Author: Christy @ Kidsrsimple

10 Top Things To Get For Preparation of Your Newborn

Apart from the usual cot, milk bottles, nappies, booties, here are 10 things that I feel are a MUST to be well-prepared for your newborn’s arrival.

1. A cot or a playpen?

Most people have both but some people prefers the dual function of a playpen or even a cot.  I see the difference of a cot and playpen as below:
a) cot is for sleeping (the base is a solid piece) and playpen is for playing (the base has more cushioning effect and does not provide a good sleep support)
b) cot is made of wooden frame and playpen is made with fabric (better cushioning effect when baby becomes toddler and starts to bump around in the playpen)
c) cot is better ventilated since it has openings at all sides in between each wooden structure and playpen is less ventilated since it is covered with fabric on all 4 sides

My personal preference is to have both cot and playpen to serve different purpose.  Most people can get hands-me-down for these 2 bulky baby items as many would be delighted to give them away to clear some space in their homes.

2. Sterilized cotton balls

Do not buy just normal cotton balls.  Buy sterilized ones.
As newborn needs extra care for hygiene, sterilized cotton balls would be very useful for:
a) cleaning the areola before breastfeeding
b) cleaning your newborn’s eyes, ears and mouth
c) cleaning the belly button with umbilical cord still attached for the first days

3. Sterilizer for bottles

An electric steam sterilizer is useful compared to the traditional method of sterilizing in boiling water.  This is especially so when you need to sterilize your bottles and breast pumps in the middle of the night.  You wouldn’t want to stay and wait till the water boils, apparatus sterilized for a further 5-10 minutes before you can turn off the stove and go back to bed.

4. Baby sling

Baby sling is very useful for carrying the baby wherever you go, be it at home or out shopping with your girl friends.  I prefer it to stroller as it is so convenient to travel around and climb the stairs.  I find it useful even when doing housework or shopping for groceries.  The baby feels safe in your arms close to you, smelling you and is not so easily frightened.  You have your free hands to do what you want to do.  It protects your privacy as you breastfeed your baby in public too.  I would say this is certainly worth an investment.  One tricky part though, is to learn how to use the sling comfortably.

5. A good diaper bag

A good carry-on bag to put baby essentials would be your best “helper”. Get one that has many compartments, big and small, to organize the bottles, diapers, wash cloth, baby bites, nappy cream, etc.

6. Baby wash cloth/hanky

You will need lots of these. These are useful and inexpensive. They are used as “napkins” during feeding and burping, to wipe off saliva and milk stains. They are useful as breast pads at home!

7. Baby wipes

Baby wipes are great for its multi-purpose usage. You can get 2 kinds of baby wipes. One for nappy change and one for wiping hands and mouth. However, I prefer using a wet hanky for wiping mouth and hands during the first 2 months since babies are so sensitive to external products on their skin. Besides using the wipes on the baby, I use them to wipe high chairs, cutlery and cups when I go out dining with my children too.

8. PIGEON baby food grinder bowl with spoon

I love this product from PIGEON.  It is a transparent egg shape bowl with small grinding beads that jut out slightly on the base.  The spoon that comes with it compliments the grinding beads to mash food easily.  The spoon can be snapped back onto the yellow lid and it’s really great for taking outdoors for feeding your baby with baby food.  I have seen other baby brands imitating this product, but PIGEON makes it with better design and touch.

9. Bottle holder

This is another favourite product from PIGEON.  It is useful to carry warm water in milk bottles for going out.  In fact, I do not like to carry vacuum flask, so what I usually do is to fill up with hot water in the milk bottle with the baby feeding timing in mind. Then the bottle holder is able to keep the water to lukewarm by about 3 hours for me to prepare formula milk for the baby.  This bottle holder comes in double holder where you can put 2 bottles and even AVENT bottles which are big can fit in.  Hence, it doubles up as a storage for expressed breastmilk in AVENT bottles for me.  I just need to add some ice-cubes on the extra space on top to maintain the cold expressed breastmilk.  Simple, no hassle and no need for expensive warmer bags.

