Tip #41: Alphabetical feeding

Once you've introduced solid food, and done so for long enough you have more than a few foods to give your little one, it can be hard to remember what they've had recently. I saw a tip to feed your baby alphabetically, so you roughly give them a diversity of food, e.g., applesauce, avocado, bananas, peas, plums, sweet potatoes, etc.

Source: From Parent Hacks which a friend of mine told me about recently. A very cool site with an array of tips.

Tip #40: An alternate baby book

We keep a blog of our life in general, and since getting pregnant and having a baby, it has allowed us to keep all our family and friends up-to-date on his development. It's chock-full of pictures as well. At the end of his first year, I plan to make a book (you could use iPhoto or a web-based photo album kind of place). The book will basically have every blog post that pertains specifically to him or our family. For example, I have lists of foods he likes at certain ages, posts on when he got his first tooth, when he started crawling, weight and height updates etc. Plus, pictures of us apple picking, playing at play groups, and so on. With the blog, we also have the date of when those things happened, so when he hits 12-months old, I'll simply copy pictures and the blog text into a dated book to have printed for us and grandparents.

Source: Grandma suggested this as an alternate to remembering to write into a more traditional baby album.

Tip #39: Safe kitchen toys for endless entertainment

On the same vein as Tip #38, introducing new objects is important developmentally and it also ensures ample entertainment for baby. I've been introducing my 6-month old to safe kitchen toys while I cook and he hangs out in his exersaucer. It's amazing how interesting a plastic measuring cup, a funnel and a wooden spoon can be! As always, make sound judgement as to safety.

Source: I apologize, I can't remember where I heard this.

Tip #38: Rotate your baby's toys

Our pediatrician recommended that we put away some toys occasionally for a couple of weeks and reintroduce them, and keep a rotating cycle. This way they never get bored. I can confirm they are quite excited again to see a toy that a few weeks ago they played with all the time.

P.S. Sorry for the long absence. Life has gotten busy, but I'll continue to try and post as much as I can.

Tip #37: A wet cloth can help a teething baby

Wet a wash cloth with cool water and let your teething baby chew and suck on it. It worked wonders this weekend with our very fussy baby.

Source: Daycare provider

Tip #36: Put a shirt around the bottle to help a breastfed baby take a bottle

Sometimes a breastfed baby has a hard time adjusting to a bottle when you decide to introduce (or re-introduce) one. One tip I've heard is to wrap mom's shirt (one that's been worn and smells like her) around the bottle while someone else gives it to them.

Source: Lactation Consultant

Bonus Funny Story: Hopefully, the person who told me this story won't mind if I share it here (it's anonymous right?). Her husband was having problems getting their baby to take a bottle and so she set a tank top out for him the night before for him to use to feed the baby her bottle in the morning. When Dad came back into the room in the morning, mom said "Why are you WEARING my tank top?" Dad said: "But you told me to use it when I gave her the bottle!"