Food & Pre-Schoolers

What do I feed my baby today? I wake up with this question each day. I have to figure out a way to make sure that his meal is nutritious and tasty. Thanks to the experienced mommies around. I take bits and pieces of advices from most of the conversations. My idea of a good meal is not the quantity but the quality for the food that he eats. To give our children good quality food, we do not have to spend lots of money.We just have to make sure that they eat a healthy, balanced meal rich in all the essential nutrients. Now I have a few things figured out after profusely pouring over blogs and articles over a period of time. He has never been fussy about eating vegetables and having his milk. At least so far. So he drinks a cup of milk in the morning and one in the night. Apart from that he gets to eat two good meals and in between he snacks on fruits, nuts and biscuits. His meal includes a good amount of vegetables, meat, rice and pulses. He does not like the vegetables in curries so I give him just plain boiled vegetables. When it comes to meat, he prefers anything in a Chinese sauce or indian style with not too much of spice. He loves pickles (Indian pickles). He eats it with yogurt rice or chapatis. He eats just plain boiled rice. I cannot mix the rice with anything but a bit of ghee and salt. He loves nuts and dry fruits. His favorite are almonds, figs and cashews. After starting pre-school his appetite has increased and that makes it easy for me to feed him. He usually eats eggs for breakfast. At school he eats nuts and fruits or vegetables. After he comes home I feed him some rice. He takes a nap and after he wakes up i give him some biscuits and soup. For dinner he usually eats what we eat, so I do not have to make anything especially for him. I prefer not to give him too much of juices, so he gets his juice only if he asks for it, which is about a couple of times a week. He likes soy milk, so I give him soy milk every other day. He takes one serving of it. I want to try soy nuggets and soy flakes with vegetables to see if he ll like that. So I route for a healthy option in all the meals that he takes. What ever I feed him, I try to make it a little interesting for him. For example, if I give him bread with nutella, I cut the bread slices into different shapes. He gobbles up everything within seconds. I also try to give him colorful food to eat. Anything that looks appetizing to the eyes, is appetizing to the tongue. That is one slogan that works well with his father too!!

Walking the Talk

Our children are walking and talking representations of us, the parents. Since they spend most of their time with us and since we are the closest to them, they get used to our habits. Their body language, sleep pattern, social skills mostly shadow us. I always thought that bringing up a child in the best possible manner involves lots of reading, learning and understanding by the parents. But it is in fact quite simpler than all that. We have to set good examples. That is all it takes. At least in the formative years till they turn 5. For example, if I want my son to say thank you each time he receives something from someone, I go ahead and say thanks to that person. I do not ask him to tell thank you. When I respond with a "thank you", he learns much faster. He has been watching a lot of cartoons lately, and has gotten used to hitting people for fun. He thinks that they are bad when someone does not do something that he asks for. So the best way for me to deal with this is to make him busy with other activities. He does not have time to TV now. Even if he does, I turn on either Nat Geo or Animal Planet. He enjoys watching animals now. He has completely stopped asking for cartoons. 
His current craze is play-doh, its basically clay in different colors and it comes with different forms of molds. He enjoys playing with it after he comes back from play school. I make sure that I put all of his play things back inside the his big box of play things. After a couple of days, he started helping me with cleaning up after he is done and now he does it himself. So as much as we tell and teach our children to be good, we need to show how its done. That is the one way which has worked for me. Enjoy parenting..

Pre-School days

My son is 2 years and 9 months old. He has started attending pre-school. I had made up my mind for a few months of break downs in school and in the car while on our way to school. But I am proud to say that he has adjusted very well to the school environment. This is his second week and he has settled beautifully at school. He loves the activities and his little class mates. He does have his low moments when I have to let him go with his teacher to his class in the mornings, but today I was surprised when he reassured me that he would go to class, read a book and come back to me smiling. It was always me who was reassuring him, telling him that I will be waiting for him at the "blue chairs"(thats how he refers to the reception area). But he really did make me proud today.  He wears his uniform with such pride. He eats up all of the vegetables and fruits that I send with him. His appetite has increased and I can see the rate at which his vocabulary has improved too. I am very happy with the way that he has taken to schooling. I have quit my full time job to be with him. And I think that this has been one of the best decisions I ve made in a while.To all the young mothers out there, I would like to say that investing in your child should be among the top priorities for you atleast in these important years. They need the mothers unfailing attention in order to become a complete individual.

