose a book. It doesn’t have to be just two books, but pick a # of books and stick to it. Always let them choose the first ones and you choose the last one or what is called the “anchor” book. Make sure your anchor book is one that is read pretty often (or every single night if you can stand it) - this book is an important sleep signal to their bodies and brains. Here’s a great example of an anchor book.
Time for a big kid bed. There are whole articles written just on this transition so I will share only a few tips, the most important being = choices: new bedding they pick out, a book they can bring to bed now that they are ‘big’, which animals sleep with them, etc. These choices will help to activate your toddler’s feeling of ownership. Another tip is to place their new bed exactly where their crib was or at least make sure it's nestled into a corner. This placement will provide the same sense of enclosure that their crib offered.
Learn to stay in bed. Before you transition to a big kid bed, you should introduce a toddler clock. New expectations and skills are best learned separately even these two skills. At bedtime offer one final “check-in” 10 minutes after you tuck them in to allow for any last requests. In the morning, set the clock to change colors earlier than you may want to get up which will set them up for an easy win, then slowly push the time by 5 min increments to get to a more manageable wake-up time.
A solid bedtime routine is incredibly helpful to your toddler and for you as well. Use this opportunity to talk to your child about the new choices at bedtime now that they are “big” and write out their new schedule together. Also remember that when you are ready to introduce a toddler bed make sure you are not also working on another big life change like potty training or starting a new preschool, each one of these transitions deserves developmental time and space, and your toddlers will feel more at ease knowing that even if one area of their life may be changing the rest of their life is solid and secure.
BASED ON THEIR AGE EVERY CHILD NEEDS SOMETHING DIFFERENT:
Toddlers need to learn to regulate and calm their bodies so they can access their own self-settling and soothing skills learned as babies.
Establishing a strong bedtime routine is the foundation upon which these more intangible skills will grow.
So be prepared to help your toddler with their new bedtime routine and order your copy of The Middle of the Night Book today.