Working mums have a hard time trying to prove themselves to everyone around them, not least with their children or work colleagues that they can fit everything in. It’s no wonder Mums stress levels rise particularly at the end of the day or week. There are however some simple strategies you could try to reduce those Mummy Meltdowns!
Last week a Mum told me about the, ‘Pant Wars’ I was a little bemused and had to ask her to explain what she was actually referring to? She explained she was having battles getting her 4 year old son dressed and get out of the house on time for an activity with his friends. After half an hour of pleading, threats and persuading, he still wasn’t dressed, tensions rose and Mummy ended up shouting! Boy did she feel bad about it for the rest of the day, although this needn’t have happened.

When her son came home, (fully clothed) he actually apologised to his Mum, then she did the same back to him and immediately all those bad thoughts and feelings melted magically away.
Here are some tips if you find yourself feeling guilty or becoming out of control, ask yourself,
1. How important is this to me or my child?

2. Can I let it go?

3. How can I handle this situation without it escalating?

4. Who’s the child and am I being reasonable?

Be kind to yourself but do remember to be firm but fair.
Is there anything your child does that really winds you up, we’d love to hear how you resolve matters?

5 PART Baby Sleep SERIES
How to cope with sleep for Infants- Part 1
Have you just arrived home with your new born baby and now beginning to realise your baby is not sleeping the same as they were in hospital? There are many reasons for this; if your baby is very sleepy and nods off at each feed don’t worry it’s quite normal. If you had drugs during the birth your baby is likely to be quite drowsy for a few days, however everything could change when they wear off.

Your baby will be feeding up to 12 times a day and in between this he or she will be having short naps because they only have small stomachs and will need to eat regularly. Breast fed babies will only be getting colostrum, which is a watery but highly nutritious first food for your baby and is less satisfying than breast milk. Around day five, your milk should come in and things will change again. Bottle fed babies will also feed very regularly too and take frequent sleeps and short naps. Watch out for part 2 on how to cope with sleep for infants next time.

Infant Yawning

I’d love to hear about your new pregnancies and how your coping with your new born infant.

Mums are all saying how tired they are, so do remember to look after yourself and get plenty of sleep and eat healthily too. Eating well and having a good variety of nutrients is essential for the healthy growth of your unborn baby as the foetus is rapidly evolving and growing in those early weeks of pregnancy. Look after yourself then you won’t end up feeling guilty and you’ll have a much happier child too.

Easter Egg Competition

Last month the Sanity Nanny took a long awaited break before Easter and went to Morocco, what a fun place to visit. Marrakech was extremely frenetic but very friendly. One of the things that struck me about my trip was how everyone had to struggle to survive although some residents were quite wealthy and lived in beautiful Riads, homes or hotels, the streets were full of people living in poverty. This included very young children selling something in the roadside or trying to ‘help you’ or show you the way somewhere, invariably you would end up giving them some money to send them on their way. Children here in this Muslim country have freedom to play freely in the streets and even small children were confident and very happy to speak to strangers in English. It shows wealth cannot take away ones character, in fact poverty seems to enhance certain traits when money is scarce.

On-line Mummy & Baby Support Club

April is an exciting time I am finally launching the Mummy Meltdown Club, hooray!  It’s long awaited I know but hopefully will be helping make mums lives easier with your little ones and for those who can’t get to a meeting you can join us via the on-line version. There will be lots of health and well-being help and of course sleep advice, so spread the word if you have any friends up and down the country who may need help.

   NEW !   

The Sanity Nanny  On-line 30 Day Sleep Programme has just been launched with a group of Mums with babies and toddlers. I’m really looking forward to helping more mums across the UK and further afield via our group and phone support, as you can imagine it’s been a busy few weeks!

Coming soon

Several requests have been made for Montessori Classes so I’m going to run a 6 week course for toddlers. Is it all possible of course, lots of planning has already begun, so more about that later. If you are interested in Montessori Education for your child please email me Juliet@sanitynanny.com    as places will be very limited.

Lastly I would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter and a happy holiday if you are escaping to warmer climates.

