The child's daily routine often becomes a real stumbling block, especially for young parents. In the literature, you can find conflicting opinions, and the lifestyle of the older generation, which just stands for the strict observance of this notorious regime, has a number of differences from today's realities of life of modern families.
What is a child's day regimen? This is a schedule of activities throughout the day that follow each other in a specific sequence. The daily routine changes throughout life depending on age. It is due to the physiological characteristics and needs of the child's body at one time or another. At the same time, the ideal daily routine is obtained by taking into account the individual traits of the little person and his living conditions.
The main components of the daily regimen of children of different ages
The child's daily routine should include the following mandatory elements:
- meal time. A child, depending on age, must eat a certain number of times a day. The intervals between feedings are also important;
- time to sleep. The nervous system of a child, in comparison with an adult, is in the stage of formation, therefore, exhaustion sets in faster, requiring recovery. Also, a small organism spends more energy on all life processes than an adult. The need for sleep decreases as the child grows.
- time spent in the fresh air. It can include walking, sleeping, playing;
- time for compulsory educational sessions. In the children's team and at home from toddler age;
- free time. It takes on meaning when the baby already knows how to do something on his own. The child at this time chooses the type of his activity. Free time is important for processing the information received, for realizing creative abilities.
Are there any disadvantages to the daily regimen
The disadvantages of the daily routine, or, more precisely, the objections to following a strict daily routine are as follows:
- babies often get out of their usual routine, disrupting the sequence and timing of activities. Their sleep and nutrition are easily disturbed by external factors (weather, physical or mental discomfort, change in the type and method of feeding);
- children intuitively can follow their needs. This is the basis of the objection to forced submission to a schedule;
- strict adherence to the daily routine, ignoring individual living conditions, personality traits and age can lead to inert thinking, inability to adapt to changes in the environment, deprivation of individuality and also to health problems.
How is the daily routine useful for the child?
The benefits of the routine are due to physiological and psychological aspects, which are the basis for creating a daily routine:
- physiological benefit - This is the development of conditioned reflexes, with the help of which the body adapts to existing conditions. The child is prepared to perform the necessary tasks and does them without undue stress. Those. energy is saved and distributed evenly for all necessary activities;
- from a psychological point of view - the children's nervous system needs stability in the environment, which, with its predictability, gives a feeling of peace and security. This, in turn, creates a favorable background for the development of the child, a deeper understanding of the actions performed and the formation of skills.
How to accustom your baby to the regime?
To accustom your child to the regime, you need to follow the following simple recommendations:
- you can start accustoming the child to the regimen after discharge from the hospital. The parent needs to plan, first of all, his life, taking into account walks and meals. But prepare yourself that not everything will go smoothly right away. Most often, babies enter the regimen by 3 months.
- it is necessary to introduce some new stages gradually during full health and at the moment of satisfaction from the realization of urgent desires;
- you need to take into account the age of the child, the nature of feeding, the season, the state of health, personality traits;
- strive to observe the regularity of events and their sequence;
- introduce rituals that prepare the child to perform an action. They facilitate the introduction of new components of the regime.
Child's daily routine
The child's daily routine depends primarily on his age.
Up to a year
Having started talking about the regimen of children under 1 year old, it will be correct to separately highlight the neonatal period.
The newborn's daily routine consists of alternating periods of feeding and sleeping. Between them, in the ideal case, only hygienic procedures are wedged in: washing, washing, bathing, dressing.
Natural feeding
Natural feeding takes place at the request of the baby. This is important, because the baby and mother during this period adapt to each other.
There are important points:
- it is impossible to limit the time the child stays at the breast, because the sucking rate in babies is different and in the case of a slow "sucker" while shortening the feeding time, there is a risk of depriving him of his portion of "rear" milk, rich in protein and lactase. As a result - underweight, stomach cramps, frothy stools with all the ensuing consequences. The average feeding time is 30-40 minutes (in hot climates, the child can shorten the feeding time himself, consuming only fore milk, rich in water, and thus quenching his thirst). Valuable hindmilk is produced in about 20 minutes of feeding;
The mother should pay attention to the correct grip of the nipple by the baby, so that during prolonged feeding the breast is not injured. Also, it is not necessary to dry out the skin halos by excessive washing and various antiseptics, because this contributes to the formation of cracks and the introduction of infection.
