0:30 - Allow your child to ask questions
1:09 - Try to give the child a season that the baby is due in
1:35 - When it comes time to go into the hospital
2:08 - When we're bringing the baby home
Hi everyone! My name is Harper Jones with Bow-Tiger and you are watching Saturdays With Harper. Today I wanted to talk about welcoming a new baby to its older siblings. This can, at times, be difficult because especially if that older sibling was an only child at the time that the new baby arrived, there's a lot of issues with frustration, not understanding where this baby came from, and jealousy towards the new baby.
Now the first thing that you want to do prior to the baby being born and during your pregnancy is make sure that you allow your child to ask questions and answer them on the level that they're going to understand. If they want to know where babies come from, have that discussion with them and try to explain to them where the babies come from. If they want to know where the baby is, show them and let them see that your belly is growing to expand for this baby's growth. But definitely allow them to be a part of the process the entire time so that they feel important and they feel that they understand what's going on on their level.
Another thing that you can do for younger children is instead of trying to say that the new baby is due in June, try to give the child a season that the baby is due in. They may not necessarily understand time at the level of months, days, etc. but explain to them that the baby is due in the summertime. Gives them something to look forward and helps them understand how long they need to wait to be introduced to this new baby.
Now when it comes time to go into the hospital one thing that you could do is let your child pack your bag with you. Let them be a part of that process as well to keep them feeling important and like they have tasks and responsibilities in the family as well. When new babies are born they tend to get a lot of gifts so maybe we could get some sort of small special gift for the older sibling just to make this a day for them as well because this is their first day of being an older sibling and that's very important to them as well.
When we're bringing the baby home, there's two very important things we want to do. The first thing is again, keeping your other children involved. Allow them to have little responsibilities with the baby. Of course you want to make sure that the baby is handled and cared for very carefully but there are things like helping you with the diapers or picking out the baby's outfits, different things that the older siblings can do that can really make them feel a part of the entire process. Now the other thing that we want to do is make sure that we dedicate individual time to our older children. They were used to having that individual time with Mommy and Daddy before so we need to make sure that we still dedicate different times to them so that they can get that one on one individual attention that they do really desire from their parents.
These are just a few of many many suggestions when you're welcoming your new baby into your home. I hope this has helped. If you are watching this video on Facebook or YouTube please be sure to check out our blog on bow-tiger.com. Thank you.
