Parenting

Your comprehensive, practical guide to dadhood Your new baby is nothing short of a miracle—and it's no wonder you want to keep your bundle of joy safe and sound through every stage of their first year. Dad's Guide to Baby's First Year For Dummies takes the guesswork out of being your baby's primary caregiver, giving you sound instruction and helpful advice on looking after your baby, the essential gear you'll need to baby-proof your home, practical solutions to common parenting challenges, and so much more. Whether it's due to a fledgling economy or a simple sign of modern times, more and more men are staying at home with the kids while their breadwinning wives or partners deal with rush hour traffic. Whatever the reason you've decided to take on the role of Mr. Mom, Dad's Guide to Baby's First Year For Dummies offers all the friendly guidance and trusted tips you need to be a fantastic full-time parent. Look after your baby and teach children great skills Help your partner through pregnancy, birth, and beyond Follow the habits of highly successful dads Be a hands-on, stay-at-home dad If you're a proud papa-to-be, Dad's Guide to Baby's First Year For Dummies ensures all your bases are covered, so you can spend less time fretting about fatherhood and more time cherishing your wee one.

Have you thought about signing with your baby or toddler? Parents and caregivers are discovering the benefits of using American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with children long before they can speak. Some studies show that signing babies talk sooner, have larger vocabularies, and have fewer tantrums! Baby Signing For Dummies gives you the skills to connect in a meaningful way with your hearing baby or toddler. Packed with more than 150 illustrated signs, this friendly, easy-to-follow guide shows you how to use simple hand gestures and baby-specific signing techniques to start interacting with your baby. Every sign is accompanied by step-by-step directions and an illustration—from meeting and greeting, people, and mealtime signs to clothes, animals, outdoor signs, and, of course, bath time and bedtime. You’ll discover how to: Introduce signs to your baby Incorporate signing into daily life Make everyday events easier with signs Overcome stumbling blocks Decrease fussing and crying through signing Help your baby sign combinations of words Keep your baby safe with signing Get the whole family involved Find outside help (Web sites, videos, and signing schools and courses) Complete with illustrations of the entire ASL alphabet, signing dos and don’ts, and ten songs to sign along with, Baby Signing For Dummies is the key to enhancing communication with your child and increasing his/her intelligence in a simple, fun, and rewarding way!

Everything new and experienced parents need to know about their baby's first 12 months to give them the best start in life Each year, more than 4 million babies are born in the United States-and the first year of a baby's life is a joyous, challenging, and sometimes overwhelming time. Your Baby's First Year For Dummies serves as a complete guide for baby's first twelve months, from what to do when arriving home from the hospital to handling feeding, bathing, and sleeping routines to providing the right stimuli for optimal progress. This comprehensive yet no-nonsense guide can help new or even seasoned moms and dads looking for tips and advice to help with every aspect of their baby's development. During Baby's first year, at times things will go well: Baby's sleeping and eating well, she's hitting milestones on time, and you're balancing childcare with work or with housekeeping. Then again, there are times when things aren't great. This jargon-free book takes a realistic look at what Baby's first year might be like, month by month. You'll find it helpful if you're pregnant and wondering what Baby's first year will be like; you have given birth and want to know what the months ahead hold; you have given birth and need advice from a book that doesn't talk down to you or make you feel as though there's something wrong with you (because there's not) if you're having a hard time making the adjustment to parenthood. Packed with tips on every aspect of baby's physical, emotional, and social development, Your Baby's First Year For Dummies gives you advice on topics like the following: Bonding with Baby Breastfeeding vs. bottle-feeding Baby's first checkup Baby's checkups at two months, four months, six months, nine months, and twelve months Sleeping habits Teething Baby toy safety and preventing injuries Food preparation and food allergies Traveling with your baby Signs of common illnesses Planning Baby's 1-year party And much more Additionally, Your Baby's First Year For Dummies provides tips for surviving the first few weeks, Daddy survival tips, and advice on when to call your pediatrician (and when not to). If Baby has arrived or you expect her soon, get your copy to make every moment count.

The fun and easy way to name the new bundle of joy Brimming with over 5,000 names, from traditional to unique, this is the perfect reference for parents-to-be looking for naming guidance. It features a an impressive assemblage of options for both boys and girls-from Biblical, medieval, and Shakespearean names to musical and international names-along with a list of today's most popular names and the favorite names of previous decades. Each entry contains variant spellings as well as the name's meaning, history, and derivations. Plus, fun sidebars offer examples of celebrities who chose unique names for their little ones and perfect suggestions for future political leaders, artists, and movie stars.

