There is a lot of different and at times contradictory advice out there on the internet for parents. Some of it is quite good, and well worth following, but others of it is somewhat less than helpful. This article aims to give you some real tips that have been tried and tested in the real world, and so will help you to improve your parenting, particularly if your children are quite young.

1. Give your baby lots of attention.

Baby’s love attention. They love cuddles, they love eye contact, they love it when people talk to them. And just as well, for that is how babies grow and develop. Their brains are continually craving stimulation from the outside world, so as to help new neurons grow, and make new neural connections.

A very easy way to help provide such stimulation is by using a mat known as the Fisher Price Rainforest Gym. You lay baby on this mat, on their back, and they look up at the various dangling toy animals that are before them. You can also play various songs and melodies through the mat’s speaker system, which also helps give baby some further excitement and stimulation.

2. Take Preventive Measures against SIDS.

Whilst we do not know how to guarantee against SIDS, we do know how to reduce the risk of it. One easy way to quite dramatically reduce the risk of SIDS is by getting your baby to sleep in the same bedroom as the mother. We don’t know why, but for some reason, when baby sleeps in the same bedroom as his/her mother, the likelihood of SIDS is reduced.

You can also invest in technology that monitors your baby. Such technology includes the Angelcare Baby Monitor, which monitors your baby’s breathing. Were they to stop breathing, it would set off an alarm that would alert you in time to save and rescue them.

3. Train you little one to sleep through the night.

Whilst it is inevitable that babies wake up throughout the night for feeding purposes, etc, once your child reaches age two or so, you can take active steps to get them to sleep through the night, and to wake up around 7am. You can do this with a reward system such as a star sticker chart, but one device that can short cut the training time is the the-Gro-Clock-Sleep-Trainer. This device is simply a clock with two different faces on it, one face being the ‘sleep’ face (that of a blue star), and the other face being the ‘wakeup’ face, that of a yellow sun. The different faces are shown at different times, such that when they should be sleeping, it is a blue star, and when it is time to wake up, it is a yellow sun. This device has been found to be incredibly effective by a wide variety of parents and their children, and you can use it too!