We recommend always following the safe sleep guidelines.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Dr Fallon and Dr Law acknowledged the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
They pay respect to their elders past and present and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.
Everyone says that a good bedtime routine for children is super important, but has anyone ever told you why or how to set up a great bedtime routine for your little one?
Well, today we're going to dive right in so you can learn what's happening in your child's brain when you begin their bedtime routine, how to set up a great bedtime routine for your baby, toddler or older child, and what to do if bedtime feels more like heading into battle than the relaxing wind down that you hoped it would be.
Welcome back to Brand New Little People, the podcast companion to the Sunbelt Pediatric Sleep Clinic programs created by us.
I'm Dr Fallon Cook and I'm here with Dr Laura Conway and we're the directors of Infant Sleep Australia.
Laura, how are you going this fine Monday morning?
I have limped to the screen this morning.
She's hanging by a thread.
I'm hanging by a thread, people, after moving this weekend.
There's been no bedtime routines for me.
I have just been falling into bed and passing out the last few nights.
I bet.
I'm so tired.
Yeah, moving house and particularly as a single parent is next level stress.
So anyhow, I'm in and I have lots of boxes to unpack, but I will.
Soon it will be behind me a distant memory and that will be wonderful.
How are you going, Fallon?
Yeah, not too bad.
I've been, you know, just getting the kids back to school and trying to navigate all of that and get everyone happily out the door on time without it being like this absolute disaster every morning.
So far it's going pretty well.
Oh, good.
Yeah, like we had.
I sort of chuckled to myself because we had an email come through from Annabelle, who's a SOMBAL member, and she had some questions about the bedtime routine.
And the minute I read it, I was like, oh, yeah, this is a great episode.
So thank you, Annabelle, really made me go, yes, let's do an episode on the bedtime routine.
But I kind of chuckled because I was like yeah, I'm in the throes of figuring out a better bedtime routine for my kids.
So I just think for a lot of parents it's so relevant right now because so many of us are maybe heading back to work after parent leave or we've just had time off over the holidays.
Everything has gone wild. wild.
Now we're trying to rein everything back in again.
And that's what it's been like for me with my kids.
Like over the summer break, I always let my kids have their bedtime creep a bit later.
The sleep-ins get a bit longer.
And I'm okay with allowing that because I know I can get them back on track before school starts.
And I just feel like our evenings are so beautiful in the summertime.
They're long, you know, it's light until nine or nine 30.
Um, so that's all been great.
But then of course, as school approaches, it's like okay, we've got to got to dial this back in and get them organized.
And I was really reflecting on like oh, I just didn't want bedtime to go back to being what it was like last year.
It just wasn't great.
It But not a bedtime you'd look forward to.
Often everyone's stressed and it's like come on quick.
You know, we've got to quickly get ready for bed.
Just not a super engaging, fun time for anyone.
And so I was thinking back over that and I was like okay, I really want to kind of hit this year on the front foot and really like get in ahead of the back to school, really start to work on the bedtime routine.
Because things like even just reading at bedtime had started to fall off the radar.
And I was like no, I really want my kids to be reading more and like just really happy going to bed.
And for me to have enough time as well to, like you know, when you've got three kids, especially when they're older, often by the time they go to bed, I'm just like, oh my God, I just want to collapse into bed, you know.
Yes.
There's no time for me to just be me.
Like you give them your whole day and then often you're giving them your whole evening and then you just fall into bed and collapse in a hit.
So I was like, right, got to get this back on track.
Anyway, I'm rambling, but essentially I started to think okay, what am I going to do to support this?
And I um looked into.
There's a lot of e-calendars available now, where you've got like a screen sits on your kitchen bench and you can schedule in everything that's coming up so your kids can kind of see what's for dinner and what they're doing on saturday and all those sorts of things are nice and kind of visual for them.
But there's a great feature where you can add in, like you know, the bedtime routine or the morning routine.
And I knew that my youngest would absolutely love being able to like, check things off and hear the little ding and there's like little emojis that pop up and stuff.
So I was like, right, I'm going to get one of those.
And it took a bit of time to like schedule everything in, but oh my God, they love it.
It works so well because yeah, it's not me saying well, I'm still saying you know it's time to brush your teeth, or whatever.
But they know that it's time, because there was a little ding that said you know time to brush your teeth.
So it's less about me being like, you have to do this right now.
Hurry the hell up.
And more like, oh, what do we do next?
And then they're like, oh, yeah, it's like teeth brushing time or whatever.
Definitely works better with my youngest who's nine now.
But it's just been fantastic.
They're getting into bed earlier and they're reading in bed and loving it.
And last night I checked on my middle child and my youngest.
And because it's time for lights out, enough reading.
And they couldn't hear each other.
They're separate rooms.
It's interesting they both did it the same night.
But they were both like, you know what, Mum?
I really didn't want to do the whole, you know, reading in bed thing.
But I love it.
They both were saying it's really nice.
It's so cosy.
I've got my little lamp and I'm cuddled under my doona and I can just read and it's like really relaxing and they're falling asleep much quicker.
It's this lovely, calm wind down.
And I just thought, hell, yeah, because –
So often I think I mean this is just every parent's story, but so often we feel like we've gotten wildly off track and you just think how the heck will I ever fix this?
How am I ever going to make it better?
And I think it just takes, probably just takes four weeks of summer holidays to reset a bit.
But that's what helped me.
It was just having that time to take a breath and reflect on the year and go okay, what do I want to change about it?
And then just being really clear with the kids that these are the changes we're making.
And they can earn stars and things like that.
So they're all working towards different goals, which you know.
It's nothing like a little bit of bribery or incentive to help things along.
But anyway, it has been really, really helping.
We're having really calm bedtimes.
They're getting ready for school, you know, pretty easily.
They understand what happens next.
And, yeah, I just think that has been great.
Awesome.
Yeah, so that's why I thought, right, now it's fresh in my mind.
Let's dive into, you know, bedtime routines, because I think there's so many parents who kind of want advice around this.
Yeah, so why don't we start with telling parents why having a bedtime routine is so important?
Fallon.
Yeah look, I think there would be a lot of parents who kind of groan hearing the old oh, just have a bedtime routine.
Because we do hear so many people, especially online, being like oh, if your child's not sleeping, just do a bedtime routine and it's going to solve all the problems.
And I just think, oh, you know, it's definitely an important part of the equation.
