crawling

Most of the babies start Crawling between 6-12 months. Ours started after 9 months. Some kids skip crawling altogether.  Normally it is not something to be concerned about but do talk to pediatrician if your child skips crawling to be sure that there is no development issue. 

Crawling is the first stage when kids get some sense of independence. It is the first time when they realize they can move by their own. 

But for parents it is initially a difficult stage Hence I would like share some key points here : 

• If you are excited about your baby's crawling but she has not yet started, hold on. Don't force your child to crawl especially on floor because it will just lead to injuries. When their arms have enough strength, they will themselves start crawling. Babies are never lazy.

• Initially you can encourage them to crawl on some soft surface. e.g. EVA play tiles, cushioned sheet etc. 

• Falling is part of process. As a parent we want to protect our children from small of smallest injury but remember it is only way to learn. So let them fall and learn. All you can do is to  ensure that they don't fall from height and there is no sharp or harmful object(small objects that they can gulp, knife, scissor, medicines, insecticide etc. ) around them. Keep an eye on them. 

• To protect children from sharp edges, buy corner guard.

• If you have open sockets in your home that is in child's reach, cover it with socket plug cover guard

• Give a lot of floor time to your child. It is important for their growth.

• If you don't have much help at home, you can buy bed railing to protect your child from falling from bed or you can buy playpen

• We are not in favor of knee guards because they are not much successful(most of knee guard available in market keep coming down) and moreover crawling is a natural thing. Let it be as natural as possible.

• Always make baby wear full length legging or at least that covers baby's knees otherwise their knees can get scratched. We made this mistake once. We let our son crawl bare knee once for an hour and his knees were scratched 😢

• Standing is next milestone for babies after crawling so they try to stand while crawling by holding things around them, so be around them and keep a watch on them to prevent falling. 

  

Do let us know how do you like our posts. We would love to hear your feedback/suggestion and do share your child's cute, unique, sweet-sour stories of crawling. 

Eggplant Pizza

Yes you heard it right. It is eggplant pizza where eggplant will be used as base.

Eggplant pizza

 And it can be one of the best options that your child will love to eat, regardless of the age. Let us quickly see its recipe now.

Ingredients: 

• Eggplant (brinjal)
• Rice flour
• Desi ghee/ home made desi ghee or any edible oil
• Cheese
• Tomato, onion, capsicum or any other veggies for topping
• Oregano for flavoring

Choose low salt cheese especially if baby is younger than 1 year. 

Recipe: 

• Wash eggplant properly and Cut it into thick round flat circles of around 1cm thickness.

Eggplant slice

• Apply salt on both sides of it and keep it aside for 5-10 min and then wash it with drinkable water. This is an optional step to remove bitterness of eggplant. If your child is younger than 1 year, you should skip it as salt is not advisable. Read post Just Parented: Introducing solid food to your child to know more. 

In the mean time you can chop your veggies by hand on in vegetable chopper. I used tomato, onion and capsicum.

Chopped veggies

• Cover eggplant slice with rice flour on both sides.

Eggplant slice with rice flour

3. On non stick tawa or pan, roast it from one side with little ghee or oil.

Roasted eggplant slice

 

4. When one side is roasted, flip to other side and add cheese and topping vegetables on roasted side. 

5. Cover it with some lid so that cheese melts and veggies are cooked (you can bake it in microwave as well). Make sure eggplant is well cooked. you can check with fork. if fork easily passes through, eggplant is cooked. 

6. Your delicious dish is ready. 

Eggplant pizza

Please let us know how your child liked it in comments.

foremilk and hindmilk

Foremilk and hindmilk are components of breastmilk.

Foremilk: Milk that flow in the beginning of feeding is called foremilk and is rich in terms of nutrients.

Hindmilk:  Hindmilk is the milk that flow in the latter part of feeding and is rich in fats.

Both foremilk and hindmilk are important for development of your child. So hindmilk is responsible for gaining weight in babies and foremilk is important for their overall well-being. 

How to make sure that child gets both? 

Simple let one breast empty out before switching to other side. 

It is advised not to switch breast too early because doing so, your little one can miss hind milk. Let one breast get empty completely (although breasts never get empty but when you feel that breast has become very light) it is the t you should switch. 

What if child feeds only from one breast? 

This is completely ok. Just make sure in the next feeding session you start from another breast first. 

E.g. you started nursing with left breast and baby took feed from left breast for 10 min and then you switched to right breast and baby fed only for 2 min there. Now next time when you breastfeed, start from right one so that your body produces milk in both breasts. 

Many mothers are worried if her child is getting enough hind milk or not. I would say don't get into calculations. Breastmilk is tailored as per your baby's needs. All you have to remember is to empty out one breast before switching to another. Rest your body knows how much to produce.

Quick tip for cracked or sore nipples :

If you have cracked/sore nipples because of poor latch, biting, over pumping etc. use nipcare ointment cream or moms co nipple butter cream