‘My daughter is always ready for bed after these sensory activities’

A paediatric OT has reached sleep-whisperer status with her foolproof bedtime routine, but many parents say the activities leave their kids even more wound up. 

What is it with kids and bedtime?

You do all the calming activities they advise: warm bath, dim the lights, bedtime book and snuggles, maybe a song, and your toddler is bouncing off the walls, talking a blue streak like they haven’t been by your side all bloody day.

Bedtime for my four-year-old is his time to perform pillow acrobatics.

Either he’s bouncing all over the bed or he’s tossing his pillow in the air, letting it land on his face and laughing hysterically.

Basically it takes him ages to wind down, and I’m required to sit there calmly while he’s doing it.

Mum Courtney English reckons she’s got the solution for situations like mine.

The mum-of-one is a paediatric OT, and she posted her daughter’s sensory bedtime routine to TikTok.

And while some parents promised to give it a shot, others were unconvinced and reckoned it would only wind up their excitable kids even more.

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Paediatric OT’s foolproof bedtime routine

“My daughter is always ready for bed after these five sensory activities,” she captioned the video.

The first one was blanket parachutes, where you and your child hold the four corners of a blanket and send a small pile of soft toys flying into the air.

Courtney’s daughter clearly found the activity hilarious, but we weren’t convinced she looked especially sleepy after this one.

She also suggested doing a bubble mountain, where kids use a long flexible tube to blow bubbles in the sink.

“Shift your child’s nervous system from high arousal to a state of rest,” she wrote on the caption. “Activates parasympathetic nervous system.”

Interesting. We wonder if this technique works for stressed out mums who are struggling with sleep. Asking for a friend.

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Courtney shares videos to help parents regulate their kids' emotions. Photo: TikTok/courtneyenglish.ot

Two activities required pillows: the pillow chop, and the toddler pillow sandwich.

The latter is self-explanatory, and the former is something interior designers do: karate chop your sofa pillows so they look like they have two ears. How this gets a kid ready for bed, we’re not sure, but Courtney is an expert, so we’ll try anything.

The last activity really makes us wonder. Tossing your toddler on the bed.

Courtney said it was all about “linear vestibular input with a regulating crash at the end”, which helps with calming emotions.

RELATED: A parent’s guide to bedtime on Christmas Eve

Some parents thought Courtney's recommendations were too exciting for bedtime. TikTok/courtneyenglish.ot

Paediatric OT shares controversial bedtime routine

Many of the commenters were sceptical.

“These all seem like things that would get my daughter excited and hyped up,” one person said.

“I feel like I never do this as it just hypes my son up and ends up taking so much more time to settle him down,” said another.

“Heavy work after always calms down the mind and body!” Courtney replied. “Anything pushing, pulling carrying, lifting, climbing.”

Originally published as ‘My daughter is always ready for bed after these sensory activities’