Single dad

As your baby grows, you will need to invest in a good playpen or play yard. This is an important piece of baby equipment that ensures safety, while allowing your baby plenty of room to move around inside. Playpens are useful both, inside the house when you have work to attend to, or outside.

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Toddler-hood is a significant period in every baby’s life when its intellect and senses are maturing. Toddlers are consumed by curiosityand the need to make sense of the world around them.

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Your baby's first Valentine's Day is special. As a dad, you want to make sure you do everything to make this a memorable day. There is no limit to your options—you know your baby best and can find things to do that you and your baby will both enjoy.

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Dont's

    * Don't call the fetus Jellybean or Ladybug. Such names stick even after the child is born.
    * Don't name your baby after someone you hate or dislike.
    * Don't name your baby with terms that have slang meanings related to parts of the human anatomy.
    * Check your baby name initials together with your surname. Initials of names like Christopher David Player (C.D. Player) or Annie Sue Stiles could be embarassing.
    * Don't make your baby name sound like a tongue twister.
    * Consider the confusion involved in naming your child after yourself or someone in the family.
    * Make sure to fully research your chosen name, especially if it seems unique and foreign. It would be embarassing to discover later that your child has the name of an infamous character from history or a foreign country.
    * Avoid involving your friends in your name search. Their input will only complicate a process that is already difficult with two people. And, in the worst case, someone might 'steal' your perfect name for their baby before you have claimed it.
    * Don't wait until the delivery to decide on the name if you want to have any say in the matter. If you do, make sure you're ready to give in to whatever your wife decides. When the baby is handed to you, the doctor or nurse will ask what you have decided for a name. At this point, it is very difficult to argue with a woman who has been in labor for eight hours. Forewarned is forearmed.

Do's

    * Use online naming engines to help you throw a wide net for your name search.
    * Select the top 5-10 names you like. After your baby is born, you might find the fifth name more suitable to his or her appearance.
    * Let the baby's appearance dictate the final choice. Of-course, you wouldn't keep terms like Toothless Wonder or mashed potato in your list.
    * Meaningful names or names of historical personalities you admire can help children gain direction in their lives.

You probably have never given much thought to your young child’s credit history and rating. However, the increase in identity theft means dads have to be more vigilant about protecting their kids from thieves who will take their financial identity, often not to be discovered for many years. As crises go, this one isn’t earth shattering, but the Federal Trade Commission, the federal agency that tracks identity complaints, says that 11,600 complaints for victims under 18 were filed in 2005. This is roughly double the number filed in 2003. Many of these are fraud cases involving relatives, but some involve real theft too.

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If you’ve gone back to work or school full time, you can still breastfeed your baby. You can maintain this special relationship for another year or more. You’ll need to express (force out) your breast milk. Then your baby’s caregiver can feed your baby breast milk from a bottle or a cup when you are away.

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As a father, you have an important role to play in taking care of your baby. Your baby needs you. And mom needs you to share many of the responsibilities of taking care of your new baby. When you do things with your baby, you and your baby get closer. You and your baby form a bond that helps her feel safe and happy.

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Making your toddler, who is just learning to walk, wear shoes or any protective gear is no child's play! Refusal to wear shoes has several possible reasons and is characterized by the following:

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Ideally, the air in your baby's nursery should be as free of pollutants as possible. This is because babies are more sensitive than adults are, to breathing problems and respiratory infections. One way of ensuring that there is clean, fresh air in your baby's nursery is to install an air cleaner.

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During the first month of your baby’s life, you and your baby spend a lot of time getting to know each other. Your baby will spend most of his time sleeping. You will spend most of your time learning the best way to meet your baby’s needs. Sometimes, you may feel tired and nervous. These feelings are a signal that you need to take care of yourself. Here are some ways to do it:

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Most modern day dads and especially new dads would love to spend time with their kids. However, the work schedule usually prevents dads from balancing life and work. Time flies and before they know it, most dads find that their kids have already grown up. Their desire to make time for those magic years never materialized.

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The word “infant” comes from Latin. It means “unable to talk.” But as you may have noticed, even though your baby cannot talk, he has begun to communicate with you.

• Perhaps you have noticed that when you smile, your baby smiles back. This shows that he likes to have you pay attention to him in this way. It shows that he can pick up on your happy feelings. He is learning to react to people and to communicate what he likes and doesn’t like.
  
  
• At the same time, he is learning to take turns. Taking turns is an important part of how people communicate with one another.
  
  
• Your baby can also express his feelings of discomfort or distress. Pay attention to him when he is fussy. This will teach him that he can communicate to get his needs met.
  
  
• Talk to your baby long before he can talk or know the meanings of words. Babies whose parents talk to them learn to talk at an earlier age. They also learn more words. This is true even though different babies learn to understand and say words in different ways.
  
  
• Speak more slowly to your baby than you would to an adult. Say some words more softly and others in an excited way. Use a slightly higher pitch. Babies like it when people talk to them this way. It gets your baby’s attention because he knows you are talking just to him.
  
  
• When you talk to your baby, use just a few words or short sentences that you say over and over again. Babies like to hear people call their names. Babies like to hear people say things that make them smile and laugh. Your baby will enjoy listening to you. Later on, he will enjoy talking to you.