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Fitness After Baby - by Kelly Uniewski
Posted by Eva on January 22, 2012 - 11:00pm
Posted by Eva on January 22, 2012 - 11:00pm
Having a baby means many things: less sleep, more mess, learning how to hold an infant while rummaging through your purse for a pacifier, and dealing with the changes in your body from your pregnancy.
As you try to get a new routine down, fitness may seem like that last thing you feel like doing. However it is more important than ever not only to be active now, but also to reinforce proper movement patterns.
During pregnancy the body goes through many changes, one of which is how some of the core and pelvic floor muscles function. It is important in your post-baby body to make sure you “re-learn” the correct movement patterns to ensure compensatory patterns are not developed. Once the correct patterns have been re-established, progressing to more intense exercise will mean less likelihood of injury and back pain.
In the fitness class at the Mothering Touch, we focus on activating deep core muscles and the pelvic floor to promote appropriate movement patterns. We also practice ways to manage back and pelvic pain through self-corrections and exercise.
Prenatal Fitness: Tuesday's 5:15 - 6:30 p.m.
Postnatal Fitness: Thursday's 2 -3 p.m. (Please note: non-mobile babies are welcome, and the lovely ladies at the Mothering Touch will hold babies while you exercise if needed.)
Eileen McGann Concert - Songbook Launch
Posted by Eva on January 2, 2012 - 7:25pm
Posted by Eva on January 2, 2012 - 7:25pm
My dear old friend Eileen McGann is one of Canada's folk music treasures. She has toured extensively in Canada, the United States and Great Britain and she was nominated for Traditional Singer of the Year at the 2011 Canadian Folk Music Awards for her latest CD, Pocketful of Rhymes
.
Her fans have been begging her for years to put out a songbook and she finally HAS. It is a beautiful book, full of her drawings and paintings, because she is also an excellent graphic artist as well as an amazing musician and songwriter.
To launch the songbook in Victoria, Eileen will be giving a concert at Mothering Touch on Saturday January 21 at 7:30pm. Tickets ($15) are available at Mothering Touch and I recommend getting them in advance - the ceoncert will sell out, I'm sure!
Babies understand "good" versus "bad" better than we thought
Posted by kaarina on December 5, 2011 - 6:21pm
Posted by kaarina on December 5, 2011 - 6:21pm
In my house I've always been so careful not to set up a "good" versus "bad" dichotomy. After a movie we always discuss the reasons why the "bad guys" do the things they do. I don't want my kids to see things black and white and I want them to understand that there is usually a reason why people act the way they do. I try not to say "good boy", or tell them something they've done is "bad". My theory and hope is that they will learn to make their own judgements about how things should be and how people act. A new study has shown that this understanding may not be learned at all; babies may in fact be born with the ability to evaluate behaviour and punishment for "bad" behaviour.
Researchers used puppets to display kindness, by giving a toy, or ill-will, by taking a toy, from another puppet. They then saw puppets rewarding or punishing the puppets for their deeds. The babies were then asked to pick their favourite puppet and the babies preferred those that punished the "bad" puppet. Scientists believe that the fact that such young babies want to see those who are "bad" punished means that we must be born with an instinctive moral-sense. Hard to believe that before many babies can crawl they are already able to evaluate and judge complex social interactions.
I find it interesting that the instinct to judge punishment is already hardwired to be fairly black and white and I wonder if the way I've been modeling morality is a loosing battle. Maybe that is just the way children understand social interaction during these young years and all my effort to keep "good" and "bad" out of the equation won't matter. Afterall, don't we as adults want to see the "bad guys" punished in the movies too? But I guess that is my job as a parent, to raise children that are able to see the complexities and to think beyond basic instinct.
The link to the article can be found here.
Beautiful Photos with Santa
Posted by Eva on December 1, 2011 - 3:04pm
Posted by Eva on December 1, 2011 - 3:04pm
Thank you to the more than 70 families who participated in the Photo Shoot with Santa last Friday!
We raised more than $1100 for Baby Eleanor and her family.
