Any parent with a picky eater knows that it can be difficult to get their child to eat new foods. Many children don’t want to eat vegetables and other nutritious foods because they would rather have something sweet and better tasting. Don’t battle with your kids every meal when they won’t eat certain foods. Instead, work on creating a healthy relationship between your kids and food. Here are some tips for getting your picky eater to try new foods:
Tip #1 – Reinvent Old Favorites
Turn your kid’s favorite foods into something more by introducing new foods in them. Throw some carrots or butternut squash into their mac ‘n cheese to let them try something different while still cooking something they love.
Tip #2 – Let Them Pick the Food
If your child is a picky eater, let them decide what to eat for dinner from a bunch of ingredients you chose. They will like having the power to pick what they are going to eat and you’ll like that they picked a few healthy items. Children are more likely to eat something if they are the ones who picked it.
Tip #3 – Eat as a Family More
When members of the family eat in different areas during meal time, your children do not get to experience the family meal concept. By eating together as a family your picky eater will understand how the food they ate was prepared and that trying new things are for parents and kids.
Tip #4 – Let them Sample
You should let your young picky eater sample new foods rather than force them to eat a whole serving. This way they won’t relate trying new foods with a bad experience. Let them try a taste of a new food and if they don’t like it, don’t make them eat anymore. You can always re-introduce the food again in the future.
The warm weather means outdoor BBQs, camping, and ticks. Once the temperature starts to reach over 70 degrees, ticks will start to hatch from their eggs. Ticks are second only to mosquitos as prime carriers of human diseases in the world, and are number one in North America. It is important to protect your children from being harmed by these blood sucking parasites.
Follow these tips to help keep your children safe from ticks this spring and summer:
Tip #1 – Prevention starts at home
Keep the property around your home tick-free by regularly removing leaf litter, clearing tall grass and brush, and placing wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas. For your kids’ safety, keep play areas and playground equipment away from vegetation.
There is a chemical control agent called acaricide that that can reduce the amount of ticks on your property up to 100 percent with just one application.
Tip #2 – Examine your pets
Check your pets often for ticks. Consult your veterinarian for ways to protect your pets from getting ticks. Be careful when using pesticide products to eliminate ticks, make sure they have animal-specified labels.
Tip #3 – Monitor your surroundings
The Department of Public Health advises hikers to stay in the middle of trails because areas with untidy grass and brush are hosting sites for ticks. Grassy or wooded areas are popular among ticks and they can easy stick onto your skin or clothing. For a tick to infect a person, they need to be attached to you for several hours to several days. It is imperative that you check yourself for ticks whenever you return from outside. The key places to check are hair, body folds, ears, underarms, and your back.
Tip #4 – Safely repel ticks
Repellents that contain DEET are helpful to keep ticks away. It is important that you only apply to clothing, socks, shoes, and backpacks. DEET is a pesticide that has toxic chemical and it can have detrimental effects on the human nervous system. If you do use it on your skin, it is advised that you wash it off as soon as you return indoors. Never breathe in the spray or apply it directly to your face.
Tip #5 – Wear light-colored clothing
By wearing light-colored clothes you will be able to more easily spot a tick before it reaches your skin. If you want to increase protection you can wear long sleeved shirts tucked into the waistband of your pants and tuck your pants into your socks when going into an area that could possibly have ticks. There are even some clothes that have built-in tick protection. They contain permethrin, a synthetic chemical used in insect repellant that will last for approximately 70 washes.
Elimination communication, which is just a fancy word for diaper-free potty training, has become a popular topic recently. After a New York Times article last month was published about the subject, parents want to know more about elimination communication.
So how does it work? Well, the elimination communication technique works by watching and listening to your baby’s cues that will alert you that they have to use the bathroom. When you see or hear the cues, you take your baby and put them over the potty, teaching them that this is the place you go to the bathroom, not your diaper. This strategy, when successful, can help teach a child how to use the bathroom at a very early age.
So how does this differ from regular potty training? The biggest difference between elimination communication and potty training is the age of the baby. Many children wear diapers for three years before they start to potty train. With elimination communication, babies as young as six months can start learning that they should use the toilet to go to the bathroom and not their diaper.
Any tips for parents who want to try elimination communication? Many parents work and are unable to practice elimination communication full time. However, parents can still have diaper-free time during the evening and on the weekends. You can get your baby in the routine of sitting on the potty after their nightly bath and let them be diaper-free until bed time. Don’t forget that practicing elimination communication does not mean you have to ditch diapers completely.
This new product from Huggies attaches to your baby’s underpants and sends Twitter-like alerts to your smartphone when it is time to change their diaper.
In combination with a smartphone app, a small bird-shaped clip attaches to the front of your baby’s diaper. When it senses a change in moisture, it sends tweet-style alerts to your smartphone so you know it is time to change their diaper. The alerts can also be sent via text messages or through social networks.
The app also keeps track of each diaper change. There is a video ad for the app, but it is in Portuguese. In the video, it shows the TweetPee sensor in action. Some of the alerts that get sent to the parent’s smartphone say, “Time to change!!!”, “Oops, did a few drops” , and “All OK here.”
