Edible play dough

I think of the many hats that Mum's across the world wear, the most important one is that of MAD SCIENTIST.

Anyone who has ever dealt with a toddler would know that it takes all your creativity and innovation skills to invent something new to keep them busy and thus out of trouble.

My son for instance loves to play with sand and mud. I am all for kids getting their hands dirty and playing around but what I am not ok with is- my son eating mud & sand. Hence I started looking around for ideas that would help me create some sort of edible play dough.  

This morning I stumbled upon this post on Facebook & decided to try it out.

The idea was an instant HIT with my 17 month old son. Right from mixing the ingredients to preparing the dough  & then creating shapes and of course eating some of it in the process, he loved every minute of it. 

I was obviously happy to see him getting his hands dirty this time, knowing that what he is eating is absolutely safe and to add to that YUMMY.

So the recipe is quite simple and it requires only three ingredients

- 1 cup Milk Powder 

- 1 cup Peanut Butter

- 1 tablespoon honey
(you may choose to prepare a smaller batch by taking a smaller quantity of each of the ingredients, just maintain the proportions) 

Mix all the ingredients together in a Big bowl. I recommend involve your kids from the first step itself, allowing them to mix the ingredients and create their own dough. I the dough seems a little dry, add some more honey to it (helps bind it together).

And then let the kids creative juices take over. Hand them a rolling pin and some stencils & let them have fun. To add some texture, you could also use some sprinkles or chocolate chips to the dough. 

Simple and easy way to keep your little one occupied and happy.

Footprints Childcare: Making Parenting Easier

Unfortunately,gone are the days when children would grow up under the supervision of grandparents and extended families. With joint families giving way to the nuclear family set up & with more women  pursuing active careers, the dependence on professional care givers has only increased in the recent times.

Being a working mother I can completely understand how tough a choice it is for mothers to leave their little ones behind in the care of domestic help while they are away at work. If one does not have the support of family to help raise kids, one has to fall back on domestic help which may not be the most reliable option in today’s day and age. 

The question then in one's mind is what are my other options? 

I would highly recommend considering the option of a professional day care.

One such option for parents in Delhi & NCR is Footprints Childcare, an international standard education based Full Day Child Care and Preschool Chain initiated by IIT-IIM alumni in the year 2012 that provides world class care and nurturing environment to kids for physical, mental, emotional and social growth & development. 

Footprints is one of the leading day care centre in Gurgaon, Noida and offers an integrated Day Care and Pre-school model that runs from 9AM until 6.30 PM for children from 3 months to 4 years of age all across its 7 centers. Today more than 550 happy children are a part of Footprints. Footprints Childcare Pvt. Ltd, which runs full day childcare and preschool chain, has raised Rs 4.25 crore ($671,800) led by Vinay Kumar Bansal, director at Step Ahead Ventures and Kshitij Jain, the founder of mobile enterprise application firm Mobolt. The unique version that has the best of amenities like an all women staff, hospital tie-ups, CCTV and real time mobile updates also has certified trainers from the US and revolves around making play school and day care available to all at a cost that will not burn a hole in the pocket. With learning programs that are designed to encourage and stimulate children, Footprints impart programs that are flexible to develop interest which are based on curriculum that has been researched well over 50 years and are followed in more than 20 countries and over 50,000 schools.

Some of the things that parents constantly worry about when at work- Did my child eat well? Did he/she take a nap? Hope my child does not spend his/her day watching TV with the maid? Well all these and more get taken care of at Footprints Childcare. At Footprints Childcare, you get access to live CCTV Feed and Child's updates on your mobile through our in-house Parent Connect App. So you can keep an eye on your little one’s activities even when you are away at work giving you complete peace of mind.

The early years are most essential in the development of your child. Children learn from their everyday activities as Footprints’ childcare activities are based on world's best High Scope Infants and Toddlers Curriculum.  Some examples of the activities are-

 Choice Time – During this time teacher will set three activity corners in the class and asks children in which activity he/ she wants to participate. Children will learn to take decisions, initiative out of their participation in Choice Time.

