Family Life: How to Simplify Family Communication

With all the technical advances today, it’d be easy to assume that family communication has gotten simpler. But families are receiving thousands of messages each day from electronic devices. 

 

Whether it’s the advertisements on your smartphone games, the Twitter chats you follow, or the Pinterest boards you scroll through, you’re being given an information overload. This overload can cause problems in communicating with the ones you love most.

 

Staying connected with your significant other or your children is important. Without communication, family members will eventually retreat into separate lives. To prevent this from happening and to keep your communication line open follow these tips.

 

Give your full attention.

 

If you’ve ever tried to communicate with someone that stared at their smartphone the entire time, then you know how frustrating this can be. It can feel like the other person is saying, “You’re not important to me.”

 

When your kids see you constantly connected to electronic devices, they may be less likely to open up to you and have serious conversations. That’s why it can be helpful to have technology free periods in your day. For example, if your child is a morning person, then consider having a no-technology rule at breakfast. This gives you and your kids time to connect when they’re at their best. 

 

Build a foundation of love and trust.

 

If your loved ones feel like they’re going to be judged, they’re not going to communicate with you. An essential ingredient to healthy family communication is kindness. When your child or significant other is talking, don’t rush to make a judgement. Instead, try to ask open-ended questions like ‘how did you feel when that happened’ or ‘what are you going to do about this situation’. 

 

Listen to body language.

 

When it comes to communication, few things are more helpful than body language. During conversations with your kids, take a moment to analyze their body language. Are their words defiant but their eyes are filled with fear? This extra bit of information can make a big difference in getting to the bottom of what’s bothering your loved one.

 

Discover what you want from your heart.

 

Understanding what you want and need from your relationships is an important part of communicating with loved ones. For example, it might be that you feel loved when someone performs an act of service for you or when someone offers words of affirmation.

 

When you know what your love language is, don’t be afraid to ask for it. You might say, “Mommy’s feeling sad. Can I have a hug?” 

 

Of course, your children can’t provide for all of your emotional needs. But when you express what you want, you’re sending the message to your kids that it’s OK to ask for support in the way that they need it.

 

Communication is a key part of any relationship. If you make a mistake in communicating with your kids, don’t be afraid to be humble and apologize. This keeps your communication lines strong.

 

Reflections And Intentions…

 

1. When a loved one is speaking, how do you communicate that you're listening? Do you nod along, put down your smartphone, etc.?

            

2. In what ways do you ask for support or comfort from your loved ones?

 

3. Does your family have technology free time periods? Why or why not?

 

Family Life: 5 Steps to Creating A Family Vision Board

A family vision board is a tool that can be a fun way to represent your goals as a family. With a vision board, your family can visualize what life will be like when you accomplish your goals. It can also give each member of the family a feeling of purpose while doing everyday tasks. 

 

It’s difficult for kids to understand that your family is saving money for a dream vacation when they’re eating leftovers or buying second hand clothing. This is because kids don’t always see the long-term payoff of short-term sacrifices. But when you have a family vision board, you can show your kids pictures of your dream vacation and encourage them to think about how much fun they’re going to have in a few months.

 

Ready to create your own family vision board? Here’s how to get started now…

 

Step #1: Gather your family.

 

It’s important that every member of your family contributes to the vision board. When your kids feel like they’re part of the process, they’re more likely to take ownership and work toward your family’s goals.

 

Step #2: Schedule it. 

 

You’ll want plan for time to work on your vision board. Even a small vision board can take several hours to complete. If you don’t have a lot of time for family activities, you can break up the creation phase into several small meetings.

 

It’s important that you make these meetings fun for your family. Consider having special drinks or snacks as you work on your board and encourage each family member to dream big.

 

Step #3: Decide on the format.

 

Now that you’re ready to get started, you’ll want to consider what format is going to work best for your family. Your family can create your vision board as a poster, a scrapbook or as a digital slideshow. If you’ll be creating a poster or scrapbook, you’ll want to gather plenty of supplies like scissors, tape, old magazines, and even paint.