And I think every child benefits from a bedtime routine.
But it isn't going to solve all your problems, but it doesn't mean you can't kind of you know work towards it as just part of the bigger picture around their sleep.
But anyway, basically when we have a predictable pattern of events that happen in the lead up to bedtime.
So things happening in sleep, the same order, you know, nice and calm.
Your child knows what to expect.
Their brain starts to learn that pattern of events.
And eventually, when you start the first parts of that routine, their brain picks up on it and understands oh okay, sleep is happening soon.
So it's preparing by releasing those sleep hormones that are hopefully going to mean, by the time you finish that routine, they're just feeling really prepared and they're kind of biologically really ready for sleep.
And they've got those sleep hormones there.
That's why it's important.
So if you've got a really chaotic bedtime where everything moves around all the time and they might have 10 stories or one story or singing a song and it's just really variable, then your child's not getting the benefit of that predictability.
That's really priming their brain for the bedtime that's coming up quickly.
Yeah yeah um, and that kind of brings me to the next point laura, do you want to talk about how long the bedtime routine should be?
Because i do know some parents who are like oh well, we start at 6 pm and bedtimes 8 pm and it's like this two hour.
Yes, there's some bedtime activities yeah, but what's the sort of ideal length, do you think?
So what we want for little babies is a routine that is really relatively quick, because they get tired so quickly.
So a bedtime routine for really young babies, so under three months or so, may just be a few minutes.
So may simply be swaddling, final feed and a quick cuddle and into bed.
But for older babies and certainly toddlers, we're thinking more around 20 minutes or so.
Some might push out to 30 minutes, but really no longer than that.
If you are finding that the bedtime routine is pushing longer than that, then having a look at the daily rhythm to ensure that the bedtime is the right time for your little one would be the next step to try and ensure that, by the time when you start the routine, until you're turning lights out or you know, the final kiss goodnight is no longer than 20 30 minutes, absolute max.
Yeah.
Yeah, I completely agree.
20 minutes is kind of that sweet spot where it's nicely contained.
But parents will often say to me oh, my goodness, I can't possibly do a routine in 20 minutes, including the bath.
So, Fallon, what do you say?
Should the bath be part of the bedtime routine?
Yeah, this is such a good question.
We get it from parents all the time and it was actually one of the questions that Annabelle sent in.
Look, I would say no.
I just think kids don't find the bath, like you know, calming or relaxing until well I think they've got to move out of home and get a job and then they'll find the bath relaxing.
Before they moved out of home and got a job, then it's just fun.
It's water play.
It's exciting.
Often they're really, really riled up and they're splashing around.
Yes.
Look, every baby is different.
I'm sure there are exceptions.
But by and large, I would say no, keep the bath time for a little while before bed.
It doesn't have to be super long.
It might even be that your 20-minute bedtime routine begins once they're out of the bath.
But I would think of the 20-minute routine as being all the pretty calming, relaxing kind of things, not the tsunami and everything that happens at bath time.
Yeah.
I remember my kids.
I just have very, very fond memories of my kids' bath times, when they were babies and toddlers, and it was just always so much fun with the squealing and giggling and getting the last of the sillies out.
Yeah.
Sometimes I joke with parents in clinic that those baby oil companies that are wanting you to try and manufacture this really calming routine where the bath is just dim lights and chilled out, are just setting parents up to fail.
Because water and children, it's normally fun, fun and laughter.
Yeah.
Oh, it's so true.
You mentioned earlier, Laura, about like really tiny little babies under three months.
We keep that bedtime routine super quick.
And often parents say it doesn't even really feel like we have much of a routine, which is really fine at that age.
But maybe talk parents through like an ideal bedtime routine for a little baby, but maybe from around sort of three to six months of age.
What, what are the good kind of elements of a 20 minute bedtime routine?
Yeah, so dimming the lighting, using really calm, soft voices.
You don't want to be using exciting tones that really rile them up.
Giving your little one the last feed of the day, be that a breastfeed or a bottle feed.
Doing a final nappy change into their PJs um, and everything soft and calm.
If you're using white noise, you can turn the white noise on at this point.
Um, and often at this point, parents will bring in um a song that they sing, that they always sing um as part of the bedtime routine.
Twinkle twinkle is one that's used a lot.
Um, or a simple and or a simple short book.
So um most families will have a particular bedtime story that they love using um whilst giving their little one a cuddle.
Um, and after that, popping the little one down into the cot, zipping up a sleeping bag, if you haven't already put them in a sleeping bag.
Um, and that's all done and dusted.
Um, within a relatively short space of time.
Oh, I love that.
It's so lovely.
And a word of caution.
There are so many parents who will say to me oh, but my partner gets home from work right at that time and all they want to do is play and rile them up.
No, absolutely not.
No, don't do that.
You could work on making everything later, bedtime later and your wind down routine later.
But we don't want a really excited parent coming into that 20 minute wind down and making it too fun or too exciting.
No, absolutely.
Yeah.
And Fallon, how does a bedtime routine begin to change as babies grow into being toddlers?
Yeah, look, there are some components that stay similar.
So you're still going to want to have the lighting is dimmed, you're using calm voices.
If they're still having a milk feed, then you know you're definitely going to do that as maybe part of the bedtime routine.
It might even start to happen before the bedtime routine.
You've still got your nappy change, your pyjamas.
Often there's brushing teeth as well.
But the things that really change as they enter toddlerhood is that you're probably going to bring in more stories.
That really close snuggly time, the cuddles that you're giving.
You know maybe you have a favourite chair in their bedroom that you sit in together to do stories.
The closeness of that contact, the pressure of their body against yours and yours against theirs is really regulating.
It really helps them to calm down.
And also we know all the amazing benefits of storytelling them just hearing your voice talking through a story, looking at the pictures.
It's for most toddlers, a story is a great way to help them be calm and still.
And a lot of toddlers will struggle with that.
It's the, you know, they don't get the memo that to fall asleep and get ready for bed.
You, you've got to stop moving.
But often, not always, I know there are parents out there going, a story will not stop my toddler.
But most toddlers will sit still and calm down for that story and they get that lovely benefit of the closeness as well.
With toddlers, you know, in bedtime routines, often there comes a point where they want to start to make some decisions and they'll start to say things like one more story, or I need this, or I need to.
More water.
Yeah, more water.
I need a different teddy.
Yeah, lots of things like that.
