Episodes
-
Navigating sleep during the early years can be anything but dreamy. It's a rollercoaster ride of sleep regressions and bedtime battles. From newborns who seem to have no concept of day and night, to toddlers resisting bedtime like champions of protest, each stage comes with its own set of sleep patterns. And just when you think you've figured it all out, a new milestone or developmental leap can tip the scales once again.
As parents, understanding these ever-evolving sleep patterns is crucial. It helps anticipate challenges and adapt the strategies accordingly. On this podcast episode, we'll delve into the details about age appropriate sleep requirements, indicators of readiness for various stages of sleep and shed light on transition from co-sleeping to independent sleeping.
Sleep is vital for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. In this guide, we explore age-appropriate sleep needs and readiness indicators to establish healthy sleep routines, nurture growth, and ensure peaceful nights for both you and your child.
Newborns (0-3 months): 14-17 hours of sleep per day, typically in 2-3 hour stretches, with frequent feeding. Newborns need frequent feeding and sleep cycles.
Infants (4-11 months): 12-15 hours of sleep per day, including nighttime sleep and naps. Nighttime sleep may become more consolidated. As babies grow, they might show signs of readiness for sleep training, longer nighttime sleep stretches, and established nap schedules.
Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours of sleep per day, which may include one or two naps. Toddlers tend to consolidate sleep into one nap during the day and longer nighttime sleep. They may start showing an interest in bedtime routines and may resist going to bed.
Preschoolers (3-5 years): 10-13 hours of sleep per day, with most children transitioning to one daytime nap. They may start resisting naps altogether, indicating readiness to transition to no daytime nap.
Transition from co sleeping to independent sleeping:
Transitioning from co-sleeping to independent sleep is a significant step in your child's development and a milestone in their journey towards sleep independence. Here are some dos and don'ts to follow while transitioning.
Do:
>Create a calming and consistent bedtime routine that helps signal to the child that it's time to sleep.
>Pay attention to your child's daytime naps. Ensure they are age-appropriate and not too close to bedtime, as excessive daytime napping can interfere with nighttime sleep.
>Bring familiar sleep associations from co-sleeping into the baby's new sleep space, such as a favorite blanket or stuffed animal.
Don't:
>Rush the transition. Give your baby time to adjust to the new sleeping arrangement at their own pace.
>Abruptly stop co-sleeping if it's been the norm. This can be distressing for the baby.
>Allow excessive screen time before bedtime. The blue light from screens can interfere with the child's ability to fall asleep.
-
Sometimes it might seem like the littlest kids have the biggest emotions. Emotions that come out in loud, unpredictable, and sometimes aggressive ways. When big emotions are too much for our little ones, we can see tantrums, mean words, or impulsive behaviour. Some of the most common emotions children feel are: Anger, Sadness, Fear, Jealousy to name a few.
While it would be wonderful if children were naturally equipped to stay calm and respond to disappointments or anger in a manageable way, that's not how they work. Young children lack the vocabulary to express their desires or articulate their emotions fully. The resulting frustration can make them susceptible to being overwhelmed by intense feelings. This is where children need adults to step in and help them constructively. It’s important to help our children learn how to talk about their big feelings. We can give them the tools they need to express how they’re feeling, before their emotions take over. Every outburst is an opportunity to steer them in a different direction and to strengthen the skills they need to name and manage their emotions in a way that works for them. We want our children to know All emotions are okay and normal, and want them to understand that it’s okay to feel whatever they are feeling. We also want them to know that emotions aren’t permanent, and if they ride that emotional wave it will eventually end.
Big emotions and tantrums are NOT a sign of bad parenting or bad children. They are never that. Taking tantrums or wild behaviour personally can make it more difficult to use them as an opportunity to nurture valuable skills in a child. It can be easy to feel judged when your child choose the top of the escalator on a busy Saturday morning to throw themselves on the ground because you peeled their banana all the way to the bottom and nothing – nothing – can ever be the same again, but you are raising humans, and it’s hard and it’s important and the path is a crooked one with plenty of uphills, downhills, and hairpin curves.
-
Missing episodes?
-
The first 3 years of life is the most influential period for acquiring speech and language skills. These skills develop best in a world that is rich with sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to the speech and language of others. This is when the brain is best able to absorb language.
So, it’s a nobrainer to expose children to language in as many ways as possible in this critical period.
Children vary in their development of speech and language skills. However, they follow a natural progression or timetable for mastering the skills of language. Sometimes a delay may be caused by hearing loss, while other times it may be due to a speech or language disorder.