 

For a digital vision board, you can create your board inside a program like Photoshop or GIMP. If you’re not skilled with graphic design, don’t worry. There are plenty of websites that allow you to create a vision board online. 

 

Step #4: Consider your family’s goals.

 

Now comes the fun part. Start talking with your family about your core values, people you’d like to meet, places you’d like to visit, and adventures you’d like to have. Where do you want to be as a family in five years? 

 

If you’re overwhelmed with ideas, it’s OK to divide your vison board into sections. You could create sections for academic goals, travel goals, or career goals. 

 

Step #5: Stay positive.

 

Creativity requires positive energy. If a family member says something negative, have them write that thought down then crumple the sheet and toss it into the trash. Explain that letting go of negativity is essential to dreaming big.

 

A family vision board can be a lot of fun to create. Let every family member contribute to it in some way. This will help you bond as a family and allow you to support each other’s goals. 

 

Reflections And Intentions…

 

1. Has your family created a vision board? If not, when can you schedule time so you can do this fun family activity?

            

2. What did you learn about your family members by creating a vision board together?

            

3. Looking at your vision board, how can you show support for each family member's goals?

 

Family Life: Stop Comparing And Decide What YOU Want

Kids have a tendency to compare their life to their friends’ lives. They might argue over who got more gifts for Christmas, who has better clothes, or who’s more popular at school. As a parent, you probably tell your child not to compare. 

 

It’s easy to tell your kids to stop this habit, but it’s not easy to model it. When other families in your neighborhood move to bigger homes in better neighborhoods, you might feel the pressure to do the same thing. 

 

When your friends travel more often and further away, you might feel that your family is lagging behind. Even simple things like your child’s birthday party can cause you to compare, so you spend time and money planning an elaborate party that’s better than their friends’ parties. 

 

Is Comparison Making Your Family Miserable?

 

Like your kids, you may feel the need to measure up and prove that you and your family are just as good as everyone else. But constantly trying to outdo everyone else can cause you and your family members to experience overwhelm, burnout, depression, and even panic attacks.

 

Maybe you recognize some of your own comparison habits or the habits of your children. The good news is that you can undo the damage with time and practice.

 

What Do Kids Really Want?

 

As a parent, you might be tempted to believe that what your child really wants is the latest gaming console, the best clothes, or the hottest electronics. But social experiments like Ikea: The Other Letter show that children prefer quality time with their parents to gifts and expensive luxury items. 

 

You don’t have to move your family to a remote cabin in the mountains in order to spend more quality time together. You can play board games, go on a hike, or build a fort in the living room. Even simple things like going to the grocery store together can be special if you and your child power off the electronics. By disconnecting with technology, you and your child will find it easier to connect with each other. 

 

How Can You Inspire Your Kids?

 

Another helpful way to end comparisons is to create a family vision board. This lets you and your kids define what you value most as individuals and as a family. You can use this board to guide you when making family decisions so that everyone feels heard.

 

You can also help your kids stop comparing their lives to their friends’ by getting them involved in events for those in need. When your child volunteers at a soup kitchen every Saturday, they gain perspective. They begin to understand that there are worse things than having leftovers twice a week. When you encourage your child to help others, you’re teaching them to develop an attitude of gratitude and creating a desire to serve others. 

When it comes to comparison, understand that it can take some time to change your family’s attitudes. Keep working at it and encourage your kids to hold you accountable, too.

 

Reflections And Intentions…

 

1. Who do you find yourself comparing your family to? In what ways do you compare?

            

2. When your kids start comparing themselves to their friends, what advice do you usually offer? Does this advice seem to help?

            

3. How can you get your kids involved in activities that help those in need?

About Improving Yourself for Your Teenage Children’s Development

Among the different aspects of improving children, a very profound way is to try and improve oneself. Many experts have spoken about how it is important that parents first try and remove the negative traits from themselves if they want their children to improve. And this is all the more important when the child is at an impressible age such as the teenage. 

