If you are having your first child, you might wonder when you can start introducing your baby solid food. Here’s some information about it

Solid food is usually introduced to babies when they are between 4 and 6 months. Until then, breast milk or formula provides all the calories and nourishment your baby needs and can handle. Baby’s digestive system simply isn’t ready for solids until 6 months old.

Nevertheless, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be breastfed exclusively for at least six months although babies already eat solids earlier.

Below is the list of signs hinting that your baby is ready for solid food:

• Head control. Your baby needs to be able to keep his head in a steady, upright position.

• Losing the “extrusion reflex.” To keep solid food in his mouth and then swallow it, your baby needs to stop using his tongue to push food out of his mouth.

• Sitting well when supported. Even if he’s not quite ready for a highchair, your baby needs to be able to sit upright to swallow well.

• Chewing motions. Your baby’s mouth and tongue develop in sync with his digestive system. To start solids, he should be able to move food to the back of his mouth and swallow. As he learns to swallow efficiently, you may notice less drooling. He may also be teething around the same time.

• Significant weight gain. Most babies are ready to eat solids when they’ve doubled their birth weight (or weigh about 15 pounds) and are at least 4 months old.

• Growing appetite. Your baby seems hungry — even with eight to ten feedings of breast milk or formula a day.

• Curiosity about what you’re eating. Your baby may begin eyeing your bowl of rice or reaching for a forkful of fettuccine as it travels from your plate to your mouth.

Now that you know that your baby is ready for solid food, here are types of solid food that is suitable for your baby:

4-8 Months
“Baby” cereal and soft cooked thinly pureed fruits and veggies should be baby’s first solid food experiences. Single ingredients only and at a space of 4 days apart with introducing each new food. You may skip the cereal and begin with a fruit like avocado or begin with a veggie like butternut squash or sweet potato

8-10 Months
Bring on some spices and the softly mashed, or chopped into fine pieces of fruits, vegetables, meats, pasta and dairy such as yogurt and cheese. Pasta, veggies, and fruit should all be soft cooked and possibly mashed with a fork or masher. Raw fruits are often introduced at this stage. Meats and proteins such as egg yolk, should be cooked and pureed or chopped into small soft bits. If offering Tofu, you need not cook it first. Ensure dairy offered is easily manageable.

11-12 Months
By this stage, your baby should be just on the brink of or is already eating “table foods”. Your baby may already love self-feeding and may enjoy a variety of spices in her cuisine. Encourage a healthy exploration of foods, tastes and textures as well as eating utensils. However, always keep in mind that certain foods may still pose an allergy or other type of reaction risk.

Tags : baby food, baby solid food

The only thing a newborn should consume for the first six months is breast milk. You can start giving your baby water when they are old enough for solids. As a newborn, however, water should never be offered because many times it would take the place of a feeding. Moreover, too much water can prove toxifying. It is suggested to start offering water when your baby is at least 8 to 10 months.

While on the water subject, avoid tap water for mixing formula. Tap water is full of some really harsh chemicals, and is not really fit for drinking by anyone. Flouride is public drinking water is dangerous.

Tags : baby care, can newborns drink water?

In the old days, the only baby bottles available were made of glass. However, due to glass’ heavy and breakable properties, plastic bottles came along with lighter and shatter-proof benefit compared to glass bottles. Nevertheless, recent reports that a type of plastic found in baby bottles might cause potentially harmful changes in developing babies has left parents wondering if perhaps old-fashioned glass wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

Glass Bottles

Glass Cons:
- easily shattered: drop one on the floor in the middle of a late-night feeding, and you’ll have a roomful of shattered glass to clean up. Glass is also heavy and cumbersome.

Glass Pros:
- glass bottles are sturdy
- glass doesn’t contain any chemicals that could potentially get into the baby’s formula.

