To think that marketing is partly to blame for kids hitting milestones later?

[AmpleFish]

A friend and I were having a debate earlier today. She works in a primary school and like many teachers, has noticed more and more kids coming to school without a good level of development. I suggested that it may have something to do with how products are marketed these days.

For example, dummies - the NHS recommends getting rid of these between 6 and 12 months old. However pretty much ever brand sells a product for 18+ months, some even up to 36 months. Isn’t this signaling to parents that it’s ok to give your 3 year old a dummy when in reality they should’ve stopped years ago?

Nappies are another example. Most brands go up to 17+ kg, some 19 kg. This is the average weight of a 5+ year old! They’re not marketed as night products or even a more “mature” pull up type, but normal taped nappies you’d use for a much younger child during the daytime. Again, if the product is there then parents are going to continue to use them!

Obviously I’m talking about NT children here. I understand that some ND children will need these later than recommended, but there are separate product lines for this and many older children who need nappies for example receive them free from the NHS.

Just an idea that came from this conversation earlier and wanted to see what others thought.

Unfortunately, @AmpleFish , in my (anecdotal) experience the two year olds are a breeze to train if the parents are on board (and most still are). It’s the four year olds whose parents can’t be bothered that I feel most sorry for.

It’s really no fun changing a four year olds nappy; they’re too big for the changing table, pull ups leak, and however long we encourage them to sit on the toilet/potty, if it’s not followed up at home it’s a pretty pointless endeavour.

And before I get yelled at again, I am, of course, talking about NT children.

As a nursery practitioner I think the root cause is phones to be honest followed by a lot of misguided and conflicting information, lack of time (both parents working, busy schedules etc) and child led parenting. I do feel like phones have led to people having a lack of common sense and problem solving skills.

I didn’t even think of that! I guess with families being more spread out there isn’t as much local support is there

Velcro and elastic laces mean some kids can't tie laces, fitted sheets mean some people can't fold hospital corners when making the bed. As a child, I spent a lot of time knitting, sewing, threading beads and reading because I didn't have an i-pad. My mum called me nimble- fingered. Many children struggle to hold a pen and write neatly and are losing manual dexterity skills.

The reality is that people complain about not having a village but they don't want the responsibility that comes with it. My mum and dad both had their grandmothers living with them, they helped a lot with childcare but equally they both ended up bed bound in an upstairs bedroom for years and required a lot of care. One of my grandmothers worked full time, was a carer for her mother until she died aged 95. She had a stroke aged 85 that left her completely paralyzed and she musn't have left the house until she died as there was no way to get her down the stairs. I don't know how my grandmother did it, but she certainly wasn't an exception, it was part and parcel of the tight knit, supportive family unit.

I have worked in Sure Start centres in the past, in my LA they were targeted to just the poorest postcodes and once we stopped doing childcare the families dropped off a cliff face. A mum and dad might have been unemployed and at home and they would have left their dc into the creche 5 days a week, some of them from 9-5pm. Funding dried up and that drastically was cut back and a parent had to accompany their dc to creche or activities. No one was interested. It then was opened up for everyone in the hope to keep the funding going and the demograph shifted to a wealthier group who were on mat leave and were happy to be getting free baby massage and sensory classes. Sure Start was great for the children who had bone idle parents but unfortunately they had no interest to engage with their dc, they just wanted to offload them daily for free.