So that's where we want them to have some, of course, we're growing these incredible little humans.
We want them to develop some sense of autonomy, like they've got some control and some say in how things go.
But bedtime is not where we want to be too wild with the extent of the things they're allowed to do.
So this is where I often say to parents, a bedtime routine chart in pictures is absolute gold.
It's a bit like the e-calendar thing I'm using with my older kids, in that they can see what's coming next on that chart.
And I often say to parents, put it in their bedroom.
So when you start your 20 minutes you're kind of in the room.
They can see it on the wall, so that you've got every single thing they could want to do in their bedtime routine.
You know, there's a picture for it.
You've set it up in the order that it needs to happen.
And then you ask your child, oh, what do we do next?
And then they look up and they go, oh, toothbrush.
We've got to brush our teeth.
So they're not actually having a whole lot of control at bedtime, but they feel like they've got some control because they're able to tell you what they should be doing next.
And I think psychologically that makes a huge difference for toddlers and apparently nine-year-olds and 12-year-olds.
But, you know, it's really, really powerful.
So if you're a Sunbelt member of the toddler program, you know there's a whole like lessons, heaps of info about how to set up a really good pictorial bedtime routine chart, because that can really help to reduce bedtime battles.
And it just, you know, it's a way of keeping things happening in a predictable order before bedtime.
So their brain is getting all the benefits of knowing bedtime is coming.
But it's less about you saying no, you can't have the fourth story, because on our chart you know we've got three stories there.
So it's less about you just saying no and more about you directing to that chart and saying oh, that's not what we do next.
We actually do this thing.
And I will often say to parents, there might be some tears at first.
They might be very cranky when they realize that, oh, there's a boundary there.
There is a maximum of three stories and it doesn't bend anymore.
But your job is not to go and change the routine chart or change the rules.
Your job is to support them through all the big feelings they're having about that boundary.
And when those feelings pass, you just calmly go on to the next step and you just keep working through.
And often within a few nights, toddlers realise oh okay, there's not much point in, you know, staging a huge protest because my parents actually rock solid on this and this is just the way it goes now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I would say that's probably a little, you know, a nutshell of what toddler bedtime routines start to be like.
But Laura, you know, instilling a predictable pattern of events in the lead up to bedtime, I think is particularly important for toddlers.
Do you want to talk us through why that is?
Yeah.
So, like you mentioned just earlier, as your little one gets older, enters toddlerhood, they're beginning to work out where boundaries lie and they will be pushing the boundaries in all sorts of things.
They're putting their shoes on, eating their dinner, getting into the car or all sorts of just usual day-to-day transitions.
They're going to be checking where the boundaries are, and they will, at some point, start to do this at bedtime as well.
Not all of them, but most of them and the way that this will often present in toddlers is they will have extra requests.
So they want one more story, they want to go out of their bedroom again and say good night to the other parent, or there's something they need to go and find a different toy, or they may insist on doing things differently.
They might want to.
Um, I'm remembering some of the things my kids did.
They don't want to just climb into the bed normally.
They want to do a handstand into the bed or something or go in at the wrong end of the bed.
Yes, climb the bunk bed in a slightly different way.
That's been a thing in my house.
No, this time I want to see if I can go up backwards in reverse order.
All kinds of shenanigans can happen at bedtime.
And of course we, some of those things we might just, you know, you choose your battles.
You might let those things through.
But in terms of the general order of events, it is quite important that you do hold steady on the activities that are in that bedtime routine.
So there may be a little bit of wrigglery if they decide that they want to do a headstand into their bed.
All right, that's them doing their step of getting into bed.
But by being really steady so that you say at the end of this step, you get into bed.
It just helps your child understand that these things are predictable and you are firm that each step leads to the next.
And when you do hold steady in that way, it can really help ensure that you don't end up having that one or two hour bedtime battle again.
Where it's one step forward, two steps back.
Because your toddlers actually need to have some boundaries and to understand where they stand at bedtime.
And for as long as you change what happens, they can feel a little bit insecure about where those boundaries are.
It actually helps a toddler feel secure knowing that these are the things that happen in this predictable order.
If things are constantly changing, it can actually help.
Well, not help, but it can lead to that bedtime transition, feeling more uncertain and they feel less secure and then their behavior may escalate further.
So really we just want things nice and predictable and It supports their stage of development and helps them stay calm and puts a full stop on the bedtime routine so it doesn't end up being this really protracted experience that the whole family drinks.
Yes.
And I think it's so much about prevention too.
Like you know, we see so many parents where they've got a three and a half year old whose bedtime has been this two hour absolute battle for the past 18 months or something.
And often those parents are like, oh, I let this get so out of control.
Like they started wanting to request things at bedtime.
And I was like, yeah, I'm a cool parent.
Sure, we can do that.
Yeah, let's do an extra story.
And, you know, that's when it can really unravel.
But those parents are like oh, if only I just maintained that consistency in those boundaries.
Because once your toddler has learned, you know, after a month of shenanigans they've learned that they can do all these sorts of things.
There's no real boundary.
You know, it's really hard to get that back on track.
But if you're going into it so many parents who tune into this as well, they've got a prevention lens on.
They're like I want the best possible sleep for my family and I'll do what I need to do to make sure we can maintain it.
And if you're one of those parents, just keep that bedtime routine on track, because it will pay off in spades.
Yeah, But it's still important to consider sleep pressure at bedtime as your child is getting older.
So, Fallon, can you talk us through that?
Yeah, I think it's a really important element we've got to keep in mind, because you can hold steady on bedtime routine all you like, but if they're keeping their day nap for too long, or the day nap is just going on too long, or they've had a drop-off in sleep needs and you're not catering to that, then you know or maybe you've just bedtime is just way too early for your child and you haven't recognized that yet.
If you are trying to do you can have the most golden bedtime routine, the most consistent bedtime routine, but if your toddler isn't ready for sleep, they don't have enough sleep pressure.
Um, something else is going on.
It just isn't going to work.
So you always want to be working with your child's unique sleep needs, not battling against them.
Um, Some of our members use the unique sleep needs chapter in the toddler program to make sure you're really on top of how much sleep they're needing, how you're structuring their day.
For a lot of toddlers, bedtimes are very tricky because they've You know, they're holding on to the naps for too long, or the naps are stretching on a bit.
So you've really got to take care of that, because we can't reasonably expect a toddler to follow the routine and be wonderfully behaved and not make any extra requests if they're not tired and ready for sleep.
