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Archive for April, 2010

Apr
30

Essential Supplies for your New Baby

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As every parent has surely discovered, you are never quite prepared for the arrival of your new baby. No matter how much time and effort you might put into preparing yourselves and your home for your new arrival, there are always a few things that tend to get overlooked. This is not without good reason, mind you. It is such a wonderfully exciting time for expectant parents, so naturally you are going to be less focused on trivial day-to-day matters. For all of the expectant parents our there, this article is for you!

The nursery is the first place to start when you are preparing your home for your new baby. The crib is likely the first major piece of furniture you will purchase for your child. Be sure that the crib you purchase meets all of the mandatory and voluntary safety guidelines. You will also want to invest in a quality crib mattress, as your baby will be spending upwards of 70% of his or her first year on it. Bedding is another consideration, and very much a matter of personal preference. Just don’t forget to pick up a mattress cover! A changing table is another option, but not entirely necessary. Alternately, a baby monitor is an absolute must-have for your child’s nursery.

The next area to focus your attention on is that of baby supplies. While most people have a reasonable idea of what their children’s needs are, it is a good idea to pause and reflect every so often. Baby supplies are very popular, and there are so many choices to make. Be sure you purchase mild baby soap and shampoo, as chemicals and fragrances can have a terrible impact on a baby’s fresh skin. A high quality, all-natural, moisturizer should also be used. Some parents are keen on using baby powder to help keep their baby’s bottom dry. Try to find a baby powder that does not have a talcum powder base. It can be terribly dangerous if inhaled, so be on the lookout for one with a cornstarch base.

After all of the necessary supplies and furniture have been secured, it is time to think about fun and entertainment for your baby. While the world itself will provide hours of fun and discovery for your child, certain toys and playthings can considerably enhance their experiences. A mobile is an excellent toy for new babies, as they spend a lot of time in their crib at that age. Some soft, fluffy toys are also nice, especially if they are designed to provide some sensory stimulation of some sort. Teething toys are an absolute necessity as your child grows older. There are some wonderful toys on the market for young children, just be sure to consult the consumer reports for information about recalls and other possible dangers associated with children’s toys.

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Apr
29

Eco Friendly Baby & Family Products

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These minimize the impact on the environment and by taking actions such as recycling you can set a good precedent for the future generation. You can now buy most things in a green version for babies including organic baby clothes. There is an increasing movement to return to the old days and use cloth nappies instead of the disposable ones which add to the land fills. Imagine how many of these nappies you can get through in the first years of the babies live? Hundreds if not thousands! Many of these cloth nappy companies are stating ease of use, financial benefits, less rubbish and the comfort of natural cloth over paper and gel against delicate skin as some of the many reasons for making this change. See the GuideMeGreen for companies that offer cloth nappies and other eco products for babies and the home.

I want to enable parents to choose and use products which will benefit baby and his or her family now and protect his / her future environment. GuideMeGreen is essentially a result of my own search for natural and eco-friendly products for my family and offers a service that makes it far easier for other parents to find the right products for them. I often receive requests from teenagers asking for ethical clothing shops and other products of interest them. If teenagers are interested, GuideMeGreen must be doing something right!

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Easy Steps to choosing and creating a Traditional Baby Shower Gift

Gift Baskets

Gift baskets are something you can buy or make. If you want to save a little money, purchase a nice, inexpensive basket from Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, or other retail chains and then fill it with items like baby powder, lotion, diaper cream, washcloths, bibs, sleepers, bottles, teething ring, pacifiers, and so on.

For a nice, added touch, purchase a second basket for the parents. In this basket, add some crackers and cheese with sparkling grape juice, Godiva chocolates, bubble bath, gourmet coffee, homemade cookies or muffins, two movie tickets, and so on.

Knitting

Beautifully, hand knitted blankets, bonnets, jackets, and other gifts are always a welcomed gift. With this type of baby gift, it is apparent that the person put tremendous time and effort into making something special, something warm and cherished.

Shoe Bronzing

This continues to be a cherished tradition. Bronzed shoes could be given as a certificate for the couple to have done after the birth of the baby or this makes an excellent gift for adopted babies.

Today, more than 14 million baby shoes have been bronzed. While only shoes were bronzed at one time, today other baby items can be bronzed to include stuffed animals, pacifiers, baby bottles, etc.

First Tooth Holder

A timeless, silver-plated first tooth holder is something the soon-to-be parents would love. These holders can be engraved with the baby’s initials or name and some have a nice Plexiglas hinged lid to protect the precious tooth.

An alternative to this is the “First Curl” holder for the baby’s first haircut, as seen in the photograph to the right. Picture Frames

Couples always love cute picture frames, perfect for showing off the newest member of the family. You will find every design imaginable such as a pewter frame with a Noah’s Ark motif, ceramic frames with tiny bunnies or ducks, crystal frames, etc. With this type of gift, the theme of the nursery can be matched perfectly.

