by Whitney
In my house, dinner’s not over till the fat man throws a significant amount of food on the floor. Usually a spoon or bowl, too. I have no idea if this is rejection of the food itself or of the activity we English speakers call “eating.” Anyhow, before you decide that your kid hates sweet potatoes or prunes, make sure she tries the food about five times.
I think The Experts say that it takes a few tries to acquire the taste for something new, and with a 10-month old, it might be the unfamiliar taste or it might just be a temporary protest against eating.
The side of a Gerber jar claims 10 times is reasonable; I think they just want you to buy more food, though.
I have also been known to give the same food for dinner as lunch. In our culture it’s perfectly common to say “Not Mexican for dinner; I had a burrito for lunch!” Babies are not that discriminating.
by Heather
Emily says
My contribution is that my daughter, Zaia, LOVES the Lisa Loeb CD, “Catch the Moon.” It’s great b/c it’s kid’s music that doesn’t make the units want to tear out their hair. It’s on two ipods and burned onto 3 discs in our home, ready for sleep emergencies. Woohoo!
Toddlers can be quite demanding about their favorite tunes, so don’t find yourself without your favorite music, especially when traveling!
by Heather
Some of the best pre-baby advice I ever got (that I actually took) was along the lines of playing white noise or static to calm a fussy baby. In the olden days of our babydom, our parents may have run a vacuum or put us on the dryer, but living in energy-conscious Berkeley, you can’t do that stuff all night long.
As recommended by my friend Lori, we started out (even in the hospital) by playing a groovy, new agey Transitions cd that simulates womb sounds. This “music” is so powerful that it should not be used while driving because it causes grown people to zonk out immediately. Coupled with sleep deprivation and the confusion of a newborn, we had to move away from that cd after a few weeks because of our hallucinations.
Our next attempt was a very mellow, plain discovery to play “pink noise” for Holden while sleeping. We downloaded the sound from this site and play it continuously through the night on a loop. Rookie Dad, Alec, created a one-hour version of this (he did some fancy editing).
In the meantime, Whitney invested in this sound machine to play the white noise for her son (and replace the need to tie up the mp3 player looping static all the time) and I watched cautiously before committing to a solution that cost money.
Well, we later jumped on the Homedics bandwagon for less than $20 to have a more portable, simple solution [and 14 months later, we're still going strong!].
by Whitney
No matter how old your kid is when the holiday season starts, you are probably already packed with clutter.
Our friend Sunny suggests a few gifts that will not result in more stuff to put away, step around, or sterilize. Feel free to share this post with your parents, and please add your own feedback if you have more ideas.
- membership to a museum or zoo
- music classes
- babysitting hours or payment of the babysitter
- gift certificate for shoes for baby: Nordstrom, Stride Right, etc
This tactic is especially delightful if you have to travel for the holidays — nothing to carry home or set off the security alerts!!!
