One parent saying ‘yes’, one parent saying ‘no’

Being a new parent is difficult work, especially in the beginning, where everything is so new and you don’t know which advice to listen to. Parents, friends, colleagues always try to help with tons of advice, but sometimes new parents should be left on their own so they can discover their own rules about how to bring up their baby in the world. 

Mum’s rules

Usually mums are more strict about what baby can or can’t do, and new mums start quite early to teach their baby about the new rules in their home.  For example not touching cupboards in the kitchen or not playing with plants. Saying ‘no’ for bad things and saying nice words for good is a useful learning practice for baby. Unfortunately some babies at the beginning might do those prohibited things even more often, but later they will get used to the fact that mum is always strict about some rules. It’s very important to be consistent so the child is not confused.       

Dad’s rules

Dads are usually very proud of their first child and want to always be the perfect dad. Every dad is different obviously but most of them usually allow their children to do more naughty things than mums. Their view about bringing up their baby is not strict, as their baby should try everything by touching or smelling or even breaking things. Sometimes that makes the dad appear  to be the more fun parent and therefore is more popular. 

The same rules for all

Every child should learn rules so their life is getting easier later in school. Also, that helps both parents to follow the same rules and the atmosphere between them is calm and nice. It’s very healthy for baby to have consistent rules.

This article was written by Personalised Baby Gifts UK.

PersonalisedBaby Gifts UK has a great range of personalised gifts for parents and other family members, such as personalised leather wallets, engraved jewellery and much more.

 

We have loads of articles with tips on parenting, from travelling with a baby to choosing a baby’s name. And once you’ve chosen your baby’s name, why not have it embroidered onto their bib, or printed on a personalised clock for the nursery.

 

 

Personalised Baby Gift Ideas

If you want to give a gift that is truly unique, then a great way to ensure this is to create something personalised. Here is a list of our most popular personalised gifts for babies.

Personalised Traditional Piggy Banks

 

We all remember our first piggy bank and the bubbly excitement when we fed a coin through that little slot and then shook it to hear the coins jangling around inside. These days moneyboxes come in all shapes and sizes, everything from square boxes to ceramic spheres, even to carousels complete with photos. But the traditional pink pig shaped piggy bank remains an all time favourite.

Personalised albums and frames

The reason personalised albums and frames make such great gifts is that the gift itself is only the beginning of the personalisation. The photos inside are what makes this kind of gift truly special and treasured. It’s perfect for newborns as an album can be used as a place to document the baby’s first few days, weeks and months of life in this world.

Engraved Trinket Boxes

 

One look at these and it’s immediately clear why they’re so popular. The classy, simple design and elegant design make this an elegant and attractive gift. And on top of that they’re practical, as babies first tooth or lock of hair can be stored safely – better than in a little plastic jiffy bag!

For loads more ideas about newborn baby gifts, visit our main site.

Surviving a Newborn – 3 tips for mums and dads

Having a baby is probably one of the most life changing experiences you can go through – everything changes, including your lifestyle, attitude and priorities. These changes can be overwhelming, and advice can be coming thick and fast from all directions – but don’t panic! Everything’s going to be okay. Just follow our tips for surviving a newborn…

Don’t try to be a supermum / superdad

Trying to be perfect every second of every day is a futile goal and is only going to result in stress and possible breakdown. Being perfect simply isn’t possible, and setting realistic goals (like making it to the end of the day) will be much more fruitful than being unrealistic and then feeling like a failure.

Your baby is much less fussy than you are, and will love you as long as you give it affection, food and safety. It doesn’t give two hoots whether it’s wearing a spotless designer onezee or a stained pillowcase.

Don’t expect to be overwhelmed with love at first sight

This is a great cause of anxiety from new parents. Hollywood has painted an unnatural picture of parenthood as being all flowers and perfume, with mums and dads taking one look at the little screeching bundle that pops out and falling instantly in love. But real life is not like that and quite often the bond doesn’t immediately spring into existence. It takes time for parents and child to build a loving relationship, so don’t panic or think you’re doing something wrong is all you feel is exhausted and grumpy. It will come.

Don’t forget about yourself

Newborns are demanding little nuggets and if you’re not careful you can find one will swallow up every minute of every day. But remember that you had a life before it turned up, hopefully with friends, hobbies, that kind of thing. Some people think that giving up your life to tend to your child is the greatest sign of dedication and commitment, but actually it’s not healthy. Instead, having time to yourself and different (non-baby) activities to stimulate your brain will make you more refreshed and appreciative of your time with the little one.

Personalised Baby Gifts UK has a great range of personalised gifts for parents and other family members, such as personalised leather wallets, engraved jewellery and much more.

Swaddling – what is it and why does it work

You may have heard of swaddling and there are lots of products out their especially for swaddling, but what is it, what’s the theory behind it and does it work?

What is swaddling?