 

A teenager is easily influenced by what their parents do. If the father smokes or comes home drunk, the teenager might feel that this is all acceptable behavior. The teenager will certainly begin to emulate that. Things may not happen when the child is still living with parents but in later life, when he becomes a father himself, he might think it is all right to come home drenched in booze.

 

Whatever you do today is going to affect your children’s future lives. That includes all your positive and negative behavior. Even a seemingly minor thing like arguing with your spouse over who brings in the newspaper each morning can leave its indelible impression on a teenager’s life. For, the teenager will grow up thinking that such arguments are commonplace, they can happen and will happen, and that could lead to discord in their future life.

 

This will sound very difficult, but if you want to improve your teenager’s present and future life, you have to give them a totally positive environment at home. You have to teach them the values you want them to grow up with, and you have to ensure that you abide by those values yourself. You cannot expect to just be a preacher. You have to practice what you preach.

 

Positive values such as hard-work and integrity are also passed on from parents to children most emphatically during their teenage years. If a son sees his father slogging at work, he will respect people’s dedication to work. If a daughter sees her mother doing everything she can to run her house, she is going to have those values in her later years as well.

 

This is how you can teach your children the most valuable lessons in life when they are teenagers… by living them yourself. There is no other way to go about it. If you don’t abide by what you want to teach your children, then they aren’t going to adopt it into their lives, come what may. 

 

Learning from Your Children—A Quintessential Form of Self-Improvement

There are a lot of ways in which you can develop yourself. People who are on a constant quest of self-improvement always keep looking at avenues that they can use to enhance themselves. They look at the people around them and learn. And a very important resource here is one’s own children. There are people who look forward to learning from their children, and improve themselves in the process.

 

For a very significant portion of your life, you are teaching your children various aspects of existence. You educate them, your train them in the basic skills, you enable them to become good fits for the society they are living in and so on. But then, there comes a time when your children start growing beyond you. They are more abreast with the rapidly changing technology; and that is one reason for that. There is also the fact that children are younger than their parents, and their younger minds are more receptive to knowledge and information. It is not at all surprising when we see a father-son team and find out that the son is the better-informed of the two.

 

Parents who look forward to learning from their children start quite early, right from the schooling days of the children. Now, there might be many things you learned and forgot, many things you just didn’t learn because they weren’t invented back them. Learning along with your child is like going back to school, but a school that has revamped itself according to the contemporary times.

 

Every step of the way, your trysts with your children could be a learning process. Even when you are just trying to handle your kid, you are learning new aspects of qualities such as patience, compassion and understanding. You are developing in the process. When you are teaching your child to become responsible, you are becoming more responsible yourself.

 

Learning from your children isn’t all about seeking the new knowledge and information that they have amassed because of the big advantage that they are living in present times; it is also that you are learning how to develop your personality. A lot of people become more confident when they move with their children. They feel pride in their children’s achievements and it improves their demeanor as well. These are all different aspects of self-improvement that can happen in being spending time with your children. 

 

Which Parental Approach Is the Best?

For first time parents, it becomes very difficult to choose among the various approaches at parenting that they hear. Some parents are quite strict with their children while others are more laidback. There are all kinds of parents, and to confuse matters more, there is no uniformity in the way their children grow up to be. Why, even within the same house, siblings can turn out to be radically different from each other! So, what form of parenting should you choose?

 

If you decide to be a very strict parent who puts a lot of restrictions on their children, the whole thing may backfire. Such forms of parenting worked in the medieval periods, when children didn’t know better. They weren’t exposed to anything apart from what went on in their own family and, of course, there was a much-stinted view of family values that let such behavior be accepted. Today’s children are better aware of what goes on around them. If parents are too restrictive, they may possibly rebel.

 

At the same time, it doesn’t work being a very laidback parent either. Children are going to pick up the wrong habits along the way and it becomes important to you to correct them. You may even have to admonish them at times. Fail at that, and the children may grow up to be wrong and then they may blame you for not showing them the right path.

