What to look out for in day-care facilities

Choosing the best day care for your child

Women are an important part of the work-force and yet (in South African at least) employers don’t do much to help moms take care of their babies and children when they’re not at home. Some women use the services of an au-pair, a nanny or ask granny to help during baby’s first year. The benefits are that babies don’t have to leave the house, they’re spared crèche infections and enjoy one-on-one attention.

Some crèches have a baby centre. Here’s what to look for when you’re shopping for baby-care:

Is the child-minder friendly? Does she enjoy looking after babies and small children?

Does she have experience? Or children of her own?

Is the facility clean?

Do the babies look happy?

Does the centre provide for the baby’s needs i.e. clean, safe cots, hygienic nappy-changing area, feeding chairs, safe area for babies to crawl around, sufficient staff?

Is the environment colourful and stimulating?

Is the kitchen where food and bottles are prepared, hygienic?

Does each baby have a daily ‘report book’?

Toddlers and young children who go to play-school are:

Developing social skills

Nurturing their intelligence

Learning to talk

Very curious

Play-school needs to fulfil these needs. A nursery-school should not:

Leave the children to watch TV

Leave them to play unsupervised

Medicate them to sleep (sigh!) This happens!

Keep the children inside all day

Expect children of all ages to play together.

Pre-schoolers are prepped for going to ‘big school’. This means learning their reading, writing and numbers. They need to get used to routine and learn to sit still while paying attention for at least 20 minutes at a stretch. They also need to learn to copy from the blackboard and do what the teacher tells them to do – not only what they want to do!

You can help your child cope with nursery school by making sure he is healthy, eats a balance diet and gets at least 12 hours sleep every night. It also helps when the home is organised and there is routine during the week. Because the child does not get to spend a lot of time with his parents, make the evening meal a family occasion and read to your child at bed-time. It’s difficult I know, because parents are frazzled at the end of their busy day, but it’s worth enjoying your children while they’re young. All too soon they will be teenagers who only want to do their own thing.

Top tips:

Children learn confidence when they’re loved

Show an interest in everything that your child does

Reward co-operative behaviour

Listen to your child’s point of view.

Everything you need to know about pregnancy tests

Pregnancy tests

After Christmas and New Year partying, it time to get back to the real world – but you may be stressing about the period you’ve missed.

If you’re hurling your heart out over the toilet every morning, decidedly more irritable (or tearful) than usual and your breasts are popping out of your bra, there’s hardly the need for a pregnancy test. But do one all the same!

Of course, you’ll be skeptical about the results. If the test is negative, you’ll think that you have done the test too early … or maybe you didn’t do it properly, or was there enough pee on the stick … did you aim straight, did you wait long enough or maybe too long? Going for a blood test will give you accurate results – even before you have missed your period.

When a pregnancy test is positive, it can be seriously stressful – particularly if you’re not married / if he’s married / if you’re still at school / if you’re 40-something and you thought you were going through menopause / if you’ve already got an entourage of children!

When using a home pregnancy test:

Check the expirary date

Read the instructions carefully

You can only use the test once

Don’t keep the test in the bathroom cabinet where it can get steamed up, or on the windowsill where there’s too much sunlight

Test your urine first thing in the morning when it’s concentrated. If you need to repeat the test, do it again the next morning. Early morning urine contains higher levels of the pregnancy hormone called hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin).

Most tests can be read after 40 seconds. If there is no change after five minutes, consider the test negative. A negative test cannot become positive. If there's a faint line, the test is positive because there may only a small amount of hCG in your urine if it's very early in the pregnancy. If there are two little pink lines, the test is positive. After 10 minutes the test is no longer valid.

Some pregnancy tests simply say NO / YES or pregnant / not pregnant. Fancier tests can even tell how far pregnant you are.  

Blood or urine test?

While most women can do their own pregnancy test at home, women using IVF (In-Vitro Fertilisation) will have regular blood tests for pregnancy. Women with complicated pregnancies such as repeated miscarriages may need progesterone injections to prevent another miscarriage, so she should have a blood pregnancy test as early as possible.

How do pregnancy tests work?

About eight days after fertilisation, the egg produces a hormone called hCG. This hormone helps to keep the egg alive by making sure that the ovary continues to produce progesterone. Higher levels of progesterone are essential for a pregnancy to be maintained until the fertilised egg reaches the safety of the womb (this takes about 10 days).

When will your baby be born?

Although the baby’s birth date is calculated from the first day of a last period, conception only happens two weeks later when the woman’s body is fertile. This fertility phase or ‘fertile window’ is called ovulation. In the second week of the baby’s development hCG levels double every second day until 7 – 10 weeks when the placenta can make its own hormones. This hormone will be around throughout the pregnancy and up until three days after the birth.

While most women conceive about two weeks after her period, women who ovulate later will conceive later. Conception doesn’t always happen on the day of having sex either. Baby girls can be conceived five days after sex because the girl sperm sometimes ‘holiday’ in the cervix (mouth of the womb) for just as many days! Boy sperm on the other hand are different – they swim faster and don’t take a mid-way break on their perilous journey to the womb. Baby boys are usually conceived on the day of having sex.

Conclusion:

If a woman does a pregnancy test too soon, her test will be negative. It’s safest to wait until she has missed a period to do a home pregnancy test. For women who are anxious to get pregnant, it’s best for her to wait until she has had a scan before telling the world her good news on social media! If this pregnancy is a whoopsie, don’t panic. Phone a friend. Discuss your options. Don’t make any hasty decisions. Remember, every baby is a sacrifical blessing in one way or another!

Christmas greetings

Wishing all my blog readers a holy Christmas, happy celebrations with friends and family and new beginnings in 2018!

