Natural Parenting Noob

[faolan5109]

So I have been reading a lot about natural parenting and I really want to try doing all of that.


Co-sleeping?
Cloth diapers?
Making all baby food? ect.

What are the pros and cons of them??

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

We co sleep using a snuggle nest. It allows us to have Edward in our bed but keeps him safe as my OH is a very heavy sleeper. Best £15 I spent!

I'm only new to cloth myself but there's a really handy thread at the top of this section that explains a lot.

Edward isn't weaning yet but I intend to do baby led weaning (BLW), you can find loads more info on it in the weaning section xx

 

[BeccaMichelle]

Co-sleeping pro: You get to sleep!! LOL It was the only way I got any sleep after Jess was born. She'd wake up EVERY time I tried to put her in the snuggle nest.
Con: I can't put my LO to sleep until we go to sleep so there's no baby-free time in evening.

Making your own food Pro: You KNOW what's in it! None of those scary preservatives and additives. Plus it encourages you to eat healthier.
Con: The time it takes.

Cloth diapers Pro: No chemicals!!
Con: Washing them!!

 

[BabyHaines]

^^BeccaMichelle^^ we co-sleep too and I put George to bed, lay with him til he's sleeping, then I could get up again if I wanted?x

 

[Tessa]

Ohh! Thanks for posting this! It's been a huge topic of discussion lately with DH, so I'm interested in hearing more replies.
Also, can anyone recommend any good reading on above mentioned topics... ie. books, magazines, websites, or other?

 

[littlestar]

We don't co-sleep

but for cloth nappies

Pros-
- only have to buy and you have all the nappies you'll ever need for as many babies as you want to have!
- Never run out - just remember to put the washer on
- Easy modern nappies - means no folding!!

Cons
- You can get hooked on pretty fluff (be warned )
- poos can be a mess but it all washes out (but very well contained - i've only have one pooplosion in 8+ months of cloth and that was when i hadn't realised i needed to adjust the rise of the nappies as i'd given Q a builder bum!

Weaning
We totally avoided the puree/traditional route and went straight for Baby led weaning at 6 months.
Pros -
- LO can eat everything your having
- no need to lug loads of bags with you when you go out for the day
- eat proper solids from the start so there's no transition from smooth to lumps etc

Cons -
- so people fear gagging/choking (buy the book - Gill Rapely Baby led weaning tell you everything you need to know)
- people might look at you like you have two heads whilst LO is quiet small ie when giving LO a proper roast dinner at the pub on sunday!

Enjoy!

 

[Sarahwoo]

Co-Sleeping
Pros
- More sleep!! And stressfree nights
- Makes breasteeding in the night super easy - Oliver wakes up, I feed him, he falls asleep, I put him down, I go back to sleep - our night wake-ups are about 15 minutes long now.
- its sooooo nice to be so close to your baby!! I also sleep much better knowing I could just open my eyes or reach out a hand and know he's okay. I felt we did some fab bonding co-sleeping, esp in the early day (we co-slept from 2 days old!)
- We use a co-sleeper cot which I 100% recommend.
- Providing its done right its super-safe


Cons
- You do have to make sure you're doing it right
- Until we got the co-sleeper my hubby felt a bit left out as I didn't like to turn around to hug him etc. Much better now with the side cot.
- I can't think of any others - I love it!!

Cloth nappies we've only just started so I can't really comment there.

We're planning to do baby led weaning, again Oliver is only 3 months so I can't advice of the pros and cons.

I also wear Oliver quite a bit, its just so convinient and my sling was a god send when he was newborn. He still loves going in it

 

[BeccaMichelle]

^^BeccaMichelle^^ we co-sleep too and I put George to bed, lay with him til he's sleeping, then I could get up again if I wanted?x

Alas, Jessa seems to be a motion sensor. If I get back up she'll stay asleep for maybe 20 minutes and if no one is around when she wakes up she gets hysterical. (She's okay if she wakes up and no one's around and she's not tired like in the morning but in the evening it's crazy.) So a lot of the time we just end our evening with laptops or a movie in bed.

Ohh! Thanks for posting this! It's been a huge topic of discussion lately with DH, so I'm interested in hearing more replies.
Also, can anyone recommend any good reading on above mentioned topics... ie. books, magazines, websites, or other?

Pretty much anything by Dr. Sears! His website actually has a lot of the stuff from the books so you don't have to buy them. https://www.askdrsears.com/

 

[Tessa]

Ohh! Thanks for posting this! It's been a huge topic of discussion lately with DH, so I'm interested in hearing more replies.
Also, can anyone recommend any good reading on above mentioned topics... ie. books, magazines, websites, or other?

Pretty much anything by Dr. Sears! His website actually has a lot of the stuff from the books so you don't have to buy them. https://www.askdrsears.com/

Thanks so much for that link!
Just checked out a few pages and appears to be just what I was looking for!

 

[BeccaMichelle]

Ohh! Thanks for posting this! It's been a huge topic of discussion lately with DH, so I'm interested in hearing more replies.
Also, can anyone recommend any good reading on above mentioned topics... ie. books, magazines, websites, or other?

Pretty much anything by Dr. Sears! His website actually has a lot of the stuff from the books so you don't have to buy them. https://www.askdrsears.com/

Thanks so much for that link!
Just checked out a few pages and appears to be just what I was looking for!

Glad it helped!