Feeding Problems in Children

Parents struggle constantly when they have a problem feeder at home. When parents are talking about their children’s feeding problems, most of the time they are referring to different but interrelated conditions. Where do you think your problem feeder fall in these feeding problems?

baby eating

Food Neophobia

Food neophopbia is the fear of the children to try new foods. This is common in infants weaning on to foods. Children naturally rejects sour and bitter-tasting foods which are known to contain high levels of nutrition and phytochemicals. Parents look at it as normal part of the weaning process thus, they only give their children what they want to eat. Because of this, children are not given the chance to get proper nutrition organically. Although food neophobia is present at birth, it can persist through adulthood. To prevent this from happening, begin introducing foods with new tastes, colors and textures to your infants as early as six months then gradually increase the amount and variety of food your baby eats until they can eventually eat the same as the rest of the family, in smaller portions.

Finicky Eating

Finicky or picky eating is an avoidance or restricting of food. Some children don’t want to eat anything green, some don’t want to eat something bitter and worse, some don’t want to eat any vegetable at all. This is the outcome when children were not introduced to certain kind of foods. A child’s bad experience with a certain food, like vomiting and having stomach ache, can be a factor too. There are parents who take these matters seriously in their cuisine and avoid cooking these foods rather than introduce them again to their children. To tempt your children’s taste buds, be their role model or invite over a friend who is the same age who loves to eat what your children don’t like.

Inadequate Intake

This problem is common to picky eaters. It is important for the children to get the proper amount of calories and nutrition to be able to grow healthy and strong. The amount of nutrition each child needs depends on the age, gender and child’s activity. The RDA or Recommended Daily Allowance could help you know how much of a specific nutrients your children need on a daily basis. RDA can be seen on the labels of the food you eat.

Why Pediatric Dental Care Is Important

Having good oral hygiene is important for a person to live a healthy life. Therefore, it is critical for parents to get their children started down the path to having healthy teeth and gums as early as infancy. It does not matter if you are feeding your child with a bottle or nursing, you need to start a regimen of dental hygiene. Here is why pediatric dental care is so important.

pediatric dental care

 

Cleaning

Prior to any teeth erupting, you should use a soft washcloth or some gauze to wipe down the child’s gums. After the teeth finally appear, monitor them to make sure they are always clean. In order to do this properly, you will need to be certain you are using the correct tools. You will need to purchase a toothbrush that is specially designed to be used in the mouth of a baby. These toothbrushes have smaller heads than regular toothbrushes.

First dental visit

It is important to take your child to the dentist for the first time when he or she is between the ages of one and two. Food remnants and plaque will be removed from your child’s teeth by the pediatric dentist. It is critical to make sure these things are not allowed to linger on the teeth. If they are not removed on a regular basis, it is possible that a large amount of bacteria could form. If left unchecked, this bacteria could eventually cause gum inflammation, tooth decay and other dental problems.

A learning experience for adults

Taking your child to visit a pediatric dentist is not only about making sure your child has a healthy mouth, it is also to teach the parents how to better take care of their child’s teeth in this critical stage of their dental development. Obviously, a child that is less than two years old is not going to be brushing his or her own teeth. Therefore, the parents need to be educated on the best ways to care for their child’s first teeth. This is especially important if the parents have never had a child before. Dentists at Kool Smiles are happy to give parents friendly advice.

Knowing what to avoid

One of the common things that many pediatric dentists see all the time is young children who have developed cavities because their parents allowed them to sleep with a bottle in their mouth. The dentist will tell them to avoid such things from happening, preventing the problem from occurring in the first place. It is also critical that the parents know what usually causes a child’s teeth to decay. Proper teeth brushing methods are taught to the parents, enabling them to pass these methods on to their child when he or she is old enough. When a child is around one year old, he or she should begin drinking from a cup. Women should also stop breastfeeding once their child begins to grow teeth.

Tooth decay is an epidemic

The problem with children having tooth decay in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. As far as children are concerned, it is now the most chronic disease in the country. When children are kindergarten age, over 39 percent of them are suffering from tooth decay. This is according to data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This sobering statistic just shows how important it is for parents to make the dental hygiene of their children a top priority.

3 Ways to Ensure Your Child’s Childcare is Hygienic

Many working parents choose or need to leave their children in childcare centres for all or part of each week and with this comes a significant amount of trust. Parents trust that their child or children will be well cared for and a vital aspect of quality care is a clean and hygienic environment.

childcare centre

With so many children using the space and resources of a childcare centre, it is little surprise that germs are easily spread and infection is easily transferred. While it is often difficult for the owners, directors and staff of child care centres to completely prevent the spread of illness, there are definite ways to promote cleanliness and excellent hygiene in these environments. If you are a parent, here are three things to look for and discuss with the staff of your child’s centre.

#1: Professional Cleaning

There is a limit to the amount and degree of cleaning that staff can achieve in their working day. After all, their first priority should always be the safety and quality care of your child and others at the centre. However, the cleaning still needs to get done. This is why all childcare centres should invest in professional cleaning services provided by a credible, experienced company such as AMC Cleaning.

Professional cleaners can focus wholly and solely on cleaning, ensuring that all surfaces and areas are clean, sanitised, disinfected and hygienic. Of course, children touch these surfaces and use toys and resources that may be cleaned by professionals, so the cleaning products used should be non-toxic and safe for everyone.

#2: Illness Policies

Any childcare professional will tell you that it really is important that ill children are kept at home. Unfortunately, many parents still bring sick children to childcare and, unsurprisingly, this only promotes the spread of germs and illness.

