Child Development Resource

TheSavvySource

The Best Parenthacks

Before baby arrives

**Stock up on toilet paper
**Squirt witch hazel onto maxi pads and freeze them

**Have easy-to-grab snacks at the ready

**Change your voicemail to announce all of the baby’s stats

**Pre-stamp and address envelopes for baby announcements and thank you notes

**Stock up on dove chocolates

**Thumb thing for one-handed book reading

Going Out 

**Sanitize pacifiers in a small plastic container filled with water and a little antisceptic listerine.

**Wear a maternity jacket over the baby front carrier

** Breastmilk in a medicine-dispensing pacifier for ear pressure travel issues, or to get the baby to take a pacifier.

**Tie toys, bottles, pacifiers, and cups to the stroller, car seat, or diaper bag with links. Also, attach a new eater’s spoon and cup to the high chair with links.

**Get extra spoons for baby to play with when you go out to eat

Laundry  **Corral mismatched socks via a pegboard in the laundry room.

**Wash small baby hats and socks in a mesh bag

**Glue down collars on baby outfits to keep them clean

**Put socks over too-big footed pjs to keep feet in place

**Dress your child while they are strapped into the stroller (shoes and socks) or high chair (jackets). Put pants inside out on your hands first.

**Nursing tanks + faux wrap tops, mesh and/or dry wick tops for nursing leaks

**SmartMomJewelry teething pendants and bracelets

Changing Table 

**Use olive oil on baby’s bottom so that the meconium will not stick and baby will be easier to clean up. Put a piece of toilet paper or a gauze pad in the diaper to help you know for sure if baby wet early on when it’s not always easy to tell.

**Mark different-sized diapers with different-colored Sharpie stripes while they are still in the package

**Empty baby wipe box as kitchen cabinet organizer for small bottle parts

**After blowouts, pull a dirty onesie off over the legs**Diaper changes: Open wipes box and prepare new diaper first, grab farthest ankle and lift both legs with forearm

Misc. Good Advice 

**Stash spare pacifers in the corner of the crib

**Buy furniture that sits flat on the floor to avoid having to retrieve objects

**Showering: put the baby bathtub at one end of the shower while you shower, or bring the bouncy seat in, or bring the high chair in and give him a snack while you shower.

**Cornstarch gets vaseline out of hair

**Zinc oxide highlights where to trim fingernails

**Learn to drink from a cup while in the bath

**De-sand kids with baby powder

**Soft rope lowers stairway banister for toddlers

**Over the door shoe organizer for small toys

Pumping:**Massage, shake, reposition, visualize white rapids

**Drink water while pumping

**Use Camelback for nursing thirst

Changing Table Options

Ikea Mandel 3-drawer dresser in black and natural, $129.00

Ikea Malm 3-drawer chest in black, brown, oak, natural, white or pink, $79.99

Wholesale Wooden Things

Wow. The Maine Wood Company aka Casey’s Wood Products sells hundreds of gorgeous little wooden things (especially toys, things for the home, and decorations) for pennies.

As in, 35 cents for a wooden ruler. Go check it out!

Baby Name Remorse

CNN reports on parents who change their child’s name.