There are several unique, exciting and interesting baby shower favor ideas that will work well for almost any shower. Whether traditional or alternative in nature, the following are popular baby shower favor ideas:

• Bath and Body Items
• Notepads
• Pictures
• Gift Certificates
• Coupons
• Gift Baskets
• Designer Candles
• Baby Bottles with Candy

No matter what baby shower favor idea you come up with, keep in mind that the majority of your guests are coming with one intention in mind, and that is to spoil and entertain the mom to be. Some important considerations when planning a shower include the food items, cake and games that will be played by visitors.

(more…)

Basically, helping your child move from breast milk or formula to solids is a milestone for both you and your baby. However, it can be challenging for some parents. Here are some tips and tricks in introducing solid foods to your baby. Do remember, however, that you should follow your pediatrician’s advice if you’re in doubt.

• Start with fruits – one tip I’ve heard from various is to start with fruits. Use really ripe bananas, mashed with a fork. Or sweet potatoes (baked, with the insides scooped out).
• Use a baby food grinder – You can try small bits of real rice, mixed with meats (without seasonings). The meat should be meshed with baby food grinder (you can find these pretty cheap).
• Don’t feed your baby directly from the jar – This is an interesting tip I’ve heard from experienced mothers. Feeding your baby directly from the jar is not a good idea. Their saliva can mix with the food and make it taste bad. Put the food in a mug rather than a bowl so that you can feed baby more easily.
• Keep away the sweet tooth – Try not to give baby sweet stuff at this stage. Deliberately give them vegetables before fruits to keep away that sweet tooth.
• Wait for the first tooth – It is a good idea to wait until your baby gets his / her first tooth before even thinking of starting solids. One baby I heard got his first tooth at 5 months and began showing interest in what his father was eating shortly thereafter. At about 6 months, he was reaching for his parents’ food.

According to beauty and skin care experts and even dermatologists, by the time girls become 12-13 years old, it is important to inculcate a good skincare regime” Since girls enter puberty and menstruate by this age, their skin experiences many ups and downs” A good skin care regime at this age will make sure she has clear blemish-free skin as she grows into adulthood”

With the onslaught of hormonal changes, there is extra secretion of sebum in young skin, which makes it oilier” So girls with normal skin experience oiliness, dry skin can give rise to T-Zone and oily skin can experience eruptions and significant breakouts”

The first step to starting a skin care regime is with the cleanser” The right cleanser can balance the oil production in the skin and wash away dirt and grime, the key culprit behind the outbreak of acne” Research shows that more than an oily diet or stress, pollutants in the environment and dirt give rise to pimples as they clog the pores”

(more…)

Most often than not kids love being in the kitchen watching Mommy prepares the meal. However, kids and kitchen can be a dangerous combination especially when no adult is around. Here are simple tips to avoid kitchen mishaps.

• Don’t let cords of electrical appliances dangle. Cords are both temptations and a hazard to small children. Tuck away appliances with cords or use cordless appliances.
• Use stove guard over the stove,
• Keep all hot drinks, plates, and dishes out of children’s reach.
• Turn saucepan handles inward when cooking.
• Be careful in using a deep fryer around children. Flying drops of hot oil can cause instant severe burns.
• Store children’s food far away from the cooking area as much as possible.
• Declare a no-go area, preferably including cooking and food preparation areas, for children.

Even before, I don’t want to undergo strength training because I don’t want to build muscles just like most men. However, I’ve learned that this is a super wrong misconception.

For starters, while it’s generally believed cardio exercise is the ideal manner to burn calories and consequently, lose weight, that’s not to say strength training doesn’t do the same as well, the fitsugar says. On the contrary, with it, you don’t just lose pounds (which are actually fat), but you build muscle instead – and it’s a known fact that muscle burns more calories than fat tissue by simply existing.

Weight lifting and strength training also improve bones, making them stronger, as studies have already shown. A 6-month workout has been shown to increase bone mineral density by up to 13%, which makes strength training an ideal ally women have in their fight against osteoporosis. If that’s not enough of an incentive, then there’s also the issue of how this type of exercise improves mood, being shown to reduce depression and offer an almost instance mood boost.

The benefits of strength training include the after burn – burning extra 100 calories over the next 24 hours as your body recovers from your workout. Another benefit is that it builds muscle mass, which, in turn, is shown to fight diabetes. Muscle mass not only burns more calories a day than most other tissues; it also dispels the blood sugar quickly. Muscles effectively contribute to preventing type 2 diabetes. Finally, strength training makes you stronger.

It is unreasonable for me to say that I don’t want to grow old because I am already old. Now that I am in my early 50s, I can’t seem to stop the aging process. Anti-wrinkle creams don’t lend much help for me now. But, I learn something about aging that has nothing to do with wrinkles.

New studies have revealed that it’s actually skin tone that gives away one’s age and not wrinkles alone. Two researchers though, Dr. Bernard Fink, evolutionary psychologist at the University of Goettingham, Germany, and Dr. Paul Matts, research fellow at Procter & Gamble, have focused their study exclusively on how skin tone can reveal a woman’s true age even in those cases when there’s not a single wrinkle in sight.

As we age, our skin tone becomes more uneven, which is actually the thing that gives us away. We may like it or not we acquire concentrations of haemoglobin and melanin, and shadows due to lines and wrinkles, and it is this contrast that gives a major cue to our perception of age.

Whereas the problem of wrinkles can be tackled in a variety of ways, from massages to anti-wrinkle devices and creams, and, of course, cosmetic surgery, the issue of skin tone can also be controlled. Plus, it’s not even that expensive to do so because all it entails is to pay more attention to exposure to sun rays, thus make sure the cumulative negative effects on the skin are to a lesser degree. Skin never forgets – chronic sun damage is cumulative. If you are interested in looking good for your age and having a blemish-free complexion, moderating sun damage is the biggest thing you can do – through changing your behavior and using sun cream with an SPF of at least 15 and both UVA and UVB protection.