Train Your Babies To Brush On Their Own: SOS Moms Advise
Mommy Rashmi Agrawal is trying to train her 2 year old daughter to brush on her own, and as with most things ‘baby’, she needs help and advice! She says, “It’s been 6 months but she only keeps sucking on the brush. Please help!” Quite a difficult situation there. As always, we posted the query to our lovely parents on the SOS Mom forum on our FB page, and here’s what they had to say.
- Start brushing with your kid, the way you want her to, slowly and with fun!! Add a little rhyme to your routine and it will be an everyday ritual with some fun and learning
- Let her watch you, make it look like a lot of fun!
- Let her buy her own tooth brush.
- Brush her yourself when she lets you. She will get used to what exactly she has to do. Just explain to her while you’re brushing her teeth about what you’re doing.
- Let your kid brush you with your toothbrush while you brush her.
- Don’t force your kid, instead, just stand near and encourage your little one.
- Teach your child the importance of having nice clean teeth by telling them all about it in a simple way.
- Started brushing since the first tooth comes out. Use special rubber brushes that are meant for teething. This will help get them used to the concept of a toothbrush later.
- Be patient, keep showing, teaching and encouraging.
- Started by giving an infant tooth brush right from the time the first tooth comes out, but without toothpaste.
- In the morning, take your tooth brushes together and brush together. Repeat this before going to bed each night.
- Show your kid some fun videos of songs or cartoons about brushing etc. to make the whole process even more exciting.
- There are many tooth pastes for infants that don’t have fluoride added so they don’t pose any health danger even if baby isn’t able to spit it out. Just add a tiny little bit on the baby’s tooth brush and even if baby eats some of it, it’s not dangerous, plus some of it ends up on the teeth and is useful for cleaning.
- Try standing in front of the mirror and brushing. This will help your child follow you even as you are brushing.
With special thanks to:
AnshuMarwaha, Laura Visirin-Jain, NamrataSamel Dixit, Dhivya Sri, TemjenMonglaJamir, Indira Kar, Mini Jain, AartiVedpathak, Namita Jain, RuchiToliaRawat, Nazia Imran, GunjanLaad Sharma, Sharmistha Bhattacharya, Shama Desai
Is your baby facing gastric problem?
This week we had a concerned father, Asif Ali who needed some advice for his one month old daughter. His baby girl often faces gastric problems and becomes red faced when she cannot do potty.
Gastric is a common problem among babies but it is always advisable to show your child specialist first and take expert advice along with the home remedies that you should follow for your baby.
Once again, our special mommies on the page gave us their time to help Asif and many other mommys whose babies suffer from a similar problem.
Their suggestions and tips listed below:
- Give your baby some warm water with sugar
- Boils some coriander, saunf, jeera or ajwain in water and make your baby drink that water
- Give your baby non-alcoholic gripe water twice daily it will help in digestion
- Take some gira and water and boil it till it becomes reddish. Make your baby to drink this liquid with sugar
- Apply some heeng with luke warm water on the navel of the baby
- It would be advisable for the mother to keep her diet light if the baby is on her feed
- Honey / dry grapes with warm water
- Give a warm mustard oil massage to your baby before sleep
- Yogurt, apple, papaya, banana and butter will be good for the baby
A special thanks to all our special moms for their valuable suggestions:
Rehana Shameem, Shruti Maligi, Neha Kulkarni-Chavan, Priyanka Gupta, Murari Sharma, Rithu Reuben, Parul Jain, Sulagna Dutta, Mariya Vhora, Sadhana Rawat, Ami Thakkar Pamnani, Shubha Gizare, Himani Bansal, Divya Sundaram, Latika Warrier, Renjini Murali Krishnan, Priyanka Sengupta Datta, Sheetal Sharma, Ritu Sharma, Manvinder Sachdeva, Vineet Arora, Krishnaja Yugandhar, Sangita Kamlesh Kumar, Radhika Dhanrajani, Laura Visirin, Neethu Mukundan, Divya Shamir Easeph ,Deepthi Raghu, Nidhi Singhal Sangal, Prachi Patankar, Miky Kalani Hingu, Ammu Unni, Supriya Kotmire, Rachna Shah, Sudarsana Venugopal, Neha Maheshwari, Sapna Sharma, Veena Giri, Dipti Berad, Moumita Choudhury, Hemalatha Nadig, Tina Jain, Smita Goswami Chakraborty, Rekha Yadav, Pallavi Kocharekar Dabgotra and Shama Desai
Feeding routine for your little one
This week, Manasi Joshi, mother of a 7 month old baby boy, asked us about what meal she can start giving her baby at this age along with her own feed.
