A brief sample essay on parenting and children’s health experience

Don’t chase the perfect standard, but stick to the two cores of “daily diet, rest and emotional state”, which is far more effective than benchmarking against various internet celebrities’ popular science and randomly supplementing with various nutritional supplements.

To be honest, I have stepped into many pitfalls before. My baby kept catching colds when he first entered kindergarten. I believed everything I saw on the short videos: An evidence-based medicine blogger said that the baby's repeated illnesses were caused by zinc deficiency and vitamin D deficiency. I quickly bought several imported supplements overseas and kept an eye on feeding her on time every day. ； The Chinese medicine blogger said that the baby has a spleen deficiency due to accumulated food, so I cooked Samsung soup, fried rice water every week, and even banned iced watermelon in the summer for the baby. ； There are also natural parenting bloggers who say that you should have more contact with natural flora to improve your immunity. I insist on running around the neighborhood for two hours every day after get off work, even if I am exhausted. As a result, after almost a month of hard work, the baby became ill. On the contrary, because I always chased him to feed him and urged him to go out to play, his temper became much louder and he became more resistant to eating.

Later, after talking with a pediatrician I knew well, I realized that many views in the field of children's health are not absolutely right or wrong, and there is no need to stand in line and criticize each other. Take nutritional supplements as an example. The evidence-based view is indeed tenable: as long as the baby has enough milk per day, 400ml, and the daily diet can cover meat, eggs, milk, fruits and vegetables, there is no need to take other supplements except for the regular vitamin D required to reach the age of 18. ； However, what TCM pediatricians say is not unreasonable. Today’s babies generally eat too refined foods, with a lot of high-sugar and high-oil snacks. Many people do have problems with spleen deficiency. It is appropriate to use ingredients such as hawthorn and fried malt that have the same origin as medicine and food. As long as they are not excessive, there is no harm. To put it bluntly, if your baby feels comfortable eating and grows steadily, then it is right.

There was also a lot of debate on the Internet before about "should you carry a baby with a fever?" Some people say that carrying a baby can build immunity, and some say that if the temperature is 38.5°C, you must take antipyretics. There are two completely opposite examples around me: my best friend's baby last had a fever of 39°C and carried it for two days. I went to the hospital to find out that it was a bacterial infection, and he was hospitalized for a week with mild pneumonia.； My baby had a fever of 39.2°C last time when he had a common viral cold. He was still energetic enough to play Lego, so I gave him a warm bath and the fever subsided in two days without any medicine. The key is never to force yourself or take medicine quickly, but to find out the cause first. The blood test report from a regular hospital is more reliable than the "standard strategy" of ten Internet celebrity bloggers.

What many parents tend to overlook is the impact of emotions on health. My baby was always constipated before, and I tried several different probiotics and lactulose to no avail. Later, I accidentally chatted with the kindergarten teacher and found out that my baby didn’t dare to raise his hand to say he wanted to go to the toilet when he first entered the kindergarten. He often held in his bowel movements and became constipated after holding it in for a long time. Later, I discussed with the teacher and agreed to remind him to go to the bathroom every afternoon and not urge him to "poop quickly" at home. I also bought him a toilet seat with a dinosaur pattern that he liked. Within half a month, his constipation was gone. You see, many times a child's physical problems are rooted in emotional issues. This is something that many popular sciences fail to explain clearly.

Now that I have learned a lot about raising babies, I will no longer use height and weight charts to compare with other people’s babies, nor will I just buy them after seeing what others are doing. If the baby doesn't want to eat, just eat a few bites less. If he wants to play in the sand, he can play more. As long as he wakes up every day, he will be happy. He can run and jump for half a day without feeling tired. Occasionally, a cold can be cured in three to five days. It is better than the "above average" in any physical examination report. There is no perfect answer to raising a baby. The one that suits your family is the best.