Tips&Tricks

Physical exercise improves as well as maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness of a person’s body. That’s why exercise during pregnancy is so essential, for it helps with preparing your body for labor and delivery and manages common discomforts during the pregnancy. Several studies have shown that exercising for 20-30 minutes a day or several days a week boosts you and the baby’s health.

Benefits of Exercise during Pregnancy

Common benefits of exercise during pregnancy include:

Promotes muscle tone, strength, and endurance

Exercising tones your muscles, therefore you do not need to put much effort while going on with your daily tasks such as grocery shopping. Exercising three to four times a week gives you strength and endurance. The strength and endurance that you gain may ease labor and even shorten the time it takes to deliver your baby. You are able to withstand labor pains and get through delivery fast.

Helps you sleep better

Sleeping during pregnancy at times can be difficult for example finding a comfortable sleeping position but exercising tires you out enough to lull you into a deeper restful sleep.

May help prevent or reduce gestational diabetes

Several studies show that exercising during pregnancy can lower the risk of developing gestational diabetes. If you have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes it is important to consult with your healthcare provider about exercising. Your condition and how far you are in your pregnancy will determine the exercises you can do or not. A certain major study revealed that regular exercise for women with the condition reduces the risk of having very large newborns by 58% which in turn led to 34% lower risk of caesarian delivery.

Boosts your energy

Regular exercise can help you get through your daily activities more easily. This is because exercise strengthens your cardiovascular system thus ensuring you do not get tired easily. Also check out our picks for best pregnancy foods.

Gets your body back faster after childbirth

After maintaining good posture, muscle tone, and strength all through your pregnancy, your body has an easier time shedding the baby weight after you give birth. Exercising also assists in gaining less weight during the pregnancy.

Helps reduce swelling, bloating, constipation and backaches

The stretching and joint movements done during pregnancy improve blood circulation all around the body which in return minimizes backaches, and feet swelling. It also helps to prevent constipation and bloating which is due to the high progesterone levels and a growing uterus. Exercising along with a high fiber diet promotes better digestion.

Improves your mood

Exercising gives you a sense of accomplishment and confidence that spills over to the rest of your day. The lifted spirits ensure good interactions with people in your life.

If you were physically active before getting expectant it is advisable to remain active during the pregnancy, and if you were not active before, it is also advisable to start exercising. The activities you choose to take part in should not pose any danger to yourself and the fetus. Exercises that involve falling, jumping, waist twisting, bouncing while stretching, hopping, holding your breath and exercising during humid weather should be avoided. Be sure to wear comfortable exercise gear and hydrate for a better exercising experience and safety.

Remember it is best to talk to your healthcare provider before choosing an exercise.

NO! NO! NO! This is the only word I heard from my daughter since she turned two. Although it can be very stressful for a mom, saying no is a natural stage in your child’s development. Toddler saying no is just a way for your toddler to gain self-confidence by feeling like she has some control over her life too. As parents, we can’t prevent the annoying “no” stage, however, we can learn how to handle it.

Here are a few strategies to help you deal with your toddler saying no all the time.

How to Deal With Your Toddler Saying No All the Time

Provide controllable alternatives 

It is easy to say no to a no/yes question. However, when there is a choice, your kid will be more willing to choose at least one option. Instead of fighting with your picky toddler over the breakfast, give her a possibility to choose her morning meal on her own. Ask if she wants cereals or toast. You will be surprised how easy your child will make a decision and how happy she will be with her breakfast. What is more important, there won’t be any “no”. By giving your child an opportunity to choose between several alternatives that you control, you engage her to take part in a decision-making process, therefore, creating no need to for her to rebel.

Give reasoning and show how much you care

Providing simple short reasoning to your request, using friendly body language and child’s vocabulary, can help you to make your toddler agree. The best reasoning is the one that shows your empathy as every child wants and needs to feel loved and cared. You don’t really have to be strict all the time. If your child refuses to take his cold medicine, answer saying “I know it does not taste good, but if you don’t drink it you will stay sick and won’t be able to go play outside with other kids. I want you to drink this medicine to get better because I love you and I don’t want you to be sick”. The child will be more inclined to listen to you if she understands the reasons for your request and feels that you care about her in the first place.

Try to avoid using no around the toddler

Have you noticed how many times a day you say no to your child? Your toddler is tired of you saying no as much as you are tired of her refuses. If a parent continuously uses “no” in her requests, the child starts to associate this word with a voice of authority. Hence, when struggling to establish her own rules, your toddler will also use “no” in order to take power and control a situation. Try to avoid using no around the child. Tell your kid what you want, rather than what you don’t want.

Be firm when giving instructions

In some situations, you will have to be firm without giving choices, without providing reasoning and definitely using no. When your child is two or three years old she only begins to learn how to express her opinions and make decisions. However, a toddler cannot be completely responsible for herself. As a parent, you have to make sure your child understands when she can negotiate and when she has to obey. If the toddler stops in a middle of a crossroad and refuses to move, you have to be firm and get her out of the car way quickly, leaving the explanations for later.

