Baby's First Year · Parenting

Things to do with your baby or young child during lockdown

Are you struggling with how to keep your child engaged and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you running out of ideas and activities? Here are a few tips to help your day go a little easier: Keep a daily routine.  Children do well when they know what to expect and breaking the day into… Continue reading Things to do with your baby or young child during lockdown

Baby's First Year · Parenting

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

Baby's First Year · Parenting

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

Baby's First Year · Parenting

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?

Baby's First Year · Parenting · Pregnancy

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

Baby's First Year · Parenting

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

Baby's First Year · Parenting

May is Speech and Hearing Month!

May is one of my favourite months. Flowers are in bloom, the sun is shining a little longer each day – and bonus – it's time to celebrate communication and hearing! Since it's Speech and Hearing Month, I thought this would be a good time to highlight our four most popular blog posts about communication… Continue reading May is Speech and Hearing Month!