“Piggy” Bank

Although you could stay with tradition and go with a little piggy like the one shown, baby banks are available in all shapes, sizes, and designs. Something made from pewter or silver looks beautiful and will last for years, making it the perfect keepsake.

The opportunities for gifts are endless. The main thing is to think about what the parents will need for their newborn baby. Babies go through tons of diapers, crib sheets, bibs, sleepers, and socks so you would always be safe with any of these items.

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Don’t Forget To Plan Some Baby Shower Games When You Plan Or Host A Baby Shower

Sometimes baby showers are hosted before the baby is born and sometimes after. Either way most baby showers have at least one thing in common, baby shower games.

When you host a baby shower it is fun to have games to play as entertainment as well as to break the ice. You may have guests that don’t know each other as well as several different age generations in attendance.

I like to have different types of games when I host a baby shower so the same guest isn’t always the winner. I also like to find games that require little preparation or expense. Here are a few free baby shower games you are free to use when you plan or host a baby shower.

1. One game you might want to play is to see who can name the most nursery rhymes. Give your guests a few minutes to write them down and see who thought of the most. Beforehand you can prepare a list to compare to if you want. Plus if your baby shower guests appear stumped you can name a few to get them started on the right track.

2. A word scramble is also a good type of game to have. You can scramble up some baby words and print them out on a piece of paper and let the guest unscramble them. You could also give your baby shower guests a blank sheet of paper and have them write a phrase such as Jill’s new baby, or the new baby’s full name and have them see how many words they can find in the letters.

3. If you want to liven things up a bit give every guest a piece of paper with a baby related word on it and tell them not to show it to anyone. When everyone has arrived explain to them that every time they hear their word they should cough and say excuse me within 5 seconds. The other guests then can each make one guess as to the word. You can give prizes to whoever guesses the most right as well as to whoever stumps the other shower guests the longest.

Basically just try to find a variety of baby shower games that everyone will enjoy playing and have a great time celebrating the blessing of a new baby.

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Did you ever notice how some baby gifts stand out from the crowd while others seem to get lost in the pile of gifts? Baby gift baskets are nothing but a handful of gifts including toys, books, candy, etc. packed in a beautiful basket. But to buy baby gift baskets is not sufficient these days. The presentation is what matters the most. This has less to do with the cost of the baby gifts then with the way they are put together or presented.

Steps to Build a Beautiful Baby Gift Basket

To present a baby gift basket which looks unique and draws attention the following suggestions should be helpful:

1) While selecting the gifts to put in the basket one must carefully think about the current and important needs of the parents. For example, a coupon for baby sitting, especially at night, can be a very good option.

2) One can show his or her creativity by putting together a nursing survival kit comprising breast pads, lansinoh cream, and a copy of “The Womanly Art of Breast Feeding”.

3) Another option is to create a sleep-time baby gift basket consisting of a soft baby blanket, a white noise CD and a miracle blanket.

4) One must be very particular about providing everything which will be needed by the parents to enjoy the gift. For example, if the presents requires a set of batteries, then it would be nice to include a small package of batteries.

5) The ideal baby gift basket should be the one which doesn’t require any work on the part of the parents to enjoy.

6) It would be nice to include the gift receipt in the basket in case the parents get two or three similar baby gifts so it will be easy to exchange it for a different one.

7) A card mentioning the full name and address of the person presenting the gift should be in the basket so it will help the parents keep track of the gifts and return a thank you note if they choose.

8) It is important that if one doesn’t know the family very well, then he or she should not send a personalized gift. With a personalized gift, too often the name gets misspelled. For example, names like John and Kathy can be spelled as Jon and Cathy. Moreover, it’s very difficult to know by what name the parents call the baby. If they named her Margaret, but are used to calling her by a nickname like Peggy, then it’s possible that the child would never get a gift with Margaret engraved or embroidered on it.

So there you have it. If you want to buy baby gift baskets for newborn babies and their moms, you can stand out from the rest with the above recommendations and a little creativity.

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Do You Have the Right Bedding for Your Baby ?

