A Homemaker’s Diary

I am reading Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food at this blog – borstvoeding.com

I would like to share these tips with other parents who would like to try this method to feed their children.

DOs and DON’Ts for baby-led introduction of solids

* DO offer your baby the chance to participate whenever anyone else in the family is eating. You can begin to do this as soon as he shows an interest in watching you, although he is unlikely to be ready to put food in his mouth until he is about six months.

* DO ensure that your baby is supported in an upright position while he is experimenting with food. In the early days you can sit him on your lap, facing the table. Once he is beginning to show skill at picking food up he will almost certainly be mature enough to sit, with minimal support, in a high chair.

* DO start by offering foods that are baby-fist-sized, preferably chip-shaped (i.e., with a ‘handle’). As far as possible, and provided they are suitable, offer him the same foods that you are eating, so that he feels part of what is going on.

* DO offer a variety of foods. There is no need to limit your baby’s experience with food any more than you do with toys.

* DON’T hurry your baby. Allow him to direct the pace of what he is doing. In particular, don’t be tempted to ‘help’ him by putting things in his mouth for him.

* DON’T expect your baby to eat any food on the first few occasions. Once he has discovered that these new toys taste nice, he will begin to chew and, later, to swallow.

* DON’T expect a young baby to eat all of each piece of food at first – remember that he won’t yet have developed the ability to get at food which is inside his fist.

* DO try rejected foods again later – babies often change their minds and later accept foods they originally turned down.

* DON’T leave your baby on his own with food.

* DON’T offer foods which present an obvious danger, such as peanuts.

* DON’T offer ‘fast’ foods, ready meals or foods that have added salt or sugar.

* DO offer water from a cup but don’t worry if your baby shows no interest in it. A breastfed baby, in particular, is likely to continue for some time to get all the drinks he needs from the breast.

* DO be prepared for the mess! A clean plastic sheet on the floor under the high chair will protect your carpet and make clearing up easier. It will also enable you to give back foods that have been dropped, so that less is wasted. (You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your baby learns to eat with very little mess!)

* DO continue to allow your baby to breastfeed whenever he wants, for as long as he wants. Expect his breastfeeding feeding pattern to change as he starts to eat more solid foods.

* If you have a family history of food intolerance, allergy or digestive problems, DO discuss this method of weaning with your health advisers before embarking on it.

* Finally, DO enjoy watching your baby learn about food – and develop his skills with his hands and mouth in the process!

I’ve never heard about Dinovite until a few days ago through SocialSpark, ehem! Anyway, I know my friend Oli who has a dog would love to keep track which dog shampoo is good for her pet..heh! Like a doting mom, she would be happy to know that there is option for her furry friend to remain clean and smelling nice.

The all natural dog shampoo Dogosuds will help make your dog smell clean and wonderful for a long time. As it lathers beautifully, it also rinses easily.

The shampoo contains 100% pure, therapeutic grade essential oils that have natural, healing properties, thus works well for sensitive skin.

It has 4 exciting blends – Essential Oil Blend: natural flea and tick deterrent, soothing and healing, Lavender : naturally good for skin, good for coat, Peppermint/Tea Tree : natural flea and tick deterrent, soothing and healing and Unscented : if you don’t care for scented shampoos.

Most importantly it is a natural flea deterrent. The shampoo contains no chemicals, no perfumes, and no fillers that will irritate or dry your dog’s skin! And it also works great to remove skunk odor!

So if your dog is itching, scratching, has sores and hot spots, stinks beyond belief, experiencing constant excessive shedding, thus keeping you up all night or make you visit the vet more often than you should, check out the Dinovite website. You might find the remedy for all the doggy problem there.

I came across an entry on 5 Minutes For Mom blog – Losing My Superpowers.

It makes me wonder when the time comes, will I be sad? A friend told me that it broke her heart when her son stopped nursing at 8 months. She was hospitalized for dengue fever and due to that many nights of absence and weird taste of the medicine she has to take, her son refused to nurse directly.

I have to admit that it feels empowering, knowing that no one else has the power to comfort your son other than the pair of breasts that God endowed upon you since you are like 14, 15? hehe..and pre-baby and pre-marriage years, you thought those breasts are just a sex symbol or the perfect trophy of womanhood.

Being a mom and breastfeeding your child, you realize it means so much more – it provides food for the hungry mouth, it gives comfort during trying and sleepless nights when he’s teething, having fever, had a nightmare or simply to let him know that Mom is around.

It’s a precious drop that no one else can provide and no money can buy. Try ask around any lactating moms whether they would be willing to be a wet nurse to your child, I bet unless you are some royal Queen with humble servants, you won’t have a chance to get a willing mom to do the nursing job..heh!

