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5 Point Plan to Feed your toddler.

2022-06-15T07:28:00.001+05:30

Feeding your toddler may seem a challenging task but, if we have our priorities set right, this difficult looking job will turn to be an exciting and adventurous journey. As a mother of 2 girls: 10 year old and 19 months old, I have burnt my hands in cooking and serving meals to them, but learnt a lot from that. In this read I am focusing on the required rather than focusing on non required baby tantrums, nakhre, emotional outbursts and then taking refuge in junk food. Bachha kuch to khaa hi lega…jo bhi khaata hai vo do!!! Tala bhuna, meetha, biscuit !!!

In contrast, bachha vo hi khaayega jo hum unko denge. I have learnt that since you introduce food to your child, be it 6 months or 9 months…offer the child everything that the child can digest at the right temperature, right time, in the right bite size after enough physical activity. Kids have a tendency to know when they are hungry since birth to cry and reach out to the right place on a mother’s chest to drink right amount of milk and as soon as the baby is full the baby detaches from the mother. If you can understand the brilliance of your baby/toddler’s genius…you can feed the toddler/baby anything and everything.

Let’s see if I can frame a picture for you…!

Hope this helps you to be more prepared while thinking about your child’s meal plans. For an additional idea generation CLICK HERE to see some home made food served to a toddler.

Believe in this ‘Sahi Aahaar (food) aur Vihaar activity se hi milega bachhon aur badon ko sahi Aachaar (conduct) aur Vichaar (thought process) !

Vade Mecum for Baal Ahaar

2022-05-31T19:50:00.000+05:30

Toddler nutrition is a very sensitive and an imperative topic of discussion. Being mindful of that, I intend to share my experiments with my second born. Consider this ‘Manual’ as a testimonial from ‘me’ - a troubled mother/myself whose daughter was a poor sleeper and a very loud baby. But since we made changes with her food and her activity time, she sleeps longer, smiles more, claps more…and learns more everyday. She is a different baby altogether!

My Learnings:

Rule of nature is when the mommy/daddy bird brings food to its young ones, they eat whatever is brought to them…and fight amongst its siblings for more food. Human babies too are born to eat anything that their parents serve them.

As a feeder we need to take care of the food edibility, temperature and hygiene. Every vegetable, grain and protein based food should be offered to the baby irrelevant of the parent liking it or not.

With perseverance any kid of more than 12 months is capable of eating Daliya, moong ki dal, oats, dal /besan cheela, lauki, aaloo matar, paneer, dahi, zuchini, kaddu, torai, palak, poha, sevai, rice sevai idli/dosa, dhokla, pasta, roti, paratha(namak ajwain), khichdi/dal chawal,kadhi, fish, eggs, chicken, mini samosas, thepla, gavaar, cucumber, salad, papaya, bananas, berries, tomatoes, makhaana, wheat/jowar puff, kurmura and in addition to all this she drinks 500 to 600 ml cow's milk everyday.
My daughter now eats all these meals. Click here BAAL AHAAR PICS. for evidence. ;)

Strategies suggested:

Weigh your child	Weigh your child and then calculate the amount of calories the baby needs at that age. Roughly by the age of 9 to 12 months the baby should be getting anywhere between 1000 to 1200 calories in a day.
Study Food group	Study 5 food groups:vegetables, fruit, grain foods, dairy and protein. Study the daily preparation time, availability of food at hand.Make a list of Local and Available resources
Say No to Sugar! + processed food	Discard artificial Sugar and include natural. Fruits, sweet dried fruits, jaggery, home made sweets should be offered instead of biscuits and cookies and chips. Extra salt is downer for toddlers.
Follow a Pattern	Serve the toddler in a same way,(food chair) at a same time (try to), serve food in bite size, at the right temperature (goldilocks temperature ;), encourage self eating, discount the mess.
Don’t Become mother India	Keep emotions aside while feeding, Offer the same food 101 times before making a bias about it. No two children are same in eating habits. Appetite of a child depends on factors like sleep and activity through the day. Show them enough sun and let them play in open spaces.

Hope you find some foresight here if you are a concerned parent for a picky/poor/fussy eater . My intention here is to kindle the natural instinct of a parent to feed and tap their child’s metabolism to healthy future. Good Luck !!!

Blood talks.

2020-03-05T02:18:00.000+05:30

Statisticians had predicted that by 2020 every 2^nd person from one family will be a victim of this rahu ketu called Stress and Anxiety. Imagine …1 person each family. I cannot much disagree with them. I am a testimonial myself. This state of stress and anxiety in turns leads one to the road of depression. Stress, Anxiety and Depression are not synonyms for starters. But they are inter connected. They are very faithful friends. If one of them homes in you, that inmate makes way for the other two. I am not here to tell you the clinical or medical definition of each of them. But yes I am here to share my realization of them in my life as a layman and how I was successful to encounter them.

