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Did You Know: 

Growth spurts can start as early as 10 days after your baby’s birth.  Growth spurts usually are preceded by a sleepy, lethargic day and a big jump in appetite.  Growth spurts may happen again at 3, 6, and 12 weeks and again at 4 and 6 months.  If you begin to notice that your child is not as satisfied with the amount that you have been feeding her previously, then she may be beginning a growth spurt period.  If you are breastfeeding, you may want to add a feeding or two to satiate your baby’s appetite and to help increase milk production.

Power Tools : Nontraditional Families

Foster Parenting Power Tool: Encouragement
by Ron Huxley, LMFT

Encouragement reward a child's little efforts rather than their end results. Sometimes, children may misbehave because they are discouraged about their place in the family and their value to their parents. When children question this fundamental source of identity, they act in ways that quickly reestablish their feeling of belonging, even if it means belonging as the family troublemaker. Encouragement provides discouraged children with the steps necessary to lift themselves out of their feelings of hopelessness and despair.

Most parents confuse encouragement with praise, but encouragement is different. Praise tells children how "good" they are for their accomplishments rather than their efforts. Parents often tell their children how "big" they are getting or how "smart" they are when they perform a task well. While this type of praise appears beneficial, it can be harmful. Young children have an immature view of the world. They do not completely understand how the world operates. They confuse fantasy with reality and may take what parents say literally. When parents tell their children how "big" they are getting, children misconstrue this to mean that literal size, not how independent or self-sufficient they are becoming. Consequently, children compare themselves to other children to determine who is the biggest, smartest, fastest, or funniest. In life there will always be someone bigger, smarter, faster, and funnier that they are. This is why the innocent statement of being "big" can be so discouraging. In contrast, encouragement lets children know how much parents appreciate their cooperation, how excited parents feel about their teamwork, or how pleasantly surprised they were at the children's volunteering to help when they weren't even asked. Most importantly, encouragement communicates how pleased the parent is that their child tried regardless of how well they have done.

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