Pregnancy And Colors

All woman’s emotions she experiences during pregnancy are passed to a baby. Scientists proved that if a pregnant woman feels good and merry, then positive hormonal changes take place in a fetus’s organism. And vise versa. This means, a future mom’s general task is to send her baby as mush positive impulses as she can. And color will help her in this.

Colors always present in our atmosphere: at home or work, in a shop or street, we always sense their influence on us. There’s such science, like color therapy.

Warm-cold

All colors are divided into warm and cold. Warm – are long-wave – red, orange, yellow. Red color increases inner energy, contributes to energization of hematogenesis, normalization of blood circulation and metabolism.

Orange helps to win tiredness, melancholy, depression, diffidence, anxiety and fear. Yellow increases attention concentration, improves mood and memory. Its influence is very beneficial while liver disorders.

Cold colors – are short-wave – blue, dark-blue and violet. Blue color calms down, strengthens immunity, relieves inflammation and sense of burning, for example, while sun burns. Besides, it also affects thyroid gland activity positively. Dark-blue helps while insomnia, causes sense of comfort and repose, relieves tension, lowers arterial pressure, calms down breathing. Violet improves intuition, normalize lymphatic apparatus condition, helps while migraines.

Green color is an intermediate one. It affects slowly and smoothly. Contributes to rhythmical heart work, rest for eyes, has moderate antiphlogistic and antiallergic effect, is useful while diminished function of kidneys, giddiness, nervousness. It can relieve early toxicosis well.

Welcome to the séance

Everyone can take a séance of color therapy. You just should determine which color’s influence you lack at this moment, and bring it to your life with help of cloth and surrounding objects. Besides, color therapy experts recommend imagining color inside of you to solve emotional and physical problems. Imagine that your body is a vessel, which is filled with a certain color little by little. If you have no contra-indications, you can take “color” baths, using multicolored sea-salt or bubble bath.

By the way, medicinal effect will be stronger, if you add appropriate scented oil to water: for example, red color is combined well with ylang-ylang, orange – balm, yellow – rosemary, green – pine-tree, and blue – with geranium.

Drawing test

Take a set of colors or color soft-tip pens and draw some picture. Don’t be confused with absence of artistic skills. You know, you’re drawing not for an exhibition, but for you and your baby. This can be scenery, and a future baby’s portrait or an abstract picture. Have you drawn? Now look, which color dominates in your picture.

With help of “colorful pregnancy” method, you can learn a lot about the way pregnancy is passing, woman’s fears, and you even can determine a future baby’s peculiarities of character, looking at colors a future mom uses in drawings.

- While prescribing a medicine, Paracelsus considered its color necessarily. To cure wounds, he used black, green, red or white plaster, depending on a wound’s type.

- Avicenna composed a special atlas, where he described dependence between color, temperament and human health. He considered that bright morning light helped to assimilate food better; red color created optimistic mood and increased blood circulation (doctor covered his patients with red material), yellow colors healed liver, relieved pains and inflammation.

- At all times people used red flannel to cure scarlet fever in Russia, and wore golden beads to protect themselves from jaundice. In Scotland red wool cured tension of ligaments, in Ireland helped to cure tonsillitis, and in Macedonia prevented fever. In old England they tied a red thread on a baby’s arm, so that his teeth would grow faster.

Yellow color

Yellow color is a color of spirituality (according to color language), but, at the same time – of danger. Pregnant women, feeling free from all problems, draw yellow pictures. Such women perceive their condition, as amazing time of discoveries. “Yellow” baby – is a dreamer, visionary, tale-teller, wag. He likes playing in loneliness, abstract toys: stones, branches, small rags, bricks – he animates them due to power of his imagination. When such offspring grows, he/she will prefer varied, interesting work. He will always believe in something, hope for something, striving to live with future. At the same time such features of character can be displayed in him, like unpracticality, striving to avoid making of decisions, irresponsibility.

Red color

This is a color of blood, health, energy, strength and power. You are open to the world and active. Pregnancy is not a reason for you to refuse from previous way of living and favorite hobbies. You are afraid of nothing and often do not take seriously doctors’ recommendations. Even if there’re some problems, you do not attach big importance to them and are 100% sure in a positive result. And in case of appeared danger you blame everybody around, excepting yourself. As a rule, “red” babies are too movable and fidgety. When they grow up, then their high capacity for work will be determined by striving to gain success, receive result, deserve praise. Here come rush and egoism. Present day’s interests are most important for them.

What’s color therapy?

It was born in ancient times. People used color for treatment in Ancient Egypt, China, India, Persia. In Egyptian temples archaeologists found rooms, which construction refracted sun rays in this or that color. Local doctors determined a color a person was lacking, “bathed” a patient in healing flows of medicinal rays.

Each color contains a whole spectrum of tints – from most delicate and tender to deep and intense. Base of color therapy is influence of waves on our organism. Light represents a set of electromagnetic waves, and its color determines their length. Range of colors, our eye can perceive, - is from 380 to 760, from violet to red. Being electromagnetic, color interacts with energetic structures of human organism, increases or suppresses their vibrations. On the other hand, color affects a human’s eye’s iris, exciting these or that receptors. In its turn, it is connected with all internals and brain. That’s why different colors, influencing eye, cause different sensations and changes of activity of organs.

Orange color

This is a combination of yellow and red. Future moms, drawing orange pictures, combine all best qualities from “yellow” and “red” women in themselves. “Orange” children are excitable, as well as “red” and “yellow”, but this excitement has no way out. And children make merry, play up and cry without any reason.

Pale shades – blue, pink, lilac. These are typical infantile tones, and if an adult prefers them, this means he kept a “child” in himself and features of character, connected with it.

Blue color says about freedom, carelessness, and disposition towards change of air. Usually independent, self-confident women prefer it. Calm and feminine natures like pink. Lilac says about such features of character, like weakness, delicacy, feeling of loneliness, helplessness. If you choose lilac of all colors, this means you are often submerged into your own world and don’t allow other people, even close ones, to experience pregnancy together with you. “Pale” baby is usually delicate, weak and shy. Such baby is very dependent on other people, needs constant support.

