Newborn Care Tips

A newborn baby is a source of joy to every family. Here are some tips especially for first time mothers in taking care of their newborn. First, expose your baby to early morning sunlight for fifteen to twenty minutes daily. Babies have the tendency to develop jaundice during the first few days of life due to high levels of bilirubin. Exposure to early morning sunlight will  help decrease bilirubin, thus, prevent jaundice or yellowing of the skin. Second, umbilical stump should be cleaned daily with 70% alcohol three times a day. This will dry the stump and after a few days it will eventually fall off. Third, breastfeeding is still best for babies. If mothers sense that they don’t produce enough milk, it is important to offer her nipple first before giving the formula milk to stimulate milk production. Fourth, burp baby every after feeding to prevent abdominal colic. Fifth, you may offer sterile water in between milk feedings. Sixth, do not apply lotion, powder, cologne or oil to newborn skin since this may cause irritation. Seventh, while the umbilical stump is still present, sponge bath is advised. After it has fallen off, you can give the baby a full bath.

Tips for a Healthy Meal for Children

Make your child’s meal and eating habits healthy and wholesome. If children have their way, they’ll be happy eating chips and drinking soda the whole day through. However, as parents it is our responsibility to ensure that they eat healthy and stay healthy. After all, health is what gives you the strength to run around and be a child, isn’t it? So, get started and plan meals to ensure that your child is getting adequate nutrition and a wholesome diet all along. But then, how does one do that? Simple. Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Plan your meals to include servings of vegetables, cereals, and meat or eggs. Make variations in the ways of cooking and recipes.

Serve meals in an interesting manner. Hold a child’s imterest in what is being served and chances are he will eat the meal and enjoy it too.

Avoid buying and stocking the house with unhealthy eating options. Instead keep fruits, salads and fresh juices and offer them instead.

Eat healthy yourself and include some form of exercise into family time. Healthy Eating Habits for Toddlers will give you more ideas to make a healthy meal for children.

Deciding on a Birthday Party Theme

Birthday parties can be made more fun and interesting by using  a theme and centering everything around that theme. For instance, Barbies and princesses are a fave theme with girls while superheroes and cars are a hit with boys. However, how does one decide which theme to opt for when planning a child’s birthday party? Well, here are some tips to do just that.

1. Your Child’s Interests. The easiest way to decide on a theme is to sit down with your child and identify a few likings of interests that can be used for a party theme. For instance, a book-loving kid may enjoy a Harry Potter- themed party while a girl who loves to dress up may enjoy a party themed around kiddie jewelry. It should be a theme that your kid really enjoys in order for the party to be a hit.

2. Your Budget. The next deciding factor should be the amount of money you are willing to spend. Themed parties can get expensive and therefore, it is important to fix a budget and find places that offer discounts and deals on birthday party supplies, such as, party decorations, favors and invites.

3. Time and Age group. The season must be taken into account when planning some parties. For instance, it will not be wise to have water or pool-based party in winters while summers aren’t the best time to host a party that will have kids sweating and exhausted. Also, keep the age-group of the invitees in mind to make sure that the food and games are interesting and ag-appropriate.

Tips for a Great Birthday Party

Kids love birthdays. In fact, don’t we all?? There is something special about celebrating birth, celebrating life and for a child, birthdays mean cake, gifts and loads of fun. So, here are some useful tips for you to make your child’s birthday party fun and more fun!!

1. Think of the Party Theme. It is always good to have a theme. It makes other aspects of the party such as food, favors and games much easier. Once you and your kid have decided on a theme, plan for the rest of the party. There are several websites that can make this task easier. Check out Pretty Party Place for some great offers.

2. Decide on decorations. Theme-related decorations can be easily bought online or at any good store. Take your child along and pick out decorations related to the theme. Have a budget that you stick to, else the costs will soar.

3. Keep food simple and easy to handle. Kids can be messy eaters. So, keep foods that will leave minimal stains, require little mopping up and will be age-appropriate. Use themed disposable cutlery, glasses and plates, that will eliminate the need of washing up.

4. Photographs and memories. Make sure that the camera and video are ready to capture special moments and all the fun that happens with children around.

5. Operation Clean Up – Finally, clean up messes and spills. If your birthday baby is excited about opening the gifts, help him do that and then, go to bed to recover from yet another fun birthday!

