Preparing your children for a new baby

If you’re expecting a new baby these are three ways to prepare your older one(s), says our resident baby expert, Jenni Johnson. 

 

- Try not to talk about the new baby too much. Once you’ve told them they’re going to have a brother or sister they won’t forget. Try not to refer to your older child/children as big brother or sister, rather say big baby, and take them to the hospital for a visit of the maternity ward so that they know where you’ve gone when you have the baby. 

 

More tips from Jenny this week: 

 

- Just like good nutrition, adequate sleep is a basic need that gives children the best chance of getting what is most important from the people and things they experience each day. Teach your children how to go sleep on their own from when they are tiny and if you haven’t already it is never too late. Follow my sleep advice on www.jennisays.com

 

- Give your baby an old wallet or purse with some expired or unused shopping cards in it, folded paper in the money part, some large cardboard coins in the cash section, make it look as much like yours as possible. When your baby is nine months and older they love to unpack and also want what is yours.

 

- The importance of a nurturing caregiver, whether its mom, dad, grandparents, foster parents or a nanny, has an impact on your child’s emotional and behavioural development.  There are lots of stressors for today’s parents that can make it extremely difficult to be as nurturing as you’d like to be. Holding your child, helping them to learn how to soothe themselves and making time to have fun, positive times even 15-20minutes a day is beneficial. 

 

- Swopping to breast feed on both sides helps to develop the language brain in your child, so does swopping sides mid-bottle. Babies need to roll in both directions for the same reason, one side of the brain is more verbal – word development) while the other side is non-verbal which is tone of speech and emotion!

 

* Catch Jenni on-air every day just after 10am with her tip of the day.

 

Jenni Johnson, our resident ‘Baby Whisperer’, has been a practicing child-care practitioner for 15 years, and owns a busy ante and post natal clinic in Durban. 

 

At Jenni’s ante and post natal clinic in Durban, parents are taught a system that gives them structure and routine to the baby and childhood years. Jenni has a nursing background. She’s a registered nurse, midwife, psychiatric nurse and a practicing child-care practitioner for the past 15 years. Jenni’s online clinic, can be accessed online via www.jennisays.com. For appointments, e-mail [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter via @JenniSays or on Facebook by 'liking' The Berea Baby Clinic.