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Basic Care to Protect your Kid from Common Infections in the Monsoons

The rains get the possibility of several types of bacterial, viral, and other infections with them. The most susceptible class to these infections are the kids. Since their immunity is still in the developing stage and also as they are least bothered about rules and regulations, they are vulnerable to various infections. To add to this, schools, day care centers, play areas are the places where they come into contact with other kids who may be carrying these infections. There are certain basic things to remember to avoid getting these infections:

Unhealthy, uncovered, and unhygienic food should be a big NO in these days.
When the children return home, no matter from where, make them take a shower or at least clean up with a sanitizer or disinfectant.
Eye infections are common in these days, so make sure to take proper care of the eyes and to keep away from friends who have these infections.
Contagious diseases like viral fever, malaria, jaundice are also likely to spread. If your kid has any of these, strictly avoid sending him or her to school and day care. Please do not spread the disease!
Teach them to keep all their belongings and their room clean and dry- over the year and especially these four months. 





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How to Get your Introvert Kid to Mix with People

This is the question that bothers the Mom of every introvert child, just as it did me. Being introvert is a part of one's nature. Kids either have it in them as an individual or they have taken it from the genes. My kid is just like his dad. He takes a lot of time to open up, hardly talks with strangers and is selective about friends.
Though you cannot change this aspect completely, you can help your child to be a normal individual and not the one who locks up oneself completely from the world outside. Also, this change takes up time and a lot of your patience.
You can give this a try:

When the kid starts going to school, things are better. In that case, make it a habit to discuss the events of the day over dinner. Make this appear very casual and invite his participation too. When kids observe that Mom and Dad are enjoying discussing about their day, they give their inputs too. In this way they make sure that they have something to discuss with you. This really works!

It is always preferable that your child has close pals. It could be a sibling or in case of a single child it could be cousins living close by or friends. We had neither of these options. So we opted to send him to a Day care.

My boy doesn't really opt to go out and play, he's comfortable at home. But we have often encouraged him to do so and now he's started enjoying that.

Introvert kids have their spells of solitude. Do not force them to be out during those times. When my kid insists that he wants to be alone, we allow him to do so. After a while he's back, cheerful and ready to mingle.

If you are not the social type, you need to develop those skills for this chap. This way the child will get a chance to interact with family friends and relatives. Though he or she may not mix with elders, but they will be used to having people around.

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Make your Child an Avid Reader

We are the lucky parents of a 12 year old who loves to read. When I meet the parents of other kids and hear them complain that children are addicted to the television, computer and mobile screens, I feel proud of my little one. He does love outdoor sports and these screens, but reading remains his passion. His reading hobby can be traced long back, to his preschool years. Here are few tips I want to share with the parents out there:
  • The love for books can be induced easily at a tender age. Once the kid grows up, there is nothing much that you can do about this. You can keep on encouraging but you have to leave it on the child and time. So begin early!
  • Early does not mean infant reading! Early means when the child understands what books and pages are, when the kid can differentiate at least between a picture and a text!
  • If your kids' school has a good library, you are lucky. However, this does not mean that will make him/her a reader, but yes, they will be exposed to reading and books.
  • Read with him. Children follow our example. We often have a scenario where all three of us are sitting with books and the room appears to be a reading room.
  • If your toddler shows interest in pictures or stories, do not hesitate to buy books. It is the most important investment you are making. Go in for small but significant books so that you can get your kid some variety. Don't buy a huge collection and then expect the little soul to sit and digest it.
  • Teach your kid to respect books. Love and respect go hand in hand. Eventually the child will learn to care for the books and you won't need to worry about issues like tearing pages and scribbling.
  • Crossword is the word! Take him to bookshops like Crossword (Make sure your kid is not the one to mess up with books). This is the place where you can freely scan through the books of your choice. This is real quality time!

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Real Beauty- Explore it within yourself!


I would like to introduce my definition of 'Real Beauty' with this beautiful sanskrit subhashitam:

Kim api asti swabhavena sundara va api asundaram
Yada ayva rochate yasme bhavet tat' tasya sunadaram!

(Meaning: Whatever exists in the world, is it beautiful or ugly by its own nature? Of course not! It is beautiful because someone fancies it to be beautiful!)

My thought process regarding 'real beauty' reminds me of two things:

The movie "Thodasa Rumani Ho Jaaye", where the protagonist Barishkar (the Rainmaker) leads the girl Binni and her family to believe in themselves and their dreams. He teaches them to be optimistic. Binni is an elderly lady, a spinster who has a very low self-esteem. She's not beautiful or feminine in the worldly sense. This guy brings about a drastic change in her where she starts believing in herself..in her inner real beauty! "Main Sundar Hoon" is what he teaches her and this belief changes her life. She learns to smile, to laugh, to admire the beauty in herself and in her life. The rain that he claims to get in the small dry town is symbolic to the hopes and aspirations that he gifts the people with.

