Today’s first time parenting tip - Don’t gloat too much over whether the first word is dada or mama

Between my wife constantly babbling “Mama mama mama mama” at our baby and the other non stop barrages of baby talk our son gets, I’m sure he won’t be able to help being anything but a babbling idiot. When he does say mama or dada for the first time, whoever its directed towards will feel so much pride they’ll want to burst.

For the other parent, don’t worry. Even though they may say your partner’s moniker first, be assured that the baby has no idea what they’re doing. They’ll be saying it indiscriminantly and won’t build the actual association until much later on.

So don’t go moping around and being bitter. There will be plenty of ice cream trips, gifts and other bribes to get your child to like you better much later on.

Parenting, First, Word, Baby

Today’s first time parenting tip - Try systematic waking to help your baby through the night

So you’ve tried crying it out, and you’ve tried getting up with him. Solid food doesn’t help, and you’re nearly at your wits end with trying to get your baby to not wake up twice a night. Maybe you’ve got a kid that wakes up at night. Everyone does, even adults. But the trick is learning to go back to bed.

A possible answer, and one that seems contradictory to what you are trying to accomplish, is systematic waking. Basically, you note your baby’s usual wake up times. Then, you set your alarm for a half hour before they would wake up. Get up, change them, nurse them, do whatever you would do if they woke up on their own. Then, gradually extend the time between waking them up.

The idea is they come to rely on you to wake them up. They learn to stay asleep longer, and to associate you coming in to wake them and take care of them as usual. It may or may not work, but give it a try if nothing else works, or if you don’t want to let them cry it out.

Parenting, Sleep, Night, Habit, Waking

You might have noticed that I haven’t been posting for the last week or so. It wasn’t because I’m lazy, or because I ran out of tips, or because my son became too much to handle that I drove myself insane.

No, it was because I took a business trip out to San Francisco, ground zero for all things interactive. You’d think one would be able to get a reliable connection out there.

Alas, you thought wrong. The office I was in out there had nothing. My hotel had wireless, but no one knew how to maintain or service it so I was left without any means of communicating electronically.

So I’m working on getting my tips up to date. Bear with me, things should be back on track by tomorrow or the day after. Thanks for understanding!

Today’s first time parenting tip - Consider organic foods if your baby is off the charts for height and weight

Our son, simply put, is an absolute monster. At 6 months, he was 29 inches tall and 20 lbs…which is crazy big. My co-worker has a 14 month old that’s smaller than him. I don’t know what it is that we’re feeding him, but it sure is working.

Babies at this age need a diet that’s high in fat and rich in vitamins and minerals. And boy, is he getting them. But regular foods could have more steroids or growth hormones in the foods, which then transfers to the person eating them, and causes them to shoot up like a beanstalk.

This could be why kids always seem bigger and develop earlier these days. All our foods are shot full of additives and steroids to make them grow bigger. Makes sense that as we eat more of these steroid riddled foods, we get bigger too.

If your pediatrician is concerned that your baby is too big, you might want to try organic foods. They’re more natural, and will still give your baby all the nutrients they need. And they’ll help your baby not look like a mini-arnold. Never give your baby less food or attempt to put them on any kind of diet that your pediatrician doesn’t recommend. You’ll be doing more harm than good.

Parenting, Organic, Baby, Food, Nutrition

Today’s first time parenting tip - Give your baby a multivitamin during the winter months.

Now that your baby is moving into a solid food based diet rather than a breast milk or formula based one, you might be wondering if your baby is getting the right nutrients and minerals. A good way to make sure is to feed them all kinds of different fruits and vegetables. Different colors mean different vitamins, so feed accordingly.

One vitamin that often gets missed is Vitamin D. It usually comes from the sun, but is missing from breastmilk and formula. So around the age of 7 or 8 months, you might want to think about giving your baby a multivitamin, like Provisol from Enfamil, to supplement their diet and give them the Vitamin D they miss out on during the winter months.

Talk to your pediatrician about when to give a multi, and what one to give. Just to prepare you , they smell absolutely horrid and taste even worse. Just the high price you pay to have a healthy baby I guess.

Parenting, Multivitamin, Baby, Health, Nutrition

Today’s first time parenting tip - Be prepared for your baby to change a lot in a matter of days

Maybe you noticed that there was a complete lack of posts over the past week or so. That was because my work sent me out to San Francisco, the interactive capital of america, to work on an internet banner buy for my ad agency’s main client. Expenses paid, cool city, cool work…I was ecstatic.