Thank you to Konul Rosario of The Light Within Photography who took the most beautiful photos of these babies and young children (and some moms!) You can see some of those pictures in this blog post and the rest on Konul's Facebook Page
Thank you also to Santa, of course!
Baby Eleanor is coming to Mothering Touch
Posted by Eva on November 22, 2011 - 9:55am
Posted by Eva on November 22, 2011 - 9:55am
On June 10, 2011 six-month old Eleanor Goudie was diagnosed with stage IV adrenal cortical carcinoma, a rare and deadly cancer. For the past five months, Eleanor has been an inpatient at BC Children's Hospital. With her parents by her side, she has fought incredibly hard in the face of insurmountable obstacles. She has a long road to recovery and she will continue to fight for many more months to come.
Baby Eleanor, and her parents, as Mothering Touch "graduates." We got to know them through Eleanor's early baby-hood and tried to send healing thoughts their way when we heard of Eleanor's illness. We have chosen Eleanor and her family as the beneficiaries of our Photos with Santa time on Friday November 25, from 2-4pm. We hope Eleanor and her parents will be able to join us and have photos taken with Santa that day.
The donations you make on November 25 will all go to help Eleanor's family with the expenses of travelling back and forth to Vancouver. Please be generous!
Santa Claus is coming to Mothering Touch
Posted by Eva on November 10, 2011 - 1:08pm
Posted by Eva on November 10, 2011 - 1:08pm
Santa Claus is coming to Mothering Touch! Your baby's first Christmas (or even second or third or seventeenth) is a very special time that you will want to mark with a beautiful professional photo which you can share with family and friends. It makes a great gift and a great memento of your child's babyhood.
On Friday November 25, from 2-4pm, Santa will be here to listen to the Christmas wishes of babies, toddlers and older kids too. Konul Rosario from The Light Within Photography will be taking photos.
On Friday December 9, from 10am-12noon, Santa will be back and Vivian Kereki (the wonderful photographer who did the photo contest at the Baby Fair) will be here.
This Photo with Santa Event is a fundraiser. While the photographers are donating their time for the photos sessions, we will be collecting donations for two causes we hold very dear. We suggest a donation of $5 per child. The photographers will make the photos of the children available on their website at a special holiday rate.
On November 25 we will be collecting for Baby Eleanor and her family. Baby Eleanor used to come to baby group when she was very little. When she was about 5 months old she was diagnosed with a congenital cancer and since then she has been going back and forth to BC Children's Hospital for treatment. She is now 11 months old and doing remarkably well, but she still has a long battle ahead of her. We want to show some support to her and her lovely parents. So on Friday November 25, all donations made for the Santa Photos will go to Baby Eleanor.
On December 9 all donations will go to the Young Parents Support Network. YPSN is a small non-profit organization whose mission is to support and empower young parent families in the Coast Salish Territories (Victoria, BC). They provide one-to-one support for families led by young parents and as organize parenting and prenatal classes and groups.
Please come and join us on November 25 and December 9 to celebrate childhood, wonder and our connection with our community.
You Love Us... you really love us!
Posted by TechGirl on November 7, 2011 - 5:20pm
Posted by TechGirl on November 7, 2011 - 5:20pm
Thanks for voting Mothering Touch as one of your "Most Loved" in the CityHub category of "Specialty, Lifestyle & Life Stages"!
What's is CityHub? It's a virtual city of businesses grouped by area of focus... and we're now one of them!
Click here to visit our CityHub page.
Great contest, great ideas, great family meals
Posted by Eva on October 20, 2011 - 11:57am
Posted by Eva on October 20, 2011 - 11:57am
From October 4 - 18, we ran a great contest with Health Families BC to help them promote their on-line presence. To enter, participants had to “Like” Healthy Families BC on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter AND post one good idea on our Facebook Page for how we can involve our children in family meals. We got a whole lot of great ideas. Seems to me, all the participants - and their kids - are winners when it come to good family eating habits!
