Can newborn babies do EC?
One of the primary arguments against EC, is the claim from “professionals” that state that babies have no sphincter control and are not able to “hold it” or release it at will. Without making a huge argument out of it, simply observe the millions of parents and babies around the world who successfully practice EC and that is usually proof enough that newborn babies can in fact hold it and release it on cue. Thank goodness the “experts” are wrong because EC works and parents never regret their decision to practice EC, but they frequently regret finding out about EC too late.

The drawback of newborn EC
Just because babies can hold it until given a cue that it is time to “go”, does not mean that they can hold their bodily functions in forever any more than you can. A newborn baby will urinate every 10-20 minutes while awake and every few hours while asleep (although they do wake up enough to alert mom or dad and then use a receptacle).

If you baby needs to pee three times an hour, then it can be difficult to go totally diaper free if you will be in a car, store or restaurant for more than 20 minutes. A busy, modern life is simply not conducive to full time EC, which is why many, if not most parents are unable to go 100% diaper free until their babies are a bit older and there is more time between eliminations. Many parents are very relieved to find out that part time EC works great if they want to use diapers during part of the day or week.

Why EC from birth
Despite the frequency of elimination, many parents choose to EC immediately after birth simply because it is much easier in the long run, it saves a ton of money and it is great for the environment.

“It’s not as if the Chinese don’t use disposables at all. They do. More and more young parents are using disposables at night so that they don’t need to get up in the middle of the night to EC. They might also use them briefly, say in a nice restaurant, if they know the opportunity to EC will be difficult. Still, disposables are a temporary solution. Since “bum breathability” is so crucial, I doubt that the Chinese will ever switch to full-time disposable use.” EC Blog #1

It may seem to be more work to an outsider, but it takes substantially less time, less clean up and less gross factor to empty a potty than to clean up a messy, writhing, crying human being. It is also a matter of basic human dignity.

Parents who go 100% diaper free from day one have the easiest time with EC because their babies will always know where to “go”. This will work best when at least one parent can stay home with the baby, the baby is worn in a carrier, slept with and breastfed.

Not you? Don’t despair. EC works just fine on a part time basis. You can use disposable diapers, cloth diapers or G diapers as a backup for outings, babysitting or other events when you are unable to closely monitor and respond to your baby’s signals.

How to EC from birth
It does not matter if you start EC at birth or start “traditional” toilet training at 3 or 4, you are going to have accidents, period. If you plan to go diaper free from the beginning, the best thing you can do is be prepared for accidents and use them as opportunities to teach your baby the cues and track your baby’s elimination patterns.

The best way to prepare for accidents is to always have something washable and absorbent, such as an open cloth diaper or flannel blanket underneath your diaper free baby. Ideally, you will take a babymoon in which you spend alot of time in bed or lying down with your baby in the first week or so. Simply keep your baby on the pad or diaper next to you or inside the sling you are wearing and replace it when it gets wet.

“Have plenty of diapers or cloths handy where you’ll be spending most of your time with your baby (in bed would be the best place to spend that first week!)” Naturalbirthandbabycare.com

Keep a Baby Bjorn Little Potty or a little bowl next to you all the time. Carry a small plastic bowl with you rather than a bulky diaper bag when you go for a walk and keep a potty or other receptacle on your nightstand. Anticipate that your infant will need to go 3-6 times and hour and offer the potty with the appropriate cue before your baby gets uncomfortable and restless. Think efficiency. It is not necessary to rush your newborn to the bathroom while stripping of his clothes in a mad rush to “catch it”. That will stress both of you out. Take it easy, keep your baby close, and keep a suitable receptacle just as close.

As you feel your baby eliminating, make the noise that you intend to use as an EC cue. For the uninitiated, that means that as you and your baby become accustomed to EC, you will “cue” your baby that it is time to eliminate with a noise, usually a “pssssss” for pee and maybe a raspberry type of noise to cue a poop. You want to make the cue noise each and every time your baby goes so the noise in inexorably linked to that bodily function in your infant’s mind. You will be shocked and delighted the first time you hold your baby over a receptacle at certain times or when your baby indicates the needs to go, you make the noise, and they actually go. It is not what we are used to, but it really works.

