Which aspects of looking after a baby did you just not *get*?

[KateMumsnet]

Hello all

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that we've been making a few videos recently - if you haven't had a look, do nip over to our new Video page for a quick squizz. And do also subscribe to our YouTube channel: it takes literally 3 secs (and you won't be bombarded with YouTube emails, promise!).

Anyway - we're planning a series of 'How To' videos for new parents, and we thought we'd ask you to cast your mind back to those early days, and tell us which aspects of looking after a baby would have been much easier if you'd had a step-by-step video to help you. Things like 'how to swaddle a newborn' .

Do let us know what you'd have liked to have seen clearly demonstrated - whether newborn-related, or with older babies. We'd also love to hear the cunning baby and/or toddler care 'hacks' which have made life easier: we'll compile them into a vid to spread the joy.

Thanks in advance,

MNHQ

Weaning. I was loathe to force feed vegetables to a child who spat them out.
Potty training. Straight to loo in our family.

Newborn stuff, how to get them to sleep! (swaddling,white noise other tips etc) tips for reflux/colic
Older toddler stuff, fun ways to teach colours/animals etc, potty training and also how the hell do you cut their toenails when they won't sit still?!

How to identify tongue tie, and signs of silent reflux

That when babies do end up covered head to toe in poo ... Their vests are designed to come off doooownwards

I will never forget the traumatic experience I had in asda baby change . Yes I did come out covered in DS's poo

Yes do breast feeding!

Fed dd to one year, but help on the ward and nhs videos were pure rubbish!

I spent so long stressing myself out following the instructions about getting the head in the right position, nose by the nipple, so much areole showing blah blah blah.

What they should have said was ' stick your nipple in their mouth, if it hurts wriggle it round a bit, tadaaaaa!'

That would have been much more helpful

How to put nappies on - sposies are very different to cloth I still don't think I do sposies right but ds won't sleep in his cloth ones at the moment also the different types of cloth nappies. There are a lot of very knowledgeable cloth-nappy-using MNers, yet from comments (nice ones!) from other parents at groups etc it's still seen as complicated and difficult by the majority of peopleyou know what's difficult? Dragging a baby round a supermarket then trying to carry a mahoosive box of nappies plus said baby into your flat along with the rest of the shopping

Ditto slings. Going by what people have posted on the boards, they're a life saver (to me as well) but when you're faced with 5 meters of tee shirt material it's a tad daunting!

New borns breastfeeding. Not older babies/toddlers like you get in the NHS video, actual small babies. With lots of shots taken from a distance so the viewer can see exactly how much boob isn't on show

This one might be difficult like the others aren't but tips on getting one's dh/p to understand exactly how tiring looking after a tiny baby is. My dad had 20mo ds the other day for a whole hour by himself. Only now does he realise why I'm often tired, and why my mum was often tired when I was the same age. And that's just playing with the one well-behaved toddler at an optimum time of day!

Strikout fail

Cutting teeny tiny finger and toe nails.

Swaddling.

Winding.

I wish I'd known how/when to put a baby down for a nap.

Definitely need to spread the word about vests coming off going down instead of up in the event of a poonami. Could've done with figuring that one out sooner.

This may gross people out but..what a normal baby poo looks like and what might indicate a problem.

Yy to how to breastfeed and how to swaddle.

Safe co sleeping positions?

Can't believe i never clued in about vests coming off downwards after a poo explosion....

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've cut vests off shit-covered babies in the past

I couldn't figure out sterilising.

Do you have to sterilise? What is the purpose of it- is it just to make sure your equipment in properly clean or actually completely sterile? What happens when you take the lid of the steriliser and handle things? It's no longer sterile is it...so???

I just didn't get what you were supposed to do and why. At all.

Winding! I didn't have a clue how to and when to do it.

Colicky crying - I didn't know what was normal baby crying and what wasn't. Would be really useful to know about reflux, silent reflux, allergies, intolerances, ear infection, teething etc.

Teething - I kept thinking DD was teething from 2 months when she wasn't! She was crying because of other reasons.

Cues for winding.

How to clean round the umbilical stump before it's fallen off.

Tying a sling

Cutting nails

A run through of vest/sleep suits/baby gros etc which really confused me to start with

Safe co sleeping positions

Basics of changing a nappy. We didn't know (and couldn't find out on the packaging) whether the rustly bits by the leg holes fan outwards or get tucked in! /hangs head in shame/

Another vote for cutting nails.

The secret to painless easy baby nail-trimming is just to nibble them. Stay away from the implements, your teeth are far more precise and far less likely to take a layer of skin off.

Agree with PP about vids of newborns breastfeeding, and also breastfeeding positions, and expressing, and how to store expressed milk. My HVs demonstration using a knitted boob didn't quite cut it!

Yes also to slings, reusable nappy demos (quickly please - am just about to switch fro disposables with 5 week old DS2 and am clueless!), winding positions and making up formula. My first two were FF for various reasons and only now on DC no.3 am I finding out I did it all wrong.

Also, ways of administering medicine to reluctant / refusing small people would have been a godsend for me.

There are some great videos on YouTube of slings/ cloth nappies, I don't know how to link but they are often recommended in the appropriate Facebook groups,
To answer the question, maybe collating this info would be quicker than doing a new video?

How to change the length of straps on main brands of newborn carseats. It did not even occur to me to know this until we tried to take PFB home from hospital.

sling video needs to have troubleshooting tips for common problems. I watched countless videos on YouTube trying to work out why my baby always ended up around my waist and never found one which explained it (figured it out in the end - I was putting him in at the height I wanted him at, should have been slightly higher). Also didn't realise that lots of babies can take a while to get used to the sling.

Re bathing: all videos and descriptions of how to bath a baby seem needlessly complicated. I was so worried I would wash ds in the wrong order iyswim! Turns out you just put the in the baby bath/bath support and...wash them . I wish I'd been told about checking under their chins, armpits and behind ears for remnants of dried milk though. Took weeks of wondering why baby always smelled of curdled milk before we figured that one out .

I would have benefitted from a video showing you haw to roll up a vest from the bottom to take off after an explosive poo. The first time dd did one all up her back we cut the vest off SIL kindly showed me how to do it before I bankrupted us

Bathing a tiny baby.

Feeding tips, both bf and bottle fed.