Toddler & Preschool

The child who needs water, a wee, one more story and a different blanket is not being difficult on purpose. They are stalling, and stalling responds to structure rather than to argument.

Hitting and biting are normal in the second and third year, alarming to watch, and entirely fixable — but not by hitting back. Here is what works.

Friendship at three does not look like friendship at eight. Knowing what it should look like stops parents solving problems that do not exist.

The move is usually made too early, and almost always for the parents' reasons rather than the child's. Waiting costs nothing.

The phone is the most effective babysitter ever invented, and the under-fives are exactly the age it costs the most. Here is the honest picture and a workable plan.

Crying at the gate is normal and it is also miserable. Here is a plan for the first four weeks, and the point at which it stops being ordinary settling.

The crying at the door is a sign of a healthy attachment, not a spoilt child. Here is what is happening, and how to make leaving easier for everyone.

'He'll talk when he's ready' is right most of the time and expensive when it is wrong. Here are the milestones, the genuine red flags, and the home strategies that work while you wait.

Playschool is often the family's first separation, and everyone cries — sometimes including the parent. Here is how to choose well, prepare properly, and get through the settling weeks.

A tantrum is not bad behaviour — it is a small brain overwhelmed by a big feeling with no words attached. Here is what to do in the moment, and how to have fewer of them.

Milestones are a range, not a deadline — but they are also the early-warning system that catches problems while they are most treatable. Here is the map for one to three.

Toddler sleep problems are usually schedule problems wearing a costume. Here is the honest picture of how much sleep is needed, what breaks it, and how Indian households can fix it.

Indian families often start toilet training at one year and finish at three. Starting when the child is ready takes weeks instead of years — here is how to tell, and what to do.

Soothers help in the first year and start costing something in the third. The stopping is easier than every parent expects and worse than they fear for about three nights.

Two separate questions get muddled here: when a child can wash themselves properly, and when they can be left alone with water. The answers are years apart.

Eight colds a year in a small child is normal, not a diagnosis. Here is what is actually happening, what genuinely helps, and the short list of signs that mean something else is going on.

Between one and two a baby becomes a person with opinions: walking, talking, refusing food, and testing every rule in the house.

Two to three is the loudest year and the most transformative: a child who speaks in phrases at the start is holding conversations by the end.

Three is the year of 'why'. It is also the year most Indian children start school, make a first real friend, and become genuinely good company.

Four-year-olds are talkative, confident, funny and exhausting — and the year is mostly about preparing for the school that follows it.

The first month past the birthday is when the eating changes and nobody warns you. A toddler eats less than a baby did, and that is biology rather than fussiness.

Fourteen months is where the personality arrives properly — preferences, refusals, and a small person who has discovered that they are separate from you.

Fifteen months brings the booster visit and a vocabulary that is about to take off — usually a few weeks after you have started worrying about it.

Sixteen months is when a toddler discovers that they can refuse — and refuses everything for a while, mostly to see what happens.

Seventeen months brings the beginning of imagination — feeding a doll, driving a block along the floor — which is a bigger developmental step than it looks.

Eighteen months is a genuine checkpoint. It is the age at which several developmental questions stop being wait-and-see and become worth assessing.

Nineteen months is the age of imitation. Whatever the adults in the house do, the toddler is now doing — which is useful and occasionally embarrassing.

At twenty months a toddler can tell you what they want in two words and still cannot manage what they feel about it. Both facts define the month.

Everything is 'mine' at twenty-one months, and that is not selfishness — it is a child working out where they end and the world begins.

At twenty-two months a toddler knows the rules well enough to test them deliberately — and watches your face while doing it.

The month before two usually brings a jump in words — and the beginning of the question of whether toilet training is due.

Two years old: about half of adult height is reached, tantrums are at their loudest, and a child who could barely speak a year ago is now negotiating.