The perfect gift to make with kids

A really neat gift that you can help your children make is a slide show. This would be a great gift for grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, older siblings, or just about anyone in the family you can think of. It will be a treasured gift that everyone will know took some time, energy, and consideration into.
Begin by going through albums that you have with your children. You may wish to let them pick out as many pictures as they want or give them each a certain number to pick out depending on how long you wish your slide show to be.
After you have gotten all your pictures lined up, you will need to scan them so you can get them onto your computer. From there you will be making the slide show with your child. There are many great programs that will allow you to make a good slide show. Look at Best Buy and there are some good ones.
Also think of songs that you can add to go with the pictures. This is a really good idea, especially if there are some songs that have some sentimental value.
Make sure to make plenty of copies as anyone who is in the DVD slide show will want one.

Getting your child to Respect others

One of the most important things you can teach your child is how to respect others. This not only includes respecting the actual person but their belongings as well. You can approach this many ways. First let your child know that you will not tolerate them to disrespect anyone. Let them know that if they do they will have to pay the consequences. What you decide for a consequence is completely up to you, but it has to be something that will make them think about what they did and how they do not want to do it again. I suggest taking away a favorite toy or activity as time outs will not make them think hard enough.

You must also be consistent with how you discipline your child when it comes to disrespecting. I have heard too many people say “that was not nice” or “we do not talk like that to someone: but they never do anything about it. You must follow through and do what you say you will do.

Disrespecting people is not ok and the sooner your child realizes that the better. That is really what is wrong with this world today. Think if we all respected each other how much better this life could be for everyone.

Getting your child to behave

Getting your child to listen to you and behave is not that hard to do. It just takes you some consistency and you will be good to go. Here are some tips on how to handle things.

1. Explain to your child what will not be tolerated by you. This includes any words you do not want him or her to say or any actions that you will not have. This could include throwing toys, kicking, screaming, biting, hitting, arguing with you, name calling to anyone, etc. This way you and the child are on the same page.

2. Then explain how you will handle what they have done if they do something wrong. Let them know that you are the boss and that what you says goes. If you decide time out is the best punishment, then let them know how long they will be in one. Or maybe you opt to take toys away from them. Or you could even take something else away, like a special activity that you have planned or dessert for the night.

3. Do not make empty threats. This will never work and your child will soon figure it out. Instead always follow through.

If you do these simple tips, you and your child should get along great.

My girls are 10 and 13. For about 3 years now, I have given them the opportunities to earn their money by working for it. We deliver the phone books every summer. The girls have a choice of helping to earn their own money or not to help. They know how much they get paid and they have learned that the harder they work, the more money they can earn. If they do not wish to help, it is OK, they just will not get any money. My youngest has always been the hardest worker so she has saved the most money also. They help with unloading the truck, packing the books, and delivering the books. They always get to take at least a week off to go to Grandma’s. If we have to go deliver and they do not want to help, they still need to be with us but not help. It has taught my girls that hard work pays off. When they do help, we play games at the same time like racing each other. We also enjoy seeing other people’s gardens and homes. We have helped many people along the way like alerting them when they left their keys in the door.

Halloween Decorating Party for the Children

We do some major decorating in our front yard for Halloween. It takes us several days. My 2 girls (ages 10 and 13) help us decorate. They invite their friends from school and we spend Saturday afternoons decorating our yard. We set up dummies in costumes and some without costumes along with lights and many other decorations. All the children get to help decide how its done and what is done. They all love the playing in the hay stack and trying on all the different costumes we have for the dummies. They even enjoy using the props to play games with them. This year we have spend 3 Saturday afternoon working on it and still is not completely done because the kids had so much fun playing while decorating. All the children insist of coming back on Halloween night to see the yard and go Trick-or-Treating here.

Teaching Children to Keep a Clean Home

It is important to teach children to keep their things and toys neatly and properly. There are many ways to do this. Here are a few that have worked for me and my toddler.

Set a good example. I always make it a point to put away my stuff after I am through with it. So, whether it is a book that I am reading or a plate of cookies, I always put it away and I tell her what I’m doing.

Create a system or routine. Toddlers, like us adults, work well with systems and routines. So, have a clean-up routine and have your toddler put away all her toys after play. Read How to Organize Toy Storage  for more ideas.

Praise and reward your toddler for tasks done well. Set up a reward chart and each time your toddler cleans up or puts away her toys, add a star to it. Let her use those stars for special treats.

These are some simple ideas on how to encourage young children to keep a home that is reasonably clean and also, get into the habit of being neat and tidy.

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