I think even as an adult, we can imagine that if you try to put yourself to bed early one night and you're not really ready for sleep.
It's torturous trying to fall asleep when your mind is just still wide awake.
It's really hard.
It feels horrible and it's going to feel horrible for your toddler too.
So it is about making sure the sleep pressure is there and you've got a routine that ends.
You know at the time that they are genuinely ready for sleep.
And that can be a bit of a balancing act.
Definitely can be really tricky to navigate.
So Laura, where can parents get help if they're having trouble with really tricky bedtimes, you know, especially as children get older as well?
I think bedtime can be particularly challenging.
What are parents' options?
Well joining Sunbelt if you haven't already joined.
There is loads of content dedicated to bedtime difficulties, because toddlers are renowned for this.
And it includes exact steps on how to implement a bedtime routine chart, how to give your toddlers that sense of agency which they can absolutely love.
And that can be a great starting point to get sleep or the bedtime back on track.
There's also clinic appointments available.
These are great if you don't have time for the program and you want us to do the full sleep assessment and give you the steps you need to make bedtime easier.
This is really great if your kid has complex needs.
For example, if they are neurodivergent, ADHD, autistic, have sensory sensitivities and challenges.
Often we will need to develop a really bespoke bedtime routine for those children that meets their particular needs and can help them calm at bedtime and give them the sense of agency that they may need.
Thinking about school-age kids.
Fallon, you started this podcast talking about things that you've put into place for your older children.
And we do have the Children Sleep Australia clinic where we help parents of school age kids, and that's primary school and secondary school age children.
And we can talk through that. dealing with protracted bedtimes in that population.
If your child is older, in teenage years, then they can be really heavily involved in the appointments and looking at what type of issues are causing them to feel that they can't fall asleep.
Often teenagers might have worries, school worries or friendship worries.
So we may be looking at doing some cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia for example, that we don't have to do for little children and isn't appropriate for younger kids.
So there are lots of places that parents can go to get help if their children are having issues, tricky bedtimes, um.
And so you've got some bell, you've got clinic appointments and you've got the children's sleep australia clinic as well.
I think parents are often really surprised how, once kids reach school age, there is so little support for children's sleep problems.
You could probably count on one or two hands the number of dedicated sleep clinics for children and teens.
Like it's really, you know, there's not a lot of support out there.
So we're really happy to now have that service.
And you're in Melbourne on Thursdays now.
So families local to Melbourne can actually see you in our clinic in Malvern on Waddle Tree Road at the Victorian Children's Clinic.
But we do telehealth regularly all around the world, anywhere except the usa or its territories.
I just have to mention that.
Um, but yeah, you know we can, we can support with these sorts of problems.
Um amazing, we've had terrific questions come in over the past fortnight from members, haven't we?
Yeah, really really good ones um, and we've decided to group them this week kind of roughly into similar topics.
So the first sort of topic we're going to cover is looking at bedtime resistance, the really long settles and false starts.
And these questions sort of centre on bedtime becoming harder again after a period of improvement.
So let's start with Hannah.
She has a 21-month-old who was previously settling well with a 7pm bottle, booked shortly after and asleep by around 730 to 740pm.
She wakes between 6.45 and 7.30am and naps for up to two hours at daycare.
Recently, bedtime has stretched out to anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour and a half, sometimes with distress, and she rarely settles with dad when upset.
Nights are otherwise okay, though there have been some recent night terrors.
Hannah wants help deciding where to intervene whether to wake her earlier, reduce her daytime nap or push bedtime later.
Okay Hannah, I would be logging your little one's sleep to see what her sleep need is and stabilizing wake up time.
So you're describing that that bedtime can push between 40 minutes and an hour and a half.
And there is about 45 minute variation in the wake up time in the morning.
So if you were to stabilize that wake-up time in the morning, say to 645, that might reduce a lot of that battle at bedtime.
And the other thing I would be looking at is that nap duration.
So two hours.
It may be that you can look at shaving one sleep cycle off that nap time.
And then you might find that you can help your little one go to sleep before that 730, 740 as well.
You could push some of the sleep that's currently allocated to the nap into the start of the night instead.
Um so yes yeah, stabilize that wake-up time.
Um yes yeah, see you about the nap, i think definitely hannah, figure out what that your child's unique sleep needs are.
So use that unique sleep needs chapter, because just thinking about that schedule, if they're potentially doing 7 30 pm through to 7 30 am, that's 12 hours overnight plus a two-hour nap.
We're at 14 hours And for 21-month-old that is a lot of sleep.
Very good chance that their sleep needs are actually lower than that.
But by catering to that sleep need, you should really see a great improvement in the nights.
Awesome.
Good luck, Hannah.
So Jessica has an almost seven-month-old who only needs 11 and a half hours in a 24-hour period.
So he's on two naps, capped at between an hour and a half and two hours, and has a bedtime between 830 and 9, waking at 630 in the morning.
He no longer feeds to sleep, which is great, but he still relies on bouncing on an exercise ball before being transferred to the cot.
Oh, gosh, those exercise balls.
Parents with thighs of steel.
New workout regime.
They're seeing frequent false starts.
30 to 45 minutes after bedtime.
And they want to understand whether these are due to undertiredness or lingering sleep associations and whether they should focus first on cot settling or resolving the false starts.
What do you reckon, Fallon?
I would start with working on the daily rhythm, which will resolve the false starts, but then, very quickly, working on the cot settling.
So you're going to have an easier time cot settling if you've absolutely nailed the sleep pressure with a daily rhythm that really fits.
False starts only happen because there's something off with the daily rhythm.
So yeah, I would be.
You know, if it's an 11 and a half hour sleep need, what would I think off the top of my head?
So if we spend an hour and a half on day sleep, we're left with 10 hours overnight.
So then you could do an 8.30 p.m. bedtime and a 6.30 a.m. wake up.
That could add up to your 11 and a half hours.
If you make it a two hour nap, then it's going to have to be an even shorter night.
So that's where I'd go for the 9 p.m. bedtime.
What's really key is not to vary this.
You actually want to try and keep it really standard.
So if daycare always does a two-hour nap, refuses to wake him earlier well, the decision is made for you.
But if they're happy to wake him an hour and a half, well, you've got some flexibility.
But yeah, definitely work on that daily rhythm.
Three or four days in, you should have much higher sleep pressure at bedtime.