Dark blue

Dark blue” pregnancy is an antithesis of “red” one. “Red” pregnant can be calmed down by dark blue color and vise versa. Often future moms choose dark blue not because they are calm, but because they really need repose this time. “Dark blue” baby is calm, balanced, likes doing everything without rush. He likes lying on a sofa with a book, reflecting and discussing everything thoroughly. He prefers heartfelt friendship with commitment and self-sacrifice, as, unlike “red” babies, he likes giving, not taking.

Violet color

According to color language it means night, mystery, contemplation. Pregnancy is something strange and independent from scientific grounds for you. You treat doctors’ advices with distrust and follow, first of all, your own sensations. You need other people’s support, it’s important for you to have a close person, whom you can tell about your feelings and who will understand you.

Other people’s indifference towards your condition hurts you a lot. “Violet” babies are marked with rich inner world and artistry. They are very sensitive, strive to impress, but can also see themselves as others see them.

Blue-green color

It means water, cold, depth, prestige and vanity. It is an indicator of nervous system’s state. The one who likes it, suffers from nervous overstrain. Such nervous overstrain is determined by a person’s character or can be cause by a situation, when a person is afraid to make a mistake, lose something, cause criticism. “Blue-green” baby should have more freedom, you should encourage his initiative, probably, level down your standards.

Green color

Does it dominate in your drawings? You are too “right”. Women, drawing green pictures, most often, observe all doctors’ recommendations and read lots of specialized literature. You treat pregnancy as a disease, and consider yourself severely ill, who needs special care. “Green” baby considers himself deserted and really needs maternal love. Creative education, development of sincerity and interest are necessary to prevent him from becoming a “green” adult personality – conservative, fearing of changes. Such baby needs feeling of safety, reliability.

Black color, as a color of threat, is absolutely contra-indicated for future moms. Pregnant women seldom use it in their drawings. If you prefer black of all colors, this shows your fear of future changes or fear of delivery. This color says that pregnancy is a serious stress for you, which changed your whole life. Often women draw black pictures during first weeks of pregnancy, when they still didn’t make a final decision whether to keep pregnancy or not. The more a woman likes this color, the more serious threat is, and the more dramatic a future mom’s state is. “Black” babies have very difficult character, they have a strong feeling of contradiction and wish to prove people, and their mother, first of all, their importance.

Grey color

Grey gives other psychological picture, it is also contra-indicated for future moms and means routine, lack of hope, tearing away, poverty. “Grey” intuition appears, when pregnant woman was isolated or she isolated herself from other people. Often women, who were working a lot before pregnancy, draw grey pictures, taking a maternity leave. This says that a future mother doesn’t see high prospects in her condition and treats childbirth as an unpleasant duty. A woman feels she’s isolated from a fascinating whirl of life for an unknown period. Another type of “grey” pregnant – are women, who cannot count on a future father’s support (either moral or material) for some reasons and are diffident. Grey color – is the first sign of moral tiredness. Most often “grey” babies are very quiet, timid and secluded.

Brown color

In this color orange is suppressed by black. Pregnancy is a discomfort for you, you don’t like to wait in general, and here waiting is prolonged for 9 months. You are irritated with everything – starting from growing belly and other people’s delights and finishing questions and advices of close people. You’re looking forward to delivery so much, that you don’t even afraid of it. There’re many reasons for “brown” discomfort: weak health, family troubles, participation in dramatic events, and, finally, tiredness. “Brown” babies have a marked necessity to create their own world, reliable and closed, a small world, which will create feeling of safety.

Drawing lesson for future moms

Imagine that you planted a seed of a strange, but wonderful flower and are looking forward when it blossoms out. And now try to draw on a paper the way you imagine this flower. You can draw several stages of its growth: here you see a first green sprout, then leaves, bud, and, finally, a wonderful flower has blossomed out. Draw a green meadow, blue sky and yellow sun around it – this is that care, you will surround your own baby with. Psychologists and color therapy experts state that such drawing relieves inner tension and helps a future mother to realize and feel the whole beauty of her state.

Such lesson will help you to get rid of your fears and gain inner harmony. This lesson is especially useful for women, who draw black, grey and brown pictures. Thus, color therapy and understanding of different colors’ influence on your inner world will give you a chance to understand your feelings better, get rid of fears and gain inner harmony, which is so important. Moreover, in your wonderful state.

Just facts

We can give you lots of examples of positive and negative effect of color on human organism. Here’re some of them:

- Blackfriars Bridge in London was painted in black color for a long time. It was noted, that the biggest quantity of suicides was committed on it. After the bridge was repainted in green color, quantity of suicides reduced abruptly.

- Camille Flammarion, French astronomer, who lived on the border of XIX and XX centuries, proved scientifically, that plants and animals are sensitive to color. Thus, for example, lettuce was growing 4 times quicker under red glass, than under the sun, reached very big height, and under dark-blue glass its growth was small. And haricot blossoms under white and red color, under green and dark-blue – dies. - Japanese scientists discovered that when stairs in offices were painted in red tones, clerks stopped chatting with each other on stairs during work.

- To suppress impetuous prisoners in USA, they use rooms, painted in soft pink color. After some time of staying in such room, lowering of muscular activity takes place automatically.

source from http://www.baby-health.net/articles/

Starting Kindergarten

Most favorable age for children to start kindergarten is between 3 and 5 years.

Prepare a child for the thought of kindergarten beforehand, of necessity to attend it. The first thing you should do, - is staying with a child less, than you usually do (about a month before he starts kindergarten).

Secondly, tell him about kindergarten in details, go there with him, so that he would have his own idea about it. Tell a baby you’re very proud of him – you know, he’s so big already and can go to a kindergarten by himself. But don’t make a problem of this situation, don’t speak about coming change in his life every day. Prepare a baby to communication with other children and adults: visit children parks and squares, teach him to playing in playpits, on swing. Go to holidays, friends’ birthdays with him, watch his behavior: whether he is shy, retires from other children, conflicts, fights or, to the contrary, gets on well with his coevals, is open for communication and relaxed.

