Everything you need to know about parenting, from early pregnancy to toddlerhood
From our partners:
We all need a little help from time to time, no one more so than parents-to-be and new parents. Organic baby food brand Piccolo has launched a free-to-join Family Club, with a panel of family health and wellbeing experts set to help parents with everything from boosting their mood post-birth to weaning and meal inspiration.
Monthly emails will be packed with practical advice from the experts, as well as real mums and dads, for parents from early pregnancy up to two years old – alongside a whole line-up of offers on baby essentials and activities. Experts already in the line-up to share their first-hand advice include pre and postnatal fitness expert Shakira Akabusi, writer and men’s mental health expert Jamie Day, and hypnobirthing and positive birth guru Megan Rossiter.
As if you needed another reason to sign-up, members of Piccolo’s Family Club will be treated to an exclusive discount code from one of Piccolo’s partners – including us – helping families to enjoy more experiences together. There will also be monthly coupons with offers for those shopping for Piccolo at Sainsbury’s, Boots and Ocado, as well as special pouches for key milestones such as starting weaning.
What are you waiting for? Click here to join now for FREE!
Just a taste of the topics to expect are what to pack in your hospital bag, how to start feeling like yourself again post-birth, how much babies need to eat at weaning stage and how to deal with tantrums and meltdowns. Lucky for you, we’ve got a sneak peak at some of the content below.
What to pack in your hospital bag?
It seems like only last week you found out you were pregnant. Now, reality is hitting that a new family member could arrive literally any moment. You’ve got the due date in the diary but it’s unlikely baby is synced up to your Google calendar, so you need to think about packing your hospital bag at least two weeks before the big day. The first thing? Pick out a bag: a small holdall or suitcase is perfect — anything more and you’ll have the maternity ward worrying you’re moving in. Even if you’re having a home birth, it’s good to have everything in one place and ready to go. All mums on their second time around will tell you that you won’t need half the stuff you took for your first baby. Still, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. The best advice we’ve come across? Take anything you might think you’ll need. Here’s our checklist to get you started.
Read the article here.
How to start feeling like yourself again post-birth?
Priority number one: looking after baby. Next priorities: feeding baby, washing baby, cleaning up after baby… then somewhere down the long list of things to do, you’ll have tacked on checking-in with yourself (and having a wash). But remember, if you’re not looking after yourself properly, looking after someone else is going to be that little bit harder. Here are five self-care tips for new mums we wish we’d been told.
Read the article here.
How much does my weaning baby need to eat?
You’ve just got into the groove of milk feeds and before you know it, they’re ready for weaning. We know it’s time for solid foods because they’re sitting upright by themselves, picking up food and putting it in their mouth, and swallowing. This feeding phase is completely new territory. Along with it comes some questions that aren’t that obvious like: how much do they eat? Are you supposed to just feed them until they decide to stop eating? And what’s the deal with milk feeds, do they stop entirely?
Read the article here.
How to deal with tantrums and meltdowns?
Meltdowns and mood swings: welcome to the world of a two-year-old whose life revolves around the saying ‘I want it and I want it now’. Square sandwiches?! But I wanted triangles! Even when you always cut them into squares, how could you do such a thing? Tantrums swing between being a bit understandable to downright ridiculous, but regardless of that, the ‘I want it and I want it now’ eruption is still going to hit you with full force every time. You’re not a mind-reader though, so just remember it’s not your fault and you couldn’t predict their behaviour before it happened. What you can do is get to know your kid’s reactions and wise up to how they might behave in similar situations. Are they stubborn or easy-going? While easy-going might get you off a bit more lightly, don’t expect them not to throw tantrums: everybody goes through the terrible twos. Have a couple of these tricks up your sleeve for before things hit crisis point.
Read the article here.