Then go all in on the cot settling because there are some babies who, once they can self-settle and have good longer stretches overnight, their total sleep needs increase.
So I think of self-soothing as being a little bit like a muscle.
The stronger it gets, the better they can do it.
And sometimes even if sleep drives a little low, they'll manage an extra cycle per day or so.
And we just want to give them all the opportunity we can to get – as much sleep as they can get.
But it's important to yeah, build the sleep pressure, then work on cot settling, because it's going to be a really huge change for your baby to go from being in your arms and moving constantly to being completely still.
So you really want to optimize everything you can um, to hopefully make that go a little easier.
Yeah, deflate that exercise ball when you can so that you don't revert back to it in the.
Yeah, true.
Once you make the change, make it a clean change.
Good point.
All right.
Our next group of questions are about nap challenges and nap transitions.
So these focus on naps kind of falling apart or changing, especially around the 12 to 14 month mark.
So Lauren has a 12 month old who's recently started sleeping through the night, which is great.
Getting about 11 hours sleep overnight.
Woohoo.
Previously, his total sleep need was between 11 and 12 hours, but day sleep has become very difficult.
He may skip the first nap or only sleep 30 minutes and resettling usually requires holding.
This has been going on for about three weeks, alongside some big developmental changes and recent dropping the dummy.
So Lauren is wondering whether this is a regression, development-related or linked to night sleep consolidating.
What do you reckon?
I love this question.
Well, this is a baby who has amazingly started to do 11 hours overnight.
Essentially, almost their entire sleep need is now being met overnight.
They're going to be waking up way more refreshed, better able to power through the day.
And they probably just don't have that much sleep in the tank for their day naps, which is perfectly fine. um 100 i would move this child to one nap um i think something about what lauren said implied that there's two naps happening um it doesn't sound like they're needing the two naps anymore um so what's their total average daily sleep sitting on now if it is sitting on 12 hours per 24 hours we've got a one hour allowance for day nap if you want to keep that 11 hours overnight um um if you know they're averaging 11 and a half hours well that's when you might go okay we're just going to dial back the night's sleep a little bit so maybe they get an hour nap at lunchtime um so i'd be really just thinking about the maths and how to best split um that total sleep need that they have um yeah and thinking about how well to one nap thinking about how well he copes what's the least amount of day's sleep that he manages well on So if he really needs... uh, an hour and a half, let's say, um, then you, and that's what he functions best on for his nap.
Then you would need to, um, alter bedtime.
Um, so that you reduce that.
You know you're taking some of that 11 hours overnight and putting it into the daytime.
But if you coach really well on just one, you know, 45 minutes to an hour during the day, brilliant.
Then we keep most of the sleep at night.
So this is an example of where we're always looking to see um, not just what the maths is doing, but how our little ones are functioning during the day, to determine what's going to be the best duration.
But make that change for a whole week before you decide whether or not it's working.
Absolutely.
Melinda has a 14 month old who was pushed into a one nap schedule due to a daycare policy.
14 months though, probably should be on one nap.
So sorry if it was a bumpy ride, Melinda, but probably is time.
She says previously he woke at 6am, had a short morning nap and a longer afternoon nap.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
I think, very similar answer.
Probably yeah, this is gonna be a maths question, I think.
Um, you probably haven't got a lot of say with the um daytime nap duration at daycare.
Um, so what's that?
Um an hour, how long is that?
Um 12 uh yeah, an hour and 45 minutes.
Daytime yeah, nearly two hours daytime sleep, And he probably doesn't quite need a bedtime at seven anymore.
I would be looking well, either adjusting the bedtime later, or I would be looking at stabilizing that wake up in line with his unique sleep needs.
So, you know, he's having roughly two hours daytime sleep.
What's his total sleep average sleep duration, then set bedtime and wake up so that it matches that.
And you should then see those overnight wakes stopping.
I suspect it's just he's running out of sleep pressure.
That 11 pm wake up is his deep sleep has passed and he's just beginning to be a bit more wakeful because the sleep pressure is a little bit.
You know it's dropped off a lot because of that deep sleep passing.
Yeah, so that would be my advice, Melinda.
Good luck.
Yeah, totally agree.
Okay, so.
We'll also.
Oh, yeah.
Yep, you go.
We've got a question from Katie who has a 14 month old who's on one nap as well, waking around 6.30, napping at 11.30 and going to bed at 7.30.
So quite similar to Melinda's baby.
Mornings are tricky.
Melinda describes her little one being clingy and fussy from around nine, which improves when they do go out of the house.
However, outings often lead to car naps that disrupt the day.
Katie is wondering whether the morning fussiness reflects tiredness, boredom or possibly poor quality overnight sleep.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would be curious to learn more about why Katie thinks that overnight sleep could be poor quality.
Like is this a toddler who's waking quite often overnight and really restless?
So there could be a bit of tweaking to the daily rhythm.
So I would follow the same advice we gave for Lauren and Melinda in calculating the sleep need and making sure you're really meeting it.
It's not uncommon for toddlers, who probably only moved to one nap not that long ago, to still get a little bit tired in the morning.
The fact that they can be distracted and then they're really happy when they've got some stimulation, really tells you that they're.
They're probably just wanting to be kept a lot busier and it might be that we need to keep this toddler busy, but without going in the car or the pram for the next little while, to avoid those sneaky little naps from coming in, and just try and plan some activities that aren't too far from home or around home that are really stimulating and provide that input.
Um Yeah, good luck to all three of those parents who are doing that little delicate dance with the daily rhythm.
It's always worth it when you nail it, but it can be tricky trying to get to that point.
Yeah, it can.
Good luck.
So we've got a few questions now.
Yeah, we've got some questions now about night waking and just overnight sleep patterns in general.
Um, renee has a nine month old with a total sleep need of about 12 and a half hours, bedtimes around 8 40 pm, wake ups around 8 15 am and naps total about 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Whoa, i'm not surprised this child's waking.
That's a lot of sleep overnight.
She's averaging about 10 hours of night sleep but wakes three to four times.
Okay, so they're spending about 12 ish hours in the cot overnight yeah, but only sleeping about 10, waking three or four times.
They usually feed twice.
Renee's goals are to reduce night waking to one or two feeds and gradually wean feeds altogether.
And she's confused by conflicting advice about wake windows and overtiredness.
Oh, God, throw those in the bin.
Yeah, chuck them in the bin, Renee.
