Weaning A Baby Onto Solid Food

The best time to wean your baby onto solid food is at about age 6 months. This is because your baby’s mouth will start to change around that time to help her cope with the transition. Another guide is to start when baby doubles in weight.

Before then your baby’s digestive system and kidneys are able to cope only with breastmilk and formula. But don’t leave it too late as baby may find it difficult to adapt to swallowing food, and she will need a balanced varied diet.

What You Will Need

• Bibs – and plenty of them! At first she will spit out more than she swallows and feeding will be very messy.
• Unbreakable bowls and spoons.
• Lidded containers for storing the food.
• A food processor. You could manage with a fork and a sieve, but the one thing you won’t have plenty of is time, so a blender will make life easier.

You don’t need a high chair, not at this stage anyway. Baby won’t be able to hold her head up until about age 12 months, so feed her while she is in your lap or in a seat that supports her head.

Foods To Try And Some To Avoid

• Baby rice is usually the first solid for babies, it has a low protein content and is unlikely to cause an allergic reaction. Mix with milk (expressed breast milk or formula) to make the rice easier to swallow. Rice also has the advantage that it can be mixed with both vegetables and fruit, so after a few days, mix in a little puréed potato, vegetable or fruit. You may wish to start with vegetables to ensure she establishes a taste for savoury foods as well as the sweeter fruits.
• Foods to try include: potato, carrot, swede, parsnip, sweet potato; and apple, banana and pear. Cook where appropriate and purée. If the result is too dry or lumpy, add milk (breast milk or formula).
• Avoid cow’s milk until she is about 12 months old. Other dairy products like cheese and yoghurt can be introduced after a month or so.
• Avoid soft-boiled eggs; nuts; blue-veined cheese; salt; sugar or sweeteners, including those found in fruit drinks and squashes; bread and pasta; and rusks.

The Transition

The move from milk to solid food can take place only gradually. At first, solids should take the place of one of the milk feeds. Then, over the next 3 or 4 months, introduce more solid food and cut down on the milk; and chop and cut food rather than purée after a few weeks.

Vegetarian

If you are vegetarian and want your baby to avoid meat and fish, this should not be a problem. The same nutrients present in meat are also available in other foods and you will be familiar with what is required for a balanced diet. However, if you are a vegan, your baby could miss out on certain vitamins as well as sufficient protein. Prolong breastfeeding as long as possible, and take expert advice on any necessary supplements.

Baby’s In Charge

Of course no two babies are the same and there are no rules laid down regarding exact timing. Appetites vary too and your baby will tell you by her actions whether she needs to be ’topped-up’ with a bottle of milk.

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Author: Tony Luck who runs a website offering advice to moms-to-be and new moms. Included on the site is the Chinese Conception Chart which supposedly tells you whether the baby you are expecting will be a girl or boy.

4 Tips for Taking Great Baby Pictures – Even If You’re Not a Professional
 by: Alexis Dawes

When my daughter Layla was born I had a hard time putting the camera down. And apparently I wasn’t the only one. The cashier at the photo developing shop told me that new parents comprised a fairly sizable chunk of their business.

We can’t help it! Babies are such beautiful creatures that you want to capture every new movement and every fleeting smile that comes along. (Even if that smile is attached to a smelly gas bubble!)

However the problem many parents have is that their lack of good photography skills can translate into pictures that are too dark, too bright, blurry, out of focus, uncentered, and so on. Perhaps this describes you.

If so, don’t sweat it. These problems are easily fixable. An album full of mishaps can quickly be transformed by following these 4 tips…

1) When taking pictures of babies lying on their backs, stand directly over them and shoot straight down.

I used to take a solid color baby blanket and place it on the floor in a bright, sun filled room. When I was ready to take a picture I would put Layla on the blanket, and adjust it around her, making sure not to put her directly in the sunlight. Then I’d get on my knees right over her, aim straight down and snap away.

This technique will allow you to center the camera properly and you’ll get some great close-up shots. The natural sunlight will often give you just enough light so your picture isn’t too dark or too bright.

2) Capture a range of emotions.

Smiling babies are cute. But so are crying babies and pouting babies and messy babies and sleeping babies.

Be sure to take pictures of your little one in all phases of his or her emotion filled life. You’ll be amazed at how truly beautiful they are in non-traditional picture taking situations.

3) Make bath time picture time.

While there are some babies who don’t like water, most love it. They often become very expressive in the bath tub – laughing, cooing and splashing. So bath time often becomes a great opportunity to capture a few precious shots of your little one.

I’ve personally used the bathtub to document how Layla has changed over her 2+ years. Every couple of months I take a few close-up pictures of her in the bathtub. Then I take the best one and place it in a special section in the photo album.

It’s truly amazing to see how her face changes so dramatically with each new picture.

4) If you use a disposable camera, choose a good one.

