Grow baby grow - Tips from Boot Camp For New Dads

Acknowledging that baby needs more than Mozart during his/her development, Dad’s Adventure, a sponsor of Boot Camp For New Dads, has recently released their latest book. “Hit The Ground Crawling” with helpful tips geared toward giving baby the best start in life by helping them to “grow”.

Forget the flash cards, videos and other commercial products being foisted upon you. In “Hit The Ground Crawling”, new dads are given a crash course in “How to Help Your Baby Grow” by explaining what makes for a stimulating environment.

· Warm and caring. Babies who are cared for, held, soothed and smiled at feel more secure. This equates to a baby who learns to calm his/herself and grows into a school age child who performs better and makes friends easily.

· Secret language. Your baby continually learns to communicate through his/her body movements, voice and expressions in response to yours. Communicate with your baby often and he/she will learn to interact with others and seek to fulfill his/her needs with confidence.

· Vocalize. Your voice sooths and delights baby and after a while, baby will begin to pick up upon inflections and gestures. Talk, sing and read to your baby often.

· Play is powerful. Having fun is the best brain developer of all. Early on, play will consist of him/her grasping your finger and you showing baby his/her reflection in a mirror. Play improves muscle development and control as well as his/her senses.

· Know when to “amp down”. Babies’ minds are furiously active when they are awake and they will need downtime to recharge. If baby is not responding to you when you try to play, he/she may simply be too tired.

· Mozart “madness”. In the late 1990’s, there was a frenzy about the importance of stimulating a baby’s brain. So much so, that parents began playing music into the womb during pregnancy, teaching their baby sign language and other silly things. Nowadays, we’ve learned there is no scientific research on the effect that listening to music has on a baby’s intelligence. Needless to say, all that Mozart isn’t necessary. Feel free to break out the Rock and Roll.

· TV time out. Television is very alluring and to some parents, acts as a handy babysitter. But, your baby is exposed to an intense stream of audio/vision stimulation. New research (and common sense) indicates that a significant amount of TV is bad for your baby. The rapid movements and pacing have been shown to have negative effects on babies’ brain development.

Need to know more? Hit The Ground Crawling offers expectant and new dads much needed sage advice as well as the personal stories of many Boot Camp For New Dads rookies and veterans across America.

“Hit The Ground Crawling” is published by Dads Adventure, a sponsor of Boot Camp For New Dads that donates royalties from book sales to support Boot Camp For New Dads programming. Providing practical, hands on tips, “Hit The Ground Crawling” is based on over 15 years of working with over 100,000 fathers. The 300 page book offers the wisdom of author Greg Bishop, the founder of Boot Camp For New Dads, an MBA from Stanford University, brother of 12 and father of four, along with the collective wisdom and real life advice of thousands of men who participated in Boot Camp For New Dads.

“Hit The Ground Crawling” ($17.95) is available online at www.newdads.com. The ISBN # for the book is 0-9727829-0-7.

Boot Camp For New Dads is a non-profit program offered at more than 250 community hospitals, clinics, schools and churches across the U.S. There are also Boot Camp For New Dads workshops in the military including the Navy, Army and Air Force. The program is in the process of expanding internationally.

Boot Camp For New Dads’ program is available to all dads-to-be regardless of cultural, economic or age level. Expectant fathers attend Boot Camp’s three-hour workshop in which a facilitator, along with veteran dads and their infants orient and teach parenting skills to rookie dads. Veteran dads are men who have graduated from the Boot Camp workshop with infants age two to four months and who return as volunteers with their new babies in tow so new dads may interact with them.

Badge of Honor

For more information about Boot Camp programs or to order a copy of Boot Camp For New Dads’ book, Hit the Ground Crawling: The Essential Guide For New Fathers, contact (800) 318-3803 or visit http://www.newdads.com.

Boot Camp Beginnings

Greg Bishop, founder of Boot Camp For New Dads, has had lots of hands-on experience caring for babies, with 12 siblings, 4 children of his own and numerous nieces and nephews. Bishop noticed that many men didn't seem to enjoy caring for their babies. He founded Boot Camp For New Dads at Irvine Medical Center (CA) in 1990 and has volunteered as Head Coach ever since.

National media, including news segments on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN as well as articles in Life, CHILD, Ladies Home Journal magazines, Reader’s Digest and others, have helped fuel the expansion of Boot Camp For New Dads, reaching thousands of new dads nationwide. The program is designed to bring a dad's perspective to the 1.5 million men who become fathers each year across America.

