For me, the secret to being a good father is not really being a “father” at all. Throughout the course of a normal day with my kids, I may be called upon to act in any number of roles: cook, custodian, educator, coach, playmate, warden. But if someone said, “Now, be a father,” I wouldn’t …
You’re So Sweet Potatoes What would Thanksgiving be like without a sweet potato casserole? But don’t just think of this nutritious vegetable around the holidays! Sweet potatoes are also a great first food for Baby. After Baby is ready for more than cereal, vegetables are commonly the next solid food introduced, according to Peggy O’Shea, …
Putting Yourself in Her Shoes Though it’s early in the pregnancy, you’ve already figured out the importance of back massages. That’s good, but no matter what practical measures you employ, the most important thing you can offer your partner from the first month to the last is good old-fashioned emotional support. Of course, achieving true …
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, children who read with their parents have higher intelligence and reading ability and can better comprehend language, improve communication skills, speech recognition, and verbal ability. Yet, unfortunately, less than 45 percent of parents read to or with their children. So what can we do as parents to …
The following exercises were designed to help your baby work on many of these skills. Keep in mind they will stimulate your baby’s entire body. Each time you perform the exercise, your baby is actually responding; her brain will be registering the action, and her muscles will be getting stronger. If You’re Happy If you’re …
“No Time” Fitness. Once Baby Arrives, A Little Fitness Goes A Long Way New mothers listen to months of advice before their new baby arrives. No matter how much advice they absorb, not much can prepare them for the day they head home from the hospital. And nothing prepares them for one reality: no time. …
One evening, Barbara Stratton of Baltimore, Md. enjoyed an extra-large helping of spicy hot buffalo wings, but her breastfeeding 5-month-old had a different opinion. That night, no one in the Stratton household slept. Something was bothering baby, and Stratton had a hunch she knew exactly what it was. Tales circulate about what breastfeeding mothers can …
When I first became a mother, I assumed I would be fair and treat all my children the same. I soon learned that such an approach overlooks their circumstances and temperaments. Children enter our lives at varying stages of our parenting. The changing parents these children encounter have a marked effect on their development. As …
Most people agree that breastfeeding gives Baby the very best start in life. Still, some nursing moms find themselves the subject of steely glares and nasty comments. Is it any wonder then that many breastfeeding mothers try to avoid nursing in public as much as possible? “When I started nursing my first breastfed baby [in …
Things You Want to Know About Pregnancy but Are Too Afraid to Ask Pregnancy can be an exciting yet confusing time, made all the more overwhelming when you have questions you’re too afraid or embarrassed to ask. Dr. Randy Fink, an OB/GYN in Miami, Fla., says he tries to have a close relationship with his …