So while it lasts, I will try to enjoy the experience (although there are times at night that I wish I can sleep peacefully on my stomach for the whole stretch of 7 hours). I know it won’t be forever and when it comes to the weaning moment, I will for sure be sad like hell!

I’m not sure whether in Malaysia there exists such thing like Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Gamblers Anonymous (GA) and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. And I don’t have anyone close that goes to such meeting to clarify. It’s embarrassing enough to admit that you are an addict and need help, thus why many addicts opt for silence treatment and attending anonymous addiction groups.

For those who need to look out for a relevant meeting in their area, you can check out InTheRooms Meetings database. This Wiki will also allow any member to help manage the most accurate meeting database online. You can make any revision to any meeting and their moderators will review and approve. Thus we can have the most accurate meeting database online to date.

For now they have several meetings database including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous. It also covers all meetings from most of the countries in the world (alas, I couldn’t find Malaysia in the list). So if you know any such meetings in Malaysia, please register and submit the details so that Malaysians who need such help would be able to attend the anonymous meeting.

This is your chance to make a difference and get to know fellow friends who are in need of support to overcome whatever addiction they are battling in life.

The phrase “working mother” is redundant. ~Jane Sellman

It was the kind of splendid September day when sending kids to school just feels wrong. Fortunately, that year I was home schooling and calling the shots. Plus we were living in California, an hour from the Pacific Ocean. For all I knew, it could have been the last day of summer, and we wouldn’t want to miss that. So it was off to the ocean with five children under eight―Josh, Matt, Ben, Zach, and Sophia.

Together, we cleaned up from breakfast, prepped the car, and then gathered beach blankets, umbrella, towels, swimsuits, diapers, sunglasses, sand toys, first aid kit, sunscreen, a cooler full of snacks and drinks―ay yi yi yi yi! Hello, motherhood; goodbye spontaneity. I loaded the assorted car seats and strapped, snapped, and buckled five wiggling bodies into Big Blue―the 1989 Suburban we outgrew only a few years later. We were on our way.

With everyone else in school, the whole beach was ours. I staked out our territory close to the water, hauled everything down from the car, and set up camp. For five hours I served as personal valet, sunscreen slatherer, weather advisor, recreation director, swim instructor, lifeguard, EMT, food concessionaire, manners consultant, bus boy, interpreter, peace negotiator, psychologist… not to mention keeper of the lost-and-found.

Finally, I hauled everything back to the car, strapped, snapped, and buckled five sunscreen-and-sand-coated-but-no-longer-wiggly warm, limp bodies back into Big Blue and headed for home. The sun through the window was soothing, and the car was full of contentment. It had been a wonderful day and I was pleased with myself as a mother. Then, from the back seat, I heard Zachary clear his throat, and in his deadpan four-year-old Eeyore voice ask, “Mom, when are you going to get a job?”

“This is my job,” I said, somewhat amused and just a little edgy.

Homeward bound with the kids falling asleep one by one, I was left alone with my thoughts. I began to see the beauty of Zach’s question. Somehow―even though it could be hard work and even though I had my testy moments―my kids didn’t think of motherhood as a job.

And I decided that was a good thing because it’s not really a job at all, but a calling. And callings just don’t look like jobs, because they require more of a person than a job requires. This is particularly true of stay-at-home mothers whose days are spent conquering mountains of laundry, creating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and kissing owies.

We live in a world where success is measured by progress, as recorded on report cards, sales reports, performance reviews, pay raises and symbolized by ribbons, trophies, and merit badges. In our lifetimes, our husbands and children will bring scores of these items home and make us proud. We’ll put them in scrapbooks, sew them on uniforms, frame and hang them up for all to see.

But I don’t know of any special awards for teaching a child to tie her shoe or come to dinner when called. No raises or praises when a mother drops everything to drive someone out for poster board―”your project’s due tomorrow? But it’s almost eight o’clock!”

Every day this goes on with everyday moms doing everyday things― sometimes struggling with feelings of inferiority or even worthlessness ―just being obedient to their calling.

But while motherhood can look easy (after all, it certainly is not rocket science), the irony is this: while lots of important people in important places conduct lots of important business every day, the truly most important work in the whole world is really going on at home, where the CEO is mommy.

I guess if we got disgruntled enough from lack of appreciation, we could start a Mommy Power movement with bumper stickers that say, “If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

We could sue people who put us down at parties and maybe even become a protected minority.

But that wouldn’t be very mommy-like, would it? Because there’s something about mommies that should be soft where others are hard, kind where others are cruel, patient where others can’t wait. We may not start out that way at all, but there’s absolutely nothing like motherhood to change anything about us that needs to be changed.

At least, that’s how it’s been on my motherhood journey. I set out to make a home, to grow a family, and to help my children reach their potential.

The most amazing thing is that while I was helping them reach theirs, they were helping me reach mine.

(Every Mother Is a Working Mother From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms)