December 19th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Parenting | 2 Comments
As much as I stand by not introducing pacifiers to my baby, I have absolutely no qualms about parents who do so as long as parents are aware of hygiene and safety practices that goes along with pacifier use.
First of all, before you buy pacifiers, head over to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (http://www.cpsc.gov) website and make sure it is not a recalled product. Go with a major brand with an established product safety record.
Ensure the pacifier is clean:
- Soak pacifiers in boiling water or sterilizers regularly.
- When a pacifier meets the floor, give it a good proper washing. I’ve seen mothers who pick pacifiers up from the floor, put it their mouth, clean it with their saliva and tougue and putting it back into their baby’s mouth. Gross ;P
- Bring extra pacifiers along if your baby tends to drop it everywhere.
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December 18th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Parenting, Personal | 1 Comment
Despite my in-laws keep telling me to give my baby Clarisse a pacifier, to keep her quiet at times, I have never resort to pacifiers. I do not plan to introduce pacifiers to my baby in the future either.
And personally, I’m kinda pleased my baby Clarisse doesn’t seem to enjoy a pacifier. Granted, I’ve never put in the effort and time to properly introduce pacifiers to her but I did bought a pair of NUK pacifiers a few months ago. My baby has a habit of sleeping while breastfeeding, latching on to my nipple until she falls asleep. If she is not in a deep sleep, whenever I pull out my nipple, she will become alert and demands to latch on again. So I tried to replace my nipple with a pacifier immediately whenever I pull out. Baby Clarisse would eventually wake up after a few seconds sucking on the pacifier. Realising it’s not my nipple and starts to cry.
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December 17th, 2007 | Babies, Parenting | No comments
My baby Clarisse is 6 months and 3 weeks old now and I guess it’s about time we take language development a notch higher. She has already demonstrate her ability to understand words and phrases we constantly use to describe common activities (changing diapers
, potty
time, eating time, bathing etc.) around her. Now that she is well into her sixth month, language development will slowly start to evolve. Babies will start learning to express themselves around this time.
From what I’ve gathered so far from various sources, experts agree that the way parents speak and react to their babies can make a difference in speech development:
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December 15th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Parenting, Toys | 2 Comments
Let’s be realistic. Parents have to accept the fact that we’ll never be able to guarantee safe toys for our children. It’s good to know that politicians are starting to campaign for safe toys as a political agenda. As for now, we can do our best to safeguard our children from unsafe toys through knowledge and common sense.
Sign up for emailing lists to get yourself informed of the latest toy recalls at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Another good site for such information is U.S. PIRG.
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December 14th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Parenting, Personal | 1 Comment
Tummy time is important for babies. I confess, I didn’t realise it until I read about the importance of tummy time from a parenting magazine. A baby’s basic skills such as sitting up, crawling, lifting head and turning over is influenced by tummy time. The more time, and the earlier you encourage tummy time for your baby, the faster your baby will learn to master the skills above.
When I first saw my baby Clarisse struggling to roll over unsuccessfully, I helped push her buttocks a bit to help her to roll over. However, my father-in-law told me not to help baby Clarisse and should just let her do it on her own. It took baby Clarisse a few more weeks to successfully roll over on her own effort. I regret listening to his advice now that I realise flipping my baby over on her tummy helps in so many motor skills. I should have just helped baby Clarisse roll over so that she could have spent more tummy time instead.
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December 13th, 2007 | Babies, Health, Household, Parenting, Toys | 1 Comment
With the amount of Made-in-China toys recalled in the pass several months, I am concerned about the safety of toys I buy for my baby. The anxiety is heightened when baby Clarisse receives toy presents from friends and families. Baby Clarisse puts everything she can grab hold of into her mouth in a split second. Naturally, most of the toys in her crib are teethers. So it is important to make sure the toys she plays with is safe from toxicity.
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December 2nd, 2007 | Babies, Parenting, Personal | 2 Comments
My husband and I began talking to baby Clarisse the day she was born. Some people say it’s silly to talk to newborns. They wouldn’t understand a single word you’re saying anyway. To us, it didn’t matter whether our baby was able to understand what we’re saying. The important thing is, we give our baby a sense of communication which will help them develop better speech ability faster. Studies also show babies pick up languages as much from second-hand dialogue, that is communication between parents, family and friends indirectly.
Baby Clarisse uttered her first “ah-goo” when she was around 2 1/2 months. My husband and I were so delighted to hear her cute voice. Here are some of the ways how I talk to Clarisse.
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December 1st, 2007 | Babies, Parenting, Personal | No comments
Throughout the past 2 - 3 months, I have consistently subjected my baby Clarisse to a pretty structured daily routine. It is a way to organise and structure for the day. To know what’s coming next every passing hour for both me and the baby.
I never realised how adapted Clarisse is to her daily routine until this evening. We had dinner at a restaurant and the time was roughly an hour past her usual evening bath time. She cried all the way home. The moment we reached home, she stopped crying. When I took her clothes off in the room and put her in the bath robe, she grinned in anticipation for her “play-water” time. Clearly, she is crying for her evening bath-time.
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November 30th, 2007 | Household, Parenting, Videos | No comments
With Christmas time less than a month away, many homeowners are dragging their Christmas tree, lightings and decorative ornaments out from the store room. Busy putting up Christmas trees and decorating them. Little do they know, that the Christmas tree in their living room is a common fire hazard. Look how relatively easy a Christmas tree catches fire …
Take necessary precautions no matter how remote the risks are that your Christmas tree might catch fire. It’s your responsibility as a parent to keep your family safe and sound.