While the birth of a baby is the most exceptional experience in any woman’s life, it is after the birth of the child that the real work begins. There are many skills that a new mother will have to learn and learn quickly ; bottles, diapers and childhood diseases are only a few. Choosing the proper bedding for your baby will be one of the critical decisions you have to make. Common sense and experts both agree that the primary factor in choosing the bedding needs to be safety. Proper bedding is absolutely critical for the safety and comfort of your baby.
To provide both comfort and safety it is imperative that the bedding not be too hard or too soft, improper bedding has been suspected as a possible cause in many cases of sudden infant death syndrome. This has normally been attributed to a very soft mattress. If the mattress is too soft it can cause the infant’s mouth and nose to be covered. If this happens then the baby is inhaling the same air they exhale. This can cause a rapid build of carbon dioxide in the babies system. Excessive carbon dioxide can cause drowsiness, coma and even death.
Baby beds come in a large selection of varieties and styles, regardless of the baby bed used it is critical that the bedding properly match the bed. The three types of baby beds are: bassinet, cradle and cribs. It is fairly easy to distinguish between the different types of beds? Bassinets are oblong or round baskets that serve as a bed for infants. A crib is a small bed that has very high side walls or railings. The purpose of he high sides or rails is to protect your baby or toddler. Since they can be used until the child is around two years old, cribs are usually considered the more economical choice. A cradle is a small low bed that is normally mounted on rockers, cradles are only good while the child is still an infant. In all of these the material used to make the bed will help indicate what precautions need to be taken.
In a bassinet the bedding needs to provide enough space that the baby can roll from side to side. Bassinets are usually full of lacing and trimming which can reduce the actual available space for the baby. Cradles come in a variety of shapes and sized, one advantage of the cradle is that it can be rocked to help soothe the baby. There is normally not much bedding used inside of a cradle. Cribs are normally square so you can get a mattress that perfectly fits the dimensions of your crib. The mattress is normally covered with a coverlet and or blankets. You can also include pillows to make your baby more comfortable. Caution should be used not to fill the crib with too many pillows or the baby can stand on them and fall and hurt themselves. Any of the styles of beds can be safely used to keep your child save and comfortable.
Once you have determined what type of bedding will correctly fit the equipment you have the only other consideration is the pattern and style that you find pleasing.

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Harsh Discipline: Does it do More Harm than Good?
Recent studies suggest that low-income parents tend to endorse much harsher discipline, partially because they hold stronger beliefs about the value of spanking and experience higher levels of stress.
However, parents who work in high-stress jobs or are stay-at-home parents who are feeling frustrated or isolated are also at risk. It’s imperative that parents recognize their tendency to punish a child too severely and take the needed steps to make sure the punishment is appropriate for their child’s age, temperament and maturity level.
The study’s finding showed that parents from lower income levels or work high pressure jobs are more stressed, and they react more emotionally to their child’s behavior, and thus use harsher discipline. A parent in this situation may benefit from outside assistance and learning about alternative disciplinary strategies that are more appropriate and less harsh.
It’s also important for a parent to realize that children thrive on praise. Parents in such a situation may always jump to discipline but fail to praise their child for their good deeds, behaviors and traits. Children instinctively want to please their parents and make them proud. By encouraging positive behavior, the parent will most likely discourage the behavior that has driven them in the past to punish too harshly.
In order to encourage positive behavior deserving of praise, parents might want to consider giving their child a task they know they’re able to accomplish, and praise their efforts along the way. Parents need to also consistently praise their children for the positive traits they possess. Their child might be good at math in school, helpful to their little brother or sister, or is good at drawing pictures. Praise these good traits and the child is likely to respond by acting appropriately and behaving positively in order to gain more praise.
In the end, it’s important to remember that a child is just that – a child. A parent should make a concerted effort to make sure the discipline is appropriate and take care of themselves physically, mentally and emotionally so they can optimally provide for their child’s physical and emotional well-being.

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Apr
26

Discovering The World of Babies

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How dull this world would be had we no babies to tend! Imagine the monotony of sounds without their contagious giggles, pitiful cries, and puzzling babbles. Oh how awful it would be without their incredible innocence or their charming naughtiness, what with their ways that can open a whole new world of perspective for us adults.

But whether for you babies are powerful tiny persons or cherubs sent from above, there is a wealth of things to know about these little humans (just when you thought you knew them all!).

Do you know that daily naps are vital not only to aid their physical growth? Daily naps are recommended, for without them babies will become hyperactive or fussier as the day wears on. Babies are indeed energetic but they do need breaks, you know. So send them to snooze, regularly! Oh, you know that already?

How about the reason why toys come in attractive colors? Why playpens have soft, dangling items on them that infants cant help but stare at for long? Whats going on as they see these bright colors and hear these chimes?

Speaking of toys, what does the Lion Mark symbol that you see attached to some toys signify? How are these different from the ones without the mark? There are toys that are specified for 0 to 6 months babies only and toys for 6 to 12 months, but would you know which is for which if there werent any age advice stamped on them? Why bother to care when they grow to reach that age sooner than youd realize, anyway?

Do you know how to make bath time fun for them, instead of torture? What bathing strategies should you employ for the newborn? How about for a toddler who can easily jump out of the tub and splash water all over (reminds you of Calvin and his Hobbes, right?).

What should you feed these babies? What should you have them wear? These topics seem basic but would you not like to know the recent findings about nutrition? The recent trends and developments in baby clothing to give them ultimate comfort and protection?

