New Mom? This Back-Saving Guide can Help You

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Congratulations on your new bundle of joy! It’s an exciting time, with many adjustments, especially if you’re a first-time parent. One of the things you might not have considered about this next phase in your life is how it will affect your back. If it’s already sore, here is a guide to help provide some back relief for you.

Why Your Back is Hurting

To help alleviate those backaches involves first assessing the cause of the issue. It’s not a coincidence that you’re sore and just had a baby; the two are related.

Here are a few problems that could be triggering your back pain:

• Picking up baby incorrectly
• Poor posture while breastfeeding
• Not resting the back
• An unrelated reason to baby

If this list is an eye-opener, please don’t let it overwhelm you. Don’t assume you can’t still carry your precious son or daughter either.

Instead, take the time to learn safer techniques and proper back care. The tips below can help you!

See a Chiropractor

A recent study suggests that chiropractic care for lower back pain can be more effective than the usual treatment of medications, PT, and self-care. While it was a trial, so the results cannot be generalized, the 2018 study is an example of how chiropractic sessions can lessen back pain and reduce the use of pain medicine.

Improving function and posture to help prevent the back pain from returning is an important part of chiropractic therapy. The total body chiropractic approach taken at Mind Body Spine addresses the root causes of the back issue, rather than only focusing on the pain symptoms, and addresses total body care.

Using Proper Lifting Techniques

Even a newborn can get heavy in your arms after a while. Then, add in the diaper bag you carry around when leaving the house, as well as moving the car seat in and out of the vehicle. Add on top of that any other stuff you’ll need to carry during the day.

To prevent a back injury or go easy on your back if you’re already feeling discomfort, then you’ll want to understand proper lifting practices. Firstly, as you lift the baby, make sure you bend from the waist.

Then, as you straighten up with the little cutie in your arms, keep him or her close to your body. Perhaps most importantly, use your legs to power your body back up.

Doing so will help to minimize any pressure on the back. While you’ll likely forget to follow this technique sometimes because routines have formed already, over time, it will become natural to lift with your legs. You’ll do so without thinking twice about it.

When Feeding Baby

The next time you feed the infant, check your posture. Are you slouching over?

While you’re likely doing that to bring your breast closer to baby, this move isn’t doing your back or spinal alignment any favors. Given how often you breastfeed the baby in a day, it’s vital to maintain a straight back each time.

Rather than hunching forward, instead, try to prop the baby up on a soft pillow to help bring her or him closer to your chest. That’s easier on the back than how you might have been doing it before.

Now you can maintain a straight back the whole time. You also might want to add a footstool to rest your feet and back while in the beautiful nursery.

When the Problem isn’t Baby-Related

In some cases, your backaches aren’t related to your role as a new mom. It might not be that you strained the back while caring for the baby.

Instead, the back issue could be symptomatic of something else. If you worry that is what’s happening in your life, make an appointment with your family doctor. This professional can help you assess the situation. He or she might recommend a specialist, such as a chiropractor, depending on your circumstances.

Conclusions on Back Pain as a New Mom

Treating chronic pain, whether it is in the back or another part of your body, is key to improving your quality of life. In addition to considering chiropractic therapy to help relieve back pain, you can start today to practice proper lifting techniques throughout the day.

Maintaining a straight back while breastfeeding is also important. Preventing back strain and injury will put you in good condition to play and care for the baby, along with your partner. If you feel overwhelmed or like the achy feeling is too much some days, reach out to your spouse for physical and emotional help.

How To Choose The Best Daycare For Your Child

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From the moment you find out you’re pregnant, you need to make on decision after another on how you’ll raise your child.  It’s never easy, and you’re constantly wondering if you’re doing the right thing.  

Choosing childcare is no different.  You want to ensure you’re child gets the very best care in a supportive and stimulating environment.  To give yourself the best chance of finding the perfect daycare, you’ll need to start looking early.  The best daycares fill up fast and can have long waiting lists.  

Here are some things to look out for when choosing a daycare center. 

