What is the purpose of routine in a baby’s life?
From morning coffee routines to workout routines, our lives as adults are filled with everyday routines to keep us on track.
What is routine? Events that happen in about the same way at about the same time on a regular basis.
Routines provide structure, comfort and a sense of predictability. The same way you look forward to your morning coffee or your afternoon workout is how they feel about their bath or story before bedtime.
As a parent, you can create sleeping and feeding routines by being consistent in what you do. There are many ways to go about creating them: parent-led routines, baby-led routines, and combinations of both.
Baby-led schedules are easier on them, you just have to be flexible. Parent-led schedules require training your baby to feed and sleep at certain times which doesn’t always fit with the already-there-routine (awake and sleep cycles) each baby has. A combination-led schedule is recommended.
Forget about exact times, babies can’t read time and we need to learn their cues on their needs. They have a loose routine they are already keeping. If we work mindfully we can tweak this into a good, stable one by responding to their cues.
Flexibility is crucial! Our plans and routines very often get disrupted by our lives, if we have stable routines a few disruptions will not throw the whole thing out. Children are still learning concepts like before and after – adhering to a routine will help them with these concepts and planning abilities.
There are various ways to go about things. As adults we thrive on structure and routine. Every person is unique and it’s important to emphasise on flexibility.
Most little ones only start showing daytime routines at about 3 months and night-time routines at 6 months.
Mistakes to try and avoid:
• Keeping your child awake for too long
• Going against their natural rhythm.
Routine gives a sense of stability and security
As little ones gain an understanding of everyday events and what is expected of them, it makes their environment more predictable and then they feel more safe and secure. This allows them, over time, to think and feel more independently and become more and more emotionally stable. When they feel safe and secure, they become free to relax and explore through play to learn. Regular routine helps train responsibility and independence because it helps them to order and organise their lives.
Routine has a positive effect on social, emotional and cognitive behaviour
Effective routine helps infants and toddlers to engage better with their environment and the people around them. As they learn routine and anticipate changes, they become more independent which in return helps to reduce challenging behaviours because it gives them a sense of control. Some children transition easier from one activity to the next, (play-to-meal, meal-to-bath, bath-to-bed) so when we combine these with routine, they can become incredibly helpful tools while coping with transition. For example, reading a story before bed, singing songs, timer-warning systems, special bath salts.
We can support and develop social skills through greetings and goodbyes. Mealtimes are very social, talking about how our days were, learning to wait your turn and helping others are all part of a meal routine. It can act as instructions to a child’s actions and help them learn positive and responsible behaviour. For example, holding an adult’s hand when in a parking lot or washing hands before dinner.
Routine therefore gives us the teaching opportunities through talking, explaining and showcasing routines we are developing language and communication skills, gross and fine motor skills, emotional skill development and so much more.
When babies are well rested and not hungry, they are happy individuals who are ready to learn and explore their new world. Setting a routine can help your baby to accomplish this.
A routine will also aid parents in leaving a child with a caregiver or school, knowing that the baby will be reassured by the usual schedule.
Whether we like it or not, all of us function on some sort of routine, some more fixed than others but one nonetheless.
Our infants and toddlers can benefit from flexible routines and when they benefit so do we.
