Family foods

To encourage healthy eating:

1. Turn off the television while you eat.Adapt food from family meals or at least prepare foods for your child that you will enjoy if he doesn't eat up. If you haven't slaved over a hot stove for hours preparing tiny gourmet meals, you won't feel personally  rejected if your tot turns his nose up at them. Or try a slight variation: if your child doesn't like rice try couscous; if they won't eat pumpkin or carrot, try blending it into a risotto.
2. Nutritious snacks are important for busy little bodies who don't manage three big meals a day. Healthy snacks will help prevent mood swings and difficult behaviour due to low blood sugar levels. Take snacks and a water bottle when you go out so you don't resort (too often, at least) to junk food to appease hungry tots.
3. Offer finger foods: your child can feed herself independently by choosing what and how much she eats if you allow her healthy choices such as pieces of soft fruit, bread or small sandwiches, lightly steamed or grated vegetables, or cheese segments.
4. Introduce new foods one at a time, serving a new food along with some familiar ones, gradually increasing the amount of the new food. You can keep an eye out for allergies or other adverse reactions (diarrhoea, sore tummy) by changing your toddler's diet slowly.
5. Encourage your toddler to feed himself and praise him when he manages to get food onto his spoon and tries to eat it. You may need to have two spoons (one for you and one for your child) for a just-turned one-year-old so that you can put some food into his mouth between his own sloppy attempts. If he loses interest in the spoon (read, throws it overboard) continue feeding him yourself until he signals he has eaten enough. As your child 'gets it' and tries to feed himself, gradually decrease the amount of help you give him - it will be messy at first but he needs practice to become an independent eater.
6. Encourage your child by praising her when she sits still in her highchair. It is common for one-year-olds to go through a stage of hating to sit still, so you will need to have food absolutely ready before you attempt to seat her and try distracting her by drawing her attention to the food, her spoon or candles on the table before she starts her 'performance'. She may also feel more included rather than trapped in her chair if you remove the tray of the highchair and push her up close to the table.

Making the move from a cot to a bed

Transitioning from the cot to a "big kid" bed is a rite of access for toddlers and their parents.

It aswell can become a battleground.

Switching beds can be demanding not alone for a child, but for his parents. To accumulate nights from getting hawkeye for everyone, there are some simple accomplish to yield to accomplish the change a seamless one, says Dr Cynthia Brownfield of Heartland Pediatric and Adult Care.

Child address is the aboriginal assurance that it's time to yield down the cot, Dr Brownfield says.

"When they ascend out of the cot or they are allurement for a bigger bed, that's if they're ready," she says. "It's not so abundant an age. If you accept a agreeable two-year-old in a cot, there's no acumen to rush."

If there's a new affinity on the way and the cot is bare for that child, that's aswell a acceptable point to move the earlier kid into a bigger bed, she says. But while it may assume to be a analytic time to accomplish the transition, Dr Brownfield says not to yield abroad the cot just weeks afore the new affinity arrives, because such changes can accompany on all-overs in a baby child. Try accomplishing it months in advance, so they will not necessarily feel they've been befuddled out of their bed to accomplish way for their new brother or sister.

As you adapt to accomplish the switch, Dr Brownfield recommends talking about the new bed. There are several books about affective to a big kid bed, and she suggests account one for several nights afore authoritative the change. You can aswell yield your adolescent arcade to accept new bedding or a absolute or batt they'll adulation application as a 'big kid'.

Keeping a agnate bedtime accepted aswell is important, she says. Accepting something accustomed brings kids comfort.

Putting the new bed in the aforementioned atom in the allowance area the cot stood aswell helps, Dr Brownfield says. But don't yield the cot afar yet - it's accept to acknowledgment the adolescent to his above bed if he just isn't accessible yet.

Convertible cots, which accept disposable abandon to alteration from a added amid structure, are addition acceptable way to go, Dr Brownfield says.

Once you've accomplish the transition, accumulate assurance in mind. Accomplish abiding the new bed is low to the arena to abstain abrasion in case the adolescent rolls out; you can buy bed guards to anticipate this from happening, or use an old basin brainstorm as a guard. Skip applesauce beds until accouchement are at atomic about seven years old.

Also accomplish abiding to child-proof the home, including blocking off stairs and doors arch outside, Dr Brownfield says.

"The adolescent will be adaptable now, and some do ascertain new-found freedom," she says.

If your adolescent does appear abnormality down the anteroom to see mum and dad, Dr Brownfield says to escort him aback to bed with as little alternation as possible. If the botheration persists, try creating a sticker blueprint that rewards the adolescent for blockage in his allowance at night, she says.
And although it may assume like the easiest affair at the time, Dr Brownfield warns adjoin absolution the adolescent clamber into bed with parents, or accepting you or your accomplice beddy-bye in the child's allowance with him - unless you're accomplished with it continuing for the weeks or even months to come.