Tips on introducing solids

Introducing solids

A few readers have asked about introducing solids, so I bounced questions off my niece, Roxanne Smith, who has recently passed her degree in Dietetics. Roxanne’s answers were so good, I am sharing them with you as she sent them.

First read the questions through to find out what you know about introducing solids. Then check your answers with Roxanne’s.

Q 1         When is the best age to introduce solids:

                A – 4 months

                B – 6 months

                C – when the baby is ready

Q 2         What is the best food to start solids:

                A – porridge

                B – fruit

                C – vegetable

Q 3         How long should babies drink milk:

                A – 1 year

                B – 2 years

                C – indefinitely.

Here are the answers:

Question 1: The answer is C: When your baby is ready

Reason: You should introduce solids when your baby starts showing signs of readiness but not earlier than 4 months, and not later than 6 months. Some signs of readiness include: the ability to support her head and neck, being able to sit without support, taking interest in what you’re eating, and seeming hungrier than usual.

Why not earlier than 4 months? 

Before four months, your baby’s digestive system is not mature enough to handle solid food. Studies have shown an increased risk of allergies (particularly eczema) with early introduction of solids. Furthermore, when solids are introduced early, infants often gain weight too quickly. This can increase their risk of being overweight/obese and developing diabetes and other chronic diseases as adults.

Why not later than 6 months? 

Around six months your baby’s iron stores are depleted and breast-milk (or formula) does not contain enough iron to support your baby’s growth. After six months, infants also need more energy and nutrients, and milk alone does not meet these needs. Late introduction of solid foods also increases the risk of allergies. 

When solids are introduced very late, babies don’t get used to the bulk of solids, and may gag when the food is lumpy.

**Special Consideration: HIV+ mommies who are exclusively breastfeeding: 

If you are HIV+ and breastfeeding, you should wait until 6 months to introduce solids. The risk of transmitting the HIV virus to your baby can increase if you introduce solids earlier. Remember that if you have been exclusively breastfeeding, you should continue breastfeeding after introducing solids for up to 24 months (and keep taking your ARVs).

Question 2: The answer is A: Iron-fortified porridge / cereal

Reason: Around six months your baby’s iron stores are depleted and breastmilk (or formula) does not contain enough iron to support your baby’s growth. Iron fortified cereal should be given first to supplement iron stores. Make sure the cereal/porridge is gluten free and don’t add any sugar or salt. Give vegetables next (before fruit) as it may be difficult to introduce vegetables after fruit because your baby will be used to sweet tastes.

Question 3: The answer is B: About 2 years (depends on the type of milk)

Breastmilk: Continue breastfeeding to at least 12 months, but try to breastfeed to 24 months or beyond if possible. If you can only breastfeed until 12 months, you can give cow’s milk, or a growing-up formula (formula 3) from 12 months.

Formula feeding: Continue to formula feed (formula 2) until 12 months. After 12 months you can give cow’s milk or a growing-up formula (formula 3).

Cow’s milk: Do not give cow’s milk before 12 months. Cow’s milk can be started at 12 months, and continued indefinitely.

Reason: Even though solids have been introduced, until 12 months, breastmilk (or formula) should provide about half your baby’s nutrition. From one year on, solid food should form the base of your child’s nutrition, with breastmilk (or formula) contributing about 1/3 nutritional needs. Continued breastfeeding to two years or beyond is recommended as it provides continued bonding with the mother, protection from illness, and excellent nutrition. Remember that toddlers will stop breastfeeding as part of their natural development.

Always use full-cream (not fat-free) pasteurised milk.  

Refilling the empty nest

Confessions of a contented grandmother

When our children left home, the local charity shop must have cheered. After nearly two decades of nesting, their bedrooms had become a mayhem of clutter that could fill a departmental store. Shelves were packed with books and bric-a-brac and their cupboards held a stash of sporting equipment that would have kept an Olympic team happy. I understood how Gerald Darrell's mother felt the day he left home with his menagerie of bottled and caged creatures and pets. My son left us with a collection of bird and hamster cages along with a few snakes in glass boxes for good measure.

When our first son was born, we were lured into buying a set of encyclopaedias, children’s reading books and educational games. Acutely aware of the importance of the first few formative years, our son was stimulated at every opportunity with every new Fisher Price toy that came onto the market. By the time our last child came along, the yard was a nursery-school of tip-trucks, tricycles and black plastic motor-bikes, a sand-pit and jungle-gym.

When the children were in primary school, we started collecting soccer, cricket and tennis gear along with gymnastic and dancing bits and bobs. In high-school, we collected roller skates, skate-boards and bicycles, and a drum kit. Our budding band called themselves the ‘Black-Flies’ and the only time the neighbourhood enjoyed some peace and quiet was after I fed them all and sent them home.

Week-ends were filled with tennis tournaments, dancing eisteddfod’s and bicycle rally’s. My son’s first motor-car was a cherry-red beetle and it wasn’t long before the drive-way became collection of petrol-guzzlers that would have kept Top Gear filming for weeks.

And then, one by one, the children left home. An empty place filled my heart. I had to get used to shopping and cooking for two. The day came to box-up all the left-overs and give them away. When the job was done I understood why having children is so sacrificial and extraordinarily expensive. We turned one bedroom into my office, and the other into a guest bedroom. The Kenwood stood idle in the kitchen.

Until the grandchildren came along that is. Now, bit by bit the childish clutter returns. Toys for boys and girls in the spare room and story books are back on the shelf. The demand for pancakes and chocolate cake, flavoured milk, popcorn and gingerbread men has returned. The game of cricket on the front lawn has been recalled and it won’t be long before a rope-ladder and swing-tyre hang from the syringa tree again. 

Grand-children. How can we resist them?