Ready, steady… walk

You’re half-awake at 4 am with a wide-awake baby in your arms and wondering if you’ll ever get a full night’s sleep again. Don’t worry, you will. Your baby will eventually learn to sleep through the night. You know this because  you eventually learned to sleep through the night when you were a baby. The tips below will help you and your baby adjust, as will what the Canadian Paediatric Society says about newborn sleep development any time of day ¾ or night!

Your baby is growing fast! The first year, a baby multiplies his weight by 3 and his length increases by 50%! Follow month-by-month.

Now that your baby is eight to 10 months old, has enjoyed their first tastes, and is becoming more experienced at eating, it’s time to move on to lumpy foods and helping them learn to feed themself.

Your baby is now used to eating solids and may be grabbing at the spoon or picking up food by herself. This means she is ready for more self-feeding, a whole new messy adventure! Continue to offer new foods and textures, especially a wide variety of iron-rich foods, and fruits and vegetables and remember to be patient; you may need to offer foods as many as 10 times before she accepts them.

Did you know? Imaginary play and ‘talking time’ are essential to your baby’s healthy development.

By Dr. Dina Kulik, pediatrician

The food you give your kids will help them grow in so many ways beyond the physical. It will expose them to new smells and textures. It will introduce them to exciting new flavours they’ve never had before. It will help them understand what they like and don’t like. And it will lay the groundwork for a healthy relationship with food. A healthy variety of snack ideas for kids that achieve all four is a good idea.

Starting your little one on solid foods is quite a milestone!

By Dr. Jeff Habert, family physician

Starting solid foods is a new and exciting step in your baby’s eating development, but it often comes with many questions.

How will you feed your newborn?

During babies’ first year of life their nutritional needs are higher than those of adults

Now that your 10-12-month-old is really getting the hang of feeding themself, keep offering them a wide variety of foods and textures to establish good, healthy eating habits.  

Research has shown that shared family meals—no matter the size of your family—provide benefits for your baby beyond the joy of simply eating dinner together.

Did you know? Spending time playing with your baby at this age can lead to them being more active when they are a toddler.

A quiz for moms of 6 to 7-month-olds

Did you know? Studies show that the more often families share mealtimes, the more likely children are to have healthy diets and stay at healthy weights as toddlers.

She’s everywhere! She’s everywhere! At least she wants to be, and she wants to get there on her own.

Take this quiz and test your nutrition knowledge!