Ways to help children accept new babies into the family

There has probably been lots of advice written on this subject, but I thought I would share with you some of the things we have done.

From day one when we brought Leannika home we have tried to involve Zaide as much as possible. He has only had one

His favourite job is putting nappies in the bin! Every time I change his or her nappies he will pick them up and say "In the bin." and off he trots with it. He also loves sitting up on the couch with us when I am feeding her and helping to hold her bottle, and he gets so proud when I tell him he is a good boy for helping Mum.

We also have a chair next to her change table for him to stand on whenever she is getting changed or having a bath, he stands on it and talks to her and kisses her constantly. I'm sure some days she wishes she could tell him to rack off!! And when she is in the bath he will help to wash her and splash water over her.

Basicly any small job he can do we get him to help with so he doesn't feel left out. I have seen other Mums that haven't let their kids help or have told them off for trying to do things with their baby and it always ends bad. I have seen older children smack the baby and act up whenever they want attention from the parent or they can't be involved and then that carries on into their relationship with other children as well. They think that if they can bully a baby to get attention then they will start doing it to all children. That is the last thing I wanted to happen. I wanted Zaide to know that he was still a very important part of our family and that just because there was another baby in the family didn't mean he was going to be pushed down the ladder of importance. Sure, some days there are times when he will want things and I just can't drop what I'm doing to help him, but at the end of the day he knows that we still care about him just the same and we treat him and his sister equally.