Life with crawlers
Thoughts on life with a crawler from some familiar faces. What a typical day’s like, what’s to love, the challenging stuff, and musings in hindsight, from those who’ve been there.
Different experiences grow brain connections
A baby’s brain has millions of connections, and these connections grow stronger when very young children have lots of different experiences and opportunities to talk and play with others.
CPR and first aid
Despite our best intentions, accidents do happen so it pays to know what to do if you need to provide first aid care. Attending a first aid course could save your child’s life. We caught up with a St John educator as she shared her advice with a group of mums.
Fever
Scary and all as it can be for parents, a fever is a symptom, not a disease. It means the temperature inside the body is higher than normal and is usually a sign the body is fighting an infection of some sort. The most obvious sign of a fever is a child will feel hot. They may also be irritable, cry and be off their food.
Oral health
When your child is around six months old, their baby teeth will start coming through the gum. As well as being important for a nice smile and helping with the vital tasks of chewing and speaking, baby teeth help to guide permanent adult teeth into place. So, from the day they make their first appearance, it pays to take good care of your baby’s precious pearly-whites.
Danger signs
Is it just a cold or something more serious? As a parent it’s important to know when to call for help and what the ‘red alert’ danger signs are for babies and young children. Get help quickly from a doctor if your baby or young child shows any of the signs listed below and learn CPR to be prepared for emergencies.
Choosing childcare
As parents, we are our children’s first teachers but chances are a time will come when we choose to share this important task with others. Often this will mean enrolling your child in an early childcare centre.
The benefits of crawling
Crawling is about much more than just getting around. Among other things, crawling develops upper body strength, fosters independence, and helps babies develop their eyes which are changing focal length as they move. Most importantly though, crawling develops the sharing of information between the two sides of the brain.
Developing your baby’s taste buds
Once your baby gets the taste for solids you can expand the menu and start introducing other foods.
Starting solids
The perfect time to start introducing your baby to solids is when they’re around six months old. Their digestive system has matured enough by then and milk no longer gives them all the nutrients they need to thrive.