She has already started with Cerelac and Khichdi. She also wants to know a routine which she should follow for her baby.
And, as we truly believe that ‘Mommy knows best’, various moms on our Facebook page have given their valued suggestions to help Manasi.
Here are some solid foods, that they recommend you should start with:
- Boiled and mashed fruits with yogurt
- Vegetable khichdi
- Ragi malt
- Mashed fruits
- Vegetable soup
- Mashed and boiled vegetables like potato, carrot, beans, peas, cauliflower with a little salt
- Moong dal
- Banana shake or any other fruit shake
- Coconut water
- Sabudana khichdi, suji kheer, upma, oats kheer, jau dalia or wheat dalia
- Ground leaves of palak and soya saag with little bit of honey
- Read Annabel Karmel’s book – Super Foods for Babies and Children
Some of our special mommies have also shared their routine:
Saumya Khare -
- 1 meal of Cerelac & khichadi/dal-chawal
- 2 meals of fruits
- 3 times milk
Sharmili Navab -
7 a.m.: Wake up and nurse for about 20 minutes.
7:30 a.m.: Play on the floor or outside with her toys.
8 a.m.: Breakfast, usually rice cereal or oatmeal and fruit (baby food).
8:30 a.m.: More play time.
Between 9 and 9:30 a.m.: Nurse for about 15 minutes, then nap.
11 a.m.: Wake up and play.
Noon: Lunch (baby food — a fruit and a vegetable).
12:30 p.m.: Play.
1:30 p.m.: Nurse for about 20 minutes, then nap.
3:30 p.m.: Wake up and play.
4 p.m.: Nurse for about 20 minutes.
5 p.m.: Dinner (baby food).
5:30 p.m.: Play, go for a walk.
6:30 p.m.: Bath.
7 p.m.: Nurse for about 20 minutes, then bed.
1:30 a.m.: She usually wakes up for a 20-minute nursing session.
Cynthia Haller -
- 3 solid meals a day along with the usual formula feed
- The amount of solids in the beginning was very small, not more that 4-5 tea spoons
- As she turned 5 months old and she was ready for solids, I started introducing my baby to a new food every week, never more than one, until she was 9 months old.
Debleena Choudhury Sarkar’s -
- My baby boy takes his last morning feed (mother’s feed) between 7.30 -8.30am.
- He wakes up at around 9am and plays for a while.
- Around 10am she gives him 1 spoon full Cerelac feed. Then nap.
- Then, oil massage and shower between 11am & 12.
- Around 12.30pm, boiled & mashed apple. My kid loves it. Sometimes little banana. Then nap.
- Next, around 2.30-3pm again, mother’s feed and then nap.
- Around 4.30-5pm, second oil massage followed her 2nd feed of 1 spoon full Cerelac feed.
- Rest of the evening & night he is on mother’s feed.
