Personal recommendations

I've tried to keep this site impartial. The links to places to find advice are generally those recommended by healthcare professionals.

However, since having my two children, I've come across some websites, books, classes or people which just made sense to me and I found helpful. I don't want to portray them as anything more than that (I'm not selling anything and alternatives are available!) but I did want to share them in case they can help anyone else.

Birth

• Birthsense hypnobirthing

Behaviour

• Toddlercalm

Feeding

• My baby fusses or cries during feeding, what's the problem?
• The Baby - led Weaning Cookbook - lots of recipes which are easy for baby to eat and tasty for grown-ups too.
• Allison Ryder RM LBCLC (lactation consultant) - support4breastfeeding.co.uk. Allison really helped us with our daughter's tongue tie. She gave us lots of support and advice before and after the division.
• Sarah Oakley (lactation consultant and tongue-tie specialist) - nursingnurture.co.uk. Sarah and Allison did the actual tongue-tie division. Sarah now has a feeding drop-in clinic in Waterbeach (see Support page) which I'd highly recommend. She doesn't just do tongue-ties and breastfeeding, she'll help with anything feeding related including bottles and solids. Sarah used to be a health visitor.

Baby wearing

• Moby wrap - instructions
• How to tie
• Newborn hug hold

Sleep

• The Sensational Baby Sleep Plan, Alison Scott-Wright - Not for everyone, but really helped us. After sorting the tongue-tie issue (see above), we were left with a 4 month old with no concept of sleeping alone in a bed, as she'd not been able to lie flat or go more than 1.5hrs between feeds since birth. This book helped us, and her, understand her cues and patterns and very quickly achieved several regular naps and sleeping through (1 feed) at night. It does include crying, so won't suit everyone, but if you've had a colicy baby, it's easy to tell the angry "I don't like this" crying from the "it hurts" crying caused by colic, and so I didn't find it hard to endure, especially as it only took a few days to see real progress. My daughter was just as relieved to be getting some proper sleep as I was, so was so much happier when she was awake, which more than made up for the disagreements at bedtime! 1.5 yrs later the principles have helped us identify when we her patterns changed with no tears and she is still a very happy sleeper. Worth a try!