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5 Helpful Tips for Parents of Picky Eaters to Reduce Mealtime Stress

5 HELPFUL TIPS FOR PARENTS OF PICKY EATERS It’s completely normal for children to experience a phase where they become picky with food. The good news is that this stage is usually temporary. However, what matters more than how long it lasts is ensuring your child continues to receive a well-balanced and nutritious diet. Supporting your child’s healthy growth and development requires creativity and patience. To help with this, the Best Diaper offers five practical suggestions to ensure your little one gets the nutrients they need—even when they’re being selective. 1) Keep Offering the Foods They ResistJust because your child refuses a particular food once doesn’t mean they’ll never eat it. Continue including the food in your family’s meals regularly, even if your child initially resists. Studies have shown that children may need to be exposed to a new food 15 to 20 times before they are willing to try it. The key is consistency without pressure—encourage but don’t force. Let the food be available and familiar until curiosity takes over. 2) Get Creative and Hide the NutrientsIf your child dislikes certain vegetables like spinach, broccoli, or cauliflower, try blending them into sauces, soups, or baked dishes. For instance, add puréed vegetables into pasta sauces or mix them into meatballs. This technique ensures they receive essential nutrients while enjoying foods they already love. Hidden vegetables are a secret weapon for maintaining a healthy diet without the struggle. 3) Let Them Help in the KitchenInvolve your child in cooking and mealtime preparation. Children are often more excited to try meals they helped create. Simple tasks like washing vegetables, mixing ingredients, or setting the table can give them a sense of ownership. You can even grow herbs or small vegetables in pots at home—harvesting and using their own produce can make children more eager to eat the results of their work. 4) Create Healthier Versions of Their FavoritesIf your child enjoys fast food, there’s no need to eliminate it altogether. Instead, prepare healthy versions at home. For example, make homemade burgers using lean meat and whole-grain buns, and serve with baked sweet potato fries. This way, your child can enjoy familiar tastes while benefiting from more nutritious ingredients. Setting limits while offering healthy options is a great balance. 5) Offer Nutrient-Rich AlternativesVariety is essential, especially for picky eaters. If your child refuses one type of food, try offering a different food that provides the same nutrients. For example, if they dislike oranges, try red bell peppers as an alternative source of vitamin C. Keep meals colorful and engaging, and let your child explore new flavors without pressure. By following these strategies from the Best Diaper, you can make mealtimes more enjoyable and less stressful, all while helping your child maintain a nutritious, balanced diet. Remember: patience, creativity, and encouragement go a long way when raising a healthy eater.

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5 Fun and Educational Activities for Babies Under One Year

