Helping Your Toddler Adjust to Daylight-Saving Time

Each year we turn the clocks back one hour in the fall for Daylight-Saving Time. Although teenagers and adults look at this as a great chance to get an extra hour of sleep, toddlers do not understand daylight savings time and it can be a difficult process to adjust their schedule accordingly. Here are some tips to try to get your toddler back on track.

The biggest problem for daylight savings time comes because most toddlers are used to sleeping a certain number of hours every night. They do not wake up to an alarm clock the way that adults do. This can result in toddlers waking up an hour earlier than usual after daylight savings time goes into effect. Although waking up an hour early may not seem like that big of a deal, it can cause the day's routine to be thrown off by quite a bit. If you do not take steps to readjust your child's routine, then you may have to deal with a very cranky toddler.

One way to minimize the effect is to try to put your toddler to bed an hour later than normal the night before daylight savings time. This might lead to them sleeping in an hour later than usual which would negate the difference from daylight savings time. If you forget to plan ahead in this way, the best thing to do is try to stick to your usual schedule as much as possible, even if your toddler wakes up early. If you can postpone meals and naps to their usual time, even if it means dealing with a cranky child for the day, there is less chance that your toddler will continue a disrupted schedule for the days to come. Although your toddler may be tired earlier than normal because of the time change, it is a good idea to try to keep them up until their usual bedtime so that hopefully they will wake up at the normal time the following day.

Some children have more difficulty than others with even small changes in their schedule. If your toddler resists having their schedule adjusted for daylight savings time, you may need to adjust the routine by smaller increments over a few days. For example, push naptime and bedtime forward by 15 or 20 minutes a day until they are back on track. It can be frustrating to have your toddler wake you up an hour earlier than usual while they are adjusting to the time change from daylight savings time, but with a little patience you can get the household back on track in a short period of time. When all else fails, remember that soon enough you will be spending all your energy trying to get your child to wake up on time and get ready for the day. Try to enjoy this time in your child's life when they are excited to wake up and greet the day without prodding.