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Preparing your child for the first day of childcare or school can be a daunting task physically, financially and emotionally.  If you are preparing for school you may possibly need a whole new wardrobe of school clothes, shoes, a hat and school bag which will be filled with pencils, books, a lunch box and drink bottle.   For childcare you will need similar items which of course all need to be labelled including spare cloths, undies or nappies and possibly bedding if your child is sleeping during their stay.  If it is a young baby you will also need a supply of bottles with either expressed milk or formula.  Not only do you have to be prepared with all these requirements but you will also need to prepare yourselves as parents and your child for the emotional changes you will face.
 
Your child needs you to be calm and confident.  To give them the confidence that this is ok and this is a normal part of growing up.  It is better for your child if you do not show any fear or anxiety.  If you are portraying any hesitation about them starting school or being away from you your child will pick these up and also become fearful and anxious.  This is not a good start.   This will also include when you drop your child off.  Be positive.   Walk confidently as you enter the premises.   You may like to stay awhile with your child till he/she finds a friend or carer or introduce them to another child of a similar age so that they can help each other adjust to their new environment.
  
If possible prepare your child in advance by visiting the childcare or school, take a walk around the premises, through the playground and their room, and introduce them to their teacher.   Talk about the things they will be going to do, things they may be learning, and the new friends they will make.  It is often helpful if you already know some of your child’s friends who will be attending the same childcare or school, if not talk about the new friends they will soon be making.
 
A good way to do this is to meet other parents and have them visit your home or join them in a local park for play with their child. Schools are often very happy to help you organise a parents gathering.

If your child is going to school they will need plenty of sleep to be alert in the classroom.  A child should be having 12 hours sleep at night to help their little brains and bodies develop and to assist their immune systems recharge.  Remember they will be very tired after their big day at childcare or school.  They will also have burned up lots of calories and will probably be hungry therefore have healthy snacks and a fresh drink with you when you pick them up after school or have an early dinner and a piece of fruit before an early bed.

It is not always easy to arrange your new schedule.  You may need to be up earlier than usual to prepare the family and get out of the house on time without too much of a rush.    Prepare as much as you can the night before.  Lay out the clothes that need to be worn, put the socks with the shoes.  Shoes should have been worn in before wearing them to childcare or school otherwise your child may have to contend with the discomfort of blisters as well as nerves on his/her first day.
 
Pack the school bag with all items bar the perishables and put the bag on the kitchen counter ready to pack with the lunch and snacks before you leave.  For school goers, it might be wise to pack a spare pare of undies and socks in case of accidents.  Go through the childcare or school check list making sure all items have been put into the bag.   Give your child an early night before childcare or school starts.

Mums, if this is the first time you and your child have had a day apart you may find that you have separation anxiety.  This is quite normal.   If you are a single child family and a stay at home mum you may have to prepare yourself for a quiet home or you may be looking forward to returning to full or part time work this can help you to keep your mind of the fact that your little one is no longer around.   It may help if you talk things over with your partner an understanding friend or family member.
 
For those who have little ones still at home you may need to plan their sleeps around the drop offs and pickups.   Younger siblings often learn to sleep to and from school in the car or pram.   It is not always easy for mums to find someone to babysit sleeping younger siblings but once you get to know other parents whose children attend the same school you may be able to share these trips.
  
With children at childcare or school you will have time to enjoy more one-on-one time with those still at home but remember to give lots of attention to your childcare or school child when they arrive home as they may feel left out and in need of extra reassurance and attention.

Allow time at the end of each day to chat about what happened, you will learn the most on the way home from childcare or school so a chat about the day yours and theirs, in the car or walking should be daily routine. There may be lots of questions that you cannot answer. Don’t be afraid to ask their teacher.  Have a children’s dictionary and atlas close at hand - you will find these a valuable source of information to help answer some of their new questions. Home-work can start early in some schools but if not you should be reading daily to them already.  They can soon start to help read the books you enjoy before bed.  With an older child who may return with home work, try not to do it for them.  Their school work is for them to learn not to show how great an artist their mum is or how wiz bang dad is on computer layouts. They will also be full of new knowledge, be interested and share what you know too.

The first day at childcare or school is an exciting time and a milestone to remember.  Photos are a great way to remember this memorable day.   Your little one is growing up, the apron strings are being stretched.

This article was written by mothercraft nurse Sally Hall from Cradle 2 Kindy Parenting Solutions.  If you would like more information on similar parenting topics please go to our Articles page.