The other component of infant potty learning, is the timing. First of all, most people, not just babies, go immediately upon waking. Your baby will go after all naps and will also stir in the middle of the night with a need to go. Babies will also predictably eliminate either in the middle of breastfeeding (or bottle feeding) or immediately after. It can be very helpful to track your baby’s schedule so you can make some sense of it. Without a written record, it will just seem like your baby pees all day long. If you know your baby is on 20 minute intervals, then you can anticipate the need, and take a second, hold your baby over a receptacle and give the cue.

The final component of EC is non-verbal communication. Your baby will communicate their need to go. Whether or not you respond to it is up to you. In the first few weeks of your baby’s life, get to know how your baby squirms, fidgets or cries immediately before eliminating. Paying attention and being in the moment with your child will ensure your success.

How EC evolves with your child
After the first week or two, you will know your babies signals and timing and your baby will know what the cue sounds mean. After the first three months, during which you stay close to home, lay low or use diaper backups, you will be in a lovely routine in which the frequency of elimination has reduced considerably and communication has increased. By the end of six months, your baby may be sleeping through the night, and only going once an hour while awake. By the end of ten months your baby may be able to use sign language or even say a word to signal their need to go. It is all uphill from there.

Think of it this way. If you were incapacitated today, would you prefer that someone take some time to hold you over a receptacle or put you in Depends because they are too lazy or too busy to help you to the bathroom? This is a very real issue in nursing homes today and it boils down to preserving dignity and treating people with respect. Other people call it the golden rule.

Additional Resources:
75 Benefits of EC
Natural Infant Hygiene - FAQ
Getting Started With EC’ing

Image Source: http://flickr.com/photos/revjim/471867006/

Learn about the basics of attachment parenting such as why early bonding is critical to for the emotional wellbeing of your child. This video also touches on the importance of babywearing, breastfeeding and cosleeping.

Author: Peg Baron
When the weather is nice, the kids (and Mom) are itching to get outside and play. I personally like the playing to learn approach. Did you know there’s an outdoor world of math and reading fun that awaits you and all you need is sidewalk chalk, dice, and your imagination? Anything we can do inside on paper can be done outside on the driveway or sidewalk, as long as we don’t care if it eventually gets “erased” by rain or sprinklers. Not only do the kids and I get to exercise our brains but we also get to exercise our bodies. I get to stretch my hamstrings and quads as I bend over to draw game boards or numbers, and the kids get to hop, skip, and jump around. Here are a few favorite sidewalk games I’d like to share. You can adapt any of them to the abilities of your children, and multiple ages can play
together.

Numbered Ladder Game
Draw a long, long ladder with at least 25 rungs, each rung big enough for a kid to stand in. Number each rung starting with 1 and going to 25. You also need a dice.

Rules - Grown-up throws the dice and the child hops up that many spaces on the ladder. If they land on an even number, they have to go back 1 space. Continue on until you have a winner.

Multiplication Ladder

Use the same ladder as above.
Rules - The child rolls 2 dice and multiplies the 2 numbers together.
He/she then totally covers in the answer square with chalk (their choice of color.) They continue until they’ve covered every square they possibly can, and then discuss why there are squares that won’t ever be covered.

Division Ladder

Again, use the same ladder as above.
Rules - Hand the chalk to your child and ask them to put a yellow triangle around any numbers that can be divided by 2. Next have them put a blue circle around any numbers that can be divided by 5, a pink square around any numbers that can be divided by 10, etc.

Numbers Bingo

Draw out as many bingo boards as there are kids and put a number
in each square. The kids can collect a pile of rocks or something for markers. Rules - Depending on the skill level, yell out an addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problem for them to solve. They then cover the answer with a rock. The one who gets bingo is the winner. You can change the mathematic function with each game.

“Over the years, the hours that children spend playing outside can pay off when it comes to physical, intellectual and social development. Yet, such valuable interaction is fleeting these days. From 1997 to 2003, there was a 50% drop in kids who participated in outdoor activities such as hiking, walking and fishing, according to a University of Maryland study.” Mother Nature; Raising Healthier Kids - Usaweekend.com

The Reading Trail

Draw a trail of boxes and arrows down the sidewalk. Draw a box, then arrows directing them to the next box, about 10 feet away, and so on. At the end could be a beautiful drawing, if you’re artistically inclined, or a small prize, or a hug from you. In each box, depending on your child’s reading level, write a single word or a sentence. Rules - Your child starts at the beginning and moved on when he/she reads the word or sentence.

