Baby Diets and Nursery

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July 26th, 2010

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Your Babies Diet When your baby comes home, you may be overwhelmed knowing that you are responsible for keep your child happy and healthy. It is not as hard as you may think, but the next 18 years can feel daunting to anyone, even experienced parents. Your baby’s sleep and play patterns are going to work themselves out without much input from you, but your babies diet is something you do have to think about each day. It is easy at first, but you do have to make the right choices as they grow so that they develop great habits to last a lifetime. Your babies diet early on is as simple as it gets. They are going to either breastfeed or they are going to drink formula from a bottle. They will let you know when they are hungry, and they are going to stop eating when they are full. Babies always stop eating when they have had what they need, and they will cry when they need more. You should keep track of how much if you fear your baby is not gaining, but otherwise, this is definitely the easy part of your babies diet. After they turn six months, things are going to change. Some moms add cereal to their babies diet when they are four months old thinking this is going to fill them up and that they will sleep through the night. They sleep through the night on their own, and cereal has nothing to do with it. If your baby does well with cereal at this age, it is fine to give it to them, but six months is a better age to start adding cereal to your babies diet. Their digestive system is better able to handle this type of food then. You can then also start thinking about other foods as well. A baby’s diet after six months can consist of cereal and simple baby foods. These are foods that can be completely pureed, as your baby has very few, if any, teeth yet. These include vegetables like green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots. There are fruits too, including peaches, pears, applesauce, and bananas. These are all pretty easy to digest. You should introduce these into your babies diet one at a time so that you can watch for allergic reactions. Babies at this age are not ready for cows milk or meats they must chew. Once your baby is nine months old, you can then add new foods as recommended by your pediatrician. These include some meats (though some babies won’t do well with these until they are one), juices, and some finger foods. Babies should never have any finger foods that they can choke on and that they can not chew. If you fear that you are going to add things to your babies diet before they are ready, talk to your baby’s doctor for recommendations and guidelines. They will be happy to help you. There are many great books on the subject too, so don’t feel that you are on your own. There is plenty of great help out there.

All About Baby Bassinets There are plenty of places where baby can sleep when they come home from the hospital. They spend a lot of time sleeping, as this is when they grow. They are not going to care much about where they are sleeping, so you have to do what you think is best for your family and living situation. There are tons of options, so do what you like and what works for your life. Some like to put baby in the crib right away, but others like to have baby in room with them at first, especially if they are breastfeeding. Baby bassinets are just one of the great options out there. Baby bassinets have been around and have been used for a very long time. They are small, convenient, and can often be unisex when purchased. They fit in small places, some are portable, and most can be used for more than one baby. They come in different sizes and styles, and are always comfortable and safe places for baby to sleep as long as you use them correctly and keep a few safety issues in mind. Your baby bassinet may hold special place in your heart, as this is where they first sleep when they come home with you. Always give any baby bassinets you are considering a good once or twice-over when you buy. This means choosing among those that have a display model out for you to look at before you decide. See what you think about how sturdy and well built the item is, and how it fits into your home. Always look up safety recalls before you go shopping. Though most stores take all recalled items off the shelves immediately, it is not impossible for one or two to slip through and remain on sale. Only buy baby bassinets that meet your tough safety requirements. Once you have chosen from the baby bassinets that you like, you get to go home and put it together. Make sure you follow instructions to the letter. Some have wheels and some do not, and if they do, make sure you know how to use brakes to keep the bassinet in place. Also make sure you know where you are going to keep it both at night and during the day, and remove any wall hanging above where it will stay. Pictures and other items hung above baby bassinets can fall and harm baby. Be safe and keep the walls bare in those spots. Make sure you by appropriately sized sheets for your brand of baby bassinets. Any sheet that comes loose or come off is a choking and SIDS hazard for your baby. Also follow instructions for size and age. Some baby bassinets are good for babies up to six months of age, while others only are safe for babies up to three months. Once baby is larger and more active, they need to be moved to a different sleeping environment. Also know how to lock any bassinets in place that can rock or swing, and show any older children you have how to be safe with them.

