Expect The Best

Bless you!

Dealing with children when they are ill isn't easy. Here are our tips to help make those winter colds feel a bit more bearable.

✨ Invest in a vapour plug-in

✨ Muslins make great handerchiefs

✨ Steam up the bathroom by running the shower hot, sit in the room with your little one to get blocked noses running clearer

✨For children with pillows - raise their heads on an extra pillow

✨ For babies you can pop a book under the legs at the head of the cot to give some elevation.

✨Invest in some thermal vests to keep little chests warm.

✨Allow for lots of rest - if you want to relax TV rules then absolutely do.

✨Always seek medical attention when necessary

Wow, wow, wow, it’s cold 🥶!

No matter the weather, anyone that looks after children will know that no matter the weather getting out and about is vital. ☀️🌧🌈❄️

It’s all about the preparation - have a peg at child height so your child can take responsibility for getting their coat and hanging it up. You could also have a basket below with their hats, gloves etc.

For really little ones that have even if you get out for a short walk that’s absolutely fine. A bit of fresh air can make a word of difference.

Just remember if you go out in the car that your child shouldn’t be in their car seat with their coat on as the straps won’t be tight enough to keep them safe. For babies you can get a great blanket that has slits for the car seat straps so they can stay toasty warm as you transfer them from the house to the car! For more tips check out the stories/ highlights for our top tips.

Half Term is upon us!

Take a break this week to relax, get outside, stay in your pj’s all day; it’s time to loosen the hold of those reins and just enjoy the time with your little ones, without the pressure.
If you need some fun and active things to do this half term, check out these accounts.

1. -These classes are fantastic and full of lots of fun sport skills, from ages two years and up.

2. Action Amanda she is so full of joy and fun. Amanda can even get your tiny tots moving and shaking.

3. online yoga classes of all shapes and sizes that have lots of different fun character themes. This is one we always do along with the children.

4. .hooray - when in doubt, always check out Claire at play hooray for all the best ideas for any type of simple and brilliant play.

Enjoy the week of not feeling pressured to get work done, and just let the children be and you crack open the fizz! Tap on picture for places we love to go during half term.

When you first arrive home after labour, it can be overwhelming and takes a lot of time to adjust to life. 💕

Knowing your baby’s feeding cues can be a helpful tip to help you find your groove with feeding your baby. 👶🏼 The most commons signs are:

1. They might bring their hands to their mouth.
2. Mouth opening and closing, sticking out their tongue or sucking their lip
3. Become less easy to keep happy or distracted
4. Baby might bend their legs up towards their tummy
5. Head-turning as if to get into a feeding position or to look to latch.

As your baby grows, they may develop their own personal little feeding cues that you will, in time, learn. It is easier to feed when you feed when they first start showing these signs. But we understand that isn’t always possible. If you have a try and they reject and you feel they are hungry, you could try changing positions. If you have a very distracted baby it can be useful to be in a quiet place, we know this is not always possible. This does not mean hiding when you’re feeding, you celebrate feeding your baby in any way you wish.

A happy baby is a fed baby, no matter the method.
Remember to be kind to yourself. 💕💕

Hello everyone!!

We wanted to say hello to all our friends from the present and new friends we have made here in our ETB community. We wanted to give you all a little more information on why we set Expect the Best.

We met over 8 years ago across a crowded playgroup whilst both nannying. We bonded over tea, biscuits, and laughter. From then on, we started to hang out with our charges to support each other from a childcare view, asking each other for advice when we were looking for different options.

From this, our friendship grew, and we started thinking about how we could help the wider community and not just the families we nanny. That is how ETB was born, and we came to meet all of you.

Helping parents to feel confident and have belief in themselves is at the core of all we do.
Being there to listen and be non-judgemental is absolutely our top priority.

Remember always to be kind to yourself.

Chris and Rose x

Preparing to wean 🍽️

Getting ready for the weaning process can full lots of nerves and excitement for both baby and parents.

We have got lots of tips and tricks to help you feel prepared and ready to go from treasure baskets to our amazing shower curtain trick that really does help save on mess.

Go and check out our wonderful pals at little tummy for some quick and easy on the go baby food.

We also love sr nutritions page for great weaning advice.

Please go to our IGTV for more information and for more tips.

When is the Right Time to take a Dummy Away?🤔

There will come a time when your child will no longer need their dummy. This doesn’t have to be a stressful time and can be managed quite easily. As a rough guide we would suggest that age 2 upwards is a good time say goodbye to the dummy.

It is, however, a good idea to think about what is going on in your family life, making sure there are no big changes coming up. For example, a holiday, or you plan on moving your child into a bed, or if they are teething it’s best to wait until their teeth have come through.

Too many changes at once may make the situation much harder than it needs to be. We would also encourage you to introduce a blanket/muslin or soft toy as a comforter, if they don’t have one before you begin the process.
You can sleep with the comforter for a few nights before so that it smells familiar. Even if your child seems uninterested in the comforter, continue to present it at every sleep time.

💤 Top tips around Sleep for 0-6 months old.

Sleep or a lack of sleep is probably one of the biggest adjustments that new parents have to make. So, let’s talk about how we can use a routine to help create good habits that will set you up as your little one grows.

What is your baby’s natural asleep and awake times? You can find this out by tuning into the cues that they show you. A baby will experience something called sleep ‘pressure’ it is a process that the brain goes through which gradually increases the pressure to tell your baby that it is time to sleep. A young baby will experience this much more frequently as their brains need a lot of sleep to grow. We can take advantage of this sleep ‘pressure’ by learning what signs to look out for.

You might see them - rubbing their eyes, pulling at their ears, yawning or becoming fussier. These are all things that you can use to guide you on when to put your baby down for a nap. As your baby grows, the length of time that they are able to stay awake will gradually increase from anywhere between 2,3,4 hours.

To help your baby learn the difference between daytime and night-time you can help by reacting to them differently during the day and night. This might sound simple, but it is a really easy way to help get your baby into a good rhythm.

When you are ready you can start this off by helping to establish a consistent wake up time in the morning, this will help your baby to understand when it is the morning. It can be as simple as scheduling in a feed and opening the curtains in the morning to let in the natural light.

🎨 Fostering Creativity with Alice from

We are so pleased to have filmed this video for you with the gorgeous Alice from nanny.inspiration.station all about how to foster creativity with our children.

We are firm believers that play is an essential element in aiding your child’s development, so we wanted to find out from Alice any tips and tricks that she has and how she makes play fun in her nanny household!

Check out IGTV.

We love using activities as a way to help give them context for their learning by providing them with opportunities. In this case these two activity ideas are focused around potty training.

🚽 Grab a big piece of paper and ask your child to lie down, draw around their body and then talk through where different things go in their body. Keep it simple. Perhaps you could even draw a piece of food on some paper and pretend to travel it down the body.

🚽 Grab a book all about going on the potty/loo, pop it in a nice bag or box. Next find objects that represent the story, for example loo paper, a doll or soft toy, a clean potty, wipes, clean pants. You can read the story with your and then allow them to explore the objects independently. They may want to play with them whilst you read the story, that is okay too. (It helps to have put away other toys beforehand so that they can concentrate on the activity without distractions).

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO POTTY TRAIN?🚽

We get asked all the time about potty training and so we wanted to film a video for you all about how to start potty training. We thought it might be useful to go through with you what are essential items are to get you started.

Please head over to IGTV for more details.