- Use honey and figs instead of sugar
Pooja Dhawan Verma -
9.00am-bottle feed
9:30-play time
10:15-take bath
11:00-my feed for 15 min. then, a nap
12:15-get up and take bottle feed
1:30-some solid like khichdi, daliya, custard or besan seera
2:30-my feed
3:30-bottle feed and nap
5:30 noon -biscuits mashed in milk or a fruit
7:30-bottle feed
9:30-my feed and nap
10:00-moong dal or vegetable soup
11:00pm -bottle feed
12:00pm-my feed and sleep
Rajitha Bhupalam -
- Morning- ragi malt or sometimes Cerelac
- Afternoon- homemade cooked grains powder and dry fruits powder, which is very healthy
- Evening- kichidi
- Night- boiled mashed fruits and vegetables
- in between -nurse her whenever she needs, after 1 yr you can give her extra milk, banana, chapathi, egg, bread and whatever food you eat try to give the baby also
Kirti Sharma Handa -
1. Breastfeed your baby only at night
2. Wake up early morning usually 6 or 7am and breastfeed him
3. Give Cerelac at 10 am and then at 12 give a bottle of milk
4. 1 or 2 pm you can give khichdi with curd
5. Give fruits at least once a day
Note – Many moms recommend not giving too much Cerelac to your baby. Try giving them homemade food at most times.
We thank all the mommies for the suggestions to Manasi and many other moms who are facing the same situation – Namrata Samel Dixit, Thazni Kabir, Surbhi Shukla, Nehali Khoche, Pooja Sachdeva, Renuka Patel, Supriya Tawde, Joie Bose Chatterjee, Deepa Shree, Shweta Manjul Jaiswal, Nisha Sharma, Veena Giri , Vaishnavi Seshadri, Shama Desai, Pooja Dhawan Verma, Surbhi Shukla, Sutiksha Devliyal, Aditi Goel, Deepty Mundhra, Namita Jain, Pallavi Kocharekar Dabgotra, Sharmili Navab, Prabhjot Kaur, Kumkum Pandey, Dew Sengupta, Shweta Pandharipande Maurya, Neha Wadhawan Mehta, Shikha Barnabas, Anitha Santosh, Shilpi Anand, Shilpa Vishal Ranjan
A special thanks to Hitesh Thakur, father to a 3 year old.
Helping your baby get used to bottle feeding
Vinny Vig, a mom of a 5 month old baby boy, has brought forward a common problem that most moms face to get their babies used to being fed by bottle.
She has breastfed her son so far and now, she says, “I have to join back work in 10 days and I am trying to get him used to the bottle but he’s just not accepting it. I am very worried. Please help!”
She would like to know how she can solve this issue before she starts work. We also have other moms who need help on the same issue – mom Priya Jain, mom Aditi Walia Budhiraja and mom Vankadara Swetha
As always, all you lovely moms on our page have given your valuable suggestions and once again, we say ‘Mommy knows best’!
Read on for their experienced suggestions:
Mom Winnie Ng and mom Anwesha Bhattacharya say avoid being around when someone is feeding your child and ask your caretaker to divert the baby’s attention towards something else more interesting like music or rattles.
Mom Emon Talukdar thinks that putting the bottle nip inside the babies mouth while breastfeeding can help.
Mom Meenakshi Chandail Parihar and mom Deepti Sahni gave their babies a bottle whenever they were very hungry or sleepy.
Mom Sowmya Nixon and mom Rizwan Wani say that you should consult a doctor which is always the best to do.
Mom Sunaina Kanojia thinks that putting some honey on the bottle nipple can help
Mom Maya Silavat says to feed them with the bottle only. Slowly, when they feel very hungry, they will get used to the bottle.
Mom Jincy John says, consult doctor for solid food. “My doctor also suggested some solid food for my son when he was 4 months old which really helped”.
Mom Swapna Enoch, mom Neha Gupta and mom Geeta Ahir say that you can store your milk & feed it with a spoon
Mom Shama Desai says that you should try to nurse the baby first and the second feed should be with the bottle. You should see that the nipple of the bottle is soft because if it is hard it will be difficult for the baby to drink. That may be one reason it does not want the bottle. Also start with your breast milk as feeds. Slowly and gradually this will work, only you have to be patient
Lastly, Mom Kavitha Jayaraman Ashim says that it’s a time taking process and you should always keep calm during such times!
