Setting schedules to the baby in your day to day is something that for many parents is essential. Setting a routine and implementing a discipline is part of education of our children and that will make everything much calmer and more bearable.
Setting schedules for the baby is a way of governing their mealtime, their sleep, their games, bath time ... without having to forget that they also need all the love and affection of their parents. It is as simple as discovering that sticking to a routine makes life so much easier for everyone. You will be able to discover how the child feels able to predict when each moment will happen so that he feels that security.
When to start putting schedules on the baby?
As soon as babies are born they need to eat on demand and it is almost unfeasible to set a schedule. A few weeks after birth, the baby is fed practically every two or three hours and his bowel movements are made with each feeding.
As time goes by, a routine is inadvertently practiced. It is after two to four months when a habit begins to be established much more formal and it is also a practice that is advised by some pediatricians.
Keeping a more precise schedule as the weeks go by is basically following track your eating and sleeping. With this, the children follow a defined pattern and their rhythm becomes much more regulated. In this way we are encouraging all of us to cope much better with a routine that will lead us to achieve well-being.
You don't have to be very strict at all with the schedules, from the beginning not even having passed the months. If the child needs to eat something in a timely manner, it is worth giving it to them, as there are some parents who choose not to feed them until their time has come.
Routines according to the months
With these guidelines we can know in which months it is necessary to do a routine. These indications will help us to know what the needs of the child are, since it varies a lot from its first months to the next.
- From birth to 3 months: In these first months the baby only needs to eat and sleep. He will demand his food for 2 to 3 hours, although it will not be continuously, since as the weeks go by, the feeds will be distanced and his meals will be marked at set times.
- In these first months habits can be created until you get to establish fixed hours. For example, feeding him at the agreed times, playing between his feedings, going out for a walk around the same time in the afternoon or taking that long-awaited bath before going to bed at night and taking his last feed of the day.
- From 3 months to one year old: from here we can establish stricter schedules. The child already adapts to not getting so many hours of sleep during the day and we can see that his naps are reduced and that their hours of sleep at night are more followed. We can already see how the time of breakfast, lunch, lunch, snack and dinner is marked, even when you need your hours of play, bath or any family routine.
However, this is an approximate schedule and that is practically marked by all the families in their homes. Your rules and schedules will depend on the needs of the parents and the baby, and even the personality and character of each member. To do this, do not rush to find by force something that you see as impossible. Just look for a balance where schedules and routines are adapted to the needs of a family, to make your day to day much easier.