Reading Obstacle Course

Set up an obstacle course with a sentence or word chalked between each obstacle. For example; sentence, zig zag around cones, sentence, jump through the hula hoop, sentence, balance walk on a length of string, sentence, jump over the blue “river” chalked on the ground. If you want, all your obstacles can be drawn on the sidewalk instead of using real items.
Rules - Read the sentence and go through the obstacle!

Color Me

Are you currently working on body parts, the circulatory system, or the heart? Let the kids chalk it out while narrating what they know. Themes like communities, animal lifecycles, wildlife, nature, your family tree, etc. are fun to draw out. Younger kids can work on color recognition.

The Alphabet Board

Make a giant game board with 25 squares. Put a letter of the alphabet on each square in random order, excluding the letter “x”.

Rules - Each kid has to start at the beginning and take each square one at a time. They have to come up with 5 words that start with that letter/sound before they can move on. To make it harder for the older ones, ask them to also come up with a word or two that end with that letter.

As you can see, it’s fun to learn with a stick of sidewalk chalk in your hand. I hope these games get you outside and get your imagination working as you tweak them to fit your needs. Have a great time and may the rain stay far away from your creations!

“After tens of thousands of years of children playing and working primarily outdoors, the last few generations have seen such interaction with nature vanish almost entirely. The implications — for children’s physical and mental health, and for the future of environmentalism — are immense.” Grist.org

Buy: Double Color Sidewalk Chalk Bucket

About the author:
Peggy Baron plays with her kids in Colorado, and runs
http://cookinkids.com/, a website devoted to helping parents and kids have fun together in the kitchen. Peggy is the editor of the popular Cookin’ Kids Newsletter, a bi-monthly newsletter with fun facts, recipes, jokes, games, cooking safety, and cooking terms wrapped around different themes.

Infant massage is a regular practice in many parts of the world and is gaining in popularity here in the United States and it is no surprise when you look at the many benefits. As you will see, infant massage benefits everyone and it makes even more sense if you consider it from the baby’s point of view. Childbirth Solutions

Author: Tina Allen
Infant massage relaxes and soothes:
Not only will your baby feel relaxed so will you! Nurturing touch is a naturally rewarding way to relieve stress for both you and your baby. Touch has been shown to decrease levels of Cortisol (stress hormone) in our bodies. Cortisol is always present in our bloodstream, but high levels of this hormone can be found in our bodies during times of extreme stress.

Deepens Bonding:
Infant Massage provides you with essential one-on-one time that will enhance your family bonding, understanding and ability to nurture. During massage Oxytocin is released in both the giver and receiver’s body. Oxytocin is our feel good hormone, also known as the hormone of love. This hormone helps to provide us with loving, nurturing feelings which helps us to bond. Mothers experience and increased production of Oxytocin during labor and breastfeeding but now research shows that even close physical contact and touch stimulates Oxytocin production. Great news for all of the dads out there who didn’t give birth to their baby, you can still produce the same hormones through the use of loving touch.

Infant massage seems to be sweeping the world at the moment - it’s popularity has exploded within the last few years, much of which is due to Vimala McClure and the IAIM. But, as with most natural healing techniques, it is by no means a new thing. People have been massaging babies for centuries. Once again, it is the Western World that is slow on the uptake. Childbirthsolutions.com

Improves Communication:
Touch is our first form of communication. So it is always natural to assume that communicating through touch enhances your ability to understand your baby’s special needs and respond appropriately. Infant Massage increases your confidence and sensitivity to your baby’s unique cues and forms of communication. You cannot spoil a baby by picking them up when they cry. When babies receive attentive responses to their needs they grow to become healthier and more secure in adulthood.

Contributes to Development:
Stimulates growth and healthy development of your baby’s body, mind and spirit. Massaged babies gain healthy weight better than babies who do not receive massage. Additionally, nurturing touch helps to enhance the digestion process. The systems of the body are stimulated during massage which assists in the absorption of nutrients and elimination of what is not needed. For some babies infant massage has also been shown to be effective at reducing the symptoms associated with Colic.

