Keeping your child safe is a full-time job as any parent knows. An important part of home safety is your home fire escape plan. Here's Josephine Park, a Firefighter and Public Educator with Toronto Fire Services, to share her expertise and walk us through the steps. As a Firefighter, Public Educator and a mom of… Continue reading Fire Safety: The Home Escape Plan
Category: Baby’s First Year
Benefits of taking your child on a discovery walk
As a Public Health Nurse working in the Healthy Babies, Healthy Children program, I am asked every day: Is it safe to take my baby outside? My answer is YES, I recommend you go outside for a discovery walk (everyday if you can). Here’s my top 5 benefits of a discovery walk: Opportunity for new learningBabies… Continue reading Benefits of taking your child on a discovery walk
Healthy sleep routines for your baby
Have you ever heard the phrase "sleeping like a baby"? It usually means that the person had a really good sleep. But ask any new parent and they will tell you that most babies don't "sleep like a baby". Many new parents struggle with helping their baby fall asleep or their baby waking often in… Continue reading Healthy sleep routines for your baby
A recipe for wellness
These are difficult times and the pandemic is testing our resilience. We are doing things that we may have never done before, such as home schooling, staying away from our family and friends and working from home. Our routines have changed and we may be feeling that we have no control over what is happening… Continue reading A recipe for wellness
Baby talk: Let’s get moving with action words
Children expand their vocabulary by hearing the words we use. We tend to be really great at labeling objects (think: "A car! A ball! A puppy!"). But of course, we need other types of words to build sentences. Action words (verbs) are really important for building sentences, but they can be trickier to teach. Here… Continue reading Baby talk: Let’s get moving with action words
Building resilience: What is it and why is it important?
This is the fourth part of my brain development series. As a quick summary of this series, I've shared: Part One: How the brain develops Part Two: How to build better brains Part Three: The impact of early life experiences on the brain This last and final part will focus on resilience. "Resilience is not… Continue reading Building resilience: What is it and why is it important?
Happy World Breastfeeding Week!
In Canada, Breastfeeding Week is celebrated annually on October 1-7th to promote the importance of breastfeeding. This year's theme is "Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet." Breastfeeding contributes to a healthier planet by…. being environmentally friendly, there is no packaging or waste being low cost, convenient and readily available reducing baby's exposure to the effects… Continue reading Happy World Breastfeeding Week!
Parenting During a Pandemic
All parents and caregivers of children under 6 years old deserve a medal for having coped with these months of lock down. Explaining to a young child why we are doing things so differently - in a way that they understand and without frightening them - is so important. Emotional well-being is as important as… Continue reading Parenting During a Pandemic
The impact of early life experiences on the brain
This is the third part of the brain development series. Part 1 talked about how brains are built Part 2 talked about how serve and return builds better brains In this part of the brain development series, we will learn how early life experiences can impact your health and well-being later in life. There was a huge… Continue reading The impact of early life experiences on the brain
How to build better brains
This is the second part of the brain development series. The first part explained how brains develop, now the focus will be on how to build better brains. I recently read a story about a boy who planted two identical seeds in two different types of soil – one rich in nutrients and the other… Continue reading How to build better brains
