The two parenting tricks that I learned years too late.

placemarking

When it comes to winding babies, I've never been convinced that all that jiggling and patting is any more helpful than simply holding the baby in an upright position for a while.

Therefore, if you cosleep, then after feeding the baby you may be able to get away without winding her properly. Prop baby in a sitting position with her back against you, holding her upright with your arm. Go back to sleep. With luck, by the time your arm relaxes and she topples over into a horizontal position, she'll have had her belch(es).

Stickers
DP is on his fourth child and the envelope vests was news to him last week.
You can sandpaper burnt carpet, takes off the melted bit just leaving fibres, might be a little lower than the rest of the pile but much less noticeable.

You can lick sand out of their eyes on the beach. Revolting but better than sore scratched eyes. And yes to talc for dusting off sand from hands etc.

You can buy reusable puree pouches for fruit and save a fortune instead of buying ella etc.

Washable nappy wipes also brilliant and thrifty.

Wipe barrier cream eg vaseline on newborn bottom to make meconium sticky first poo easier to wipe off.

Who takes a hot water bottle swimming?!

Great thread. I love the juice carton tip.

When taking young children/ babies swimming wrap their towel around a hot water bottle to keep it nice and warm for when they get out.

I need this thread!

All I got is when potty training ask them to slowly count to 10 when finished peeing. Helps to make sure it all gets in and not on the floor.

Save your newborn clothes for their dolls. DD never tires of hearing about when she used to wear that particular babygrow.

And a lovely trip down memory lane for me ☺️

Following the vest theme-dsil taught me to rebutton vests over one shoulder when changing nappies-keeps them out the way of any wees and helps keep any dangly bits from outfits out the way. Tis great!

The sticker thing is genius. Thank you.

Love this thread! So helpful with 1st baby due in December & very little experience of them. Would love a permanent reference bank of these ideas on this site. Keep 'em coming & thank you all for sharing!

9 times table on your hands, eg 5 times 9, put down ur 5th finger, then the 4 on ur left hand is 40 and the five on ur right hand is 5 so 5x9 =45 (hope that makes sense)
The sheet, waterproof, sheet, waterproof when training to go dry through the night.

Oxo cube crushing in the foil (life changing!)

When trying to chivvy a slow/grumpy/uncooperative child to hurry UP on the way back to the car, simply utter the six magic words - "Bet you can't beat me to..."

If your young child won't tidy up when asked by you, sit down comfortably and get a puppet to give the instructions instead. Works a treat.

The dishwasher works for soft toys too.

Companies I should have shares in:
Tommee Tippee for the Perfect Prep
Stikins labels
Blockout blinds

And yes to dishwashing toys to sterilise them, great for cleaning the manky stuff from bath toys.

(Cross post, my mum taught me the coat trick)

My mum taught me that. The Nursery School Flip. Nursery taught DS before I got round to it but I still meet nursery workers who don't know it!

My favourite was learned on MN. To get your DC from one room into another just switch the lights off and switch them on in the room you want them to go in. I think 'like herding moths' was the description.

Teaching young children to put their coats on...
Lie the coat on the floor with the inside of the coat facing up. Child stands at the hood end, crouches down and pushes their arms into the sleeves as far as they can, then stands up and whips the coat over their head. Job done!
I've worked with children for 30 years and have always taught them this way-they're always so proud of themselves when they can do it!
Use baby wipes on sore noses instead of tissues.

I felt stoopid when I finally realised that long sleeved baby grows can be folded over the hands to make scratch mitts. I'd bought mitts and everything.

I only recently found out trousers can be let in and out inside the waists using the elastic and buttons bit. I'd been buying belts for about 4 years....

alltouchedout
My DC3 is 17 years old and I'm filing these away for grandchildren. Particularly the carton ears one. I remember seeing a rigid box to out cartons in for toddlers and thinking 'sheesh' new parents will but anything. 3 dcs later and countless plumes of sticky liquid I wished I'd bought dozens.

Wish I'd known the sticker one! Now that mine are 15 and 11 I no longer need to know.

Did know about the envelope vest thing, but only by the time I'd had DC2.

One that I used to do was to put tights under trousers, used to be extra warmth on cold days for both DD and DS, and was also helpful as DS in particular was prone to whipping his socks off. Couldn't do that with tights. yes, I know some people might say boys don't wear tights, but who's going to know when they can't be seen under the trousers?

My third ds is 17 months old and I have never known about the vest thing until now. I felt like such a fool!

Damn that sticker one is genius!!

No more screeching from Dd cos she can't get the bloody sticker off