Music For Babies and Toddlers
Our favourite: ‘Baby’s Favorite Tunes’
Beautiful Music for your baby or toddler
Bring your nursery to life and captivate your little one with some really lovely relaxing tunes!
Breastfeeding Toddlers
Breastfeeding Toddlers
Is society dictating when we should stop breastfeeding toddlers?
Because more women are now choosing to breastfeed their babies and more importantly older babies, more and more mums are also finding that they enjoy it enough to continue longer than the first few months they had originally planned on. Breastfeeding toddlers to 3 – 4 years of age and beyond is common in much of the world recently, and is still common in many societies for toddlers to be breast fed.
Because mothers often enjoy breastfeed toddlers, you shouldn’t feel you have to stop it. It offers a feeling of calm and watching and listening to your little one gently suckling at your breast reinforces the true meaning of motherhood and underpins the special bond that continues throughout the rest of your life together. After six months, many mothers think that breast milk loses it’s value – which just isn’t true. As long as you are producing a good quantity of breast milk, it will still contains proteins, fats, and other important nutrients which your little one needs.
The fact is, breast milk provides immune factors that will protect the baby against infections. Breast milk also contains factors that will help the immune system mature, and other organs to develop and mature as well. Breastfeeding is good beyond doubt; Mothers who wish and who can breastfeed toddlers really should follow their hearts and continue as long as all affected parties agree.
It’s been shown and proven in the past that children in daycare who are still breastfeeding have far less severe infections than the children that aren’t breastfeeding. The mother will lose less work time if she chooses to continue breastfeeding todders once she is back to work.
If you have thought about breastfeeding your baby once he pr she gets passed 6 months of age, you have made a wise decision. Although many mothers feel
that it isn’t necessary, breast milk will always help babies and toddlers. Breast milk is the best milk you can give to your baby.
No matter what others may tell you, breastfeeding toddlers only needs to be stopped when you and your little one are ready. You don’t have to stop when someone else wants you to! We belive you should only stop breastfeeding toddlers when you feel that it’s the right time.
A video about weaning…
Go back to the main baby tips page here: Baby Tips
I hope that mothers continue breastfeeding toddlers to an age that suits both parties!
The Ch 4 series ‘Extraordinary Breastfeeding’ (part 3 as in the video above) gives actual insights from mothers who are breastfeeding toddlers to ages 4, 5, 6, 7 and even 8 years.
Preventing Nappy Rash
Nappy rash; its a maintenance thing!
As the old saying goes, prevention is better than cure when it comes to preventing a bad case of nappy rash
. For all that we may fear the onset of nappy rash in our children, there is no certainty of absolute and total prevention – but there is a lot that can be done to make it far less likely, and it revolves mostly around keeping your baby dry and clean as far as is possible. There is nothing more forlorn than a baby with a serious case of nappy rash; the sight of that tiny little bottom all red and sore would surely make any parent wish there was a simple way to stop this once and for all! However, your baby will not be shy about letting you know when he or she is in any discomfort. This can prevent nappy rash from developing, but would obviously not be a way of preventing it if it has already started to get a hold.
The prevention of nappy rash is something that requires no small amount of diligence, as well as some luck. But there are some simple rules which can make the process a lot more straightforward. Firstly, you must change your baby’s nappy as soon as it is obviously soiled. This will prevent the infection from having somewhere to live. In the same spirit, it is important to clean your baby in the affected area after it has become soiled. Allowing the area to dry before putting on a fresh nappy is totally essential. Of course, a thin layer of ointment on the affected area will kill off any remaining germs while preventing others from taking hold. And applying the fresh nappy perhaps a little more loosely than usual will give room for the skin to breathe. Finally when your baby moves on to solid foods you should take a few days between introducing new items. This will help you determine if the infection is down to a food allergy. Our final big tip is to give your baby the ultimate comfort and freedom of some ‘no nappy’ time. There is normally a small segment of the day when a mother could actually give her baby a little freedom without wearing a nappy. All that is needed is a little extra care and vigilance to prevent unfortunate soiling of bedding or other important coverings. During this time, you will be able to play with and caress your little one and have them squealing with glee at the feeling the extra freedom given them! Obviously, one must bear in mind the fact that your baby may feel the cold more than you since he or she will not be clothed.