Spanish and English

Determined to reach fathers everywhere, Boot Camp For New Dads has 12 Spanish language sites throughout the United States. The organization has created the only curriculum in Spanish for new fathers. Boot Camp For New Dads believes the key to improving the quality of life for many young children lies in helping fathers be capable and caring.

The Spanish version of the Boot Camp video helps support the facilitator and the “veterano” father in teaching the new dads to take care of the newborn baby and mother.

Where to attend a Boot Camp workshop:

Boot Camp For New Dads locations include ALASKA (Anchorage); ARIZONA (Chandler, Flagstaff, Kingman, Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sun City); ARKANSAS (Springdale); CALIFORNIA (Apple Valley, Bakersfield, Corona, Fresno, Garden Grove, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Madera, Merced, Northridge, Oakland, Orange, Pomona, Port Hueneme, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, S. Lake Tahoe, Travis, Valley Springs); COLORADO (Aurora, Boulder, Denver, Durango, Fort Collins, Fort Carson, Greeley, Longmont, Thornton, Wheat Ridge); CONNECTICUT (Bristol, Brookfield, Danbury, New London, Norwalk); FLORIDA (Brandon, Clearwater, Hollywood, North Palm Beach, Orlando, St. Petersburg, West Palm Beach, Sarasota, Tampa); GEORGIA (Atlanta, Elberton, Gainesville, Marietta, Savannah); HAWAII (Pearl Harbor, Tripler); ILLINOIS (Alton, Aurora, Carbondale, Champaign, Chicago, Chicago Heights, Decatur, East St. Louis, Evanston, Freeport, Geneva, Great Lakes, Highland Park, Libertyville, Moline, Oak Park, Rockford, Springfield, Urbana); INDIANA (Anderson, Bluffton, Crawfordsville, Hammond, Indianapolis, Jeffersonville, Kokomo, Michigan City, South Bend); IOWA (Des Moines, Jefferson, Sioux City, Storm Lake); KANSAS (Junction City, Topeka); KENTUCKY (Paducah); LOUISIANA (Covington); MAINE (Auburn, Augusta, Bangor, Brunswick, Ellsworth, South Paris, Waterville); MASSACHUSETTS (Beverly, Boston, Ipswich, Nantucket, Plymouth, Weymouth, Springfield); MICHIGAN (Alma, Ann Arbor, Bay City, Centreville, Detroit, Iron Mountain, Ithaca, Kalamazoo, Niles, St Joseph, Ypsilanti); MINNESOTA (Duluth, Robbinsdale); MISSISSIPPI (Laurel, Tupelo, Jefferson City, Columbia); MONTANA (Billings, Helena); NEBRASKA (Hastings, Kearney, Lincoln, Omaha); NEW HAMPSHIRE (Manchester, Portsmouth); NEW YORK (Glens Falls, Little Falls, Mineola, Rome, Utica); NORTH CAROLINA (Charlotte, Concord, Ft. Bragg, Monroe, Morehead City, Raleigh, Shelby); NORTH DAKOTA (Grand Forks); OHIO (Akron, Cleveland, East Cleveland, East Liverpool, Garfield Heights, Lima, Lorain, Mayfield Heights, Massillon, Middleburg Heights, Orange Village, Portsmouth, Toledo, Warren, Westlake, Youngstown); OKLAHOMA (Claremore, Tulsa); OREGON (Hillsboro, McMinnville, Salem, Silverton); PENNSYLVANIA (Chambersburg, DuBois, Pottsville); SOUTH CAROLINA (Columbia, Greenwood, Pickens, Walhalla); TENNESSEE (Chattanooga, Greeneville, Knoxville, Memphis); TEXAS (Amarillo, Dallas, Fairfield, Longview, Lubbock, New Braunfels, San Antonio, Waco, Webster); VERMONT (Barre, Brattleboro, Burlington, Derby, Middlebury, Morristown, Rutland, St. Albans); VIRGINIA (Charlottesville, Chesapeake, Hampton) WASHINGTON (Everett, Fairchild AFB, Longview, Puyallup, Seattle, Yakima); WEST VIRGINIA (Wheeling); WISCONSIN (Florence, Green Bay, Madison, Watertown); JAPAN (Atsugi, Yokosuka)

Roll Call
Reserve your copy of “Hit The Ground Crawling” today by calling (800) 318-3803, email to Alison@newdads.com, or visit www.newdads.com. To learn more about Boot Camp For New Dads call (714) 838-9392 ext. 108 or email ALison@newdads.com.