 

Though there is nothing like a foolproof method of parenting, it is important to avoid the extremes. Don’t be too strict and don’t be too lenient either. You have to walk on the middle path. You have to show your children what’s wrong when they err and you have to reward them when they do something commendable. This is the form of parenting that you have to emulate. This is the most practical approach, the situation-based approach. You don’t decide in advance how you are going to react. You take things at a time and then you behave as per the situation. 

 

How to Develop Yourself as a Parent

You may be expecting too much from your children, want your children to do things in a particular way, but in that you may have lost sight of the most important fact. And that is, there might be shortcomings within you that are keeping you away from becoming a good parent. Are there any such pitfalls? You have to realize them when there is still time and improve upon them. This is what can keep you developing as a better parent.

 

Your children will try to emulate you, consciously and subconsciously. Many of their developmental aspects are going to depend on your personality. For example, if you behave in society in a particular way, your children are very likely to behave in the same manner as well. This is because of exposure. Children become like what they are exposed to because they don’t know of any other way. When they learn the options they have in later life, it is too late for them to change themselves. That is the reason why people from a family tend to behave in a similar manner.

 

There are many such traits that children directly or indirectly pick up from their parents. Some of these include honesty, diligence to work, way of interacting with people, money-mindedness, love and affection, behavior with friends, etc. Every minute of your life you are training your children on these aspects, and most times you don’t even realize you are.

 

For instance, if a storekeeper gives you some money by mistake and you return it, children learn the value of honesty. They understand that they should not keep what is not theirs. When they see you working hard, they realize that hard work is important. When they see you helping your friends, they realize friends are important. These are lessons you are giving out to your children at all times.

 

Hence, if you want your children to be better individuals, maybe you need to improve yourself first. When you work in these positive values within yourself, your children are going to see the results of those values, see that they are good, and then try to incorporate those values in their own lives. They are going to become better individuals just because their parents were better people. So, you know now where the real training for your child begins—within yourself as their parent. 

 

5 Parental Self-Improvement Tips

In your quest to become a better parent, you often tend to ignore the fact that it is self-improvement that is the priority. Improving your children comes next. Most people try to change their children, while what would probably be better in the long run is to improve their own personality.

 

If you are looking at being a better parent yourself, then these are five important things that you should not ignore at all.

 

Learning from Mistakes

 

Parents must have the elegance to learn from their mistakes. When you are with your children, you are going to have several situations when things don’t work your way. At such times, your children are looking at you, learning from you. They are seeing how you handle the situation. Do you learn anything from it and put in a better effort? If you do, if you learn from your failings, then your children are subconsciously going to pick the habit as well.

 

A Thirst for Knowledge

 

Most parents want their children to be the most knowledgeable people on earth, but what do they do to gain knowledge themselves? You have to keep learning. Whenever something new happens, make an effort to know about it. Emphasize on the importance of knowing all you can. This is what sets your children going. They also get this insatiable craving for knowledge and that stays with them for life.

 

Being Social and Sociable

 

Children learn from their parents by observing them. How are you socially? Are you concerned about the people around you? Do you behave well in public? When you do that, your children are sure to follow in your footsteps. But if you are gregarious, a nuisance to others, thinking too much about yourself, then your children are going to think this is acceptable behavior.

 

Not Expecting Too Much

 

To avoid hurt, parents must refrain from building too many expectations from their kids. Children are going to be what they want to be; they will be individuals in their own right. Parents can only lead them to a distance; they cannot go all the way with them. And the root cause of parental hurt is over-expectation. Don’t expect your children to live in a particular way and you will be happier.

 

Relationship with Your Partner

 

The most important thing is that you have to be loving and caring towards your partner. This has a very deep influence on your child’s life. If you are affectionate to your partner, your child will learn what love is. Try building on this relationship at all times. It is probably the most important education you are giving your child.

