Getting Out and About with your Baby

In the early days of parenthood, just getting out can feel like a challenge, especially if your little one is feeding round the clock or you’re having very broken nights. Fortunately, there are a large number of baby and toddler-friendly groups in every area. Baby classes such as baby signing, musical classes, baby massage, baby yoga etc., as well as mother/father and baby groups, young parent, and single parent groups can provide some important contact with people who are at a similar stage in life.

Playing in Water

Babies are born ready to play, and water is a wonderful, natural sensory play area, where your baby can learn and have fun, especially in the summer. Here are a few tips to help you and your baby explore water safely and confidently.

The bath is the perfect place to start. Bathing together, skin-on-skin is incredibly bonding, and your baby will feel safe and secure being held by you. With water at body temperature (about 36-37°C, always check the temperature before your baby gets in), your baby can relax and reach out their arms and legs, they may try kicking and splashing too, much as they did before they were born. Using your hand, you can gently sprinkle water on your baby’s tummy. Let them reach for and grab bath toys, or try holding your baby’s head and shoulders, letting the water support them in a back float, and singing lullabies.

Six Months to a Year:

Now your baby is more active, bath time starts to be an altogether more splashier experience You can still get in with your baby, or you can run a shallow bath and let them sit or lie in it.

Encourage your baby to splash and kick. Trying showing them how to pour water from one cup to another, or use a watering can to sprinkle it. You can sing songs or nursery rhymes with actions.

Toddlers and Beyond:

Baths, paddling pools, basins in the garden, your toddler will love water however it comes! You can buy all sorts of toys for the water, boats, foam letters, crayons for drawing on the side of the bath, but empty bottles, pots and cups are just as good for pouring and experimenting.

You can teach your little one to blow bubbles, try making different sounds under the water. You can also help them learn what floats, and find sunken treasures under a carpet of bubble bath.

Lets Go Swimming

Theres’ no better way of playing with water than in a pool! Start by bouncing your baby around gently, letting them splash and kick their arms and legs. Make games using nursery rhymes, sit your baby on the pool side, singing nursery rhymes and gently splashing them with water.

Your baby’s brain will grow more in their first year than in the rest of their life, and being in water aids that amazing development. To an inquisitive baby, play is everything. So playing in water can be one of the best experiences you can have with your baby!

There are numerous Baby and Toddler swim classes in most areas, try your nearest swimming pool for further information. Introducing your little ones at a very early age will boost their confidence in the water. Never them leave unattended in water.

Baby Massage

Baby massage is a tender, rhythmic stroking of your baby’s body with your hands. The comforting strokes stimulate the production of the feel good hormone oxytocin in you, your baby and even your partner if they’re observing.

Oxytocin gives you the warm, caring feeling when you hold your baby close or when breastfeeding. Baby massaging can start from the day the baby is born. If your baby was premature that it is advised

What are the benefits:

• Baby massage is a great way for partners, grandparents and siblings to bond with the baby
• Massaging gums through the skin could relieve the pain of teething
• Massaging can ease the effects of postnatal depression by aiding the mother to have a more positive interaction with their baby
• Strengthen baby’s attachment towards you
• Helps the baby sleep better
• Great way to build and strengthen a positive bond with your baby
• It can help you become more confident handling your baby as well as better recognising their needs
• Calms the baby when feeling distressed

Cranial Osteopathy

Cranial osteopathy for babies and children is a gentle, safe and effective technique used to relieve trauma that may have occurred during birth. Your baby may be experiencing problems such as discomfort when lying on their back, excess mucous, headaches, suckling and feeding difficulties and plagiocephaly. (Also known as flat head syndrome).

The treatment uses manual techniques to make subtle and profound changes within the body. It is non-invasive and its aim is to re-balance systems of the body to enable them to work effectively. There are small fluctuations of movement within the body called involuntary motion, by placing their hands on a childs’ body, a cranial osteopath can feel a gentle expansion and contraction of all the tissues.

When these motions are disturbed, such as in childbirth, cranial osteopathy can make a child feel more comfortable.

Choosing the Correct Car Seat for your Baby

You should always choose a rear-facing car seat for your newborn baby as they provide protection for your baby’s head, neck and spine. Your baby should stay in their rear-facing seat until they exceed the maximum weight or they are too tall for your car seat.

You can choose either a height-based child seat; these are called i-Size seat or you can choose weight-based child seat: these offer a range of options: 0kg to 10kg or 13kg, 9kg to 18kg, 15kg to 25kg, and 22kg to 36. Traveling rear-facing offers the best protection for toddlers and babies. If you use an i-Size child seat, your child must be in a rear-facing seat until they are at least 15 months old as they can remain rear facing until they have outgrown the seat. /p>

Never fit a rear-facing child seat in the front of your car if there is an active airbag on the passenger side. Once your child is above the maximum weight for your seat or the top of their head is above the top of the seat, you can either buy an extended rear-facing car seat or move them to a suitable forward-facing seat.

Before buying a car seat, you should always check whether it is suitable for your vehicle. Most car seat retailers have trained staff who can help find the right car seat for your child and your car and they may have a car seat fitting service to ensure that your car seat is fitted securely and accurately.

The law requires all children traveling in cars, vans or good vehicles to use the correct child restraint until they are either 135cm (4’6”) in height or the age of 12 (whichever they reach first), although it’s better to wait until they are 150 cm (5ft) or taller before moving them to the seat belt on its own.

After this they must use an adult seat belt. There are very few exceptions. You can find more information about choosing and fitting the right car seat, as well as your legal responsibility as the driver at www.childcarseats.org.uk.