How Your Baby's Bath Time Is So Much More Powerful Than Just Cleansing Time

As a mom you know that the time you spend playing, interacting and bonding with your babies can have a significant effect on them for a lifetime. This is especially true during the first three years of your toddler’s life when their tiny brain starts developing. Ever noticed how the simplest gestures like singing a lullaby or holding your baby in your arms evokes happy emotions from your baby? This is because as soon as they are born they use their sense of sight, smell, touch and sound to learn about their environment. The nurturing that you provide during everyday rituals have a profound impact on your baby's reactions and development.

One of the daily rituals that you may not even realize is a great learning opportunity for your baby is bath time, and your interaction with your baby during bath time is key to this learning.  The bath is a place where touch and smell contributes to your baby’s development. For example, simply talking back and forth with baby during bath time can help with language development, or playing music during bath time can stimulate memory. Bath time, therefore, is so much more than a time to just to clean your baby.

As a baby care expert, Johnson & Johnson India is now advancing new research that explores the science behind happy, healthy baby development. The research shows that the time you spend with your baby during bath time can be more than a time to connect and bond. It can be an opportunity to

Putting Your Infant To Sleep: Diary of A New Mum: Diary of A New Mum

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Okay, it's true...sleeping babies are cute, very cute...provided when they SLEEP!

As a second time mom, I was very hopeful that I won't have the same issues with putting my newborn to sleep as I had with my first-born...yes, there's something called wishful thinking, so I too am entitled to think this way...

Of course it didn't happen...of course it remained just a wish...of course my baby DOESN'T SLEEP!

And I am really yet to come across a new parent who has told me happily that yes, their babies sleep really easily and they are not at all hassled and crazily exhausted and trying to read up what to do....

Everyone goes through this and you and I are not alone...

Sleep Deprivation in Parents of Newborns: Dealing With It

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A few days back, I came across a very disturbing and tragic piece of news. 

It was about this young mother who had 3 very young children at home - a toddler and a newborn twins. As you can imagine, she was severely sleep deprived. With no help available and no one in the house to look after the kids while she could rest for a while, she was a live ticking bomb. On the fateful day, when she could not bear the exhaustion any more, she took a can of beer, and asking her toddler to wake her up if the babies cried, went to doze off for a while.

Is Your Baby Sleeping Enough?

For new mothers, and even for mothers whose kids have grown up a bit, understanding if your child is getting enough sleep or not is quite tricky. While many kids will immediately start showing the tell-tale signs of feeling sleepy, some kids, especially those who are hyper-active, may not immediately start showing easy signs that tell you your baby isn't getting adequate sleep time.

Here are a few signs you may look out for to understand if your baby is lacking in sleep and help them with better and extra bed time.

How Much Sleep Does Your New Born Need

I've been reading up about baby and child sleep patterns ever since I conceived my daughter. As a new mum with no experience with babies and no help whatsoever, I absolutely had to know about the sleep patterns of babies, as a healthy sleep pattern is something that helps babies in all aspects - growth, mental and physical development and all aspects of growing up.

The Birth of A Reader

Hey world!!!! That time has come for me as a mother when I can proudly announce from the status-tops of all social networking sites that yes.....as much as I've been a book worm till date, my little 5-year-old princess has taken over the legacy and decided to carry it forward with much love, attention and care.
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I can proudly say that I'm one of the proudest and happiest mums today! Oh yes....what started as a fun way of spending time with my little one and introducing her to the world of books has today taken on quite a proportion - what with both of us trying to figure out how we can make more space to fit in new bookshelves and how we can fit in all our books in those! Huh...tough task I tell you...

It's right when they, and me too, say that there is no age too early for books. I first introduced my daughter to books when she was about 4-5 months old, and she took to it with a lot of enthusiasm and interest. By the time her first birthday came she already had a collection of her own books. And when she passed a few months after her first cake was cut, she could identify all the 26 letters of the English alphabet.

Decorating The Baby Nursery

One of the most fun and interesting part of becoming a parent is getting the nursery ready! Even before my little princess came to me, I knew I wanted a baby girl, so that I could dress her up in frills and laces and all things pink and pretty, and give her a room filled with soft cuddly toys, dolls and all the mini cutie things that I so loved staring at at the toys section in the stores.

Of course the nursery was made and of course my little baby didn't sleep in it :-) LOL! But in India, that's one thing that's really common in most homes. Babies always co-sleep with parents, and whatever research might say, Im a firm believer that a baby will always sleep best nestled close to its mother's heart, lying safely wrapped in mamma's arms. Of course SIDS is a reality we all need to be careful and alert about, but all said and done, I want my baby next to me when I am sleeping, and its vice versa. And let me confess something.....she is all of 5 now, and still sleeps with me :-) The nursery is more of her play room! I don't mind that at all.

I really cherish this frame. This is a fun thing me and my daughter were doing when she was about 3...and she was adamant that mamma's hands also have to be in this :-) 

Baby Giana And Her Bed-Time Ritual With Mum Rosine

Lovely mum Rosine Reny Verghese from New Delhi writes in to share her baby's special bed-time ritual with us.

'Dear Debolina,

Hi.....I am Rosine from Delhi and I have a 2-and-half year old daughter named Gianna. Like most babies her age, she is fond of all the different animation movies. So after supper she usually watches some of her favourite movies like Barbie, Baby's day out, Barney, or Nemo the fish.
Finally when she is tired and wants to sleep she comes to me and says " Mamma sleeping time" .
After brushing her teeth and wishing goodnight to her grandparents she holds my hand and leads me to her story book shelf and picks up a few for herself...some of her favorite story books are Red Riding Hood, The Little Mermaid and Cinderella - to name a few.
I have to go through all the books which she picks up from the shelf, I have to read out loud to her and sometimes explain to her what is happening and answer all her questions...
After finishing her stories, she gives me a good night kiss and then holds on firmly to her teddy...she loves to hold on to her bedtime teddy every time she goes off to sleep and that teddy has been with her since she was 3 months old...
And once she lies down after hugging the teddy, within a few minutes she is in her own dreamworld...sound asleep......
With love,
Rosine Reny Verghese
Mum to Giana'

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And like I always believe in and say:
'Heal the world we live in
Save it for our children' - MJ

Happy Parenting!!!!

Debolina Raja Gupta