I thought this would be a nice place to aggregate lists of miscellaneous parenting tips, organized by age. Maybe if this gathers lots of good input, I’ll post another age group in a few days. If nobody is into the idea, no big deal.
Let’s start with babies 4-6 months old, since newborns are way to fucking complicated!
Suggestion: post a single tip per comment, so people can up/downvote each tip, rather than long comments with lots of ideas. May the best advice float to the top!
My baby is almost 11 months old. His big brother is 5 1/2 years. I literally remember nothing about 4-6 month old babies. My only tips are that it’s over before you know it, and that you don’t need whatever it is that’s in your Amazon shopping cart.
Baby wearing! There are a lot of carriers out there, find the one that works best for you. You can wear your baby in the front, or the back, facing out or facing in, or even sideways in a sling.
It’s great because it allows you to get things done, like cooking dinner and light housework, while also staying close to your baby. You can talk to them, teach them about the world, and give them warmth and snuggles, without abandoning other needed work.
There are baby-wearing support groups in most metro areas. Check one out and you can visit nearby parents to try out different carriers and see the one you like, since they’re not cheap.
And check out your local Freecycle/no waste group/etc. — we got a well-used Ergobaby for free. If you’re ok with worn/stained/kinda fugly gear, free groups are a great resource.
By this age we had started reading to him at ‘bedtime’ every night (even though he was still up many times after!) so my recommendation is for the Julia Donaldson lift the flap series: rabbits nap, foxes socks etc. we’ve gone through 2-3 of them between our two kids as they were absolutely beloved and worn to a thread.
Other than that it’s a bit of a blur 😂
4 - 6 months is a big range. They’ve really just started being awake a lot and are developing their personalities. Maybe some stranger aversion. Introducing solid foods is fun and recommended at this time to reduce allergies. The Israeli’s have almost eliminated peanut allergies with their early introduction culture. Here’s an npr article about it.
“Back is best” but once they start rolling they do what they want. It can be terrifying the first few times when you wake up and see them on their stomach.
They can go from essentially immobile to crawling across rooms very quickly. Cruising/standing up using objects for support is also fairly sudden, so if you have a crib with multiple heights, it’s probably best to preemptively lower it so they can’t fall out.
100% this. Many babies sleep so much more restfully on their stomach. “Back is best” is absolutely great advice if you need to distill it to 3 words, but it’s oversimplified.
The complex version is:
- Newborns should only be placed to sleep on their back. Swaddle them tightly so they can’t move. No, tighter than that! It seems way too tight, but they LOVE that and it will keep them safe.
- Nothing in the crib. No blankets, no pillows, nothing that could suffocate them. They don’t need anything as a newborn, just one swaddling blanket.
- SIDS is highest during months 2 and 3. The risk goes down over time.
- Once the baby can roll over both ways, it’s not realistic to force them to sleep on their back. Let them sleep where they’d like. However, then it becomes EXTRA important to make sure there aren’t suffocation hazards in the crib.
- If you’re worried about SIDS because your baby is sleeping on their stomach - or even if you’re just worried in general - you can buy a movement monitor that alerts you if your baby stops breathing. There are many such devices.
Take lots of videos of everyday moments
Not just that - live photos! The little movements and sounds they make.
All your advices and tips are true and great. I’d like to add two things on the mental side.
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It’s not your baby’s fault. Parenthood, at least mine, has moments of doubt, frustration, exhaustion and anger. Baby won’t listen, will cry a lot, will demolish your face with amazingly fast growing fingernails, will break your favourite thing, shit in your car and puke on your new shirt. This may sound weird for some of you, but to calm down in some moments it helped a lot to tell myself, that this is not the baby’s fault. It’s not trying to be mean to me, it’s just a fking baby. Since it’s actions are not meant to be harmful, reject every impulse to be harmful too. Be the adult one. Be the calm one. And protect your eyes from that fingernails!
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It will not always be like this. Try to enjoy every moment. You will forget the bad things and miss the good things of this very moment. You will be like “You remember when we had like zero sleep? You remember when we couldn’t really use the car, because he was freaking out?” Things will change. They will be even better.
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