It’s your baby’s 5th birthday. She’s having more candies like it’s her last ones on earth. Then later you notice that she has started developing a sore throat. You forbid her from taking more candies. Suddenly is filled with fury and looks like she can chew you up and crush your bones without a second thought.

She falls on the floor and cries out loudly, making all her friends and their parents to turn and stare at her in surprise. You feel embarrassed and confused that you can’t forge your next step so as to calm her.
Most parents have been through an incident like this. The only difference is the form of the toddler temper tantrums; some babies may decide to cry, kick things, stomp or hit objects or throw them and holding breath. Toddler temper tantrums are the most common of all among children. Mostly starting from one year old to four years old.

How to Handle Toddler Temper Tantrums

The early stage of the tantrum is called the terrible 2s. It takes place when children are the stage of learning on how to communicate correctly. Most of the babies normally have this tantrum more than one time a week. It is a sign that they are frustrated with their lack of communication skills, thus they protest since they are not in a position to control anything.

Temper tantrums lead to discomfort among the parents. In case a parent notices that they occur occasionally, there is no need for alarm. But if they occur frequently, it’s high time for parents to find the cause and how to curb the tantrums.

Ways to manage a baby’s tantrum:

1. Stay cool: As you all know a child’s tantrum is followed by throwing, kicking, screaming and many more. It may be hard to control her. You should also note holding breath is among the tantrums too. When a child is throwing tantrum she is not able to listen or reason although if you yell at her she will respond (she responds to negative cues). The best way is to stay with her and avoid leaving the room. She may feel lonely and the emotional changes she’s going through may scare her. She will feel safer if you are around.
2. Be in control. Even if the tantrum stays for long don’t give in to your child’s demands or try to negotiate with her while she is still screaming. If you do, you will be teaching her throwing tantrums is the trick she can use to get what she wants. If you are in a crowd, move her away and take her to a quiet place and explain to her what she did wrong.
3. Show her you still love her: after she’s through with tantrums, and you have talked to her about it. You can give her a hug and tell her you love her. It’s a simple way to appreciate and reward good behavior
4. Be keen to observe symptoms of overstress. Day to day tantrums may be normal to toddlers. Although it’s a good idea to watch them for any possible problems. For instance presence of parental tensions can lead to more tantrums. If you observe intense tantrums on your baby, for example hurting others and herself. Its time you seek your doctor’s advice. He will help you effectively monitor, identify and treat the prolonged tantrums.
5. Identify toddler temper tantrums stimulating situations. Observe situations that make your child throw tantrums. For example, if she throws tantrum when hungry. It’s high time you carry her snacks all the time. If she is having trouble adjusting from one activity to another, you can form a way of informing her before introducing the activity. In case you notice she’s about to throw tantrum, you can distract her by changing the location or hand her a toy.

Bullying can cause self-harm to your child including suicidal attempts and running away from home. It is a serious issue that should be dealt with as soon as noticed. Children barely talk about bullying, therefore, it is up to us the parents to watch out for warning signs your child is being bullied. This is an important step in taking action against bullying, because children avoid talking about bullying for fear of backlash from their bullies.

Some of the significant signs your child is being bullied include:

• Inexplicable physical marks

It may be common for children to get injured on the playground for instance, they may fall down and bruise their knees or arms. However, when your child comes home with torn clothes and bruises that are hard to explain and they do not want to talk about them, it could be one of the signs your child is being bullied. These bruises may also be accompanied by lost item and valuables.

• Stress and anxiety

These are not common among children but a bullied child will portray symptoms of stress and anxiety. There was even a study in Norwegian schools that found a high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among bullied pupils.

One of the symptoms would be difficulty in sleeping and nightmares. This is because they are afraid to face another day with the bully. They might spend the whole night thinking of how things would be rather than taking a rest.

Stomachaches and headaches are another sign of stress and anxiety. If your child is affected by either, talk to him or her about bullying.

Your child may also lose interest in schoolwork. If your child’s grades are declining, talk to them about what is happening at school, they might be victims of bullying. Bullying can divert your child’s attention and cause them to have difficulty in concentrating and focusing on schoolwork.

• Intense emotional reactions

Children who are bullied appear sad, angry and moody most of the time. They portray intense emotions especially to discussion about school or social activities. They also tend to get agitated fast even on small issues. These reactions could be a sign of bullying.

• Change of friends

If you notice that your child has fewer friends and is changing friends frequently, be keen on other symptoms of bullying. Bullied children tend to avoid social activities. If your child complains of being lonely, they might be experiencing bullying. Bullied children isolate themselves from others for fear of being bullied.

• Reluctance to go to School

It is normal for children to be reluctant to go to school after long holidays. However, it is not normal for children to avoid school after four to eight weeks in session. If this is happening with your child, check out their body language. Bullied children may fake sicknesses just to avoid going to school.