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To ensure you are getting enough dietary iron eat the wide variety of foods that are naturally high in iron.  Iron from plant food is absorbed better by the body if eaten with foods containing Vit C and therefore may cause less constipation.  For more information on diatry iron please read Getting Enough Iron written by Dietitian Eve Reed.

Here is a list of foods that are rich in iron:

Food	Iron Content (mg)	grams
Cereals, grains and nuts Rice, brown Pasta, wholemeal Bread, wholemeal Wheatgerm Wheatbran Branflakes Cornflakes Soya bean curd, tau hoo Cashew nut Pistachio Walnut Lotus seed Almond Sunflower seed Watermelon seed Soya bean, white lentil Gram, green Gram, red Humus Tahina	1 bowl  200g 1 portion  100g 1 slice   30g 1 teaspoon  15g 1 tablespoon  15g 3/4 cup  30g 1 cup  30g 1 small square  85g 1/2 cup  65g 1/2 cup  65g 1/2 cup  50g 1/2 cup  15g 2 tablespoons  30g 1/2 cup  70g 1/2 cup  50g 1/2 cup  50g 1 cup  180g 1 cup  250g 1 cup  250g 3 tablespoons  50g 2 teaspoons  25g	1.0 1.8 1.0 1.1 1.8 5.0 3.6 1.9 5.0 2.5 1.5 0.6 1.2 3.2 3.1 3.0 14.4 13.8 10.5  2.6 9.0
Fruits Apricot, semi-dried Dates, black, dried Dates, red, dried Raisins Longan, dried Fig, dried Prunes, semi-dried Peach, fresh	10 halves  35g 10  90g 10  90g 1 packet  42g 1/2 cup  65g 10  85g 10  85g One  155g	1.2 3.3 3.0 1.5 3.5 3.6 2.2 1.6
Vegetables Kale, Chinese (kai lan) Spinach (bayam pasir) Kang kong Chinese cabbage (bok choy) Mustard leaves, chye sim Seaweed, dried (hai tai) Sea moss (fa chai)	1 cup  65g 1 cup 30g 1 cup  30g 1 cup  170g 1 cup  55g 1 sheet  15g 1 pinch  10g	1.3 1.5 1.6 1.6 0.7 3.3 9.9
Meat, Poultry and Fish Beef, lean Pork, lean Pork liver Pig kidney Mutton, lean Turkey meat cooked Chicken, skinless Chicken liver Egg yolk Egg, whole Fish Ikan bilis  (white bait) Prawns, dried Oyster, fresh Sardine, canned	1 palm-sized piece  90g 1 palm-sized piece  90g 2 slices  30g One  230g 1 palm-sized piece  90g 1 palm-size piece  20g 1 palm-sized piece  90g One  50g One  17g One  50g 1 fillet  90g 2 tablespoons  15g 1 teaspoon  5g 12  60g 1 fish  40g	2.8 1.2 3.1 13.8 2.1 4.8 0.8 5.1 0.8 0.9 1.2 0.6 0.7 3.7 1.8

If you would like more information on similar topics our E-books are packed full of practical parenting tips.  Down load an E-Book specifically related to your child's age group through Publications at Our Shop.

Also see: Food intolerances' and Allergies in Children

More Articles on Health

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Some babies are born with flat spots on their heads. This is often due to the position they were in while in the uterus, other times it may be cause during the birth procedure or as in many cases it is the result of regularly sleeping with the head in the same position.

All babies are born with soft mouldable heads to allow for their passage through the birth canal.   These soft malleable bones of the skull are not fused and often slide across one another, overlapping a little during birth.  Once born, a newborn has very little head control causing the head to be floppy and roll to one side or the other.  If your baby favours one position in particular, this may become a problem. After as little as four hours of sleeping there will be a tendency for the under side of the head to be a little flatter than the upper side.   You may have see babies who have very round moon-shaped faces. These tend to be babies who have slept on their backs looking straight up.  They often have quite obvious flat spots on the back of their heads.
 
There is no doubt that the incidence of SIDS has been lowered significantly since the introduction of Safe Sleeping Education.  But evidence also suggests that we should make sure that the baby lies with his head turned to alternate sides during each sleep session.  This practice should be started from birth.

As the baby develops and become more aware of his surroundings he may tend to turn his head to see bright objects, light, or the approach of his parents of a carer.  Positioning the cot to make use of this voluntary turning of the head is a very good practice.  Some people find it easier to sleep the baby at alternate ends of the cot.

