Baby Sense® - the business
I am Meg Faure and The Baby Sense Company is my baby – it has been around since September 2004, when we produced our first Taglets, Cuddlewraps and Slings. The offering now includes 5 books, many products, annual Seminars, a Smart phone App and we have distribution across three continents. Our vision is great and the journey has been exciting and this is how we got where we are:
I studied Occupational Therapy at the University of Cape Town and have worked in New York, Johannesburg and Cape Town. My interests have always been babies and their brains. I studied for 10 years to become specialized in infant work and to this day consider myself a student of babies and their brains. I have a practice in Cape Town where I treat fussy babies and those with sleep problems. (Tel: +27 861 111 4891)
In 2000, after the birth of my second baby, Alex, my husband encouraged me to write a book that would help moms and dads to read their little ones and understand the way their baby perceives the sensory world, as we know it. I asked a colleague, midwife and well-baby nurse, Ann Richardson to get involved and write Baby Sense with me. Ann had had an idea for a book for many years and eagerly became involved. Our publisher Wilsia Metz caringly nurtured our raw manuscript and produced what has become a baby care bestseller.
In 2002 the first Baby Sense Seminar was hosted nationally in South Africa and this annual premium Baby Care Event continues to be a big part of the work we do with parents each year.
In 2005, the Baby Sense® website launched – it is designed to support parents, offering useful articles and invaluable tips on parenting 'the sensory way'. In the same year, Ann wrote Toddler Sense while I had my third child and launched the Baby Sense company. The Baby Sense products company was an idea born out of a need to help parents with Baby care products that are practical and beautiful. In 2007 with the assistance of Ann, I wrote Sleep Sense and followed this book in 2010 with Feeding Sense. Feeding Sense was initiated by Kath Megaw – a dietician specialized in infant feeding. Dr Simon Strachan, paediatrician who appears at the seminars each year joined us as the medical voice on the complicated subject of feeding.
2010 was a big year for Baby Sense as we allocated distribution rights for Africa to AdvaCare and the Botha’s became involved as partners in Baby Sense and we signed the USA distribution agreement.
In 2011, The Baby Sense Secret (worldwide except South Africa) and Your Sensory Baby (South Africa) was published by Dorling Kindersley. To see Baby Sense in full colour with many new sections was very exciting. This was followed by the Baby Sense Day-by-Day Application - a handy application that takes you through your baby's first year, day by day. It offers routines, recipes, sleep and feeding tips and so much more.
Our award winning Facebook page is an active and busy place to interface with parents and is the best place to ask our authors questions.
The future holds many exciting ventures for us, including some exciting new products, new territories and new workshop ideas. Bearing in mind that a baby develops best when she is calm and rested, the objective of the company remains to provide quality calming baby care products and services for parents of babies, based on the sensory principles outlined in the Baby Sense book.
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