Put the overtime in the bin.
Yeah, and also age-based wake windows, just disregard them.
Honestly, they just are hiding to nothing.
So just think about your nine-month-old and how long they can tolerate being awake.
You're offering your little one a lot of sleep about 12 hours overnight and then over two hours during the day.
So that's much more than their 12 and a half hour sleep need.
So, since your goals is to reduce the night wakings, really we definitely need to look at that daily rhythm.
So reducing the amount of time that your baby is in bed overnight when they're not.
They don't need to be.
So I'd be looking.
If you keep the day naps at two hours 15 minutes, which sounds like maybe three 45 minute sleep cycles, then you're looking at just over 10, 10 and a half hours, maybe overnight.
So adjusting that wake up and bedtime to match that.
That's going to start to reduce the wakes overnight considerably.
And so you may find that your little one just simply drops to one or two wakes overnight, and you can provide them with the feeds at that point.
And when you are ready to drop the feeds, then And probably drop down.
If they're having two feeds overnight, then drop down to one feed when you're ready.
The first time they wake up after say, 1 am.
And then you can drop that final feed whenever feels right for you.
But honestly, you just don't worry about overtiredness and weight windows at the moment.
The bigger issue is how many times your nine month old is waking up overnight.
And that's much more of an issue because the nights are so fragmented.
So you must be shattered and so must your baby.
So good luck with making those changes.
That's a pretty significant circadian rhythm difficulty there.
And often these are parents who say, I can't wake them up earlier.
They're so tired.
I have to give them more day sleep.
They're so tired.
They're tired in the daytime because the nights are rubbish and they're not waking up refreshed.
Right.
Often these are parents who need support and encouragement to change the daily rhythm because they're absolutely shattered.
But it's so going to be worth it, Renee.
And to all parents out there if you are still thinking oh, maybe overtiredness oh, maybe I should have a set wake window, do some bell again, because we just want you to let go of this idea that there's a certain optimum wake window.
It's different for every single baby.
And the whole idea of overtiredness is such junk.
If your baby is over 12 weeks of age, forget about overtiredness.
It's not important.
And I would encourage you to go all in on whatever approach you choose.
It's horrible to be listening to multiple voices and trying to figure out what the consensus is.
There really isn't a consensus, you know, in social media and all these other noisy voices, so you just need to choose an approach and dive in.
Yeah yeah gosh, there's a lot of things around daily rhythm in these questions.
Yeah, there are yeah, and so Tamara has a five-month-old who now settles independently in the cot within minutes, which is awesome, But wakes every 40 minutes overnight when his dummy falls out.
He resettles immediately once it's replaced.
So Tamara is looking for ways to reduce these frequent dummy related wakes without undoing their progress.
Oh yeah.
Yes.
All right.
So Tamara, they're probably not going to be able to replace the dummy themselves until they're about seven months of age.
So you've just got a decision to make.
Can you keep going as you are for two more months?
Do a lot of dummy replacement practice as we sort of detail in SOMBAL.
And you might feel like that's the best path for you, which is great.
If you just think, oh, hell no, I do not have two months in me.
I can't survive this.
Then it's time to get rid of the dummy now.
And you're going to have A handful of really tricky settles.
So whatever approach you've been using for cot settling, stick to it really consistently to keep on track.
And you'll notice your baby develops other ways of soothing.
They'll probably bring their hands up to their mouth.
That's the most common one because they're used to having something to suckle.
So, yeah, you've got a big decision to make.
It's going to be fine either way.
Just depends on the time course that you're looking for to resolve those night wakes.
But it sounds like you're doing great.
You can do this.
Your baby can do this.
Whichever option you go with, it's going to be OK.
Yeah, good advice.
All right.
Our next group of questions are about sleep going backwards.
So after illness, developmental spurts or just other disruption in the household.
And all of these Sunbelt members want to know how to reset after these regressions.
So Magenta has a 10-month-old who has low sleep needs previously slept well after using the supported accelerated approach.
After a rough patch with separation anxiety, teething and developmental changes, they have ended up co-sleeping and contact napping.
So they've recently returned to cot naps.
And night wakes are down to two overnight wakes.
Oh, that's great, Magenta.
Well done.
Yeah, that's really good to have gone all the way, to go sleeping in contact naps, to have been able to get yourself back on track.
Well done, Magenta.
The two naps are capped at around an hour and a half total.
Magenta is asking about nap distribution throughout the day.
So when those naps should be, and also wants to know why her baby strongly protests her naps, despite falling asleep quickly.
Hmm.
All right.
So if they're falling asleep quickly, they are ready for the nap.
They just don't like the transition.
And that's really common in 10 month olds.
They've got a lot to learn, they want to experience the world, and having a nap is boring.
Yeah, totally not fun.
But they're falling asleep quickly, they're needing it.
And you know, you've got a good cap on the total day sleep.
So I think what you're doing at the moment is absolutely fine.
In terms of nap distribution, for a 10 month old I would expect the first stretch from like wake up time to the first nap is probably the shortest length of time awake.
It gets a little bit longer before the second nap.
And then the longest time awake is in the lead up to bedtime.
So it's going to kind of vary across the day.
There is no hard and fast routine rules here on two naps.
I feel like you can even be a little bit flexible day to day.
If the exact timing moves a little bit, it's generally fine, as long as the second nap's not pushing really close to bedtime.
Yeah, i would say 10 months we want four or more hours awake before bed would be pretty, pretty common.
Yeah um, and then in terms of Yeah yeah, absolutely.
Just in terms of ending up co-sleeping and contact napping if you want to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Magenta, it's all about.
You know, even if there's separation anxiety, they're teething.
Being in your arms or in your bed isn't going to reduce the separation anxiety or the teething.
You can set up a spare bed beside the cot and And you can give them constant hands-on support if you want to.
That's a lot easier to recover from than them coming into your bed going, oh this is the best, and then not wanting to go back again.
So just a little word of caution if that happens again.
Aim to keep her in the cot and you go to her room and give her support in there, rather than taking her out of her usual sleep environment.
Yeah, I love that tip.
Yeah, good.
All right, and Meta has an 11-month-old with a calm temperament and a long history of split nights that she now understands are related to too much sleep opportunity.
His sleep needs appear to be around 12 to 125 hours and, after stopping night feeds and adjusting his rhythm, nights have improved significantly.
Well done.
