Every year, some 70,000 babies are born in need of specialist neonatal care in England alone. Added to this, the birth rate is increasing and more premature babies are surviving than ever, which puts additional pressure on overstretched services.

To celebrate thirty years and highlight the issues, Bliss has produced a special report — Three Decades and Counting — which documents the charity’s support and pushes for improvements to special care baby services.

Chief executive of Bliss, Andy Cole, said “We are delighted to be celebrating our thirtieth birthday with the publication of this special report, looking at how Bliss and the services for newborn babies we support have developed. After 30 years of fighting, 2009 should mark a significant change in the fortunes of premature and sick babies and the care they receive. Special care baby units have been stretched to the limits for far too long. We call on the Government and the NHS to ensure that the NHS Taskforce’s recommendations are now delivered without delay.”

Bliss

However, other factors were also found to be linked and harmful, such as when a parent smokes, drinks alcohol or uses sedating drugs before bedtime.

Researchers suggest that further education is still required to reduce the risk of cot deaths, despite the success of the “Back to Sleep” campaign from the early ’90s.

“Parents need to be advised never to put themselves in a situation where they might fall asleep with a young infant on a sofa,” said researchers, adding that parents should never sleep with an infant in any environment after consuming alcohol or drugs.

Young single parents have been targeted as the most likely to ignore safe sleep advice, and for this reason the web site Bubbalicious.co.uk has been launched to provide support.

Via

There’s a range of all-in-one and full-length bodysuits, tops, bottoms and hats, made in soft jersey and available in five sizes (0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, 9-12 months and 12-18 months).

Take a peek at the new collection here.

A survey of over 3,000 parents by Green Giant found that one in three children have been described as fussy eaters by their parents.

Added to this, two out of three parents say that their kids are fussier than they themselves were when growing up.

One in twenty children hide food they don’t want to eat (one mother reported that her six-year-old son is regularly caught flushing peas down the toilet), while others sneak food onto other plates or feed it to the dog.

Of course, sulking, tantrums and claiming to be full also make an appearance ion the list of tactics used by children trying to avoid eating unappetising food.

To appease the kids, one in five parents say they have to cook different meals for each family member, while a similar number buy special “reward” puddings.

General Mills nutritionist Vanessa McConkey RNutri says: “These findings reinforce the importance of getting back to the table – sitting down together as a family to enjoy mealtimes, without the many distractions revealed by this survey. Kids can be very fussy and encouraging them to eat a proper, nutritious meal can be difficult for parents.

“Instilling healthy eating habits early on in life will help ensure children eat a healthy, balanced meal, rich in vegetables and fruit and get more of the nutrients they need. It will also increase the likelihood of these healthy habits being carried on throughout life. Choosing vegetables like canned sweet corn can make it much easier to ensure children get one of their recommended five a day.”

Healthy eating is a real marketing buzzword at present, as you’ll see if you watch a few food adverts on TV, but it can be a difficult balancing act to find food that kids will eat and that’s reasonably good for them.

Do you consider your kids to be fussy eaters? How have you tried to resolve the issue, or have you found yourself giving in to their pressure?

Share your thoughts, tips and tricks in the comments below.

Claiming to be the UK’s first full parental control system for children’s mobile phones, Mobile Sentry is mobile phone software that allows parents to set up allow/deny contact lists, monitor SMS text messages, block the mobile Internet, install download protection, track the phone via GPS (when available), and report on all communications sent and received.

It might seem a bit “Big Brother”, but it may help those parents who recognise the need for their kids to have a mobile phone but aren’t totally comfortable with them having free reign.

It costs £5.99 per month to keep the service active, and it only works on Symbian-based phones (which includes a lot of the Nokia mobiles and some Sony and Samsung models, but not the likes of the iPhone).

The Mobile Sentry website will even monitor the phone to check that the software hasn’t been uninstalled.

It’s not a foolproof system but, particularly for younger children, could provide the peace of mind that parents need.