Choosing Baby Nursery Lighting You can use an overhead light for your nursery and be done with it, but there are some problems with this solution. For one, it will wake your baby up completely at night when a diaper change or feeding is needed, making it hard for them to tell the difference between night and day. This light can be harsh on your eyes as well. You can use natural light from the window in the day and a nightlight at night, but there are disadvantages to that as well. Use a few options together to come up with the right baby nursery lighting for your home. Nightlights have been used for baby nursery lighting for a long time with good reason. They help you see without flipping on a harsh light at night, and they can help calm a baby or toddler who wakes up in the middle of the night. Having a nightlight in the nursery is great, but you may want to have two of them if it is a large room, and you should also have a few in hallways and on stairs so you never have to fumble with lights in the middle of the night. You may even want to invest in a few touch lights to have in just the right spots if you need a little extra illumination. During the day, you can use natural light in your nursery if you have enough windows. This is not the best baby nursery lighting if you only have one small window in the room, but natural light is the best if you can use it. Not only is it free, it also allows your baby to distinguish between day time and night time, which is something they have to do in order to start sleeping through the night. Throw open the drapes during the day if you can and save. If you are breastfeeding, you may sit with your baby in the nursery to do this. Some babies feed fast, but some are slow about it. If you have a slow baby, you may find that sometimes you want to read while they feed, especially at night when you don’t want to talk to them too much. Keeping things business-like through the night helps them go back to sleep more easily and quickly. The nightlights may not be enough baby nursery lighting if you want to read. If so, invest in a small lamp that lets off a soft glow that will allow some reading without jarring baby awake. There are many options for baby nursery lighting and choosing the best one is important. However, you have to choose the right bulbs as well. If you have an overhead light, use energy efficient lights. However, for those soft lights, these can be a bit too harsh on young baby’s eyes. Choose something made for a soft glow and to be gentle on the eyes. You can switch over the more energy efficient bulbs when the baby is a bit older. You may want to get some of the same bulbs for other areas where your infant spends a lot of time, just for a short while.

Baby Nursery Rugs For the most part, you want the rug in your baby’s nursery to match what you are doing with the rest of the room. However, there are a few other things to think about when choosing, if the room in question does not already have a rug in place. For the most part, baby nursery rugs are functional at first, but baby will spend some time on them in the future in ways that you or older people in your home would not. That is why you have to think about the one you want to buy or if perhaps you want to replace the one already in the room. Babies have sensitive skin, as you know. The baby nursery rugs you choose are things that could possibly cause a huge skin irritation or rash. Some children break out in hives on certain types of rugs, as the fibers can irritate and even poke into the skin. This is rare, but it can happen to children with extremely sensitive skin. You only think about walking on the rug you are going to use, but your baby will lay on it, crawl on it, walk on it, and possibly even try to eat it. Babies explore with their mouths, so keep that in mind. You want to find baby nursery rugs that are made of safe materials. These are materials that are not known to cause an allergic reaction and that will not give off toxic chemicals after they are installed. Some of the stain resistant rugs out there are great for being easy to clean, but do you know what they add to that rug to make it stain resistant? You are probably better off getting a rug that may stain and will have to be replaced eventually, but that will be nice to your baby’s sensitive skin. Baby nursery rugs should also be soft to the touch. Berber carpet is nice in many rooms, but is not the best for babies that are learning to crawl and spend a lot of time on the floor. It can be harsh on their skin, even if the materials are rather safe. Go with something soft and plush. No matter what you finally choose, see if you can air the rug out before you have it installed. That allows any chemical smell to come out of the rug before you put it into the room. This is the same thing has painting early and allowing the room to air, and airing out the crib mattress before you let baby sleep on it. If you are keeping the same carpet in your nursery for baby nursery rugs, you already have most of the hard work done, unless you want to replace it. For the most part, a good carpet cleaning is all that you need to do to refresh it and to ensure it is clean. For the sake of your baby’s sensitive skin, use a carpet cleaner that uses natural or green cleaning solutions. They can clean just as well as the chemical types of cleaners and you will feel better about putting baby down on the floor.

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Posted in Baby Care

Tags: Baby Bassinets, Baby Diets, Baby Nursery Lighting, Baby Nursery Rugs

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