My little Claire really likes to dance,… Every day, she'll ask me to do the dance with her favorite songs and I think she has the talent for it.. Look at her style… it's really entertaining us to see her dancing everyday…
I think dancing is another way to stimulate children's intelligence in music and body movement…. I hope I can help my Claire to fulfill her dream in life…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omyxxoR6ni4Our brain needs stimulation from all of our senses, from our eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nose. So, by touching something, it will give information to the brain and the brain will receive that information and keep it in the data base. The more we stimulate our brain through our senses, the more information we get! So basically, we can learn from everything around us.
My little Claire likes to find any kind of animals around the garden and she will ask me whether it's ok or not to touch the animal. Sometime she finds a snail and so happy to see it. She touched the snail with her little finger and I can explain about the snail. How does it move, what color is the snail, what is the hard thing on the top of its body, etc. So, she can remember how does she feel when she touched it.
Recently, I got many questions about how to feed baby….. Actually, that is easy, but really difficult at the first time. So, I'm going to share my experience here.
My little Claire refused to eat when she was 6 months old. For your information, this is very normal because from sucking to eating, baby needs to learn. It is not something that can happen in a minute. You cannot compare it to an adult who can eat and swallow very easily.
At first, I don't really understand this and I made a special food from fish, carrot and spinach. Well, I really wanted to give the best for my little baby so that I didn't really care HOW TO give it in the correct way.
After several days dealing with this problem, I asked my mom and she gave a great answer, "Just open her mouth and use the spoon to feed her." I obeyed her and guess what happened? My baby cried and the worst part was she cried every time she saw a spoon. OH, MY GOD…. What have I done???
I cried as well when my baby cried. I've done the biggest mistake in my life… I even thought that I was a bad mom. But thank God, I stop crying for myself and try to find a solution and I got it!
MEDUTAINMENT – Meals, Education and Entertainment
It is a method to give meals with education and entertainment so that while your baby is eating, she can learn something from it and there is an entertainment as well to increase baby's appetite. The education part is really good so that baby can learn about many things including colors, shapes, imagination, etc. So, eating will be a joyful moment for baby and for you as well! That's the idea.
I'll give you an example. I have a picture of my meal for my baby's lunch. Actually this picture was taken when she was 2 years old, because I don't have any picture when she was younger. I made little soldier with the food. I used carrot as the hand and feet, use the shrimp as the button and tofu as the head. While creating this wonderful meal, I give time for my baby to prepare herself to eat; I told her that it is time to eat, so she will know the schedule. After that, I will explain to her what did I make for her meal, a soldier. I said that this is the head, this is the hand, this is the foot, and this is the body. I can give explanation about color, the carrot and the shrimp is orange and the tofu is white. She looked very happy to see the little soldier in front of her. Believe me, she ate it all!
Other time, I can make cat's face for the meal, or using a shaping I can make stars, bears, dolphin, etc for the rice. I can ask her which one she wanted for her meal, after she chose; I can make the meal according to what she order. And… guess what,.. She'll love it and eat it.
I wrote it down really detail in my book, so if you want to know in detail, please refer to my book.... Ok.. I hope it can help...
Last Sunday, I got a great opportunity to share my book in one book store called Gunung Agung, located in Mal Kelapa Gading 3, North Jakarta. In general, I shared about nutrition and stimulation for baby's first year.
After I finished sharing about stimulation, there was a question from the audience. He asked me about his 2.5 years old boy who doesn't like to eat fruit nor vegetable. He said he tried to make juice from the fruit but still the little boy unwilling to drink it. As soon as he tasted the juice, he spilled it out and refused to drink. So, what should he do to give balance nutrition?
This is really interesting and many parents didn't really know about this. According to Joan Beck, a writer of the best seller book in US, all babies have a "sensitive period" in the first year of her life. After drinking breast milk exclusively for 6 months, baby is ready to learn to eat. So this is the perfect period to teach baby the taste of various foods. When baby tastes the food, she will memorize the taste and save it in her brain. Soon, when she grown up, she will recognize the taste of foods she tried in the sensitive period and will eat it happily. Thank God I knew this information before!
If parents never give fruits and vegetables during this period, baby will not have any memory about this. So, no wonder if she becomes a picky eater when she grown up.
So, that's the first thing. And second, as parents, we should give a good example. If we want our children to eat fruit and vegetables, while we never eat one of them, don't yell at your children if they follow your example. They will say to themselves, "Well, my mom and dad never eat that either, so why should I?" Learn to be a good example for your child is another thing to do.
If those two didn't work, try to be creative with the food!
I hope my idea could help you dealing with the food!
