Category Archives: Uncategorized

Technical Difficulties on the Blog this Week…

Gah! So sorry, but we are experiencing some technical difficulties with our dashboard this week! I’m going out of town tomorrow (6/25) for one of my close friend’s weddings, so I’ll take care of this when I return and will immediately post WSDW 6/24 and #SummerofDad when the issue is resolved.

Thanks for understanding!

What’s She Doing Wednesday: Stack ’em Up!

Since I’m taking a break from the research posts I publish on Saturdays, I figure I should still write a short update on what Jia’s been up to. These posts are a lot easier to write since I don’t have to go digging through research journals, evidence-based practice recommendations/best practices, etc.

What she’s been doing in the past week:

She starts kissing the doggies by smacking her lips and chasing after them while making her kissy noises. So cute!
Poor Puggies. Pug kisses aside, she is starting to find entertainment in pulling the pugs’ tails and grabbing their feet – Kona is particularly perturbed by this new activity, but he’s a good boy and knows when to walk away.
She can stack her wooden tower (cover photo) finally! Before, she would just remove all the wooden parts but now she’s discovered she can stack them onto the peg. No they’re not in order, but baby steps!
She knows the word “rabbit,” so when I say “where’s your rabbit?” she’ll look around the room and grab this squishy little light-up rabbit toy my grandmother got her for Easter, and bring it over to me.
My mother-in-law bought Jia an inflatable Spray ‘N Splash pool from Buy Buy Baby on sale for a cheap $14 and I finally blew it up yesterday since it was a hot upper 80s/low 90s day out and I didn’t want to drive anywhere. So I filled it up with the hose out in the front yard and she had so much fun splashing and going down the slide! At first she hesitated because it was strange, but after a few tries, she soon wasn’t eager to hold onto my hands and would try to thrust herself down the slide on her own. The zebra on ours sprays when hooked up to the hose, but I detached it soon after we had it going, since the spray was a little much (I’d already filled the pool, so additional spraying would over-fill the pool. Anyway I highly recommend this pool, with a manual air pump it was exhausting but way worth it! Don’t try to inflate it with your mouth, you’ll pass out I’m pretty positive.
Eating is getting better. Broccoli, mango, pot roast, chicken shu mai (from Trader Joe’s), and really getting used to smoked salmon in her eggs. She also loves toast with breakfast, because we usually have toast, so I butter hers up with some unsalted Kerry Gold organic and give her a half of a piece. We have to give her white whole wheat bread, because I think she may struggle a bit with our high fiber bread… and she poops enough!
Weaning: finally on full concentration cow’s milk, but we’ll continue to give her breast milk that I have frozen, for during meals (mixed with a little cow’s milk). Still nursing in the morning and before bedtime, but I’ve finally stopped pumping before I go to bed, which completely is a relief to me! I love not having to pump! So exhilarating being able to just go to bed without having to stay up to pump at 11 PM. (It was my own doing, requiring myself a pre-bedtime pump session)

For me: Continue reading “What’s She Doing Wednesday: Stack ’em Up!” »

Child CPR (Age 1 to Puberty) and Relief of Choking

This post is to address choking and unresponsiveness in CHILDREN 1 YEAR AND UP only. If your infant is unresponsive or you need instruction to relieve choking in infants, please review Infant CPR and Choking.

Click to Immediately Jump to Instructions For:

Basic Life Support Terms for Children

IF YOUR CHILD IS UNRESPONSIVE

IF YOUR CHILD IS CHOKING

These types of posts are the most important ones I will ever write.

I choose to write posts like these (Infant CPR/Choking & Child CPR/Choking) because it is so important that we have the necessary skills for our kids thrive in a safe and healthy environment. That means being prepared for the worst.

