Baby Speech Development

One thing that I've come to realize as a father of an active child is to always expect the unexpected. For instance, I've always assumed that children soak up their surroundings and learn extremely quickly. What I didn't expect is that everytime my 10 month old greets people now that she's learned from us to wave and say "hi".

I've read about it in development books and on forums but actually witnessing my little girl become such a socialite is blowing me a way. Since then me and the wife are constantly working with her on her speech development and to help her progress to a gabby baby.

If your little one is quiet or you'd like to help speed along your baby's speech development here are some tips that I would give:

- Talk to your baby all the time. Talk in adult words as well. Even if it is simply walking down the hall to her room for a diaper change ask her how her day has been. You may feel a little akward but it goes miles for helping your baby develop its speech pattern.
- Encourage your babies speech. If your baby is learning the word "Dada" then make a game of it. Hide behind something and say "Where's dada" and poke your head out. Also, if your baby is asking for her bah ask her if she wants her bottle. Try and discourage you and family members from using infant words for real objects. Don't ask if she wants her "bah" unless you want her using that for the next year.
- Expose your baby to new words and gestures. If she points to something tell her what it is. I probably spend 30 minutes collectively throughout the day showing my baby pictures of mommy, daddy, the doggy, the baby, etc. We walk down the hall where the pictures are hung and she'll point to a picture and I'll say "Who is that pretty baby?".
- Expand your babies vocabulary. Lasty. Read, read, read, and read some more to your baby. Even if it is the same story back to back. It may bore you to tears but you are building new neural pathways for your baby with each pass through of the book. Besides, your baby generally will tell you when she's bored with that book and wants a new one.

Hopefully this helps to get you started or reinforces what you've already known. Your baby is a mirror image of what you do. If you are constantly quiet and watching TV or on the computer then your baby will be a recluse and quiet as well.

Homemade Baby Food

For those of us who would like to be our own little gerber baby food I thought I would share my experiences with making baby food. It was an idea that my wife and I talked about after we found a baby food grinder at our local babies r us. It is a manual grinder that you put steamed or soft food into and then grind it with a hand crank and serve to your baby. We bought this little contraption and used it that night. Needless to say I didn't think that making homemade baby food would be as painless as it was! Our first food we tried to grind was steamed green beans. Seeing as green beans was a healthy baby food that you found in the jars to being with we thought this would be a good starting point. Some tips we learned with our first experience. Anything that gets soft after steaming is easiest. This would include carrots, squash, potatoes, beans, celery, etc.

I've looked around for baby food recipes but I'd honestly have to say that the best is pure veggies with no extras. Some recipes I've found have you add in vitamins, etc but if your still feeding by bottle (like we are) and introducing solids then your baby should be getting its vitamins from you/the bottle.

Another thing we've tried recently is when we're making ourselves dinner we keep a piece of bland meat to the side and grind this up for another good homemade baby food item. The meat that works best for us is chicken. Make sure it is thoroughly cooked and grind this up and then grind up some veggies for a good healthy meal.

So if you've been sitting on the fence about whether you should make homemade baby food or if you're looking for an easy alternative I'd highly recommend you try it for yourself!