YOUR CHILD AND HIS FOOD

Most of the mom’s complain that their child does not eat ample amount. There is nothing to worry about it, many kids are not that readily eater when compared to others. You can say they are very fussy eater. Whatever you may keep in front of them, they eat very less. Don’t be worried as the kids of upto age of 1 relay mostly on milk and milk itself serves as a wholesome food for them.

Keep trying different nutritionally balanced food, your child might like a few of them. Even it can happen that sometimes your child might like some particular food and may not eat the same food after few days. They keep developing new taste. Even it can be that your child eats bit more when compared to other days.
When you are feeding the food the child does not like very much, you can serve it along with the food that he likes and keep feeding in between changing the taste.

Don’t be too stressed or frustrated with the small quantity your child takes at a time. Instead keep trying. No baby can become an instant eater immediately.
While starting with fruits, banana is a very good option. It is easy to chew and digest.

When you are ready to feed your baby, get his water, food and other required thing at a time so that you need not to give a break while feeding your baby.

Use of bib while feeding will be quite helpful as your child will be dropping food or taking out of his mouth every now and then. Bibs which have pockets would be quite good as most of the falling food will accumulate in the lower portion of the pocket.

YOUR BABY AND LANGUAGE

Most of the parents have a misconception that their baby is too young to understand their language or the way they speak but this is a very wrong idea.

Babies though unable to speak but are able to understand what we speak. To understand this better, you might have noticed your 4 to 5 months baby reacting to your sound, turning his head towards you when you call him or talk to him or just by gazing at you . Even you might have noticed your baby moving away his head when he does not want anything.
Singing a rhymes or lullaby also soothes the baby because he is able to hear the sound and understands.
The more time you spend with your baby, better you will be able to understand him.

HOME COOKED OR PACKED FOOD FOR YOUR BABY

Babies grow very fast and thus more care is to be given to their diet. Till the time you are breast feeding your baby or depending on formula milk, there is not much concern about extra food. But as you start with outside solid food, the immediate question arises ‘ what all to feed him’.
All most all the mom’s are in a dilemma, which one is better, home cooked food or packed food.

To this, I would say, it is best to give your baby home cooked food. The same food that you have but with little less salt, sugar, spices and oil.
Avoid giving your baby tea and coffee as they have caffeine content in them.
Introduce your baby with one food at a time and see how your baby likes it, at the same time how the baby is able to digest it.
Freshly prepared food is always good for health for all. Serving fresh fruits, juices and soups is a great idea too.

USE OF PACIFIER FOR YOUR BABY

Almost all of the parents are worried about the use of pacifier or not. The fact is that not every child needs a pacifier. Use of pacifier has both pros and cons. Once the babies are accustomed to pacifiers, they are so used to it that they are cranky without it and nothing can soothe them more than it.
The pacifier will help them to calm down and sleep well. You too will be relaxed that your child does not develop the habit of thumb sucking at the time of sleep.
But if you see the other side of it, your child will persist the habit of using the pacifier. Once habituated your child will not be able to sleep without it. Even when your baby goes off to sleep using a pacifier and as soon as the pacifier falls off, it will disturb his sleep.
More over when your baby starts crawling, the use of pacifier will be quite unhygienic.
I would suggest mom’s to keep their babies away from the habit of use of pacifier.

YOUR CHILD AND THE USE OF DIAPER

Now a days, with the birth of the child comes the shopping of diapers. It will not be wrong to say diapers have made the life of moms bit easier. Now there is no chance of getting their clothes wet and spoiled every now and then.
The biggest question that most of the mom has “which diapers is better” or “either to use disposable or washable diapers”.
Diapers comes in variety of sizes and designs. Even there is availability of ultra slim diapers with inner layer of gelling material, which will be more absorbing when compared to other normal diapers. This will help your child's body to be dry and itch free.
When we talk about  washable diapers, they are available in variety of sizes, design and material. These type of diapers are less costly. The the major problem with them is of washing and drying.
It is a general thinking that using disposable diapers might cause rashes. But in reality rashes have nothing to do with the type of diaper used. Proper care and frequent changing of the diapers can avoid any kind of rashes. Use of wipes, anti rash cream might be helpful too.
Wash and dry your baby immediately after he passes the bowl. Change the diapers in every 4-5 hours. Even then if the rashes occur, then apply petroleum jelly on clean and dry skin. Still it does not heal, consult your doctor with out any delay.

BOTTLE FEEDING YOUR BABY

When you feel breast feeding is not enough for your baby, start on with bottle feeding. Few important tips to be kept in mind while bottle feeding are:

• Cow’s milk is not idle for babies below 1 year. Use of formula milk is the best.
• Remember to check the expiratory date on the formula milk container at the time of purchase, store or use.
• Always sterilize the bottle, bottle nipples, cover and the utensils to be used.
• Prepare the milk when you need to feed.
• Do not warm the prepared milk in the electric bottle warmer.
• Do not store the left over bottle milk after feeding.

These few precaution will surely keep your baby away from bacteria and infection.

Recognize The Interests Of Your Child

Observing your child, enjoying different activities and learning new skills will surely bring pride on your face. Learning new things will even fill your child's life with excitement and pleasure. Let your child indulge in different activity of his interest which will help him in development of new skills.