Another incident that led me to think about 'real beauty' was something that I observed in my college days. We had a ladies' room in our college. There were two mirrors in the room. Girls used to visit the room intermittently for freshening up or sometimes just to have a chat amongst themselves. Whenever we used to sit there, I observed one thing. Almost every girl visiting that room would make it a point to have a look at herself in the mirror.

I found this very amusing initially. But then I started observing this fact closely. As the world defines... some girls were pretty, some were really beautiful and fair, and some of them had average looks while there were some who were dark, short or even ugly as the world may classify them. Yet, every girl looked at herself in the mirror with the same admiration. What was it that every individual was observing? Complexion, features, make-up?  In some cases yes...but not in all.

It was more of an admiration for one's own self, one's identity that was far more precious and relevant than the outer looks. It was this self-esteem that brought a smile on the faces of even those so called "average" looks when they peeped into the mirror. This incident taught me that every individual is beautiful from within. No matter what our height, complexion and features say, we believe in ourselves from the bottom of our heart. This makes us stand apart from several other faces in the crowd.

Yes, its true that life is beautiful, so is nature. The sunrise, the moon and stars, the mountains and the sea, the flowers and the dew..everything is beautiful. But all this seems beautiful when we have the vision or perception for this beauty. And this is possible only when we realize our own real and inner beauty. A person who is depressed will never even bother to take a look around, let alone appreciating these things.

The insight into this beauty leads us to realize our virtues and nurture them. It teaches us to introspect and also work on our vices. Last but not the least, there is a fine line between self-esteem and pride that decides what real beauty is. One who is beautiful from within is confident but never proud, and one who is proud can never be beautiful no matter what the features say!

I would close the article by some more pearls of wisdom from Sanskrit that truly reveal what real beauty is all about:

Narasya abharanam rupam, rupasya abharanam gunaha
Gunnahas abharanam dnyanam, dnyanasya abharanam kshama!

(Meaning: Beauty is like an ornament of a human being. Virtue is an ornament of beauty. Knowledge is an ornament of virtue and forgiveness is an ornament of knowledge.)







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Here comes the Monsoon!

The cloudy sky, drizzling showers and roaring thunders are back again. Everyone seems to take a review of the closet to take out the rain suits and the umbrellas. At the same time, it is the school shopping that goes on with equal vigour!

The task for Moms is to let the kids enjoy the rains and at the same time keep them away from infections and diseases that come in with the season. Special care comes in for those kids who are allergic or prone to infections of various types.

Antiseptices and antiallergic cleaners, cleansers and sanitizers prominently make their way into our homes. Especially kids need to be instructed to keep themselves dry and clean.
 
Outside food, beverages and water are something we need to avoid for the next four months. Switch on to mineral water or preferably carry a water bottle if you are out. Avoiding uncovered, unhygenic foods is something we have learnt from the school days and so have our kids.

Keep a check on the diet health and hygiene and welcome the monsoon!

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Essential Qualities for a Day Care Centre

If you are looking for a day care centre where you can enroll your child, here is what you need to ensure:

  • The day care provider should be not only be professional but caring and loving too. It means that when there is an emergency of any kind, the provider should go beyond the call of duty and be there for your kid. This makes the kid more comfortable with the caretaker.
  • The centre may provide food and snacks or may ask you to do so. In both the cases, the child should be fed well and on time. Nutrition is something they also need to look into as much as you do. Along with it also come cleanliness and hygiene.
  • The day care centre should have a thorough know how of baby and child care. A tie-up or contact of your paediatrist, the list and knowledge of administering first aid or medicines to the baby when required are some of the very essential things.You cannot sit biting your nails in the office wondering if your kid has been given the afternoon dose of medicines.
  • The day care centre should be clean and hygienic. This applies to the place, toys, bedding and kitchen. So also the way the baby is taken care of, the nappies changed and disposed, wipes and bibs used properly. For older kids, the hygiene manners should be inculcated properly.

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Introducing Healthy Food Habits in Your Toddler

As your baby grows up with the recognition of tastes, you have a tough time feeding certain dishes that are not welcome. As a toddler, the problems get worse as the kid gets adamant about eating. Junk food items, fast foods are an added attraction to this. You wonder how to cope up with this and also worry how to supply proper nutrition that your little one needs.
Remember a few basic rules:

There are several recipes that are yummy and nutritious too, but this cannot be an everyday game. Your child needs to get accustomed to eating the staple and complete diet.

Draw the line for your kid regarding meals and breakfasts. Do it tactfully but make sure the kid knows who is the boss. At the same time do not completely eliminate junk foods, they are fine once intermittently.

Strictly adhere to two things during meals- Sitting in one place and NO TELEVISION! Once you get this done, half the problems are resolved.

If you have not introduced your kid to all the important tastes earlier, its not too late. Start with different veg soups and add various flavours to it. The toddler will learn to develop the taste buds.

Make eating time interesting by all of you joining together and chatting over.

Food can be fun with attractive serving and feeding items. Use special kids' bowls, dishes and spoons that are attractive and colourful. Your young one will love that.

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