Baby and child sleep

16/10/2025

Share this with a mum who needs to know what an amazing job she’s doing ❤️

Advice for new mums is everywhere. Often conflicting. Everyone has an opinion. Usually 💯well meaning.

But it can be overwhelming and make her doubt herself.

So give advice if she’s asking but more than anything, give reassurance and remind her how amazingly she’s doing.

She’s probably sleep deprived, hormonal and being too hard on herself. Your reminder will mean the world. 🥰

10/10/2025

Do you ever feel like you’ve missed the advice on how to settle your baby in their cot?

This might be it!

Do you think you’ll give it a go?

Follow for health professional sleep support

25/09/2025

❤️Hello new parent. This one’s for you…

There is only 1 rule you need to follow as a new mum or dad…

Rule: Your baby, your rules.

That’s it. And remember it’s a complete untruth that you can spoil your baby. Contact naps aren’t bad habits that you’ll regret. You won’t. I could go on…

(Is untruth an actual word?)

Listen to advice if and when you want and it sounds like something you can get behind.

But trust your own voice the most and believe that you know what’s best for your baby. Because you do.

🥰Send this to a new parent who needs to hear this today

13/09/2025

11/09/2025

I’m Rosy Whitwell, paediatric sleep consultant, registered nurse and health visitor. And I absolutely love my job!

My family is everything to me and all the motivation I need to keep pushing forward, trying harder and getting outside my comfort zone every now and then (teaching health visitor students soon being my latest scary project!).

I’ve raised two guide dog pups who are now working guide dogs. And I’ve adopted a guide dog pup who sadly couldn’t continue for health reasons.

I love a sunny holiday destination and I’m happy to be taken skiing as long as there’s plenty of coffee and long lunches (and a glass of French rosé in the evening)!

And I’m getting slightly more into gardening with age, out of necessity really!

Show this post some love if you’v got this far and follow me for gentle, age appropriate and practical advice and support from a health professional.

Thank you 🙏 🥰

28/08/2025

Here’s the tea on wake windows!

It can be helpful to know how long your baby/toddler can comfortably stay awake before needing to nap/bedtime (sometimes referred to as a wake window).

The reason it can be helpful is babies find it easier to fall asleep quickly and happily if they’re tired enough. So whilst “wake windows” aren’t really scientifically based, the biological drive to sleep is very much so!

Sleep drive, or pressure is that feeling you can’t fight when you’re trying to stay awake and watch something good on the TV, but your eyes keep closing and your body says no! Sleep!

It’s actually a build up in the brain of a chemical called adenosine, whilst you’re awake, and then gradually dissipates whilst you sleep.

Often babies need the shorter end of how long they can comfortably stay awake for in the morning, before their first nap, gradually needing longer awake before subsequent naps/before bedtime.

And just to say, some babies do something different from the charts. And that really is ok. Some days can be very different.

Try not to worry about things you can’t control and how long your baby does or doesn’t stay awake for is often out of your control.

Does your baby roughly follow these wake windows or do they do something wildly different?

Oh and p.s, I’ve left out baby’s first month as it varies so much, literally no point in trying to cover the variation in a chart!

Follow for gentle tips and actionable steps to easier baby bedtimes, naps and nights 🥰

06/08/2025

25/07/2025

I wish all new parents knew…

😍That you have everything your baby needs. You are the perfect parent for them.

🤗Picking them up for cuddles, helping them fall asleep, contact napping etc etc isn’t spoiling them. In fact quite the opposite, we know it’s helping healthy brain development and attachment.

👶🏼Knowing and believing this will help you relax into your new role and not question yourself too much. Try and enjoy the early weeks and not worry about things your baby just isn’t ready to do on their own yet.

🥰And remember, self care is essential, not selfish. To take care of your baby, you need to take care of you.

❤️Please share with a friend who needs to hear this today

29/07/2024

It’s very warm in the UK so you might be a bit worried when you see the temperature in your little one’s bedroom. But try not to worry too much and there are a few practical things you can do.

Keep your blinds down and windows open in the day. Use a fan pointed away from baby, with ice in front of it for your own mini air conditioning system! Worth a try anyway…

At nap time, just put them down to sleep in their nappy, no clothes or sleeping bag (unless they’re old enough to fiddle with their nappy, in which case maybe just a 0.2 tog sleeping bag. Vests may make them feel hotter as the fabric can stick to their skin.

Give them their usual bath or wash as when they get out the bath and the water evaporates on their skin it can help cool their core temperature by a degree or two (great for adults too!).

At bedtime, if it’s still sweltering, stick to just a nappy and perhaps put them in their summer tog sleeping bag later in the night so they don’t wake up chilly in the early hours.

Offer babies under 6 months extra breast/formula and if over 6 months you can offer extra milk feeds or water as needed.

And just keep your expectations low and expect a bit of a disturbed night. Anything else will be a bonus!

Do you have any good tips to share? Let me know in the comments below.

13/03/2024

23/02/2024

Keep baby sleep simple…

There is so much info and advice out there about baby sleep.

It can feel pretty overwhelming and exhausting. Trying all the things.

I’m a health professional and paediatric sleep practitioner with many years of experience working with little ones and their families.

And the vast majority of behavioural sleep concerns can be resolved by getting the following foundations right:

🌚Sleep environment
🧸Bedtime routine
🍼Nutrition
🌦️Daylight exposure
❤️Connection & feeling safe
😴Tired enough/not too tired

And I’m going to deep dive into all these foundations in the next few weeks.

Give me a follow if you don’t want to miss anything and if you’re already following (thank you 🙏) check the 🔔 in the top right by my insta name so you’ll be notified when I post.

21/02/2024

Does your toddler wake up too early?

It’s a really common problem and can take some patience to resolve but it can be done!

And in practice I find one of the most common reasons toddlers wake too early is because they’ve just had enough sleep so it might be time to drop a nap or push bedtime abit later.

Do you have an early riser?