Hello friends! Welcome back to my blog! Today I just wanted to throw together a quick post about toddler daily routines. Specifically, these are Josie’s daily routines at 12 months, 14 months, 16 months, and 18/20 months, plus her nighttime routine which has pretty much been the same since she was a little baby.
I am a person who thrives on consistency. When I first brought Josie home from the hospital, my normal day-to-day life was totally flipped upside down. I had an insanely hard time adjusting to the lack of consistency with having a new baby.
Over time, though, I came to recognize Josie’s patterns throughout the day – when she needed to sleep, when she needed to eat, when she wanted to play, etc. A very loose daily routine began to develop amidst all the chaos. I noticed that whenever we did not follow this routine, both Josie and I had a very difficult time.
By the time Josie was 12 months old, we had developed a routine that was pretty much the same every day. By following this simple pattern daily, Josie can predict what is coming next and it lends a lot of stability to her life.
I would like to mention, however, that it’s important to be flexible to changes in your toddler’s daily routine as he or she grows. Josie’s day is constantly changing, as you will see below, simply due to her growing and developing. For example, sometimes she eats two snacks a day and sometimes she is ravenous and eats three. Her nap time is always evolving and I have to pay attention to make sure she has long enough wake windows. Even her bedtime routine has gotten shorter now that she is older, because she is able to put herself to sleep without so much wind-down time with mommy.
So don’t expect or attempt to stick to the same routine for your kid’s entire toddlerhood – it just won’t work! Be adaptable and feel free to change things in your daily routine if they just aren’t working for your family anymore.
12-Month-Old Toddler Daily Routine
7:30 – wake up and drink milk
8:30 – breakfast
10 – nap
11:30 – wake up and drink milk
1 – lunch
3 – nap
4 – wake up and drink milk
5:30 – dinner
7 – bedtime snack
7:30 – bed
14-Month-Old Toddler Daily Routine
7:30 – wake up and eat breakfast
9:15 – snack
11:15 – lunch
11:45 – nap – I always wake her up by 2:30, but typically she will sleep anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours
2:30 – snack
5:30 – dinner
6/7 – bedtime snack
6:30-7:30 – bed (if her nap is on the shorter side I give her a snack and put her to bed earlier)
16-Month-Old Toddler Daily Routine
7:30 – wake up, eat Cheerios and drink milk (I stopped giving her breakfast first thing in the morning because she just didn’t seem to want to eat a big breakfast so early, so I switched to giving her some cereal to much on to tide her over until breakfast)
9:30 – breakfast
11:30 – snack
12 – nap (I make sure she is awake by 2:30)
2:30 – lunch
5:30 – dinner
6/7 – bedtime snack
6:30-7:30 – bed (snack and bedtime again vary based on nap length)
18/20-Month-Old Toddler Routine*
7:30 – wake up, drink a cup of milk with vitamins
8:30 – breakfast
11:30/12 – lunch
12:30 – nap (awake by 2:30)
2:45/3 – small snack (sometimes she’s just not hungry so she waits until dinner to eat, often just has a cup of milk after her nap instead)
5:30 – dinner
7 – bedtime snack
7:30 – bed
*Around this age, Josie started eating less and being a bit more picky with her food, especially around dinner time. A lot of things probably contributed to this, including her first molars erupting. I think eating less is pretty common at this age, and toddler eating in general seems to increase and decrease in waves. That’s why you see that she’s eating fewer snacks than she used to – she just doesn’t seem to want them!
Nighttime Routine
- Mommy gives Josie a bath after dinner
- Later, Josie has a small bedtime snack about 1 hour before bedtime – this is usually a whole grain food, such as oatmeal or a waffle, with nut butter, and a couple ounces of milk
- We stop using screens and noisy/light-up toys for at least an hour before bedtime. Quiet play consists of playing with books and quiet toys.
- Mommy brushes Josie’s teeth
- Mommy and Josie read in her bedroom for 10-15 minutes. Usually Josie plays quietly on the floor while mommy reads, or she cuddles with mommy in the rocking chair and looks at the book.
- After reading, it’s time to get ready for bed. Josie gets a fresh diaper and some diaper cream on her bottom, followed by lotion and comfy jammies.
- After jammies are on, Josie gets in her Zippy and mommy and daddy sing Josie’s bedtime song. We sing the same song every night.
- Mommy and daddy gently place Josie in her crib, wide awake. We say good night, turn on her white noise machine, turn off the light, and leave the room.
- Josie gets comfortable and eventually puts herself to sleep, while mommy checks in periodically via the baby monitor (we have an iBaby monitor)
