First time mums say Gran gives the best advice (i)

It seems like only yesterday that we brought this tiny bundle home from hospital and rapidly found ourselves feeling clueless when it came to looking after him. I remember the first bath at home being such a daunting prospect that we phoned granny to come round to do it! So we could really relate to the research from Nurofen for Children which found that 'first time mums say Gran gives the best advice (i)'

There's no doubt about it, things change when a baby comes along. I went from being someone who knew what I was doing, confident at work and at home to someone who felt thoroughly overwhelmed with the huge responsibility that looking after a new baby brings.

The Nurofen for Children research showed that 'the areas new mums are most confused by when it comes to looking after their little one are sleep (43%), feeding (35%) and health (33%),(ii) and more than one in five (23%) say that health is one of the hardest areas to make decisions on.(i)'

Furthermore '52% say they felt a need to make a new group of friends who could relate to their parenting experiences' (ii)

Reading this rung so true! J was never a good sleeper and I struggled to feed him in the early days. We continue to have to make those judgement calls when it comes to health too - even though we now have 3 children, health still remains a tricky area to make decisions on.

Whilst we relied heavily on our new group of friends (our amazing antenatal group who stuck together from pregnancy right through to our children's first day at school), it was often in the middle of the night that the health worries would creep up and that's when as a parent you really do have to learn to have the confidence to trust your instincts.

For teething pain, fever and cold and flu symptoms we became familiar with those orange oral syringes in the Nurofen for Children packs. Nurofen for Children actually have a new product out specifically for Cold, Pain and Fever. And of course, the Nurofen for Children that we are now so familiar with is still available in orange and strawberry flavour and also available as handy sachets.

But if we ever feel worried about our child and have that gut-feeling that there's something more to it, we will call either our GP or 111 for help and advice.

As parents there are always going to be things that we worry about - I look back at the bathtime incident and laugh at myself and yet at the time it was something I really lacked confidence in. The same went for the weaning process, the sleep routine and the list goes on. But as time goes on, parenting confidence grows and there are people around to turn to when you do need that extra bit of help or advice whether it be your antenatal friends, the GP or health visitor or of course, Gran!

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Please note that this post is not intended to contain any medical advice. Always contact your own doctor or health professional if you have any concerns about your child's health. 

(i) Survey of 2,000 parents with a baby under 6 years old, commissioned by Nurofen for Children (May 2014)
(ii) Survey of 2,000 mums by One Poll, commissioned by Nurofen for Children (October 2013)