A thing or 2 about poo..

As a parent, one thing that you will have to become accustomed to, is nappies and poo. Now you need to know a thing or two about poo, that perhaps is not told to you- well nobody said it to me! Day in and day out till your child is perhaps 6, you will have to clean after them. Now its not necessarily that at 6 they will become independent at managing their poo affairs, you might have to clean after them for a while longer than that.

Poo is, well has been a big concern of mine when it came to my son. Who was very easily constipated. Here are some terms you need to be aware  of before we get started:

Constipated: Poo cant come out. Basically its too hard to come out.

I think that’s sufficient prior knowledge you need to have before i get started. Here is a gallery of what you should be ready to expect to find in your childs nappy.

(Please ignore the happy faces on the poos, they tend not to come out smiling)

Exhibit 1- The normal poo

The normal poo. It has a softish texture and generally speaking a brownish colour, which can vary from anything between dark brown and light brown with perhaps tinges of mustardish yellow.

This right here is a normal poo. Size wise, we’re talking say a small tea cup full or less for a 3 year old.

How I have dreamt that this may be the poo I see when I change my sons nappy.

But alas, it is not as frequent a visitor as I had hoped.

Exhibit 2- Seriously constipated  possibly dehydrated, poo.

This is not a good poo. You do not want this poo in the nappy. This poo means, your child is not drinking enough fluids, perhaps a little dehydrated as well. Is also probably not eating enough fiber and fresh vegetables.

So you might want to give you child some laxative that needs to be prescribed by their doctor.

This poo is also painful, and if its really bad, it might cause bleeding at the mouth of the anus and really you should speak to your doctor.

Again, you do not want this poo.

Exhibit 3- goat poo

Have you ever seen goat or sheep poo? well this is what it looks like.

Generally this kind causes some abdominal discomfort like all the other hard poos. You do want to avoid this kind, by ensuring a balanced diet and lots of fluids.

 

Exhibit 4- marbles

 These are quiet strange, they look alot like exhibit 2 but are round and smooth. These generally,  from my experience, are the result of too much milk and milk products.

I may be wrong, I am not a doctor.

 

 

Exhibit 5- carrots and beans

This is a good poo. It generally shows you bits of carrot and sunflower seeds, nuts. High fibre foods basically, that help create a good soft poo. Along with the right amount of fluids that is water and juice etc.

 

 

This one is a slightly harder one, simply meaning that more fluids need to be consumed.  This could lead to constipation, so this one is like a sign telling you that things may not be so good next time!

 

 

Exhibit 6- The diarrhea

This one right here, is a sign of a tummy bug, an infection or indigestion. You should keep them hydrated and speak to a doctor if the symptoms do not get better.

 

 

By no means am I saying that these are the only kinds you might see, these are simply what I have seen. I bet theres  hundreds and hundreds of varieties.

So to ensure a healthy poo, here is a great guide that I like to follow and hopefully it should help you too!!

The information below is from the British Nutrition Foundations Website.

BNF Toddler Eatwell Poster_OL   You can download the poster from either here or from BNFs website.

So a poo a day keeps the doctor away 😀

When im feeling as grey as a rain cloud.When my heart is heavy and im to the brink with sorrow….I am greatfull for the things that shine like the sun and brighten my day.

You look like an elephant Mamma…

We were heading out for the playground; belted Mahdi into his seat; bunged is scooter into the boot and sat myself into the driver seat. It was a pleasant sort of day, cool and breezy. The odd petal of a cherry blossom fluttering in the breeze when Mahdi says to me

” You look like an elephant mamma….” in such a matter of fact manner.

I froze. My expression was like  :S  seriously I look like an elephant? So I went on to ask him…

” In what way Mahdi, do I look like an elephant?”

And he said ” a BiGGGGGGG elephant mamma…” straight faced.

And I was like from which angle dude!! I wear  jeans from the children section!

It kind of left me feeling like  : – /  8-o  p=|  “£%&*~@;./’

It sounds like a frog mamma! Jumping one!

Mahdi loves playing doctor. Today he asked me to pretend that I am unwell, by forcing on a bout of cough, which then needed to be addressed of course- by a doctor!

Puts on the stethoscope and says ” O mamma!”

I said “What does my heart sound like?”

He said ” Like a frog mamma! Jumping one!”

lol there I was imagine a frog ribbiting and jumping in my heart!!

❤

 

 

Tissue roll to….chick and frog!

This was a great activity for  my son! He thoroughly enjoyed it. There are lots of variations of this activity online …. here is what we managed to come up with!

 

o how butiful mamma!

I love it when Mahdi gives me his opinion on my hug-ables!. It makes me feel so good! This is what he said, when he saw these new additions. Monkey and Cat

O how butiful mamma!

I picked the green polka-dot fabric, from hobby craft for 5 pound. It came with 4 other colours of squares. 5 pounds was, I felt, a bit much for the fabric…

The eyes and mouths are made of felt.