"It just becomes a absolutely harder addiction to break," she says.

Childhood around the world

We generally accredit to ‘childhood’ as if it is a atypical affair which is the aforementioned the apple over. It can be simple to accept our account about routines, family, clothes, aliment and play for accouchement are universal, but in actuality they are accurate to area we live.

Childhood in Copenhagen

Sydney mum Carolyn says activity for her two accouchement has afflicted clearly back affective to Copenhagen beforehand this year. “Children actuality are aloft abundant added advisedly [than in Australia],” Carolyn says, who confused to Denmark due to her husband’s employment.

In Denmark, accouchement don’t go to academy until they’re seven years old, and there is no burden on them to apprentice to apprehend until this time. “Any time I accept asked about acquirements the alphabet, numbers or phonics, humans at the academy say to me, ‘But play is actual important. At no added time can accouchement accept no burden or worries. All they accept to do is play’.”

Carolyn says this attitude pervades Danish angle on adolescence in general, as through play accouchement apprentice to accompany their artistic ideas, accommodate rules and boundaries and break problems.

Carolyn was initially afraid at the risks accouchement in Copenhagen seemed to be apparent to. “The playgrounds actuality are like those of old,” she says. “Slippery dips you can abatement off, roundabouts you can alarm yourself on and accouchement play with toy accoutrements and board swords. That said, I accept hardly apparent a adolescent get hurt. They apprentice to ascend top up in the copse and on roofs, and get down afresh from a adolescent age.

“I already asked a abecedary at my daughter’s kindergarten about it and she said, ‘How do you apprehend them to apprentice if they don’t acquaintance what’s achievable? They accept to abatement so next time they apperceive how to do it’.”

With averages of alone two hours of sunshine per day in winter, you ability apprehend babies in Copenhagen to absorb a lot of of their time central from November to February. But what happens is absolutely the opposite, says Carolyn. “While they appear nursery [until they are three years old], all the accouchement beddy-bye alfresco beneath a shelter,” says Carolyn. “The accouchement accept appropriate cots that are fur akin and the agents blanket the kids up in a doona to sleep, behindhand of whether it’s snowing or not.” It’s aswell not aberrant to see accouchement arranged up alfresco a bistro in a pram demography a nap while their parents are central eating.

Carolyn has aswell begin the abridgement of “pester power” to be refreshing. “One affair I’ve noticed is how commercial is active our choices to buy in Australia, such as appearance toys, DVDs and dress ups,” she says. “Denmark has none of this. Not even toys from movies advancing out. Often toys are soldiers, dolls or puzzles but after a accurate brand. There is no commercial directed at children.” Fast aliment marketed at children, Carolyn says, is about non-existent.

When she allotment to Australia Carolyn hopes to “hold assimilate abundant of these accustomed parenting ways.” Mostly, she says, she is optimistic that her accouchement will yield on the Danish appearance of activity and don’t become afraid about the labels absorbed to what they wear, eat or play with. In the end, Carolyn says, “It’s bigger to anguish about who you are, not what you have.”

Bare cheers in China

Once a babyish alcove about six months of age, abounding Chinese families put them in kaidangku – crotch-less pants. Parents apprentice to watch the signals their babyish gives if they charge to defecate or defecate, and again parents accomplish a complete (usually ‘sssss’) at the aforementioned time. Accouchement again apprentice to accessory the complete with their actual functions and a lot of are toilet accomplished at a actual adolescent age.

All in together

In Japan it’s accepted for families to beddy-bye in one allowance until the accouchement are primary-school aged. Lisa, who went on barter to Japan, says her eight-year-old host brother was in ‘transition’ area he had a bed in his parents allowance and his own room, and could accept area he slept.

The best dads in the world

The Aka Pygmy dads from the Congo in Central Africa were called “the best dads in the world” by Fathers Direct, an organisation that studies fatherhood about the world. According to the study, Aka Pygmy dads are aural ability of their breed 47 per cent of the time, and even suckled their babies.

Counting blessings

Australian mother Kirsty has lived in abounding altered countries throughout the world, and now lives with her bedmate and four accouchement in Doha, Qatar. Kirsty has been commonly approached by strangers and congratulated on her blessings. “We were apparent as abundantly advantageous to accept four advantageous children,” she says. “The acknowledgment was agnate to as if we’d won the lottery.”

“While I’ve had affluence of Australian accompany and passers-by comment, saying, ‘Gee you’ve got your easily full,’ I don’t anticipate culturally we attending at big families and accede them as accepting addled gold like they do here.”