10. Boiled Cool Water

I feel that I need to mention this as one of the top 10 things.  The best part is this is easily available in your kitchen.  Boiled water that has been cooled can be used to treat several skin problems at least for the milder cases I encountered with my babies.  I used it for washing my babies’ bottoms with each diaper change coupled with my favourite brand DESITIN nappy cream.  I used it for treating milk stain rash on the face and heat rash too.  It seems to work better than tap water especially for newborns.  Since it’s a cheap solution, you can give it a try!

What other things would you consider a MUST GET for preparing for your newborn arrival?  Share with me!

10 Top Questions Posed by Mums-to-be

Being one of the first to be a mum among my friends, it just seems natural that those close friends of mine would seek my advice on parenting.  And I really enjoy giving my two-cents worth to them while I indulge in reminiscence of my own pregnancy.  The best part is I have 2 to share.
Hence I have consolidated the top 10 questions and my advice to help future mums-to-be or even 2nd-time mums.

1. Breastmilk or formula?

I would say it depends on your milk supply and how tired you are during the first confinement month. Breastmilk is naturally the best milk for your baby.  You must have heard all the good reasons everywhere. But if breastfeeding is going to have you compromise your well-being and good rest, and if you find yourself taking it on the baby and everyone else including yourself, then please mix the feeding  routine with some formula milk. After that, slowly establish your breastmilk supply.  You may be wondering: is breastfeeding so tiring?

2. Establishing Breastfeeding

You love to breastfeed your baby, but your milk supply is so slow and low in the first few days, you feel upset, and feel like giving up.  This is natural as you would have read in the books as well.  In my experience, my milk supply was only established 2 weeks after birth.  What is establishing breastfeeding?  It means to have a constant sufficient supply of breastmilk for your baby.  There are many ways to increase the milk supply, like drinking lots of fluids, drink lots of soup, masssaging your breasts, have a relax body, think positively, think of the baby sucking on your breasts, drinking hot fluid before breastfeeding or expressing milk and correct baby position of latching on to your breasts.  Most importantly, you have to breastfeed or express the milk round the clock with about 3-4 hours interval including night hours.  With good planning, you can decide for yourself when you want to breastfeed directly and when you want to express the milk for bottle feeds.  Bottle feeds have the advantage of giving you more rest while someone is taking over the feeding, burping and putting the baby back to sleep which can really take up precious rest time and energy.

3. Does my baby need to drink water?

You may have read in many parenting books that if your baby is breastfed, you need not give any water to him/her.  This may be in contrast to grandparents who think that drinking water is important for the baby.  But newborn babies seem to be easily choked on water.  My experience was to give a teaspoon full of gripe water mix with 100ml of water in a bottle.  That usually stops the choking stress and gripe water can soothe colic and any tummy discomfort.  Then again, some mothers may not agree to give other kinds of fluid apart from milk and water.  So, it all depends on your school of thought.

4. What food should I be avoiding?

Foods that are harmful for the baby should be avoided like coffee and tea which have caffeine.  You should continue on the good nutrition that you have been observing throughout pregnancy and continue to take multi-vitamins.  Foods that will cause colic for the baby for breastfeeding mothers should be avoided too.  These food include onions, peanuts, nuts, spice foods, cabbage and dairy products.  To eliminate dairy products from our diet is rather difficult.  Hence, moderation is the word.  And even though milk is one of the culprit, I would still advise mothers to drink milk to replenish the depleted calcium due to pregnancy.