Swaddling is when you wrap up a baby firmly from the neck down in a thin, light blanket with her or his arms tucked against her or his chest. Obviously  you don’t want to restrict their breathing or crush them, but a key factor is that the blanket must be quite firm and doesn’t easily unwrap.

The idea is to calm the baby and make them feel safe and secure.

What’s the theory behind it

It is believed that being tightly bound reminds the baby of the restricted space in the womb – the place that was safe and warm and lovely, before the baby entered the big wide (scary) world. It’s also said to help stop them thrashing around agitating themselves, and it can stop them being disturbed by the little twitches they make when they’re asleep.

Does swaddling work?

Swaddling is not a modern, fly-by-night trend, it’s an age old technique that’s been used since before people started writing books on babycare. Many people swear by it. However, some experts have raised concerns about some of the negative effects of swaddling, and others say it simply doesn’t work for them. At the end of the day, each baby is different, so you won’t know whether swaddling is going to help calm them until you try it.

If you have a newborn baby, why not drop by Personalised Baby Gifts? We have more articles with tips on parenting, from travelling with a baby to choosing a baby’s name. And once you’ve chosen your baby’s name, why not have it embroidered onto their bib, or printed on a personalised clock for the nursery.

Top Three Newborn Gifts

Trinket boxes for firsts

There are a variety of trinket boxes and certificate holders you can get for keeping baby’s first tooth or first lock of hair safe forever (much nicer than a jiffy bag in the kitchen drawer!). Trinket boxes can be engraved with the name and date of the new arrival and certificate holders can come with commemorative plaques.

Bibs and Linen

A practical gift, bibs and linen can be personalised with embroidery to show the newborn’s name and even date of birth or a message. Parents will be grateful for the extra bibs, muslins and linen, which are useful as well as beautiful gifts.

Newborn photo session

Time flies so fast and these precious moments are gone forever. There is a very short window for newborn photography, but the adorable photographs will be cherished forever. Or, if the parents are too exhausted, most photography vouchers can be used later, when the baby is more bubbly and responsive.

At personalised baby gifts we have hundreds of products specially selected for newborns and babies. Most of our items can be personalised free of charge.

Practical tips for picking baby names

It could be one of the most important decisions of your life - after having the baby of course... So what do name your little bundle of joy?

You may have a shortlist already, but here are a few tips to help you avoid making any naming blunders that will haunt you for a very long time...

Say it out loud

It's amazing how different things sound out loud as opposed to written on paper. Say them all out loud and see which ones get crossed off in a hurry! It may be worth getting friends and family to try saying the names out loud as well, to see where people might pronounce it wrong - and find out if it's going to get on your nerves - or even cause embarrasment!

Think about what it might be shortened to

One mother I know gave all three of her boys names with three syllables that could each be shortened to two, or even one. She figured she'd give them the option of choosing how formal or informal they wanted to be. Think about what your potential names could be shortened to, and whether you like them in that format.

Try it with your surname

Trying out various names with your surname highlight issues in rhythm or tongue twisters or even unintended words hiding between them. If you're going to give the child a middle name as well, then try saying it out loud with all three parts. This is particularly important if your surname is King, which is open to all kinds of potential disasters...

Once you've chosen the perfect name, why not get it printed or embroidered onto one of our fantastic personalised baby products!

Can a child be brought up genderless?

A couple from Toronto caused a storm last year, when it was reported in newspapers that they were refusing to reveal the gender of their four month old baby - Storm (see what I did there?).

Only they and the child's two older brothers know whether Storm is a boy or a girl, even the grandparents were being kept in dark.

Many people reacted badly to the story, lashing out and claiming it was harmful to the child, and would affect its mental development, some even saying it's tantamount to child abuse.

But the parents argue that the complete opposite is true - that by attempting to combat gender stereotypes, their child will grow up more free to make her or his decisions about who they are - rather than being slotted into whatever standards traditional society would have them follow.

“If you really want to get to know someone, you don’t ask what’s between their legs,” says the father.

Their two older children have been brought up without typical pink and blue pressures, and as a result choose to have long hair, worn in braids and to often wear skirts and bright colours that are usually frowned on for boys, such as pink and purple.

Raising a child without putting a pink or blue stamp on its head from even before it's born is becoming more common than you might think, with couples in Sweden and England doing the same.

For gender neutral products for babies - visit our personalised baby gifts store!

Personalised Treasure Hunt Gift for a Child's Birthday

Looking for an interesting idea to make your child's birthday even more special and fun? A personalised treasure hunt is a great way of building anticipation and making receiving of gifts into a game.

 

Setting up a personalised treasure hunt takes a bit of preparation, but is quite straightforward and well worth it for the expression of delight on your child's face.