Nappy rash can be overcome, just a little patience is usually all that is required.
Go back to Baby-Care.co home.
If you suspect that your baby is in great discomfort with a severe case of nappy rash or his or her skin looks very angry or inflamed, always pop along to your health care professional or GP to get further advice.
How often should you feed a baby?
With a newborn baby in the house, especially if it is your first, there is so much to learn that you simply cannot replicate with classes, books and additional parenting aids. Every baby that is born will have its own unique traits, and although you can learn a lot from other parents, from books, from TV and a wealth of other sources, there is always the fact that what works with one baby may not necessarily work with another. However, this should not be viewed as an apocalyptic warning. As a parent, you will learn quickly how to deal with your baby, and they will form an attachment to you.
The question of how often to feed a baby is one that often arises for new parents. With regard to how often they need feeding, it seems to differ slightly but is generally between two and three hours between feeds. At this stage of their life, any baby is programmed to sleep for short periods and awaken to be fed at such intervals. This is why parents will talk about sleepless nights at the early stage of parenthood. As the child grows older, they will of course begin to go longer between meals, but at an early age, with no ability to articulate their needs nor understand what people are saying, they will find their own way to make things clear to you. This regularity of needing to be fed is why many parents keep the baby in the same bed as them in the early stages.
How to Treat Diaper Rash
A baby with diaper rash will not be shy about letting his or her parents know that they have a situation on their hands. This, along with the readily decipherable signs of the problem, does mean that it can be treated at an early stage, and hence treated effectively and decisively. Treating diaper rash is not something that takes too long, and the results tend to be swift. Of course it could be almost instantaneous and any parent would still feel that it was an eternity, but it needs to be said that a parent who has a child with diaper rash is not a bad parent at all, just unlucky.
In cases of diaper rash, it is important to change your baby even more regularly than you currently do. It is something inside the diaper that has caused it, and this same thing will either aggravate it or retard its eradication if left unchecked. Keeping your baby clean and dry will prevent the conditions in which diaper rash thrives. If your child has scope to play outside or on a surface that wipes clean, you may even leave their diaper off for a time, as the flow of air around the area will speed the healing. If you use disposable diapers, using a different brand free from fragrance and additives may also help, especially if the rash is a symptom of an allergy.
After three days the diaper rash should be more or less gone. If it still persists, then a cream for treating fungal infections will be well employed.
Be Prepared
If you are out and about on the move with your baby, there is every chance that you will need to change their diaper at some point – it is not ideal, as anyone will tell you, to change a diaper in a setting that is outside your home, but sometimes it is simply unavoidable. In this respect, you will need to be prepared. Any trip that you make out of doors with your child will need to be planned with a good deal of awareness of what it takes. The first thing to be aware of is that you will need to take quite a few things, but they need to be easily portable – so taking just the right amount is crucial.
Firstly, you will obviously need a clean diaper. Ideally, before going out you will have changed your baby to put on a disposable diaper. The reason for this is one of disposal, as throwing away a soiled cloth diaper means you have one less in your rotation, but carrying it around is of course less than desirable. Also for disposal, you may want to carry a bag – not indispensable, but nicer for whoever has to empty the garbage pail in which you dispose of the diaper. As well as this, some moist wipes will help with cleaning your baby’s affected area. A change of clothes is also advisable, in case the old diaper has leaked and soiled the outer clothing. The change should, of course, take place in a public washroom for reasons of privacy and practicality.
Disposable Diapers or Cloth?
There is a quite fierce debate between parents – both long-term ones and new ones – over which type of diaper is better for babies. The two main types of diaper are disposable ones and cloth ones, and both types inevitably have their plus sides and their minus sides. In truth, neither kind is better per se than the other. But depending on your personal outlook on such things, you are likely to lean one way or the other, and make your decision based on that instinct. It then comes down to whether you feel comfortable with your choice after a month or two of putting it into practice.
