Many parents wonder how reading to a baby as young as a newborn can really be beneficial, after all, the baby can’t really comprehend what is being read, nor can he or she talk yet. But, there are many benefits to beginning to read aloud to your baby well before he or she can talk. Reading to babies and toddlers …
How to Engage Your Child in Play
Ideas for Playing with Your Child One play idea is to set a theme for your week. For example: Vehicles. Go to the library and check out books on vehicles. Identify pictures of vehicles in magazines. Draw pictures of vehicles. Sort the play vehicles your child has at home. Go for a walk with your child and search for red …
How to Develop Positive Mealtime Routines for Your Child
In our busy lives, mealtimes can be simultaneously a brief reprieve from a hectic schedule and one of the most chaotic points in a family’s daily routine. Mealtimes can be a time to check in with one another, hold hands, sit on laps, tell funny stories and report important events. They can also be times full of temper tantrums, thrown …
Techniques for Calming Your Infant or Toddler
Calming Infants Take a look in the Parenting section at any major bookstore and you’ll find a wide selection of books promising to make your baby the happiest in the neighborhood or so quiet and calm that others will think that you have some sort of magic touch. What these books don’t tell you is that everything you need to …
How To Get Your Baby to Sleep and How to Help Them Stay Asleep
One thing is for certain, both young children and grown ups need their sleep. As adults we know what it’s like to function with little or no sleep and how it affects our mood, performance, thinking and even health. We might be able to pull an “all-nighter” here and there and we’ve all done it, but imagine how this would …
Encouraging Positive Sleep Behavior and Bedtime Routines in Infants & Toddlers
By Todd Wolynn, MD, MMM, IBCLC Kid’s Plus Pediatrics “My toddler has his own bed, but he won’t sleep in it. He will scream and cry until I bring him into my bed.” You present a toddler with a piece of chocolate and a piece of broccoli. You look at the toddler with love and kindness and say, “Now eat your …
Common Sleep Problems in Infants & Children
Sleep Behavior Problems are a Common Concern The Journal of Zero to Three (January 2009) states that “Sleep behavior problems are among the most frequent parental concerns in pediatric practice and counseling services.” As in-home therapists, we also encounter quite a few questions from parents on how to get their infants and toddlers to sleep through the night or how …
Q&A: How to Explain Death to a 3 Year Old
Our 3 month old son passed away when our other son was 15 months old. Our 15 month old is now almost three and we now have a 5 month old daughter. We have lots of pictures around our house of all three of our children and our almost 3 year old son now asks who all the pictures are …
Support Your Adopted Child in Developing New Eating and Sleeping Habits
Developing New Eating Habits When you adopt a child, there is usually an adjustment period as the child gets used to their new surroundings. If you have adopted an older child, it is important to consider their previous living situation when helping them settle into their new home. If the child came from an environment where they did not have …
Developing Healthy Attachments with Your Adopted Child
Steps to Help an Adoptive Child Develop Healthy Attachments While adoption has a positive effect on children, the child doesn’t know this when he or she leaves the institution. The child only knows that they are leaving behind everyone and everything they have ever known. It is typical then, for the child to react with unexplained crankiness, clinginess, or crying. …