 Small Group Activity – Children will develop various skills out of their participation in Small Group Activities like- When children work with only a few other children at a time, they learn important lessons about cooperation, sharing, and the give and take of conversation. Also, when working in small groups with an adult, children are able to receive more focused attention they need for completing complex tasks and activities. The benefits of small group activities for teachers are plenty. When children work in small groups, this will free up teachers to focus on a few children at a time. Teachers may be able to observe children more closely. Also, teachers have the choice to place children in groups based on ability or interests. This will make observation and jotting down anecdotal notes very easy for the teacher.

 Large Group Activity – Children will develop social skills- sharing, caring, empathy and get rid of stranger anxiety while participating in Large Group activity. They will learn to lead which helps them in their daily life also.

 Meal Time -Eating together strengthens the relationship by allowing for more opportunities to talk and build relationships. This is the celebration time. Children will learn to eat variety of food with peer group. This is an opportunity to share information about benefits from vegetables, fruits, and cereals to inculcate good eating habits amongst our children.

 Outdoor Play -Following are the physical and mental health benefits of getting kids outside as it improves vision, promotes social skills, increases attention span, reduces stress and improves immune system. 

All this while they take exceptional care to provide a clean and sanitised environment for the children. They have a highly trained housekeeping team that schedules weekly herbal child safe Pest Control along with weekly cleaning of all toys, floors, cots, bed sheets, walls etc. They also schedule daily cleaning of classes and all toys once the children have left.

At Footprints Childcare your child gets only the best in nutrition, no junk foods only fresh and seasonal fruits, vegetables, nuts (winters) pulses and grains as variety of food. They try to inculcate good eating habits encouraging kids to eat on their own rather than force feeding them. 

I highly recommend you visit their website www.footprintseducation.in to see some firsthand reviews from parents. With seven outlets across Delhi & NCR, Footprints Childcare is definitely making parenting easier. 

Footprints Childcare offering a free three day trial to a few lucky readers of the blog, so in case you are interested in the trial drop us an email at thoseninemonthsandmore@gmail.com and you shall hear from us soon.

(This is a promotional post & we recommend parents do their due diligence on the same)

How to develop the habit of reading among children from an early age?

Like any parent, I constantly worry about my child being over exposed to television or mobile phones. Whether we like it or not things like  mobile phones are an integral part of our lives and our children get access to technology way before we did when we were young. So we cannot eliminate technology from our lives but we can regulate how and when the child gets exposed to it.

The reason I began thinking about all this is because every time I would sit to read a book to my fourteen month old, he would be least interested. He wanted to do everything except read. Whereas if I ever switched on the television before him or played some rhymes on you tube he would be glued to it, giving it his undivided attention. This got me thinking and I began searching across the Internet on how I could get my little one into the habit of reading books.

I came across this workshop that was scheduled to be held in Mumbai, hosted by The Yearling house (you can follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheYearlingHouse)

I found the session helpful hence decided to share some of my learning's here. The two ladies who are heading this initiative, Puja and Aparna began the session with a slide that talked about how the brain functions while watching television vis a vis  when one reads. The first two years of life are considered a critical for brain development. TV and other electronic media like watching videos on mobile phones can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents which in turn encourages learning and healthy physical and social development.

