Posts Tagged ‘baby’

So Many Classes, How Do I Choose?

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

In 1976 when my first child was born, I enrolled in a Mommy and Me program.  This was a revolutionary idea at that time.  The program I joined had only been in existence in our area since 1965.  The program was at the local college, San Fernando Valley State College, now known as California State University, Northridge, run by the Home Economics Department.

Today, the words Mommy and Me are common in every parent’s vocabulary.  There are so many types of Mommy and Me classes and of course Daddies are now included.  If you like to exercise, you can take a stroller, yoga or exercise class with baby.

Mommy and Me Yoga Class

You and baby can go to an exercise class for baby, a gymnastics type class, movement class, dance class, and gym type class.  There are all types of music classes for parent and baby and cognitive type classes too, where baby learns sign language, to read, or speak a foreign language.  There is a new type of class also, a Developmental class, taught by a Child Development Specialist, focusing on both achieving developmental milestones of the child and parenting skills for the parent.

Classes are held everywhere.  They are held in community centers, non-profit agencies, religious organizations, government agencies, and private agencies.  The fees range from free to low cost to sliding scale to expensive.   In some places you need to be a member and/or pay a membership fee; for some, you will need to qualify; some will have waiting lists, while others are easy to register for.  Some classes will accept children with special needs and others will not.

Here are some things to do before deciding on a Mommy and Me Program:

1.  Before enrolling in a class decide what you want to accomplish by joining a Mommy and Me class.  For example:

a)    Make new friends yourself

Developmental Parent and Me Class

b)   Learn to play with my baby so she can develop new skills,

c)     Learn parenting skills

Every parent will have his or her own list.  I talked to the Mom of an 8-week-old last week and she was looking for a class where she could take her baby and regain her pre-pregnancy body.

2.  Research the class

a)    Talk to the teacher/owner if possible

b)   When and at what time is/are the classes?

c)    What is the cost?

d)   View the site

e)    Talk to other parents (if possible)

f)     View the curriculum  (there should be a curriculum)

g)    Ask about a home curriculum for baby

h)   Any other questions you may have

Then take all your research and see which classes meet your needs the best.  Grab your baby, and it’s off to class!

Faith Golden M.A. is a Child Development Specialist with over 17 years experience.  She has worked with over 2400 families with children ages’ birth to 5.  She specializes in prevention and early intervention through in-home teaching, Developmental Parent and Me classes, Happiest Baby on the Block workshops and workshops for parents of children with special needs.

 

For a free consultation please call 818 222-2606 or email faith@itsaparentparenting.com Please look at the website for Toilet Training Tips and other information www.itsaparentparenting.com


 

 

 

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Making Sense of Instructions

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

As a patient, I ask a lot of questions.  I may take up more than my allotted 3 minutes with the doctor, but I need to understand why a medication is being prescribed for me, what the test results mean for me (not the fictitious normal person), and the reasoning behind what the doctor is suggesting that I do.  It is very important for parents to do the same thing.  Otherwise they end up doing things that they partially understand or following a doctor’s instructions blindly.

Let me give you an easy example.  Let’s say I am a new parent leaving the hospital with a 9-pound infant.  This is my first baby, so I don’t know how much or how often to feed her, so I ask the doctor.  The doctor tells me to feed her 3 ounces of formula every 4 hours.  If I didn’t ask any more questions, I would take my baby home and feed her 3 ounces of formula every 4 hours.  I would try to make sure that she took the entire 3 ounces, just like the doctor said.  I would wait 4 hours between feedings and make sure to set my alarm clock at night so she got fed on time.

If I had asked the doctor why I needed to feed the baby exactly 3 ounces every 4 hours, the doctor would have told me that feeding a baby is not an exact science, the same as feeding children and adults.  Some days we are hungrier than others, so some feedings the baby will take 2 ounces and some feedings the baby will take 5 ounces.  Some feedings the baby will space 2 hours apart and some feedings the baby will space 5 hours apart. So basically, follow the baby’s lead when it comes to feeding.  She will let you know when she wants to be fed and how much.

For new and not so new parents, when you are told by a doctor to do something, stop and think about the instruction for a minute.  Make sure you understand why you are doing what you are doing and the actual instructions.  Then and only then will it make sense to you!  It you can explain it to someone else, then you know you understood the directions.

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Toddler Reacts To New Baby

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

Hello, Faith:
I recently had my second child, and my formerly well-behaved 2-year-old has been acting out. She sometimes regresses (asks us to feed her her sippy cup, tries to sleep in the baby’s crib), but more often generally stirs up mischief. She hits and kicks us mostly, and refuses to do things that were normally part of our routine. I’ve looked into the typical responses: Spend alone time with her, have her help with the baby, try to make her feel important, address her needs before the baby’s… all of which I feel that we are doing. And when we discipline her for hitting with a time out or by telling her that the behavior is inappropriate, it doesn’t seem to have any effect. I don’t understand what we are doing wrong! Looking for suggestions on what to do.

Many thanks,

-Distressed

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Dear Distressed,
Thanks so much for contacting me.  You are doing all the right things, except I don’t necessarily think your older child’s needs should come before the infant’s needs (it will depend on the situation), but I’m sure you know that.

Your daughter is having difficulty adjusting to the current transition taking place in your home.  Some children have no trouble with transitions and others take a longer time to adjust.  Your daughter is taking out her frustration on you, and showing you that she is unhappy with the attention that you are giving to the baby by trying to get your attention.  You have a couple of choices to stop this behavior.  Basically the time honored method that I employ is to give attention to the behavior you want to promote and ignore the behavior that you want to extinguish.  Some behaviors should not be tolerated at all and must be stopped which are those that cause bodily harm or are destructive.  In my book, hitting causes bodily harm, and needs to be stopped.  So hitting behavior should be met with a firm “No” followed with removal from the room.  All children and people are social beings and want to be where the action is.  Another way to do this is to make a huge fuss over the person who was hurt while ignoring the hitter.  Therefore you are ignoring the behavior that you want to extinguish.  I also like to give children choices such as, “If you choose to get mad and hit when I am feeding your sister you will need to leave the room, if you play quietly, you can stay, you choose.”  A 2 year old is capable of making this decision.  If she starts to hit you say, “I see you decided to hit, so you can’t be in the room with us and escort her from the room.  The key here is consistency.  Follow through every time and she will know that her world is stable and consistent. It won’t take very many times before she understands.

By the way, this is the basis for all parenting.  If you learn it now, you will be on your way to being a Great Parent.
Take care,
Faith

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