Helping Siblings Adjust to Baby



With the excitement of a new baby, older siblings sometimes feel left out.  It's a good idea to include them where you can, even before baby comes.  My stepdaughter reverted back to baby behavior after the birth of her brother at mom's house - wanting to be held like a baby, wanting a bottle, even though she was beyond the age for either.  So when I became pregnant with my first child, I wanted to make sure she didn't feel left out in any way.  We made her a part of decorating the nursery as well as a part of my baby shower (she even received her own present of her own baby doll with car seat at the shower and helped me open presents).  We took lots of pictures and gave her a photo album.  She didn't display any baby-like or attention-getting behavior after the birth of her younger sibling.

With the birth of each of my children, we made sure the older siblings all had "big brother" or "big sister" shirts.  You can even get personalized baby stuff and put their name on that "big brother" shirt!

Keeping the older siblings a part of it all seemed to really help the kids adjust well to a new sibling in the house.  We definitely saw the difference with my stepdaughter when my husband and I had our first child together so we made sure to do that with each subsequent child too.