So what is it that we can do to encourage toddlers to read

• Start young- you can start reading to your child from infancy. Don't wait for them to grow up to be old enough to hold a book
• Make the activity fun for the child- voice modulations, actions and involving the child in the activity by seeking help to may be turn the page are just some ways you can engage the child while reading. At the workshop, Aparna demonstrated this very effectively using voice modulation. Every time she would change the pitch and say things like “Oh” to show an element of surprise or “Growl” to show an animal making noise, the kids would leave what they were doing and listen to her instead
• Don’t focus on finishing the story or teaching them things like moral of the story, that’s not the objective at this stage. As toddlers the focus must be on engaging them and making the whole activity of book reading both fun and interactive for the child. 
• Choose the books that are age appropriate- a book that has too many words may seem very distracting for a toddler. Select books that have one picture on each page and may be one sentence for a toddler
• Don’t get disheartened if the child does not sit with you for the whole duration of 20 minutes that you had planned for book reading. As toddlers, children want to explore anything and everything so expecting them to stay still for 20 minutes is a tall order. Even if the child sits with you for 5-7 minutes a day, you are off to a good start
• Create a routine- book reading has to be a part of the child’s daily routine. For instance if you only have time in the evenings post work, you may set a bedtime routine for your child. Just before going to bed read to your child. Also choose the time wisely, if its time for the child to go down to play in the evening and you insist of reading a book at that point, you may be fighting a losing battle.
• Choose the books carefully- a book that has lots of pictures or too many words may seem very distracting for your child. Select books that have one picture on each page and may be one sentence. What are the kind of books one should look at? Some suggestions that I received at the session were as follows 
• Biscuit dog- there is a whole series available about Biscuit the dog and the activities that he goes about. http://www.amazon.in/Biscuit-My-First-Can-Read-ebook/dp/B0078XFX8Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1452061719&sr=1-1&keywords=biscuit+dog
• Gajapati Kulapati- a story about an elephant with simple illustrations and fun words that make it engaging for the child  http://www.amazon.in/Gajapati-Kulapati-Kalabaloosh-Ashok-Rajagopalan/dp/9350465116/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452062297&sr=1-2&keywords=gajapati+kulapati
• Blue hat green hat http://www.amazon.in/Green-Boynton-Board-Books-Schuster/dp/0671493205/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1452062925&sr=1-1
• They have a host of other recommendations on good reads, check out the link here https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/34325395-the-yearling-house?shelf=read
  

• Don’t restrict reading to only English books. Read to them in your mother tongue as well. For example if you talk to your child in Hindi at home, read Hindi books as well because it is easier for your child to relate to a language that he is being spoken in.
• You can use the same book in many ways. You don't always have to read only what is written in the book, you can use the illustrations provided in the book to help the child relate to something that he/she may have seen earlier during the day. So if the book shows a market, you can use that as an opportunity to talk to the child about what he/ she may have seen during there visit to the market

Most of all children learn by observing their parents/ caregiver. So if a child sees that daddy and mommy  plonk themselves in front of the television every evening, they would learn the same habits. So as parents we need to make some hard choices, ditch the television and spend some time reading to your child. 

Happy reading :)

Stress free travel with your baby

Have Baby, will travel! The story of our life :)

Hubby & I love to travel and explore new places. We hadn’t travelled in a while since my doctor didn't allow me to travel while I was expecting and then we were to busy with adjusting to our new life. Hence we were itching to travel. 

However we had our concerns around how we would manage travel to an international destination with our 11 month old baby. We realised that if you plan well, travelling with babies can actually be fun since  it would involve so many firsts for your little one giving you the opportunity to catch their priceless reactions for when they see the sea and sand for the first time or try some new food. 

A few things that we did helped us manage travel with our toddler during our recent trip to Thailand were as follows:

• Plan your trip well: When travelling with a baby, don’t pack your itinerary with too many things to do or see. Space things out because babies don’t understand the concept of “hurry up”. They do things at their own pace. When you land in a new city, give yourself some time to freshen up and settle the baby before you set out sight seeing. On our trip to Thailand, we landed in Bangkok in the morning. Ideally we would have liked to fly out of Bangkok the same day to get an additional day in Krabi but we chose to spend a day in Bangkok to ensure things didn't get too hectic. While planning transit flights between destinations choose timings that are easy to manage with the baby.

• Carry baby essentials: I highly recommend you carry essentials like baby food, some of their favourite toys or any other things your baby is fussy about. I know of a couple who forgot to carry their daughter’s potty seat to Europe and the child just refused to go without it. The parent’s went hunting for a potty seat to tide over the crisis. So think about the things that your child can’t do without and carry those with you. I also carried with me some baby sunscreen since we were going to spend a lot of time on the beach, swimming diapers and mosquito repellant. 

• Baby Food: My son had begun to eat solids when we travelled, however I carried Cerelac for him for times when he was fussy. I also carried ample formula. We would stock up on fresh fruits wherever we went and most restaurants obliged us with special meals for the baby like vegetable fried rice. We fed him oats/ pancakes/ waffles or Conjee (thai rice porridge) along with some fruits for breakfast. We steered clear of sea food and non veg during the trip for him to avoid any unfavourable reaction.

