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“History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children" – Nelson Mandela

 

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Posts tagged developmental stage
My child is afraid of the dark!

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Has your child suddenly started to say, “I’m scared!”, “I don’t like the dark”, or “I’m scared of the dark”? If so, please be reassured that this is a very normal phase of development and can be experienced by lots of children, their parents and carers. Most often the biggest impact of this can be around bedtimes where little ones are typically on their own and it is dark. This sense of fear can have an impact on sleep, bedtimes or even cause waking in the night.

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Separation anxiety and bedtime (including 10 tips to help!)

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. One area which families can find very challenging during the phases of separation anxiety is bedtimes and naptimes. In this blog we are going to specifically look at how and why separation anxiety might affect bedtimes and sleep.

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When should my child stop having a bottle? (including tips for weaning your child off theirs!)

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. During the first 12 months of life, the bottle for some babies provides comfort and positive associations. Looking to stop the use of bottles and moving to a cup can often make parents feel sad and question if it is fair on the child to make them give it up because they seem to love it so much. While it can be hard and there can be an attachment, there are good reasons to look at stopping it once your child is over 12 months.

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When our children get older...

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. There is a wealth of information out there to support babies, toddler and pre-school children, but once they are over the age of 5 the information tends to be more limited and is often focused on school related topics. 

Just because our children are getting older, it doesn’t mean that parenting gets easier or that you will have all the answers to the new phases and stages that your child might be going through. It can be challenging and sometimes make you feel like you are having to use guess work to get through it.

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Sibling Rivalry…..it’s all natural!

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Maybe now more than ever we are experiencing what is like to be together, day in, day out and I think that we can all agree that some days can be lovely and others can be more challenging than we would like. 

As we are all spending more time together, sibling rivalry seems to be a topic which many families are having to deal with on a daily basis. Sibling rivalry is a is a natural part of family life, the frustration of siblings can be a real issue, but (if it helps), this is a normal stage of children’s development where they are learning skills such as resilience and tolerance…..along with how to negotiate and problem solve! ;-)

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Dummies and how to help stop your child using theirs!

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant.  Dummies are often introduced in the early days or weeks of a baby being born and there is some research to suggest that using a dummy in the first 6 months for naps and night-times could help reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).  For more information on this please see the Lullaby Trust website.  

As advised by the Lullaby Trust and the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry, it is however best to gently withdraw use of the dummy between 6 and 12 months – this is to avoid possible longer-term problems associated with dummy use (such as ear infections or misalignment of teeth - these problems have not been found below the age of one year).   However, as many parents and carers know, this can certainly be easier said than done!  We hope that this blog will give you some useful suggestions as to how to go about it. 

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Parenting teenagers!

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant.  The blog which was bravely written by our 13 year old teenage friend (who we will call Jemma), is a really powerful read and she has been very honest about the issues she is facing in her teenage years.  Parenting teenagers is always talked about in quite negative terms with comments such as “wait until they are teenagers”, “typical teenager, “I don’t envy you with teenagers!” etc. Teenagers do tend to have a bad reputation, but this is actually not all that different to the way people view the toddler stage and interestingly enough there are a lot of similarities between the two developmental stages.  The brain is going through huge changes at both these points and so this is when we typically see more challenging behaviour and high emotions. 

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Don't leave me! Separation Anxiety and how to manage it...

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant.  Over recent weeks I have been getting lots of questions about how to deal with babies and young children who are getting really upset when a parent or other main carer such as a nanny, grandparent etc is leaving them, whether this is going to school or nursery, or even just to go to the bathroom! 

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