Parenting Tips

 

Parenting Tips

Babies

Child development

• Remember the sequence in which your child reaches milestones is much more important than the age.  • Children usually grow in a fairly predictable way but the range of what is considered normal is broad. If you are worried about your child's development check with your doctor or child health nurse. • Learning to understand the world, being imaginative, expressing feelings, coordinating the body and being with others, are all related - and all are as important as each other.

Babies

Health & nutrition

1. The health of both women and children can be significantly improved by spacing births at least two years apart by avoiding pregnancies before the age of 18 , and by limiting the total number of pregnancies to three or less . 2. To reduce the danger of child bearing , all pregnant women should go to a health worker for pre-natal care and all births should be assisted by a trained midwife. 3. For the first few months of a baby's life , breast milk alone is the best possible food and drink .Infants need other foods , in addition to breast milk , when they are four to six months old.

4. Children under three have special feeding needs . They need to eat 5 to 6 times a day and their food should be specially enriched by adding mashed vegetables and small amounts of fats or oils. 5. Diarrhoea , can kill by draining too much liquid from a child's body . So the liquid lost each time the child passes a watery stool must be replaced by giving the child plenty of the right liquids to drink- breast milk , home - based fluids such as dal water , rice water butter milk etc. or a special drink called ORS . If the illness is more serious than usual , the child needs help from a health worker and the special ORS drink . A child with Diarrhoea also needs food to make a good recovery .

6. Immunization protects against several diseases which can cause poor growth , disability , and death .All immunization should be completed in the first year of the child's life and a booster given at one and half years . Every woman of child bearing age should be immunized against tetanus . 7. Most coughs and colds will get better on their own . But if a child with a cough is breathing much more rapidly than normal then the child is seriously ill and it is essential to go to a health centre quickly . A child with a cough or cold should be helped to eat and to drink plenty of liquids.

8. Many illness are caused because germs enter the mouth . This can be prevented by using proper latrines ; by washing hands with soap and water after using the latrine and before handling food ; by keeping food and water clean ; and by boiling drinking water if it is not from a safe piped supply. 9. Illness hold back a child's growth . After an illness , a child needs an extra meal every day for a few days to make up the growth lost .

10. Children from birth to three years should be weighed regularly every month for the first year and at least every alternate month thereafter . If there is no gain in weight for two months , something is wrong .

Nutrition

1. Start breast feeding within one hour of delivery . Colostrums ( Mother's first milk , light yellowish thick fluid ) is rich in protein , vitamin "A" and has anti -infective properties . It is the infant first immunization.

2. Feed exclusively mother's milk for the first four to six months of life. No need of any supplement or fluids (not even water) during this period.

3. Start feeding semi-solids , preferably home made after 4-6 months. Continue breast feeding .

4. Continue breast feeding well into the second year .

5. Give food 5-6 times a day to young children .

6. Give more of pulses , groundnuts , milk and milk products in the daily diet of children.

7. Include a variety of food stuffs in daily diet , as a mixed diet is more nutritious. 8. Get your child immunized timely. 9. Do not allows flies to touch foods. 10. Keep your surroundings clean.

11. Maintain personal hygiene.

12. When your child has Diarrhoea or vomiting , give him/her extra water in the form of ORS , cooked pulse water , thick soup etc.

13. Women must take extra food to meet the additional requirement during pregnancy and lactation.

14. Consume green leafy vegetables daily in one or other form. 15. Take daily some raw vegetables in your diet like radish , leafy vegetable, chutney , onion , carrot , tomatoes , cucumber , lemon etc.

16. Use whole wheat flour (unsieved) for preparing chapaties puris etc. 17. Cook rice in just sufficient water to avoid discarding of cooked rice water which drains out nutrients. 18. Do not wash vegetables after cutting and also do not remove thick peels.