• Sterilising baby bottles: We carried with us some liquid dish washing soap and a travel kettle for boiling water. Thoroughly clean the sink with warm water and soap. Then we would wash the bottles with soap and warm water in the sink. Then swish the bottles with some boiled water and leave the nipples and the bottle lids in boiled water for 5-10 minutes.

•  Do your research when finalising a destination: when we were planning our trip we did a lot of research to ensure that the properties were stayed in were baby friendly. Reviews from other parents helped us make an informed choice about where to stay. The research also helped us plan things to carry. For instance we realised that in Bangkok, it may not be such a good idea to carry our Chicco Cortina stroller since a lot of places we would have to carry it up stairs or narrow passages. Hence we took along Mee mee travel stroller which was compact and easy to carry. 

• Should you carry a stroller? I would highly recommend one even if your child is fussy about sitting in one it comes in handy if the child wants to sleep or catch a nap. I would also recommend you carry a good baby wearing device like a Boba or a soul sling as it makes the task of carrying the baby very easy. For places like Chinatown in Bangkok where it is impossible to take a stroller I wore my son in the Boba for at least 3-4 hours. 

• Do not stress over routine, go with the flow and have fun: when holidaying with babies things don’t always go as per plan, accept that and your holiday would be more fun.

• Don’t forget to click a lot of pictures, these are memories for a lifetime

If you are planning travel to Thailand with your toddler a few things to keep in mind

• Thai people love babies. Right from immigration to restaurants and hotels, babies are treated like VIPs. However the flip side is that they would want to hold the baby or pinch their cheeks.  So don’t get bothered if they try and get friendly with your child.
• Request the hotel for special preparations in terms of food for the baby, baby cot and fresh fruits. Most of them will oblige
• If you are going for visa on arrival, that usually takes some time so be prepared to wait. Carry some food or formula for the baby to make the wait time peaceful.
• Carry Mosquito repellents with you
• Don’t carry a very bulky stroller as you may have to lift it a number of times. I would highly recommend baby wearing in Thailand.

My breastfeeding journey

I have been away from the blog for so long. Largely because the last few months have been a roller coaster of a ride as I decided to join back work, one of the toughest decisions I have made in a while. I intend to write about that in the coming weeks but for now I want to talk about breastfeeding.

Source :https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breastfeeding-icon-med.svg

I have been wanting to share my experience of breastfeeding my baby in the hope that it helps other new Moms. As a new mom it is so so easy to get frustrated and give up on breastfeeding. Your body has just achieved a humongous feet (delivered a baby) & you are aching all over, taking baby steps towards recovery. And to top that there is a constant stream of visitors who want to meet you & the baby. If that wasn't enough you realise you are no longer your own master- you have to adhere to the little one’s commands- feed- burp-diaper change (on repeat mode). It’s a cycle you cant escape. Amidst all this the little one refuses to latch on to your breast, nibbling & biting at it (ouch) leading to sore nipples, that coupled with the frustration of seeing the baby wailing, that's enough reason for anyone to give up.

Before pregnancy, I always imagined that breastfeeding would come naturally to me and the baby. I couldn't have been more wrong, that's something I can say from experience. I would have long given up on breastfeeding had it not been for some people and some aids that came to my rescue.

When I first tried to breastfeed my little one, he just wouldn't latch on. He would bite, nibble, bite some more and try to latch on but it just wasn't working. With every attempt it became more painful because my nipples were sore from all the biting. I began to dread breastfeeding my baby and would keep requesting the nurses at the hospital to give the baby formula milk. 

My mum scheduled a session with the lactation expert at the hospital to ease the process for me. She was truly godsend because she gave me the first push towards breastfeeding my baby. Here are some of the suggestions that worked for me.

 She first helped correct my posture. Since I was unable to sit cross legged on the bed (due to stitches) she asked me to sit on a chair with comfortable backrest. Gave me two pillows to keep on my lap and ask me to place the baby on the pillow so that the baby was almost parallel to my tummy.

