Ear piercing experience of my daughter

Recently in our puja vacation i got my 18 month old baby's ears pierced. It was a well thought decision taken in advance, before we left Allahabad for the puja vacation in our hometown Jalpaiguri.  I could have got it done it a few months later also, but then i would have missed the comfort of getting it done at a friends ladies parlour in our hometown !  I had to come back to Allahabad immediately after Durga Puja.

After 2 weeks of ear piercing

IS 18 MONTH AN APPROPRIATE AGE FOR EAR PIERCING ???

In my childhood, my parents got my ear pierced at home when i was around 5-6 years old. It was a painful experience for me at that tender age, i still remember the experience! Elders in my society say ideally it should be done at around 2-3 years age of the child - the more you delay, the more painful is the experience. 

Doctors believe ear piercing is safe any time after the 2nd dose of DPT as the vaccine can fight the signs of tetanus. Somewhere i read that in Spain and Latin america, ear piercing in girls are done right at birth, as its a custom to do so in their culture. So i would say there is no specific age for ear piercing  - it is done in varied age group as per parent's choice, culture and convenience.  

WHERE TO GET IT DONE - AT HOME OR AT BEAUTY PARLOUR ??

Even in today's generation, majority of us relay on at-home-piercing practice usually done by the elders of the family. Most of us prefer it as it is often found a tried & tested method followed by generations after generation. However, many parents are now preferring ear piercing at ladies parlours as there, it is done through gun shots within a fraction-of-second and it is absolutely a pain-free less experience for the child. No matter wherever we do the piercing, we should ensure that the piercing material is sterile.

EAR PIERCING DONE - WHAT NEXT ??

After piercing, one can tie a thread in the earlobe. However, i would personally prefer a thin thread like gold ring or pin shaped ear ring. Actually whatever material we put into the newly pierced ears - we should ensure that it is not removed at least for a month, otherwise the thin whole in the earlobe may again fill up. During this period, antibacterial ointment prescribed by the doctors should be applied twice daily and the earring should be twisted slowly slowly everyday. After bath the earlobe should be wiped properly so the area doesn't remain damp. Any signs of infection like discharge, swelling, redness, bleeding, pain should be checked up regularly. When changing over the earring, try to opt for gold earrings, because gold never react with skin to create allergy.

baby's earrings should be small, round and flat as dangling earrings can hurt the earlobe if it is caught in cloths, mom's jewelry or the baby herself has a habit of pulling her earrings accidentally.

HOW WAS RAIMA's EXPERIENCE...

I preferred late afternoon appointment for Raima's ear piercing season in my friends palour, because this is the time when usually most of the parlours remain quite and calm with a very few persons inside the house. The timing had a beautiful effect on my daughter, she was quite and in playful mind. The expert applied a local anesthesia on Raima's earlobe and let her wait for 3-4 mins. Raima was oblivious to what was going to happen. After the wait period was over, she pointed a dot on each earlobe, placed the piercing gun. A small stone stud was there in the ear-ring adaptar, one trigger and the earring was on Raima's earlobe! I was more nervous than Raima thinking how will she react, will she allow to pierce second earlobe or cry hard... but to my surprise she just got little frightened with the "Thak" sound of the trigger but didn't cry at all !! While piercing the second earlobe, the expert gave a toy to Raima to distract her from the activity and the second piercing too got very well.

A piercing gun

Image source :here

When I came back home, Raima was all smiling and telling her dadaji in her sweet baby voice that in the ears she has worn 'dulu dulu...'. So cute.... Well, her earlobes turned slightly reddish when we returned home, so i applied "neosporin" antibacterial ointment and let her play as usual. She was playing actively, no sign of pain or any discomfort, i was so relieved. I continued with the ointment for the next 2 days. On 3rd day, Raima pulled out and removed one earring from her earlobe while playing, may be due some kind of discomfort. After a thought, i removed the other one too. I feared the rear point of the pin shaped ear ring may hurt her while sleeping. I applied little ointment on the ears and was thinking that i've to find an alternate shaped ear ring for my baby. Finally i chose a small round shaped gold earring for her. Through out the first week i noticed pin-dot sized discharge from each earlobe, on which i continued to apply the ointment after careful cleaning every day. From the second week onward, the pierced area showed signs of healing, but i kept applying the ointment once a day to avoid any possible infections.

Note: Information given here are a collective note of self study and personal experience with my baby. Pediatrician should always be consulted before taking any decision regarding baby and her health related issues.

Reading books to babies

Babies and books!!! When a child starts going to school, his study starts and this continues till he is 23-25 years of age, so why put the burden of books before that... let the baby play... this is what many people said to me. But i had a different opinion! Let books be another toy for my baby to play with...

