Chorleywood & Loudwater Children's Centre

Parent/Carer Support

As a family you may need to know about antenatal and post natal care, breastfeeding support, parent and toddler groups, childminders, pre-schools and other early year’s settings. You may have worries about your child’s sleeping patterns, feeding and behaviour problems.

The Chorleywood & Loudwater Children's Centre can support you in the everyday challenges that parents face in bringing up young children. The Children’s Centre is a one-stop shop for information and support, providing universal parenting support through groups, activities and events.

The Children's Centre can also offer individual parenting support to meet the needs of families. For further information there is a PDF booklet available here, or to discuss your needs please get in touch.

Parenting Courses

In the Children's Centre we also have copies of the 'I,2,3 Magic' parenting course on DVD for you to borrow free of charge to watch at your convenience.

We also run the 8-week course, "Parenting Puzzle - Getting The Best Out of Family Life". This course is free of charge. Call for more information.

Breastfeeding Support

We all know of the wide ranging advantages of breastfeeding your baby, but it can be difficult to get started. We have copies of the 'Bump to Breastfeeding' DVD which provides lots of hints and tips about how to breastfeed sucessfully available to borrow free of charge. Clips from this DVD are available online here.

There is also a really useful NHS website offering a wealth of advice about Brestfeeding that can be accessed here.

Birth to Five

A wealth of information on health and development, including a Child Development Timeline and an Interactive Parenting Tool is available on the NHS Birth to Five website. If you sign up for their newsletter you will recieve a monthly update about your baby's health and development.

Local Health Services

A printable index of local health services is available here.

Speech and Language Therapy Drop In Clinics

There are no appointments required for these drop in sessions, nor is there any need for a professional referral.  They are open sessions aimed at parents/carers who have concerns regarding their child’s speech and language skills.  At the Drop-In, a Speech and Language Therapist and Speech and Language Therapy Assistant will discuss any concerns about the child’s speech and/or language development, briefly assess the child and offer advice.  It is a ‘first come…first served’ system, and if the appointments are filled quickly families may need to come back to the next Drop-In Clinic.

Drop-in flyer for Watford, Jan to April 2012

Detailed Flyer for Parents in Watford

Drop-in flyer for Dacorum, Jan to April 2012

Detailed flyer for parents in Dacorum

Healthy Start Vitamins

Free vitamins are available from the Children's Centre under the NHS Healthy Start Scheme. Full details of the scheme and eligability are available on the

Healthy Start website.