Early Motherhood

“Yes, but when does Joey go back to the hospital?”

At times, parents may ask you for advice in helping their children adjust to a new brother or sister. Most children welcome new siblings with excitement and affection, but the changes in their lives may also frustrate them. A mixture of positive and negative feelings and behaviors is common in children when a new brother or sister arrives. For example, children may feel jealous and left out, but they may also feel a great deal of pride and affection for their new sister or brother. Here are five ideas based on current research that can help promote good sibling relations.

At this age toddlers are transitioning from the foods and eating habits they had as infants toward a diet more like your own. Your job is to keep broadening your child’s palate by introducing new flavors and textures. Food preferences are established early in life so help your child develop a taste for healthy foods now.

Toddlers have little tummies, so serve foods that are packed with the nutrients they need to grow healthy and strong, and limit the sweets and empty calories.

All parents will have to inevitably face anxious moments when their babies and toddlers had bumped their heads. Usually, when a baby started turning over, he/she will probably fell off the bed accidentally.

Therefore, to prevent this it is best to place babies in a secured baby cot all the time. No amount of barricade (usually made from pillows/bolsters placed around the bed) can prevent the fall.

As a baby grows bigger, during the time when he/she started to learn to stand, more accidents like these can happen. Child-proof the home long before the child started exploring. Remove all sharp edges furniture.

Each year thousands of young children are killed or injured in car crashes. You can help
prevent this from happening to your child by always using car safety seats and seat belts correctly.

All new cars come equipped with air bags. When used with seat belts, air bags work very well to protect older children and adults. However, air bags are very dangerous to children riding in rear-facing car safety seats and to child passengers who are not properly positioned. If your car has a passenger air bag, infants in rear-facing seats must ride in the back seat. Even in a low-speed crash, the air bag can inflate, strike the car safety seat, and cause serious brain and neck injury and death.

To poison proof your home:

Most poisonings occur when parents or caregivers are home but not paying attention. The most dangerous potential poisons are medicines, cleaning products, antifreeze, windshield wiper fluid, pesticides, furniture polish, gasoline, kerosene and lamp oil.

1) Store medicine, cleaners, paints/varnishes and pesticides in their
original packaging in locked cabinets or containers, out of sight and reach of children.

2) Install a safety latch – that locks when you close the door – on
child-accessible cabinets containing harmful products.

3) Purchase and keep all medicines in containers with safety caps.
Discard unused medication