What to Do When Big Sibling Goes Back to School

For Sassy September, we’re focusing on the baby and toddler side of “back-to-school”! You may ask, “why think about back to school for babies and toddlers?” Well, we are going to show you in our next 8 posts!

Our first post focuses on an important topic that many parents with older kiddos face: What happens when older siblings go to school and how may this impact baby or toddler?

When a big sibling starts school for the first time, or goes back to school after a long summer, your younger child might struggle with the adjustment. Suddenly, big sis or bro isn’t around during the day. It’s important to help your little one to make this transition as smooth as possible. Here are Dr. Jen’s Sassy tips to help your tots!

Healthy Bodies—Stay Active!

Positive Modeling & Promotion of Healthy Bodies – A Four Part Series with Pediatric Obesity Specialist Dr. Dyan Hes

Part Three—Stay Active!

In our last installment of this four part series with Dr. Dyan Hes, we learned about portion control and how to model this for children starting from the time they are babies. Today, we’ll focus on being active!

Dr. Jen: Parenting is so... tiring! Dr. Hes, how do you suggest parents of young children model exercise and even get kids moving the appropriate amount?

3 Main Emotional Components of Transitional Objects

In our last three posts, we explored the psychology behind transitional or comfort objects and learned quite a bit about Dr. Winnicott, a pretty cool (and sassy!) pediatrician and psychotherapist who researched this topic in the 1950s. In our last posting in this series, we’ll explore the three main emotional components to this amazing phenomenon. This is only a summary; and a very general overview of what is actually truly fascinating and deep psychological aspects of development—we learned a lot in reading these materials and plan to include what we’ve learned here in the Sassy Baby toy development stages. Let's explore why babies use transitional comfort objects:

Transitional Objects—Uses

In our last two posts, we explored the origination of the term “transitional object” and some of the foundations of Dr. Winnicott’s research. As a refresher, transitional objects (also referred to today as comfort objects) are those special items babies and toddlers (and some grown-ups!) associate special meaning with.

In learning more about the research and writings of Dr. Winnicott, we learned that it is the use of the object that he focused on rather than what the object actually was. In other words, some children have a pacifier, some a blankie, some a soft toy—yet most use these self soothing capacities in a similar manner. We also learned the connection between the transitional object and the mother's breast stressing the smells and textures babies gravitate to.

Transitional Objects - What & Why?

In our last post, we learned where the phrase “transitional objects” originated, and a little bit about Dr. Winnicott, the pediatrician/psychoanalyst who coined the phrase in the 1950s. As a refresher, a transitional object is a material object such as a blanket or soft toy that a baby or child associates a special connection.

Dr. Winnicott studied babies between the ages of four and twelve months and noted that these babies would often become attached to an object to which they associated “primordial” significance. Primordal means “characteristic of the earliest stage of development”. The babies would manually manipulate or stroke, suck or otherwise self soothe with the object. These objects were also very commonly a necessary object for a child to fall asleep. As an aside (a One Sassy Doctor safety disclaimer) this was the 1950s; when safe sleep research and the understanding about soft toys and bedding hadn’t originated.

Where Did The Concept of Transitional Objects Originate?

Here at Sassy Baby we’re developing toys for babies and toddlers and continually learning about the amazing growth and developmental aspects of play and attachment. One Sassy Doctor has received various questions regarding blankets (think “Linus” from the Peanuts cartoon!), pacifiers and soft toys—these are commonly referred to as transitional or comfort objects.

Our product development team and I learned quite a bit about the developmental and psychological foundations of transitional/comfort objects in writing these posts, and we hope you find them as interesting as we did here at Sassy Baby! In today’s post, we’ll explore the developmental and psychological foundations of this concept and explore some super cool historical information.

What Is Early Intervention?

Anonymous: I am worried about my child’s language development and was told by my pediatrician that he is going to refer for “Early Intervention”. What is this?

The early intervention concept was first created by the United States Congress in 1986 under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It provides funding to all 50 states in the United States. States have different criteria for eligibility that depend on various factors. Children who qualify must be under 3 years of age and have a confirmed developmental delay, as defined by parameters the state established. Delay may be in one of the following areas of development: physical, cognitive, communication, social-emotional and/or adaptive.

Comparing Language Development of Twins—What Is Expected At 20 Months?

Sydney W: I have twenty-month-old twin boys. One is a chatterbox, and says at least 10 words. The other? Gibberish. No discernible words at all. When should I be concerned about this?

Hi there Sydney and thanks for the great question. You’ve actually raise two terrific issues we can explore here on the One Sassy Doctor blog: one about comparing the development of twins and the other about what a 20 month old’s traditional speech and language development would be.