It can be inconvenient and difficult to stay at home with your child if they are ill, particularly if you work for a demanding organisation with little sympathy for parents with young children. But if you want your child’s exposure to infection and illness to be as minimal as possible, it’s important to also play a part and keep your child away from day care when they are unwell. Ensure that you only return them when they have fully recovered or are non-contagious.

#3: Hygiene and Health Education

Your child will be exposed to a range of play, learning and socialisation opportunities at childcare. Of course, the experiences and learning that children have should be age appropriate, but there are many things that can be done to help children learn about hand washing and drying, personal hygiene and dental care, and keeping their play and rest areas clean. Does your childcare centre promote the development of healthy habits in your child?

Many childcare centres work industriously to provide a clean and hygienic environment for the children in their care. When you entrust your child to a childcare centre, it’s important to observe and understand the practices and approaches taken to promote a clean, hygienic environment for all children, staff and families.

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Giving Medicine to Babies and Toddlers

Giving medicine to babies and toddlers always hides some risks and that is why parents need to be particularly careful as children are usually more sensitive to some medications, compared to the others. However giving medicine to your baby or toddler doesn’t need to be so complicated and disturbing experience, as long as you keep in mind the following advice. It is true that a many toddlers are reluctant to take their medicine for a variety of reasons but it is also true that many parents lack the right approaches and that is why they meet difficulties in such kind of situations. There exist some proven strategies that will help you to achieve success and to give the medicine to your baby or toddler without any complications.

No matter what you have heard or read, Quality Domestic Cleaning will give you valuable information, regarding this issue so that you won’t feel stressed the next time you need to give the prescribed medicine to your child.

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Talk positive about “medicine time”

Make the “medicine time”, a special one and talk about it in a positive way. If you act like it is enjoyable and pleasant thing the toddler is more likely to act in a normal way and not to refuse to take the pills. The body language also plays a great role because even 10-month-old can pick up the gestures and the tone of the parent. To remove the stress from the “medicine time” you can try to talk with your toddler about something positive and funny and to distract it not to think about the experience.

Do something about the unpleasant taste

Many babies and toddlers are reluctant to take their medicines due to the unpleasant taste. Do not feel desperate if your child demonstrates the same behaviour when the “medicine time” comes. You can disguise the unpleasant taste of the medicine if you ask your pharmacist to add some flavours to the liquid medicines. If the child likes the odour and taste of the medicine, it will be much more easier to encourage it to take it without a problem. A great part of liquid medicines can be flavoured in order to disguise the bitter taste of the medicine.

Give a choice to the child

When children feel the stress of the intake of the medicine they often lose control and start crying or they just refuse to take the medicines. If you want to make the situation less stressful we advice you to give a choice to your child. For instance, you could ask if it wants to take the medicine in a cup or in a dropper. The toddlers are less likely to struggle if they feel that they take the decisions for their medicines. You can also try the same with the time when the child will take the prescribed medicine – before playing with the toys or after playing with the toys. This strategy has proven its efficiency, no matter how stubborn the toddler is.

When giving medicines to your baby or toddler do not forget to consult with your doctor first for the right dose and for the best time of the intake. Wash your hands before giving the medicaments, because if they are not clean you can transmit some bacteria on to the medicine. If you give a liquid medicine use spoon that have been carefully cleaned. A high level of hygiene is of great importance to the health of your baby or toddler. We hope that we have helped you to learn new strategies on how to give medicines to your child without experiencing any frustration and stress. If you use the right approaches you won’t meet difficulties in this process and you child will feel more comfortable with the intake of the medicines.

Feeding the Mind and Body: Brain Food to Feed Your Children

Every parent knows that children have to be fed with the right food to sustain growth and development. Aside from physical development, a child’s diet should also provide the necessary nutrients for optimum brain development. This mind and body nutrition should start while the baby is still in the mother’s womb and continue on after he is born. You have to know what brain food to feed your children in order to help boost their brain power. The first four letters of the alphabet will help you remember the essential vitamins your kids need in their diet: Vitamins A, B, C, and D. Now, you can take it further to the next three letters of the alphabet:

eggs


Eggs
– these white and yellow rounds are high in nutrients despite talks about them being high in cholesterol. Just stick to the recommended serving sizes and you’ll be fine. Give your kids the protein and choline their brains need during the day to help boost the creation of memory stem cells in the brain. Eggs are also great sources of Omega-3s, Zinc, and Lutein. Several ways of serving eggs include omelettes and sandwich fillings. Younger kids will have a kick out of shaped egg sandwiches in their lunchboxes.

fish

Fish – another source of protein and Omega-3s, fish can also help boost memory and protect against cognitive decline during old age. The best types of fish that are considered as the best brain food to feed your children include salmon, sardines, and tuna. Instead of fatty and salty sausages and cold cuts on your children’s pizza, try a seafood version with flaked tuna or sardines as toppings.

greens

Greens – it’s always a challenge to get kids to eat their greens, but these are essential parts of their daily diet. Kale and spinach are particularly known to enhance the brain’s learning and memory power. These greens have nutrients that help stimulate the growth of new brain cells. You can include kale and spinach in your egg dishes like omelettes and quiches. An interesting way to serve them is to bake them into chips with a sprinkling of salt.

There is no guarantee that knowing what brain food to feed your children will turn them into little Einsteins and baby geniuses. These food items, however, will go a long way in keeping your children’s brains healthy and functioning optimally during their childhood years right through adulthood.

Image Credits: FreeDigitalPhotos.Net
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