But the winner of the Lululemon Athletica Gift Card is .... (drum rollllll) ... Tabitha Easton!! Here is her really good idea for family meals:
To get my 18 month old son involved I start at the grocery store. I let him choose between which fruit and vegetables we eat that week. When it comes to preparing meals he is always at my side wanting to help. His jobs are to pass me the food from the fridge, throw any garbage away and put all the recycling in the appropriate boxes! He loves it:) He has his own metal play set of pots and pans and when I cook I put one or two food items in his pans, that way he feels like he is helping me cook...and I don't have to stress about him being near the stove:) our routine works perfectly!.....this month anyway haha. - Tabitha Easton
Here are all the other ideas - in no particular order. Thanks to all our participants!
Get the kids to help when making dinner! - Anita
I've always found that feeding my daughter the same (or roughly the same) food that we're eating helps her to feel part of the meal and part of the family. So from an early age we used a Baby Led Weaning approach and would give her large pieces of soft food that she could mouth, even well before her teeth showed up. She loved to feel like she was eating the same meal as her parents. - Sarah
Having kids help out in the kitchen is not only a great way to get them involved and a way teach healthy choices but it's also an amazing sensory integration tool ex. Making bread! - Ashley
I try to let my little one pick out whatever produce item she fancies when we're at the grocery store... it seems that if she's empowered to choose her own food, there is a really good chance she will eat it later! - Nancy
My littles ones climb up on the chair and help plate there food and take their plates to the dinner table. Table time in our house is so important. Everyone shares something fun they did that day. I also let them open the fridge the pick there snack....9 times out of 10 they pick the healthy ones.
Bring baby to the table well before s/he is onto solids. If meal time is family time then it should include everybody from the very beginning. - Chantelle
Make meals & snacks varied! - Dagmar
Have a high chair or seat for baby that pulls right up to the table so baby feels like part of the family. - Kyla
We eat at the table together. I find if I feed my little one with grown up spoons she is happier than little baby spoons. - Jennifer
During our meals with our little guy we will talk to him and practice clapping and other fun things so he doesn't get bored. We also like to wheel the high chair in view of the kitchen while we are getting dinner ready. He loves to watch us work and we talk to him about what we are doing, and what different veggies look like. Hopefully he will be cooking us meals sooner than later (haha!). Chef in the making perhaps?? - Margaret
We shop garden and cook together as a family tge kuds get to pick what they want to plant for the season. We also talk about how the new baby breastfeeds instead of solids at meal times!!! - Heather Elise
Get them involved in the kitchen and cook together! - Karen
Our little guy is only 15 months and sometimes doesn't last too long at the table. We try to have a good variety of food options to keep his interest and lately his interest in mastering the use of cutlery helps as well! - Sarah
Let you kids have a say in whats for dinner!!! If they pick something fun to eat then pair it with something healthy as a compromise! - Lucy
We get our daughter to help out in the dinner. She loves to "add" stuff when we're baking. Now only if it would work with veggies:) - Michelle
I am a full time nanny for 5 children (all 5 years and younger) and they love helping make snacks and lunch, and especially love picking fresh fruit off the trees and helping wash them and get the dishes out. - Liz
Involve kids in the entire process--from shopping at the grocery store, to growing fresh veggies, to actual meal preparation. Kids are so much more willing to try things that they've had a vested interest in. And of course, having a family dinner every evening, with the TV and computers off and everyone sitting around the dining room table engaging in good old fashioned conversation! - Dona
My tip for involving kids in making meals is to let them help you prepare the food. Talk to your kids about what the food is made of and why it is healthy (or not) for you to eat and how it makes your body stronger. - Melissa
Love this contest! To get my 1 year old daughter to be involved and feeling like part of the family meal we all share our plates with her but taking things from our own and adding them to her tray. My little Amara will eat anything she sees her Mummy and Da enjoying! - Beth
Excited for this contest! I always involve my 2.5 yo in the kitchen, safely. He gets things from the fridge, throws things away, recycles fr me. He gets little bits of things to try at the same time. It's less formal & less intimidating to try broccoli if you don't have a plateful staring you down. - Mira
In my quest to get the Lululemon Gift Card...I involved my baby in family meals by having everyone sit at the dining table including the baby. At the beginning the car seat sat on top of the table, then B moved to a high chair and now his own chair (or occasionally still Mama's lap) :) - Amanda
