FAVORITES FROM THE BLOG
3 best ways to boost your baby’s language development
Speak with your baby in a certain way, new research shows, and your baby is far more likely to pick up on language. The difference is big — more than double the vocabulary by age 2. How? Glad you asked, because “how” is what Zero to Five is all about.
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Baby refusing to eat? 8 things to consider
At 6 months, a mama wrote me, her little boy started off eating pretty well. At 7 months, he wasn’t eating enough or was refusing to eat, to the point where he had fallen off the weight charts. She felt stuck trying to force calories into him, while knowing experts say don’t force kids to eat. We found a path that worked.
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12 ways to include your toddler when cooking and cleaning
“Hey, that’s my BOOK!” one mom said when she saw me at a baby-expo booth with Zero to Five. “That saves my LIFE!” (And you, dear mama, made my day.) She said her favorite tip was about including your baby in whatever you happen to be doing. A few days later, I got a question on Facebook: “I have a hard time including my 16-month-old in kitchen activities. Do you have any suggestions on good ways to include a toddler when you’re cooking and cleaning?” Sure do!
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When your kid hits another kid (what to say in the moment)
It’s the worst feeling: your kid hits another kid (or bites or embeds fingernails in or otherwise mauls another kid) during a play date. The pressure’s on: the kid’s parent is looking at you, or pretending not to look at you. You want to prove that you’re handling it. What do you say?
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This is how you truly listen to an angry kid
My preschooler came out of her room and stomped once. I carried her back to bed. As I turned to leave, she called out: “Next time we go camping, I’m going to hurt C.” My response was typical enough of many parents, I think. Logical consequence + You’re wrong + What’s right x Lots of talking. And it doesn’t work.
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4-year-old takes 12-hour road trip with no iPad. Here’s what happened
“Should WE try that?” A friend had just come back unscathed from a road trip to Yellowstone with her 5-year-old, and we thought, “Huh.” We decided to do it. The big unknown was how G would do on the 12-hour car ride from Seattle to Yellowstone. She’d be solo in the back seat, as my attempts at borrowing somebody’s kid didn’t work out. I recalled the late-summer trip recently, when revised screen-time guidelines came out from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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