This is Small family fun

I now have two babies under two. Rosie is 15 months old and Katie is 7 weeks old. We also have a six year old, Jamie. We kept a few big items from when Jamie was a baby as we knew we wanted another at some point and then when Katie came along we still had everything from when Rosie was born so there wasn't much we needed to buy new.  There are some things as a first time parent that you think you need but now that I'm an old hand at this I've realised that you definitely do not need as much as you think. So here is a list of items that I have found very helpful: The Pram  When Jamie was born my dad offered to buy us the pram and so after going around the shops to try out a lot of different models, we settled on the Silver cross wayfarer travel system. This was a great pram as you can change the wheels to swivel or lock them into forward position. It was easy to fold up and down and lightweight enough for me to be able to fit it into the car. The link to buy the new

  The importance of emotional intelligence. Many researchers over the years have emphasised the importance of emotional interactions in the parent-child dyad and the great impact it has on a child's well-being. Parents need to take an active role in teaching their children key skills in developing emotional intelligence. The consequences of failing to learn the basics are intermingling dire, for example, an inability to handle anxiety or depression can increase the chance of children abusing drugs or alcohol later on in life. However, children who are taught by their parents to be emotionally intelligent are more able to regulate their own emotions. They were better at focusing their attention, and could relate more to other people and performed better academically in school. Parents who offered empathy in the face of their child showing negative feelings such as anger, sadness or fear, actually built bridges of loyalty and affection between themselves and their child. For years th

When a person or couple decide to try for a baby they usually have a basic idea of how they will parent their child and how they will be as parents. These thoughts are usually based around their own experiences with their parents and how they were raised. Some will have had a positive childhood and the parent will want to raise their child as they were. However, some experiences may have been negative and the parent will then express that they do not want their child to have to go through what they did.  The strategies parents use can fall into categories or ‘styles’. There are four main styles and there are some that are more modern. I will give a brief summary of the main ones and how these styles may affect the outcomes for the children.  Authoritative This style is characterised by reasonable demands that are combined with high responsiveness to their child’s needs. The parents that use this style will have high expectations for their children but will also give the

 A big milestone in a new parents journey, and even with subsequent babies, is when they begin eating solid food. However, common problems can be that baby doesn't seem keen on lumpy food or mealtimes become a battle with an older toddler. You want to provide them with healthy fruit and vegetables, they want chicken and chips. My aim for this post is to help parents with the basics of baby-led weaning. When to start solids. Current NHS guidelines states to start babies on solids at six months alongside their usual breastmilk or formula. However, some babies seem ready before this but this is a common misconception.  Parents can be told by others that certain signs their babies are showing means their ready for solids but this is not the case. Parents are told that:  Night waking is a sign of readiness. Babies wake during the night for numerous reasons but if baby is under six months old and does seem genuinely hungry then more milk should be offered rather than solids. Others belie

‘I’m sorry... There’s no heartbeat’.......Suffering a miscarriage is devastating. February is the anniversary of my miscarriage and so I have edited the original post as I now feel more comfortable adding more detail to my story. I had a miscarriage at 8 weeks between Jamie and Rosie. I remember when we found out. I was getting Jamie ready for school and had to run to the toilet. I froze. I hadn’t had the classic doubling over with cramps that you see in movies so I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. I phoned my partner and my mum in a panic. I phoned the early pregnancy unit and was booked in for a scan.  The scan My mum came with me and sat with me while I got the scan. It was an internal scan and thankfully I had done some research beforehand so I at least knew to expect this.  I'll never forget the words of the midwife, "I'm sorry...there's no heartbeat". I sobbed. She then said, ‘did you have no idea?’, and at the time I didn’t think much of what was said but no

  This post will be about resilience and how children can use it to help them when they face adversity. Gilligan, 2009 cited in Leverett, 2016 says that resilience is used to describe the capacity of someone to prevent, minimise or overcome any damaging effects of adversity.  Adversity can be anything challenging in a child's life, for example, the death or illness of a family member. How they react and adapt to these events is based on how resilient they are. Resilience can be built up through supportive relationships. A child’s feeling of security and the quality of the parent-child relationship and so a positive and engaging parenting approach can help promote your child’s resilience from birth. Werner and Smith, 1982 cited in Punch, 2013 show how risk factors affect children differently, they found that the group of resilient children were securely attached to their main caregivers. There was also a larger support network of adults who they trusted. Positive role modelling can

Up to 40% of children will experience sleep problems, such as difficulty with falling or staying asleep, (Mindell et al, 2006 cited in Williamson et al, 2020).   Carrying on with the theme from my last post I would now like to discuss how sleep problems can affect a child's well-being. Research that consisted of a longitudinal study of children in Australia has demonstrated how having sleep problems in early childhood can cause multiple impairments in a child's well-being at age 10-11 years old, (Williamson et al, 2020). The study examined five different sleep trajectories. They found that the children that had limited sleep problems in infancy or preschool only showed small impairments with internalising symptoms such as anxiety or low mood. However, children who demonstrated persistent sleep problems and sleep problems in middle childhood had moderate impairments in their ability to self-control. Goldstein and Walker, 2014, cited in Williamson et al, 2020, showed