When you choose a kindergarten, the main its criterion are teachers and children, not comfortable and beautiful interior. Come to a kindergarten and observe children: whether they are happy and like this place. A good kindergarten is a very noisy place. If you don’t hear hue-and-cry for a 30 minutes, and also bursts of laughter, search another kindergarten for your baby. Meet teachers beforehand, tell them about your baby’s peculiarities, his likes and dislikes, which help he needs, determine methods of encouragement and punishment, appropriate for your baby.

Since the very beginning help your baby to enter kindergarten easily. You know, he’s leaving home for the first time in his life, moves away from you, although only for several hours. During first days after starting kindergarten don’t leave a baby alone at once, it’s better for him to let you go. And, when you part, don’t forget to assure him you will come back for him surely.

When you leave – part with a baby easily and quickly. Of course, you are worrying for his stay at kindergarten, but long leave-takings with worried face will cause anxiety in a baby, as he will understand something can happen to him here and he won’t let you go for a long. If a baby feels difficulties while parting his mom, then father should lead him to kindergarten during first several weeks.

Give a baby his favorite toy with him, try to persuade him leaving it in a kindergarten for a night and meet with it in the morning again. If a baby does not agree, allow him taking his toy with him every day and introduce it to other children, ask a baby about things happening with a toy in a kindergarten, who made friends with it, who offended, whether it felt sad. Thus, you will learn a lot about the way your baby manages to get used to a kindergarten.

During first days some children get tired very much in a kindergarten because of new impressions, new friends, activity, big quantity of people. If a baby comes home exhausted and nervous, this does not mean he cannot get used to a kindergarten. Probably, you need to take such baby from a kindergarten earlier, or leave him at home 1-2 times a week. Play with a baby using home toys, imitate kindergarten, each toy will be a child. Observe what this or that toy does, says, help it finding friends with your baby, solve your baby’s problems through it, orienting game on positive results.

It happens that a baby does not accept a teacher: “I won’t go to her, she cries, she’s angry” etc. if this repeats every day, then you just should send your baby to other group. Protect him from suffering and communication with unpleasant people. Your baby’s “second mom” should resemble you as for her educative methods, have an ability to consider and understand originality and individuality of each child. Don’t hurry to choose a kindergarten for your baby, be observant and prudent. It’s bad if you have to change kindergartens too often. It’s better for a baby to attend the same kindergarten. It’s not so awful to change it once, but 6 or 7 times – it’s already harmful.

Don’t send your baby to a kindergarten only because you gave birth to another one, even if this will lighten your life. Your elder son or daughter will feel that an uninvited guest appeared in a house and treat your decision as his/her banishment, making a conclusion that you prefer a newborn one to him/her. So, if you, expecting a baby, still decide to send an elder one to a kindergarten, do this beforehand, before baby birth.

The main purpose of a kindergarten is to give a child a possibility to communicate and play with coevals. And no matter how good a kindergarten is, don’t make an irreparable mistake – don’t think it can replace a family.

source from http://www.baby-health.net

Baby Appetite And Psychology

Healthy baby’s bad appetite is often caused by his psychological peculiarities and system of upbringing in a family.

Thus, if a mom always forces a baby to eat, and a baby is obstinate, then any meal turns into a struggle between a mom and baby. A stable stereotype of relationships is formed, when table and food cause a baby’s protective response: refusal and obstinacy.

What forced feeding can bring:

- anxious fear, hidden under whims at the table, is formed in a baby with gentle, amenable character.

- Sluggish, phlegmatic children eat slowly and this causes irritation in adults. Mother hurries her baby, pushes another spoon with food in his full mouth and feeding process turns into a torture both for a baby and mom. At some moment a baby’s negative attitude to food overwhelms a baby and becomes a reason of psychic traumas.

- Negative emotions of violence, fear, obstinacy and offence are connected with environment and certain food and kept in subconsciousness of sensitive and impressionable children.

It often happens that a baby, who always ate bad at home, starts eating well in a kindergarten suddenly. Children often compliment food, cooked in a kindergarten. Sometimes babies eat everything they are offered in someone’s place with pleasure. There’re also other situations: a baby east nothing in a kindergarten, but at home his appetite is good. These are typical signs of neurotic reaction on food.

Parents need to show understanding and enormous patience, if a baby eats badly. You know, parents are responsible for their children’s eating disorders.

Drawing, telling fairy-tales, rest-care technique will help to cope with psychological problems:

- offer a baby to draw a dinner in a family of bears (squirrels, foxes) and invent a story about bear-cubs, who eat badly. You need to prompt a baby how else he can behave at the table, receive pleasure from food, about necessity of good eating. Avoid moralizing, just invent a merry story with happy end.

- Play a game “Stubborn (whimsical) baby at the table”, play a role of a baby, and a baby will be your mom. Avoid such open phrases, like “I will play up, like you usually do at the table”. Game should be funny, merry and played many times.

- Try to break a standard stereotype of sitting at the table. Offer a baby taking a dad’s place and eating, like his daddy. No matter how much food a baby eats, praise him and say that “this place is magic and the one who sits here eats well always”. You can invite a baby eating at a coffee table in a drawing-room – as if he’s preparing for a cosmic flight and needs a special schedule of nutrition. Even if a baby ate not all food, next time he will sit at the table earlier, so that to manage “flying” on his spaceship in time. Pin only positive emotions with this place of eating.

Your parental intuition and knowledge of your baby’s peculiarities and hobbies will help to find other playing variants.

Other problem – is a full baby. You can meet full plump babies in any children collective, on the street. Some of them are movable like balls, elastic, playful, with open face. Others, to the contrary, are slow-moving, indifferent to everything and unfriendly.