Engaging and Educational Play: 5 Simple Activities for Babies Under One In the early months of life, babies undergo rapid physical, cognitive, emotional, and sensory development. While feeding and sleep are essential components of this growth, play plays a critical role in supporting your baby’s overall development. For adults, games are primarily a source of entertainment, but for babies, play is their first and most important learning tool. Through play, babies begin to understand the world around them, develop motor skills, and start forming relationships. Even the simplest interactions—like a smile, a gentle touch, or a colorful toy—can become valuable learning experiences for your baby. Play offers your child the opportunity to explore, to make sense of new experiences, and to build essential skills such as hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor control, sensory awareness, and early communication. Additionally, playing together strengthens the emotional bond between you and your baby. These shared moments of laughter and curiosity form the foundation for trust, attachment, and social development. As a parent or caregiver, you don’t need expensive toys or complicated equipment to create fun, enriching activities. Everyday objects and a bit of creativity can go a long way. The key is to be present, responsive, and engaged with your baby during playtime. Whether you’re exploring textures, making silly sounds, or splashing water, each activity becomes a building block in your baby’s journey toward growth and discovery. To support this journey, the Best Diaper has curated five simple yet highly effective activities designed specifically for babies under one year old. These activities are not only entertaining but also promote various aspects of your baby’s development. From sensory exploration to language enrichment, these ideas will help turn playtime into a joyful and educational experience. 1. Homemade Tunnel Instead of tossing out empty paper towel or toilet paper rolls, transform them into a fun and interactive game for your baby. Create a simple tunnel by connecting several rolls together using tape. Sit at one end of the tunnel and let your baby sit at the other. Place small toys into the tunnel and gently tilt it so that the toy rolls toward your baby. The excitement of waiting to see what comes out the other side will delight your child. Developmental Benefits: This activity strengthens fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, especially when your baby starts trying to place toys into the tunnel themselves. Decorating the rolls with colorful finger paints can add an extra layer of sensory play. Bonus Tip: Use sound effects to make it even more fun—say “All aboard!” as you send toys through and “The train has arrived!” when they come out the other end. This introduces concepts like transportation, arrival, and anticipation in a playful way. 2. Water Ball Hunt Water play is a favorite among babies, especially during warmer days. Fill a large basin or washbowl halfway with water and drop in several lightweight, colorful plastic balls. Hand your baby a small strainer or colander and encourage them to scoop the balls out of the water. Developmental Benefits: This activity supports fine motor development and introduces the concept of cause and effect. Reaching for the balls helps strengthen arm and shoulder muscles, while scooping helps improve grip and control. Safety Note: Always supervise your baby closely during water play. Make sure the balls are large enough to avoid any choking hazard. Creative Variation: You can theme your ball colors according to the seasons—red, yellow, and orange in fall, or pastel shades in spring—to introduce your child to seasonal changes. 3. Story Bundle Place various safe household objects of different shapes, textures, and colors into a non-transparent bag or box. Let your baby pull out one object at a time and create a fun story around each item. Describe the object’s features, function, and create a mini-adventure based on it. Developmental Benefits: This activity enhances language development, imagination, and sensory exploration. By describing textures, colors, and uses, you help your baby learn new words and connect language to real-world items. Bonus Tip: Include your baby as the main character in your stories. Stories where your child is the hero can keep them more engaged and boost self-confidence. 4. Smell Discovery Your baby’s sense of smell is one of the earliest senses to develop. To nurture this, introduce your baby to different pleasant natural scents like lavender, jasmine, daffodils, or fresh herbs. Let them sniff flowers gently or wave scented items near their nose. Developmental Benefits: This activity strengthens sensory awareness and helps your baby associate smells with emotions and memories. It also fosters curiosity about the natural world. Location Idea: On a pleasant spring day, take your baby to a flower garden or park where they can explore natural scents in an open, calming environment. 5. Tear It Up! Tearing paper is surprisingly fun and developmentally beneficial for babies. Provide your baby with old newspapers, scrap paper, or unused mail with safe, smudge-free ink. Sit together and encourage them to rip, crumple, and explore the texture and sound of paper. Developmental Benefits: This simple activity boosts hand strength, grip, and fine motor control. It also gives babies the joy of independence—changing something with their own hands. Cleanup Tip: Lay down a plastic sheet or newspaper before starting to make cleanup quick and easy. Remember, the mess is part of the fun! Final Thoughts Every baby develops at their own pace, but all benefit from play that stimulates the senses and encourages interaction. These five activities are not just pastimes—they are opportunities for bonding, learning, and joyful growth. With a little time, creativity, and care, you can turn everyday moments into lasting developmental milestones. So, go ahead—play, explore, and grow together.

