Behaviour
As well as surprising you everyday with their loveliness, your baby is bound to surprise you with various little habits they pick up along the way! Our experts have put together a guide which provides comprehensive information on the most common behavioural problems babies develop (and also the more unusual habits babies can develop), and gives advice on how you can help your baby get through these behavioural issues.
Much of what we perceive as 'bad' behaviour, isn't actually your child trying to be naughty, but is an early exploration into what they can do. Biting, for example, often starts out as your baby investigating what his teeth can do. Hitting and hair pulling commonly start out as a baby's way of seeing what reaction he can get by doing these reactions - understanding cause and effect, and testing boundaries. These early forays can however quickly turn into bad habits that are hard to break, so if your baby starts displays anti-social behaviour see our articles on how to deal with this and nip it in the bud.
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Other habits are completely involuntary, and are actions which your child has no control over. Breath holding, for example, and teeth grinding, and excessive blinking are rarely done on purpose. Head banging is often a reaction to too much, or too little stimulation. Read more on how to deal with these situations and get advice on why they might be happening.
Weaning is a time when many babies develop undesirable habits, such as throwing food from the highchair and eating food off the floor! As your baby gets older, they may develop fears of people and even objects that they were never scared of before. This can come as a surprise to many parents, who assume their baby will become less fearful. Newly developed fears, and Separation anxiety are actually a sign your baby is maturing. See our articles on Fears in general and Fears of strangers for more information on why this happens and what you can do about it.
