A Deeper Dive: Helping your child adjust to Daylight Savings

Daylight Savings Time (DST) is a challenging time for many families, especially those with very young children. Every year on the second Sunday of March (March 12, 2023) we “spring forward” meaning that we “lose” an hour. It is not advisable to force your children to adjust to the new time "cold turkey." Infants and toddlers are especially sensitive to the time change.

Try adjusting their feeding and sleeping time in 10-15 increments the week before and after the time change. For example, if your child usually has a bottle at 3:00pm, then six days before the time change give them their bottle at 3:10pm, then at 3:20pm the following day, etc. Then on Daylight Savings Day when the time changes from 4:00pm to 3:00pm, your child will be back on schedule.

Be patient with your child and allow for extra time to do things. You should also be aware of how the time change is affecting you. The CDC has some great ideas of how to adjust.