Moving house with a baby or toddler: how to protect their sleep

Safety-proof the new room

Every new home brings new hazards, and furniture is most likely to go unsecured during moving week. According to the CPSC, tip-over incidents killed 482 children between 2000 and 2021, and 88% of those children were younger than 5. It also estimates that tip-over injuries lead to an average of 19,400 emergency department visits each year.

The CPSC recommends that you:

• Fix TVs and furniture such as bookcases and dressers firmly to the wall.
• Keep heavier things on the lower shelves or in the lower drawers.
• Avoid placing toys or remotes anywhere a child might climb up to get them.
• Keep cords for the TV and cable out of reach.

The AAP also suggests a safety gate at the top of the stairs, and possibly one at the bedroom door, so a toddler who climbs out of bed cannot roam. Think about where the crib goes as well: clear of windows, blind cords, curtains, lamps and anything your child could pull inside. The CPSC says corded cameras should sit at least three feet from the crib.

In a new home, safety always comes first. If sleep still has not settled after the move, the habits that crept in along the way are what Actually Sleeping fixes.

Safe sleep on the night you move

When the crib is not built yet, use a play yard meeting federal requirements, with only its fitted sheet. Cribs, bassinets, play yards and bedside sleepers are the products the CPSC lists as safe for sleep. An air mattress, an adult bed or a sofa does not qualify, not even for one night.

Why moving disrupts sleep

A different room brings different sounds, light, shadows and smells. Lots of toddlers are also thrown by the packing and the shifting routine in the run-up to the move. In the first week, more waking, earlier mornings or a tougher bedtime are all common. The AAP advises parents expecting a new baby to make big changes well ahead of time or hold off until life settles, and the same logic fits a move: switching to a bed, dropping a nap or starting toilet training in that same month piles on more disruption.

When sleep does not settle back down

What lingers after a move is mostly not the move itself. It is whatever got everyone through it: lying beside your toddler until they drift off, bringing them into your bed in the new place, pushing bedtime later while you unpacked. Every one of those is reasonable during a stressful week. A month on, though, the move is done and the habits remain.

Those habits can be fixed, and fixing them is what Actually Sleeping does. Whether you have a baby or a toddler, Dr. Sam writes a plan for your child in the new home, with bootcamp-style coaching ahead of night one and daily 1:1 check-ins. Moving soon? The plan can be scheduled around it. Hear from families in our 129 client video reviews.

A new time zone or a shared room

If the clock changes along with your address, read sleep and time zones. If siblings are going to share a room in the new house, read a baby and toddler sharing a room.

Moved, and sleep still has not settled? Book a free consultation with Actually Sleeping.