What is it?

A method of introducing your baby to solid food while still continuing to breast feed.  Developed by Gill Rapley, she wrote the book ‘Baby led weaning’ and has lots of info on her website http://www.rapleyweaning.com including this leaflet summarizing the book http://www.rapleyweaning.com/assets/blwleaflet2.pdf

When do you start?

When your baby shows that they are ready!

Behaviours to watch out for:

We begin our relationship with rhythm incredibly early in our development. Before birth the prenatal infant is aware of sound and is able to perceive and respond to basic rhythmic stimulation from very early in gestation. This musical readiness allows the prenatal infant to become familiar with uterine sounds, her parents voices, and the sounds of what will be her daily life.

As the Christmas season is well and truly upon us here are a few tried and true ‘superstar’ gifts that are popular year on year and most importantly, get played with everyday!

Toys

Magna tiles

Animal figures (Kmart/Animalz)

Kinetic sand

Puzzles

Card games

Chiropractic has been seen for a long time as a preventative approach to illness and therefore enhancing the health of your loved ones. How does chiropractic do this?

First off, lets talk about the 10 most common reasons parents bring their kids to get checked by a Chiropractor.

1.     To encourage good neural plasticity (brain and nerve development)

2.  To support nerve communication throughout the body- promoting health and wellbeing

3. To help strengthen their child’s immunity- encouraging fewer colds, ear-aches and general illness

Why is it important?

Because it is a key to success in nearly everything we do.  It is a key component of health and happiness and a core skill to practice. Creativity is important for science, maths, social and emotional intelligence. To be more flexible and better problem solvers kids need practice at experimenting, failing, building and finally succeeding. 

Creative activities: visual art and construction

You don’t always need to give your child new play materials. Using everyday objects, and making it up as you go along, is a great way to encourage creative development.

·       Use an empty cardboard box to make a house, a robot, a truck, an animal – whatever your child is keen on. You could cut up the box, glue things onto it or paint it.

·       Glue ribbons and strips of material onto paper or cardboard.

·       Old newspaper, glue and water are all you need for papier mâché, although your child will need help with this.

I have always been very interested in attachment and the role that music can play in promoting happy healthy children.  Most parents have secure attachment with their children, and most children grow up to be happy & healthy adults.  It can still be useful to understand how this occurs and what to do if something isn’t quite right. 

What is attachment?

Attachment is the word used to describe the nature of a child’s relationship with their primary caregivers. 

Guest post from Charlotte Ingram, Naturopath at TLC Birth & Beyond

Get in the habit of turning over the packet!

'My child eats pretty well'.  This is something I hear quite often in the clinic.

As I take a case history and diet diary during a consultation, I'm often confronted with a 'standard Australian diet'.  Typically it looks like this...

1.    Manage yourself – Take care of yourself so that you’re not taking your negative emotions out on your child. 

      Calm parents = happy kids.

2.    Be your child’s advocate and don’t give up on him – Appreciate who your child is (not what you want him to be) and respond to his needs.  We all need someone who’s 100% on our side. 

3.    Punishment doesn’t work, but all children need boundaries and consequences.

Here are some tips for sleep and settling for young babies.  Remember these are only suggestions, you know your baby best J

1.    Try and observe a feed, play, sleep routine during the day.  As your little person matures their playtime becomes longer.

2.    Watch for your baby’s tired/sleep cues.  It’s so helpful once you can identify when they are tired!  Watch out for frowning, grizzling, clenched fists, jerky movements, yawning, rubbing face/ears, red rimmed eyes or eyebrows, circles under their eyes, watering eyes, back arching, losing interest in interacting or playing, clinginess and crying. 

I’ve been reading up on sensory activities for children and came across an article written by Ruth Barker for Nurture magazine.  I thought I’d share some of her thoughts on what to do and why. 

What is sensory play? 

Sensory play is any play-based activity that stimulates the senses. Children are taking in information through their senses all the time and most children are self-motivated to explore the sensory qualities of their environment. 

Some of you may be thinking it’s time for your little one to start toilet training, or they may be showing an interest themselves.  Physiologically, readiness occurs from around 18 months of age but children may not be fully out of nappies till after 3, often later for night training. 

Here are some tips for a gentle transition…

I know I've struggled at times to come up with fun and creative things to do with the kids.  The more tired I am, the less I can think of anything.  So for those days when you're energy is a little low, here is a list of simple, easy things to do with your kids.

Learning to be gentle is an important task for little ones as they interact with you, new friends and pets.  Here are a few ideas to help you teach your child to be gentle.

Here are some ideas for gentle discipline for your little person.  Take what works for you and ignore what doesn’t - you know best what works in your family.  Discipline can be a tricky thing for parents to navigate, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what works for you :)