Um, he's currently being held to sleep and meta is asking when best to reintroduce cot settling while still fine-tuning the daily rhythm without compromising total sleep.
Oh, i get this.
So many parents are worried that if i try to work on cot settling, they'll be awake for ages and they won't achieve their sleep needs.
And it often trips up parents, laura.
What should they do?
I would just jump into it, meta.
Um, we know that.
Um, even if there are some days where your 11-month-old doesn't sleep for that 12, 12 and a half hours sleep duration that is their average sleep need.
It's not going to do any damage.
So when you start the cot settling, there may be one or two days where perhaps they sleep for 11 and a half hours total.
And not the 12 hours.
And what I want you to be thinking about is that in those few days you're harvesting sleep pressure.
So if they have, when you do start the cot settling at bedtime, if it takes your little one a bit longer to fall asleep and then you're sticking to the wake up time in the morning and you're using the same approach to settle them for their naps that night, their sleep pressure will be a little bit higher come bedtime.
So when you put them down, the protesting may be a little bit shorter.
And often by the third night we know the evidence shows us that the sleep onset will be much shorter and they quickly recover.
So don't let this fear of not meeting their daily needs sleep need hold you back from making the changes that you wish to make, because we know that your little one will recover and they will.
It's like the body as such is so finely calibrated.
It will ensure across an entire week that your little one gets all of the sleep that they need.
So, yeah, try not to let it hold you back.
You'll probably find, just in general when you're logging your baby's sleep, that there is a little bit of up and down which we expect.
None of us are robots, so there is going to be a little bit of variation in how much sleep we get from day to day.
We just don't want that variation to be like 14 hours one day, 11 hours another day.
You know, really, really discrepant.
So Meta, you've done a great job so far.
Jump right in.
You might have a couple of days where your little one doesn't have all of the sleep that they need, but a little bit of variation is is fine to be expected.
Um yeah, a temporary yeah, temporary drop in how much sleep they get isn't going to hurt.
The key thing is, if you work on a new way of settling, they're waking more often.
It's really tricky still get them up on time, still cap their day sleep, still aim for the same night's sleep at bedtime rather, Because if they have a tricky night and you let them sleep in, you're just telling their circadian rhythm.
Sure, keep doing it.
We'll just keep compensating.
So try to really keep that daily rhythm on track.
It's going to be your fastest way through and out the other side.
So Tanya has a 16-month-old who previously slept well and settled independently, but whose sleep unravelled after they went travelling, started childcare.
And Tanya also thinks... there's teething as well in the picture.
So they've seen increased night wakings, difficult settles and a return to more hands-on settling strategies.
So Tanya is looking for guidance on managing regressions, knowing when to increase support and how to get back on track more quickly without prolonging the difficulties.
Oh, I think some of your answers that you gave to Magenta are going to be applicable here for Tanya as well.
Yeah, look, definitely.
I think travel is particularly tricky because so often we're in a position where we can't have our toddlers screaming their lungs out in the middle of the night.
You know there's other guests at the hotel, or maybe you're staying with family and you don't want them to hate you.
So, look, all you can do is your best during travel.
What I often recommend to parents is having your port-a-cot right beside your bed.
And you can reach down into the portico and give them support as often as they need it.
They might be really cranky about being in that portico, but you can be confident.
They're not frightened.
They're not worried fearful, anything like that, because you're literally right beside them and you've got your hand on them when they need it.
So try to get them through with that kind of level of support if you can.
Much like if they're sick at home.
Set up a bed in their room beside their cot.
They're actually going to sleep better in their normal sleep environment than they will in your bed typically.
So that's going to mean, once they're better or you're back home, it's much easier to get things back on track.
It's fine to be more hands-on if you're thinking gosh, something really big has happened and they're not coping.
But my rule I try and get parents to stick to is just to keep them in the sleep space they're used to, because if they have some experience sleeping, you know, in the parent bed or falling asleep in your arms or whatever, they're at an age where they can remember and yeah, it can be pretty hard to convince them why they need to be going back in their cot again.
So, yeah, I would say that's really key.
And, of course, if you've, if sleep has worsened, or even if sleep's never been great and you're setting out to improve sleep.
I always want parents to be thinking work on the daily rhythm.
First, optimize sleep pressure.
Spend a week working on this daily rhythm that fits their sleep needs.
And then you are 100 confident that when you go to work on cot settling if that's what your goal is that you're only doing it when we've optimized everything to make it as easy as possible on your child.
And when it's easier on your child, it's easier on you.
I feel like that's like the gold.
It is.
I want every parent to know don't worry about independent settling until you have nailed the daily rhythm and you're giving yourself the best shot at having a smoother transition to a different way of falling asleep.
Yeah, I feel like that is just so, so important.
It is because you can honestly, you can follow any of our cot settling strategies to the letter S.
And you're not going to gain traction if the sleep, the daily sleep rhythm, is completely unmatched to your child's unique sleep needs.
So if there is, you really have to have both.
So you know, sometimes parents will say oh, that's quite, they'll come and see me and they've been to a sleep school, or they've seen another consultant and they'll say oh, that approach you've just talked through is quite similar to what so-and-so said to me, and what the nurse said, and what the, which we can tailor so that they're bespoke to the family.
But they will only work optimally when sleep pressure is high.
And sleep pressure is only going to be high when you have matched the daily rhythm to your child's sleep needs.
So you're just on a hiding to nothing.
If you jump straight into SOMBEL and just pick up one of the settling strategies and try and use it before you've worked on the unique sleep needs chapter, you're going to find yourself having really slow progress and wondering why other people are saying Sunbelt's so great.
Yeah, you've got to do all the components.
You've got to do all the components, including ruling out any medical factors as well.
It's really important that you work your way through it because each step is vital for success.
I think a good way to think about it too is if, let's just say you're giving your toddler 14 hours of sleep opportunity and they've got a sleep need of 12 hours or it could be a baby, baby or toddler then if you go to work on independent settling, you can expect two hours of screaming essentially what it's going to end up as two hours.
Because you're trying to give them 14 hours.
They only need 12.
So what are they doing the other two hours?
Generally they're going to be crying really cranky, furious at being in their cot.
So unless you love the idea of a two hour long settle or it could be multiple shorter settles, but still really challenging ones do the work on the daily rhythm.
It's just, it's that important and it's life-changing.
Um Yeah, it is.
And that's always your starting point.
Sorry, Fallon, I know you're mad.