My tip is to always eat meals as a family at a table. We lose so much family time if we never eat as a family. Also when they are old enough I also think that its a really good idea to bring them on a farm tour so that they can see how their vegetables are grown. I took a group of kids one summer and they were amazed to see the different ways food grew. - Traci Ann
We do our best to eat the same or similar things and eat together. It can be a little hard since Jaxson has intolerances but we do our best. For instance we had french toast last night with strawberries and banana so Jaxson had rice bread with strawberries, banana and Jam :) We do our best. - Cara
One Good Thing that I do to involve my baby (8 months) into the family meals has been to re-organize our dinner schedule and our entire eating experience as a whole. Before I was pregnant my boyfriend and I would eat whenever we were hungry and always in front of the television. Now, to help all of us make healthy choices and to set a good example for our son, we've made a schedule to eat together every night at 5:30pm. The tv set is turned off and all the computers and cell phones are taken away from the table. Hopefully we are setting the example that dinner time (or any meal time) is a time for family to enjoy each others company, enjoy some good food and conversation, and establish a link between happy families and healthy eating habits. - Katie
Use the fact that vegetables comes in so many shapes and colours to your advantage and make funny faces or interesting shapes out of them on your kids' plates. - Lisa
My 17 month old son is a great help in the kitchen: adding ingredients, mixing and stirring, taste testing, pressing buttons, 'washing' the dishes and throwing the odd bit of plastic into the garbage. His 'job' is to take the cutlery, and anything else not hot or breakable, to the table. Then we all sit down and eat together. - Elizabeth
Before our daughter was old enough to sit in a high chair, she always sat in one of our laps or in her bumbo during meals so that she was included even at a young age. Now that she has started solids, we have earlier dinners so we can all eat together as a family and at least one of us always sits down to eat with her at breakfast and lunch. - Andrea
We have a garden where we grow berries, peas, beans, garlic, carrots, kale and potatoes. Naomi (3) loves to go into the backyard and pick the the ingredients for a salad and then pull a chair up to the counter and help wash the veggies and spin the salad spinner. We eat breakfast and dinner together. - Heather
When our daughter was 4 months old she started to show an interest in what we were eating. Feeling as though it was too early to start her on solids we gave her an empty bowl and spoon to entertain her so we could make it through our dinner. By the time she was 6 months old and ready for solids she had enough practise getting the spoon from the bowl to her mouth that she could feed herself! - Aiko
I like to get my son, who is 2, to help with prepping our dinner. He can help tear up greens, measure rice, choose a pasta shape, etc. Then when it ends up on his plate, he seems more interested in eating it when I remind him that he helped to make it. - Rebecca
When preparing meals, I always have my one year old son close by and show him all of the vegetables and fruit I'm using. He usually holds them and plays with them (and sometimes tries to eat them!) We aim to have all meals as a family. :) - Ashley
To get my 15 month old involved in dinner - we always have her nearby when cooking or bar b queing - we show her what we are doing and talk to her about what we are eating. We always have dinner as a family without tv or any other distractions. - Brittany
In order to involve my daughter in family meals, I have her do stuff she enjoys. She loves to set the table, choose fruit & veggies from the crisper, wash produce, and of course pick stuff from the vegetable garden! - Kerri
One way that I include my toddler in our family meals is to bring him out to the vegetable garden and have him help harvest the vegetables we'll be eating. When we're eating we always sit together and ask each other about what we did that day. - Jen
I always eat with my 10 month old, and dinner is a family affair. When I'm busy preparing something in the kitchen, and he wants to see what's going on I put the high chair in the kitchen, put him in it, and give him his own cooking show! - Izabela
To involve our 11 month old, I let him explore the fridge with me while I pick out the ingredients to use for dinner. When he picks something up, I tell him what it is and talk about what properties it has. He loves playing in the vegetable drawer! - Jennifer
We start by having our baby's sit in a high chair with toys/plastic plate or cup while we eat. Then once they start solids we let them play with the food while we eat. Now my daughter helps me prepare dinner and my 16 mo son watches and says "mmmmmmm! I think eating together as a family is most important! - Vashti
The Vital Importance of Touch
Posted by Eva on October 11, 2011 - 1:15pm
Posted by Eva on October 11, 2011 - 1:15pm
From our Baby Massage Teacher - Sheila Hobbs
Starved of touch babies will die. Deprived of adequate, loving touch children will grow up with varying degrees of difficulty making social connections, forming loving bonds and/or experiencing intimacy of any kind. This is the extreme outcome, the negative results of tragic dysfunction. Given a normal degree of physical touch and cuddling infants grow strong and healthy, developing into fully functional adults. What then is the benefit of infant massage – of giving more than adequate touch?