Happy Parenting

Juliet Robinson

Mothers queue up for 12-12-12 babi

Christmas Preparations
What toys have you got on the Christmas list, I recommend moving toys and activity games for children aged 6-10. A real favourite is Twister, if you’ve not played it get yourself down to the gym first to loosen up! Girls always love horses, pink things such as Tutu’s for little ones and babies well they love push and pull toys or building blocks and wooden puzzles. For tiny babies I love cashmere blankets, personalised gifts and keepsakes.
Happy shopping and stay warm, snow is apparently on its way!
Perhaps  you know someone who is pregnant or expecting a baby in the New Year, you may be interested to know that I have a wonderful informative Pregnancy New Baby and Parent Programme which guides mums through the first 6 months of life. It is full of information that is rarely found on the internet and will certainly save time and money. Why not treat someone who’s pregnant or perhaps even yourself? Check out the link here http://www.sanitynanny.com/motherandbaby.htm

This week I received a home-made birthday card, how lovely I thought until I saw my age

Creative young talent

emblazoned on it!

My 10 year old niece had taken it upon herself to do some research on the internet and found the term “Swinging sixties” which she wrote on my card, then found some gorgeous pictures, printed them and cut them all out. Now here was me thinking that she must have spent hours going through some old magazines found in a loft or car boot sale but no, it was all done with the aid of a computer, a bright mind and a printer. Her mother was rather upset that she had not received the same thought and artwork with her own birthday card- how privileged was I?

Along with the card came a ‘home-sewn’ cupcake complete with chocolate sprinkles (the slimmer’s version!) so thoughtful and creative, despite it being beyond bedtime that evening, she did a wonderful job. I love doing creative project with children or at least inspiring them and then seeing what they come up with.

I was also informed that her brother  aged 10 had been up to ‘no good’ and had been banned from the computer so he’d taken himself in to the garage, along the way he’d swiped a few aerosol cans and began experimenting with various ingredients. The aerosol can was replaced afterwards although it felt full it strangely no longer worked? He then leapt up to tell his mother that he knew ‘why’ and promptly took the pin out that he had inserted!

I was also told he’d been experimenting with hair gels and making his own with some concoction and white glue, he hasn’t even got older brothers to blame nor is he at boarding school, they do start young these days don’t they?

Love to hear what your little ‘darlings’ get up to and how they keep themselves entertained. Any pictures of home -made birthday cards would be great too!

I met Nic and her husband who designed PlayDuvet a colourful sensory cover   which encourages babies to play on a soft area and is big enough for mums and dads to play on the floor too. It’s a great concept and goes along with Montessori education concept of children learning through their senses and having freedom within defined boundaries. If anyone wants ot know more about Montessori Education please ping me and email and watch out for my ’ Montessori Parenting at home’ programme designed to help you teach this wonderful method to your  children.

Another Mum I met has set up a business cleaning buggies and has an unforgettable name ‘grubby buggy’! The great thing is they offer this service where ever you are in the country via a courier service, so any mums that just can’t face cleaning their buggy go check out http://www.grubbybuggy.com.

Not long now until the next Little Monster Baby & Toddler Show in Cardiff, tell your friends and pop along if you live locally, would be lovely to meet you and your child/children, it’s around an hour from Cheltenham and Bristol and has a lovely harbourside setting.

• ‘I recently discovered that Jo Frost aka Supernanny has been axed in America and been superseded by a woman called Deborah Tilman. Obviously Jo is not happy about this and has found  ’fault’ in her credentials. I’m actually pleased to see this because although lots of parents love Jo Frost’s approach and the fact she gets results, many  have not actually considered the impact of the ‘naughty step’ on children’s emotional thoughts and early self-esteem.  I often get asked , “Are you like Supernanny?” In some ways I am in that I help parents gets their children to sleep or behave appropriately, however I have never needed to or recommend parents should use the ‘naughty step’. I am more an advocate of positive parenting and teaching a one or two year old they are naughty I feel is very sad.

Parents may get frustrated with their children but if you made a mistake at work and your boss turned round to you and said, you are such an idiot/bad person how would you feel? Happy? Probably angry and wanting revenge or feeling on edge until the next time something ‘bad’ happended?