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Gas Massage

There is no trouble related to gas during the first weeks in newborn babies, this is due to the fact that their digestive system has not properly developed yet, they usually pass noisily watery green color stool during breastfeeding. ​GAS MASSAGEThere is no trouble related to gas during the first weeks in newborn babies, this is due to the fact that their digestive system has not properly developed yet, they usually pass noisily watery green color stool during breastfeeding, this is the transition stool. The first stool he/she passes is the first bile secretion accumulated in the intestines while still in the mother’s womb, and is a green-black color sticky stool that is called meconium. Whereas during the following first few days or within first week you will observe transition stools. When the digestive organs are developed and as the absorption in intestines increases, both the frequency of passing stool encountered in the first days will decrease as most of the mother’s milk is digested by the baby’s intestines and since there is no feces being left, it may even be possible that he/she may only pass stool 2 to 5 times a day. The color of stool of breastfeeding babies is golden yellow and of a creamy texture.Due to this reason, the baby should be held to the breast prior to breastfeeding if not very soiled during the first weeks, this is because the baby will pass stool when nursing starts. You will not have very serious gas issues in the first weeks.However in the evening one day, sometimes perhaps in the first week, sometimes on the tenth or maybe on the twentieth day, your baby’s restlessness increases, his/her mouth constantly is in search of sucking, and surprises you by pulling his/her knees to his/her stomach and screaming nervously. In such instances the spasm occurring due to gas being squeezed in his/her intestines pains him/her and he/she wants to comfort himself/herself by sucking but the pain while sucking makes him/her nervous and he/she continues crying. such days when the baby wishes to be nursed and crying with screams while stopping breastfeeding nervously makes many mothers think that their babies are crying because they do not have milk, and fall into the trap of trying to give formula to the poor baby that is struggling with gas spasm. Moreover the family may even go to the family doctor concerned that something might have happened to the baby during such times.Gas in babies is an inevitable situation, this is due to the fact that they cannot move their bodies, and are in a continuously laying position, consume only liquids, their digestive organs are developing, digestion bacterias are forming, and on top of these they swallow air while sucking. Even if most of such air swallowed will comes out as burp by tapping on his/her back, in spite of this, small air bubbles that pass into the intestines combine with the movements of the intestines towards the evening and transform into big air bubbles and get stuck at some point in the intestine and the gas that gets squeezed as a result of peristaltic movements of the intestine causes severe spasms. Abdominal wall is also hard and tense during the spasm that occurs in your baby due to gas, and if you immediately start maneuvering to give a massage, your baby will cry even more as he/she will be in pain. Prior to massage, first lay down the baby in your lap, lightly rock him/her on your legs, meanwhile rub your palms quickly and make sure that your palms are warm and cover your baby’s tummy with your warm palms. Warm application will relieve the stomach spasm of your baby, sometimes you may even see that the baby may relax with only this step.Whereas after the spasm is treated, by applying the massage movements listed below you can distribute the air bubbles that cause spasm in your baby’s intestines in a homogenised manner and with the massage movements ensure their passing out. This approach works very well for your baby that is having issues both with passing gas and stool and will make your baby relax.Repeat each move six times, count to 10 between movements and apply push exercises to his/her tummy.    The movement stimulates the small intestines but make sure that your hands are warm and you will have to use oil so as your hands may smoothly slide on the baby’s skin. Pull your hands in turn from below the rib cage down towards the abdomen as if you are emptying the stomach. The movement is applied on the large intestine, the movements of large intestine is clockwise, imagine that there is a clock in the stomach of the baby and place your left hand at six o’clock. Move clockwise with your left hand, when you continue like this, you will be making circles clockwise, whereas your right hand will make half circles in the direction from ten o’clock to five o’clock.  Repeat 6 times and perform the exercise of pushing the knees of baby towards his/her stomach for ten seconds. Move, the last move, in this move place your thumbs right on top of the bellybutton and pull your fingers towards the side of the belly, as if your are straightening the pages of an open book; 6 repetitions and have your baby perform knee push exercise for ten seconds. Her stomach will soften and your baby will be able to pass gas and stool comfortably.

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Newborn Care: Oral, Nasal, Ocular, and Skin Hygiene

Eye pus is a frequently encountered condition in newborn babies. To perform eye care on your baby, take a soft piece of gauze and dampen it with water that has been boiled and left to cool until it is only warm. ​MOUTH, NOSE, EYE, SKIN CARE OF THE NEWBORN Eye Care of the Newborn:Eye pus is a frequently encountered condition in newborn babies. To perform eye care on your baby, take a soft piece of gauze and dampen it with water that has been boiled and left to cool until it is only warm. Then, wipe once from the lacrimal gland to the outer edge. If eye pus persists for a long while or is seen only in one eye, you must contact your physician. Nose Care of the Newborn:Since babies continuously lie down, nasal fluids flow towards and cling to nasal cavities. Babies cannot clear their noses or throats as they cannot cough like us. It is quite normal to hear wheezing when they breathe. This/her wheezing sound is not caused due to any illness but due to nose care that is not properly performed. Applying saline water once or more to your baby’s nose during the day, if need be, will both prevent the nose fluid from flowing to your baby’s throat and cause wheezing as well as soften the mucus that dries and becomes crusty. Mouth Care of the Newborn:The top of the tongues of babies whiten as they feed on milk. Take a soft piece of gauze or muslin and wrap it around your finger. Dampen it in water that has been boiled and allowed to cool until just warm. Clean by softly wiping the top of the tongue, inside her cheeks, palate, and gingiva while you gently pull down your baby’s jaw down with your other hand. Skin Care of the Newborn:There is a wax on the skin of the newborn that has the appearance of cream cheese that is called vernix. It is usually found on skin-folds and armpits, perineum, and in the area from the bottom towards the back of babies who are born on term. This/her is found even more on the skin of premature babies. New research points to the fact that vernix has the property of immunity, and that it strengthens the immunity of the newborn’s skin, and provides a protective layer to her skin following birth.   The newborn baby should be bathed daily. There is no need to use shampoo each time you bathe her. After bathing, you can use an oil to moisten the dry skin of your baby with oil that has natural ingredients. To prevent her skin from being in constant contact with urine and a soiled diaper, frequently change her diaper. The skin of the baby is extremely sensitive during the first weeks. Cleaning baby’s bottom with cotton dampened by warm water may guard the skin against irritation and peeling.