Helps Baby to Sleep Better:
Not only does massage help your baby to release stress which builds daily from new experiences, it allows them to relax. During this special time both you and your baby have time to relax. Massaging your baby helps your little one to sleep deeper and for longer periods of time which can translate into you being able to sleep longer as well! Through massage you will not only increase your loving, nurturing bonds with your baby, you will assist in their healthy and happy development!

Research specific to the benefits of infant massage has been ongoing since the mid 1970’s. This research has been conducted at various institutes and with infants who were premature, exposed to drugs in utero, and infants that had motor problems. All these categories of babies benefited from the nurturing touch of infant massage. These benefits included weight gain, neurological development, decreased hospitalization, and improved digestion. Childbirth.org

>For excellent step by step instructions on how to massage your little one, visit: Makewayforbaby.com

Buy the Book: Baby Massage

About the author:
With over a decade of service to children and families, Tina Allen, founder of Liddle Kidz™, has become an internationally respected parent educator and expert in the field of infant and children’s massage therapy. Her innovative approach to children’s health has allowed her the unique opportunity to educate families and professionals throughout the world in the many benefits of nurturing touch.

Image Source: http://flickr.com/photos/pbekesi/347196392/

Babies and ‘teething’ troubles

All babies experience the pain of teething at some point in their tiny lives. For some babies teething is a walk in the park but for others this means countless sleepless nights and intolerable crying. As a parent this means that undoubtedly the pain of teething will bring a strain on your own human resources and you may find that it’s as much a strain for you as it is for your baby. This cannot be helped but there are plenty of remedies out there that can make your toddler more agreeable and less painful for you!

At what age do babies cut their first tooth?

This varies from baby to baby. Some babies are born with teeth! If your baby was born premature then you may find that your babies gums may be less developed than a full term baby and this will indeed impact on the cutting of teeth. Some babies do not cut their first teeth till after they are a year old. The cutting of teeth has nothing to do with what they are fed. Teeth appear when they are ready and there is nothing you can do as a parent to speed up the process!

In general terms your baby will be around 6 or 7 months when they cut their first teeth. These teeth will either be at the front of their top gums or at the bottom. There will be four new teeth – two at the top and two at the bottom before the next set arrives.

The next set of teeth will appear at around 8 months. These are called side incisors. Four will appear in all – two on the top at each side and two on the bottom, again on each side.

A few months later at 10 – 14 months is when the back molars appear, then at 16 – 20 is when the pointy teeth canine) appear and finally at 24-30 months is when the rear molars appear. This accounts for the 20 teeth in all that will appear in your infant.

How do I know when my child is teething?

You will almost certainly notice a lot of drool and dribble from your child when he begins to teethe . This may cause a rash on his chin and so you may need to apply a barrier cream to protect it.

They will also want to place toys and anything they can get their hands on in their mouth for them to chew on so it is important for you to make sure that toys and other items are cleaned with soap and water and are not small enough for your little one to choke on.

Other signs of teething include a moderate to severe diaper rash and/or changes in stool consistency from swallowing excess saliva. Many babies experience sleepless nights and unusually fussy behavior and crying.

What can I use to help my child?

Teething toys are available from most large supermarkets. These tend to have some form of liquid inside which keeps the gums cool if it has been placed in the fridge or freezer. This provides some temporary relief for the little ones.

Teething gel is also available. Some can only be applied every two hours while there are others which can be applied as and when required. Check the box and see which one is suitable for your needs.

Tylenol or other forms infant paracetemol is a godsend during teething. These can be administered orally and be given every four hours. It is again important to check the label and seek medical advice if required. These relieve teething pain and may give you some respite.

Teething granules and biscuits are also available and can give your baby something with a bit of texture to chew on.

You can also wet the corner of a clean face cloth and place it inside the freezer for your child to suck on. Another similar idea is to place an ice cube inside a baby sock and then tie off the end of the sock. The baby can hold it and chew to her heart’s content.

There are many aids available to help both you and your baby get through this troublesome time. Just remember there will be plenty times during your child’s development when your little angel returns and this is something to treasure!

Ask other parents what helped them and when you know what is right for your child let other parents know. The best advice often comes from parents who have already been through the trial of teething.

Article Source: http://www.baby-names.tv/
Image Source: Bingbing on Flickr.com