The best way to teach your children about bullying so that they are neither the victims nor the bullies is to have conversations with them over the issue early in their lives. Teach them to be respectful of others and to have empathy even when someone is mean to them.

Your child is growing up and you think of upgrading to a booster seat? Don’t hurry up to throw away your toddler’s favorite forward-facing harnesses. Just a fact that your child meets the weight and age requirements for most of the booster seats does not mean that your child is ready for it. Keeping in mind that each advance in a car seat is actually a decrease in safety, take your time to decide whether it is really the best time to move your child out of a harnessed car seat.

Is my child ready for a booster seat?

Don’t hurry up to change your child’s harness seat

Most of the booster seats are made for children that have reached 4 years and weight more than 18 kilograms, therefore, it is the best to keep your toddler in a harness at least until he/she meets these requirements. However, we recommend you sticking with a harnessed car seat for a while longer, if you can still keep him/her safe in it. The five-point harness system is considerably safer than an ordinary seat belt used with a booster seat as it minimizes the crash force each part of the body takes in an accident by spreading it over more points on a child’s body. A lot of modern forward-facing seats are suitable for children up to 35 kilograms and 7 years, so it won’t be hard to find a perfect harness seat substitute for a less secure booster seat.

Check if your toddler has overgrown the current car seat

Height is an important fact to consider changing your child’s car seat, although often neglected by uneducated parents. A lot of toddlers grow out of their child seat before they reach its weight limit. To determine if your child has outgrown his/her car seat by height, check if the harness slots are above the child’s shoulder level. The position of the shoulders above the level of the slots indicates that it is a high time to upgrade to a bigger seat. Moreover, you can always check the manufacturer’s instructions to ascertain if your child has outgrown the seat.

Your child has to be mature enough to use a booster seat

So, is my child ready for a booster? Except meeting weight, height and age requirements, your child should also be mature enough to advance to a booster seat. This includes a child being able to sit still during the trip as a car belt cannot secure a child if he/she does not remain in a proper position. The majority of parents find their children not being ready to stay calm in a booster seat even when they are much older than 4. Finally, remember that a booster seat can be used only if you have a car with a lap/shoulder seat belt that your child can easily unbuckle and escape from his seat while you are driving. If your child is an adventurer, think off keeping him in a harness car seat for a bit longer.

Choose between no-back and high-back booster seat according to your child’s needs

There are two most popular types of booster seats: no-back booster seat and high-back booster seat. The no-back booster seat is more mobile and easier to pack up, however, in order to use it, your car’s seats need to have headrests that come above your child’s ears. This is extremely important to keep your toddler’s head always protected against whiplash during the car ride. For younger children who like to nap in the car, we recommend buying high-back booster seat that can be used in cars with or without headrests.

What did you do when you asked yourself ‘Is my child ready for a booster’? What type of booster seat you picked? Let me know in the comment section.

I have to admit, I was often wondering on how to make kids give up gadgets and take up books or toys instead. It’s easy to say, just turn off the TV, take away the tablet or smartphone and lay out a bunch of toys in front of your toddler. The truth is, there are going to be a lot of tantrums, a lot of tears and before the day is over you might feel like it’s better to give in.

We are in an age where children are more likely to be entertained than entertain themselves. Television is an easy way to play “babysitter” while you get some things done, but your toddlers should learn the necessary skills to occupy their minds without relying on technology.

How to Make Kids Give Up Gadgets

Read a book

You want to transition gently. It’s going to be a shock to the system of your toddler if all of a sudden there are no games on your smartphone or no shows on TV. Start by reading a book yourself even if the child is watching television. With their curious little minds, they might wander over and pay attention to the book instead. You can choose one of the best books for toddlers.

If they don’t, it’s not a big deal, you just have to try something else.

Set A Timer

Even at a young age kids understand the concept of a timer. Use a simple Kitchen Timer or some mobile app. When they hear the buzz it’s time to switch activities. Set the timer for 50 or 55 minutes where they get to be on the tablet or watching TV. When the timer goes off take out a book or some blocks and start playing with your child. Over time you can set the timer for less time. For example, you can set the timer for forty minutes and then take your toddler outside for play time.

The child might end up hating the timer but find ways to make it fun for them. Show some excitement for a new activity when the timer goes off.

And the last and the most important tip for how to make kids give up gadgets:

Be prepared for some tantrums

If you are also wondering how to make kids give up gadgets, this might be the hardest step for you. If the toddler throws a tantrum just remember, children love attention. Give them time to throw their fit and when they’re ready, continue on to the next activity. The tantrums won’t last, so be strong.

You can start playing with their favorite toys in front of them. Don’t pay them any attention at all and just play. They will soon become interested and start playing with you.

Do you have some tips and tricks on how to make kids give up gadgets?

*And just for full disclosure, there might be affiliate links in this post How to Make Kids Give Up Gadgets. That means that I’m sharing something that I think is helpful, and if you make a purchase through the link, I earn a little bit back. No extra cost to you, and just a little help for me to pay for the blog expenses.