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Give your baby The Best Start
giving my baby the Best Start makes me #healthynhappy
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The Fourth Trimester is a way of describing the 12 week period after birth, when both parents and baby are adjusting to their new lives.
Babies have been used to being fed continuously, sleeping when they want to, and feeling cosy and held in their Mum’s tummy. When babies are born we introduce gaps between feeds, and put them in a different place to sleep. It’s no wonder that they can find this scary, and it’s natural that they cry to express their fears.
Babies are likely to cry more in this 3-month period than any other time in their life, which can often make this period difficult for new parents. Our top tips for this period? Anything that replicates the womb-like world will help baby feel safe. For most babies this means holding them close - using a sling, so they feel the warmth of your body, hearing your heartbeat, gently rocking them as you go about your day might be a great options for new parents to help this period.
Having a baby can be a challenging but hugely rewarding time. Here are some
wonderful tips to get the most out of bonding with your little bundle of joy.
Reading to babies from birth has amazing benefits including; comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun. Giving your child your time and full attention when reading them a story tells them they matter.
By the time babies reach their first birthday they will have learned all the sounds needed to speak their native language. The more stories you read aloud, the more words your baby will hear and the better they'll be able to talk. Hearing words helps to build a rich network of words in a baby's brain. Children whose parents talk and read to them often know more words by age 2 than children who have not been read to.
Sadly fewer than half of under 2 year olds are read to every day or nearly every day by their parents. When you read to your baby; they hear you using many different emotions and expressive sounds. This supports social and emotional development. It encourages your baby to look, point, touch, and answer questions. This helps with social development and thinking skills. Your baby improves language skills by copying sounds, recognising pictures, and learning words.
This is when you place your baby on his or her stomach while they are awake and someone is supervising. This can be done on you when babies are very small. And eventually as they get older, you can give your baby tummy time opportunities while on the floor.
Tummy time is very important for your babies development. It improves your baby's motor skills (using muscles to move and complete an action), allows neck and shoulder muscles to grow stronger so your baby can start to sit up, crawl, and walk, and helps prevent flat head syndrome.
You should be giving your baby the opportunity for tummy time every day from birth. You can help make this fun for babies by lying on the floor in front of your baby, or providing suitable toys in front of your baby to entertain them during tummy time.
Check out our excellent Early Years programme to help give your wee one the Best Start. Or browse our What's On page.