- hourly feeding while breastfeeding is a thing of the Soviet past, but attention should be paid to the “too” sleeping baby. It is advisable that regular sleep breaks between feedings do not exceed three hours. This is very important in the first month, because frequent feeding after 2-3 hours contributes to the good development of lactation in the mother, which, in turn, ensures the growth and development of the child, the prevention of mastitis in nursing.
Night feedings should be mandatory, because they stimulate prolactin production, which in turn supports daytime lactation.
Therefore, if necessary, in order to comply with these conditions for successful feeding, it is sometimes necessary even to wake up the baby.
Feeding by the hour
With artificial feeding, you must adhere to feeding by the hour to avoid overfeeding. Formulas take longer to digest than breast milk.
The intervals between feedings are 2.5-3 hours, after 5 months - 4-4.5 hours.
Frequency of feedings: from 8 times a day in the first month and 5 meals a year.
Age difference
Sleep and wakefulness in a newborn child differs from the older age in a very short period of wakefulness. At this time, the child, in addition to hygiene measures, can do gymnastics and light massage.
Time to walk and stay in the fresh air
It coincides with sleep time. When the neonatal period has passed, the child's daily routine begins to change in the direction of lengthening the waking time and shortening the sleep time.
The time the child is awake by months: at the age of 1-3 months, the total waking time is approximately 6-7 hours (the duration of a single period is 1-1.5 hours). From 3-6 months, this time lengthens to 8.5 hours, while the child is in an active state for up to 2 hours. In the second half of the year, the daily wakefulness increases to 10 hours, 2.5-3.5 hours each in the intervals between sleep.
Approximate sleep schedule for a child under one year old: in the first half of the year from the age of 1-2 months, the child can ideally sleep up to 3-4 times a day for 1.5-2 hours, in the second, the frequency of sleep is 2 times for 2.5-3 hours.
The mode of being in the fresh air in babies during the first months of life replaces sleeping on the street.
Child's day regimen at 1 year old
"Yearlings", despite the fact that they have successfully overcome the age limit of 1 year, continue to follow the regimen of 9-10 month old babies:
- night sleep - 10-11 hours;
- daytime sleep - 2 times for 2.5 hours;
Usually, by the year, parents have an idea of what type their favorite child belongs to: "owls" or "larks". So, "owlets", that is, those children who like to get up closer to noon and go to bed by midnight, can sleep once a day.
- 5 meals a day;
- the period of general daily wakefulness is 10-11 hours;
- the period of stay in the fresh air can be up to 5-6 hours a day, depending on the season and weather conditions, but not less than 2 hours per day.
When organizing walks, it is imperative to provide for the child's physical physical activity, as an important link in the development of physical and mental health.
Toddlers
For toddlers (1 g 6 months - 3 years), a regimen is built in such a way that it promotes the correct development of the muscular and skeletal system, the formation of speech function, the strengthening of immunity, and the improvement of the existing basic motor skills. You need 4 meals a day, active walks in the fresh air at least twice a day for 2-3 hours.
There are classes devoted to the development of speech, self-care skills, fine motor skills. They are carried out in a playful way. The attention of children at this age can be held up to 10 minutes. These games are best done in the first half of the day, at least 30-40 minutes before rest. During the day, children aged one and a half years old sleep, as a rule, 1 time for 2-2.5 hours. The daily amount of sleep is 12-12.5 hours. The periods of wakefulness are approximately 4.5-5 hours.
If parents plan to send their child to kindergarten, then the daily routine should be as close as possible to the nursery regime. It is necessary to help the child in advance to adjust to an early awakening and the same way to go to bed in the evening, if the baby adhered to the opposite routine. Such an event will contribute to a faster and more successful adaptation to the life of the children's collective.