Let’s hope that mom Vinny Vig and all other moms with similar problems can find their solution here.
Photographing a Baby
I was about two months away from my delivery when I got my Nikon D30 and I went on and on, how this would mean that we would have terrific pictures with the baby. In my head, I was convinced that a SLR would make my baby more photogenic! Yeah, right! And I promised that by the time the baby arrived I would have brushed up my photography skills. At least I met some of it. I indulged in some experimental clicks and then the camera was liberally used during one of my baby showers where my brother turned photographer.
The SLR met my son when he was two days old and from then till now, they’ve fallen in love with each other. It is my theory that photographing children makes a parent more patient and observant. On the other hand, it makes a star out of the kid. I started photographing my son when he was barely a week old. Those wrinkled eyelids barely opened at the click of the shutter. He didn’t understand what all the fuss was about a pose. He didn’t care that his mother was trying to store forever the early days of his life in a picture. He didn’t know he had to learn to emote, respond and communicate with the lens to make himself the perfect subject. But he learnt!
And as a parent-turned-excited-photographer, here are a few things that I have learnt along the way:
a) The New Baby: A new born is hardly responsive. So don’t expect your day old baby to turn and say cheese! Instead, wait for those fully awake and alert moments of the day. New babies need a lot of light, and it’s a good practice to expose them to natural surroundings. Needless to say, as much as Vitamin C is beneficial to them, it is as good for photography. Babies at this early stage have slow movements. However, they twitch, curl and like with photography elsewhere, talking to the subject always helps. Speak to your baby and look for signs of connection. Most of the pictures will have your baby lying down; feel free to let him/her have a feel of your face…at this time they love the feel of your skin and trust me, so will you! At the same time, the cheek to cheek pictures come out beautiful. Tiny feet and curled fingers make for great pictures too.
b) The Infant: A baby moves into infancy after the 3rd month. Chances are that your baby by now has learnt to hold his head up straight. Once the baby learns to hold his head up, he’d like to see more of the world. Try resting the baby’s back on your lap, and let him see the world around. The gleam in his eye as something catches his eye, or a toy that he’s just learnt to hold in his tiny fingers, or a sound that he has learnt to respond to, make for great reaction shots. Encourage him to interact with new toys. Around the same time, they will learn to turn over…make sure you don’t miss out this landmark. Play games with them; they’ll soon learn to smile, make noises and yes even laugh out loud. While you playact and make your babies smile, these games make for great pictures! I enjoyed photographing my son during massage and bath times.
c) The Toddler: This is the most fun stage and in fact by now chances are that your baby would have learnt to interact with the camera. I started showing my son his pictures from when he was around 4 months old. As he grew to recognise himself, he waited for our photography sessions. He’s learnt to pout, flash his dimples, pose, turn and hold a moment till I click. By the time he learnt to crawl he’d quickly scamper towards me to see how the picture turned out! He enjoys the camera and he knows it’s there for a reason.
You don’t need a super quick and high-end camera for your baby. I used my phone camera to the hilt and since it’s the most handy at most times, I’ve learnt to get some great shots! I shoot a lot with my son when is with his father. They are the best play buddies I have seen. To watch a 30 year old play with his year old son and quite become his age, is something beyond this world. They make faces, throw pillows at each other, play hide and seek, pretend to eat each other’s noses and catch imaginary lizards with aplomb! Much of this makes for great photography.
I have learnt to observe my child’s moods. There are those times in the day when he is watchful and quiet. These moments make for great mood shots. He is often busy playing with his toys and he’d not bother about the lens looking at him. Then there are those times when he is at his naughtiest, trying a new prank or trick with his father – the baap-beta pictures are my favourite. I’ve also taken a lot many pictures of my son with other family members – both sets of grandparents, his uncles and aunts, etc. Each of them is really special.
By our guest mommy blogger - Rituparna Ghosh
