‘If They Could Tell You…’

If they could tell you, they’d say doing things together before they are two builds connections in their brain.

Start for Life’s If they could tell you campaign is aimed at helping you to better understand what your baby needs, fostering stronger relationships.

Your baby’s brain is making a million new connections every second, making the first two years so important for their healthy development.

That means building strong connections during this period of your baby’s life lays the groundwork for their future well-being and mental health. Lovingly meeting your baby’s needs helps them to learn to manage their emotions and build their confidence, and reduces the risk of future mental health issues.

Babies don’t come with a manual, but they do work hard to try to be understood. Knowing how to interpret their body language, facial expressions, noises, and cries can help you effectively meet their needs.

Start for Life’s ‘If They Could Tell You…’ campaign is aims to help you to understand your baby’s needs, enabling you to foster strong relationships.

Every relationship between a further support parent and baby is different: there can be parts that are going well and parts that are more challenging.

Learning the 6 baby states

Your baby goes through different states of sleepiness and wakefulness throughout the day, these are called ‘states’.

There are 6 baby states that help you understand what your baby might need, this includes deep sleep, light sleep, drowsy, awake/alert, fussing and lastly crying.

Depending on your baby’s state, you may need to soothe them, switch to a different activity, or play with them.

When your baby cries you need to stop what you are doing with them.

Try to calm them using a soothing, repetitive approach.

For more information on how to support your child during each of these states, check out Understanding your baby – Start for Life – NHS

For the latest advice on how best to build your relationship with your baby, you can find support and free resources, including tips and learning materials, at the Bonding with your baby – Start for Life – NHS

Other resources

• BBC – Tiny Happy People: A collection of articles with ideas on how to build a bond with your baby, based on expert advice and evidence. Their ideas and activities are easy to build into your daily routine. They’re quick and inspiring, but they’re also based on expert advice and evidence, and are proven to help your child’s development.

Tiny Happy People – Tips and Advice Bonding

• NHS Start for Life: Alongside new advice on parent-infant relationships, there is information on your mental health Your mental health – Start for Life – NHS
• And newborn and baby sleeping Baby and newborn sleeping advice for parents – Start for Life – NHS

Both if which will aid your relationship with your baby.