Verbal communication is interpersonal communication that includes oral communication, written communication, and sign language. Nonverbal communication encompasses a whole host of physicalized nonverbal cues that convey emotional states and complement verbal messages
Reading is one of the best ways to encourage communication and language development. As an infant, hearing words and seeing pictures helps a child understand the two are connected. This lays a foundation for speech, which begins around nine months and typically increases as a child grows.
Answer when your baby makes sounds. This will help him/her learn to use language. Read to your baby. This will help him/her develop and understand language and sounds. Help to develop your toddler’s language by talking with him/her and adding words. For example, if your toddler says "baba,” you can respond, "Yes, you are right – that is a bottle." Encourage your child to tell you his/her name and age. Help your child develop language skills by speaking in complete sentences and using "grown-up" words. Help your child to use the correct words and phrases.
Parents and caregivers play a big role in a child’s communication and language development. Here are some suggestions for how to encourage this development:Children who have trouble understanding what others say (receptive language) or difficulty sharing their thoughts (expressive language) may have a language disorder. Specific language impairment (SLI) is a language disorder that delays the mastery of language skills. Some children with SLI may not begin to talk until their third or fourth year.
Children who have trouble producing speech sounds correctly or who hesitate or stutter when talking may have a speech disorder. Apraxia of speech is a speech disorder that makes it difficult to put sounds and syllables together in the correct order to form words.
-
Making informed choices during childbirth can be complex and multilayered. Understanding the various interventions in childbirth, pain relieving methods, common misconceptions and risks involved can go a long way in helping families understand the implications of every decision they make.
Normal labor and delivery is the term used when the baby is born in head down position at full term (9 months) through the vagina (birth canal) after spontaneous labor pains. Typically, for first-time mothers normal labor may last anywhere from 6 to 18 hours.
In low-risk births, a normal labor and delivery is safer for the mother and baby over a c-section. It allows you to breastfeed your baby sooner and helps you recover faster.Normal delivery process has the following three stages
Stage I is when the contractions in uterus cause opening and shortening of the cervix i.e. the mouth of the uterus. Stage II is when the cervix is fully open and the baby descends down the birth canal. The mother pushes and gives birth to the baby. Stage III is when delivery of placenta (i.e. the organ that supplies nutrients to the baby) occurs.A pain-sensitive woman requires one of many pharmacological (using medications) methods using intravenous medications for short durations which have their limitations due to temporary undesired side effects during labor affecting both mother and the child.
Inhaling (Entonox) Nitrous oxide and oxygen mixture relieves anxiety, helps to tolerate mild pain in the early 1ststage and during the 2nd stage of labor from second delivery onwards.
Interventional techniques like spinal and epidural would give us maximum safety profile and comfort to the delivering mother. Spinal may be used in urgency when pain relief is needed for a short duration towards the end of 1st stage. Epidural is the gold standard and gives at least 90% pain relief.
-
The first 1,000 days of a human life also known as the Thousand Day Window of Opportunity- is the time spanning roughly between conception and one’s second birthday. More than 1,000,000 new brain connections are formed per second in the first years of a child’s life. 80% of brain development happens before the age two. This is a unique period of opportunity when the foundations of optimum health, growth, and neurodevelopment across the lifespan are established. While the human brain continues to develop and change throughout life, the most rapid period of brain growth and its period of highest plasticity is in the last trimester of pregnancy and the first two years of life.
For the first 6 months, exclusive feeding is beneficial for both the baby and mother. Breastfeeding can be done until the baby is 24 months or beyond (dependent on mother’s choice and baby’s reciprocation). Breast milk is an important source of nutrients and energy for the babies. It can provide half or more than half of an infant’s energy needs between the ages of 6 and 12 months. And also provides one third of energy needs to babies between 12 and 24 months. Breast milk is very important to protect the babies from harmful infections and also reduces the mortality rate in case of malnourishment.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends introducing complementary foods (i.e., any solid or liquid other than breast milk or infant formula) to infants at approximately age 6 months. Although a consensus on ideal timing is lacking, most experts agree that introduction of complementary foods before age 4 months is too early because of infant gastrointestinal and motor immaturity. In addition, early introduction prevents exclusively breastfed infants from reaching the recommended 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding and might be associated with increased risk for overweight and obesity.