But that is your starting point.
We have to keep monitoring their sleep needs.
Because, like you said earlier Fallon, sometimes it's like a muscle that is getting stronger and stronger, being able to self-settle.
And once your little one has a strong self-settling muscle, they might be able to fall asleep with sleep. a lower sleep pressure and then you might start to see their total sleep um duration average duration increase so always important to keep an eye on the how much sleep they're getting and whether they need a little bit more yeah and once you know how to keep tweaking to adapt to their daily rhythm you're going to be able to keep their sleep on track forever more and you'll be thinking about this stuff when they're 15 years old how much sleep are they averaging is that the right bedtime Yeah, it helps keep things on track for sure.
All right, lucky.
Last question is from Eliza, who has a three-month-old whose sleep need was previously calculated at around 15 hours and 45 minutes, but has recently reduced to about 14 hours and 15 minutes.
He now has a consistent first night feed at around 2 am, that from 5am onwards he wakes every 20 to 40 minutes and often needs to be held until morning.
His naps are short, typically 28 to 42 minutes, and he seems grumpy between sleeps, though he falls asleep independently.
Eliza is wondering whether she's reduced total sleep too much and how to approach both the early morning wakes and short naps.
That's a big one to unpack, isn't it, for a little baby to sort of write on that cusp of change.
Yeah, so Eliza, your baby is right at the point where their circadian rhythm system is going to be maturing and, you know, in another few weeks their sleep architecture will be changing so that it's more adult-like rather than the kind of active sleep and quiet sleep of younger babies.
So we do expect sleep needs to drop.
Very little.
Babies tend to have much higher sleep needs and it drops, can drop quite considerably in the first few months.
Just the wording of your question just makes me.
I'm just wondering.
You say you're wondering if you have reduced the total sleep too much.
We always adjust, you know, at this age, just monitoring the sleep. opportunity.
It's matching the sleep opportunity to what your child's sleep, total sleep duration is.
And, as I say, like a bare three month old having just over 14 hours sleep need, that's a nice amount of sleep.
And I would have expected it to have dropped from that nearly 16 hours a few weeks ago.
Sounds like his sleep cycles are also beginning to stabilize somewhere between 28 and 42 minutes.
As the circadian rhythm system matures, you'll probably find that that ends up being more stable, somewhere around 35 to 40 minutes perhaps.
And in all likelihood, the early morning wakes that you're experiencing are because the sleep needs have reduced um and your little one is just running out of sleep pressure from kind of 5 am onwards and finding it harder to maintain their sleep um, and you are then holding them to sleep to try to protect um that morning time for yourself.
So i would be just having a think about um, Looking at that daily rhythm.
Your little one is getting a bit older now, so you can start to be massaging a slightly more structured daily rhythm now.
So thinking about perhaps bringing wake up to 6 am rather than trying to aim for an 8 am wake up or whatever wake up you're going for?
Lots of babies are larks and do tend to want to start the day earlier.
Um, and just being mindful of that um, of holding your little one to maintain their sleep from five in the morning, just because that can be a really dangerous activity to do, because we normally, as parents, are shattered at that point as well.
So if you're holding your little one on you, just making sure that you're not falling asleep um, and putting um your family in a dangerous situation.
So yeah, I would be refining your daily rhythm.
So it's providing around 14, 14 and a half hours sleep opportunity for your baby.
Don't worry that they're having cat maps.
It may be that they need to have Four or five short cat naps across the day.
Work on stabilizing that wake up time at a reasonable, realistic time for your little one.
And you should start to find that the early mornings aren't so challenging to manage.
And as your little one gets older still, they will probably start to combine some of those cat naps in the day so that they tend to have maybe one or two longer naps whilst maintaining one or two shorter naps.
Very early days, Eliza.
Join the four-month program, if you haven't already.
Four to 12-month program, because that will take you into troubleshooting for older babies.
Yeah, because I suspect you've got the nought to three-month program.
Anything that you would add, Fallon?
Yeah, just at this age, so often parents are still a little worried about overtiredness because it's only a three-month old.
So overtiredness is only just starting to become a not-so-relevant thing.
Mm-hmm.
And so some parents are doing lots of cat naps because they, you know, seem tired and they're worried and want to get them down to bed quickly.
Don't be afraid to stretch out that time.
Look for that point where your baby is constantly grizzly and they're just done.
Can't be distracted.
That's when you put them down for a nap, because often these babies will then do a longer nap and then they wake up happier and then they last longer.
So they can be stuck in a like cat nap grumpiness –, catnap grumpiness kind of cycle.
So just monitor that, eliza.
You might find you can stretch him out a bit longer, get some longer naps happening um, that might suit him really well.
But for all these parents who have sent us in this amazing, these amazing questions, thank you so much.
Do keep in mind we're here, we have coaching calls, um.
If there's a few of these cases where i think oh, that's a bit tricky and Really would be great to sit down and look at your child's sleep diary and really help you navigate that,
That's what we're here to do.
If you're not a Sumbel member or you've just been listening in, you're having troubles with sleep, you know.
Consider joining Sumbel.
We can give you that helping hand and really help get things on track quickly.
We don't like parents suffering too long.
It's best to get the support you need so everyone can benefit from it.
And of course, as you know, we have appointments available too.
So if you're not really into an online program and you just want to have appointments with us, I've got availability in our telehealth clinic.
Laura, you're in the Melbourne clinic as well for Melbourne locals.
You also do telehealth as well.
We also have an incredible practitioner team.
We've got an OT and a couple of children's nurses.
They are fabulous.
So we've got all these different ways of supporting you.
So if you're needing help, you know, absolutely reach out.
If you love the podcast, please leave us a review, give us a five-star rating, subscribe.
If you'd like to buy us a coffee to support the work we do, we will love you for it.
It's always such a lovely surprise in the inbox when someone buys a cup of.
But yeah, it's a pleasure as always.
And if you're a member and you've got a burning question, please send it through for the next episode.
But otherwise, that's us for this week.
Have a great week.
Thanks, everyone.
Bye bye.
If you need help with your baby or toddler's sleep or settling, you need Sombell.
Sombell is Australia's first online pediatric sleep clinic program for babies and toddlers aged zero to three years.
It contains all the best resources from the sleep clinics at Infant Sleep Australia so you can rest easy and soak in your child.
To find out more, click the link in the show notes or visit sombell.infantsleep.com.au.
