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I was thinking about all the advice I’ve gotten about babies and kids and if I had to highlight the best ones they would be this:

1) The Baby Whisperer said if your baby is not sleeping through the night, interrupt their sleep rhythm. Go in a couple of hours before they normally wake up too early and gently wake them by putting your hand on their chest and rocking them slightly. This worked like a charm for Tin.

2) Your baby is going to wake up in the middle of the night, and he best be in the same situation he went to sleep in, in other words: not being rocked, not with the light on, not with a bottle or a breast, not on mommy’s shoulder. Your child needs to know that when they wake up they are safe and that means putting them to sleep in their own crib, with the lights out, and happy. So many parents can’t make the leap to letting their child go to sleep by themselves and in the end everyone suffers.

3) Let them have as many binkys as they want for as long as they want. It doesn’t ruin their teeth and it comforts them.

4) Don’t fight about food. If they are not hungry, then they are not hungry. If they don’t want a food, then they don’t want it. Introduce a new food item ten times before you decide they don’t like it (it might just be the moment that they are refusing it).

5) Get that kid off those jars of crap as soon as possible – baby food is crap – give them real food – meat, vegetables, starches, fruit.

6) When you are transitioning from bottle to sippy cup – never put anything but milk or water in the sippy cup. Do not put breast milk or formula or juice in a sippy cup.

7) After 12 to 14 months they have to get off the bottle if it is formula because there is sugar in the mix and other items that break down tooth enamel and cause long term dental problems. They are ready to get off now anyway as they can’t sit still (and no longer, sigh, stare into your eyes the way babies do).

8) Draw a circle of respect around your baby – when you are bathing, changing, or in any way manipulating the baby’s body, remember to tell the baby what you are doing and to do it slowly – everything you are doing is new to the baby and they have no control over their body so don’t induce fear, instead tell them what you are doing and support them while you are turning them or laying them down.

9) Wear your baby – humans are not ready to be born, they come into the world unable to feed themselves, walk, clean themselves, hold anything – they are not ready to be independent – so strap that baby on and take them with you for walks, around the house while you clean, or whatever – this is an incredible time for you to be close to your baby.

10) Breast or bottle feed naked when you can – babies are sensuous creatures and they love feeling your skin against their skin.

11) Start your routines early – reading every night, not in the bedroom, but on the sofa or in a rocking chair but read to your baby every night and they will develop a love of books. Plus you will be enlarging their world by introducing so many characters and places and names and words.

12) If your child gets croup or a cough, steam up your bathroom and feed him his bottle in the steam bath – this helps enormously.

13) Your baby doesn’t understand pronouns for a long time so talk in third person – Mommy loves Tin, is Tin hungry?

14) I’ve heard but didn’t do this that teaching babies sign language gives them mastery over communication before they can talk which goes a long way to help them transition. I wish we would have done this.

15) Read as many different types of discipline and understanding children books as you can and come to your own strategy. If you know the phases babies are going through then you can help them and help yourself to not get aggravated by spoons thrown on the floor and tantrums. Education is a wonderful tool.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 at 9:24 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.