What are appropriate first foods for baby? Babies are generally ready for their first foods at around 6 months. If you start them earlier, there is a greater likelihood of allergies and other issues. If you wait too long, they may resist the change. Homemade baby food is perfect for first foods.

While you should always check with your doctor about what to feed your baby, here are some tips for starting your baby on solid food.

Experts usually suggest that babies start with rice cereal since it is rare for rice to cause food allergies. Cereal can be mixed with breast milk or formula to make a thin consistency that just coats a spoon. Since baby is transitioning from liquids to a more solid meal, thick foods are too much for them and can cause them to gag. This can set up negative feelings about solids. As your child becomes more used to swallowing, you can slowly thicken the cereal every few days to make it more porridge-like.

The conventional wisdom was to start babies on cereal then transition to vegetables first, then add fruits and eventually meats. The idea is to get your little one used to the stronger flavors of vegetables before they get used to the sweeter tastes of fruit. This is still good advice. However, many nutrition experts now suggest adding meats to your baby’s diet before adding fruits. This helps baby get extra protein and accustoms them to the flavors and textures of pureed meat.

The most important thing is to start with individual foods so if there are any signs of an allergy, you can easily identify which food is the culprit. For the same reason, it is wise to wait 3 days between adding new foods. Signs of allergy or sensitivity include tummy aches, excessive or painful gas, face rashes or diaper rash, stuffy nose, or increased spitting up after eating.

Make this new adventure fun for your baby. Talk to them and praise them for their efforts. Talk about the flavors and textures of their food.

Once baby is used to eating single foods, you can start combining foods for improved flavor and texture. For instance, some babies prefer bananas mashed with applesauce to change the texture. Others are happy to eat chicken as long as it is hidden in sweet potatoes, but won’t eat it alone. My little girl loves mashed prunes in her bananas, but refuses to eat bananas or prunes alone.

Don’t give up if your baby refuses to eat a new food. Studies show that it can take 7 or more tries before a baby accepts some new foods. In the interest of good nutrition, put a little extra effort into familiarizing your baby with vegetables so they don’t expect all foods to taste sweet. This will serve them well as they grow and make them more adventurous eaters as they move into adulthood.

Enjoy this time and be sure to take a lot of pictures, time goes by so quickly. You’ll cherish these memories of rice cereal and mashed fruits – they’ll make you smile when your teenager is devouring the contents of the refrigerator in one afternoon snack.

Computers are an important part of everyone’s lives, including our kids. With the computer and the internet as ubiquitous as TV, how do you teach your children to use the internet properly? After all, with the interactive nature of the internet, a child will come into contact with many other people if you allow her to browse online or send email. So how can you teach your daughter proper internet and email etiquette?

Email is not quite like snail mail. Often email comes across differently than a letter and it’s real-time back and forth nature can lead to some misunderstandings. Here are some tips you can review with your tween to make sure she understands how to use email effectively.

1. Keep you email address book up to date – people change email addresses all the time now, so be sure to update your address book with new emails and delete the outdated ones.

2. Only send messages to those you want to – with the autofill option and confusing screen names, you want to stress that your daughter should be careful when filling out the To section of the email. They’ll want to double and triple check that the email is only going to the people they want it to.

3. Beware the Reply All function – teach your children the difference between the Reply option – where the email only goes to the person who sent it and the Reply All option, where the reply will go to everyone on the list. Very often it’s not appropriate to reply to everyone.

4. Say no to Spam – Sure your kids may know about the processed meat in a can, but teach them about spam on the internet. Urban legends, myths, sob stories, jokes and chain letters have been making their way around the internet for years, but there is no reason you children need to keep the chain going. Before they forward something they think is funny to their whole address book have them stop and think if it’s appropriate to do so, and if it’s just “junk” that will clutter up and in box

5. Skip the attachments – for the most part, unless it’s schoolwork related, tell your children to skip sending thing in attachments – a lot of email programs block these because they can easily be infected with a virus and they can take up a lot of room in an inbox. Teach your children to send attachments carefully. If they want to share things like pictures, consider teaching them to share a link from a sharing site like Flickr or Facebook

6. Emails can go anywhere – More so than a physical letter, emails can be forwarded to anyone, anywhere. Be sure to coach your kids on the importance of not writing anything in an email they wouldn’t want anyone else to see – like “I can’t stand so and so…” They may think emails are private, but as parents well know, that’s not really the case at all.

7. Don’t Overshare – this goes for email as well as social networking sites. Teens and even tweens are flocking to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Allykatz and Club Penguin, where they can set up profiles, instant message and share things about themselves. Remind your kids that these sites are filled with strangers and that they should never give out last names, addresses or other personal information. Also tell them that when they chat, it’s just like writing a letter and they should follow the old rule, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say it…”

8. Teach them to say sorry – despite your best efforts, your child will make a misstep on email or the internet – they will forward something hurtful or make a comment that upsets someone. Have them apologize quickly and fully for their mistake. This will help ease the problem.

9. Watch out for Cyberbullying – sometimes, your child will be the victim of hurtful things on email or the Internet – make sure your tween feels comfortable telling you about anything inappropriate – from peers making rude comments to emails from strangers. And do something about it – contact the email sender, the website, even school officials. Suggest your child change his or her email or social networking account, or better yet, take a rest from email and internet until the situation blows over or you have gotten to the bottom of it.

Internet etiquette can be tricky for both parents and kids, but it’s important that you teach your children the dos and don’ts of email and social networking so they learn the proper way to use these great technological tools.

Spare the rod and spoil the child. We’ve all heard this saying, and people often misuse it when they try to defend their disciplinary methods, but contrary to what you may have been led to believe, it does not mean to use force on children. So what should you do to instill discipline and self control in your children?

First to address “spare the rod.” The rod in question isn’t even from the Christian bible, but was written about much later (the 1800′s actually) and yes, that saying does reflect Biblical teachings, but was misinterpreted. The “rod” was used by shepherds to guide their flock and that should be what is done: Guidance.

Guidance means having set rules and consequences for children and teens. The other old saying, “not as long as you live under this roof” is very valid and hopefully the guidance given prior to the exodus will provide them with standards to live by. Rules and consequences, not rules and punishments. There is a difference.

Setting up known consequences for bad behavior should be the standard in any household, and the real ‘secret’ is to enforce the consequences and not be wishy washy about that enforcement. Changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game is simply confusing to everyone involved.

Of course all behavior cannot be covered in general rules of the house, so there has to be some general knowledge of “and other circumstances that may have not been specifically covered.” Consequences can be pretty standard and severity of consequences needs to fit the circumstance. As Tony Beretta said, “don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.” A simple four tier consequence system seems to generally work well.

Grounding, grounding without ‘screens’, grounding without screens or communication, and you are grounded to your room and can only twiddle your thumbs for entertainment. We have found that the threat of ‘no screens’ (meaning computer, TV, video) is taken pretty seriously since this generation seems regularly glued to screens.

It’s impossible to cover discipline in one short article, but hopefully this gives you a basis for what you want to do. Physical punishment generally sends the message that it’s OK to hit if you have a reason. Firm, fair and consistent parents are the ones who get respect from their offspring.