5. Can I bathe and wash my hair?

This question is more for Asians.  We believe that during the month of confinement, i.e. the first month after delivery, the mother is weak and should not touch water and anything that is cold including air-conditioning in the room.  Mothers cannot bathe, cannot wash their hair, cannot have fan blowing directly at them, cannot sleep in air-conditioning room.  Over the years, this has changed very much.  Even though many new mothers do not believe in such tradition in these modern times, they would still follow to a certain extent “just in case” the belief that ailments would follow through the later part of their lives if they fail to adhere may come true.  After all, in these days where many women may only give birth once or twice in their life, it is better to be safe than sorry.
For me, I insisted till around day 12 to bathe and wash my oily and sticky hair.  This was before I had to visit my gynae for post-delivery check-up.  I certainly would be greatly embarassed if my gynae and nurses were to smell me from afar.  Even the process of bathing has to be well-taken care of.  All doors and windows should be shut tight.  And a warm half-glass of D.O.M would be waiting for me outside the bathroom.  You can have a full glass if you like the taste, but not for me.  The bath has been prepared with special herbs believed to get rid of any “wind”.  The bathing time has to be short, like 5 minutes.  Then once I was done, I had to take care to dry myself very thoroughly inside the bathroom, changed into my new clothes, stepped out of the bathroom quickly and drink my glass of D.O.M to warm my body.  After that, quickly blew dry my hair.  Throughout the confinement month, I managed to bathe only thrice.  This is nothing compared to some who only bathe after 1 month!
On days that I could not bathe, I had to take care of my hygiene well, and changed into new set of clothes 2 times a day.  I used a small towel to clean myself behind closed doors and windows.  For my hair, I washed using dry shampoo which is a kind of powder form that you apply through your hair.  It helps to make it less sticky and oily which is better than nothing.

6. Will I spoil my child if I carry him too frequently?

I know of many friends who insisted not to carry their child too often just to prevent the child from getting used to being carried around and not able to be tamed if put down.  I once read on a book where the women of a certain tribe carried their newborn on them till the baby is 6 months old!  All the while without leaving the baby from the arms at all.  The baby can be rotated around to be carried by anyone but not allowed to be put down.  This is believed to increase bonding and boost immunity of the baby.  Unbelievable!  I kind of love this practice.  I love to carry my baby.  In fact I love to carry my baby around when I go about doing housework, and talk to my baby non-stop about the mundane household chores.  I believe that this is the time that my baby wants me to carry him/her.  How long can you enjoy this bonding?  Before you know, they would have grown up and may not even want you to carry them anymore.

7. Sibling rivalry

This question is definitely at the top of the mind for 2nd-time mums and dads.  I started telling my girl about having a baby sibling after my first check-up with my gynae.  On and off, we would mention the upcoming fun of having a new family member.  I avoided the mentioning of the gender before it was confirmed.  We involved her in most of the preparation for the arrival of the baby.  And when the big day came, I was greatly touched by the look of my girl’s gaze at her newborn brother.  It was full of amaze mixed with delight and even some hints of unbelievable look.  She must be overwhelmed by the sight of the baby after picturing in her mind for so many months looking at my growing tummy.  It was certainly a look that I still remember fondly up till this day.
After my baby YH was brought back home, I tried not to disrupt the bedtime routine with my girl as much as possible.  I talked to her, cuddled her, reassured her that she was and will always be my lovely precious princess.  In fact, we did what friends and books advised: to prepare 2 sets of presents to be given to the siblings in a present exchange “ceremony”.  Things work out well for us.  As long as the older sibling’s normal routine does not have drastic change and you and your spouse set aside time for him/her, sibling rivalry should be minimal.

8. Will I be ever get to wear back my old clothes?

Give yourself 4 months.  At the end of 4 months, you should be able to wear most of your old clothes.  Pants may be abit tight though since the hip does expand after childbirth.  You will be rewarded with faster weight loss if you are breastfeeding.  You should not go on a diet at all.  After childbirth and during breastfeeding months, mothers should be eating nutritious food.  Getting good nutrition should be top priority over getting back into shape.  You should be doing some light exercises regularly to help shed off some kilos and better well-being.

