Category Archives: parenting

Are Your Kids On The Right Diet?

With terms such as “childhood obesity” and “diabetes” floating around everywhere, materializing in every parenting article we read, other terms such as “sweet tooth” become taboo. My daughter loves cookies, and jelly beans. She won’t eat apples unless they are sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. Like most children, she has a sweet tooth.Of course my husband and I are aware of the dangers of sweets. After all, we don’t want the baby teeth she just got in to rot out already, but in moderation I can’t imagine things being as malevolent as some people would have you believe. My mother is one such person.

We were sitting on the couch the other day and my daughter started fussing for a snack. I gave her Gerber Graduates cinnamon maple Crunchies. In our house we call them “cookies.” The term was enough to send my mother on a tirade essentially boiling down to the unhealthy foods I allow my daughter to eat.

First of all, these are not really cookies. Second, if anything is unhealthy in this situation, it is the desire or determination to raise a child completely devoid of cookies, or candies, or anything else deemed damaging. I am by no means condoning allowing a small child to eat anything they want without limitation, but the occasional snack seems innocuous enough.

In a society obsessed with fad diets restricting entire food groups, I am not amazed that sugars have now earned such a bad name as to be black listed. However, I am advocating letting children be children. Sure, monitor them, but don’t deprive them of some of the best things that I am sure you enjoyed as a child. Imagine growing up not knowing what cotton candy and bubble gum were. Imagine no ice cream. No trick or treating. No jelly beans. I think that is a lot more troubling.

How do you feel about your child’s eating habits?

Baby 411

If you are going to read any books while pregnant, you have to read this one. This is not to say books such as What to Expect When You’re Expecting and What to Expect The First Year are not wonderful and totally worthy of your time.

However, when I was pregnant with our first child, like most new parents I consulted every written source of advice available. I read all the books, even ones written by Dr. Spock many moons ago. I read online articles as well as printed magazines. If the word “baby” appeared within a source, I found it and read it.

Amidst all my reading I was aware of the most popular books and spent a little extra time on them. Then for Christmas my mother in law gave me Baby 411. I read it as thoroughly as I had read all my other books. At this point I was pregnant, but not yet a mother, so therefore I did not really know what a little treasure trove I was holding. In fact, I did not really know anything.

It wasn’t until after my daughter was born that I realized how wonderful this book is. During the first year of my daughter’s life my husband and I consulted this book on many occasions, looking up ailments, finding the right sleep routine, predicting her growth spurts and eating habits, etc. I am very grateful to having had this book, especially at 2 a.m. in the morning when our daughter would be wailing inconsolably.

Now, being pregnant with my son, I am sure I will use this book many more times during his first year. In fact, I am already starting to look through it in my spare time to refresh my memory. Next time you are at a book store looking for your newest addition to your baby book library, whether you are expecting or expecting to be expecting, don’t overlook this one.

Fake It Til You Make It

Being a first time mom can spark a lot of different emotions from different people. Right when my daughter was born I was overwhelmed, scared and stressed. I loved her since before she was born, but once she was actually in my hands, I had no idea what to do with her.I had this tiny being for which I was now responsible, and I did not know if I would do a very good job. I read all the books, consulted all the magazines and doctors, but nevertheless nothing prepared me for being a mother. I was more exhausted than I thought was possible. In fact, I began longing for the days in college when I could go for days and days without sleep and without missing a beat. Staying up until 4 a.m. to study for an 8 a.m. final? No problem. However, waking up every one to two hours to investigate why my newborn is screaming like a banshee would leave me in a stupor.

I began thinking there was something wrong with me. I didn’t have that gene that all the other mommies have that gives them this otherworldly patience once their babies arrive. Other mommies float on silver lined clouds in perfect bliss with their bundles of joy who coo and cuddle with them lovingly. I had no clue how to comfort mine, and I felt as though my daughter knew this and resented me for it. This lead to a spiral of anxiety; the more she cried, the more I began tensing up and freaking out. Babies pick up on these types of emotions, which meant my behavior was being channeled to her, exacerbating her discomfort and hence making her cry even longer and louder.

My husband was great with her. He was calm, and knew just how to hold her. As jealous as that made me feel, I felt that if I wasn’t a good mother, at least my daughter deserved a good father. So I started retreating, believing I was doing my daughter the biggest favor by allowing her to spend endless hours with her daddy, who actually seemed to know what he was doing, despite the fact that he had never been with an infant before either. I supposed that the gene which theoretically pops up in new mothers also popped up in new fathers and he got his while I was still struggling to find mine.

My daughter was about seven months old before these notions started to disappear from my head. I started feeling more comfortable being a mother, accepting that my daughter will scream and fuss and it is not personal. I calmed down, and consequently, she did too. Now, at almost fourteen months old we bond, cuddle and play, and I have a cooing loving baby to hold.

I finally joined all the other mommies on the silver cloud.