Many women decide on one method before the birth and then change their minds after their baby is born. And many women decide to breastfeed and supplement with formula because they find that is the best choice for their family and their lifestyle. While you're weighing the pros and cons, talk to your doctor or lactation consultant. These health care providers can give you more information about your options and help you make the best decision for your family
-
Developmental problems are unique in that within any single diagnosis or disorder, more than one body system may be involved. In addition, many developmental disorders—especially learning disabilities—embrace all categories and types of developmental milestones, whether social, language, fine or gross motor, or cognitive skills. This can make it impossible to categorize the symptoms of most developmental problems within just one body system or within one category of developmental milestones.
Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD is a developmental occurrence that can be detected as early as 18 months. It impacts the development of the brain in the areas of social interaction, communication skills, and cognitive function. Autism can cause children to experience difficulties with communication, distinct behaviour patterns like repetition (of words or behaviours); social withdrawal, lack of interest in relationships; and in some cases, speech impairments.
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a spectrum which means that each person with autism has a distinct set of strengths and challenges. The ways in which people with autism learn, think, and solve problems can range from highly skilled to severely challenged. While some people with ASD may require significant support in their daily lives, others may need less support or live entirely independent lives.
The World Health Organisation states that one in every 160 children is Autistic. April is Autism Awareness Month and a time to celebrate and promote acceptance for the condition. Because acceptance along with kindness goes a long way in building an equal world where people on the spectrum can achieve their full potential.
-
The Midwifery Model of Care considers pregnancy and birth as normal physiologic events in a women's life. Midwives work with women in the promotion of reproductive health, family planning, preconception care, antenatal care, care during labour and postnatal care including newborn care.
The Midwifery Model of Care is a fundamentally different approach to pregnancy and childbirth than contemporary obstetrics. It includes:
· monitoring the physical, psychological and social well-being of the mother/birthing parent throughout the childbearing cycle
· providing the mother/birthing parent with individualized education, counselling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labour and delivery, and postpartum support
· minimizing technological interventions and
· identifying and referring women/birthing people who require obstetrical attention.
-
Pregnancy involves making multiple decisions and one of the most important decisions a mother along with her family makes is the choice of a healthcare provider for pregnancy and childbirth. In today’s episode, we will be discussing the various childbirth options, healthcare providers and how you can go about choosing the right partner and optimal birth setting.
Pranjul Tandon, a Certified Childbirth Educator based in London, shares her thoughts on how to choose the right healthcare partner. She is the founder of Womb & Beyond and ReadyBabyGo and has worked with parents from across the globe.
http://www.wombandbeyond.info/
https://instagram.com/womb_and_beyond/
-
During the growing years between infancy and adolescence, adequate nutrition is of utmost importance. Choosing what and how to feed your baby has life-long effects for your baby and for you. What you have seen and learned about infant feeding from your family, friends, and teachers is likely to influence your attitude and perceptions. Infants typically breastfeed or are given formula the first 6 months Fluids besides these two are not typically recommended. These substitutes, such as milk, juice, and water do not possess what the infant needs to grow and develop, cannot be digested correctly, and have a high risk of being contaminated.
How to wean:
Traditional weaning:
Purees and “pish pash” from the time the child is 4 or 5 months old. Adult uses a spoon to feed, and eventually, the child starts feeding themselves finger food. Don’t force-feed. Let your child open their mouth and come towards the food before you put it in their mouth, rather than using various games and distraction techniques to “fill the child up”Baby Led Weaning
This is the new kid on the block, many paediatricians in India don’t even favour it. The idea is that children learn to chew and swallow, and apparently this is adaptive because the gag reflex is really far forward in the mouth at this age. Whereas if you introduce purees, children learn to swallow before they chew and so when they are working on chewing, the gag reflex is further back in the mouth, which makes it less safe. You don’t introduce solids until children can sit up in a tripod position independently. You introduce single foods at a time until you check for allergies Introduce a glass to drink water from You cut all food into finger food for children to self feed. All food should be of “kaju katli” consistency or softer. Theoretically, children eat what adults eat just cut into larger chunks so they can gnaw on it. They begin to eat off a spoon later You’ve got to be prepared for children to gag Eat with your child to model eating - and this goes for later too. Eat with your child, eating is a social experience and children tend to eat more and more variety when someone is modeling for them.Whether you wean using baby led weaning or traditional weaning focus on:
Unsalted food, too much salt is not good for baby Focus on savoury foods, not just fruit and sweeter vegetables like pumpkin Focus on whole foods, do not introduce processed food or refined sugar Family foods and traditional foods are most convenient and best. Introducing a variety of flavours is important. By around 9 months, introduce finger food. This does not have to be fancy - cutlets, rotis, idlis, dosas all count as finger food. Counterintuitively, introduce allergens early and often, and discuss with paediatrician about course of action for any family history of allergiesDivision of responsibility.
