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Parents often share many of the same challenges when raising their child. First Five Years gives parents the expert advice, insights, support and tools they need to make the most of the first years of their child’s life.

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Real parents. Real problems. We’re here with a group of leading early learning and parenting professionals to answer your questions.

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Questions:

Help! My child is biting other children

I’m so embarrassed but my child care provider called me in to say my two-year-old has been biting other children. I hate to think what the other parents must be thinking. What do I do?

Developing a stutter

My little girl is developing a stutter. She is three years old and has started hesitating between words and repeating sounds. I’ve seen the doctor and we are working on techniques to help her. Should I be worried about how this might psychologically affect her?

Feature

Child sleeping

Child Development

Children thrive with a regular bedtime

Research out of the United Kingdom is showing that it is not just the number of hours a child sleeps that matters, but also having consistent bedtimes. It seems that regular bedtimes really matter when it comes to a child’s health and development.

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Popular content

Mother and daughter having breakfast

Lifestyle

Mental load: How to share the mental load

Girl enjoying fitness

Child Development

Promoting children's positive body image

Little girl drawing

Child Development

Child development milestones: 3-5 yrs

Father and sons skateboarding

Child Development

Why boys wrestle, play fight and fidget

Mother working on laptop with a child

Lifestyle

Working mums: Your children will be happy

Upset three-year-old boy

Child Development

How to handle tantrums and meltdowns

Snapshot of Australian Families

Emotions

Parent’s emotions are quite a contrast. The two words parents felt best described family life over the previous three months were happy 49% (↓ from 54%) and stressed 39% (↑ from 36%).

Meals

31.8% of families only eat breakfast together on weekends. However 11% (↓ from 12%) of families never eat breakfast together.

Family Time

48% (↓ from 53%) of parents believe they spend less time with their children than their parents spent with them.

Expenses

39% (↓ from 40%) of parents have struggled to meet essential expenses like food, mortgage/rent, utility bills, child care or important medical care over the past 12 months.

Messy toddler lunch
Be it in obesity prevention or the prevention of eating disorders, we as parents must be mindful of how to raise children who have an innate sense of how to live healthy lifestyles.
Ashley Smith

A new approach to overcoming picky eating

Research suggests that picky eating is developmentally appropriate in young children. But as parents, what techniques can we introduce to promote our children's interest and acceptance of new foods, encouraging them to smell, touch and taste the food?

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Relationships

What happens to marriage after children?

Being aware of the stresses that parenting can bring to a marriage or partnership and how to recognise them, learning to be flexible and resilient and knowing when and where to seek support, can all work to strengthen and stabilise relationships.

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Family

Helping struggling families in need

At times we have all known families who are struggling and perhaps wondered how to approach them with offers of help, while many other families suffer silently refusing to admit to anyone they're in need. So how can we help our vulnerable families?

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Formal care

Helping children learn to manage change

We all know that change can be difficult. This is true for adults and children. Change is an inevitable part of life. Early transitions provide opportunities to develop the skills and dispositions we need to live and do well in a changing world.

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Work/life balance

Managing family and work life balance

Children are now much more likely to grow up in working households, however stressed parents report feeling pulled in two directions as either devoted employees or perfect parents. Many are struggling in a world they feel requires them to be both.

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Physical health

Children's tooth decay not ruled by genes

A new study has found that one in three children have tooth decay by the time they start school. But the study, which looked at the teeth of 173 sets of identical and non identical twins, found genetics didn’t appear important in terms of tooth decay.

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Formal care

Transitioning in and out of childcare

Time away from early learning can happen for many reasons. Perhaps a long family holiday, or a family illness. So what happens if, when your child is settled and enjoying the interactions with educators and friends, suddenly you need to take a break?

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Shhh, What's That?

Do you hear a sound in the waiting room? Pause. Ask your child, “What's that sound?” Take turns guessing. Are you hearing a slamming door or papers rustling? The squeak of a sliding chair or someone clearing his or her throat? Name them all together!

You are inviting your child to focus on hearing the differences in sounds. This is an important skill for enjoying and learning language so he/she can communicate with others.

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Vroom uses the science of early learning to help your child thrive with bite-sized activities that support brain growth.