In traveling, when is it safe to have a baby on the front passenger seat? Is it okay to use an infant carrier as a car seat? What tests should you do to make certain a baby will be secure in the car, whether on front or on the rear seat?

How can you avoid baby bottle tooth decay? Why do babies pull their ears could it be related to teething or to ear infection? What is an exersaucer? When and how should you toilet-train them? What novelty gift ideas are available so you can have something truly helpful for your mom-to-be friend?

If you do not know the answers to these questions, or know only a little, or would want to know more apart from the above topics, its time to discover these babies info! Parents, parents-to-be, nannies, those whose careers are related to babies and practically anyone can benefit from the knowledge about babies. For the love of them, for the love from them discover babies now!

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Discover the 4 Top Tips for Planning Great Baby Showers

Baby showers are parties thrown for friends that are pregnant. This practice has significantly changed over the course of the years and has gradually become more and more elaborate and planned.

You will be amazed but you are already way ahead of many people as you are seeking out information and with these simple planning tips you are bound to be a Baby Shower Success. So lets get started.

Baby showers can make an expectant mother feel more secure in the fact that her friends are all pulling for her and giving moral and financial support. Usually the baby shower is organized by non-relatives. But today, there is isnt abnormal to find family members, support group members, church friends and pretty much anyone except the expecting mother.

Inviting the Guests
Who should you invite? Usually, the guest list will only include those nearest and dearest to the expectant mother. It wouldnt hurt if she gets a first look at the guest list so that she can suggest who should be invited. If you are planning a surprise baby shower, you will have to do a little research on who should be attending instead of running the list through the expectant mother.

If the child is not a firstborn, you may opt to keep the number of guests down to the closest to the mother. Firstborn baby showers tend to have a larger guest list since it is, after all, the mothers first time.

The thing to remember is that the nature of baby showers is intimacy. So, for any baby shower party, try making the gathering one of intimate friends.

You could use informal ways to invite these guests: email, phone and others. Invitation cards and other letters are the best way, however, as they provide a tangible, traceable evidence of invitation. Plus, it is the most sure and formal way to invite a person and in many cultures the only way.

What About the Guys
The nature of the party is probably going to tend towards the feminine side; if the organizers of the party have a provision for this, then inviting men would be fine. It also depends on the men, since the party may dwell on topics such as pregnancy, children, and other motherly topics, they might not be that excited to join. All in all, it depends on the preference of the organizers.

Venue
Anywhere! As long as it can keep with the placid and fun nature of the occasion, any place would be fine. The more usual places on baby shower lists are backyards, formal halls, restaurants, and basically any room that has the amenities to make a baby shower successful. Just make sure the venue is not crowded and stressful to the mother-to-be. It also pays to make sure the venue is set long before the actual baby shower happens.

When to Throw a Baby Shower
Usually this is one or two months before her due. The baby shower is the perfect time to get your friend baby needs and stuff she may not have had time to purchase yet. It has to be well-timed though not too close to the due date, and not to far as to whittle down the excitement.

Baby showers are a pleasant surprise to expecting mothers. It takes a lot of the stress of expecting a child off of their minds and provides a means for friends to show support and concern (and of course, baby gifts) to expecting friends.

A properly coordinated baby shower will be greatly appreciated and forever remembered by mothers long after they have delivered their children.

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Apr
24

Discover Some Baby Shower Gift Ideas

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Baby showers are thrown for the main purpose of bestowing well wishes and gifts upon a couple that is having their first child. Usually, gifts come in the form of baby items that the baby will need on its arrival.

With the popularity of baby gift registries today, looking for that perfect gift that the baby will need and the couple will truly appreciate has become easy. But for those will-be parents who did not sign up for a gift registry, or if you want to choose a baby gift on your own, this list of baby shower gift ideas may truly be helpful.

1. Disposable Diapers

Diapers may not be the most fancy gift to give for a baby shower. But this would definitely be the most thoughtful and most appreciated.

Diapers are expensive and babies will use them up very quickly. The new parents will appreciate them. Even those parents who opt to use cloth diapers may also find disposable diapers useful when traveling.

A tip when buying diapers, pick the larger size ones instead of newborn diapers. After all, babies nowadays grow very fast and the newborn-size diapers may not be useful for very long. And while you are at it, why not thrown in some baby wipes as well.

2. Bottles and Pacifiers

Babies may sometimes be picky on bottles and pacifiers. Some babies prefer to use only a particular brand or shape for these items.

If the parents-to-be have specified in the baby registry a brand or shape of bottles, nipples, and pacifiers, these items may be a safe choice for a baby shower gift. Otherwise, just steer clear from these baby items.

To continue reading this article go now to

http://www.babyshowerportal.com/Baby-Shower-Gift-Ideas.html

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