Today, we will be discussing:

• What to do if you are the only one in your house and family that will sign with your baby
• Common questions asked by parents are answered by a pediatric nurse

Involving the Family in Signing with Your Baby

If your baby interacts regularly with family members not in your immediate household like grandparents, introduce them to the idea of signing with babies.  Often, grandparents are amazed at the fact that they can communicate with their grandchildren at such a early age. 

Pam is grandmother to Emily and several other grandchildren.  She and her husband take care of four of their grandchildren daily in their home.  When Pam’s son and daughter-in-law decided to sign with Emily, Pam had not heard about signing with babies.   She learned as Emily learned.  “Emily would teach us. She signed MILK, MORE, PLEASE, SHOES, SOCKS, COAT and more.  It was really fun and the other three cousins who were older enjoyed it too.  They learned the signs.  Even though Emily is 15 months younger than her cousins, we could understand her better. She could communicate with us.” Pam says that Emily was milder and had fewer tantrums than her cousins.  She talked 10 months earlier than her cousins and had a larger vocabulary. “She is more confident that we will know what she wants.  And that is good for both of us.”

Remember that your family members might be overwhelmed with the idea that they have to learn a new language (which they don’t) and might resist based on their fears.  Once they see a baby signing, family members often come around and embrace the idea of signing with babies.

What If My Baby Will Be Cared for By Someone Else?

If your baby’s primary caregiver is older, be prepared for some scoffing.  You might hear things like, “In our day, we never signed with babies and we got along just fine.”  Or, if the caregiver has more than one child to take care of, she might be reluctant and claim that she doesn’t have time to learn signs.  And besides, she is not signing with the other children.  She may say that signing will be too much pressure. 

There are a few of ways to approach the situation with your caregiver. There are often local and national news reports on the effectiveness of signing with hearing babies.  You can even show her clips from these on the Internet.  If you have friends that have signed with their children, ask them to talk to her about their personal experience or let her watch their interactions with their child.  Video clips of babies signing are available on the Sign Babies website at www.signbabies.com.

IMPORTANT: Be careful to not ask any child who can sign to “perform” a sign.  Children should never be asked to sign as a performance as this is an unnatural request and will not be successful.  If you want to demonstrate a child’s signing abilities, place that child in a situation where she will sign naturally.  For example, ask her if she wants an apple?  She will sign apple to reply in the affirmative.

Remember, a caregiver’s reluctance to sign with your baby may stem from fears that she has to learn a whole language to sign with your child.  Alleviating these fears may solve your problem.  If you explain that you will be teaching your baby a limited number of signs, this might help.  You can even limit the number of signs your caregiver will use to as few as 5-10 signs.  While it would be optimal if your caregiver would learn more signs, even a very few signs will help both your baby and her caregiver.  This approach often also works well with fathers who are reluctant to sign with their children or grandparents who think this is just a fad.

Helping Your Caregiver Learn the Signs

Teach your caregiver the signs as your baby learns them.  Leave a visual cue for your caregiver as well.  Many parents find that leaving the Sign Babies flash cards for the signs they are working on with their baby helps the caregiver learn and recognize the signs too.  Your caregiver might start learning just because she is forced by your baby’s need to be understood.  This can also happen in reverse and parents can be pushed by what the caregiver learns and teaches. Trisha is a nanny and started signing with twin babies she cares for at a young age. “Finally, at around 9 months old, they started signing back. The parents thought it was cool, but didn’t make any serious attempt to learn it themselves. However, now the babies, 16 months old, have started signing so many things that the parents don’t understand. I’m showing the babies something once and they are incorporating it into their repertoire! The parents are realizing now that they need to get on board so the babies don’t get frustrated. I’m starting to stay late to tutor the adults and am leaving lots of flashcards for them to study on their own. It’s so amazing to have this extra window into the minds of the children!”

If your caregiver is resistant, take it slow and don’t push it.  Sometimes your baby can change her mind.  Many grandparents and caregivers have begun signing after they saw a baby signing.  If your caregiver decides not to sign with your baby, it does not mean that she will not sign with you. Besides, you have a few months until your baby starts to sign.  With time, your caregiver’s opinion might change.

Is All Lost if Nothing Works?  NO

If your attempts to persuade your child’s primary caregiver to sign with your baby are not successful, you can still be successful in signing with your baby.  You will be the primary source of signing when you are together.  It may take more time for your baby to sign back, but when you can demonstrate that your baby does communicate using signs, often caregivers will give in and learn a few signs. 

Common Question for a Peiatric Nurse 

Tracy Ferguson is Nurse Manager at Alpine Pediatrics in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and she’s going to talk about some of the strange things that are perfectly normal with newborns. Tracy, thanks for being with us this morning.

Cradle Cap–is that scaly yellow stuff on the head.  You can use a mild dandruff shampoo once a week and even use some baby oil on the head 1 hour before you wash the head.  Tricia and Nancy have had GREAT experience with getting rid of cradle cap with Mama Rose’s Naturals La La Shampoo.  Nancy says that La La also leaves Anna’s curls shiny and bouncy.

Baby acne — What is it? It comes from Material hormones from mom.  It will pass so just leave it alone.

Newborn stools–what strange stuff is normal? The black merconum is normal for the first few days and then it goes to green and to the normal brown.  Stools should be loose.  If you baby has a bowel movement only once a week, that is OK.

Thrush - it is a yeast infection in the mouth transfered from the breast.  Go to the doctor and get medicine for this

Fever - The best way to take a temp in a newborn is rectally.  Over 100.5 rectal and you should go to the doctor.  Never give a newborn Tylenol because it could mask symptoms (unless told to by a doctor).

Jaundice - It seems it affects almost everyone in some degree.

 

 Signing and Common Newborn Health Questions [27:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 6:03 am and is filed under Stop Tantrums, Start Conversations, Healthy Baby, Happy Mom, Podcasts/Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.