Healthy Food for Babies and Toddler

Comfort Food

Last weekend, my little girl was down with low grade fever and a throat infection. When I picked her up from the nanny's I was told that she refused all her main meals and only drank perhaps 4 oz of milk for the whole day, on top of that she was very restless, cries easily and wanted to be carried all the time. All these signs of abnormal behaviour. We had a short chat and perhaps thought it was just a phase of teething.

So I drove back with her in the car seat, reached home and decided that we should see a doctor to rule other possibilities. We drove to our neighbourhood paediatrician to have reassurance that everything was alright. Well, a quick checked showed that she had a very red throat and a raising body temperature. The reading was 38c, since the infection was bad antibiotics had to be prescribed (not a fan at all to ABs) but in this case, if her throat does not heal fast the longer the whole food and milk refusal will take place. The last thing I want is a needle for drips in her hands.

So we came back, I prepared a bowl of cold fresh milk and threw in some bananas and tried to feed her, luckily she eat some, poor girl was hungry but just could not eat. Mummy had a broken heart seeing  her bubs hungry but unable to eat. All these explained the weird night waking and crying. I have read from Baby Centre that if there are unusual awakening it can be an onset of a milestone of sickness, for my case it was the later.

So what do you feed a toddler that cannot eat? Food still needs to be healthy for a toddler and has to be appetising as well. So this is what I prepared, hoping that she will eat and she did.

Preparation for Pumpkin Mushroom Soup

Ingredients
One medium piece of pumpkin
Few florets of broccoli and cauliflower
3 Fresh Brown Button Mushrooms
Dice them up finely and blend.

To sautee with a little bit of Olive Oil
Little garlic and onions
Fresh oregano

When the oregano releases its aromatics, add in the blended mixture and add some cool boiling water.
Wait for the mixture to boils, add in fresh cow milk and low down the stove to a slow simmer. In my case, since my bubs was not feeling too well, I let it simmer longer than 30mins to really soften everything.

This is how it looks like before adding milk

Thickening with fresh milk

Below is what I fed her for the whole day when it was meal time. So mummies with sick pups out there, you might want to give this a try. Happy feeding!

Toddlers Toys and Activities

My Evening Weekday Activities with the Little Princess









I am a full time working mom, and many of us who are in the same boat knows what it is like to have to juggle between motherhood and work. On average I have about 1 hour with my child on week days and that 1 hour has to be used to the fullest potential. My little girl is picked up about 6.30pm daily and I get back by 7pm with dinner for hubby and I. Yeah no home cooked food for us! I am trying to figure out how some light cooking can take place on a normal week day. Back to the topic on toddler's creative activity I normally use crayons and papers on weekdays, just not to over stimulate my child with exciting water colours  before bed time. We spend about 20 mins on crayons and flash cards before I settle her down with some books. She usually picks her books. Since she is already reaching 18 months, my girl says the word BOOK very clearly to my amusement. Somedays she wants to read her own book which can be entertaining to watch.

I remember her being just a tiny baby when we brought her home and now she tells me what books she likes. Time does fly with leaps and bounds. Books are really important for children and it is never too early to start them  off on this wonderful habit. It is always best to combine reading and craft to make the whole session fun and enriching.

Getting ready by prying open the crayon box!

We use crayons and mummy will try to draw images from books, that way the child gets to see how a book related figure is transformed by crayons hence tickling their imagination and curiosity. (note my drawing skills are not fantastic but good enough to get her colouring on it).  While waiting at the doctor's office the other day, my girl spotted a pencil on the table, picked it up and started to scribble on the pamphlets around her  TADA!!! a  behaviour modelled, but don't expect her to sit too long where there are loads of kids jumping off toy horses and slides within the vicinity, the distraction is just too great for any kiddo her age.

When using crayon, please consider about the age suitability. Chunky crayons are the best for little fingers tho I must say that I started off my little princess with normal size Crayola Crayons because I got them first. Only use crayons from reputable brands like ELC to avoid any issues of toxicity and always supervise your toddler. Mine likes tasting everything and sometimes just does it on purpose to see my reaction. So act cool and just move away the crayon from the mouth without creating a big fuss. Not easy I must say but do remind yourself that your child models after you very much. For most of my crayons sessions I use large white papers where my girl sits in the middle and starts swirling her crayons around her. This is when I try to draw  images near her and eventually she edges off the paper and starts adding colours to my line. Do be prepared for extra designs on your wall! So far I have all three of my white doors decorated with her master pieces (under the supervision of daddy I must say). The ELC crayons that I use comes easily from smooth surfaces but not rough ones.