Ellyn Sattar’s division of responsibility in feeding:
Adult decides when, what and where to feed Make sure there are meals and snacks Make water available throughout the day Regulate grazing - some families allow grazing, for some - that doesn’t work. But make sure that children’s “allowed” foods follow the same rules. Child decides which food and how much to eat Children are great at listening to their bodies, much better than we are. They eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. And their bodies really tell them what they need. We should not be over-riding their natural hunger and fullness cues. -
In the first few months of life, children don’t really distinguish between day and night. They have short periods of being awake, followed by longer periods of being asleep, with feeds in between. Most children need to be fed in two hourly intervals. However, children may need to feed much more frequently than that during growth spurts, teething and other periods of growth and change. Eventually, sleep consolidation tends to happen, and children are able to go longer stretches at night, but may still wake for a feed, or for comfort.
Recommendations:
On their back, awake but sleepy, warm, no blankets, no pillows. Also, don’t nurse to sleep, unlatch when baby is still awake Put baby to sleep in the same room as parents for the first year, but in a crib Co-sleep only with a full-term baby, when the mother is well and sober. No sharing of covers across babyGood practices:
Make sure children are napping adequately Establish predictable sleep routines Create a pattern for returning to sleep Give it timeSleep regressions
These tend to happen during periods of intense growth. The four month sleep regression and the six month sleep regressions are well documented, and throw many a newly-sleeping longer stretches parents completely for a loop. Basically, as children begin to learn new skills or enter a new phase of their development, the impending changes can basically make it difficult for them to self-soothe.
Sometimes, difficulties putting children to sleep can be a result of them being overtired or overstimulated.
There are also serious medical concerns that can make sleep difficult including:
Silent reflux Obstructed breathing Low iron stores Temperament -
Finding the right gift for your children or their friends this holiday season just got easier. We realise how tricky picking an appropriate and useful toy for a child can be, so our team did all the research for you and put together the perfect Gifting Guides for different ages. We tried to shed light on different ways a toy can help a child. Oh! It gets better. We even added links to the sellers websites so just click on a particular image and save yourself a million hours of browsing.
Newborns & Infants
https://bit.ly/AmraGiftGuideNewborns
6 to 12 months
https://bit.ly/AmraGiftGuide6to12months
1 to 2 years
https://bit.ly/AmraGiftGuide1to2years
2 to 3 years
https://bit.ly/AmraGiftGuide2to3years
-
In Amra Coffee Chat, we interact with parents to hear their side of the story :)
Enjoy our conversation with Nishant Boorla - Associate Vice President at Oyo, father to a 15 month old and a fellow podcaster. His podcast The Airball Diaries is a daily dose of NBA updates.
-
Play consists of activities performed for self-amusement. These activities have behavioral, social, and psychomotor rewards. It is child-directed, and the rewards come from within the individual child; it is enjoyable and spontaneous.
Play takes different forms for different children, and its definition entails many aspects. Play is the direct opposite of work.
Parten’s Social Stages of Play
1. Unoccupied play : Infants appear to make random movements with no clear purpose,
2. Solitary play : From three to 18 months, children will spend much of their time playing on their own.
3. Parallel play : From the age of 18 months to two years, children begin to play alongside other children, often mimicking them, but without any interaction.
4. Associative play: When children are around three to four years of age, they become more interested in other children than their toys.
5. Social/cooperative play : Children around the age of three are beginning to socialize with other children.
Beyond Parten’s Stages, play can also be described by these additional categories or types of activities children can engage in during play.
6. Motor – Physical Play : When children run, jump, and play games such as hide-and-seek and tag, they are engaging in physical play. Physical play offers a chance for children to develop muscle strength, coordination, and exercise and develop their bodies appropriately, while maintaining healthy weight.
7. Constructive Play : In this type of play, children build and create things. Constructive play starts in infancy and becomes more complex as your child grows.
8. Expressive Play : Children learn to express feelings and emotions during expressive play. Art, music, and writing help children develop creativity and symbolic communication through expressive play.
9. Fantasy / Dramatic Play : Children learn to create and imagine beyond their world during fantasy play. They may assume adult roles and learn to think in abstract ways. Children stretch their imaginations and use new words and numbers to express concepts, imaginations and historical concepts.
