Hello !! Welcome to MyLittleMoppet !! Thank you for all your questions through email, comments and social media!! Though I love to connect with readers and answer queries and doubts, it is overwhelming due to the high volume of mail I receive daily. This in turn causes great delay in answering the doubts and lots of valuable time is lost !!
So in order to make things easy, I have compiled with the most frequently asked questions by readers in MyLittleMoppet. This page will be constantly updated with latest reader doubts with my answers.
1. Please explain me how to prepare a {particular} Recipe?
This is the most frequent question I get and the answer is very simple. In the website, there is a tab at the Upper left corner called the “Search” button. You can input your keyword (Banana) in it and press search.
This search page is powered by Google and so you will get all the posts that have the word banana in them like below.
In the same way, any topic can be searched in mobile too.
Even then if you can’t find what you are looking for, then here are some quick links
2. My baby weight is only “xx “, he looks very tiny for his age, please tell me how to make him chubby and gain weight?
Nearly 80% of the mails I receive every day are about babies’ weight, particularly about how to know if they are underweight and what to do if that is the case. Being chubby isn’t necessarily a sign of good health, since an obese baby is prone to several health problems throughout his life. As long as your baby’s diet is adequate and balanced you don’t have to worry about his weight.
My mantra is always :
” As long as the baby is active and healthy, there is no need to worry about the weight gain”
However, it is important to keep an eye on a baby’s weight, since being either underweight or overweight can put the baby at risk of many illnesses. So here is an article that can help you to know if your baby is in ideal range in height and weight.
How to know whether my baby is underweight or overweight?
If Underweight how can I increase my baby weight with healthy diet?
It is important to remember that if you’ve had a premature baby or multiples, the standard numbers may not apply, and it’s best to consult your paediatrician in such cases. In any case, these numbers are not set in stone and will vary from baby to baby. Even siblings can show different patterns in gaining weight; it doesn’t matter as long as the baby is healthy, active and developing normally otherwise.
3. My daughter who was previously eating foods properly, now a days (last 7 days ) stopped eating food completely, denies any variety of food I offer and drinks only milk!! Please advice on how to make her eat solids.
Between 6 and 12 months of age, many babies or even toddlers go through a passing stage of refusing solids and favoring milk—either from the breast, or formula. This preference is likely due to the ease and familiarity of sucking from the breast or bottle versus the hard work of swallowing solid food. As long as your baby gets the nutrients she needs during this phase, there’s no real cause for concern.
Here’s how to keep her healthy and encourage her to return to solids:
- Feed enough breast milk
- For picky solid-food eaters, stick with foods that pack the most nutritional punch in a small volume. Best choices are avocado, yogurt, tofu, eggs, veggies (such as carrots and squash)
- Perhaps your baby is trying to tell you that she wants an upgrade in cuisine! Give her more finger foods Just let her eat with her hands and clean up when she’s finished.
- Continue to put a wide variety of foods in front of your child and then TOTALLY IGNORE what she does with the food. No comments, no begging, no cajoling
- . The important thing is not to react or turn it into an emotional issue or a power struggle. Then you will get a picky eater for sure!
4. My child does not chew food while eating, he simply swallows food, how to teach him to chew foods?
Learning to control the tongue is a skill that has to be practiced. Having said that, some kids just have issues with the texture of the food. For them, introducing a new food can take many, many tries before they eventually come around. Some kids take to new foods after a couple of tries, but with kids like my son it’s more like 25 or 30 before he will reliably eat more than a bite!
1. Keep offering the food you are attempting to get him to eat. He doesn’t HAVE to eat it, but he should be exposed to it. He may pick it up and play with it and feel it. That’s ok. He’s getting used to it–it’s a process.
2. Offer soft foods cut up in small pieces. He might be more inclined to actually put a soft bite of banana in his mouth than a crunchy cracker. Bananas, cooked peas and carrots, avocado, plain cooked macaroni, etc. And cut them smaller than you think necessary.
3. Sometimes it helped to give a spoon and let him try to feed himself. He might have only gotten a couple of bites into his mouth, but he will more likely to keep it in his mouth, chew, and swallow it.
4. Offer the new food first when he’s really, truly hungry. If you want him to try a banana but you offer it after his yogurt or whatever, he won’t be hungry and will have little motivation to try something new. Maybe while you’re prepping breakfast, sit him in his high chair and give him a few bites of the banana to look at/play with/attempt to eat while you chop up the rest of the banana to go in his breakfast.
