How to Prepare Siblings for a New Baby

Preparing siblings for a new baby can help them adjust to the change and feel included in the family. If you already have kiddos at home, then you have extra work to do. You need to plan for who can watch + care for other sibling while you’re at the hospital as well as in the early days to give them attention and engagement. From toddlers all the way through much older siblings, use these books, movies and suggestions to get them ready.

Prenatal Involvement and Development

·        Baby Egg Countdown Calendar (Actual Fetal Size)

·        What’s Inside Your Tummy, Mommy? by Abby Cocovini

·        When You Were Inside Mommy by Joanna Cole (hospital birth)

·        Tell Me My Story, Mama by Deb Lund

·        Before You Were Born by Jennifer Davis

·        Mother Layer Puzzle 

·        Baby on the Way by Martha and William Sears

·        Hello Baby by Lizzy Rockwell

·        Being Born by Sheila Kitzinger

Getting Ready to be a big sibling (what life will be like once baby arrives): ages 2 - 4

·        Mama, Talk About Our New Baby by Toni Olson

·        Hello in There!: A Big Sister’s Book of Waiting by Jo Witek

·        We Have a Baby by Cathryn Falwell

·        On Mother’s Lap by Ann Herbert Scott

·        Mama’s Milk/Mama Me Alimenta by Michael Elsohn Ross

·        I’m a Big Brother by Joanna Cole

·        I’m a Big Sister by Joanna Cole

·        My New Baby by Rachel Fuller

·        My New Baby by Annie Kubler

·        One Special Day by Lola M. Schaefer

·        One Busy Day by Lola M. Schaefer

·        What Baby Needs by William Sears

·        I Am a Big Brother by Caroline Jayne Church

·        I Am a Big Sister by Caroline Jayne Church

·        Baby Born by Chih-Wei Chang

·        Best-Ever Big Sister by Karen Katz

·        Benny and Beautiful Baby Delilah

·        The Big Sibling Book: Baby’s First Year According to ME by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Movie:

·        Daniel Tiger’s The Baby Is Here and all the episodes surrounding the pregnancy, birth, and new baby are just great. Highly recommend!

School Agers:

·        Lola Reads to Leo, by Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw

·        Waiting for Baby, by Rachel Fuller

·        The New Baby at Your House, by Joanna Cole, illustrated by Margaret Miller

·        The New Small Person, by Lauren Child

·        My Brother Charlie, by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete, illustrated by Shane W. Evans

·        What Brothers Do Best, by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger

·        I’m a Big Sister, by Joanna Cole, illustrated by Rosalinda Kightley

·        Olivia: A Guide to Being a Big Sister, by Natalie Shaw, illustrated by Patrick Spaziante

·        Once Upon a Baby Brother, by Sarah Sullivan, illustrated by Tricia Tusa

School Agers and much older siblings:

·        Give them special jobs.

·        Ask his/her advice.

·        Watch the baby together.

·        Read stories about his new role.

·        Let him tell the story.

·        Acknowledge his feelings.

·        Spend a little time alone with them.

·        Let them help with laundry – load the washing machine or fold the new siblings laundry