As you can see, my bubs enjoy messing up the drawing paper very much and also loves keeping and taking out crayons from the box.  Sometimes I wonder why she does it but I can only think of milestones and motor skills development behind all this play learn sessions. Crayon sessions are also fun for adults I must say, these yummy colours just look really pretty on paper and on the shelf too!

The busy bunny at work

The belle positioning herself

Full concentration

I started using crayons when my little bub was 12 months,  the best toddler learning toy is their imagination. Drawing creates, whether it is well represented piece or some  basic sketches it does not matter because the moral of the story is my kid is having fun with her irregular lines and shapes. I am pretty sure Rembrandt was not born drawing, Oh Maybe Perhaps! I am sure you know what I mean, learning must be experiential and fun and that is when true learning takes place. I have few sets of crayons from chunky to plastic. Some days I use a finger print set for some creative toddler activity, I will post pictures of that on my next blog entry. So far mummy and baby enjoys our sessions a lot, daddy too. I vary different kinds of crayon from chunky, normal size as well as crayon with animal characters on them just for the fun of it. Using the same tool can be boring for a curious bunny mind.

I hope this sharing opens more insights on creative ways of using crayons, eventually they will not need us to "play" with them when their motor skills are refined for colouring and I will miss these sessions when that day comes.

Happy Crayoning Mummies!

Creative Activity for Young Children

The right brain is a such a fantastic area of our human anatomy,we all know how the different sides of our brains control the many wonderful things that can be done. Based on right brain research, it is best to stretched the capacity of the right brain function as far as we can before the left brain activities kicks in.  The right brain has no limit to learning capacity and holds the creative juices for innovation and creative solutions. It is important that mothers think of a lot of art projects for toddlers and best to start them young, as a full time working mom I only have the weekends to work these creative activities for toddlers and perhaps 30mins during the week day, better not to get the kid too excited before bedtime.

My bubs started her hands at art when she was about 11 months old, I started out with handmade paints and attempted finger painting, so sorry that I did not document it..DUH! slap to the head again. It went well but my little kiddo was not too interested in pasting her palms unto white paper. Anyhow for mummies who are interested to make their own finger paints just follow this easy breezy recipe below.

3 tbs sugar
Half tbs of salt
Half cup of cornstarch
2 Cups of water

Combine all ingredients un a small sauce pan. Warm until mixture thickens. Cool and pour in glass containers. Add food colouring to create colour and you will have jars of lovely colours all ready to be splashed about.  

I suggest to start finger painting when your bubs is about 8 to 9 months old but every baby is different so by all means do start  them younger if you wish and if you feel like splashing some colours about! Cornstarch can be substituted with plain yogurt as well, just in case you have an adventurous food tester as your kiddo.

Play dough for toddler is fun too. My bubs at 16 months enjoys her dough, although still unable to make definite shapes she enjoy just pressing, pulling and pinching them into pieces. I use the type from ELC according to age type which is 18 months and above. I notice the texture is harder compared to the Play-Doh which is suitable for younger children. ELC play dough comes with shapers at the bottom of the container and they have some nice yummy colours. The point is to get your bubs to use their imagination to form shapes, it will really help if you start working out nice shapes with your kiddo and hopefully they get interested to see how it is done. My little girl at the moment is more interested in tearing up what I create to her amusement. Do have a close watch when your little toddler gets excited during such  creative activities as they might be interested to taste it as well! Hence why some mothers prefer to make their own play dough.  Creative activity for young children brings on experiential learning which is essential in the early building blocks of imagination and creative thinking. Actually the mama and papa also had a lot of fun making things out of these soft dough as it bring back child hood memories. 

We spent about 1 hour with the dough, kneading and shaping with my little bubs mimicking our action which is fantastic because learning also starts from modelling. Monkey see monkey do sounds fun here.  We used the shaper at the bottom to cut out shapes of flower, house and cars all objects which are familiar to her both sounds and shapes so seeing it being created out of coloured dough is certainly interesting for a curious toddler mind. We also made bangles and she slipped in some on her own  which was a really funny scene. It is amazing how these creative activities for toddlers actually bring out their sensory and memory skills. As you can see my bubs was a little bit tired after all that finger gymnastics! She decided to take a rest on the mattress .  I have a list of creative material in my stash from crayons to colour pencils. All you need is some space and lots of white mahjong paper and let your little darling take on the floor! Next will be water colour so watch this space mummies and daddies!