Treat Your Newborn As Though You Have Four Other Children!

This is the wise statement of a mother of five! She has effectively communicated what all other parents of several children took years to learn.

That is invaluable knowledge born out of necessity, which was often the only effective way!

She saw that the two most important things were that her infant slept well and ate well. That allowed her to make everything else work.

How exactly does this idea work?

1.Infants know how to eat and sleep. Do not mess it up!
     a.Feed your infant when they are hungry, let them sleep when they are tired.
     b.Do not disturb their natural body needs.
     c.Do not wake them up to feed.
     d.If you are a nursing mom, it is important that you follow the nursing mom’s diet at all times. No exceptions – no treats. You will pay a price for that choice because your infant will probably not be able to digest what you have treated yourself to. It is not worth it.
     e.Usually by three or four months, you infant will be having a shorter morning nap and a longer afternoon nap. Especially in the afternoon, they may sometimes turn it into a catnap by making the sleep shorter. Either let them put themselves back to sleep or if they need help, a tap on the but to their bottom rhythmically will help.
     f.Whatever you do, do not get into the habit of feeding them every time they cry. They can quickly become “snackers”. Every cry is not a hungry one!
     g.They should be on three meals a day and a night feed.
     h.Make sure when you put them to bed they are full and they will sleep soundly.

2.Do not rush to pick them up as soon as they squeak or every cry. They often will settle down and get used to waiting. If they are waking up from naps crying, this often means they are still tired.

3.Do not carry them around when they are awake or provide them with some sort of motion all the time.

4.Keep them in a their home environment as much as possible. Your social life can wait! Nothing takes priority over the needs of your infant!

5.Talk! Talk! Talk! Talk! Tell them what is happening! They will get used to familiar phrases. If they wake up and you can’t get them right away, tell them that. Your voice will reassure them! Introduce them to music, especially by singing to them.

6.Part of the day should be a safe place where they can practice turning over, crawling and pulling themselves up.

7.They need time every day to entertain themselves. Ideally, on a floormat with appropriate toys to entertain and stimulate them. Let them work to reach the toys.

8.Step back! Let your infant show you their personality and skills! They can’t learn when you are doing everything for them.

Just think how busy you would be if you had four other children! So relax and give them some time and space! Sometimes they will have to figure it out.

Enjoy and good luck! 

Listening! One Of The Most Vital Behaviors In A Parent/Child Relationship.

Why are parents having such a hard time being successful at it?

This listening issue is constantly surfacing. Our experiences and observations at the daycare are:

1. Parents rarely follow up on a request or directive they give to their child.

2. Parents have not clearly communicated their expectations.

3. Parents have no agreed with each other on the rule, boundaries and behavioral expectations.

What to do?

1. Both parents must agree on what the rules and behavioral expectations are!

2. Do not give your child any negotiating power when you have communicated their responsibility to follow your communication on a rule or behavioral expectation.

3. Repeat the request in fifteen seconds increments exactly as originally states and firmly state “you have to listen to me”

4. If they are still not responding then assist them in following through and clarify that when you make a request you mean it.

When you are communicating regarding an action or opinion that is not a rule or behavioral expectation, then you can compromise and let them be involved in the process.

This is very different from the first scenario and should not be confused!

You have to understand and respect that your child will know the difference.

They can choose between the red shirt or the blue one for example.

But they cannot choose not to listen to you when you have requested a follow-up or action that you consider a rule. An example is “please clean up your toys now”.

Be clear, be firm and be confident!

You are the parent and your child is not in charge of the values they need to grow up with, you are!

Good luck!

The Infant Stage And All Its Challenges And Wonders!

We are so excited to have an infant in our daycare again!

Anna joined us this week at the wonderful age of six months. She is beautiful and already connecting with a few of the children.

As always, we will be tracking her growth and experiences and probably having more blogs that deal with the infant stage.

One of the most exciting aspects for us is to learn about her unique strengths and also to apply our experiences when she has specific challenges. So every case study will, as usual, reflect on our experiences and solutions with former infants.

She has had a great first six months since both her mom and dad took maternity leave from their work. Consequently, her life has been consistent and privileged so far.

We are already seeing how relaxed and friendly she is with the other children and how they are mesmerized by her.

With an infant arriving in their world, we are seeing how each child has elevated themselves to a new level of maturity. The ones who were hesitating about being toilet trained are talking about “being ready” and the older ones have become instant helpers.

Already we realize Anna is working too hard with her current bottle system that is really designed for newborns. We have made a system change so she will get all the nourishment she needs to grow and sleep well. She had turned into a snack eater and as a result her sleep pattern was too short. This usually can be corrected in a few days. We will let you know.

We are enjoying every day with her and we will keep you updated.

Please send us feedback and questions! You can email us at Info@Smartparentsmartchild.com

Talk to you next week!