Disposable diapers have in their favor that they are disposable (obviously). On changing the diaper, you will simply have to put it in the trash and say no more about it. However, as any parent will tell you, children are very productive sources of waste matter, so keeping them in clean diapers can add up to a lot of expense. Cloth diapers are invariably cheaper – although clearly you need to have quite a few if you don’t want to be washing them almost constantly. They also mess up the environment a lot less.
It is up to you to decide which kind of diaper is the best for your purposes and for your purse. Either way, there is work involved and there is expense to take into account. The health of your baby’s skin plays a major part in considerations as well, but at the final analysis you and your baby will be fine as long as you keep on top of things – and if you go with cloth diapers, it is worth still having some disposables around in case of emergencies or when you are on the go.
How often do you change your baby’s diaper?
The question of when to change a baby’s diaper is one that will give a lot of parents pause for thought. If you are to change a diaper every time a baby goes to the toilet in it, the simple fact is that you will end up spending so much on diapers that you will have little left to spend on anything else. Leave it too long, however, and the results are more harrowing than any impact to your bank balance. There is no gentle way to say this, but the bacteria in faeces, when combined with urine, will cause diaper rash – and this is something that anyone who has seen it will do their best to avoid.
For starters, it is important to change your baby’s diaper whenever he or she defecates. This is important for hygiene and comfort, as your baby will be in some discomfort if he or she is made to sit in a dirty diaper. When your baby defecates – and you will know when this has happened – you must change their diaper as promptly as possible. Although urine poses less of a problem, it is still not desirable to leave a child in a diaper that is too wet, even a highly absorbent disposable one.
On average, babies will urinate every one to three hours and defecate several times a day. At regular intervals you must therefore change the diaper. It will save money if you use cloth diapers, however it is important to have several diapers and a washing rotation so that there is always a clean diaper around – so it really is a question of expense versus work.
Listen to the pediatrician
Based on your baby’s health and size, the pediatrician at the hospital will generally be able to help you work out a feeding schedule for them. This is important, especially for first-time parents, as getting the hang of feeding at the right time and in the right way can be a hit and miss process, and with a lot of other things to keep track of it will make a big difference in terms of your quality of life. You can be the most devoted parent in the world, but you will need your own sleep and down time in order to really make it count. This is no criticism, just a fact of life.
As things stand, a baby normally wants to eat fairly regularly, but there are special cases that can make the usual advice a little bit less useful. In these cases, you will have to work to make things tick over in the way you want them to. For example, you may not be producing milk in quite the way that you would hope. This is not through lack of intent or effort on your part, but because the human body is a complicated organism that often does not do what you want it to. The pediatrician will be worth their weight in gold in this respect.
With your intent and good will, and the advice of experienced individuals, you will become completely au fait with the best way of doing things and, before too long, the regularity which makes any process easier will kick in, so you can get on to the enjoyable aspects of parenting.
As your baby grows…
Initially, your baby will want to feed between eight and twelve times a day. This is because it has a very small stomach and can only eat a small amount at a time and – as you will become aware very quickly – it will process the food very quickly into its diaper. As he or she grows, however, so will their stomach and the time between meals will become longer. As a parent, the most welcome effect of this is that they will begin to wake less often in the night wishing to be fed. However, real life is never so simple, so you may have a few false starts before you eventually reach the stage where your child is not waking you most nights.
Part of this process is weaning your child. There will inevitably be some resistance from the baby in this respect. They have become attuned to being fed at a certain time each night, and a change in this routine will be an unwelcome one – they are babies after all, and the concept of change is in a lot of respects a completely alien one for them. Sooner or later it has to happen, and the best way to ensure it is a success is to schedule things so that they are fed shortly before you go to bed for the night – thus hopefully encouraging them to sleep through to the morning.
As your baby grows, you will find that they can eat more at one sitting, so take advantage of this by making each meal time more thorough and letting them eat their fill each time.
