SIDS, Cribs and Cosleeping

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SIDS. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Hearing those four little words or the one little acronym can strike fear in the heart of any new parent. SIDS is real, random, quick and totally unexpected. [...]

Importance of Bonding and Touch

First time parents are in for the experience of a lifetime! After surviving 9 months of pregnancy, a wardrobe of maternity clothes, baby showers, and decorating the nursery with care, you have gone through the exciting, heroic experiences of labor and delivery. Now you are ready to begin your new life as first-time parents!
First-Time Parent [...]

Prepare for New Baby with These Tried and True Items

Search the net and you’re sure to find list upon list of what you need for a new baby. Most of those lists go way overboard. Babies don’t usually need much at all. Here’s a list of what I found, through my own experiences, to be the most useful.

Clothing
Plenty of t-shirts and sleepers - [...]

Positive Child Discipline

Time-out sucks…away your child’s emotional security

One of the most commonly used parenting techniques in current day used throughout schools, homes, and day cares is “time-out”. “Timeout” is based primarily on a way of thinking that implies children act out for attention. Therefore, if a child is acting out ‘for’ attention, you don’t want to reward [...]

Video: G-Diapers - a cloth/disposable hybrid

This is a great video about the new G-Diaper which is the only eco-friendly disposable/cloth hybrid on the market today. While I am a very vocal advocate for elimination communication (aka diaper free baby), I also know that going totally diaperless is fairly difficult if you ever shop or travel or pretty much do [...]

Elimination Communication: Diaper Free Baby

According to those who use the technique, Elimination Communication is the practice of being responsive to a child’s need to eliminate wastes, and giving him the means to express this need clearly to his caregiver, regardless of his age. It also includes some training, called “cueing” through which the child associates a sound, place, object [...]

Is Infant Bonding Really an Issue?

Author: Jenna Haynie
Bonding is essential for any baby. Whether adopted or biological, babies have needs that are critical for proper development of mind and body. Newborns come ready to start this bonding process. Parents are the ones who don’t know where to start, especially if their baby is adopted or been placed in the NICU.
KidsHealth.org [...]

Simple Ways to Calm Your Baby

by Dr. Melanie Beingessner

As new parents, it can be daunting to try to soothe a baby when they fuss and cry. Here are some ideas that might help you to calm your baby.
1. Dance together. Gentle music soothes babies rather than fast music with a lively beat. By swaying and humming to the music, [...]

How To Be a Frugal Parent

Can you be frugal and still have everything that your baby really needs? Excellent question! The key is to identify what babies truly need. Advertisers and manufacturers would have you believe that baby needs fancy expensive “stuff” that will keep you in debt until your baby is in college. Not true. Babies need very little [...]

Sharing a Family Bed

The following is from an article found at www.argusleader.com (article is no longer located at the URL)
“The idea of co-sleeping or having a family bed isn’t new. For much of human history, babies and children slept with their mothers or perhaps with both parents.
Today, co-sleeping has seen a resurgence in popularity, party because working [...]