Six months ago Nicky Rooksby was a concerned mum as she watched her 18-month-old daughter throwing repeated tantrums.
Rooksby had no family to turn to; her parents live in Britain. Her partner was working full time and his mother had passed away some years before.
"I was at a loss looking for ideas and parenting techniques that would help in getting through this challenge," she says, "and then I remembered courses I had done at Plunket."
When she was raising her first child, a son who is now aged four, Rooksby attended parenting courses run by Plunket where she received not only reassurance and guidance, but introductions to other mothers going through similar things.
"Plunket provided support and a place to meet and talk with others," she says.
When her daughter came along, Rooksby was presented with different circumstances. At that stage she'd not been to Plunket for two years and realised a lot of what she had learned would not necessarily be effective in her daughter's situation.
"So I re-did some of the courses because my daughter's behaviour was very different from what I had experienced with my son. I knew my daughter needed different things."
Rooksby says the support and advice she received gave her the tools to handle the situation more effectively and now she says her confidence in managing her daughter's behaviour has improved considerably.
Rochelle Cave, Plunket's parenting programme manager, northern region, says it is crucial a healthy connection and relationship between a child and its parent and/or key caregivers is established in the first three years of life.
"Parenting is about growing our future. How we parent shapes our future society and determines how our children will care for each other and cope with life's challenges as adults," she says. "Many parents do very well and just need a little support as in the case of Nicky, but some parents need more support."
"There are times when families are under stress as they struggle to bring up children and put food on the table."
Her comments come at a time when the raising of the young in New Zealand has come sharply into focus. News reports have highlighted growing rates of obesity occurring in children (11 per cent aged 2 - 14 are considered obese), some children are starting school unable to speak in sentences (the Government is launching an investigation into this), while child "poverty" is a growing issue.
Plunket offers a number of services to help families in need including free Well Child assessments, parenting education, postnatal support, injury prevention, toy libraries, playgroups and early childhood services.
To help in the running of many of these services Plunket is launching a major fund-raising campaign - 'A 1000 Day to Raise a Bundle'.
Plunket chief executive Amanda Malu says that while it receives some funding from the Government and other organisations, it needs to fundraise to provide additional services when and where they are needed.
"The money raised means we'll be able to provide additional community services to children, their families and whanau across the country," she says. "It also supports our vision that in the first 1000 days (of a child's life) we make the difference of a lifetime."
Professor Richie Poulton, director of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development study, says Plunket's work is essential as "the best scientific research shows that the greatest social good will be achieved by investing in a child's earliest years."
He says the organisation is perfectly placed to help because it has a rich history of proven connections within communities in New Zealand.
International experts also point to these vital first years.
Nobel laureate, Professor James Heckman, director for the Centre for the Economics of Human Development at the University of Chicago, says investments in early childhood yield significant long term benefits that narrow the gap between high and low income families.