Terrible Two'sss

I have read a lot about the terrible two's and troublesome three's. But not in my dreams did I imagine it to be this bad. He has become a very different little person in the past few months after turning two. He has become independent in almost everything except cleaning himself after his poop sessions. He was always a bundle of energy but now it seems like his energy levels have gone up ten folds.I have read about atoms that move in such speeds if excited. When I see Dhruva running around just to expend his energy that is the only comparison that I can derive. Usually after his afternoon naps, he gets super-excited. I cannot imagine how a class full of excited atoms can be handled. He will be starting school from June this year and I cannot wait to meet the unfortunate teacher. I already have dreams of all the complaints that I am yet to receive from his school. I have quit my full time job as a Financial Adviser with a private sector bank to be with this little devil. In the past few months, he has started to watch endless television. His favorite show is Chotta Bheem. He has started to mimic everything this cartoon character does. The worst of it being kicking and hitting everyone. He comes running with a DISSHOOOOMM and throws a punch at his grand parents.I have quit my job just to keep him from watching TV and try to discipline him. His grand parents find it tough to say NO to his never ending wishes and whims. And now I have a fully grown monster who thrives on ice-creams, lolly pops and TV. Its been a couple of weeks since I quit work and Dhruva is slowly getting into a routine which does not include TV. I let him watch Winnie the Pooh a couple of times a week. His day starts with bed-paapu. He calls his milk, paapu.He needs his "paapu" even before he opens his eyes in the morning. Then I force him to wash his face and brush. By the end of the brushing session I am usually stressed out and have to call my husband a couple of times in between to help me. Then I put him on his high-chair and throw a few crayons and his coloring book. This keeps him occupied for about 20 minutes. After which I let him run around with his toy cars and trucks. He then has his morning meal which includes idly with ghee or cereal. He then begins his trek around the house with his great grand mom in tow. He watches the love-birds, helps my grand mom water the plants, helps the watch-man feed the dogs and gets into an argument with the poor old man everyday. After this I usually have a few chores and take him along with me around town. I usually carry a snack for him with some ice cold water. Then he enjoys the music on the radio and usually makes me change the station a few times before he is satisfied with the song playing. He likes listening to kuthu songs but prefers to listen to either the kolaveri song or a song from Mankatha. By the way he is a huge thala fan! After the trip I take him home for his lunch and then he retires for his nap.This is the times that I do all my browsing and recipe preparation for the evening dinner. This is also the time that I try to blog. After a couple of hours, he wakes and this is when the roof comes down. There is some sort of a chemical reaction that takes place that requires a few hours of sleep as a necessary ingredient. I have to be prepared with a plan to keep him occupied so that all of this energy is expended. I usually try making him run around the house, or play some football with him. Half way through this session I would be tired and need the help of my parents or who ever is around to continue the game. I try to feed him some fruit and milk so that he does not stay hungry till dinner. His father arrives from work usually after his evening game and keeps him occupied. He eats his dinner with all of us. Before he sleeps we try to read books with him. This is something that he enjoys thoroughly. I am already tired of reading his books more than few times. Then our day ends with a story telling session which would include all that he saw and did though the day. So far I have been successful in keeping him busy but I am already running out of ways to do that. Hopefully school should start soon. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to find more energy for the troublesome three s to come!

Day Care Discipline

Dhruva was 5 months old when we put him in daycare. My aunts choice was Rainbow Connection at CARC farm on Cherry lane. So that is what I went with and never regretted it. I was, like every mother, skeptical about putting him in day care since he was only 5 months old. I used to drop him off and sit outside the room and watching him through the glass window. It was a one way see through window and neither the nannies nor the babies cannot see us. Dhruva had two absolutely great nannies taking care of him. Deborah and Sheela. They were like mothers away from his mom. They took such good care of him and I soon started working full-time. He started learning new activities and also started eating well. They trained him very well. There was fixed time for food, play and nap. So he started getting into a routine. This made my life so much easier. He was a very easy baby to manage. He started crossing his milestones with such ease. I believe that his day care imbibed good habits in him from that tender age onwards. He started becoming very independent. He knew that he has to go to day-care everyday in the morning. He never gave us any trouble when we dropped him off in the mornings. He would get very excited when he sees me in the evenings. He ate whatever was given and was a very active baby. He learned to walk, talk and socialize very soon. I attribute his habits to the way that he was taught at the day care. They need constant attention at that age and he was given that to the fullest extent possible. So new moms should check out as many day care centers as possible and go with the ones that satisfy them the most. Its the first step towards teaching them to be independent.I totally understand that any new mom would be under immense pressure and confusion when she needs to drop of her child at the day-care at such a tender age under someone else's supervision. So talk to other parents who take their kids to that day-care. Talk to the management and ask as many questions as possible. Go online and see if there are any reviews about the day-care center.See if you can spend a few days in the day-care and check your baby from time to time. This might relax you a little bit. Make sure that the nannies who will be taking care of your child are experienced, preferably grand-moms. It is usually an added advantage if they are grand-moms since they tend to be experienced and sensitive to the feelings of a new mom. I think I ve covered most of it.
Happy parenting!!

