Parent Guides

Calm, practical guides on the things parents really wonder about — put together with care by Teddy Kids.

A stylized illustration of a mother cradling her swaddled newborn twins.

Breastfeeding Twins After a C-Section

A gentle, step-by-step guide to building your milk supply with the Medela Solo pump.

A young child with a caring pediatric doctor during a friendly check-up

Allergy Testing for Children in the Netherlands

Where to go, what it costs, and when you need a referral — a practical guide for parents in the Leiden–Den Haag region.

A parent and baby at a friendly child health clinic, a nurse weighing the baby on a small scale while a growth chart hangs on the wall.

Consultatiebureau, Decoded

For internationals mystified by the letters that keep arriving — what the consultatiebureau really is, visit by visit, from birth to four.

A parent at a kitchen table with a laptop, a childcare invoice and a DigiD login screen, calmly working through a benefit application.

Kinderopvangtoeslag, Step by Step

The Dutch childcare benefit that covers up to 96% of your daycare bill — and how to claim it before the deadline slips.

A baby napping peacefully in a wooden outdoor cot in a daycare garden on a crisp winter day, warmly bundled in a sleep sack.

Dutch Daycare Culture Shock, Explained With Love

Yes, babies really do nap outside in January. Here's the logic behind every surprise.

A four-year-old with a small backpack waving goodbye at a Dutch primary school gate on their first morning.

Starting school at 4: from daycare to basisschool (or international school)

The jump that surprises almost every international family — and how much time and choice you really have.

A soft illustrated map showing a child's sleep journey from newborn to age four, with gentle hills for nap transitions and rough patches, in warm calming colours.

The Sleep Map 0–4

One calm map of how sleep really changes in the first four years — instead of ten panicked midnight searches.

A toddler at a table pushing away a plate of colourful vegetables while reaching for a piece of bread, a parent sitting calmly alongside.

Picky Eating & the Beige-Food Era

For the exhausted parent of a toddler who eats five beige things — why it happens, what backfires, and what actually helps.

A calm adult crouched down to a toddler's eye level in a supermarket aisle, staying near while the child is upset.

Tantrum Science: Their Brain Is a Construction Site

Why toddlers melt down — and how to stay the calm they can borrow.

A toddler in easy pull-down leggings sitting happily on a small potty, with a childcare worker crouched nearby offering calm encouragement.

Potty Training, Synced with Daycare

Readiness over the calendar — and the same words and routine at home and at daycare, so your child only has to learn this once.

Two exhausted, happy parents at dawn, each holding one newborn twin against their chest in a softly lit living room.

Twins: Surviving the First Three Months Outnumbered

An honest, from-our-family-to-yours guide to the newborn-twin blur — the feeding logic, the night math, and the day it starts to ease.

Two toddlers playing side by side at a low daycare table, one reaching toward the other, in a warm bilingual daycare room.

Twins at Daycare: Same Group or Separate?

An honest look at a real decision — and how we make it with you, one child at a time.

A parent packing labelled bottles of expressed breast milk and a pump into a bag beside a daycare backpack.

Pumping, Bottles & Back to Work

How to keep breastfeeding when maternity leave ends and your baby starts daycare.

A caregiver kneeling to comfort a toddler at daycare drop-off while the child holds a favourite comforter, warm morning light through the window.

The Wenperiode: Settling Into Daycare, Day by Day

A calm, honest guide to the first weeks — short goodbyes, big feelings, and what really happens after you walk out the door.

A bright daycare room mid-morning: toddlers at a low table with a caregiver, others playing on a rug near big windows.

A Real Daycare Day, Hour by Hour

You hand over your child and hear "good day!" at pickup. Here's everything that happens in between.

A toddler at daycare sitting between two caregivers, one reading a book in Dutch and one speaking another language, with speech bubbles in different scripts floating gently above.

Raising a Bilingual (or Trilingual) Child: The Myths, Busted

What the research actually says — and what twenty years of bilingual daycare has taught us.

A toddler with a runny nose wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, a parent gently holding a tissue, warm morning light.

Why Is My Child Always Sick Since Daycare Started?

The first winter feels endless. Here's why it's normal, when it eases, and how to get through it.

A calm daycare caregiver kneeling between two toddlers, comforting one while gently guiding the other, in a warm playroom.

Biting at Daycare

Both sides of the note — the parent whose child bit, and the parent whose child was bitten.

A parent on a video call at the kitchen table while their toddler builds a tall block tower beside them, coffee mugs and a colourful sticker-filled family wall calendar in warm morning light.

The Closure Survival Guide: Studiedagen, Holidays & Sick Days

The working parent's playbook for every day the daycare or school is shut — planned, unplanned, and the ones you find out about at 7am.

Several parents from different backgrounds chatting on a bench at a Dutch playground while their toddlers play together in a sandpit, bikes with child seats parked nearby, canal and brick houses behind, golden-hour light.

Building Your Village: Raising Kids Far From Family

You were never meant to do this alone — and the good news is a village can be built on purpose, one bench, one drop-off, one honest ask at a time.

A young family walking hand-in-hand along a sunny Leiden canal, a toddler safely between both parents, ducks on the water, canal houses and bikes behind them.

Living With Water: Canal & Swim Safety for Leiden Families

Leiden is built around water — and that is a gift. Here is how international families with little ones turn canals from a worry into a joy, one confident step at a time.

New parents at a friendly Dutch town-hall desk, one cradling a tiny newborn, while a smiling clerk stamps a birth certificate by tall canal-house windows.

Your Baby's First Paperwork

Birth registration and the BSN — the little number that unlocks daycare, benefits and your baby's health insurance.

A parent with a newborn in a wrap carrier working at a sunny kitchen table beside a calendar with circled weeks, while a partner pours coffee.

Dutch Parental Leave, Decoded

The four kinds of leave a working parent in the Netherlands can take around a birth — who pays, how long, and how to actually arrange it.

A dad and his toddler reading a big picture book together inside a cosy fort of cushions and blankets, warm lamplight and easy smiles.

The Dads Guide

Reading, roughhousing, drop-offs and your first solo day — a no-gatekeeping guide for dads of little kids, from mates who've done the door in the rain.

A familiar caregiver kneeling to greet a toddler at the daycare door, the child reaching up happily in soft morning light.

Fixed Faces & Your Child's Mentor

Decoding the vaste-gezichteneis and the mentor system — who holds your child, who tracks their growth, and who to call first.

A parent crouched at a daycare gate, holding a teary toddler tightly at the end of the day, bicycles and canal houses behind them in warm evening light.

Why Your Child Falls Apart at Pickup (And Why That's Actually Good News)

The great after-daycare meltdown, explained — what restraint collapse is, why it means you're the safe one, and how to make the evenings gentler.

A parent waving through a daycare window at a happily playing toddler who looks up and waves back, warm morning light, tender and hopeful.

The Guilt Guide: What Science Actually Says About Daycare and Your Bond

The guilt is real — and the research is on your side. A calm, honest look at what decades of attachment science actually found.

A row of toddlers napping peacefully on little daycare cots in a softly darkened room, a teddy bear tucked in beside each child, warm light glowing through the curtains.

Why Your Child Naps (and Eats!) Better at Daycare

The mystery every parent knows: two-hour naps and clean plates here, bedtime battles and refused broccoli at home. Here's the surprisingly boring reason why.