9. How to be sane with all the time and energy put into taking care of the baby?

Get out of the house for a short while with your hubby in the first month. Take a breather and reconnect with your old self. Think of nothing about the baby while you are out and trust that your baby will be well-taken care of by your trusted ones while you are away.  I had trouble relaxing myself during my first born confinement period.  I had to be forced out of the house to relax and it certainly helped in improving my post-natal depression.  So, for the sake of yourself and the baby, have some time away from the baby occasionally.

10. Will I do a good job as a mum?

Of course! Do not doubt yourself! Post-natal blues may cause you to doubt your ability and natural mother instincts.  You must remember that you have taken good care of your baby while he is in your womb.  And now that he is out, he depends alot on you to grow up and be independent eventually. He needs your wisdom, calmness, to hear your voice, see your face, drink your milk and feel safe in your cuddle.  You must have a positive mindset to enjoy the parenting joy.  Hence, believe in your ability.  Mother instincts will help you along the way.  No one takes care of the baby better than you if you trust yourself.

What other questions do you have? Share with me on your experience!

Reading – a simple yet important routine for the child

The best way to learn a language is to speak and read.  The best way to attain knowledge is to read.  The best way to indulge in vivid imagination (imagination = creativity) is to read too. 
 
Books are real, kids can touch them and parents can spend bonding time with kids by reading to them.  I would not encourage kids to read e-books since e-books cannot be touched and flipped.  And staring into the screen for long hours will stress the little eyes.  I would rather my kids being read to by me than to be read to by the iphone.  I am sure I can do a far better job than technology read-out-loud.  I started reading to my kids since I was pregnant with them and till now, I still read to my soon-to-be 5-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl.  They are still loving it!
 

How I read to my children:

  1. Cover page – Read the title, author, illustrator.  They will learn to appreciate the people behind the wonderful making of the book.
  2. Pictures – For the first few times, linger on the picture page for a longer time for the kids to interpret the pictures.  Their detailed observation of the pictures often stun me, as adults would not be bothered about how many mice appeared in the book of Goldilocks or whether Cleo has a bow on her head in Clifford stories.
  3. Add in words on your own and describe what you can see in the illustration. 
  4. Ask questions about what comes next, take their answers seriously, there is no right or wrong answers!
  5. Never read in a monotone way!  Read in a MELODIC way, with pitching and be immensed in the story to enact the expressions in the story.  Get them excited or in suspense to make the stories interesting. 

Choosing a book:

  1. BABIES – Big board books with texture and pop-ups, my kids’ favourites are “That’s not my…” series by Fiona Watt and cloth books with a mirror in front.  Too bad, there are very few Chinese Big Board Books around
  2. TODDLERS – Ladybird Classic series – Level 1 books, like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”.  I love Ladybird books because they repeat words and lines on many pages to reinforce simple words and sentences for early readers.  Another hit with my kids is “The very hungry caterpillar” by Eric Carle.  And don’t forget to read simple Chinese books to kids from young.
  3. 2-4 YEARS OLD- Ladybird Classic series – Level 2 books, like “The Gingerbread Man” and Clifford The Big Red Dog series, Chinese books with moral stories, fairy tales and The Berenstain Bear series.  The Berenstain Bear series revolve much in moral and daily routines and happenings for young families and they are depicted in good humour.  However, the stories may be a bit lengthy even though they do have simple “I can read” series.  For lengthy stories, you may have to summarize as you read along for the initial few times just to catch the children’s attention and interest. 
  4. 5-7 YEARS OLD- Ladybird Classic series – Level 3&4 books like “The Wizard of Oz” and The Berenstain Bear series.
  5. PICTURE BOOKS WITH NO WORDS – I love these stories without words!  It really is up to the imagination of the reader to interpret the story and follow what comes next.  One good picture book without words is “The Chicken Thief” by Beatrice Rodriguez.  You can borrow this book from the community library.  It has an unexpected and interesting twist to the end of the story. 