Most Essential buys for a new baby

As a new mom, I was very excited about shopping for my baby. I would spend long hours on the laptop browsing the shopping websites for baby products. I used to read reviews and see what are the pros and cons listed by other experienced moms. I was very confused. In the end, I went to the expert. My aunt is a practicing pediatrician and she helped me in buying the most important products. I am not listing them based on their importance but every product served their purpose and more.

• Aquaphor
• sanitizer
• disinfectant wipes
• onesies
• receiving towels
• wash cloths
• baby towel
• breast pump
• humidifier
• baby bed/changing pad
• nose pump
• baby buds J&J
• disinfectant liquid
• baby bath tub
• bottle sterilizer
• gentle wash liquid /powder for baby clothes
• diaper bag
• nursing boppy/pillow
• soft blankets for covering
• baby bouncer
• baby carriers
• baby thermometer

Apart from these, baby personal products such as moisturizers, oils, soaps, body washes, shampoos are also necessary.

As a separate post, I will add products needed for the new mom. 

Enjoy parenting!

Dhruva - The north star

We named him Dhruva. His name means " the north star" in Sanskrit. He has brought new meaning to our lives.He has taught me more in the last two year than I will ever learn in any school, college or university. He has truly shown me direction in my life. He is my first child and my only child as of now. So everyday was and is a new day for me in terms of motherly experiences. I was hospitalized for two days after Dhruva was born. The first night that Dhruva spent at home, I slept well. The reason being my father. He slept at the foot of Dhruva's baby bed and I woke up only to feed him. But from the next night onwards, I would wake up for every 5 mins to make sure that he was covered properly, or to check his diapers or just to simply make sure that he was breathing fine. I was never a night person. I was always someone who preferred to sleep early. My husband kept telling me how difficult it was going to be for me to wake up and take care of Dhruva's needs in the middle of the night. I never gave it a thought. It never bothered me too much.Neither was I afraid of changing my sleeping pattern nor was I concerned whether I would wake up to attend to him. And I was totally fine when I had to wake up. It happened like clockwork. Dhruva s last feeding before he hit the bed would be around 10:30pm. After which he would wake up three times before morning with an interval of 2-3 hours. I never thought that I would wake up, but I did. Each and every night, 3 times every night. It was like someone turned on a switch in my system. It was automatic. Motherhood came automatic to me after Dhruva was born. It was like magic. TRULY! After a few months, I would wake up absolutely thrilled and happy if Dhruva forgets his early morning feeding and slept through! Me and my husband would wake up with big smiles having slept through for 4 hours. Those days were tiring. But every little gesture , every little smile, every little goo goo gaa gaa made all the effort totally worth it and gave us strength for more.

I was always afraid of holding babies. I never knew and never had the inclination towards learning to deal with babies or small children. I grew up with my little cousins who were a good 10 years younger than me. But I could only play with them at a distance and never really had that motherly touch. I was not even close. But it started happening once I was pregnant. The first time that I heard him cry after my OB-GYN pulled him out, a dam burst and I was crying... I saw his tiny white body, clean and perfect. That was it, the switch was turned ON. There was no going back.

Everything happened slowly though. My mom, my sister and my grand mom spent close to 3 months with me during my 9th month and after Dhruva was born. So since I had my mom and sister sharing the task of taking care of Dhruva, I was able to relax. I was recently watching a few videos of Dhruva when he was a few months old. It was probably just after my folks left for India and I was alone with the baby after Sriram, my husband, had left for work. It was like watching a silent movie only with the babies' gurgles now and then. It was like he was trying to talk to me but I was not reciprocating. I was not doing the "baby talk" that normal parents do. He was trying to talk to me and was putting so much effort into shaking his feet and hands and making cute noises. But I was just dumb. I dont know why. I slowly started conversing with him. Now, I am non-stop when he is around. I cannot keep my hands off him. But I do regret not doing the "baby talk".