First you have to prepare the clues. Get some little pieces of paper - you can use fancy coloured card or parchment or simply scraps from a jotter notepad, it's really up to you. Then decide which places you're going to hide the clues. It's best if you find places around the house where they won't be seen by accident - if your child accidentally finds one out of turn, it could break the surprise.

For each place, try to think of a clue that will lead to it. For example, if you're going to hide one in a grandfather clock, the clue might say, 'This is a tall tick tock tick tock'. If you're going to hide one in the washing machine (careful nobody does a washload in the meantime!) it might say, 'Socks and suds go round and round'. You can make them easy or difficult, depending on how long you want the game to last.

Once you've got around ten clues, plant them in order so that they create a continuous trail. Then, at the end of the trail - put the present!

Once everything's ready, present your child with the clue and explain that they have to work out what it means - they'll soon get the hand of it and be adventuring away!

If you're looking for a great personalised gift for a child's birthday, check out our cute clothing, soft toys and personalised jigsaws.

How do babies develop? Months Sixteen to Eighteen

At sixteen months babies are usually getting quite active and want to play more interactive games that use their brains, such as pointing at body parts or pictures when asked by their parents to identify a particular thing. They will also be stepping up to more physical challenges, such as opening and closing doors and going up and down the stairs (backwards).

They will probably start to imitate common gesture their parents make - such as putting their finger to their lips and saying, shhhh!

Although they won't be able to follow the plot, toddlers enjoy looking at picture books and being read to, and they like to choose the story book - and they don't get tired of reading the same story over and over again, until it falls out of favour for a different one.

At 17 months most babies talk more clearly and use a handful of words regularly. They might be able to take off their dress or top and they can learn quite easily how to brush their teeth. Babies at this time understand more and they want to try new things, like feeding a doll or kicking a ball forward. They can recognise and sort toys by colour, shape or size. It is a good time to work on manners using words like “please” or “thank you”.

The 18 month old baby is very active. They like to dance to music, push and turn buttons and knobs or climb all over furniture. You may be able to teach your baby how to use a potty, but don't worry if it takes a little longer.
Most babies already have their favourite toys but quite often they also develop some habits which help them to calm and relax, for example sucking their thumb. However, usually all babies outgrow these things so parents shouldn’t worry too much.

Personalised Baby Gifts have a range of products to help with toddlers development, including jigsaw puzzles and plastic cups.

Tips for taking photos of your newborn

Whether it’s your first child or your fifth, having a new baby is an incredibly special moment in all parents’ lives. You probably want to capture the first moments forever as your new addition slumbers peacefully.

At Personalised Baby Gifts we offer engraved photo frames and embroidered albums to keep all your baby photos safe in.

Here are some tips for taking some great newborn photos.

Try to capture the ‘firsts’

Rather than having lots of pictures of the baby in the same position, it can be very fun and rewarding to capture some of the many firsts that will be going on. Such as baby’s first bath, first weighing, first outfit, first time meeting grandparents, best friend, aunt etc.

You don’t need to go overboard and try to capture every single thing, but by creating a ‘photo documentary’ of this kind, you will have a story to relive over the years.

Experiment with distances and angles

Close-ups work very well with babies – if you have a macro function on your camera, then get up close and use it! But you should experiment from further away, and also try different angles. Down low works well for babies, because it gives the impression of being in their world.

Try black and white

Converting pictures of newborns and babies into black and white makes for a timeless beauty. If you have some photo editing software, you could also experiment with desaturating but not entirely turning to black and white, using a sepia filter or if you’re a little more advanced removing all colour except in a few select places, such as a bow, or in the eyes.

For more ideas and tips for new parents visit our baby gifts store.

Idea for a wonderful unique personalised gift - photo gifts!

Photo gifts are one of my favourite personalised gifts. These days there are variety of options for using personal photographs to make great personal gifts. There are lots of places that will print photo products at relatively inexpensive rates, and if you watch out for special deals on some of the coupon websites, you can get something very reasonable.

Photos in frames

You could simply go for the classic option and buy a pretty frame and fill it with one or more pictures of yourself or the recipient of the gift and other friends and family. Or you could buy a very cheap plain photo frame and decorate it yourself using glass beads, glittery rubber paint, shells and whatever else you can find!

Photo calendar

Photo calendars are a great useful gift that can keep your loved ones smiling all year round. If possible, you can try to match the photos for each month with ones taken at the right time or year, but it doesn’t really matter. You can just put a selection of your favourite photos in, or you can pick a theme, such as a holiday, day trip, pets, or a year in the life of!

Photobooks

Photobooks offer a load of options, from a mini flip book type book all the way to a hard bound glossy printed tome. As with calendars, it can be nice to pick a theme – perhaps you could collect pictures from someone’s life all the way from being a baby and show them developing through their lives up to the present day!

For more great ideas for personalised gifts and to browse our excellent range of everything from balloons to china piggy banks – visit the Personalised Baby Gift shop!