From the moment they are born, babies come into the world ready to learn. Play and other imaginative and creative activities help them make sense of their experiences and transform their knowledge. Children can learn through gestures, facial expressions, drawing, writing and singing. Babies are especially interested in other people and they love communicating with them by using eye contact, crying, cooing and gurgling. These are their early attempts having conversations. Babies and children develop their competence in communicating through having frequent, enjoyable interactions with other people in contexts that they understand.

All babies deal with pain in a different way, some will have an easier time of it than others. Most babies with get a little grouchy and irritable. The first signs of teething usually begin a few months before the first tooth appears so you will need to look for particular symptoms to ensure that this is actually the cause:

Restlessness,irritability and disturbed sleep patterns
Sore and red gums
Flushed cheeks
Loss of appetite
A slight rise in temperature
Dribbling
A desire to chew anything to ease the pain. This is a completely natural reaction to the changes that are going on within the gum and it is thought that chewing on something hard feels quite soothing.
Sometimes you can actually see the tooth cutting through the gum, or you may be able to feel it emerging if you run a clean finger along your baby’s gum line.

All babies need to sleep so that they can grow and develop. Every baby has a different sleep pattern – some sleep through the night and others do not!

There are some simple steps you can take to help encourage a more peaceful night’s rest if your baby is not settling:

Keep lights low while feeding at night
Talk and sing in a soft voice so baby starts to see a difference between day and night
Start a simple bedtime routine of bath, feed and bed
If you can, try to always put your baby in her cot (or moses basket) so she associates it with bedtime
Have a little wind down time after any play.

A collection of A-list baby names ranging from unique to quirky!!!

Princess Tiaamii – Jordan and Peter Andre
Bluebell Madonna – Geri Halliwell
Dixie Dot and Bibi Belle – Changing Rooms designer Anna Ryder Richardson
Sunday Rose – Nicole Kidman
Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily – Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence
Gia Zavala – Matt Damon
Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Vivienne and Knox – Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Phinnaeus Walter and Hazel Patricia – Julia Roberts
Apple and Moses – Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin

A woman in Northern Ireland has given birth to six babies. The sextuplets were delivered by caesarean section at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. It was the first recorded birth of sextuplets – four girls and two boys. The babies were delivered by caesarean section, were 14 weeks premature. The babies, weighing between 1Ib 7oz and 2lb and 2oz had been conceived naturally without the aid of IVF. The team at the hospital had been preparing for the delivery for a number of weeks and said that it was a day they had been looking forward to with a mixture of trepidation and excitement.