You can do your best to read up on how to install your carseat properly and learn what shouldn’t be allowed with the carseat (aftermarket pillows/strap covers/body supports/seat protectors), how to properly check your baby’s temperature in event of a fever, feeding organic whenever possible, using eco-friendly products, fully vaccinate them so they are equipped with the best possible immune system to ward off threatening illnesses, or even buy the coolest stroller with all the bells and whistles. But what’s most important? Keeping them alive. Continue reading “Child CPR (Age 1 to Puberty) and Relief of Choking” »

What’s She Doing Wednesday: And She’s Off!

Update on Jia:

FIRST STEPS! This just in! As of 3/24/15, she is walking! Slowly but surely, it took our little sprout 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, and 1 day to get her first steps in! She took a total of about 6 steps on 3/24 and then this morning (3/25/15) she took about 7 steps in a row! Our video quality isn’t so great, so we’ll document again later. Recall, she did take 10.5 months to crawl but was crawling like a speed demon, so pretty soon I imagine she’ll be walking confidently!
I read from a BabyCenter newsletter that if your toddler isn’t yet walking, what you can do to encourage them is to pretend to trip over your feet while you walk – showing that even adults have trouble with it. So I did this. And fell over. Many times, and she belly laughs a LOT! This was good for when I actually fell down the stairs trying to step OVER the baby gate (instead of opening it, since Jia was standing at the gate), she laughed while I gripped hurt parts of me in pain.
Sprouting a left bottom molar and a bottom right tooth, for soon to be a total of 8 teeth. This means she’s temperamental! She really had no distress through the first 6 teeth, so this is the first time she’s just a crabby unpredictable mess hah…
Because of the above, her naps are unpredictable. It’s a few days of 1 hour and 30 min naps and then a day of 30 minute napping after rolling around flailing her limbs and chattering to herself for almost an hour. Or even 1 hour and 15 minutes of blabbering and rolling around. That day we had no nap until 4 PM that afternoon.
She loves Happy Family Brand’s Happy Creamies! While at my weekly run to Target, I picked these up from the baby aisle, along with teething crackers. Gave them to her after she picked through all the peas in her macaroni and cheese and ate an orange and she scarfed them down.
She’s also back to her Happy Baby Puffs, yay! I like to put this in a snack cup for her to nosh on while she and I go jogging.
I hate to admit this, but LittleBabyBum nursery rhymes (on YouTube) make her so happy. After jogging with her and I need a quick shower – I play this on my phone and she is just quiet and happy. I don’t like to show her screens, since The Academy says not til after 2 years, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I also handed her my iPhone when she for some reason is screaming and upset in the car (babies and toddlers are not fans of traffic and mine in particular dislikes car rides IN GENERAL) with the video playing. It works like magic. Only to be used in dire times of need. (To view Little Baby Bum’s YouTube Channel click here)
Scavenging Around: My friend (and one of Jia’s godmothers) Megan was here the other day and Jia was digging through her purse. She pulled out her car keys and then crawled over to her princess mobile and tried to use her keys with the car. She also did a cute thing where she took an item out of Megan’s purse, looked at it, then placed it back in (versus throwing it aside).
MyPhone… She took Megan’s iPhone and put it up to her ear and said “bababababa!” Apparently Jeff has been teaching her how to use the phone on her learning farm toy that has a pretend phone, quick little learner!

I made these baked sweet potato bites a week or so ago and she seemed to really dislike them. But then I tried again a while after and it turns out, she really likes them 1) cold; and 2) sitting in their foil pouch (not on her plate). So I ripped off a square of foil to put on her plate and housed the sweet potatoes in there and it was just about the only thing she ate for dinner.

Steam a sweet potato for about 15 minutes. Remove.

Cut into small finger-sized pieces

Place on non-stick foil (or spray with cooking spray or drizzle with olive oil)

Cut pieces of unsalted butter and arrange over sweet potatoes. I used a cheese grater and grated a cold stick of butter over them. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Place in oven at 350 deg for about 15 minutes. Watch them, because I really didn’t pay attention to how long I really baked them! Allow to cool and serve!
Pasta! Whole wheat noodles and these spinach/garlic noodles from Trader Joe’s, cooked then mixed with some butter then organic marinara sauce is something she apparently likes!
Claps and bounces when music is playing, a LOT of clapping!

