Baby daily routine by age: sample schedules from newborn to one year

The sample days below are illustrations, not targets. Babies arrive at routines by themselves, roughly in this order, and the best use of a sample schedule is recognising the pattern when it starts to appear — not forcing one early.

Newborn (0–8 weeks): no routine yet

Newborns feed 8–12 times in 24 hours, often in clusters in the evening, and sleep 14–17 hours in short stretches around the clock. Day and night aren't separate to them yet. The job right now is feeding on demand and keeping wake time short — around 45–60 minutes.

• Feed on demand, day and night — see the feeding schedule by age.
• Light and activity in the day, dim and quiet at night, to help the body clock develop.
• Count wet nappies rather than watching the clock: six or more heavy nappies a day from day five means feeding is working.

3 months: a loose pattern

Wake windows are about 75–120 minutes. Feeds space out to every 3–4 hours in the day. Some babies begin a longer first stretch of night sleep.

6 months: three naps and first foods

Wake windows stretch to 2–3 hours. Milk is still the main food; solids start small — see starting solids for Indian babies.

9 months: two naps

Three meals a day plus snacks, with wake windows of about 3–3.5 hours. The drop from three naps to two usually happens between 7 and 9 months.

12 months: moving towards one nap

Most one-year-olds still take two naps; the move to a single midday nap usually happens between 12 and 18 months. Meals look like family meals — three a day plus two snacks — and milk becomes a drink alongside food rather than the main course.

Finding your baby's own routine

Your baby is probably already closer to a routine than it feels. The problem is that it's invisible in the moment: you remember the last nap, not the last seven mornings.

1. Log feeds and sleep for a week. Don't change anything yet — just record.
2. Look at the week side by side. The morning nap usually settles first, then bedtime.
3. Anchor two things: the morning wake time and bedtime. The day tends to organise itself between them.
4. Re-check after big changes — a leap, illness, starting solids or nursery can shift everything for a week or two.

Step two is where a calendar helps. The Araia calendar lays every logged feed, nap, nappy and solid meal on a day or week view automatically, so you can see your baby's real routine — and the week it changed — at a glance, and share it with your partner.

Frequently asked questions

This guide is general information for Indian parents, written from published paediatric guidance (IAP, WHO, AAP). It is not medical advice and cannot account for your baby specifically. Anything that worries you — feeding, breathing, fever, weight, a rash — is a call to your paediatrician, not a search. In an emergency, go to a hospital.