Tips for Parents
Important Tips For Parents
1. Prevent situations where your baby might do something you don’t like. Move that canning jar to a higher shelf. Put a gate on the stairwell. If your baby does something wrong, think of ways you could keep it from happening again. Create a trouble-free environment!
2. Ignore behavior that is annoying but not harmful. If the baby pulls everything out of your sock drawer, just take a deep breath and ignore it. If you pay too much attention, it teaches your baby to do things like this to get attention from you.
3. Distract or redirect your baby from things you don’t want her to have or do. If she has your keys and you need them, don’t just grab them; instead, interest her in some other toy or activity. The baby will then let go of the keys. It’s easier to get a baby started on something else, than to take something away.
4. Reward your baby with your loving attention when she plays nicely. Don’t become a parent who only notices your child when she has done something wrong. Notice the good times, and give your baby a smile, a laugh or a hug. Your attention is your baby’s most important reward–use it to encourage behavior of which you approve.
And lastly, give Freedom within limits. Your baby needs freedom to explore, but she also needs limits. You need good judgment to provide both. Babies kept in playpens or high chairs for much of the day have too little freedom and are too limited. A baby needs freedom on the floor to explore. That doesn’t mean the basement stairs or garage! That is too much freedom and is too dangerous.
Feeding Your Toddler
Your responsibility as a parent is to offer healthy foods in a nurturing environment. Your child’s job is to decide what and how much of what is offered he will eat.
This is a very important concept and worth repeating to yourself from time to time. In simplest terms – provide a balanced diet for your toddler, limiting sweets and salt. Limit milk to 16 – 24 oz. per day and undiluted juice to a maximum of eight oz. per day.
The nutritional needs of babies and toddlers are different from those of adults. A typical toddler portion is one quarter of an adult portion. Do not restrict fat and cholesterol, which are necessary for adequate growth. Do not give babies and toddlers high fiber, low calorie foods, which may not have enough calories. Offer a variety of foods over time to your toddler.
Let’s take a closer look at the following two issues related to feeding your toddler
Is my toddler eating enough?
If toddlers are not given more than 16 oz. of milk and 8 oz. of juice per day, and are not given excessive sugary snacks between meals, they will eat an adequate amount of calories if offered a variety of nutritional foods. This is known as relying on “natural hunger” to achieve a balanced diet. Moreover, it may occur over several days of eating, not in one 24-hour period. Regular check ups with your pediatrician who will check your baby’s weight and height are essential for monitoring your toddler’s nutrition.
Food Fights
Feeding is an area where parents and toddlers can get into major power struggles. You are frequently worried that your child is not eating enough, or not eating the right kinds of foods. This anxiety may cause you to pressure your child, who immediately picks up the cue that this is an area for struggle. In battles over food, you, the parent almost certainly will lose. The more you force your child to eat, the more she will resist. If this leaves you feeling out of control – remember, you are in control. You control the food you offer your child. Eventually, she will get hungry and eat.
1. Use your imagination
Preschoolers since they have limited experience, everyday, or all day long do their developing imaginations to make sense of their world. The imaginations help them to fill in the gaps. Imaginative play helps them understand new concepts in a non-threatening way.
2. Why is the sky blue?
Preschoolers have a ton of questions and rightly so. As their parent, you are the resident expert on all things in life. What a wonderful position of influence! Preschoolers need simple and direct answers, so save the complicated, technically correct answers for their science class in a few years.
3. Be patient.
Preschoolers are eager to learn about everything around them. However, they have limited attention spans and vocabularies. This can lead to frustration! One of our daughters at this age was interested in information she couldn’t articulate yet, sometimes she would sit crying while we would play a guessing game, was trying to figure out what she wanting to know. Over time and as her verbal abilities developed, she grew into an extremely descriptive person. Your ability to stay patient will help your little one develop patience with her self, too.
4. Sympathize with their struggles
Along the same lines as being patient is to sympathize and empathize with your preschooler’s struggles. Let them know you understand how tough some things are for them and that you are on their side. This age group really likes the idea that someone is their champion; it will help them listen to you even when they don’t like what you have to say.
5. Play grown-up
Preschoolers are wonderful imitators of all things adult. Providing a dress-up box filled with your cast off treasures is one of the best things you can do for your little one’s play habits. Read a good book, then act it out together and you’ll be your preschooler’s best friend for life.
6. Boundaries with a bit of freedom
Your young child needs to know where the limits of behaviour are in your family. So tell her clearly and firmly. Then enforce those limits as necessary. This gives your child a tremendous sense of security and establishes you as a leader in her life; both concepts she will need as she grows. Include a bit of freedom within those boundaries; “you can play anywhere in your playroom or bedroom with those toys, but not in the living room.” Such boundaries allow her to practice making small decisions and to learn self-control.
7. Active is best
Preschoolers need to be active! They are driven to move and explore. So make sure you include plenty of active time in each and every day. Television is not an active time so keep it to a minimum.
8. Educational toys are more fun.
Look for action-oriented toys that go along with your preschooler’s action-oriented drive. One-use toys are simply boring at this age. Aim for toys that can be turned into multiple things and imaginative toys that require play-acting.
9. Enlist your preschooler’s cooperation.
Appeal to your little one’s sense of ‘big girl’ or ‘big boy’. Ask him to help you carry the groceries inside or put the laundry away. Show how to fold clothes and set the table. If you start these simple tasks now, they will be habits by the time your child is old enough to do them well.
10. Sleep is good.
Make sure your preschooler gets an adequate amount of sleep each day. Some kids at this age still need naps, some do not. Your little guy or gal will function better, be more cooperative and enjoy each day more with the correct amount of rest. Make sure there is a quiet time in your home each evening that will signal to your preschooler that bed time is arriving.
