Being responsible for the healthy growth of an entirely dependent child is a huge task, for which very few parents feel sufficiently prepared for at the beginning. Even if helpful practical knowledge regarding health, care, and looking after infants and young children can be passed on by members of extended family, these very same natural role models may now be there. So where can you find advice and reliable information when you need it?

Thanks to medical progress, pregnancy and childbirth can be accompanied by more support today than ever before. Even beyond birth, every child has a right to regular medical check-ups (U1-U11) until their teenage years. Hardly any other phase of life has been provided as much support in the last three decades as a child’s infancy. Although so much important information and so many tips are available for this phase of life, parents can often be left standing helpless when faced with so much advice. They often just want reliable support that is tailored to their own personal situation, available for as long as they need it, and in a comfortable and safe setting.

Unlike general advice for families, counselling for questions of emotional and related physical health requires specialised knowledge, particularly when it comes to babies and young children, which should be acquired from acknowledged clinics and institutions and characterised by the recognised standards of the German-Speaking Association for Infant Mental Health (GAIMH). This specialised knowledge cannot (nor does it aim to) replace examinations and care by paediatricians. That said, there are many areas of infant development and the emotional health of babies, small children, or their parents that are very fleetingly addressed by paediatricians, if at all.

If both areas are not already found under one roof (as is now the case in many large clinics), then they should be supplemented as much as possible in the surrounding area (as has been done in Oberursel for more than two decades). We have brought together a selection of topics for you that are brought up by parents of young children year after year at the “Oberursel Parental Support Service: Advice centre for mothers and fathers with infants and young children”. Other facilities in the Frankfurt area offering specialised support for parents of infants and young children have also recently been established, and we would be happy to supply you with their contact details.