Ask Baby! Mirror Mirror On The Wall…

As we continue, here at Sassy Baby Toys, in what we are enjoying as our best month yet, we’re going to focus today (no pun intended) on mirrors. That glamorous Hollywood baby, Isabella is here with us and ready to answer a few questions! Here we go—a whole post dedicated to mirrors.

OSD: Do you like mirrors? 
B: OMG—I love mirrors! Are you kidding me? Me? Mirrors? That’s like asking me if I like to sleep. Yes! An overwhelming yes. Just about the coolest thing I can play with at my ripe age of 4-8 months.

Ask Baby! When Babies Talk, They Talk

Wow, what a fascinating month this has been—learning so much talking to you, baby Isabella! Hope you are enjoying this, too. Back to our 4-8 month old little friend (who One Sassy Doctor must add, is getting a bit into this Hollywood act and put on a ball gown for us today – complete with heels.)

Ask Baby! Language Development—How Does It Work?

We’re deep into our interview series with our 4-8 month old baby, Isabella. We’re learning so much about what baby Isabella sees, feels, touches and smells. In fact, here at Sassy Baby Toys, we’re all about inspiring the senses and are soaking up all of this knowledge that baby Isabella has to offer as we design the most developmentally advanced products imaginable!

Ask Baby! Shapes, Colors & Focusing

We spent the last four postings interviewing our birth to 4 month old friend, Max, and now turn to the maturing 4 - 8 week old little one, Isabella. Ready on the set? We’re going live in 3 – 2 – 1 – lights, camera, action!

Ask Baby! Interviewing Baby About His Senses

Today we’re going to continue our series of interviews with baby and learn a bit more about baby Max’s senses.

OSD: How do you perceive touch?
M: Well, I am super sensitive. My skin is much thinner than yours. I have pain, touch and temperature receptors much closer to my skin surface that yours. I feel vibrations much more than my older friends. I absolutely love the soft, tender, warm feeling of skin-to-skin contact. I’ll also tell you that I love different textures and feeling various types of sensations. This helps my touching sense develop and mature.

Ask baby! Interviewing Baby On His Hearing

This month is an interview series with the 0-2 month old babies of the words. That’s right! Here, live on One Sassy Doctor, your baby is telling us like it is. We also turned to Twitter to see what our @sassybabytoys followers would ask their own babies (if their babies could respond!). We are continuing to interview our 0-4 week old baby, Max, today:

Ask Baby! Newborn Baby's Perspective On Vision

Earlier this week, we asked baby Max some initial questions about vision. Today, we’re taking it a step further with a bit more detail about vision. Welcoming back baby Max, our birth to 4-week-old little friend!

OSD: When things move back and forth, can you follow them?
Max: Hey, I’m a baby, and even I know that’s called tracking. I am trying very hard to learn, but right now I am not able to track very much. I may look cross-eyed when I try. Don’t worry about that, it’s the way I am supposed to look!

Ask Baby! What Can You See Newborn?

This month, we decided to ask baby some questions! Introducing our birth to 4-week-old baby, Max, and two questions about vision.

OSD: How far do you see, Max?
Max: I see just a few inches away, at most I see about 8 inches. So, when you come close to me and goo-goo, I like it! By the time I am one month old, I will see 2-3 feet ahead of my cute little face, so you can set yourself aback a bit more, and I’ll still see you.

Dr. Jen’s Tips on Biting

Having experienced my own children being bitten—and also biting others—I consider myself a mommy/doctor biting control pro!

Why do kids bite, and how should adults respond?

Biting is a way for a child to express frustration, anger and loss of control. It is a normal part of social development, although not an acceptable part. There are certain behaviors that parents, teachers and caregivers should simply ignore and let children work out for themselves. Biting is not one of them.

What Does One Sassy Doctor Think About Vaccinations?

The American Academy of Pediatrics and I (Dr. Jen) do not recommend any modification of the current immunization schedule. In light of significant buzz about potential vaccine connections to autism and other medical and developmental issues, I want to share some important facts which support why the current schedule is best for your little ones.

Importance of Talking to Babies—Part Two: Ways to Expose Babies to Language

Last week, we discussed why exposure to language is so critical to a baby’s language development. Now we’re going to explore the ways to do it!

There are so many wonderful ways to expose your baby to language during the early stages of development! Here are some ideas:

The Pre-Two Terrible Twos!

The “terrible twos” may arrive before the second birthday! Parents of toddlers often ask for my tips on how to handle public outbursts with really young kids. Here are Dr. Jen’s tips on discipline—for pre-two-terrible-twos!