Flexible routines are a key ingredient in raising babies, toddlers, and children. Predictable patterns help your baby know what’s coming next and ensure their needs are met throughout the day. But babies are also human beings with their own unique rhythms, and every day won’t — and shouldn’t — look exactly like yesterday or tomorrow.

Forcing babies into a strict, clock-based schedule often leads to over tiredness, hunger, and dysregulation. This is why we believe it’s essential to stay flexible in every cycle, every day. Routines help babies eat fully, nap as long as they need for their age, and wake rested — but these times will always vary depending on how long your baby actually sleeps, when they last ate, and what time they woke up in the morning.

Flexible routines always win over rigid schedules — for your sanity and their development. Babies thrive when their needs are met consistently, not perfectly. This is just one of the key infant sleep ingredients we teach inside our Online Programs, where parents learn how to gently align feeding, sleep, and wake windows — to establish and maintain consistent nighttime sleep, without ever having to CRY-IT-OUT.