White Noise and 10 other Soothing Sounds for Calming a Colicky Infant-Toddler
White Noise and 10 other Soothing Sounds for Calming a Colicky Infant
The crying ? oh, the crying. A colicky baby can really drive you to the edge. Failed attempts to soothe her crying may leave you wondering if you are cut out to be a parent after all. But, don't worry, you are. You just need to arm yourself with some tools to battle each colic-crying outburst.But, first, let's define why your colic baby cries.The most popular theory from scientists lately is an underdeveloped and immature nervous system. I know all women who have given birth can attest to the fact that a baby has a big head. Right?Wrong. Actually, a baby's head isn't big enough to house a brain that is mature enough to have all the survival tools a human infant needs. Their brain is only the size of an apple. The birth canal cannot handle a bigger head (thank God). So, when a baby is born, the only inherent survival skills are sneezing, sucking, swallowing and?.CRYING!Most babies (80%, that is) are capable of crying for a reason, and then calming themselves down. These are usually what I call "the good sleepers" or "easy babies". They are awake for awhile to learn and accept stimuli. Then they sleep to recover and awake to take in more stimuli.Unfortunately, a colicky baby is usually NOT a "good sleeper" or an "easy baby". They are high-maintenance. Their nervous system is overloaded with all the sights and sounds of a new world. And by about dinner time, they've had it. The crying begins. Once they start crying, they lack the mechanism to calm themselves down. In my experience, most mothers with colicky infants tell the same story. Their baby fights going to sleep. They won't take a nap. They won't stay asleep once they do finally go to sleep. These poor babies never take the time to recover from all the stimuli they have taken in over the course of a day.So this is where you, as a parent, step in. Reduce the environmental stimuli and recreate the feeling your baby had while in the womb.Remember, in the womb, your baby was packed in tightly. It was dark. It was warm. And the prominent sound she heard was the "whoosh" of blood flowing through the placenta. This "whoosh" is a little louder than the noise of a vacuum cleaner running.However, there are other items you might have around the house that can lull your over stimulated colic baby to sleep. Most babies can be soothed by rhythmic, monotonous, low-pitched, humming sound that repeats at 60-70 pulses per minute. Here are 10 such items for you to try:1.A shower running
2.A fan
3.A running dishwasher
4.A running washing machine
5.A very loud, ticking clock
6.A bathroom fan turned on with the light off
7.A metronome set a 60 beats per minute
8.A radio tuned to static
9.A tv tuned to static
10.Smooth jazz or easy listening stationsWhile listening to these rhythmic sounds, it is best to lower the lights, and make your baby comfortable. Remember, we are trying to recreate the feeling of being in the womb.Finally, it is true what you read. Baby colic does eventually come to an end. As your baby grows, and their brains increase in size, all of the circuits mature and they learn the survival tools necessary to cope. It only takes about three to six months. In the meantime, when you feel a crying outburst about to happen, turn off the lights?and turn on all your household appliances.Just kidding!Cherie L. Stirewalt is a colic baby survivor and shares her colic experiences on her website Colic-Baby-Bootcamp.com. The site offers a one-of-a-kind white noise download and white noise CD to help frustrated parents cope with their fussy baby fast!Join the Free Colic Baby Bootcamp newsletter and receive more colic related tips and tricks at http://www.colic-baby-bootcamp.com/newsletter.html.