 

Parenting—What to Expect from Your Children

A large share of all parental torment stems from belied expectations. Parents tend to expect a lot from their children as they are growing up. They want their children to be at the head of the class, win awards in sports, excel at their college studies, bag the best job possible, get a life partner that they approve of, have exactly the right number of children according to their ideas and so on. At every step of the way, parents hold expectations from their children. And when these expectations are belied—which is bound to happen if there are so many of them—the parental hurt begins.

 

When a person holds a child—their own child—for the first time, the feeling that generally crosses their mind is that they want to turn these children into spitting images of themselves. Most times, they want to transform these children into what they couldn’t become in life. Within those brief minutes of their first encounter with their children, most parents map out an entire lifetime for them… right from the way they will give the children their first room in the house to the time they will build their own household in their later life.

 

But this is where parents sow the seeds of troubles in their later life. If you expect too much from your children, you are simply bracing yourself to face the hurt later on. And it is not fair on your children as well.

 

The one thing—and the most important thing—that you have to keep in mind is that your children are not extensions of yourself. They are independent people. They have their own personalities. They have their own likes and dislikes. They have an opinion about everything. And all of these things may be different from what you have.

 

You give an education to your child. You give them the things they want to survive in life. You find out what talents they have and then give them the avenues to explore them more. You give them financial security in their lives. You monitor them so that they don’t fall into bad habits and ruin their lives. You teach them values. You show them what’s right and what’s wrong. You teach them to be independent.

 

But, it would be very wrong if you let them depend on you for their entire lives. Once you have handheld them through their younger days, there comes a time when you should let them go ahead in the world. Let them stumble and get up themselves if they have to. Let them find out things, the way you did.

 

The key is to not expect more from your children. They are individuals too, and as their life with catch up with them, they will have similar limitations and constraints as you have today. Despite meaning well, they may not be able to demonstrate their love and affection for you.

 

But let this not hamper your parental love for them. This is the way it should be, the way nature has ordained it to be. 

 

Parenting—What to Give to Your Children

When you are a parent, you have to shoulder a lot of responsibilities, one of the most important of which is raising your child. Anyone starting out as a parent has a lot of hopes and expectations… they want to be able to give their children the best they can and they hope to make their children better than anyone else’s have ever been. This is a common idea that all parents have. But, somewhere along the way, compromises begin. Parents begin to see that their children aren’t turning out to be the best in everything like they hoped for. And what torments the parents the most is that they believe they are giving their children every facility they would need.

 

If you want to be a happy, satisfied parent, then you should know what you should give your children and within what limits.

 

The best parent isn’t one who has been able to give every commodity under the sun to their kids. Your parenting isn’t measured by the things you give to your children. You should understand that the love you get from your children is beyond material goods.

 

Instead of buying the most expensive toy in the store for your kid, if you spend some time playing with them in the park, it would be appreciated more by the children. Most parents kick-start the toy habit in children themselves by giving them toys initially. Now, that doesn’t mean that you have to stop giving toys to your children altogether, but don’t make it a habit that the child depends on for happiness. When you are giving a toy to your child, also make sure that you can sit down and play with your child for a while.

 

The best thing that the child can want from you when they are young is your company. They want you to tell them how to do everything and they can take on from there by themselves. You have to be their guide in their younger years. This is more important than giving them material things such as food, clothes and toys.

 

At the same time, it becomes your responsibility to help them enrich their skills, talents and intelligence. Just going to a school is not enough. You have to keep abreast of their special gifts. Can your child sing very well? Or are they very good in some particular sport? What are you doing about it? It is an important—though oftentimes ignored—parental responsibility to give children the things they need to hone their talents. Your child shouldn’t grow up and say that they could become the next Picasso but their parents never let them hold a paintbrush in their hands.

 

Then there is security too. Whether you save money in your kid’s name or buy insurance plans that are customized for their needs, it does not matter, but you need to give them some financial stability as they are growing up. This helps you cope with their ever-increasing demands as well.