Placing the baby on his tummy and alternating lying on his right and left sides when awake and supervised is also important.  This practice should be started from birth otherwise baby may dislike being on his tummy for extended periods.  This is often the case with babies 2 months or older.  To help baby enjoy tummy time begin with short periods and keep extending the time until they are able to play happily for up to 60% of their wake time on their tummy.  Baby massage, laying beside them on the play mat, lying while on your chest or across your knees, or after the bath on the change table, can be soothing for a baby and teach him that tummy time is pleasant and fun.  Tummy time is also important for his brain development.

Mild flattening of the head often resolves itself once the baby is sitting up independently.  Don’t be alarmed if you do not see results instantly, as the skull continues to grow and change shape until the age of 18 years.  Aside from introducing good positioning techniques and plenty of tummy time, no intervention is required unless your baby has a severe misshapen head or you notice asymmetry in the face.  This may include forehead bossing and/or ears or eyes not level with each other.  In the more severe cases, a custom moulded helmet is designed to encourage the skull to grow in a more symmetrical manner.  This form of intervention is effective on babies aged between 5 months and 18 months, the most common time to treat is between 6 and 12 months.  The helmet is generally worn 23 hr/day for about 3 months.
  
If you have any doubt about the shape of your baby’s head, you can contact a paediatric physiotherapist and you can get further advice about handling and encouraging good development in your baby.  There is also a brochure outlining the techniques to help in maintaining good head shape of your baby, available from your APA paediatric physiotherapist or through the National Office of the Australian Physiotherapy Association.

Alti Vogel, an Orthotist, has helped put this article together; she works at the Children’s Hospital assisting in the design and manufacture of helmets for babies with misshapen heads.  (Information was also adapted from the Physiotherapy Association of Australia).

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Slip on a t-shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat! We’re all urged to keep those sunlight rays away from our skin, but in our eagerness to prevent every possibility of skin cancer are we exposing our children to the other very harmful possibility of Vitamin D deficiency?

Vitamin D is a vitamin most well known for its major action of enhancing the body’s ability to absorb calcium from the diet. Vitamin D also has some other very important actions such as enhancing phosphorus absorption and playing a vital role in the immune system. Perhaps the importance of Vitamin D is best demonstrated by looking at the effects of Vitamin D deficiency. Without enough Vitamin D children are prone to develop rickets, a disease where young developing bones become soft and bendy, giving a bowed-leg, knocked-knee look and increasing the risk of fractures and breaks. Other serious symptoms of deficiency are grand mal seizures, fever, cough and vomiting then cardio-respiratory arrest.

During pregnancy Vitamin D is essential for foetal growth and bone mineralisation, and Vitamin D is stored up in the body to be used by the newborn after birth to protect against tetany, convulsions and heart failure. Because of this it is important for pregnant mothers to be aware of their own Vitamin D levels particularly in the last trimester of pregnancy when foetal bone growth is the greatest. After birth, a newborn’s stores of Vitamin D are used up in approximately the first 8 weeks of life. Newborns then obtain their Vitamin D from breast milk, although this too can be almost non-existent depending on mother’s own Vitamin D levels. Adding Cod Liver Oil to breast milk or a Vitamin D fortified formula is very important if this is the case.

The main source of Vitamin D is from sunlight. Sunlight levels vary greatly between different times of the day, seasons of the year, even between continents, and so it is hard to measure exactly how much sunlight exposure is needed. A good guide is at least ½ an hour of unhindered sunlight per day (no sunscreen!) to face, neck, shoulders and arms. In winter this will not be enough and so it is important to combine this with good dietary sources of Vitamin D. Those most at risk of developing Vitamin D deficiencies are dark-skinned people, vegetarians and vegans, veiled women, and breastfed infants of these groups of people.

Breastfeeding mothers should obtain 4000IU per day. In addition to enough sunlight (at least half an hour a day) good dietary sources of Vitamin D are egg yolks, butter from grass-fed cows, cheese, fermented foods, bone broths, fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and herring, and organ meats like liver. Vitamin D is much higher in animal products where the animal is grass-fed as opposed to grain-fed for the very obvious reason that sunlight is needed for the grass to grow!

Vitamin D also raises the need for Vitamins A and K, two other important fat-soluble vitamins for the immune system and nervous system development. If you are concerned about your own or your children’s Vitamin D levels it would be worth your while to go see a trusted medical practitioner or nutritionist.

By Jodie Sirone BHSc(CompMed)
Live Life Natural Therapies  jodie.livelife@gmail.com  02 9602 3377  www.handykidsot.com.au

For more information on similar parenting topics you may like take a look at our e-books Publications on this link.
All articles on this website have a copyright any use of any material must have permission from Cradle 2 Kindy Parenting Solutions.