Huggies claims that the device is both comfortable and safe for the baby. They say the device is easy to shift from diaper to diaper and it can send alerts to anyone with permission to receive them. The app will also let you know when it is time to purchase more diapers by notifying you that your supply is low. For now, TweetPee is not available in the U.S., only in Brazil. However, with Americans’ love for technology based products, it probably won’t be long before U.S. babies are tweeting that their diapers are wet.
The lives of Americans are busier than ever, giving us little time to eat. Fast food chains have given us the ability to get food quickly and on the go. However, fast food has also created an epidemic of non-healthy eaters who rely on cheap, quick food. So should we be feeding our children fast food?
While fast food isn’t the sole cause of the increase in obesity, type-2 diabetes, and high blood pressure, it is definitely a contributor. Children are most affected by the unfortunate increase in unhealthy habits and the kids aren’t the ones to blame. Studies suggest that children who eat more fast food tend to take in more calories and fewer nutrients than those who consume less or no fast food. By including more fast food in a child’s diet, you could be contributing to less healthy habits overall.
The large portions offered at fast food chains make it difficult to eat healthy. Even places like Subway that preach healthy eating are guilty of high-calorie menu items. One study showed that teens ordered meals with just as many calories at Subway (though they had more vegetables) as the ones they ordered at McDonald’s.
In a world where fast food is common, we have to work harder to keep our children healthy. It is not a bad thing to treat your kids to a hamburger and fries once in a while, but don’t over-do it. Fast food should be a treat, not an integral part of your children’s diet. You need to expose your children to a variety of nutritious foods that are minimally processed and served in appropriate portions.
Fast food restaurants aren’t the only culprits in overfeeding and under nourishing its customers. New studies suggest that we may actually consume more calories when dining at sit-down restaurants than when grabbing something off the dollar menu. It is important to instill healthy eating habits in your children at a young age. Once they are old enough to go eat on their own, you want them to be able to make healthy choices for themselves.
Every mother-to-be wants their child to live a healthy life. What you eat just before and during pregnancy will impact the health of your child for the rest of their life. This concept is part of an area of research called fetal programming.
Fetal programming deals with the idea that during fetal development, poor intake of one or more essential nutrients during critical periods in an organ’s growth can potentially alter or program the structure, size or function of that organ for the rest of the child’s life. A developing baby will attempt to compensate for deficiencies in the womb, but those compensations will carry a price later in their life.
A recent study found that 88 percent of mothers and women who are currently pregnant agree that a diet including nutritious foods, beverages, and vitamins will have a positive long term effect on their child’s health. Despite the awareness of most mothers, 99 out of 100 Americans don’t even meet the minimum standards of a balanced diet.
Here are 5 nutrition tips for pregnant woman that will help support their child’s future health:
Tip #1 – Include a lot of vitamin B12 into your diet. This has been found to correlate to a lower risk for insulin resistance later in a child’s life. Vitamin B12 is essential for the formation of blood cells, nerve sheaths, and various proteins. Great sources of B12 include meat, eggs, fish, and milk products.
Tip #2 – Vitamin C has been shown to lower oxidative damage to fetal tissues while also lowering the risk for heart problems later in life. Eating citrus fruits, strawberries, kiwi, broccoli, spinach, and tomatoes will give your baby a good dose of vitamin C.
Tip #3 – Evidence is showing that vitamin D deficiency may be a risk factor for many chronic diseases, including rickets, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, type 1 diabetes, and cancer. There are many multiple vitamin and mineral supplements that include vitamin D and are made for the needs of pregnant women.
Tip #4 – DHA omega-3 is an important building block of a baby’s brain. 97 percent of the omega-3s found in the brain is DHA. A great source of DHA is fatty fish (tuna, salmon). You can also take omega-3 supplements.
Tip #5 – Children who are born from mothers with low folate status during pregnancy were 57 percent more likely to have emotional problems later in life. Increase your folic acid intake by eating dark leafy greens to avoid this.
Having a child usually means long nights with little sleep for a few years. Sleep deprivation is one of the hardest things to deal with when your child is young. A recent study found that 90 percent of parents lose up to four hours of sleep every night in their baby’s first year. To help you try and get a better night’s sleep yourself, here are a few tips to get your child to sleep longer:
1) Spend some time with your baby before putting them down to bed. Either singing a lullaby or reading a story with bright illustrations can be enjoyable for both of you. This will help the baby get ready to sleep through the night and wake up prepared for the next day.
2) When you are feeding your baby for the last time before bed, try splitting the feeding into two parts by changing their diaper in the middle. The second part of the feeding will soothe the baby, getting them ready to sleep, and will already have a fresh diaper on for the night.
3) If your baby wakes up very early in the morning and is not crying, you don’t have to rush right into their room. Your baby might nod back off to sleep on their own, if not you can rock them gently until they fall back asleep.
4) When you enter your baby’s room in the morning, gently talk to them. This will give your baby some loving interaction that they will love and give them a pleasant introduction to the day.
