Baby Articles by Ann Douglas

All about babies.

Image: VEER/Fancy Photography

Image: VEER/Fancy Photography

Advice for Parents of Babies


Infant Development

  • Babies Who Are Learning to Crawl Wake More Frequently At Night, Study Finds: Here’s another item to add to that long list of reasons why babies wake in the night. Baby is learning to crawl.
  • You Get So Emotional, Baby: Parents tend to underestimate the effects of early social-emotional experiences on babies and toddlers and to overestimate the extent to which a young child can exercise self-control. 
  • 5 Fascinating Things Babies Know: Your baby is so much more than just a pretty face. A growing body of research shows that babies understand far more about their environment than we realized.
  • Reading Makes a Fairytale Beginning for Baby: How reading to your baby benefits you and your baby; and which books Eleanor LeFave of Toronto children's bookstore Mabel's Fables recommends as the best books for babies.
  • Baby Sign Language Opens Up World of Communication: Baby sign language helps infants and toddlers communicate their needs and acquire verbal skills sooner. Here are some tips from Sara Bingham, who founded Wee Hands 10 years ago.
  • The Real Truth About Girls and Boys: Any noteworthy differences in behaviour between boys and girls that become obvious as children grow older are the result of nurture rather than nature, says Rosalind C. Barnett, co-author (with Caryl Rivers) of The Truth About Girls and Boys.


Breastfeeding

  • 7 Things Moms Really Need to Know About Breastfeeding: An interview with breastfeeding author and former La Leche League Canada executive director Teresa Pitman.
  • Mama's Milk Project: A Website Celebrates Breastfeeding: The Mama's Milk Project seeks “to foster a positive, creative, and supportive breastfeeding community for moms and their families, to normalize the practice of breastfeeding, . . . to examine the issues that women face when breastfeeding, to pass along women’s hard-earned breastfeeding wisdom and experience. . . . [and to] allow women a space to reflect upon and write about their breastfeeding experiences as an important life experience.”
  • Breast Friends: Peer pressure can influence a mother's decision to discontinue breastfeeding. 
  • Breastfeeding Groups Petition Health Canada: Parents say the draft infant feeding guidelines from Health Canada still have a long way to go before they will meet the needs of breastfeeding babies and their mothers. 


Ann Douglas is the author of The Mother of All Baby Books and numerous other books about pregnancy and parenting