Quite often reason of corpulence is in absence of elementary culture of nutrition, i.e. overeating. Parents and grandparents, who think a baby will be healthier, if he eats more, contribute to this. Consumption of high-calorie farinaceous foods – buns, patties, pies leads to quick weight gain, hypoderm doughiness.

Psychological aspects of overweight problem:

- full baby can grow happy and successful, if he has light character and loving parents;

- children often start teasing a full baby in a collective. A baby feels unhappy, lonely, not like everybody, he can become a social outcast in a group or class. Such children suffer from their overweight sincerely. Diffidence, children offences, low self-esteem are formed.

- Mother’s position, worried by a baby’s appearance and unable to humble with the fact that he’s not the way she’d like him to be, increase baby’s sufferings. Mother irritates, does not accept a baby the way he is on a subconscious level, reproaches and rails at him constantly.

- Parents can form complex of helplessness and diffidence, if they pity their non-typical baby too much, watch over him, protect from everything that can cause problems and troubles. In such case a baby grows being dependent, unprepared for life.

Parents should remember that in every age children treat their appearance differently:

- in a pre-school age a baby’s self-perception if formed basing on other people’s opinions: phrases “what a little baby” or “what a plump baby” bring either positive, or negative emotional evaluation. Parental evaluation is especially important. Negative evaluations cause touchiness, petulance in one children, and inner protest, displayed in bad behavior and aggression in other children.

- In midchildhood a baby has many chances to compensate his external disadvantage with successes in studying, benevolence and friendship with coevals, display of skills and talents;

- Teen age is a period of soul-searching, change of attitude to other people and oneself. Changes of attitude towards children’s obesity take place right in this age. Happy children suddenly decide they are too fat (especially girls) and start ‘struggling” with their plumpness actively. Others start being proud of their “sizes”, go in for sport (especially boys).

Psychological problems of obesity are solved independently, if a child receives enough family warmth, care, parental support. Parents should teach a child treating offences and mockeries with humor. Hypochondriac moms and dads should get rid of their anxiety and irritation as for their baby’s appearance. Include all possible methods of help with patience and care: diets, exercising. Treat this as a trouble you can overcome.

Timely medical support and treatment, if they are necessary, correct and proper upbringing, considering a baby’s physical and psychological peculiarities, will provide him harmonious relationships with himself and other people, allow being successful and happy in life.

source from http://www.baby-health.net/

Pregnancy Wear

Do you know that Britney Spears stated she was not satisfied with pregnancy wear offered in the market and started realization of her own ideas in the sphere? So, let’s talk about clothes.

Nature gives special beauty to a pregnant woman. And, as a matter of fact, her clothes are not so important. A woman remains a woman during all times. And she often meets talks about her natural beauty with a sarcastic smile. Such woman needs looking excellent and like herself always.

Pregnancy won’t prevent you from wearing stylish and beautiful clothes. To the contrary, it will give you an opportunity to experiment. Give free play to your imagination! Pregnancy wear doesn’t include shapeless sarafans and dresses with lots of incredible tucks. Pregnancy means feminity. So, don’t hide it, but accentuate!

However, choosing wardrobe, you will need to consider some requirements to clothes, to provide yourself with good state of health and avoid harm for your baby. Cloth should definitely be lose and comfortable, not to restrain motions, allow breathing freely. During pregnancy your wardrobe should consist of light natural materials – flax, cotton, silk, wool. These materials are “breathing”, don’t break natural skin work, don’t impede dermal respiration and sweating.

It’s good if trousers, skirts and dresses have adjustable waist, this way you won’t feel uncomfortable while your belly is growing. During pregnancy load on whole organism, including leg vessels, increases. That’s why it’s better to avoid wearing long socks and tight stocking.

As pregnant woman should move as much as possible, choice of footwear is of big importance. You will have to refuse from high-heel shoes and boots. High heel causes additional load on backbone, changes uterus position relatively backbone and belly “sags”, belly tissues stretch very much, uncomfortable sensations appear. So you should try choosing comfortable, stable footwear, better on natural leather sole.

Pay special attention to lingerie. It should definitely be natural – cotton or flax. Synthetic lingerie can cause various irritation, itch. Bras should be comfortable to toe maximum, not tight or too loose. The matter is that breast does not have muscles, which could support it and prevent stretching of breast tissues while weighting. That’s why supporting bra should be quite thick, with wide shoulder-straps, rather deep not to deform breast and squeeze it in the middle.

Concerning pants, they also should be natural. Today market offers lots of models of pants for pregnant women. They all have special edge. In summer you need to wear thin cotton pants, when it’s cold it’s better to put on pants from thicker cotton, and in winter – switch to panties.

On later terms of pregnancy you can wear bandage. But only in case of emergence. If you can do without bandage – that’s great! You know, uterine and abdominal muscles should train to provide normal delivery. Bandage helps while painful sensations in waist, big and saggy belly, threatened miscarriage or heightened uterine tonus. Choose bandage with responsibility. Bandage should not tighten belly too much, allowing muscles to work freely.

Remember, bandage has only supporting function! You should put in on underwear.

These are all requirements to pregnancy wear.

We would like to advise you – don’t buy too many things at once. What for? Try to save money, combining trousers, skirts, waistcoats, blouses, sarafans, nice bright tops and T-shirts. Venture!

And remember, being pregnant means being stylish and beautiful. Now pregnant women don’t hide smooth roundish belly. Pregnancy is the best period for experiments with your own wardrobe and image, leaving a woman freedom of her lifestyle choice.

source from http://www.baby-health.net/

Pregnancy Toxicosis Will Be Cured With Carbon Monoxide

According to Canadian scientists, toxic carbon monoxide, contained in exhaust and tobacco smoke, with time can become a base for a new generation of medicines against serious complication of pregnancy – late toxicosis or preeclampsia. Symptoms of preeclampsia include abrupt increase in arterial pressure and defect of kidney work, what is dangerous for mother’s and fetus’s lives.