5. Remain calm. We know this is extremely hard because it can be frustrating and nerve-wracking when your child eats a diet of about three bites! But if you are anxious at mealtimes, he absolutely will pick up on that. I can tell you from experience that it will not help the situation. Keep working with him and see if he improves. With our son we knew he could eat other things, he just didn’t want to eat some of them.
6. I am worried about that my 13 month son still has no Teeth, Please advice what to do?
Every child develops on their own timeline and cannot be compared with other kids or even siblings. My son got his first tooth at 8 months, while my daughter got her first tooth only at 14 months. So don’t worry about it and enjoy the babyhood while it lasts 🙂
7. After feeding or eating food my baby does potty within few minutes, is it due to any digestive problem? Will this affect her weight gain?
It is a normal physiological process , so you don’t have to worry about that as long as he does not cry during potty or pass blood. As soon as the food reaches the stomach, it starts a peristaltic wave which pushes the stools in the rectum, the food what she eats will be in the stomach and will be expelled as stools only after digestion.
[top_ad]8. My baby is { 4 months, 5 months, 6 months } I think she is ready for solids, how to start solids for her? What chart to follow?
We have an entire series dedicated on “Guide for starting Solids” Do click on the link to know how to start solids for your little one.
9. My Baby does not like sweet foods, can I add salt to his food?
Salt is not advisable until 1 year of age, read this article to know ” Why no Salt till for babies below 1 Year?”
10. I don’t have enough breastmilk supply , and my baby does not like formula, can I give cow’s milk to my 5 month old baby?
Cow’s milk is not advisable for babies below 1 year.Cow’s Milk contains very little Iron, so babies on cow’s milk develop Iron Deficiency Anemia.
The levels of Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Phosphorous are very high in Cow’s milk and they impose a heavy load on the infant’s immature kidney, which forces more water to be drawn from the body for the excretion through kidneys, which may lead to Dehydration.
Read More on Why No cow’s milk for babies below 1 year?
- According to the recent study by American Academy of Paediatrics, Two Cups of cow’s milk per day is sufficient.
- Till 2 years of age, whole fat milk is recommended as fat is an important source of energy and essential fatty acids necessary for brain and nervous system development.
- After 2 years of age, switch to low fat milk if the child likes it and takes it well, and there is another reliable dietary fat source in his diet.
- Always introduce milk in sippy cups; not in feeding bottles
- Please avoid health drinks like Horlicks, Bournvita or Pediasure atleast till 2 years of age. Even after 2 years of age, it is recommended to give children a Homemade health mix , instead of the commercially available health mixes.
12. My toddler hates milk, what can I give him to meet his calcium requirement?
It is not necessary that your toddler needs milk to meet his calcium requirement, dairy based foods like curd, paneer, cheese , ghee, butter can help him meet his needs. Sources of calcium other than dairy are leafy greens, almonds, sesame seeds, figs, seafood.
If you have started solids for your baby, you can offer her water in small sips from an open, free flow cup during mealtimes. Read here to know as how to give water by sippy cups
15. How much water does my toddler need daily?
It’s impossible to say how much water any individual – baby, child or adult – needs in a day. It depends on many variables, for instance, their own metabolism, their level of activity, the weather, and the foods they have eaten that day (many foods naturally contain large amounts of liquid and others very little).
No single approach will work with all babies all the time or even all the time with the same baby. Babies have different nighttime temperaments and families have varied lifestyles. Keep working at a style of nighttime parenting that fits the temperament of your baby and your own lifestyle. If it’s working, stick with it. If it’s not.
A peaceful daytime is likely to lead to a restful night. The more attached you are to your baby during the day and the more baby is held and calmed during the day, the more likely this peacefulness is to carry through into the night. If your baby has a restless night, take inventory of unsettling circumstances that may occur during the day. It has been that babies who are carried in baby slings for several hours a day settle better at night. Baby wearing mellows the infant during the day, behavior that carries over into restfulness at night.
Pick out the times of the day that you are most tired, for example 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Lie down with your baby at these times every day for about a week to get your baby used to a daytime nap routine. This also sets you up to get some much-needed daytime rest rather than be tempted to “finally get something done” while baby is napping. Babies who have consistent nap routines during the day are more likely to sleep longer stretches at night.
Give baby a warm bath followed by a soothing massage to relax tense muscles and busy minds. Be careful, though, because this will stimulate some babies.
Babies who enjoy consistent bedtimes and familiar going-to-sleep rituals usually go to sleep easier and stay asleep longer.