Continue reading “What’s She Doing Wednesday: And She’s Off!” »

What’s She Doing Wednesday: Jogging Buddy

So this is what Jia’s been up to:

Very very talkative, blabbers every chance she can get! She’s communicating really well, pointing to what she wants, happy-vocalizing about 90% of the time.
Climbs as much as she can on as many things as possible.
Still doesn’t want to walk yet, but doesn’t mind walking one-handed with us.
She’s been sleeping in until about 8:30 AM clocking in about 12.75-13 hours of sleep per night. Usually goes down at 7:30 PM. That nap is still somewhat unreliable. (Now I’m going to jinx myself)
Task mimicry: putting clothes in her drawers, trying to help put dishes away from the dishwasher, wiping the kitchen table with a paper towel or baby wipes after her meals, putting toys away into the diaper bag.
Deli turkey is back on the table! She’ll eat it again, not as eagerly as she did before, but she’ll eat it. Thankfully.
It feels like she’s becoming a pickier eater. I don’t know why I say it “feels like,” because she definitely is.
She’s not scared of the slide anymore. Not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but when I took her to MyGym back in January (?) she started crying when I put her on the slide (while holding her). Tuesday we took the jogging stroller to the outlets (up a precarious hill) and Jia and I played at the playground. There were two kids already climbing around (an 18 month old and a 3 year old). After watching the two of them happily go down the slide, I put her in my lap and we went down a few times and she was smiling once we got to the bottom. After that, I put her on the slide (while I was on the ground) and held her torso as I slid her down and she had the biggest smile! Wish Jeff were with us so we could get some good pictures!
Easily gets thrown into tantrums, especially if she wants my phone and I don’t give it to her. She yells at me (as other toddlers do) hah
Swept off her feet. Most of the time she wants me to still carry her everywhere. I’ll take this as a cherished moment that is soon to end once she learns to walk.
Peekaboo Pro. During bath time Tuesday 3/17, she was standing in the tub and grabbed the shower curtain and hid behind it. I said “Where’s Jia?!!!” and she yanked it open laughing! She went on to keep doing this over and over and over! So so funny!

My Thoughts: Continue reading “What’s She Doing Wednesday: Jogging Buddy” »

Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Children (5 Years+)

Child Nutrition (5 Years and Up)

So back in my public health days, I worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s department of Child and Adolescent Health. Much of my work was dedicated to creating an educational program that supported healthy diets and physical activity of pre-school and school-aged children. I spent hundreds of hours designing a program and performing bill analyses that were written to improve overweight and obesity in the LA Unified School District. So, for a portion of my early adulthood, this topic was my jam.

The diet of a 5-year old (and up) is very similar to what our diets, as adults, should resemble: healthy and lean meats, half of the plate consisting of a variety of brightly colored fruits and vegetables, whole grains (not refined white flour that has been stripped of its healthy fiber), etc. It’s hard enough for us to follow, but it is of paramount importance for us to get our kids off on the right foot in these early years.

If you missed previous Nutrition in a Nutshell posts, click the links below

Nutrition in a Nutshell For Your Sprout: Infancy

Nutrition in a Nutshell For Your Sprout: Toddler & Pre-schooler

So, what should be the focus for these (still) growing sprouts? Here’s a summary:^1-9 Continue reading “Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Children (5 Years+)” »

Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Toddler & Preschooler

This Week’s Sproutings Saturday is featuring nutrition pointers and guidelines for Toddlers and Preschoolers. If you missed “Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Infancy,” be sure to check it out!

Quick Clicks:

1 Year Old

2 Year Old

3 Year Old

General Pre-School/Toddler Nutrition Guidelines (2-5 Years) Includes calorie requirements for each age

Iron-Deficiency Anemia in Toddlers

Toddler Nutrition (1 Year Old) Continue reading “Nutrition in a Nutshell for Your Sprout: Toddler & Preschooler” »