Of course, I knew I’d miss my son. But what I wasn’t prepared for was the amount he changed while I was gone. Before, he’d grab for things, look at things, make noises…but you could just tell he didn’t know what was going on. Anything he did was by accident.

When I cam back, it was like he was completely different! He had his exersaucer figured out, he could work his way over to a toy and look for it when he dropped it…it was like he was a conscious person for the first time.

I was taken aback…as much as I loved heading west, I wish I had been around to see the first time he figured out how to play his baby keyboard. A lot of people told me that a big personality change happens in baby’s around 6 months…I guess I didn’t realize how much so until now.

Parenting, Personality, Change

Today’s First Time Parenting Tip - Get your baby a pop-up tent for trips to the beach

Took our son to the beach for the first time this weekend, and he absolutely loved it. Loved playing in the sand, loved being in the water, seeing all the people and boats. Smiled the whole time we were there.

And we were able to stay for awhile because we had a little pop up tent we brought with us. It packs down completely flat, to about a foot-and-a-half circle. Even though we had him slathered with 45 spf sunscreen and had clothes on him, being out in the sun for an hour or even two would have been bad for him. Plus it would have been heck on his eyes.

The tent was great because we could throw him in there, he was shaded, we didn’t have to worry about the sun in his eyes, and we had a place to feed and change him without getting sand everywhere. Plus he loved playing in it. I think he could have slapped the sand underneath the floor for hours and been completely content.

Parenting, Outdoor, Sun, Beach, Tent, Shade

Today’s first time parenting tip - Get your baby into swimming lessons as early as possible

I’m always shocked and amazed when I meet someone who doesn’t know how to swim. I always remember taking swimming lessons and going to the pool and the beach every summer…and I can’t imagine not knowing what to do if I fell in the water, so much so that I’d be afraid of it.

Even if you have a trepidation about water, don’t pass it on to your child. It’s a simple thing you can do to help you child be safe around water. And its a great bonding experience, since you get to do it together. Plus, think of all the fun summers your kid will have playing at the beach and pool with his friends.

You can sign up for a parent-tot swim class at your local Y, and most city community recreation centers have one. If your baby is young, like mine (6 months), you want to make sure you go to an instructed class. I don’t think just tossing your baby into the water and letting them figure it out is a good option. My class ran me about 45 dollars, and classes at the Y were 60-100.

It should be a required skill, and its one they’ll never forget.

Parenting, Swim, Parent, Tot, Aqua, Baby

Today’s first time parenting tip - Keep trying with new foods, even if your baby seems to absolutely hate them

Our son hates fruit. Literally, he gags and shakes his head back and forth as if we were making him suck on lemon rinds. It’s the wierdest thing…since I’d think vegetables would be a big turn off.

In any case, we’re not ready to give up on him yet. We always make sure he gets a taste of the new food, even if he doesn’t want to eat it, we always encourage him without being pushy. Sure, I would never eat prunes in a thousand years, but for babies, they need a full range of fruits and veggies so that they get a wide array of vitamins and minerals.

Plus, it can take up to ten times for a baby or child to warm up to a food. So make it fun, and don’t put away the prunes yet…they just might learn to love them.

Parenting, Fruit, Vegetables, Eat, Feeding

Today’s first time parenting tip - That cough, sniffle and tired look could be allergies.

Our son had a little nagging cough that wouldn’t go away, and right around the time of his six month appointment, he got bad circles under his eyes and he was a little stuffy. We thought for sure he was sick or had a cold, but we thought it was wierd that he wasn’t in a bad mood, was eating normally and didn’t have a fever.

Our pediatrician thought it was probably allergies, and she perscribed Claritin, which we have yet to give him. We didn’t really like how Claritin makes him drowsy, and if he’s not at risk from another disease and its not keeping him from being healthy, we didn’t want to give him drugs just for the sake of giving him drugs. But that’s just us I guess.

Pay attention to all the symptoms your baby has. If you notice something out of the ordinary, try to think what’s changed. Did you just get a pet? Is it allergy season? Was he exposed to a new food? Was there someone sick at day care. Usually you can track down the source of the symptoms by doing some simple detective work, and that’ll help the pediatrician diagnose your baby as well.

Parenting, Allergy, Claritin, Reaction, Allergic