Your baby’s corrected age! 👶🏻
What does this mean?
Whether your baby was born before, on, or after their due date, can influence several aspects around sleep training, particularly the settling techniques we recommend and determining what their appropriate awake windows may be.
Why? Because a newborn baby has not yet developed their circadian rhythm, also known as their body clock, until 3-4 months of age. Therefore, a baby who was born 1 month prematurely, for instance, may take 4-5 months to reach the same developmental stage as another baby who was born on or around their due date.
Conversely, a baby born 2 weeks late (poor mumma!) is usually 2 weeks ‘ahead’ developmentally. For example, smiling typically begins from 6 weeks of age, and a baby who was born 2 weeks late may start to show signs of smiling from 4 weeks of age. On the other hand, a baby born 1 month prematurely may start smiling at 10 weeks of age.
How to calculate your baby’s corrected age:
Actual age - the number of weeks premature = corrected age, or
Actual age + the number of weeks post-term = corrected age
For instance, if your baby is 16 weeks old and was born 8 weeks premature, their corrected age is 8 weeks.
That’s why at Settle to Sleep, we provide a thorough sleep questionnaire to ensure we cover all aspects, tailoring our sleep plans to meet both you and your baby’s needs while considering their age and development.
Book a consultation via our website so that we can help support and empower you to teach your baby how to self soothe, resettle their sleep cycles, and consolidate their naps and overnight sleep ♡