 

^_^

say ‘Poof’ to dry skin !

Creams, creams and more creams; I always resort to those to help fight dry skin – but  honestly, nothing seems to have a lasting effect.

With my son as well, I had to deal with a lot of dry skin and I generally ended up using moisturiser; which did little to help the situation. I did used to give him an  oil massage before his bath time, which did some good for a day or two; but nothing substantial.

Till…. I read the instructions on a baby oil bottle by Sainsbury :O. This is why its important to read the stuff on the back of all products!

Often I wondered where the soft, smooth baby skin was on my son; the kind they show in adverts and give examples of – clearly I hadn’t come across that. Now however, I had stumbled upon the solution and this was like a revelation.

lo and behold ‘poof’ and the dry skin was gone! HELLO BABY SKIN!

The instructions read: Apply small amount of baby oil evenly all over baby’s body. For best results apply after bathing while skin is still damp, helping lock in the moisture.

So simple! I was shocked at having not realised that myself; I mean, I have been using moisturiser after his baths but not oil!

I do like the Sainsbury’s Little ones range, its nice, reasonably priced and smells really lovely. I think I paid a pound for it.

That’s it ! That is your solution to dry skin!

Brow issue

Now, those of you that have been blessed with thick brows, this is not for you. You see, a spot of threading or waxing gives you the perfect brow. Those of you, who like me come back from the saloon after a threading session, look and your brows and think…”wow I really don’t have hair in my brows!”- this post is for you.

I prefer not to take pictures using the flash on a camera. This is because I end up looking like I have half a brow atop each eye. I struggled with this half a brow look for a long time. I tried growing out my brow, I tried to get rid of less and less hair during threading, but nothing worked. Till one day my sister gifted me this !!!!! And boy did my half-a-brow-atop each eye days changed.

Id seen a lot of people filling in their brows with brow pencils or some form of pigment to add more definition. I just never though I would do that kind of thing, but lucky for me that has now changed and the wondermost thing is that I have two full brows!!!!

Okay now, Iv seen worse off brows and I don’t want to sound ungratefull, God gave me great brows. But we consumers and TV watchers are subject to what the media defines as beautiful and so my bid to look like I have fuller brows began. 😀

So this is the Brow Kit Shape & Define by BarryM. Its a nice compact size and comes with  tweezers, two pigments,a wax and a two sided brush. The brush has one slanted end and one round end. The instructions are very clear and are drawn out on the back of the box.

And here is the finished result on my brows, excuse me if its not that great- it was my first attempt.

I just dont know how its going to react to the heat etc as it does not say if its water proof…. I suppose ill just have to find out for my self!

I write this because history needs an accurate record of kassim’s actions.

Source: I write this because history needs an accurate record of kassim’s actions.

Bumblebee Cafe

When I step out of my house with my son, I always keep in mind that I will not be able to tick anything off my list of things to do. Simply because my little one, is hyper active and does not like chairs, strollers, car seats. You see they come with belts and he does not like belts. They prevent him from getting on with his business, which is generally running around like a headless chicken.

Its amazing how much running can entertain children. He will literally run till he cannot run any more. The extent of which is that he will simply fall to his knees and fall asleep on the floor. And it doesn’t matter what floor it is and where it is- he’s too exhausted to even notice. Thus, shopping is literally and impossible feat when hes with me. So I avoid doing any chores with him.

So when I do go out with him, I am just thinking of how to entertain him. I was struggling to find a indoor play area in Hyderabad. I couldn’t find anywhere that was child friendly in every possible way. Back home in London, there’re a number of play areas and children friendly cafes. So I got busy on the net and after a couple of day of research I found the ‘Bumblebee Cafe’ in Madhapur. Imagine my excitement.

Here what I liked about it.

• It was 95%  safe for kids to play on their own! Imagine that. In Hyderabad health and safety is really not anybodys top priority. So this was great! My son could play on his own without me having to run around with him. which often ends up looking like follow the leader; he leads, running like a headless chicken and I follow him -running like a headless chicken.
• The floor soft so falling will not hurt also there are some ladies on the inside to help them….which is niceish. Takes a little getting used to.
• I could sit outside by the Cafe and watch him play in the play area, which is sealed of by large glass windows and doors. Have a hot coffee, which is a luxury since my drink generally tends to get cold by the time I can have it, or ends up everywhere else but my mouth.
• Its clean!!! Which is sooo important.

What I didnt like…

• The coffee was horrible. The food was horrible. I ordered pizza, they served it undercooked. I told them its undercooked, so they over cooked it. Was as hard as a rock. Dint eat it.
• By the time be came back for our second visit, a lot of the toys were broken and had not been replaced or repaired.
• There’s only one of everything, so if they’re ten kids inside, your one is gona be like so what do i do?

All in all it was ok. Would I go there again? Yeah I would. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being amazing and 10 being horrible- i’d give it a 4.