A Great Reputation With Parents 

Parents are extremely particular about their childcare, so if you find a Daycare that gets rave reviews from parents from children who have previously attended, or still do, then you’ve struck gold.  

Ask around for recommendations and check online reviews on Google and Yelp too. If you don’t know many parents in the local area, find a Facebook group and ask there.  

Good Facilities & Necessary Licences 

A quality daycare has clean facilities and a strong health and safety policy.  Not all facilities have the luxury of a lot of space but they should not be overcrowded.  

When you visit be sure to ask what safety measures they have in place including fire, hygiene, and building security.  

Each area will have its own laws regarding what licenses, qualifications, and insurance a daycare needs to have.  Ask to see all of the relevant paperwork and seek assurances that all staff are fully qualified and screened to work with children. 

Stimulating Activity Program 

Even if your child is still very young, they need to be in an environment that will stimulate them and help their physical, mental and social development. Ask them what a typical week looks like in terms of games, physical activity, stories, and free playtime.  

Is Supportive Of Your Parenting Choices

Within reason, a daycare center should respect your wishes with regards to certain decisions and seek to replicate them.  For example, if you choose not to use a pacifier, they should not use one to settle your child.  If you are potty training at home using a particular technique, then they should use the same one to avoid confusing your child.  

If they are inflexible on these issues then you are going to run into problems down the line.  

Healthy Food Choices

A healthy, varied diet in early life is one of the best starts you can give your child.  It reduces the risk of childhood obesity and a number of life-limiting conditions at a later date.  Ask to see what a typical menu looks like.  It should be filled with healthy choices with only the occasional treat.  

Don’t Ignore Your Intuition 

If something looks great on paper but you’re not quite comfortable with it, then take notice of your gut instincts. Visit on more than one occasion.  If you still can’t put your finger on what’s wrong, then keep looking.  This is too important a decision to get wrong. Don’t settle and add this to your existing mom guilt. 

Keeping Your Kids Occupied at Home

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We’re living through unprecedented times. Around the world, people are being encouraged to socially distance and socially isolate as a result of the spread of coronavirus and Covid-19. Now, it’s our role to follow guidelines to reduce the spread of the virus and keep as many people as safe as possible. This can be difficult for anyone. But when you have kids off school and at home, it can be a really challenging time. Kids can experience boredom really easily and, if left unchecked, this can begin to manifest itself as bad behaviour. But not to worry. There are a number of different things you can do to keep your children occupied at home. Here are a few different areas to focus on.

Education

First things first, many of us will be worried about how we’re going to help our kids keep up with their education. At the end of the day, you shouldn’t worry too much. All kids in the area will be in exactly the same position and education will be picked back up as and when everyone returns to school. But there are a few things you can do in order to keep their knowledge and skills up to scratch. The best route to go down will depend on your child’s age. For little ones, handwriting exercises, reading exercises and basic number problems can be great. For older kids, you can set projects. If you have kids on the verge of adulthood, they might want to start preparing for college applications with MyGREExamPreparation.

Games

Kids love games. The good news is that there are plenty of different games out there that can be enjoyed indoors! If you already have board games or jigsaw puzzles at home, this is a great place to start. You can also try other games, like sleeping lions, hide and seek and “What’s the time Mr Wolf?”.

Arts and Crafts

Kids also tend to love arts and crafts activities. All you need are a few basic materials and their imaginations will run wild. Some things to try out could include:

• Making mosaics
• Drawing
• Colouring in
• Potato prints
• Macaroni art
• Making cards
• Making bookmarks
• Making plasticine models

TV and FIlms

We don’t tend to like leaving our kids in front of the television set for extended periods of time. But the odd TV show or film could be great for them. It keeps their imaginations ticking over and introduces them to new worlds! Many kids shows are also educational, helping with letters, numbers, colours, animals and more! 

It really can feel difficult to keep your kids occupied for such a long period of time. They usually have school, friends, clubs and extracurricular activities to focus their minds on. But stay positive. This could prove to be some great bonding time that can bring you together closer as a family!