5 Best Free Child Games for Your Preschooler-Toddler
5 Best Free Child Games for Your Preschooler
There seems to be more and more pressure on parents these days to enrol their pre school children in all sorts of innovative learning programs. There are music and swimming classes, craft centres and activities to promote movement, motor skills or sporting ability.Did you know some of the best learning tools for your kids are right at your fingertips, literally! We as parents are the primary carers and therefore the first teachers of our children before they start school. Without all the classes and activities that we could pay for them to do, just playing simple free child games, your kids will get all the stimulation and encouragement that they need to get the best start.By providing them with an enriched environment with free activities based around your home and neighbourhood you will get more quality time with your children while enhancing their imagination and creativity.Top 5 Free Child Games / Activities- Indoors1. Storytelling- Telling stories to children promotes language, listening skills and imagination. Don't feel confined to reading from books, tell your children a special family story that helps them to know their place in the world. How mum and dad met, how great grandpa sailed in a tall-ship to start a new life in a new country, or the story of their birth. These tales will delight them time and time again, perhaps you have photos to help them put faces to names.2. Dressing Up- As children the dress-ups box was always our favorite treasure trove for creating characters for a play or story. Pretending to be dinosaurs, truck drivers, doctors, zoo keepers or even mum can keep children entertained for hours. The more props the better so always have a store of blankets for cubbies or tents and assorted boxes for cars, dolls beds or wherever their imagination takes them.3. Music- Children love a chance to dance and jump around. By the age of three they will already have some favorites which will probably have actions to match. Given the opportunity to march, stomp, clap or any other loud action will be happily accompanied by any musical instruments that you have around the house. If you don't have any, a pot and wooden spoon will do just fine!4. Craft- By using recycled materials you just need some glue, a little inspiration, and your child's creativity will do the rest. Materials can be used to create collages, space rockets, animals and a whole lot more. Keep a ready supply of recyclables by keeping cereal boxes, toilet rolls, candy wrappers, magazines and yoghurt containers. Other crafty ideas can involve play dough, paint, crayons, chalk and modelling clay! The ideas are endless.5. Board Games and Card Games- Fun for the whole family or just two bored kids looking for something to do on a rainy day. For younger children these games help them with numerical skills, taking turns and gamesmanship, as well as the concept of chance and that anyone can win the game. Super for holidays as they are easy to set up and can last for hours. There are many card games to learn from easy kids games right up complicated ones for teenagers and adults. Best of all, the only equipment needed is a deck of cards. Board games like Scrabble and Monopoly have been played for generations and will continue to be, unless everything becomes computerised!Most of these activities will be known to you, but have you played them all? If not, then get out there and enjoy some free child games with your tribe, they'll love you all the more for spending some one on one time with them.The place to go for all your games needs for 0-6 year olds is Kids Fun and Games. Educational baby and toddler games, party games, crafts, indoor and outdoor games, festivals and more.
How to Choose a Diaper Pail for Disposable Diapers-Toddler
How to Choose a Diaper Pail for Disposable Diapers
When you have already made the decision not to use cloth diapers, your next decision will be how to choose a diaper pail for disposable diapers.To some degree, cloth diapers will give off less odor than disposables, because they are not as absorbent, and parents often rinse out some of the urine, and dispose of solids by using liners for their cloth diapers.With disposables, you lose those benefits. The chemical ingredient added to the manufacturing of disposables, makes them retain water within the layers of material, turning it to a gel that can't leak back out. This means all the urine stays in the disposable, as does any solid wastes. And every parent knows how much that can smell, even after a brief time in a diaper pail.So what you're going to want to look for when learning how to choose a diaper pail for disposable diapers, is the most effective system that suppresses odors. A pail with a tight fitting lid is not enough, as odor escapes every time you deposit a used diaper, or change the liner and remove the liner bag.Two of the better options offer very different approaches to this problem. The Neat! Diaper Disposal System is a "new age" pail, with two separate sections. The top handle pulls up easily, you deposit the diaper, then close the lid and push the handle down so the diaper drops into a second, odor-retaining section without the lid being opened at the time.The Diaper Genie system by Playtex offers an alternative to simply storing away the dirty diapers. Their system, also easy to operate with just one hand, provides a diaper pail with a built in system that seals each dirty diaper in scented wrap, and deposits it in the retaining section until you change the liner bag.Visit http://www.MalcolmsWeb.com and sign up for free weekly tips that will
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