Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Following on from my blog about helping your little one to give up their dummy we had lots of questions about how to stop thumb sucking and so we decided to write a blog on this topic as well!

According to the British Orthodontic Society, one in every eight children in the UK (aged 7 to 11) has a thumb sucking habit. Babies have a natural sucking reflex and thumb sucking can start very early on after birth and can sometimes even be seen in the womb!

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. 

Natalie Costa (@powerthoughtsnc on Instagram powerthoughts.co.uk) Power Thoughts is a teaching, coaching and mindfulness based service which is aimed at empowering children to tap into the ‘power’ of their minds.  Children are taught how to become confident, resilient and robust, developing a ‘can-do’ attitude that allows them to flourish both in and out of the classroom setting. 

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. 

Hi, In the modern day, being a teenager is very hard. There are many challenges I face as a teenager, such as body image, social media, safety and friendship issues and I want to tell you about them and how I feel day to day. 

Emma–Jane is a specialist women’s health physiotherapist she assesses and treats a range of conditions and is also a Mummy MOT practitioner. We talked to her about why it is as important to look after yourself as it is to look after your baby.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant.  t’s that time of the year when everyone seems to have a cough or a cold!  The typical time for the common cold to make an appearance is between October and April and during this time of the year it can feel like your child has constantly got a cold. Most children before they start school will average 6-8 colds per year, which works out at around 1 cold per month!  The good news is that once your child starts school their immunity starts to get better which means that their tendency to catch colds will reduce. 

Pippa has always worked in health, fitness and wellbeing – she's been a gym instructor, group exercise teacher, trainer, assessor and quality assurer. More recently she had a full-time career developing health and fitness qualifications. In 2017 she decided to follow her dream of setting up Press Pause to share yoga and mindfulness to families, children, young people and adults.

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! 

Written for SR Nutrition by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant.

Following on from our post on Supporting Toddler Behaviour, we are now sharing our Top Ten Tips to Supporting Toddler Behaviour.

Read more here…