How To Help Your Child Choose A Career

As parents, we only ever want the best for our children. Unfortunately, we also believe we know exactly what's best for our children and often, it's without asking the children what they would like to do. Children are not our puppets, and they're not our chance to "get it right." We cannot live our dreams through our children, and it's tough not to live vicariously through them! Children have their own goals and desires, and we need to cherish them and nourish those dreams - not push ours onto them.

The thing is, children will come and ask for help. As little ones, they'll tell you that they have desires and dreams of becoming explorers, adventurers, nurses, and doctors. They'll talk about saving the world as a superhero and achieving the impossible. However, they'll hit their teens, and their real interests come through. Some kids will grow up and want to become astronauts, Googling all that they can about going to space school and put their heads into their education to do something real and meaningful. Others will stick on that path of medicine, aiming to be doctors. They'll learn about the different medicinal avenues that they could take, and they'll quickly learn that there are types of social workers to choose to become. It's a massive world of career choices, and your teenager is about to face that world for the first time. The best thing that you could do is help them.

There are plenty of ways that you can help your teenager to navigate the decisions they make to further their education and choose a career to start their lives with. Below, we've got some helpful tips to enable you to assist them in navigating this decision.

Image Source: Pexels

Tip 1: Remember, They're Not You

Let's keep in mind one important rule - your child is not you. Helping them to navigate which career to choose means asking them what they are interested in and giving them the tools to achieve it. If you want your child to be a doctor, but they want to be an artist, swallow your dreams for them and look at everything possible to be a successful artist. You can really get into your child's head and support them if you just take a moment to listen to what they want. You have raised a unique and brilliant human being; let them discover and explore the things that make them who they are. They could surprise you with their exceptional talents!

Tip 2: Help Them To Discover Their Strengths

Many teenagers go through a mini-crisis between the ages of 14-16. This is because they are still discovering who they are and what they want from life. If you honor their discovery of themselves, you're going to find that they have a considerable number of strengths lying beneath their teenage angst. It's up to you to ensure that you bring the best out of them, and assess their behavior and mood and discover their talents. If you want to help them accurately determine who they are, take them to a career counselor. 

You'll be shocked at how helpful it can be to have an impartial person come and talk to your teenager about their hopes and dreams. Careers counselors also have insider knowledge of the industries and schools in which they may be interested. They can brainstorm with your teenagers to help them get the best future. If you can understand your child's strengths, you can help them to channel them into the best career for an excellent start in life.

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Tip 3: Offer Opportunities

Exposing your child to as many opportunities in what they are interested as possible is going to help them out. Expose them to nature and to science, to museums and animals. Give them as many chances to learn what they love, and see what really piques their interest. If there is something that they show excitement towards, embrace it! Let them know that you are there for them, and you will support their choices. Children need as much support from their parents as possible. You can be their first support and their biggest champion if you ensure they have enough opportunities in life. Most of the time, a specific career is chosen based on the chances that your child had before them.

Tip 4: Be The Example

You want to show your children that they can have the best possible career, and in doing that, you need to show them that you have one, too. You cannot show them how to have a fantastic job if you're not setting that example. Children often follow in their parents' footsteps, so it's up to you to show off to them how it's done. Their future will depend on you and your example, so the only question you really need to ask yourself is: are you ready to be that role model they need?

The time is now to set the best possible example and cheerlead your children all the way to their career goals. Life is messy, but children who have steady, open, and happy parents are children who are going to thrive. If you're not showing your children the good things that they could have, what are you doing? You are their person, and they admire you. Help them to grow and succeed, and you will have achieved something exceptional in your life while you help them to achieve the extraordinary in theirs. 

Parents, it's time to show your child how to live life well. Take them to career festivals and support them throughout their academic career, too. You'll only ever see positivity in your children if you know that they are achieving their dreams. Make their dreams a reality. You will have achieved having happy, healthy, and whole children living the life they've always dreamed of having. Your support is imperative: offer it now and watch them grow, and your pride will grow with them.