Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Do you sometimes feel like it is just impossible to run a few errands with your baby?  It can be overwhelming at first to simply go to the grocery store or even out to eat like you used to.  Here are a few tips to help you with your outtings with your little one. 

Let’s start with the grocery store, the quick in and out runs you made before you had a baby are long gone, but this doesn’t mean you have to make it an errand to dread.  Everyone has to do go to the grocery store and you can still do this with your baby.  Start small, instead of hauling the baby to the store for hour long, $150 shopping event, take her to pick up milk, bread, and what you need for dinner.  Your confidence will rise and your baby will get used to the routine.  As time goes on, start your trips by grabbing the essentials first in case you don’t make it through every aisle.  Timing is also important, try going on the weekday mornings if possible, when your baby is well rested and fed.  If you work, try for the same early hour on the weekends.  Try parking near the carts corral and not the store, so you can get loaded up and settled without feeling rushed.  Try to remember an extra layer for your baby, it can be extremely cold in grocery stores even when it is 90 degrees outside.  And lastly, don’t even think about the self checkout lanes.  Take advantages of the store’s services, bagging your groceries, pushing the cart to your car, and putting the bags in your trunk. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes it can be difficult to get your children to understand the effects that sun can have on them, but it so important to teach your children how to be sun smart.  By teaching them, the will have a lower risk of skin cancer.  Many people today wish they had been more cautious while in the sun in the earlier years. 

One idea on how help your child learn about being sun smart is to consider sun safety to be like a seat belt.  You wouldn’t explain a car accident or gingivitis to your young child, but you still get her to let you buckle her into her car seat and brush her teeth.   If you make sun protection part of your routine of non- negotiable things that you do in order to stay safe, your child will be more accepting. Read the rest of this entry »

Figuring out the best way to say good bye to your baby’s pacifier and bottle can sometimes be a dreaded or difficult task.  Here are a few ideas of how to go about weaning your baby from their “ba-ba” and paci. 

Toddlers who drink from a bottle for too long can tend to consume more milk than necessary.  This can cause your baby to have little appetite for the variety of solid food they need to eat, or they may be consuming too many calories from the liquid.  When kids drink from a bottle, the milk pools around their teeth and can create a major cavity risk. 

Between 12 and 15 months is a good time to wean your baby from the their “ba-ba.”  This is when babies can drink well enough from a sippy cup and should go completely bottle free.  If you wait more than 18 months, the bottle will have become a habit rather than a necessity and your child will cling to it even harder. Read the rest of this entry »