Mobile Sentry

That means parents in a typical family of four, having paid up to £110 just to get in (and that’s before being ripped off at the burger/ice cream/cold drinks stands) could face ejection for:

1. Kissing or hugging their kids
2. Holding their kids’ hands
3. Treating their kids like babies
4. Shouting or telling their kids off in public
5. Telling their friends embarrassing stories about when they were younger
6. Trying to be cool
7. Daring to go on rides with their kids
8. Wearing embarrassing clothes
9. Calling out to their kids
10. Telling bad jokes

In fact, a press release for Chessington World of Adventures states that “A sign banning embarrassing behaviour is displayed on-park and whilst Chessington bosses have said that they won’t throw parents out for flouting the ban, they have briefed employees to point out any rule breakers in order to save children being left red-faced in public.”

That didn’t stop bosses having to apologise to a family when an overzealous junior employee tried to eject the embarrassing (read: doing their job as a) parent.

The news comes just a couple of months after problems at the theme park left visitors stranded on a monorail and residents in a large part of the surrounding area without power … twice in one week. Park management deny a capacity problem, but perhaps their time and energy would be better invested in improving the park instead of stopping parents from doing what they’re supposed to.

Kids that are easily embarrassed by their parents can always forego the expensive trip and stay at home instead.

Four year old Thomas Donkin from Wigtownshire received the very special delivery, which included a personal letter from Dolly herself, from postman Alan McColm this week. In her letter to Thomas Dolly explained: “I love books and the adventures they bring; and it is my hope that children everywhere would be able to enjoy the fun that books offer.”

Children in Wigtown were some of the first in the UK to become part of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library – launched in the UK in December 2007 by the music star to encourage a love of reading in pre-school children. Its roll out in the UK built on the educational programmes resounding success in the US and Canada, where it has now delivered over 22 million books.

Thomas’ father Chris Donkin commented: “It’s a great scheme. We all look forward to the monthly arrival of Thomas’ books from the Imagination Library and share in enjoying the tales they contain. This month’s delivery was of course particularly special as it contained a letter from Dolly herself.”

Children in Wigtown have been receiving books through the scheme, which is part-funded and run by the organisers of the Wigtown Book Festival, since April 2008. Stena Line Wigtown Book Festival event spokeswoman Catherine Campbell said: “We are all absolutely delighted that a child from the Wigtown area received the 100,000th book, especially as it coincides with the start of this year’s annual book festival.”

“The festival runs 25th September to 4th October, with over 180 events taking place including a full children’s programme, so we’ll certainly be taking time to celebrate the book’s arrival.”

Since Dolly launched the library in the UK, the Imagination Library has been adopted by communities across the UK. Dolly Parton explained: It’s my dream that every child has a library of books which their parents can read to them from the moment they are born. I’m really excited that we’ve now shared 100,000 books with kids in the UK.”

Dolly Parton launched the scheme in her home county of Sevier, Tennessee, in 1996. The scheme works by local sponsors paying for children in their community to receive the books. In 2007 Rotherham Council became the first UK authority to join the Imagination Library, which is part of Ms Parton’s umbrella charity, the Dollywood Foundation, with more communities signing up in the past 18 months.

ImaginationLibrary.com

Business Mum Week will take place from Saturday the 3rd – 10th October. It is run by MumsClub, the online business club for mums, and supported by PR expert and author Antonia Chitty of Family Friendly Working.

The aims of the week are to:

• inspire more entrepreneurial mums to start a business from home,
• encourage business growth by providing business mums access to information and ideas,
• develop online and offline support through a national network of home-working Mumpreneurs.

Business Mum Week recognises the challenges such women face and the achievements they have already made by dedicating a corner of their busy family home to turn their business ideas into reality.

Activities are being planned across the UK including local meet-ups organised by current Mumpreneurs, a personal branding evening at Harvey Nicholls in Birmingham, workshops to provide information for starting family friendly businesses, and various other events to be announced. At all of these events, copies of ‘The Business Mums Journal’ will be freely available.

The key feature of the Week will be the inaugural Mumpreneur Annual Conference which will officially launch the week of activities. At the event on Saturday 3rd October at the City Inn, Birmingham, attendees will hear from experts in various fields who will pass on valuable information that will help both start ups existing businesses to flourish. There will be opportunities to network face to face with other women and the day will close with the winners of the 2009 Mumpreneur Awards being announced.

In the lead-up to Business Mum Week, MumsClub is inviting all Mumpreneur businesses to enter the free Mumpreneur awards. Nomination forms are available online now.

