Parenting education and support

Its exciting to watch your pēpi grow and develop new skills. You might be wondering when to expect these skills and how you can support them.

Let’s explore some key milestones of your growing pēpi:

• Newborn to three months
• Four to six months
• Six to 12 months
• 12 to 15 months
• 15 to 18 months
• 18 to 24 months
• Three to five years

You can also find more information on child development:

• Sleep
• Feeding
• Crying
• Teeth
• Safety
• Toilet Learning

PlunketLine is a free parent helpline and advice service available to all families, whānau and caregivers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call 0800 933 922 for parenting help and advice. 

Whānau Āwhina Plunket offers a range of support services to help you connect with other whānau in your community and empower you in your role as a parent or caregiver. You can use the Plunket Near Me search to see what services are available in your local community.

You can also get in touch at plunket@plunket.org.nz for help finding services in your area.

As well as in-person support through your Plunket nurse and our community groups, we also offer a range of virtual support that you can access in the way that best suits you.

These include:

• Virtual appointments with a nurse or healthcare worker
• Private, face-to-face online support with breastfeeding or sleep
• Our monthly 'virtual bites' sessions, which are webinars run by our Community Karitāne and community services coordinators about popular parenting topics like starting solids, sleep and settling, toilet learning and child development
• Live chats on our social media channels.

Whānau Āwhina Plunket provides early childhood education classes in schools and in the community, covering everything from babysitting skills, through to NCEA Level 3 unit standards.

We also offer a popular babysitting course that can be taught in schools or online.

Find out more about Education in Schools