I am very interested really in reading topics about our child. It gives me lesson in every possible way. I read this topic and it makes me guilty for not doing any of them. May be not yet for now but I should and I have to do it for my own child's benefit.
It's only an hour change, but that 6o-minute shift can have a whopper of an effect on our children. That hour is even more difficult for kids to deal with than flying cross-country to a whole new time zone. Said by Jodi Mindell, Ph.D., a professor of psychology At Saint Joseph University in Philadelphia. It can throw off their sleep, appetite, attention span, mood, everything. Why? A child's body clock is set by light and dark patterns not by what it reads on our watch. When we travel to a new time zone, it's still light and dark at the same points during the day. With daylight saving time, though, that changes, and it can take seven to ten days for a child's internal clock to reset.
These simple strategies will help ensure you're not faced with a tired, cranky mess of a kid.
- Begin shifting your child's bedtime a day, or better yet, several days - before the time change. If she usually goes down at 8:00, for example have her under the covers by 7:45 the first night and 7:30 the next. It's a small enough change that she should still be able to fall asleep, and it will make it less of a shock.
- Stick to the current daytime routine. Once the time change occurs, continue to have your child meals, snacks, naps, bedtimes, everything at the same time as usual.
- Expose your child to bright lights first thing in the morning (the indoor kind works) to reprogram her internal clock faster.