Explains massage for preemies, newborns, and toddlers Soothe your baby and promote well-being the all-natural way Curious about baby massage? Featuring illustrations and step-by-step instructions, this friendly guide makes it easy to use techniques that can reduce your baby's stress; ease the discomfort of colic, constipation, and teething; and create a strong attachment between the two of you. You'll also find suggestions for making massage part of your everyday routine. Discover how to: * Ease common ailments * Enhance your bond with your baby * Stimulate growth and development * Comfort a fussy baby * Massage babies with special needs

So, you wanna turn Junior into a smarty-pants? What parent doesn't? Thing is, kids nowadays are more independent than ever and aren't always receptive to what parents want. In fact, if you tell your kids that studying is "good for them," they're more than likely to mumble, "Yeah, sure," in your general direction and head off to do something "fun." Sharpening the minds of your youngsters presents more challenges than climbing Mt. Everest, and the responsibility of making your kids use more of their brain cells can be overwhelming – even when you don't encounter resistance. Raising smart kids requires long-term commitment, sacrifice, and diligence – not to mention the patience of a saint. And as long as you don't obsess about being the perfect parent, you will be able to enjoy your kids' journey of self-discovery right along with them. But how do you accomplish this? How do you overcome the resistance? How do you tackle the overwhelming task of not only helping your children succeed in school, but also increasing their ability to make their own way in the world? That's where Raising Smart Kids For Dummies steps in to help. Written in easy-to-understand terms (and absolutely no slick psycho-babble), this book gives you sound advice on encouraging your kids to set their sights high and achieve success, whether at school, with friends, or in your community. And you don't have to be a new parent to gain insight from this book; experienced parents can reap rewards with the help of this book in their effort to raise fulfilled children. Here's just a sampling of what you'll find in Raising Smart Kids For Dummies: Recognizing the characteristics of smart kids Knowing when to push – and when not to Disciplining your kids in a positive way Growing smarter kids from healthier bodies Planning the development of your kids' brains: From newborns to teenagers Taking your smart kids beyond high school Eliminating brain drain from school-skipping, drug abuse, and raging hormones Top Ten lists of family characteristics that nurture smart kids, what smart kids read, and resources for bolstering parents' confidence You've heard it said a thousand times: The children are the future. Children have such potential, but rarely live up to it. Why take this chance with your own kids? Make the commitment to prepare your kids for life on their own. With Raising Smart Kids For Dummies, you, too, can achieve success – and have a little fun along the way!

If you could remember your own potty training, you’d probably recall a time filled with anxiety and glee, frustration and a sense of accomplishment, triumphal joy and shamed remorse. You’d remember wanting so much to make mommy and daddy happy, and at the same time to make them pay for being so darned unreasonable. And you’d recall feeling incredibly grown up once you got it right. Maybe if we could remember our own potty training, it wouldn’t be so tough when it came our turn to be the trainers. But as it is, most of us feel like we can use all the expert advice and guidance we can get. Potty Training For Dummies is your total guide to the mother of all toddler challenges. Packed with painless solutions and lots of stress-reducing humor, it helps you help your little pooper make a smooth and trauma-free transition from diapers to potty. You’ll discover how to: Read the signs that your tot is ready Motivate your toddler to want to give up diapers Kick off potty training on the right foot Foster a team approach Deal with setbacks and pee and poop pranks Make potty training a loving game rather than a maddening ordeal Mother and daughter team, Diane Stafford and Jennifer Shoquist, MD separate potty-training fact from fiction and tell you what to expect, what equipment you’ll need, and how to set the stage for the big event. They offer expert advice on how to: Choose the right time Use a doll to help model behavior Say the right things the right way Reinforce success with praise and rewards Switch to training pants Get support from relatives Cope with special cases Train kids with disabilities And they offer this guarantee: “If your child is still in diapers when he makes the football team or gets her college degree, you can send him or her off to us for a weekend remedial course—and ask for a refund of the cost of this book.”

Written by parents for parents!We humans are pretty clever. We’ve mastered fire, invented the wheel, calculated the age of the Universe, sent people to the Moon, built machines that think, and cracked the genome. So you’d think that with all our smarts, somebody would’ve come up with a surefire formula for raising kids. Maybe that’s because every child, like every parent, is an individual, and no two parent-child relationships are ever the same. So, you can give up any notions of being a perfect parent. But, you can learn to keep the big mistakes to a minimum and make the parenting enterprise easier and more rewarding for your children and you. Which is where this book comes in. Whether you’re child is a newborn, a teen, or somewhere in-between, Parenting For Dummies gives you the scoop on parenting basics. From dealing with a crying baby and potty training, to building self-esteem and talking with them about sex, it offers a gold mine of up-to-date advice and guidance on how to: Learn to communicate with your kids Develop a good relationship with your kids Keep your kids safe and healthy Help your kids grow up to be good people Keep your cool and control their behavior Discipline constructively and with a minimum of stress Build self-esteem in your children Avoid committing the parenting sins your parents taught you Experts Sandy and Dan Gookin—she’s the parenting expert for Parents Magazine and Working Mother Magazine and he’s a father of four—avoid the psychological hype and medical terminology and give you the straight poop on all aspects of child-rearing, including: Speaking and listening to kids The importance of being consistent Keeping a sense of humor Dealing with babies Childhood growth and development Health and nutrition Kids’ changing physical needs Developing a good person Parenting For Dummies gives you the know-how and skills you need to be the parent of healthy, happy kids.