5) A morning cuddle can be the perfect way to start the day for you and your baby!
According to a study of 2,000 parents, one in five say that a wet diaper is the most common reason their baby wakes up in the middle of the night. This is followed by hunger (25%) and teething (24%). A majority of the parents surveyed, 32%, considered their baby sleeping through the night as one of the biggest first year milestones. This is higher than speaking their first word (26%) and their first laugh (22%).
Technology has done many great things for the world. Over the past decade technology has really become part of our society. The iPhone has become an integral part of many people, and parents’ lives. The iPhone is not only a great mobile device, it can make you a better parent. Here’s how;
You’ll be more organized
Even the best multi-taskers with great memories can struggle to remember a whole family of schedules, especially if you have multiple children. Instead of posting notes on the fridge or trying to write down every appointment, store them digitally on your iPhone. You can even get the family shared Google Calendar that will allow you to see everyone’s schedule as they enter in appointments!
You can save all that artwork
Are your walls, fridge, and bedroom filled with pictures your kids drew? It can be difficult to get rid of your little Picasso’s work, but now you can save them forever without taking up any physical space. There are so many iPhone apps that allow you to preserve your children’s artwork and allow you to save some wall space.
You can get places faster
GPS gets you where you are going, the first time! Paper maps are a thing of the past and now GPS isn’t only for the wealthy people with Mercedes. Forget going to MapQuest and writing down the turn by turn directions, just let your iPhone tell you how to get there!
Share your memories
Remember when you had to lug around a big camera that you never wanted to carry around to capture memories? The iPhone has made snapping pictures and taking video easy. You can open your phone from the lock screen now where it will immediately go to the camera so you can capture those candid moments. You always have your phone on you, so how convenient is that? You can text, email, and even create photo books right from your phone.
You’ll be smarter
Don’t you hate when your kids ask you something and you don’t know the answer? Instead of saying you don’t know, you can Google it or even ask Siri!!!
Mothers instinctively pick up their child when they start crying. A new study in Japan has been able to confirm that carrying a child is a great way to calm them down.
When the mothers in the study carried their babies while walking around, the infants became noticeably more relaxed and they stopped crying and squirming. The babies’ rapidly beating heartbeats slowed down, evidence that they were feeling calmer.
Study researcher Dr. Kumi Kuroda said that since carrying (meaning holding while walking) can help stop an infant from crying, it can offer mothers a way to soothe short-term irritations like scary noises or vaccinations.
For the study, researchers monitored the responses of 12 healthy infants that were ages one month to six months. The researchers wanted to find the most effective way for mothers to calm a crying baby over a 30 second period. Babies who were carried by a walking mother were the most relaxed and soothed, compared to the infants whose mothers sat in a chair and held them. Researchers found that there was an automatic change in the baby’s behavior once the mother stood up and began walking with their child cradled close in her arms.
According to the researchers, maternal walking may be more effective in calming infants than other kinds of rhythmic motion, such as rocking. When there is an underlying reason for crying, such as hunger or pain, the infant may continue crying after the carrying stops. Kuroda recommends a brief period of carrying when a baby starts crying because it can help identify the cause of the tears.
The researchers also found that the calming effects of carrying are not specific to moms. The same carrying-induced calming was observed when fathers, grandmothers, and even an unfamiliar female with care-giving experience carried babies who were under two months old. So next time your infant starts crying, just pick them up and carry them around!
Expecting parents have a lot to worry about. One thing that many parents to be struggle with is picking out a name for their baby. There are several apps that can be downloaded on your smartphone that can help some future parents pick out the perfect baby name.
Baby Names (by Schatzisoft)
This app has a very modern interface and will narrow down your search by popularity, origin, meaning, or other factors. It is available for Apple users only and is free.
World Baby Names (by Rose India Technologies)
Available to Apple users only and is free. The database has over 70,000 possible baby names. It helps you match a specific gender, world region, origin, religion, or tribes.
Baby Names Pro(Denham Software Solutions)
To get this free app you have to own a Windows phone. The interface looks just like the home page of a Windows phone. You can search for popular names by year, pick one at random, or put the phone on your belly and let the baby “kick and pick” their own name.
Baby Name Generator(Seligman Ventures)
If you are having some trouble coming up with a name, this app can really help. You can either shake your phone to randomize a name, or add your name, your partner’s name, and the baby’s gender to get a tailored response. Apple users only, costs on 99 cents.
We used to rely on baby books you can grab at the checkout of the grocery store, but now with technology people will turn to apps to help them pick out a baby name. Even though many people turn to family names as inspiration for their kids, lots of parents want a special or unique name.
Here are the most popular baby names from 2012;
Boys: Girls:
1) Aiden 1) Sophia
2) Jackson 2) Emma
3) Ethan 3) Olivia
4) Liam 4) Isabella
5) Mason 5) Ava
Some of the most interesting baby names of 2012 come from the big boom in social media. Some parents went with these names for their baby;
• Hashtag
• Like
• Google
• Version 2.0 (instead of Jr.)
• Vista
• Siri