Mechanism of development of this condition is not completely studied yet, however, it is considered, that disease of placenta (membrane, providing fetus with oxygen and nutritive elements) cells causes it. It is known that smoking women suffer from preeclampsia much rarer. According to scientists, they have solid grounds to suppose that this effect is connected with carbon monoxide influence, inhaled by smokers together with tobacco smoke in rather big quantities. To check this hypothesis, researchers tested influence of carbon monoxide on human mature placenta cells and compared them with cells, not affected by carbon monoxide.

According to their data, carbon monoxide influence reduced speed of cell death 60%. Nowadays scientists received grant for experiments, which could confirm hypothesis about carbon monoxide wholesome influence clinically. Researchers warn, even in case tests are successful, therapeutic usage of carbon monoxide is rather far future business: according to their calculations, at least 4 years are necessary to start first laboratory experiments on animals.

Up to two years are necessary to prepare clinical tests with participation of people. The safest (for mother and fetus) method of carbon monoxide delivery to placenta cells is still unsettled.

source from http://www.baby-health.net/

Feeding For A Baby Under 1 Year

2 month old baby menu

Six meals a day consist of maternal milk or formula with flour – 120-130 g for a meal.

Two times – juices: 20-30 g per day (4-6 tea spoons).

Vitamins.

3 month old baby menu
Six meals a day – maternal milk or formula – 130-140 g.

Two times – juices: 40-50 g (8-10 tea spoons).

Vitamins.

4 month old baby menu
Five meals a day – maternal milk or formula 130-150 g.

Two times per day – juices (50 g) or 100 g of scraped apple.

Vitamins.

5 month old baby menu
Three meals a day – maternal milk or formula (150-180 g for one meal).

One meal – vegetable soup with butter on broth – 150-180 g, and also 1/3 egg yolk (10 g) – with soup.

One meal – semolina on milk (150-180 g).

Two times – juices: 60 g per day or 120 g of scraped apple.

Vitamins. You should not give vitamin A already, as a baby receives it through vegetable soup and yolk.

6 month old baby menu
Two meals – maternal milk or formula – 180-200 g for one meal.

One meal - dried crust with milk 9180-200 g).

One meal:

Vegetable soup with butter on broth (130-150 g),

Vegetable puree (50g),

Boiled meat (10g) or ½ yolk (10g).

One meal – semolina on milk (180-200 g).

Fruits – 120-140 g daily.

Vitamins.

7 month old baby menu
Two meals – formula – 180-200 g.

One meal – curds with pastry (100g) + tea (50g) or instead of curds – milk kissel with yolk (150g).

One meal:

Vegetable soup with butter (130-150 g),

Vegetable puree (50g) + ½ yolk (10g) or boiled meat (15 g).

One meal - milk porridge (180-200 g).

Fruits – 150 g per day.

Vitamins.

8 month old baby menu
First breakfast: milk with dried crust (200 g) or formula (200 g).

Second breakfast: milk porridge (200g) or curds (100g) + milk (50g) + fruits (50g).

Dinner: vegetable soup with butter (150g) + vegetable puree (50g) + boiled meat (15g).

Afternoon snack: fruits of berries with sugar, or stewed fruit (150g) + pastry (10g).

Supper: dumplings on yolk (200g).

Vitamins.

9 month old baby menu
First breakfast: milk with coffee substitute (200-220 g) + pastry (10g).

Second breakfast: dried crust with milk (200g) + fruits or berries (50g) or curds (100g) + milk (50g).

Dinner: vegetable soup with butter (150g) + vegetable puree (50g) or fruits (50g) + boiled meat (15g).

Afternoon snack: fruits with sugar (150g) + pastry (5-10g) or fruit kissel with milk (150g).

Supper: dumplings with yolk on milk 9200g) or oatmeal, seasoned with yolk (200g).

Vitamins.

10 month old baby menu
First breakfast: milk with sugar or milk with coffee substitute 9200-220g) + small loaf or bread (10g) + butter (1 g).

Second breakfast: curds (100g) + milk (50g) + fruits (100G) or, instead of curds, dumplings (200-220g).

Dinner: vegetable soup with butter (150g) + vegetable puree (50g) or fruits (50g) + loin meat (20g).

Afternoon snack: milk kissel with yolk (100g) + fruits or berries with sugar.

Supper: rice boiled on milk (200-220 g).

Vitamins.

source from http://www.baby-health.net/

How To Avoid Power-Struggles With Your Kids

Inevitably, sometime within your parenting career, you will face a power-struggle with your child. If you don’t, you may be too intimidating, your child may be rather compliant, or you have mastered the art of managing conflict. Power-struggles occur due to a variety of factors, but invariably make a parent feel fatigued, frustrated, and helpless.

Power-struggles emerge as a conflict over demands, wants and needs. Parents will attempt to get their child to manifest certain desired behaviors while the child may choose to react to the request in a negative manner. Children demonstrate various techniques for “testing” their parent’s patience. They may cry, have temper tantrums, manipulate, avoid contact, become aggressive, and refuse to comply with expectations. Parents may employ various methods in trying to hold their children accountable regarding their requests. They use control, lecturing, pressure, guilt, bribery, sulking, or aggressive behavior as strategies to get what they want from their children. None of these methods generally work very effectively.

Parents who seek counseling will indicate that they have tried everything in their arsenal in an attempt to get appropriate behavior displayed by their children. Power-struggles may occur over issues such as schooling, household chores, and a child’s desire for more freedom, or a child merely wanting his own way. Power-struggles can be minimized if parents will change their tactics with their children. This process can be accomplished if a parent is open to new ways of managing problems:

• Parenting is not about doing things the “right or wrong” way. If what you are doing isn’t working, shift gears and move in another direction.

• Most power-struggles can be avoided by establishing meaningful, consistent, logical consequences. Children should be informed regarding the nature of positive and negative consequences. Fight the urge to engage and merely lay out the consequences for appropriate or inappropriate behavior.

• Major in the majors. Don’t “lock horns” over issues of little consequence. If you do, the little issues will become major storms.