Well, somewhere in early 2018 when everything was going wonderful, my first born was in school, we had bought our own ‘owned house’, debt free, I had lost weight…I was looking good. Had a loving husband, loving family and very much needed bunch of friends, something just did not feel good. Mornings started on a very sad note, felt sleepy the moment I opened eyes to start the new day. Smiling and returning a smile started becoming difficult. I did not like meeting many of close ones. I liked staying away from crowds. Like to be myself rather than be a part of happy (seemingly happy) people. Stopped talking on the phone with my family and friends. All the way it was ‘Let me be alone’. And whenever I felt what is it that will help me get over this feeling…I used to just sleep. After sleeping…I would feel even more awful. I stopped reading and writing. But yes few things that made me forget this feeling of a ball dropping was ‘my work’ and regular ‘walks’ and helping my daughter with her studies. It gave me a break from my mental heaviness. But after coming back home I would be sulky again. When alone or when trying to meditate I would only think of what all has been happening wrong around me, and the people who offended me. It felt as negativity had captured my mind and soul and was multiplying with each breath I took. Just nothing helped …nothing at all.

Since I was staying in Pune then, I made trips to my city of Mumbai, met two lovely pals Gala and Dipti…My buddies. They listened to me. Unbiased. They did not preach, they did not scold me, they just listened to my heart, took my sighs and tears and still smiled at me. When we are at this point where you know you are depressed, you don’t want to reach out to your family. You don’t want to bother them. In fact you keep away from them. But my buddies…even though family turned only and only ‘friends’. They did care for me. They did not speak to me to make me feel good, they spoke because they wanted to. They spoke to me unselfishly, unconditionally. Every time I thought I needed help…I just went more into a shell. And somewhere I started believing that this is not going to change. I am going to be depressed all my life now, until one fine day my 7 year old daughter came to me and cracked a joke…and told me that she thinks of cracking jokes so that I can laugh and smile like before. She would like it if I smile and laugh. That would make her feel better. That was a tipping point. I knew this could not go on. I had to fix my mental well-being!

I thought one day everyone including my better half would move away from me because I was so boring and depressing. Nonetheless, my better half had actually taken the vow ‘in sickness and in health’ religiously. He did understand my sickness and constructed in his own ways to lead me to Health. He introduced me to my spiritual side which was hibernating. I started following a regime in mornings, chanting a shloka that I liked and understood…and assured me that when I would start humming and singing again…any sort of song or rhythm,I should consider myself cured!

I started reading about the way I feel. All over the internet there are many helpful articles and materials that can be remedy to what disturbs you. I read a lot about how exercising and meditation helps in such situations. So I met my Yoga instructor ‘Sarika Salvi’. I just called her and told her I would like to meet her and discuss a few things. She being a pure soul and a true yogi…heard me out patiently. I asked her to give me some light on meditation for my quandary. After hearing out she suggested to go check my vitals. She explained many ladies approaching 40’s battle vitamin deficiencies. In particular Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D imbalance. Which in turn causes such symptoms like mine. That’s all she emphasized on. Well sometimes, when you are battling a big problem, and the solution is thrown at your face, you can’t believe that this is it. It just can’t be such small things that can give me a tour of depression, stress and anxiety. I still did not pay any heed to what she considered.

Then I spoke to my dietician and explained to her the same. She also spoke the same advice. And asked to eat at least 2 apples and 2 pomegranates …and loads of lime juice until I get my vitals check. That is when I took my blood tests…boy oh boy… the results were very disappointing! My vitamin levels had plummeted down the normal. My calcium level was below the normal. It just seemed so clear reading my blood tests that I was feeling so shabbily low just and just because of my blood levels. I went and saw my doctor for the same and she prescribed me the Vitamins that would enrich my depleted levels of blood work.

Well there is not one thing that you can point and say that causes these dark, negative vibes. Instead of crying over spilled milk, I started focusing on what I can do to make myself get better. I started daily intake of vitamins, loads of sunlight with apples and pomegranates. Started drinking Lemon water with a pinch of salt in it and also took Sabza seeds which is tukmaria in local language for Omega 3. Swiftly I could feel the load lifting off me. The mental heaviness which seemed mortal started fading. I slept much better and got up not feeling heavy and sad. I started making Pakau Jokes. I did not feel scared of crowds and people around. I was smiling, humming songs and felt happy again. I felt like wearing happy colored clothes unlike from before when I felt dark from within and also wore dark colored clothes. Yellows, greens, oranges and pinks really became my choices.

In a nutshell, irrespective of you being a male or a female if you are having really bad depressing thoughts, for starters just go and get your blood levels checked. The answer to your problem lies within you, can’t disagree any bit. I very well understand that this is easier said than done. But precautiously ‘It can be done’. God helps those who help themselves. I vouch for this again.

My side of gyaan is to eat healthy, exercise regularly, meditate and see a lot of sun light. And one more thing- have good company. Both my friends, my yoga instructor, my husband and my dietician …all good companies collaborated me to be HaPpY. Gratitude is all and all what I have for them!!!