We are all emtional beings and often children are treated disrespectfully and I have to say that the term ‘NAUGHTY STEP’ is not one I was taught or have used to bring up children. Jo claims that Deborah is a business woman and does not have the childcare knowledge or qualifications, however I believe that Jo was not a trained nanny when she was choosen for the role back in 2004.

That was one of the reasons producers felt she was a ‘good’ role model- I perhaps should have applied for the job when I saw it advertised, although I don’t have a ‘naughty step’ Supernanny rule or a magic Mary Poppins umbrella! I am simply Juliet Robinson, the sanity nanny providing parents ‘peace of mind’ when they feel they’re going out of their mind!

Sleep and Sanity that’s me, who knows one I may end up on T.V!

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Astonishingly most mothers under estimate their child’s weight and are putting their child’s health at risk. The shocking statistics came back and only a small number 4 per cent of the toddlers were described as being too heavy, the truth was that 32 per cent were in fact overweight.

The same mismatch was true at the other end of the scale, 27 mothers considered their children were too thin, when only one was underweight and the rest were a normal size.

These findings were revealed to the International Congress of Dietetics in Sydney, Byrne who did the research said local mums were generally worried that their babies and toddlers were not eating enough.

The perception was that a chubby baby was a healthy baby, this is particularly true in Italy. In fact the Italian child is thought to be more ‘beautiful’ if they are chubby. Parents feel their chubby children will grow up and lose this ‘chubbiness’ or ‘puppy fat’.  Unfortunately this was not the case, the weight was sticking throughout childhood and producing overweight adults.

Mums often have concerns that their children are not eating enough, and often pressure them to eat everything on their plate, or often bribe them with dessert or treats so that they eat ‘something’. This is not necessary, a baby or child is able to self-regulate, as a parent it is your job to provide healthy nutritional food.

Babies will stop when they’ve had enough to eat and so will most toddlers, parents just need to recognise that some days they ‘go off their food’ but this is usually only temporary thing. It is the same when they have a growth spurt, they will ate you at of house and home or constantly require feeding.

Parents should try to limit juice intake if their child is refusing meals or give smaller portions and limit milk intake in children over a year.

The best way for parents to keep check on their children is through health and development record books, where babies’ heights and weights are plotted at various times during the first years of life.

This gives you an accurate idea of whether your baby’s weight is appropriate for their height.

What concerns do you have regarding your child’s food intake/your child’s diet?

What is your child’s favourite animal?

Baby Snuggles

The sad thing is many mothers are not always aware that this is what is going on or how to deal with their feelings of despair or why they are not perhaps bonding with their child. The baby blues are very common around day five after having a baby and mothers become very tearful and may take things out on their partners, rest assured Dads this is likely to only be temporary and should soon pass. If you don’t see an improvement in your partner, talk to your health visitor and ask for additional support.

Post natal depression is a horrible illness and in some cases can become worse very rapidly. If as a mother you are having terrible thoughts or feel you may harm your baby, ask for help or visit your G.P or paediatrician immediately. You will probably be prescribed drugs to help; in rare cases you may need hospitalization until you are feeling better. You will not have your baby taken away from you unless it is felt you may harm yourself or your child. If it did happen it would only be for a short period or until you had sufficiently recovered, this is I stress rare however it does happen.

No mother wants to be separated from her child for whatever reason, however a vulnerable baby needs to be protected and if a mother is unable to cope with the crying or is not eating or sleeping it is easy to lose control. Baby blues is a much milder form of post natal depression and with family support and regular eating you should soon find things improving.

Having a baby is such an unknown quantity and we all wish for a healthy child however mums need to stay healthy or risk having to be looked after themselves as they claw back sleep and start to feel themselves again.

Common post natal depression symptoms include:

• Moodiness
• Tearfulness
• Feeling lonely/hopeless
• Poor sleep
• Bad thoughts about yourself/ in severe cases harming your child
• Over/Under eating

If you know a new mum who does not seem herself, ask how you can help or allow her to catch up on some sleep while you mind the baby. If you see no improvement, tell their partner or a health professional and help protect her little child.