• Involvement, teaching, role-modeling and coaching work better than power as a means of managing your children.

• Never acknowledge or entertain temper tantrums. Distance yourself and isolate your child (time-out) until she is ready to respond rationally.

• Don’t get “hooked” by your child’s behavior. Step back, take a deep breath, disengage, and set logical consequences appropriate to the offense.

• Consequences for children should primarily be positive providing a preventative means of avoiding the potential for power-struggles. Unreasonable consequences imparted to a child while a parent is angry will serve to reinforce the power-struggle.

• By all means, avoid power-struggles over schooling. Power-struggles over a child’s education are number one on the list. Rather than pontificate with children about grades, capabilities, and school failure, ask them to explore and make value judgments about their performance. On occasion, monitor their performance, but fight the urge to continuously confront them about their failures. Set positive consequences to encourage completed work. Emphasize the quality of their work (process) rather than grades (outcome). Utilize outside resources, if necessary, such as tutors, parent advocates, and counseling services rather than confronting educational issues yourself. Maintain a sense of involvement with your child that is not conditional upon school success. Ironically, it may break the power-struggle and generally lead a child to change his perspective about schooling.

• Remember, you are the adult. Kids will always try to test the limits.

• Make sure that your logical consequences that are based on negative behavior are reasonable.

Consequences are designed to be used until improved behavior is observable.

• Always explore problems rather than confront them aggressively. Have your children make value judgments about their behavior rather than you making judgments on their behalf.

Avoiding power-struggles involves setting appropriate limits for your children, being consistent in enforcing them, and being reasonable with the management of consequences. Remember, positive consequences are much more effective in leading to improved behavior and help eradicate power-struggles. Children will respect you more if you are significantly involved in a positive manner in your child’s life and choose to role-model the behaviors that you desire your children to emulate.

source from http://www.baby-health.net

Baby Clothes

Baby clothes can be of different sizes – from the smallest for premature babies and up to the biggest size for big, more than 4 kg, babies. Size is determined mainly by baby’s age and weight. Probably, your baby won’t need the smallest size. He will grow for a week, and you will have to buy bigger cloth. Some babies are so big that they need two right after birth.

Of course, firstly you will be nervous, not coping with complicated fasteners while dressing and undressing your baby. That’s why first clothes for a newborn should be very simple, and buttons and bows will be good for older babies.

Before buying some beautiful suit, think carefully about the way you will dress and undress your baby. Cloth with wide mouth is most comfortable for small babies: you can pull it over a baby’s head. Elastic knitted cloth with a low fastener allows changing diapers without undressing a baby completely. If you put on a jumpers which is buttoned from the front on a baby, you will protect a baby’s back from wind. It is also very comfortable, when you need to change your baby’s clothes quickly.

If you have a girl, of course, you will like to put dress on her, but, unfortunately, it is not very practical for daily wearing. It’s not comfortable for a baby to jump, lie and crawl in a dress, and wind blows from beneath. Keep it for holidays or put in on when a girl will grow slightly. Don’t put lacy blouses and tippets on girls, as their little fingers can get stuck in holes.

A baby is growing and you can already replace knitted romper suits by bright jumpers or cotton panties. They are universal and suit both boys and girls. Jumpers are easy to put on and don’t restrain baby’s motions. When you buy thick panties, look at their trouser-legs’ width and whether they have adjustable straps, as usually you will put some other cloth under them.

If it’s warm outside, don’t muffle your baby up, he should not be hot. Before going for a walk, put on a Panama hat that protects head from sun rays. You should have rather loose clothes for cool weather.

Care about clothes

You will change your baby’s clothes at least 3-4 times per day. So, buy clothes, care about which won’t burden you. Such clothes are easy to wash and wear. Before you buy some cloth, read its label closely and don’t buy cloth, if it requires special complicated treatment. The best cloth is cloth made from natural materials. It is warm and absorbs moisture well, that’s why high-quality underwear and crawlers are made from natural cotton.

Always observe instruction, attached to a cloth you bought while washing. Then all baby clothes will keep their color, initial shape and structure of material for a long. While washing, try to avoid using bio washing powders – they can irritate baby’s skin. Clothes should be dry and ironed, only then you can put it on.

Footwear

Never buy footwear that presses baby’s toes. Footwear should hold baby’s feet in crawlers, knickers or tights and not to be tight. Besides, it should have space allowing baby moving his toes. Don’t put socks, bootees and tights, which shrinked after washing, on a baby. Same concerns collars, cuffs, mittens and gloves.

When you go for a walk, put comfortable, warm and waterproof shoes on your baby. Best footwear is footwear made from light, breathing materials, such as fabric or soft leather. Boots or shoes should be soft, so that you could feel baby’s toes through them. When you buy the first footwear for your baby, try it for sure. Measure your baby’s feet’s length and width beforehand, so that you could know approximate size. If you have a possibility, buy boots with leather top. Don’t forget to check whether shoes are still appropriate for a baby regularly.

source from http://www.baby-health.net/

The Best Sleep Advice You've Never Heard (birth to 12 mo.)

Babies: Sleep deprivation 101

Although newborns have a penchant for sleeping up to 18 hours a day, they do it in maddeningly short bursts around the clock. Here's how to get your little Rip Van Winkle to put in a few of those hours (preferably in a row) during the night.

Put your baby to bed when she's drowsy, not fast asleep
This is a tall order, especially for breastfeeding moms, but master the timing and you'll score some much-needed sack time. Babies who drift off on their own are more apt to fall asleep more quickly and learn how to soothe themselves to sleep easier, says Kim West, author of Good Night, Sleep Tight. West is a social worker in Annapolis, Maryland, as well as a professional sleep consultant who has helped more than 2,000 families nationwide soothe troubled sleepers.

Here's her advice: Starting when your newborn is 6 to 8 weeks old, create a sleepiness scale from 1 to 10 — 1 is full-throttle and 10 is out cold. Wait until your baby hits number 7, and lay her down to sleep. Less-vigorous arm and leg action along with diminished sucking power (from nourishing to soothing) are both reliable signs she's nearing sandland.