Ways to encourage reading:

  1. Bedtime reading should be included in the Bedtime routine from birth.
  2. Read to your children frequently and read to them even when they are capable of reading on their own.  My 7-year-old girl still loves and enjoys being read to her.
  3. Allow them to choose which books to read.  My kids are good negotiators when it comes to the number of books to be read for the night.
  4. Go to the library often and borrow books.
  5. Go to the bookstores often and buy books occasionally.  That shows how you treasure books enough to buy and keep them, besides, it helps to have a mini library at home.
  6. Leave books around the house casually.  This is to encourage kids to pick them up when they walk by or have nothing to do.
  7. Let the kids see you read books and newspapers, be a good role model! (you may refer to my earlier post “Why it is important to be YOURSELF in front of the kids” and that will probably give you a good excuse to indulge in some “me” time)
  8. Read a wide variety of books to your kids.  My son YH loves the animal encyclopedia and especially books on gorillas, apes and dinosaurs.
  9. Have a book in the car (books with large prints so as not to stress the eyes) or in your bag while travelling.
  10. Be ready to read the same book a hundred times to your kids.  They simply love the familiarity of the story and knowing what comes next. 

Do you have good books to recommend?  I would love to know! Tell me in the comments section!

 

Through the eyes of my little ones

I read somewhere that to look at the good points of a person, try looking for everything that is green in colour around you.  You would probably find many things that are green now that you focus only on this colour.  Same goes for choosing to look at the fine points of a person.  Through the eyes of the little kids, they can only see the fine points in their parents and no one on earth comes close to their Papa and Mummy.

  1. My Mummy is PERFECT, never mind that she can’t drive and can’t sing very well, to me, she is flawless.
  2. My Mummy is BEAUTIFUL, never mind that she digs her nose and is getting fatter.
  3. My Mummy will always hug me no matter how mischievous I am.
  4. I will never hold grudges against my Mummy, no matter how she punishes me for misbehaving.
  5. Even though she is angry with me at times, I still want her to kiss me goodnight.  I want her to accompany me to sleep every night.
  6. I love to help my Mummy in whatever she does.  “Mummy, what else is there for me to do for you?”
  7. My Mummy knows everything under the sun.  I love to ask her questions.
  8. Even though my Mummy is scared of cockroaches, lizards, and all kinds of reptiles, I will protect her no matter what.
  9. My Mummy is my best friend.  I love to tell her what happened in school everyday.  I love telling her secrets.
  10. I will continue to hug my Mummy and kiss my Mummy even when I grow old.
I love you forever, Mummy…
  1. My Papa is PERFECT, never mind that he can’t play the piano, to me, he is flawless.
  2. My Papa is HANDSOME, never mind that he farts in the room and he is always wearing the same shirt.
  3. I know that my Papa will not be angry with me 5 min after I misbehave.
  4. My Papa is a strong man!  He can carry me to sit on his shoulders to watch lion dance for a long time.
  5. My Papa knows everything about animals, pre-historic animals, insects, plants, history, geography, and everything on earth.  He is a walking encyclopedia!
  6. My Papa allows me to touch insects and teaches me their body parts.
  7. My Papa is a great cook!  He cooks the best maggie mee on earth.
  8. My Papa is never afraid of all kinds of insects and animals.  I bet he is not scared of dinosaurs too!  He is awesome!
  9. I love my Papa to make sharp turns when he drives and push us at high speed sitting in a trolley inside the supermarket.  We love thrills!
  10. Whenever I need a kiss and a hug, my Papa will readily kiss and hug me.
I love you forever, Papa…
 
 
and we love you forever too, XX and YH…
 
 
Through the eyes of my dear XX and YH, I saw the above love messages about me and Kel.
 
