Personal Growth

Breastfeeding develops healthy eating habits in baby

Breastfeeding is usually associated with  social traits, increased IQ and natural protection against ill health.And the new research shows that breastfeeding may also help babies develop taste for healthy food.

If a mother eats fruits and vegetable while breastfeeding, her infant would be more receptive to eating healthy foods.
The flavor of breast milk changes depending on what the mother is eating. For example, the flavor of banana lasts in breast milk within an hour while mint is detectable up for eight hours. And the breast fed baby gets accustomed to different tastes with the breast milk. This could enhance their likelihood of trying and accepting new foods or flavors later in life. Babies exposed to such a variety of tastes may be more adventurous eaters later.

Healthy eating habits develop naturally if a breastfeeding mother sticks to a healthy diet herself. Therefore, as a mom, if you choose plenty of fruits and veggies while you’re pregnant and breastfeeding, you’ll help to pass on the preference for these healthy foods. This should boost the chance a baby will like a first taste of healthy food, and continue with it.

Mothers and Children Benefit from Breastfeeding.

25.08.2008 Автор admin | Parenting, Women's-Interests, Child’s |

You and Your Kids Can Make Fun and Creative Toys

By Larry M. Lynch 

Have you got the rainy day blues? Cabin fever? Stuck in a rut, or just looking for some affordable outlets for your tots, toddlers and perhaps their older siblings? Would you like some ideas on producing some unique, economical toys and amusements for your progeny? Ideas for new, different and creative toys can come from virtually every corner of the house. You may just need a healthy “how to” push in the right direction. Try these ideas for recycling common household items for starters.

Soda Bottle Trucks

As rain pounded into the black sands of the Pacific coast fishing village where I was passing my vacation, I noticed the downpour never stopped the kids. What I also noticed was their ingeniously crafted toy trucks fabricated from water or soda bottles. Each boy ran along rivulets of water pulling a sand-loaded truck. Converting the plastic bottle into a truck was childishly simple. Four bottle caps served as wheels. Two axles were formed from two three and a half inch long pieces of coat hanger wire. The wires were run through the sides of the bottle and through a plastic bottle cap on each side. The ends of the wire were bent up to hold the bottle cap wheels on. A portion of the other side of the bottle was cut away to create a cargo bay. String was tied around the bottle neck. Load up the cargo bay with sand, rocks, marbles, small figures, screws, nuts and bolts, whatever - and the truck was ready to go.

Shake, Rattle and Roll
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30.09.2007 Автор admin | Parenting, Creative, Education, Child’s, Intellectual growth |

Schooling Pitfalls

by: Dr. Randy Wysong

Traditional school coursework does not usually make smarter or better people. Everyone needs the basic three R skills, but to a young person detail beyond that is pretty much a waste of student�s and teacher�s time as well as tax dollars. School serves as a convenient babysitter and helps to socialize children, but history, economics, physics and algebra minutia doesn�t do much more than superficially acquaint kids with some terms.

Learning that is important to living comes primarily from what is experienced. For example, love and concern from a teacher, fear of a bully and infatuation for a classmate all create indelible lessons remembered for a lifetime. On the other hand, the only lesson most kids take away after learning the Pythagorean Theorem and the date of the battle of Gettysburg is that learning isn�t fun and is a waste of time. The sooner a person can get out of school, the better the chances for useful learning. Personal initiative, individual study, successes, mistakes, fear and pride out in the real world are the best teachers. These two volumes encapsulate the issues we face in real life and have taken me ______chapters and almost a thousand pages to cover in abbreviated form.
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10.09.2007 Автор admin | Parenting, Child’s, Intellectual growth |

Prepare Your Child For School

By K. Siingh

Child’s learning process starts in the home under the love and care of his or her parents or close relatives. However, home is not the only center for learning. For child’s all round mental and intellectual growth, it is equally important that child should go to school, where he or she learns to interact socially and important that child should go to school, where he or she learns to interact socially and imbibes knowledge.

Most of the children do not like to go to school initially. If the child is suddenly put to school without preparing him mentally to face the change of environment from home to school, he will strongly resist it and he may develop permanent repulsive feeling about school. There are parents, who without trying to analyze the psychological problems of the child, put force and drag the child to the school daily with a hope that one day he will go to school willingly. But very often it is wrong. It may make an adverse effect on the child in developing his intellectual growth. Child should never be put to force in doing things in the process of developing his mental faculty. Right from infant to adolescent every activity of the child should never be put to force in doing things in the process of developing his mental faculty. Right from infant to adolescent every activity of the child should be entertaining and a fun-game. Applying pressure or force should be as far as possible avoided. The basic reason of child’s aversion to go to school is due to sudden change from home environment to a strange new one of the school. Considering this aspect, parents should prepare the child to face a new environment similar to that of school. If this environment is properly and carefully developed as a pre-schooling preparation, then the child will be looking forward fro the day when he or she will start going to school.

For creating a school atmosphere in the house, make either on room or a corner of a room as a proto-type classroom by arranging a small desk and chair. For infants school is not only a study place, playing is an important curriculum, and according along with desk and chair also keep dolls and other attractive items for game. The class room of the child made in the house may be furnished with nicely stacked colorful books, toys, games, pencil, paper, crayons, painting brush and inks, plaster of Paris as a clay for making articles, audio and video cassettes etc. These will give child an idea about the school atmosphere which is full of fun and pleasure.

28.08.2007 Автор admin | Parenting, Child’s |

Military Style Parenting

By Milos Pesic

Most parents only want the best for their children. However, there are instances when parents can be highly demanding and less responsive to their children’s needs, interests and desires. Parenting is seen as a typology, in which specific practices are held insignificant compared with the general practices on how parents deal with their children.

Experts describe authoritarian parenting as a style that is based on obedience without questioning. In families adopting authoritarian parenting, parents most often enforce stringent rules, where punishment is confused for discipline. Authoritarian parenting holds high regard for achievement, leaving children with no room to make mistakes. Often, this style of parenting is devoid of love and affection that are, in fact, very crucial in the psychological and emotional development of young children.

Parents might not recognize it, but authoritarian parenting can lead to future problems when it comes to the relationship of children and parents. Children of authoritarian parents are prone to committing rebellious acts, as their way of asserting their individuality and finding their niche in the society.

Another downside to this style of parenting is that children have the tendency to open their problems to other people due to fear of their parents, which is not a healthy parent-child relationship. Out of the parents’ desire for achievement and ensuring that their children turn out to be successful adults, they fail on the opportunity to provide guidance when the children most need it. Instead, they enforce black and white rules that often neglect the children’s chance to grow and learn from mistakes. In turn, this leads to confusion that significantly damages a child’s self-esteem as well as social competence.

Children from authoritarian families can perform moderately in school, which is a stark contrast to how their parents aim for them, although they may have no involvement in problematic behavior in societies. Yet, children from these families have a higher degree of depression, partly because they cannot express their own thoughts and interests to their parents, consequently stifling their intellectual growth.

Discipline in authoritarian parenting tends to be harsh, and does not quantify for the wrongdoing. Eventually, parents are baffled as to what method of discipline to impose when spanking no longer works. In some families, spanking can lead to abuse which correlates to the low self-esteem and poor social skills of children.

Many experts have discouraged parents to use authoritarian parenting style due to its proven detrimental effects on a child’s well-being. Instead, psychologists advocate a more democratic parenting style that fosters parent-child relationship but ensures that children grow to be responsible and loving individuals.

10.06.2007 Автор admin | Parenting, Education |