Try not to look your baby in the eye
Many babies are easily stimulated. A loving look from you can take them from tired to wired faster than you can say, "uh oh." Seeing your baby brighten at your glance is heartwarming at noon and discouraging at midnight.

Parents who make eye contact with sleepy babies inadvertently encourage them to snap out of their sleep zone, says Claire Lerner, director of parent education at Zero to Three, a nonprofit that promotes the health of infants and toddlers. "The more interaction that takes place between you and your baby during the night, the more motivation they have to get up."

So what should you do instead? Lerner suggests keeping it low-key. If you must enter your baby's sleep space at night, don't hold her gaze, chitchat, or serenade her with your favorite Rolling Stones hit. Keep your gaze on her belly and soothe her back to sleep with a soft voice and gentle touch.

Win her over to the dark side
"Lights push your child's biological 'go' button," says Elizabeth Pantley, author of the No-Cry Sleep Solution. On the flip side, darkness triggers the brain to release melatonin, a key sleep hormone.

If your baby sleeps more during the day than at night, help her to know the difference. During the day, allow plenty of sunlight into the house. Put your baby down for daytime naps in well-lighted rooms (unless she has trouble with naps). To induce nighttime sleepiness, install dimmers on the lights not only in your baby's room but also in other rooms where you both spend a lot of time. Lower the lights up to two hours before bedtime in the evening to set the mood. Nightlights are okay, but choose small, dim ones with a bluish tone (the vivid yellow and bright white varieties are more stimulating).

During the night, if your child wakes up, don't turn on the lights or carry her into a brightly lighted room. The shift from dark to light tells her brain it's time to rise and shine. Instead, soothe her back to sleep in her bedroom. If early morning sunlight prompts your child to wake too early or if she has trouble napping in the afternoon, install room-darkening shades.

Cut your tie to the baby monitor
A parent who jumps at every squeak transmitted over the baby monitor will teach her child to wake up more often, says Pantley. Instead, time your entrance so that you go to your child between the moment you know for sure she's awake and the moment she escalates into a full-blown howl. Waiting a few minutes gives her a chance to soothe herself back to sleep. And stepping in before a meltdown means that you'll catch her before she's too worked up to fall back asleep.

Either way, it's okay to turn down the sensitivity on your baby monitor. Set the volume so you'll hear her when she's distressed but you won't be privy to every gurgle. Eventually you may just want to turn the thing off.

Relax the rules on diaper changes
Resist the urge to change your baby every time she wakes up — you'll just jostle her awake even more. Instead, dress your baby in a high-quality, nighttime diaper at bedtime, says Pantley. When she wakes up, sniff to see if it's soiled and change only if you must. For sleepy nighttime changes, nothing wakes a baby faster than a cold, wet wipe. Try substituting a warm washcloth.

Toddlers and preschoolers: Just when you thought it couldn't get worse
It's hard to believe, but by the time your child celebrates his second birthday, he has spent more time asleep than awake. On average, toddlers need 12 to 14 hours of sleep a day, including naps. (Preschoolers do fine on 11 to 13 hours.) Don't be alarmed if your child vetoes the two-nap routine. At around 18 months, it's not unusual for a child to wean himself from two naps to one. But cutting his siestas in half means nighttime sleep gets promoted to highest priority.

Keep the sleep routine short and sweet
An elaborate, multifaceted variety show — a bath, three books, two songs, and a back rub — can stretch on ad nauseam. "Before you know it, your well-intentioned sleep routine turns from transition time to playtime for your child," says Mary Ann LoFrumento, a pediatrician and author of Simply Parenting: Understanding Your Newborn and Infant. If your child fights bedtime, keep the focus on sleep and don't let your child call all the shots.

LoFrumento suggests that parents of troubled sleepers keep the routine no longer than 15 minutes. (Longer is fine if your child falls asleep easily.) Fifteen minutes should be all it takes to put on pajamas, read two short books, and say goodnight, she says.

Connect the dots
"One of the biggest mistakes parents make is not connecting a child's sleep and his daytime behavior," says Pantley. She attributes many of the behaviors labeled as terrible twos to signs of sleep deprivation. "Fussiness, whininess, fighting with siblings — all have their root in the lack of a good night's sleep." Her advice? Move up bedtime. (See our next tip, "Take back the night.")

Take back the night
Exert control and set an early bedtime, preferably between 7 and 8 p.m., Pantley says. "These kids aren't looking at the clock to see what time it is. They're simply waiting for someone to tell them it's time for bed." So pick a time and stick to it.

Practice climate control
Sure, 72 degrees Fahrenheit sounds comfy for a bedroom. And that's true — when you're awake. But the ideal sleeping temperature is between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. That's because sleep follows on the heels of a sharp drop in body temperature, which is also why a bath before bed helps kids nod off faster. The bath gets your child nice and toasty and then the cool room causes his body temperature to drop, which brings on sleepiness.

So, nudge the thermostat down at least an hour before bedtime. If you're forgetful, install an automatic thermostat. Program it to drop in the evening and rise in the morning, and your child just might follow suit.

Wake kids at the same time every day
A consistent wake-up routine is just as important as a regular bedtime. Children should get up at roughly the same time every day (give or take 30 minutes). Fight the urge to let them sleep in on weekends, says Pantley. "What we are doing is asking our children to live in two different time zones — a weekday zone and a weekend zone," she says. "As a result, they get perpetual jet lag."

Just because kids don't benefit from a little extra shut-eye on the weekends doesn't mean you won't. If weekend mornings are your only time to make up lost sleep, trade morning duty with your partner so that your child stays on track.

Grade-schoolers: The age of reason
As children outgrow naps, cribs, and lullabies, they gain an important skill: reasoning. "Parents have less direct control over making older children sleep, so it becomes about making them a partner and teaching them about the importance of getting a good night's rest," says Pantley.