In their eyes, we are both PERFECT… and
in our eyes, they are both PERFECT…

Learning through Play – the fun and simple way

There are many ways to teach academic topics to kids through playing and games.  Kids find the games interesting and get to learn English, Chinese, Mathematics without knowing.  I find the ways to introduce learning something new extremely important as first impression last for a long long time.  If kids are introduced to learning in a fun way, they will not tend to be put off or reject learning the same subject matter in future.
 
Here are 5 fun ways of learning that my kids love:

1. Teaching NUMBERS using playing cards

I love playing cards.  Not to gamble with kids but to introduce the concept of numbers to my kids.  There are many ways to play to reinforce this concept.

a) Big and small – The deck of cards is distributed evenly to each player.  If there are 3 players, each player take turns to be the first to throw out a card, the next person has to throw out a bigger number card.  Whoever throws out the biggest number card wins the pool of cards.  There is a catch here.  If you always throw out big number cards in the beginning, you will end up with small number cards towards the end of the game.

What is learnt here: kids get to think of what number is bigger than the number thrown out.  They get to plan to reserve cards for the end where everyone has no big cards.  This trains their thinking and planning skills.

b)   SNAP game – Do you remember how to play “SNAP”? If you have those flash cards with a set of numbers vs a set of counting dots, you can play “SNAP” with your kids.

What is learnt here: kids learn counting and get used to patterns and train them to know the number without counting dots.

c) Memory game – Sieve out pairs of number cards, shuffle, and lay them face down on the floor.  Players take turn to open 2 cards at a time.  Whenever 2 cards with the same number are turned over, player gets to keep the cards. If the cards are different, they will have to be turned over face down till someone picks these cards again.

What is learnt here: kids learn numbers and train their memory skills.

2. Teaching MONEY

Set up a market stall selling fruits, vegetables, meat, etc using kids’ cooking toy set.  Write down 10cents, 20 cents, 50 cents and one dollar on pieces of paper and place them on each sale item.  Give your kids some money with many coins of different denominations.  Start selling to your “customers”, i.e. your kids.  Guide them on giving you more than the price of items and give them back money change.  (My kids love this part of getting money change back.  They think they earn more by getting more coins back!)  Make it more fun by selling their favourite toys as well as reversing roles!

What is learnt here: kids learn the concept of money, how to count money and get back money change.

3. Teaching ENGLISH / CHINESE


Do a “SHOW AND TELL” with your kids!  You can take turns to play this with your kids starting with you! Pick up anything, it can be a pen, a tissure box or a favourite toy and start describing the object in your hands.  You have to speak proper English or Chinese sentences, add in some simple but interesting vocabulary.  Then when it is your kids’ turn, let them rattle on and DO NOT INTERRUPT or attempt to CORRECT their descriptive phrases.  Let them be proud of their “Show and Tell” moment.  After all, they are “on stage”!

What is learnt here: Kids learn English and Chinese words and build up their vocabulary.  The game boosts their confidence and on-stage performance.  While you also do a “Show and Tell, they get to learn more difficult and interesting words and phrases from you too.

4. Teaching MATHEMATICS

It is important to recognize patterns to improve Mathematics as many Mathematics concept revolves around patterns recognition.  I play board games like “Snake and Ladder” and any games that require dice throwing.  Such games enable my kids to recognize the dots on the die for each number.  If you use 2 dice, they learn to add the numbers too. Learning music helps on pattern recognition as well.  There are endless patterns on music scores.  I teach my girl to recognize the pattern of the composition and play on the piano without counting each note.

What is learnt here: kids are trained to get used to recognizing patterns so that they are able to apply them in Mathematics concept.

5. Train the BRAIN


To give a game of “Snake and Ladder” an interesting twist, we reverse the rules with the kids. With the Up the Snake and slide Down the Ladder, the kids have lots of fun catching whoever confuses with the rules. Same goes for the card games where the smaller number card wins over a big number card.

What is learnt here: kids learn to think in unconventional way and their brains are trained to switch thinking from different perspective easily.

Do you have great fun games to entice kids in learning? Share with me!