I purchased 3 dirt cheap disposable cameras before I had Layla. When we brought her home these were the ones we used for the first week of photo taking.

Boy was I disappointed! The pictures developed horribly. And as a new mommy with hormones still raging, you know how sad this made me. Those cuddly little moments can never be relived again.

I learned a good lesson though. You get what you pay for.

Now my disposable camera of choice is the Kodak Max HQ. It’s one of the more pricey disposable cameras. However the quality is fantastic in comparison to other disposables I’ve used.

You can usually buy them inexpensively on eBay. Popular retailers like Target and Wal-Mart also run sales on them quite frequently. 

About The Author

Alexis Dawes is a real mom (not a professional photographer) who runs the Photograph-Your-Baby.com web site. Check out her free 20+ page tutorial that teaches parents how to take better pictures of their little one (http://www.Photograph-Your-Baby.com).

8 Tips To Save On Child Care Costs 

Child care costs are are one of the most expensive costs associated with going back to work. Finding ways to cut down on child care costs without sacrificing quality child care is a top priority for all working parents. Here are a few ideas that can help trim your child care costs without sacrificing child care quality:

See if your employer has a child care flexible spending account. This is a special account that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw87.html – created that allows you to set aside money for child care expenses with pre-tax dollars. You ask your employer to take out a certain amount of money each month from your paycheck and you can use this money tax free for child care related expenses.

Inquire if your company has partnerships or offers discounts for certain child care provider services. some larger companies will sometimes negotiate discount plans with local child care providers to help offset child care costs.

See if your public school district offers a half day pre-kindergarten program for 4-year-olds. These programs are usually free and by signing-up your child, it will reduce your child care needs to a half day from a full day.

Check to see if your employer would be open to flex hours, job sharing or telecommuting. If so, you may be able to use these to juggle your schedule and cut your child care costs.

If both you and your spouse work, see if it’s possible to arrange your work schedules so they overlap as little as possible. This will allow you to reduce the number of hours your child has to spend at child care.

See if there is a relative or good friend that can help with child care.

Consider hiring a nanny and sharing the cost of child care with a few good friends. This will allow you to pay less individually for child care costs and the nanny will make more money overall.

For a list of child care resource and referral agencies, you can visit the Child Care Aware website – http://www.childcareaware.org  - which is a nonprofit organization that helps parents find quality child care in their communities.


About the Author

Copyright Jeffrey Strain. He is owner of www.savingadvice.com – a website dedicated to saving you money.

Using Music To Calm Your Baby

Music is a wonderful way for you to calm and soothe your baby, especially during the first year. How many times have your heard parents say that there was nothing that they could do with their crying, fussing baby until they tried music. This is because music does indeed soothe the savage beast, or in this case, the baby.

There are certain distinct sounds that have been proven to calm even fussy babies: the sounds of nature, white noise, and music. Even if your baby isn’t fussing or crying you may want to use music as often as you can to encourage that feeling of calm and peacefulness. All it takes is a few minutes every day and before you know it your baby will be looking forward to hearing that certain song emanating from the CD player.

There is nothing complicated or mysterious about introducing your baby to music from day one. You don’t need to search for the perfect song or a certain type of music. All you have to do is start by having your baby listen to your favorite songs and music. If jazz is on the top of your list, let your baby listen to the sounds of John Coltrane as he sits in his baby seat watching you in the kitchen. It doesn’t matter if you play the schmaltzy songs of the eighties or some wicked African beat, your baby is going to listen and his mood is going to be altered by any musical sound that he hears.

Besides the music that you yourself can introduce your baby to, there are hundreds of CDs on the market today that are filled with baby songs and lullabies. At the end of the day you may want to play a CD of quiet baby songs that have a slower beat. There are so many CDs for you to choose from that you will have a hard time making up your mind. Choose something that interests you. Many baby CDs will have lullabies and faster beat songs on the same CD.

Playing music has other benefits besides soothing your fussy, crying baby. These benefits include:

•Babies are introduced to musical sounds.

•Music enhances your baby’s behavior and cognitive skills.

•Relieves stress for the entire family.

•Will stimulate curiosity and an interest in music.

Take time to find a variety of music CDs for your baby to listen to. You’ll soon notice which music your baby is most drawn to and can use that music when he is particularly fussy or is crying.

About the Author

Emanuele Accenti is the author of the best-selling Ebook "Babies First Year – What Every Parents Need To Know" – and offers a free newsletter for new parents at http://www.babies1styear.com

New Section: Quick Baby Tips

Our new section for baby tips will provide plenty of helpful information for new to be parents as well as for the experienced Mom and Dad. Caring for a newborn is more than a full-time job and often the new Mom’s and Dad’s are standing helpless and desperate in front of a new situation. We will try to provide frequent updates to this section to ease your pain. Updates might not necessarily be on a daily base.