Plastic Bottles

Plastic Cons:
- concerns have arisen about the polycarbonate type of plastic bottles because they contain a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA). Bisphenol A is also used in everything from compact discs to the lining of cans, as well as other consumer products. A 2007 report by the organization Environment California showed that when heated, five popular brands of BPA-containing plastic baby bottles leached high levels of bisphenol A.
In studies of lab rats, low levels of BPA were linked to changes in the brain and reproductive system that researchers say may contribute to an increased risk of prostate and breast cancers, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, and early puberty.

Plastic Pros:
- Plastic baby bottles are lightweight, strong, and unbreakable. However,

Having known the facts, it would be wise to just choose plastic bottles which does not contain the Bisphenol A. If you want to avoid any bottles that contain it, look for the #7 recycling symbol or “PC” on the bottom. That’s usually a sign that the bottle contains BPA. However, not all plastics labeled with #7 recycling code contain BPA. Some bottle brands, such as Born Free, explicitly say that their products are not made of Bisphenol A.

Here is the list of Bisphenol A free plastic bottles:
bottles by Born Free, MAM and Adiri, breast pumps and supplies by Medela and Mother’s Milkmate, and sippy cups by Born Free, Klean Kanteen, Thermos, and SIGG.

Tags : newborn baby bottles, plastic bottles, plastic or glass bottles

Congratulations on your newborn baby. As the nurse measure your baby in the nursing room, you begin to wonder. Is my baby too small or too big? too tall or too short ? Find out the average newborn baby length and weight

AVERAGE NEWBORN WEIGHT
Just like adults, newborns come in a range of healthy sizes.
Most newborn baby weight who is born between week 37-40 weight between:
6 pounds, 2 ounces (2.812 kg) to 9 pounds, 2 ounces (4.173 kg).
If your baby is below 2.8kg then your baby might be too thin or maybe he/she was born before 37 weeks
If your newborn weighs more than 4.173 kg, then you should deliver with a c-cut (since the baby is too big for your vagina)

AVERAGE NEWBORN LENGTH
Their average length ranges from 19 to 21 inches (48 to 53 centimeters).
Consult with your doctor is your newborn is not between those two numbers.

Tags : newborn baby, newborn baby height, newborn baby weight

As you are breastfeeding, you find that you sexual desire changes, but unfortunately not your husband. Here are some tips about sex while breastfeeding your baby

The following may help you to have sex while breastfeeding.

1. Try different sexual positions.
Your breasts may be sore or have sudden leakage if touched, you may want to consider alternatives to the missionary position. Woman on top should be more comfortable.

2. Avoid having your breasts being caressed
If you’re worried about sudden leaking from your breasts, talk to your partner about not touching your breasts during sex or foreplay.

3. Consider wearing a bra with nursing pads in place.
Oxytocin is the hormone that helps control your milk ejection reflex which is released during female orgasm, This means that you may leak milk during sex. That’s why you should consider wearing a bra with nursing pads.

4. Use a lubricant.
While breastfeeding, you may experience a shortage of vaginal lubrication. A water based lubricant should ease any discomfort for you and your partner.

5. Be patient.
You may not want to have sex, or might be too exhausted and overwhelmed to think about sex after the birth of your baby. Communicate with your partner-many men express affection and comfort through sex. Let your partner know how you’re feeling and find other special ways to convey how important he is to you.

6. Wait around six weeks after you deliver to have sex.
If you have sex too soon, you could damage your perineum, causing infection and further damage to this sensitive area.

So those are the tips, we wish you and your baby great health

Ok we know that your primary ambition is to beat Sharapova on Wimbledon Final, but for those of you tennis freaks, maybe you should read and find out if it is safe to play tennis while pregnant

If you’re a very good tennis player, it is probably safe to play tennis. However, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends avoiding sports with a high contact and falling risk like tennis. One of the concerns with racquet sports such as tennis is that they often involve rapid changes in direction. Rapid directions involves rapid twists and turns which could make you more prone to falling.

Moreover, if you fall you could start bleeding if the placenta detaches from the uterus, or you could begin having contractions. Either event can place the fetus at risk of premature delivery.