MumsClub founder, Jane Hopkins, said, “This is the perfect time to launch this business mum week. We are in a recession and women with families are looking for options. With so many reports of redundancies and the future potential for job losses, it has never been a more important time for families to have options. Being self-employed is the perfect way to combine family life with generating a second income into the home. Women now have the freedom to get paid to do something they love. Great for household finances, great for self esteem, great for the work-life balance. Starting up from home is low cost, low risk, and from a personal point of view, is incredibly rewarding.”

Antonia Chitty, of Family Friendly Working and head of PR for Business Mum Week said, “this is a great initiative and I’m happy to support it in any way I can to ensure more women with children are aware of the family friendly working options out there. This is a great way to both highlight the work of mum owned businesses and support the growth of more.”

easidream is a clinically tested baby sleep aid that helps to ease the transition from womb to world by gently mimicking rocking sensations that baby experienced whilst still in the womb. This ‘womb experience’ helps to trigger a calming reflex in baby so reducing crying time and inducing quality sleep.

During trials, the use of easidream saw babies settle down to sleep much quicker and average crying times were reduced from 18 minutes to less than one minute.

It can be used from birth in almost any cot and helps baby establish a healthy sleep pattern that will benefit the whole family. easidream is the brainchild of mum of six Lynda Harding who came up with the idea after struggling to get her youngest son (now 7) to settle down to sleep.

The development of easidream has been a long process but now she is about to see all of her hard work and determination come true.

“easidream is an independent and retro-fitted sleep aid that fits snugly into a normal cot,” explained Lynda. “It works by stimulating the rocking feeling of being cradled by placing a pneumatic pad underneath the cots mattress. It also encourages babies to fall asleep on their backs, which is proven to be the safest sleeping position for babies under six months old.

When you are sleep deprived yourself you are tempted adopt high-risk methods of encouraging your baby to sleep such as lying them ‘front down’ or letting them sleep on the sofa or in bed with you. If used from day one easidream will allow your baby to settle straight into a healthy sleep pattern and no one needs to get over tired.”

How does it work?

A slim line ventilated platform fits under your baby’s cot mattress. Air tubing links this to a control unit that operates the functions. The platform can either rock gently from head to toe or roll gently from side to side. There is a timer for up to 45 minutes and a choice of 2 speed settings, one in time with mum’s resting heartbeat and a slower speed setting that can be used for weaning off at a later stage. The platform is pneumatically powered so there are no worries about anything electrical being in the cot. In the early stages of your baby’s life easidream can even be used in a moses basket. You just place the platform on the floor and place the basket on top.

A plush ‘dream’ sheep called Ewan can be attached to the bars of the cot by his velcro tail (or sit him by the basket). Ewan has a choice of four soothing heartbeat sound combinations plus a warm glowing pink light. The light can be activated at the same time as the sound and both last around 20 minutes.

Working together, the platform and ewan provide soothing motion with calming sounds and glow and in a short time you can create the perfect combination to help your baby drift off into a long and peaceful sleep.

Trials were carried out using babies and parents from a Hampshire nursery by university researchers from the Brighton School of Nursing and Midwifery. The sleep diaries that the parents kept revealed to researchers that the average crying time reduced dramatically and the time taken for babies to settle dropped, in some cases by 90 per cent.

easidream has already been shortlisted as a finalist at the Baby Product Association Concept Awards.

The following people / companies were also instrumental in bring easidream to market.

Maddison Design Ltd, of Fittleworth, West Sussex
GBE Designs Ltd, of Goring, West Sussex
Maggie Stewart, from the University of Brighton’s School of Nursing and Midwifery.

Available from the end of this month, priced around £249 for the easidream system and £24 for Ewan the dream sheep.

Over half of new mums made friends with others at mother and baby groups, while antenatal classes and introductions from other friends came in joint second place.

“I made some of my best friends when I was pregnant with my daughter Alice. Five years on, many of these are still firm friends and I’m sure we still will be when our children are having children of their own!” said Sam Willoughby, founder of Whats on 4 Little Ones and winner of the Practical Parenting Business Mum of the Year award.

“Taking part in local activities gave me the chance to meet other mums, share tips and advice and make lasting friendships. Plus Alice had the chance to have fun, meet other children and learn new skills too.”