How to minimize sibling rivalry

Our resident baby expert, Jenni Johnson, shares advice on how to nip sibling rivalry in the bud...

To minimize sibling rivalry amongst your children, a helpful house rule is that each child is entitled to privacy and his or her bedroom is a perfect place. Permission to enter is up to the child – he or she may shut the door. If your children share a bedroom, allocate available living space to each child.

Young children like to help around the house; it makes them feel big and it has an advantage in that they will recognize cleanliness and tidiness as expected and normal. So let your child help you sweep, dust, cook and straighten up. Cut down a mop or buy a small broom.

A simple homemade bath toy could be your 12month’s favourite first puzzle. Cut a sponge with a scissors or Stanley knife  into two simple interlocking pieces. During bath time show baby how to stick the sponge on to the side of the bath and how to fit the two pieces together.

Back pain is a common pregnancy ailment. It is due to hormones relaxing joints, ligaments and muscles. Sciatica - a shooting pain down one or both legs is the most painful. Exercise, massage, homeopathy and acupuncture can be helpful. Go to jennisays.com for more information.

The following are helpful ways to soothe a crying baby:

Swaddle. Wrap baby up tightly and hold him or her to you.
Skin to skin. If your baby doesn’t like to be swaddled, take all baby’s clothes off and put him/her onto your bare chest.
In conjunction with either of these, sway from side to side and say sh,sh,sh whilst you’re doing it.

* 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.