Next, she recommended I use the Pigeon Nipple shield to help the baby latch on to the breast initially.

The above two suggestions provided almost instant relief, for the first time I was comfortable and the baby was able to suckle and drink milk. 

I had heard mixed reviews about the pigeon nipple shield, in fact some people advised me against it. But for me it was a life saver as it helped in the initiation process, helping the baby latch on the breast and giving my sore nipples some relief from all that biting.

By the third or fourth day my breasts were engorged & making me extremely uncomfortable. Here are a few things that helped me. A warm water bath helped in let down and allowed me to express some milk providing relief

My baby was feeding from only one side initially so I expressed milk from the side he wasn't latching on to to help relieve the pain.

I truly believe the first few months are the toughest when it comes to breastfeeding. Your body is still recovering, you are still getting used to having someone else rule your life, sleepless nights and to top it all every now and then the baby wants milk. I remember I would often think to myself, how can something so little want milk all the time. Nights were the toughest because my son would wake up every two hours for a feed.  Don't give up just yet and don’t turn to the bottle, things settle down soon. 

There were days when my little one would want feed ever so often, sometimes making me doubt my milk supply. Was I producing sufficient milk? Was he hungry because I wasn’t giving him formula feeds? These nagging thoughts are bound to trouble every new mom. Stop being so hard on yourself. Mother nature is a damn good architect of things. When it comes to breastfeeding, it is all a game of supply and demand. The more you nurse, the better your milk supply. Eat nutritious food, get some rest and be positive- that's all you need. As long as the baby’s pee count is good (check the number of wet nappies)and the baby is gaining weight, you are on track Mommy.

I would highly recommend that you invest in a breast pump when you embark on your breastfeeding journey, even if you are a stay at home mom. It gives you the option to express milk, hence allowing someone else in the family to take care of the baby and feed the baby while you get some much needed rest. Also, you may want to head out for a bit and get some fresh air, leaving the baby in the care of some family member, breast pumps can be very useful in such situations. For instance I had to attend a wedding when Rajveer was barely 2 months old and I didn't want to take him along for the fear of exposing him to infections and Delhi’s severe winters, that's when the breast pump came in really handy.

You don't necessarily have to spend a fortune on a breast pump. If you don't intend to pump too often you may invest in a not too expensive manual pump. I bought the Avent- Comfort manual breast pump and it has served me well so far (Shall review the pump in a subsequent post).

In fact one of the very reasons I have been able to continue breastfeeding after joining work is because I started expressing milk regularly. I express milk twice or thrice in the day which is used to feed the baby when I am at work.

Another thing that I highly recommend is to join forums where you get valuable advise from mums who are in similar situations or have been in the same boat. One such group that joined on Facebook was: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/breastfeedingsupportforindianmoms/

There is so much one can learn from other moms' experiences. This group in particular Breastfeeding support for Indian Moms is an incredible source of information. From documents which provide vital information on breastfeeding to links to well written blogs, this group provides it all. Information & insights from the group members kept me going and helped me rectify my mistakes as well.

Having said all this, I have to accept that there were times when I just couldn’t cope with things (like when I was unwell or simply too tired) I succumbed to the pressure and fed my baby formula milk & on those days I was miserable. I felt like I was such a terrible mother for not being able to exclusively breast feed my baby. It's only now when I look back that I realize that one has to stop judging oneself all the time, mother’s are after all human. You don't become a bad mom or a less loving mom just because you fed your baby formula milk once in the day.  Each Mom's experience is different and so is the journey. It’s a choice one makes given the situation at hand and there is no right or wrong because every mother has her baby’s best interest at heart.

It’s almost 9 months and its hard to believe that time has flown so fast. Breastfeeding my little one has been one of the most fulfilling journeys & I am so grateful that I did not give up when things were rough. I would strongly urge all Mums and mums- to-be, please breastfeed your baby. Apart from the health benefits it is such a beautiful way to bond with your baby. Remember, with every passing day the breastfeeding journey becomes simpler and more fulfilling :)