2008 June
Babythings4u.co.uk, helping inform you to make the right decisions

Summer is here, so now is the perfect time to introduce your baby to the fun of swimming. Here are 5 top reasons why you should get swimming!

1. Swimming is a great way to exercise for you and your baby. Water is supportive, so your baby can do lots more things in the water than on land.

2. Regular swimming from a young age means your child is more likely to be a strong, and confident swimmer later on…which can be a life-saving skill.

3. Even very young babies can start swimming and be introduced to water. Special swimming nappies are available now in extra small, for babies under 6 months (Huggies).

4. By swimming you could support a good cause. Tommy’s the baby charity’s Splashathon, for under 5’s runs during the summer. All your tot has to do is splash a width/length of your local pool. Money raised funds research into the causes of miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth. Visit Tommy’s.org for more details.

5. Swiming is a great social activity, you and your tot could meet lots of new friends! Why not contact your local pool to see if they offer a mother and baby swimming class.

Get Swimming!

Brother Max was started in 2005, and has already made a big impact on parents, who have discovered their wonderful products, which include: Bath toys, a Thermometer, Food Portioners, a handy bath sponge and combi bibs. They have won many award for their innovative products, and were most recently featured in ‘Mother and Baby Magazine’, in their Top 20 Feeding products: Brother Max combi bibs…’a soft bib with pop-on crumb catcher-cum-mess-free carry case…’ and Brother Max food portioners…’from freezer to microwave to table to dishwasher with ease.’

Brother Max is made up of a committed team of parents, with over 30 years experience at designing innovative products. As parents themselves they all understand how challenging it can be, and how precious time is. Their thinking has resulted in a small range of products, carefully designed to help get things done more quickly, so that parents and babies have more time to spend doing fun things!

Brother Max believes that what makes their company and products different from the rest are the following points:Three little words - simple clever ideas.

simple - because their products are ergonomically designed to make them easy to use.

clever - because they base their designs on parental insights; their products are “designed by parents for parents”.

ideas - because they are innovation-driven; always on the look-out for parenting challenges which require unique, high quality, reliable solutions.

Brother Max is definately a company to watch out for in the future, their products are amazingly useful for parents, and fun for kids (especially the ‘5 bath toys’), and their products are beautifully presented in simple modern packaging. Once you try them, you really will wonder how you lived without them!

Choosing a name for a baby has to be one of the most difficult choices to make.  There are are so many names in books and on websites to choose from, there are all sorts of weird and wonderful ones,  where do you start?

1.  My advice would be to first of all think about the style of name you prefer.  Think to youself ‘Do i like traditional names?, or do i want something modern?’.  Let this be your starting point from which to move foward. Remember that if you want to go for a name that is more unconventional, you can always give your child a more traditional middle name incase they want to change it when they are older.

2.  Make some time to spend with your partner to discuss some names.  Start by making a shortlist of your top ten names, maybe you and your partner could make your own seperate lists to start with, to see if you come up with anything different names that you both like.

3.  Once you have your top ten list, try saying the possible names outloud to your partner (and them saying it to you), and saying the fullname, including your surname.  You might find that by saying the full name, that this might confirm names that you do and don’t like, allowing you to cross some off you list.

4.  Try to reduce your top ten list to five names (it should be getting easier at this stage).  If you keep saying the names to you partner and vice versa, everntually i think you will both find the one that is right.  Make sure when you are saying the names to each other, that they are easy to pronounce, remember, a middle name can give your child’s whole name a completely different rhythm.

5.  Take alook on the internet for baby name websites, and there are lots of books in the shops you can flick through too.  Gather together a variety of books, and start reading through them.  Get a highlighter pen to mark ones that stand out to you as you read.

6.  Don’t let other peoples likes or dislikes on names sway your opinion, it doesn’t matter if your Aunty doesnt like a certain name….it is up to you.

7.  You can always get inspiration for modern or unusual names from the latest fashion and celebrity magazines!