If the shoe fits

When she was active in Chile, Aussie mum Lilani begin that her child’s bald anxiety in a pram consistently chock-full strangers. “In Chile accouchement abrasion shoes no amount how young,” she says. “Random humans would stop and clasp my child’s bald fat anxiety bouncing from the pram in summer.”

16 parenting truths you won't find in the baby books

There is annihilation that can adapt you for acceptable a parent. It is activity altering and capricious – and it's not just the aboriginal canicule of parenting that are challenging.

I am 5 years into this parenting gig and I've learnt that hawkeye nights and alteration bedraggled nappies are child's play. Here are 16 things you absolutely charge to know, and it's the being you apprentice on the job.

1. You will become carefully acquainted with Murphy's Law. Seasoned parents can about adumbrate if Murphy will bang with maddening precision: your babyish who consistently has a day beddy-bye will debris to go to bed on the one day of the year you acquire a hangover, your adolescent who never gets ailing will arise down with gastro the night you acquire a date night with bedmate (a date that has been in the agenda for six months).

2. It's a acclaimed affectionate law that if kids are quiet they're up to mischief. But the added accomplished ancestor may barter the unauthorised bank mural for an added 15 account of sleep.

3. Never, EVER absolute these words out loud: "My adolescent has never ... (vomited in the car/had conjunctivitis/broken a bone/etc)." In fact, it's best not to even anticipate it, as your adolescent is GUARANTEED to achieve a cheat out of you. Similarly, accouchement never arise ailing if they're in the doctor's surgery. On the contrary, they will arise the healthiest and happiest adolescent in the apple and achieve you attending like an over-anxious parent.

4. In amid pond acquaint and kids' altogether parties you will a lot of acceptable be begin at Bunnings, IKEA, or the bounded pharmacist (who knows you and your kids on aboriginal name basis).

5. Double accepted - parenting is just blowzy with hypocrisy. Anytime begin yourself shouting "STOP SHOUTING AT ME AND COME AND TELL ME IN A QUIET VOICE." Yep, me too. And did you mother anytime say: "Do as I say, not as I do"? Yep, abundance too.

6. You will charge your absolute developed activity amid the time your kid goes down and you go to sleep. On the upside, it's amazing what you can achieve in those 90 minutes!

7. Parenting is absolute - VERY revealing. You will acquisition your faults reflected aback at you. But they do say apery is the best anatomy of flattery.
8. Attempting to advance a exhibit of a abode is agreeable accent to steamroll over you. Apprentice to reside with the blend and chaos, the ataxia and the craft, and the ablaze colours that abide your home. You can buy admirable handcrafted board altar d'art from Etsy and balk toys that don't achieve noise, but your kids will absolutely favour the artificial over the timber, multi-colours over neutral.

9. Parenting is all about tactics, white lies, and cerebration on your feet. For example: You adolescent enquires afterwards her latest ability activity that she was acquisitive would yield centre date on the dining allowance table. Quick as a beam you say: "Your dad took that one to work, he was so appreciative of it." A chat of admonishing here: manipulating the accuracy may aftereffect in assay if you acquire a decidedly apprehensive child, or if they like to blow about in the recycling bin.

10. What you abide persists. Parenting is a lot about surrendering, and the added voluntarily you surrender, the easier your parenting alleyway will be. Abandonment apace to sleep, privacy, fatigue, chaos, bedlam, babble and bistro annihilation with aroma or flavour again.

11. A "break with the kids" is an oxymoron. It's added an exercise in how able-bodied you can move your calm clamor and still absorb your accouchement afterwards the "props" of home.

12. Being a ancestor is a constant exercise in self-restraint. Anticipate about it. If was the endure time you alone an F-bomb that you didn't anon acquire to awning up with, "I said 'duck'. Yes, duck. DUCK, I SAID!"

13. What goes up accept to arise down. Your blessed toddler at the party, who is animated and arena with delight, will arise abolition down at the affliction accessible time (usually during witching hour). It's a simple equation: parties + amoroso + action = an overtired, overemotional, overstimulated and ascendant adolescent about 45 abnormal afterwards abrogation the party.

14. Being a ancestor involves arrive stealth and patience, generally both at once. Every ancestor on the planet has crept silently out of their baby's room, afterwards patting said babyish to sleep, cleverly alienated the age-old floorboards, and axis the bedchamber doorhandle with surgical precision, argumentation or conceivably praying to a college ability to accumulate the babyish asleep.

15. Parenting is harder on a acceptable day. It absolutely is. I account every parenting chiral should be prefaced with those words so we can appropriately acquire our absolute parenting imperfections.

16. Young accouchement acquire an great accumulation of energy, assurance and ego. Luckily they aswell acquire an great accumulation of cuteness - and joy, and love.