Healthy food for toddlers

Like most working parents, Sue and I sometimes find it difficult to find the time to make meaningful homecooked meals. We could out and about and Emily could intone hunger. It's always been quite handy and convenient to have a few baby ready meals at the "ready" just in case.

With most things baby and toddler related, you take it as read that the nutrition involved is geared to promoting the health and nutritional needs of growing children. Apparently, this is not always the case.

In a report on tonight's Panorama, the subject of baby and toddler grub, especially in the ready meal market, is discussed at great length. A lot of the discussion will apparently focus on daycare centres and the food they serve. Hopefully, with Emily at a private child minder, the food she receives is of a slightly higher nutritional value.

There's also discussion about the "nutritional traffic light" that appears on adult food to signal things like saturated fat, salt and calories. This type of nutritional info isn't required on children's food and stuff labelled as "children only" can sometimes contain things parents should be warned about, like increased sugar levels.

The secret in keeping our kids healthy is to make all meals at home from scratch, but this is never 100% possible. Hopefully watching Panorama tonight will steer me on the right path when we do need to supplement Emily's diet with ready made grub.

Panorama: What's Really in Our Kids' Food, BBC One, Monday, 25 January at 2030GMT.

The runny bum blues

For the last couple of days, Emily's had horrific nappies. We're talking sloppy chilli here, not the usual "moist but lumpy". It's got to the point at certain changes where she's overflowed her nappy, turning her clothes a stinky shade of brown.

Naturally Sue and I are quite worried, but a gleam of light was shone today when Helen mentioned that she might be teething with molars.

Apparently nasty nappies are quite a common side effect of back teeth coming in. Em dribbles seemingly all the time now, so we've stopped putting THAT down to teething but we're hoping this latest revelation turns out to be true.

Everytime I put my fingers anywhere near her mouth to check she tries to bite me, so we'll have to take Helen's word for it.

Christmas is now over

Image by nickstone333 via Flickr

We had a delivery last night that officially marked the end of Christmas for Emily.

Elmo Live was waiting for us when we got home, a present from Emily's uncles in Australia. She was enamoured with him in Kuala Lumpur airport and we thought it would be a nice present... rightly so.

Emily really didn't "get" Christmas, and I didn't really expect her to. She enjoyed the wrapping paper and the new toys that materialised, but I think Christmas is all about the build up, the anticipation. The actual day is always over FAR too soon.

I imagine that Em will start to really soak the festive season in when she 3 or 4. Obviously when she starts school it'll be drummed into her like every other mini-consumer in her class.

For Sue and I, the holiday season also meant spending loads and loads of time with Emily without having to go to work. That was one of the better presents this year.

Finding her way or becoming spoilt?

Emily's getting to that age where she's becoming quite independent ... or so she thinks. She wants to walk where SHE wants to walk, do what SHE wants to do and if she can't, we'll hear about it - usually with a scream in our ear.

Up until now, I always thought terrible parents were terrible because they were lazy or didn't care, but I really begin to wonder where the line is with children. Is Emily learning as she goes, or is she testing boundaries? Are these the seeds of an ASBO child that we have to guide, or is it a natural part of development to not want to hold hands crossing the road and spraying the wall with food?

If it is a natural part of development, how do we react?

Last night, Emily threw food on the floor, and I tapped her hand and sternly said no. As she's not an adult, she didn't look at me and say, "Gosh. Sorry dad, what the heck was I thinking?", she looked at me and balled her eyes out, as I picked bits of quiche out of the carpet and surrounding toys. I understand children have the attention span of a gnat, but I firmly believe I need to ensure Emily starts to know right from wrong, or is it too early?

Parenting is hard. I guess bad parents are those that understand this, and choose the easy route, I don't know.

Strop shop and jet lag

The last couple of days Em's really been acting up and I have to put it down to jetlag.

Sue and I have been spoilt as far as parenting goes. Em has been such a great kid, with a wonderful disposition that when she does get a strop on, it's really unexpected. Usually, she cries for one of a few reasons - including hunger or thirst. The last couple of days, she's really turned on the random shrieking, which has freaked Sue and I out, but we can only imagine what jet lag is doing to her.

Too many times we've had toforceably wake her from a VERY deep sleep for food or just to readjust her body clock. When she then awakes at 3am, she's thoroughly confused why we're not up to play.

During this whole jetlag ordeal, I'm reminded of what we might be able to expect when the terrible twos hit, as Em can be quite forceful in her crying and screaming.

I hope the honeymoon period of having a wonderful child isn't over and indeed never ends. This glimpse into a "what if" reality only makes me happier about the Emily we do have.

They're back from Oz!

Went to the airport this monr and picked Em and Sue up.

They're both present and accounted for and doing well. The fear I had of the flights back from Oz being a complete nightmare were, for the most part, unfounded. Which is good.

She's illin'!

There's something wrong with Em. She's really docile and isn't moving all that much. It could be a number of things - jetlag, heat stroke, coming down with mummy's cold, etc.

It's rough being ill on holiday and she really has no concept of jetlag - although she's gone through it enough, with trips to Europe, Seattle, Toronto, and Oz all under her tiny little belt. We've given her Calpol in the hopes it will keep her (tiny) fever down and bring her back to perkiness.

Watch this space.

We made it!

After two flights and a 3.5 hour stop over in KL, we made it to Adelaide!

Our worries about Emily acting up and ruining our trip were VERY overrated. On the flight from London we got a bassinet, so she was able to sleep in that for about 9 of the 12 hours we were in the sky. As we took off at 10pm, this made for much relaxed (and sleepy) mum and dad, I can say! We didn't have to have her on our laps for any of the journey, apart from take off and landing.

From KL to Adelaide, there was an extra seat available so we switched with a couple and Em had her own seat. Not only that, they actually gave her her own meal as well! Not bad at all.

The only time she really acted up was the last bit of the flight to Adelaide. She'd obviously had enough and wanted to walk or crawl ... anything but be on that plane.

Now bring on the holiday.

3D animation of child birth

If you wondered what was actually going on during child birth, this one minute video demonstrates it quite well.

If only child birth actually lasted only one minute!

Winter headwear

If there's one thing Emily hates (and I can think of more than one thing at the moment) it's hats. Or to be more specific, ANYTHING on her head.

She just really dislikes it - pulling and tugging at anything you place remotely near her head. She does this for sunglasses too, but that's not all that much of a concern.

For the past few months it's not really been an issue covering her head as it's been summer. As winter is quickly approaching, I'm starting to be a bit concerned that I'm going to have a baby topped off with a frozen popsicle for a head.

It's been suggested I try one of those hats with flaps that you can tie at the bottom. I can only imagine the feedback Emily will provide on that, but I think a little aural discomfort is worth the trade off of her not coming down all manner of winter related illnesses.

When we solve that one, there's the small issue of she also hates gloves...