Mom sings lullabies to infants to put them to sleep right from the time when the infant doesn't understand what music is! But every baby enjoys its soothing effect. Something like that, a baby may not understand what are books for? But slowly and gradually she finds interest in the bright and colourful pictures in it.

Somewhere i read that right time to introduce a baby to books is 6-12 months. Best way is to make your baby sit in your lap and show the big bright pictures to her with your fingers pointing towards it. Making your voice tone up and down will raise her curiosity.

Baby learns to communicate

Baby tries to remember many things hence increase memory

Baby tries to know the world around them

learn new words hence increases vocabulary

pics of my daughter's 1st books :

Animal sound book, makes sound when button in the right is pressed

Body parts book

Vegetable book

Animal and number book

Birds book

Number and baby animal book

When a baby listens to words, it builds a network of words in a baby's brain. My parents used to say, the more you talk to your baby, the more quickly she would learn words and start talking. I brought 1 st book for my daughter Raima when she was 8 months old. At that time she didn’t know what i brought for her, the thing she used to love most was my closeness, when i used to take her in my lap and opened a book to show cat and dog’s pictures with different noise, she used to burst out her smile. My husband and i try to make sure that we built a strong communication with our daughter. I also downloaded lots of early educational songs and videos, nursery rhymes from you tube, and when i am doing my household jobs, i let my toddler watch them for some time. It gives immense pleasure when she watches a bird rhyme and starts searching the same crow and peacock she saw in her book, and calls me out in her baby voice “ M’ma, cock-cock, kuku-kuku “....she searches for toma...(tomato) and Bana Ti (Banana tree)..... Now she is 19 months old, and relates everything she sees in the world around with her books.

Raima started to understand pictures and developed preferences for certain pictures, pages and even rhymes. For instance, she loves cats. Every time she turnes pages of her animal book, she finds for “mii-uum” (that is meow which she pronounces Mii-um). When she listens  to the rhyme 'clap your hands', she too starts clapping her hands, stamps her feet and turns around. The other day she was playing with her doll and was chanting “ Jonnyeeeee.....  ha ha ha....” My husband and i smiled at each other and said her brain was recollecting rhyme “ Jonny  Jonny  yes papa”

If you want your baby to be an avid reader when she grows up, ensure that at an early stage itself you have books appropriate to her age all over your house. When your baby is old enough to crawl or run to a basket of toys and pick one out, make sure some books are kept with his toys. After all, there is a saying, habits are made in the childhood...

Cardamom flavor cornflakes with chocos

Dealing with a busy toddler is so difficult, and if meal time becomes a battle ground, nothing is more disturbing for a new mom like me. i keep searching the net for new and quick baby recipe and also make my own twist and turns to match upto my daughter's taste buds. Cornflakes is something i grew up eating, and this is my version for my little one i wrote for Anamika's baby blog. (babyblog.wiseshe.com)
You can see the full recipe Here

Cornflakes with chocos flavored with cardamom and honey...

Vanilla flavored Banana Cornflakes breakfast recipe for baby

Mostly i try to give my 18 month old baby a sweetened breakfast one morning and a salty one in the next morning. Raima doesn't like sweet too much but i want her to have a little more milk. I find any porridge made up of milk is the best and quick option.

One of the sweetened breakfast that i often make for my baby is - Vanilla flavored Banana Cornflakes. The recipe is very simple and easy to cook for a quick breakfast. I have written this recipe for my dear friend Anamika's blog. The link is here

My happy 19 months old...

My 18 months old toddler

I was sooo missing blogging.....my little angel kept me busy. But i have no regrets as well. A baby is the best gift to a mother and in spite of all those sleepless nights, messy things, un-organised stuffs bla bla bla...the smiling face of baby gives a mother the greatest joy of her life. After we shifted our base to Allahabad,UP, i couldn't get a maid who could stay with us morning to evening, or any nanny for my baby and it got very difficult for me to manage everything alone as my in-laws stays in West Bengal and my mom too isn't in her healthy self...but in this 1 year my baby taught me to be more patient, to be more responsible and a more matured person...
             Now my daughter is 18 months old...she is growing up so fast...her shoes, dresses all are getting tight in a few months...she is learning soooo many words. Whatever she listen...she tries to say it..She can recognize all the animals and birds in her book which we brought for her...and the most surprising fact is when she says something which we didn't taught her...no wonders, babies are copy master and they do have sharp catching power!!!
             My daughter Raima, her nick name...(Shrestha Sharma as she will be known to her world) now has inspired me to get back to blogging which i love and also has given me a topic about which i will be writing more blog post - that is all about Raima and my motherhood...And this is Journey of a mother....