So, I think you better not risk the health of your baby and you. Just cut back on tennis first

Tags : is it safe to play tennis during pregnancy?, pregnancy do and don'ts

For mothers who still work while breastfeeding, storing some breastmilk supply is very important. That’s why choosing a good breast pump is very crucial. Here’s my experience in choosing breast pump

I searched for breast pump about 2 months before my expected delivery due date. At aht time I was just looking for cheaper stuff since I did not know much about breast milk. After going to some babystores, I decided to choose Little Giant breast pump as my choice. I think the price was about USD 25.

Three days after giving a cesarian birth, my breast started to become full of milk and since at that time I already gave direct breastmilk for my baby, I tried to breast pump my milk.

Well, somehow, the Little Giant breast pump doesn’t work that well. It doesn’t really suck my nipple. Fortunately, my husband was available and so he ran to the closest babystore and got me a Medela breastpump (price was about USD 80).

I am very satisfied with this Medela pump…maybe because it is not made in China. It is the best breast pump ever. It sucks very powerfully and with minimal pain. Recently, I also found in the internet that Medela is also selling Medela Freestyle which is their newest model for breast pump.

Here’s the demonstration video for the breast pump

Tags : breast feeding, breast pump, breastmilk

Now that you have not experienced PMS and menstruation for about 9 months, you begin to wonder, when will I start my menstrual cycle? I lost blood recently but how to differentiate if it’s a menstrual blood or blood from shrinking womb? …read more to find the answer

How soon you will get menstruation after childbirth depends on how frequent and how long you breastfeed your baby.

Breastfeeding mums:
Breastfeeding has been proven to delay the return of your periods. As long as you’re still breastfeeding day and night, it can take up to a year before youhave to buy tampons again. If you’re lucky enough to have a baby who sleeps through the night from an early age, your periods will probably return sooner - typically in three to eight months. The same applies if you’re supplementing with formula. In other words, the more often your baby feeds, the longer it may be before you get your periods again.

Non-breastfeeding mums
If you’re formula-feeding your baby, you might start menstruating again as soon as a month after delivering your baby, or it could take two to three months.

Tags : breastfeeding moms, period after childbirth

Who doesn’t want to get back into shape after giving birth? After 9-month of guilt free eating habit, your body needs some adjustments to return its before-pregnant size. But it’s just so hard to resist all the good food,which usually happens to be fattening and high in calories.

Well, don’t worry too much. I’m giving you a healthy yummy recipe to lose weight, the Green Bean Ice Cream.

The recipe is as follow:

Green Bean Ice Cream
(for 10 servings)

Ingridients:
150g. green beans, washed
300g. sugar
1000ml mineral water
500g. cold cream, beat with mixer until turns thick
pinch of salt

Direction:
1. Soak green beans for one hour.
2. Boil the beans with water, sugar, and salt until tender and porridge-like. Lift and let it cool.
3. Mix the boiled beans with cream and salt into ice cream maker.
4. Stir it until it turns into ice cream
5. Serve:)

Nutrition fact (each serving):
Calories: 289cal
Protein: 5g.
Fat: 11,3g.
Carbohidrat: 44g.
Cholesterol: 38mg.
Fiber: 0,6g.

Tags : healthy recipe, ice cream recipe, pregnancy diet, weight lost

For those of you who really love to exercise, you might still want to do sit ups while pregnant. Is doing sit ups and crunches safe during pregnancy? Read more to find out

Doing sit ups during pregnancy is fine in your first trimester, but by the second trimester you’ll need to avoid lying on your back because as your uterus grows, its weight can compress the blood vessels leading to your heart, potentially depriving your developing baby of oxygen.

Lying flat on your back tends to lower your blood pressure, which could decrease the blood supply and oxygen to the fetus. About 6 - 10 percent of pregnant women experience rapid drops in blood pressure when they lie down. The problem can begin in early pregnancy, though it’s more likely to occur after 20 weeks.

If you really want to exercise your abdominal muscles, one exercise you could do is the yoga cat pose (hands and knees on the floor, then arch you back up and relax it).

Tags : crunches during pregnancy, sit ups