 

These are the things you have to be worried about. Parenting is not about giving children the best of toys; it is their enrichment that you have to aim for. 

 

Parenting Is a Mutual Joy and a Combined Job

It is rightly said that the true worth of any person is adjudged only when that person becomes a parent. And, parenting is a shared responsibility. It is to be done by two people, who have committed to be with each other and add to the joys of each other. When you decide to become parents, you are significantly adding to that joy… probably this is the most joyful thing that the two of you will ever do together.

 

The child who is coming into your lives needs love from both of you. Hence, a very important thing to do during the long wait of pregnancy—a wait that has been intelligently devised by nature itself—is that you have to try and reinforce those commitments that you made with your partner. You have to repair the relationship if anything had gone astray come closer together. As it is, the very fact that you are sharing the joy of bringing someone into this world helps bring drifting couples closer. But you have to let that happen.

 

One of the important things to remember is that you shouldn’t expect too much from your partner. Whether you are going to be the father or the mother, you shouldn’t lean too much on the other person. Apart from the biological responsibilities, which are ordained by nature itself, there are no other set responsibilities in parenthood. So, there is no reason why the father shouldn’t change the baby’s diapers or prepare the formula. Similarly, there is no reason why the mother shouldn’t take the baby for their vaccination shots and bear the medical expenses. It is all about shared responsibilities, and there is no demarcation as to who does what in the relationship.

 

You will achieve true parental joy only when you perform parental jobs without complaining about them. Make sure you add parenting to your list of priorities—this is something you will have to do apart from your work and social obligations, whether you are the father or the mother. Most importantly, look into your partner’s eyes when you speak with them. They have experienced new joy as well. If you learn to be happy in their happiness, you are on the right path to building a very contented family. 

 

Important Things to Do During Pregnancy Months

You have been blessed with the greatest blessing a human can ever get… that of becoming a mother. You are nurturing a life within you, and you are suddenly feeling more important than you ever felt. You are now not alone. Soon you are going to bring another individual into this world and you want to ensure the best for them.

 

A lot of expecting mothers all over the world are undergoing different kinds of trainings right from the time they know that they are holding an embryo inside them. In some parts of the world, especially in the developed countries, such training is necessitated by law. However, it is your moral responsibility as well. And, apart from undergoing all those baby orientation classes, there are several other things you should do as well.

 

Here is a list of things you have to pay absolute attention to in your pregnancy months.

 

Eat Well

 

If you are a careless eater, you cannot afford that habit anymore. One of the first things you will need to do is to make your diet healthier. And, that too, you will have to improve your diet not just for yourself but for the baby within you as well. You will be recommended an elaborate dietary regimen by your doctor and you will have to follow it. Apart from that, you will be given various supplements as well.

 

Take All Medicines

 

Pregnancy nowadays involves a battery of medicines. They will be recommended to you by your doctor and you will have to follow them diligently. If you have any medical condition that could jeopardize the baby’s health, you should tell the doctor about that in advance so that the doctor can put you on some kind of preventive program.

 

Exercise

 

You cannot do vigorous exercise when you are expecting. But you can at least try some stretching exercises such as Pilates so as to keep your limbs in perfect working order. It is not recommended to sleep your way through your pregnancy. This will only worsen your health when you eventually have the baby.

 

Read and Entertain Yourself

 

Make sure to spend a good amount of time enriching your mind. You could do this by reading good books, watching nice movies, listening to classic music and so on. Everything that you do right now helps in the overall development of the fetus within your body as well.

 

Meditate

 

Meditation through Yoga is highly recommended when you are pregnant. This helps you keep your mind under better control and you can become a better mother later on.

 

Keep that Flame of Love Burning!

 

All through your pregnancy, realize one important thing. This baby is something that belongs to you as well as your partner. It is his joy as well. At the same time, you shouldn’t let the incoming baby weaken the relationship the two of you have. Make a conscious effort of reassuring your partner that you love him, and accept what he does in reciprocation. 