A variety of studies using both average and at risk children show the same types of outcome, improved bonding, less illness, decreased stress, better weight gain, less digestive issues and better sleep patterns. There is also evidence for improved speed and quality of physical and emotional/mental development. How does touch do this?
When we are massaged, and this applies to both children and adults, we experience decreases in our cortisol (stress hormone levels) and an changes in our white blood cell counts (indicating better immune function). There is also an increase in oxytocin levels, as we see with breast
feeding, which encourages bonding. One of the nice things is that massage is not limited to moms but can be done by dads, grandparents, aunts and uncle – whoever might want to increase their connection to a child.
These three basic hormonal and cellular changes are the causal factors for all the rest of the changes. Being less stressed and not getting colds and flus (or any other diseases) contribute to better digestion, leading to weight gain. Better digestion mean less gas/colic and constipation. Reduced stress leads to better sleep – both faster falling asleep and better quality of sleep. All of the benefits discussed above contribute to a healthier, happier, more comfortable baby, which is a more connected baby – connected to itself and its body, and to its caregivers. This all means, of course, healthier, happier, better connected parents as baby sleeps through the night, cries less and responds more easily. Everyone wins.
Shoving aside all this great science and physiology, infant massage give you and your baby a structured way to experience positive touch and quiet, enjoyable time together. Another reason to look into each others eyes and get to know the people behind them, allowing you and your child to move forward together.
When I am teaching infant massage I love being able to give babies and their loved ones a way to connect to each other and enjoy the fleeting peace that comes as both parent and child sink into the calm quiet of a good massage. I am so lucky to be able to share my knowledge in return for sharing the wonder of watching the newest members of our world experience something beautiful.
Win a $250 Gift Card from Lululemon Athletica with Healthy Families BC!
Posted by Eva on October 4, 2011 - 9:58am
Posted by Eva on October 4, 2011 - 9:58am
Healthy Families BC is a website for BC families to learn about resources for a healthy lifestyle. Their Facebook Page and Twitter feed contribute to an on-going conversation about healthy living for families of all ages.
To help HealthFamiliesBC to promote their website and their on-line presence we are delighted to announce to the Mothering Touch Community that you have the opportunity to enter to win a $250 gift card from Lululemon Athetica.
To enter to win this amazing gift, you MUST follow HealthyFamiliesBC on Facebook and Twitter.
Here's how to do it.
1. "Like" HealthyFamiliesBC on Facebook.
2. Follow @Healthyfamilybc on Twtitter
3. Then go to the Mothering Touch Facebook page and post a note to us including One Good Idea for how to involve your baby or toddler in family meals.
(You can read all about family meals and how important they are here.)
4. For extra entries, please share this contest with your friends on Facebook and Twitter using, "I’ve entered to win a Lululemon Gift Card worth $250 from @HealthyFamilyBC and @MotheringTouch http://ow.ly/6NcK5"
We will draw the happy winner on October 19 from amongst the entries received by midnight on October 18.