Children ages 5 to 12 still need between ten and 11 hours of sleep a night. Pantley suggests appealing to their logical side. At this age children are old enough to understand that hormones that help them grow are released during sleep, so they need to sleep to reach their full height, she says. Use a similar logic for good grades or sports: If they sleep well their brains will be better able to remember what they learned at school that day, and their bodies will perform better on the baseball field.

Stamp out night-owl behavior
Staying up too late is a common pitfall for grade-schoolers. Parents often contribute to the problem because they want to spend more time with their kids at the end of the day. Do the math backward. "If your child needs 11 hours a night and he tends to wake up at 7 a.m., then he needs to be asleep by 8 p.m.," says West.

Sleep-inducing snacks
Put your child in the mood for sleep by giving him a healthy, sleep-instigating treat an hour before bedtime. Some foods naturally spark a release of serotonin, the body's built-in sleep inducer: Try a glass of milk, a piece of whole-wheat toast with a slice of cheese, half a peanut butter sandwich, or oatmeal with bananas.

During the day, cut out foods containing caffeine six hours before bedtime. According to the National Sleep Foundation, nearly 75 percent of school-age children guzzle caffeinated beverages, such as colas. And since most of these drinks are empty calories, consider eliminating them from your child's diet altogether.

Discourage homework before bed
Kids who do homework before bed often stay up too late and are groggy the next day. Scientific studies link irregular sleep patterns to academic and behavioral problems. School-age children are desperate for sleep, says LoFrumento. "I've had lots of parents tell me their child's school performance improved dramatically with better sleep habits."

Instead of letting your child leave homework until the last minute, schedule a regular work time either right before dinner or right after, suggests LoFrumento. "Leave your child plenty of time to play sports, run around, or just relax after a long day at school but make sure to wrap up homework by 7:30 or 8 p.m." If your child consistently has trouble with a heavy homework load, talk to her teacher.

Be choosy about your child's mattress
Most adults spend hours picking the perfect mattress for their own bed, but accept whatever mattress comes with their child's bed, says Pantley. Her suggestion? Lie on your child's bed for 30 minutes. Ask yourself: Is it comfortable? How's the pillow? Is the blanket soft and cozy? Make it a place you'd want to sleep.

Rule out medical problems
Like adults, children can have medical conditions that interfere with their sleep. Up to 12 percent of kids snore, and as many as 10 percent have sleep apnea, a sleep disorder in which the airway becomes partially blocked and reduces airflow, which rouses the child from a deep sleep. Although many children will outgrow the problem, ask your pediatrician for help if your child snores heavily or is excessively sleepy during the day.

source from http://www.babycenter.com/

Kids Who Skimp On Sleep Tend To Be Fatter

While the connection between a child's weight and the amount of sleep that child gets may not be immediately apparent, new research has found a strong correlation between the two.

Sixth-graders who averaged less than 8.5 hours of sleep a night had a 23 percent rate of obesity, while their well-rested peers who averaged more than 9.25 hours of sleep had an obesity rate of just 12 percent, according to a new study.

"We found that children who got less sleep were more likely to be obese," said the study's lead author, Dr. Julie Lumeng, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan Center for Human Growth and Development.

Lumeng said that even after compensating for other factors, such as the home environment, the link between less sleep and heavier weight was still apparent.

The study results are published in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Lumeng said there are three likely reasons why sleep might affect weight. First, if children don't get enough sleep at night, they'll be less likely to run around and get exercise during the day. Second, when kids are tired, they're more irritable and may reach for junk food to help regulate their mood. And, finally, what Lumeng called a "hot area for future research" is the possible connection between sleep and fat metabolism. She said there have been studies done with adults that have shown that a lack of sleep may disrupt the secretion of hormones involved in appetite and metabolism, such as leptin and insulin.

The new study included 785 children who were in third grade at the start of the trial. Most were white — 81 percent — and half were female.

Parents were interviewed about their children's sleep habits when the youngsters were in third grade and then again when they were in sixth grade. The researchers also measured height and weight. Obesity was defined as having a body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) higher than the 5th percentile for age and gender, according to Lumeng. Eighteen percent of the children were obese in sixth grade.

The researchers also took into account maternal education, race, the quality of the home environment and parenting skills to see if those factors affected a child's weight.

No matter what a child weighed in third grade, too little sleep correlated with being obese in sixth grade. And, short sleep duration in sixth grade also correlated with excess weight in sixth grade, according to the study.

Third-graders who got less than nine hours and 45 minutes of sleep a night had an obesity prevalence of about 20 percent, while those who got more than nine hours and 45 minutes of sleep had obesity rates of about 12 percent, Lumeng said.

Those who were short-changing sleep in third grade had 40 percent higher odds of being obese in sixth grade, and sixth-graders who weren't getting enough sleep were 20 percent more likely to be obese, compared to their well-rested counterparts.

Lumeng said the researchers weren't able to find a statistical association between quality of sleep and obesity. But, she said that without a lab-based sleep study, it's difficult to objectively assess the quality of sleep, so there may be an association that this study wasn't able to uncover.

Dr. Stephen Sheldon, director of the Sleep Medicine Center at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said he would've liked to see sleep studies so the researchers could have known more about the quality of sleep these children were getting, such as how much REM sleep did they get and how fragmented was the sleep?

But, he said, the bottom line is that "pediatricians and parents really need to start paying closer attention to sleep-wake habits. In this society, we put a premium on being awake, and that premium may hurt us in the long run. Sleep may be as important as food to our health and well-being," said Sheldon, who's also a professor of pediatrics at the Northwestern UniversityFeinberg School of Medicine.

Both Lumeng and Sheldon recommended trying to keep a consistent sleep schedule. Bedtimes and wake times are both important — for children and adults. Sheldon said it's usually OK to vary your sleep times a little bit on the weekend, about an hour or so, but, he cautioned, "Letting you child sleep till noon or mid-afternoon is inviting trouble."

Lumeng also recommended that children not have a TV in their bedroom, because it can make it more difficult to fall asleep.

source from http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/