 

How to Know You Are Ready to Become a Parent

When you have had a relationship with someone for a few years, you might want to take things to the next level… that of becoming a parent. Now, though this may be making you very excited, there are those jitters too. How do you know you are ready to become a parent? What should you base your decision on?

 

First and foremost, you need to think how well your relationship has shaped up to be. The person who will also become a parent with you—your partner—how is your relationship with them? Do you understand each other well? Is your partner also looking for becoming a parent? Parenting works well only if it is a mutual decision. Yes, there is a trend of becoming single parents nowadays, but that isn’t half as easy as sharing parenting responsibilities with someone.

 

Second, look at your financial situation. Are you capable right now to assume the financial responsibilities of an additional person in the house? This looks like an obvious thing that people will definitely think about, but it is surprising to see how many people ignore to do so, or at least undermine the financial aspect. Babies are extremely expensive to look after. Just their diapers will mean an additional $8,000 to $10,000 or more per year. No kidding!

 

Then, there is the fact that you will have to give your new member time. You will have to handle them, talk with them, feed them, clean them, clothe them, train them, look after their medical needs, spend sleepless nights in trying to make them sleep and so on. Are you ready to bear such drastic changes to your life? Are you willing to give everything else a backseat to look after your baby?

 

Also, you need to be spiritually and mentally prepared. You have you give your baby good values, make them trained in your religion, educate them to become responsible people in later lives and so on. You cannot do this unless you are in the right frame of mind yourself. Hence, you do need to see whether you are psychologically prepared too.

 

Just wanting a baby is not enough. They look very cute when they are cleaned and clothed and are sleeping in their prams, but only their parents (or nannies) know the troubles that go into coercing the baby to dress up and sleep in their prams. Realize that part of parenting, and knowledgeably take the decision. That’s the best way, and the only way there is. 

 

Colic Alleviation In Children

Colic is among the more common issues in babies during the first couple months. The issue is so basic that parents already know how to deal with it even before it happens. Ways in dealing with colic have been imparted for generations through of mouth or through child books and digests.

 

Colic is an issue that everyone seems to know but few may understand. In fact, up till now, scientists and medical authorities still don't know what induces colic. All they seem to know is that it's characterized by a pain in the tummy and abdominal area; but where this issue roots from… well that’s something that they're yet trying to determine. 

 

Many trust that colic is genetic. This implies that parents who suffered from colic when they were children will likewise produce babies who will also have colic. A few put the blame on allergens that children get from their food or from the breast milk that their moms give them. Other people think that colic is simply gas that gets stuck inside the yet developing systems of the child. 

 

Colic symptoms are so visible that it's impossible for parents miss them. In fact, a few sings are so “in-your-face” that parents occasionally tend to panic because of fear that something more major is occurring. Colic is really not a grave problem in children. Unlike in horses when it's considered to be an emergency and matter of life-or-death, colic in children will just cease on its own. Naturally, it's crucial that you likewise know what differentiates a colic episode from something that's really major. What you believe is just colic may be something already serious. 

 

This is why it's likewise crucial that you consult your pediatrician when colic begins to ensure that it's truly colic that you're dealing with. Since there are no tests that may pinpoint to colic, the most that doctors may do is to exclude additional possible causes of crying and screaming episodes. Among the issues that might cause the same reactions are intestinal blockage, infection in the stomach, an ear infection and occasionally even a scratch in the baby’s eye. Additional reasons are obstruction in the GI tract, hernia and issues in the bowel. 

 

One of the things that you are able to do is to walk your child and to wrap him or her up in a swaddling. You are able to likewise have him listen to some soothing music that will calm him down during an episode. It's crucial that you don't overfeed your baby, something which most parents will do when their children cry. Also, check with your pediatrician if your baby is hypersensitive to some foods or liquids that he's taking in. Occasionally allergens that can cause colic may be passed from the mother to the child through breast milk.