Play various indoor and outdoor games with your child. This will not only make him physically and mentally fit but will help you to know your child’s interest in sports. Your proper guidance and support will help him to join his school team and later might play and get recognition nationally and inter-nationally.

Start swimming lessons for your child. Swimming will not only be fun and enjoyment but child will learn safety lesson too.

If your child is interested in music or dance, you can start them with the lesson like of classical singing, piano, classical or western dance or jazz, salsa. This will surely help you child to know himself more and better.

Give a chance to your child for coloring and drawing. If he has a real interest in it, you can help him learn painting or sketching.

Show interest in your child’s interest, that will motivate him to learn new skills. Slowly with the years, your child will explore and learn many different skills and develop different talents too.
But do remember that in the act of making your child talented, you don’t over pressure or over burden your child. Don’t push or stress your child with many classes and activities. Your child should love and enjoy the activities he performs. It the child who needs to be content and happy performing different and new activities.

The Role Of Parents In Their Child’s Education

It can never be denied that parents play the most important role in helping their child to learn. It will not even be wrong to say that the parents are the first teacher for their child.
Teachers need a proper training to fulfill their role successfully, but the parents need no formal training to bring up their child. For parents its easy to teach their young children through day-to-day interaction. Either we talk, play or tell stories, each activity helps the child to learn something new.
How better the parents teach their child, still a day will come when they require to send their child to a preschool. In a preschool your child will learn new knowledge as well as competence. This will be a stage when your child will be more strong both physically and mentally, as well as he will get a chance to explore the world more.
At this new stage, your child will acquire more information and skills at school which will surely be a step to his success.

INTRODUCING YOUR BABY WITH SOLID FOOD

Most of the Mom’s are worried when taking a decision about their child. When your child shows eagerness to eat, most of the mom thinks is this the correct time to introduce my child with these food.

Most of the mom starts feeding their child with outside food from the age of 5 to 6 months. This is the correct time to add some outside food along with breast feeding and formula milk. The best option of food to start with, is cerelac. Cerelac is a form of instant cereals. It is highly nutritious and easily-digested instant cereals. It is available in market in different flavors and with different components, like rice and honey, rice and wheat, rice and Dal, wheat and milk and so on. They can even be prepared at home.

Introduction of new food to your child might be tough. Some children from the very beginning likes food of different taste, for them introduction of new food will be quite easy. Some kids are bit fussy about eating, they might not like the new taste in the beginning. But don’t loose hope, keep trying and your child will be used to new taste in a few days.

When ever you plan to introduce a new food, keep in mind that your child is healthy and not sick at that time or it might a longer time for him to adapt the new taste. Another important point to keep in mind is that introduce a single food at a time. Observe that your child is not allergic to it and is able to digest it.

Once your child is used to of this food, you can introduce him with mashed, blended fruits and vegetables. Start them with smaller proportion and increase as they start liking them. This would give them to adjust and get used to different taste as well as get enough nutrition to their growing body.

Newborn and your food

Women has the greatest boon when compared to men. They get a chance to give birth which men can not. But giving birth is not an easy work. A women needs to face plenty of changes in her body as soon as she is pregnant. Pregnancy is full of physical and emotional changes. Changes in hormones results in their mood swings too. Despite of these having a baby is still a joyous moments. You can say seeing your baby you forget all your pains.

But giving birth to your baby is not an end. Your real work starts from here. Taking care of your baby will be your 24/7 job. You can not take an off from this either your are tired or sick. Now onwards, you need to schedule all your work according to your baby, even your sleeping.

While you are breast feeding you baby you need to eat accordingly. Breast feeding means you need more energy, so you can not plan for a diet or a slimming program. The food that you eat goes to your baby in form of milk, even goes its flavor. If you consume to much of tea or coffee, the caffeine from it will be transferred to your baby and create problem in his sleep. So try avoiding too many cups of it. Avoiding use of alcohol would be better too. It can reduce your milk production.

There would be requirement of more nutritious food. Including vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, squash, and beans. Fruits such as apples, berries, plums, oranges, peaches, and melons. Whole grains such as whole-wheat bread, rye bread, and brown rice would give you enough energy.

Intake of calcium while breast feeding in quite necessary. Include banana, nuts, milk and yogurt in your diet.

EAT HEALTHY AND MAKE YOUR BABY HEALTHY

Feeding your newborn baby

Feeding your baby is the biggest concern of all the mothers. For the infants below 6 months breast feeding is the best option. Breast milk is over 90% water. When breast feeding your child there is no need for giving extra water.

Breastfeeding your newborn has many advantages. Perhaps most important, breast milk is the perfect food for a human baby's digestive system. It contains the vitamins and minerals that a newborn requires, and all of its components — lactose, protein (whey and casein), and fat — are easily digested by a new born's immature system. Breast milk contains antibodies that help protect infants from a wide variety of infectious diseases, including diarrhea. Breastfeeding may also decrease the chances that the child will become overweight or obese.

For the working mother, breast feeding seems to be impossible. They can use breast pump to collect breast milk to be given in a bottle so their babies still get benefit of breast milk. The other option available to them is feeding with formula milk. While using formula milk, it needs to be kept in mind that once prepared, it should be used within an hour and after that do not use them. Prepared formula milk can be stored in refrigerator for about 24 hours and used after normal heating but not in microwave.