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​Baby Massage

Babies are born out of the water and soft tissue within the mother’s womb into a hard and fixed bed and do not have the ability to move and turn besides hand and arm movements for the first three months.   ​BABY MASSAGE:Babies are born out of the water and soft tissue within the mother’s womb into a hard and fixed bed and do not have the ability to move and turn besides hand and arm movements for the first three months. Thus the baby massage frequently applied in his/her first months is important for both his/her physical as well as motor development.Benefits of baby massage:   It supports the development of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, and nerve-muscle coordination. It strengthens the immune system and as such provides resistance against cold, flu and similar infections that are frequently observed in babyhood. However, this/her should not be done if he/she has an infectious disease as it causes the infection to spread more quickly as it increases circulation. Massage increases the secretion of the endorphin hormone, which is a pain killer, and relieves pain. During times when he/she experiences pain, such as gas pain or pain experienced while he/she cuts a tooth… It is a ritual that eases his/her going to sleep and ensures a sound sleep.              It speeds up the absorption of nutrients and gives him/her a good appetite. The most advanced sense is his/her “sense of touch”.  A sense of touch is extremely important in a child getting to know his/her environment during babyhood. The baby establishes connection with his/her surroundings when he/she is touched or hugged and his/her development is supported. Baby massage is one of the ways for parents to establish communication with their babies.  Massage is an effective method that ensures integration between the baby and parents, and supports his/her development from a physical and mental aspect as well as being a relaxation technique. Besides its many benefits, such as contributing to the healthy development of the baby, accelerating circulation and making him/her burp, it is a timeframe that strengthens the bond between the baby and parents, and makes the time they spend together fun and quality time. Whereas from a psychological point of view, skin contact between the baby and the mother stimulates the secretion of “prolactin” (milk hormone) and ensures that the mother-baby bonding process and breastfeeding are performed in harmony and successfully. Sense of touch gives the feeling of being safe to the baby. It diminishes tenseness, anxiety, and fear, and calms and relaxes. It enhances the confidence of the mother, and this/her feeling of peace she experiences is also passed to the baby. Preparation for MassageThe baby should not feel cold in the temperature (27-28 degrees Celsius) when naked. There should not be any open wounds on the hands of the person giving the massage (parents or caretaker) and hands should be washed with warm water. Care should be taken to ensure that nails are short, and all jewellery is removedWhile giving the massage, completely focusing on the baby and turning off the phones in order to experience a union with her and as the massage is being given accompanied by light music you like; talking to the baby, kissing her, playing little games and establishing eye contact will increase the joy obtained from the massage for both parties.Of course the subject of when is also important. You should choose a time frame such as half or one hour after breastfeeding, when she is calm and ready for massage. If the baby is in a tired and irritable state, postpone the massage.Massage can be given to little babies in your lap. In older babies, it can be done on the floor by placing a blanket on top of a cover. You should use oil so as your hands may move freely while giving a massage; you should first start with light touches, and as the baby gets used to it you should continue by lightly pressing down. Face Massage:Slide your thumb towards the forehead of your baby through his/her brows; this/her will calm him/her and help him/her to doze off.Apply very slight finger pressure starting from near the eyelids down to the nose wings. This/her will open up the sinuses and relieve the baby.Pull the upper and lower lips of the baby as if he/she were smiling with your index fingers by pulling them under the cheekbones, and upon reaching the jaw joint apply circular movements with your fingertips. This/her will relax the mouth and cheek muscles that are tired from sucking. Chest Massage:Hands are placed by the chest and each hand is moved to the opposite shoulder (butterfly movement). Arm and Leg Massage:Both arms are patted towards the shoulder starting from the hands, this/her is followed by slightly squeezing with one hand below and one above, starting from the wrist and moving them until the shoulder, which stimulates thorough circulation. The same movements should also be applied to legs as well. Back Massage:The baby should be laid down face down on your lap or on a blanket placed on the floor, and should be patted starting from the head with one hand until the soles of her feet, also making it felt in her entire back, and this/her should be followed by movement to the sides with your hands; while you are pushing one hand and pulling the other and then applying little taps on her back with your fingertips. (This/her will relax the back and make her aware of her body)We also know that each mother will find enjoyable and suitable movements she will apply to her baby by putting to work her creativity. We have suggested a few massage movements, but you could enrich them much more. 

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