10. Competitive Play : Competitive play begins in the late preschool period. The play is organized by group goals and established rules. There is at least one leader, and children are definitely in or out of the group.
-
Some of the more common early childhood education philosophies that people may hear are:
Montessori: founded by Maria Montessori, “follow the child,” the teacher as a guide, the environment is always referred to as a “prepared environment” because teachers create or make material available as they see children become ready for the next stage of learning. Many of the materials are self-correcting materials, and at the early stages children do a lot of independent work at their own pace. Most children do make their way through the entire curriculum, but at a different pace. There are also three-year work cycles - so children are exposed to concepts at different levels over time in a particular environment,and it takes a full three years to consolidate their experiences in a particular environment. There are three-hour work cycles, or three uninterrupted hours where children may pick and choose their material from what is available to them, which must be honoured. There is multi-year grouping, and children stay with their teacher and in their environment for three years at a time. Reggio: emerged out of a community need in Italy, and while Loris Malaguzzi is often referred to as the founder, it was a collaborative approach. They focus on the strength and curiosity of children, and talk a lot about the 100 languages of children - or myriad ways that children can express themselves. The teacher is seen as a “co-learner” in a Reggio environment, so whereas the Montessori teacher is a guide and unobtrusive, the Reggio teacher may be seen actually facilitating discussions and leading explorations. There are small group projects that children take on, together with a teacher. There is a lot of documentation of children’s work. Waldorf/Steiner: Rudolph Steiner is the founder of the Waldorf curriculum. The Waldorf method focuses on creating a home-like atmosphere, where a lot of imagination and fantasy play is encouraged.Waldorf toys are, by design, natural and with very minimal detailing - so a child may fill in the remaining details with their imagination. Waldorf also believes that children thrive from predictability and routine, so there are specific times for whole group and small group work, baking and cooking and arts and crafts. Kindergarten: Freidrich Froebel is considered the father of the modern kindergarten, and he is responsible for putting forth the idea that "play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in the child's soul.” He essentially believed that children had to construct their idea of the world through direct experience, or play, that would help them understand the world around them. To promote learning in this way, he had a series of gifts and occupations which included things like wooden blocks, sticks, clay, sand, slates, stones, etc. He emphasised the importance of open-ended exploration with this material. -
Ashok Rajagopalan is an Indian writer and artist for over 500 children's books. He is also known under the blogging pseudonym Kenny Wordsmith. Rajagopalan has worked as a graphic designer, freelance cartoonist, and has contributed to the children's magazines Impulse Hoot and Impulse Toot. He first began illustrating children's stories with a piece in the 1989 magazine Junior Quest.
Listen to us pick his brain.
-
Reading books together with children is among the most important daily routines that we can build. There is plenty of research that proves the benefits of reading to children. Children love the sound of language, and they love looking at pictures with their parents and other caregivers.
However, apart from simply being enjoyable, there are plenty of other reasons to read to children.
Reading builds children’s vocabulary. Reading also helps children understand the directionality of text - simple things such as English is written from left to right, and from the top of the page to the bottom. You turn pages from right to left to get to the next page of text etc. Children begin to understand that words on a page have meaning, that words have spaces between them etc.
But also, reading helps children understand more about the world. It teaches them about things and people who are different to them, and helps them understand situations that they have not yet experienced themselves.
-
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) as an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
In this episode, we dive into what SEL is, how the pandemic has impacted SEL in children and what parents can do to cope with this "learning delay".
-
Developmental Milestones are simply skills or behaviours that most children can perform by a certain age. What people forget to say in this simple definition, is that it isn’t a single specific age when a child reaches this milestone, but rather an age range.
Typically milestones are divided into domains of development. They are Physical Development, Cognitive Development, Social Development and Emotional Development, although the last two are often listed together as Social and Emotional Development. More recently, various curriculum frameworks and experts in child development have started to refer to language and communication as a separate domain of development, whereas traditionally language development was discussed as a sub-domain within Cognitive Development.
-
Weekly conversations and discussions about all things parenting and child development brought to you by amra.
This is a platform that brings parents, educators, experts and members of the village to shed light on different issues, questions and topics relevant to the early parenting community for we all know it takes a village to raise a child.
Enjoy us every week as my team and I take pressing parenting topics and break them into 20 minute episodes.
amra is a parent and child care brand focussed on creating an environment that will help children achieve their full potential and parents find their support system.