Preschool children
The modes of preschool children vary by age. In kindergarten they are divided into groups.
| Groups | Age | Nutrition | Classes | Sleep | Games | Walking |
| junior | 3-4 years | 4 times | 2 lessons, 10 min. morning and afternoon | 12-12.5 hours. 1 time during the day for 2 hours | Before breakfast, after sleep and after an afternoon snack | 2 times a day, at least 4 hours a day |
| average | 4-5 years | 4 times | 2 lessons in the morning for 10 minutes with a break of 10 minutes | 11.5-12 hours a day. 1 time during the day 2 hours | Free time games | 2 times a day, at least 4 hours a day |
| Senior | 5-6 years old | 4 times | 3 lessons a day in the morning for 20 minutes with breaks of 10-12 minutes | 11.5-12 hours a day. 1 time during the day 1.5-2 hours | Free time games | 2 times a day, at least 4 hours a day |
| Preparatory | 6-7 years old | 4 times | 3 lessons of 25-30 minutes a day before lunch with breaks of 10-12 minutes | 11.5 hours night sleep, daytime sleep 1.5 hours. | Free time games | 2 times a day, at least 4 hours a day |
Thus, with age, the time spent exercising for the development of higher nervous activity increases, and the need for daytime sleep decreases.
Night sleep lasts 10-11 hours until the end of primary school.
The time for walks and games remains unchanged, into which, as they grow older (from the age of 5), the main labor activity (sweeping paths, cleaning the premises, watering, etc.) begins to enter, and then becomes more complicated, lasting from 10 to 15 minutes a day.
Toddler's day routine - parent's job
If with feeding everything is more or less clear (you need to feed, you cannot overfeed), with developmental games, too, complete order (young people begin to go to early development centers from one and a half years), then such important components as good sleep and physical activity in the fresh air. Namely, these two aspects provide a solid foundation for the development and health of the child.
To provide the child with adequate physical activity, the parent must:
- schedule time;
- overcome the fear of the weather and colds and try to walk with the child under any climatic conditions (with the exception of frost minus 15 (minus 20 for children over 5 years old) and wind over 15 m / s);
- choose clothes that will simultaneously protect from the weather and provide the child with the ability to actively move.
To ensure proper rest, the child's nervous system (at the same time the parent's) needs:
- do not wait until the child goes to bed on his own (fatigue in children is often manifested by overexcitation, which leads to motor and emotional disinhibition), but gently prepare the child for rest, taking into account the time required for wakefulness by age. To do this, you can introduce the so-called rituals (certain sequential actions, quiet games, reading books, bathing, singing);
- exclude active types of games, gadgets before bedtime;
- ensure adequate physical activity throughout the day so that the child is not overworked and tired;
- try to make sure that going to bed and getting up in the morning are not too different on weekdays and weekdays;
- try not to miss a nap;
- avoid turning on the TV in the background during the day
- limiting the time of using a computer and TV up to 15 minutes a day for children from 3 years old.
Conclusion
A child's daily routine is often a subject of controversy. To find a middle ground, you need to remember that a stable lifestyle is essential for a child. The younger the baby, the more stressful it is for him to change his habitual lifestyle and nutrition.
But positive emotions are also very necessary for the development of higher nervous activity. Therefore, when establishing the daily routine, it is necessary to take into account the conditions, age, state of health, individual characteristics of the child's character, the mental and physical condition of the parents, and be guided by the principle of gradual change. Then the established routine will bring joy and health to the whole family.
Sources
- Kuchma V.R. Hygiene of children and adolescents. Geotar Publishing House - Media 2008.
- G. G. Grigorieva, N. P. Kochetova, D. V. Sergeeva and others. "Baby: A guide for the upbringing, training and development of children under three years." - M .: Education, 2001;
- Bezrukikh M.M. "Age physiology", publishing center "Academy" 2003;
- Makarova L.I. "Physiological and hygienic principles of organizing the daily routine and the educational process in educational institutions", ISMU 2016
