Sample essay summarizing experiences on parenting and children’s health

There is never a universal standard answer to parenting and children's health. The core principle is to "keep the bottom line and dare to adapt" - first stick to the clear health red lines of evidence-based medicine, and then flexibly adjust according to your own child's personality, physique, and growth rhythm. There is no need to follow the template of any school, and there is no need to worry about others' evaluations.

First of all, let’s talk about the bottom line that cannot be touched. There is no controversy about this, regardless of what the elders at home say or how popular online folk remedies are. For example, the WHO clearly requires that babies under 1 year old must not touch honey. Children under 12 years old are prohibited from using aspirin and metamizole to reduce fever. The dosage of any medicine must be calculated strictly based on body weight. Babies under 6 months old should be sent to the hospital immediately when they have a fever regardless of the degree. These are conclusions drawn from numerous clinical cases and cannot be left to chance.

For the remaining controversial parts, there is really no need to stick to one standard. As for the time for adding complementary foods that everyone asks about most, there are currently three mainstream opinions on the market that are very quarrelsome: the evidence-based group generally recommends adding it when the child is over 6 months old and the body's own iron reserves have been depleted. Many experienced people of the older generation say that rice soup and egg yolk can be fed at 4 months to nourish the spleen and stomach. There is also the niche Waldorf parenting system, which recommends adding it when the child actively reaches out to grab adult food and has a strong interest in eating. It doesn't matter if it is earlier or later. My eldest son is born with allergies. The allergen test at 6 months later revealed that he is intolerant to milk protein. We delayed adding the first bite of high-iron rice noodles until 6 and a half months ago. He has been avoiding it until he was 1 and a half years old. Now his height and weight are all above the 75th percentile of the growth curve, and he is not lacking in any nutrients. ； The second child is a born snacker. He stared at us while we were eating and drooled when he was just 5 months old. He reached out to grab the chopsticks and almost knocked over my bowl. We introduced complementary foods at 5 and a half months. Now he is 3 years old and can eat less than half a bowl of ribs at one meal. All the indicators in the physical examination are still above the standard, and there are no problems. You see, I have two children who are both my biological children, but different standards apply to them. Where are the dead rules about how old they must be and what they must do?

To be honest, the biggest pitfall I have encountered before is to learn knowledge from books. When my boss had a fever for the first time, I followed the popular science on the Internet that "you should not cover your sweat when you have a fever but physically cool it down." I took off his coat and only wore a thin autumn coat. As a result, the baby was shaking all over from the cold, and his body temperature jumped from 38.2℃ to 39.5℃ in less than half an hour, which scared me. Later, after asking a familiar Chinese medicine pediatrician, I learned that fevers are divided into stages: when the baby is shivering from the cold during the period when the body temperature rises, you can cover it with a thin blanket to keep warm. When the body temperature rises to the peak and the hands and feet start to heat up, you can then take off your clothes to dissipate heat and wipe yourself with warm water. This is not contradictory to scientific conclusions, but you have to follow the baby's condition. There is no black and white right or wrong. Nowadays, many people on the Internet argue that "covering a fever with sweat is harmful" and "physical cooling is all crap". In fact, they only read half of the conclusions. Anyone who has actually raised a child understands that flexible adjustment is the last word.

My mother-in-law and I had been arguing for almost half a year about the issue of "should chase feeding". At that time, I believed what parenting bloggers said, "Let children eat independently, chasing will spoil bad habits." When the eldest child was more than 1 year old, he ate all over the table, wasting half a bowl of a meal. I forced him to eat by himself, and as a result, his weight did not increase at all for half a month. Later, when I was doing child care, the doctor said that if the baby has a small appetite and can't eat much on his own, it's okay to catch up and eat a few more mouthfuls. As long as he doesn't feed him until he accumulates food, he will naturally be willing to eat on his own when he gets older and has a sense of autonomy. Don't mention it. Later, when the eldest child was two and a half years old, he suddenly stopped letting us feed him. He was very good at eating with a spoon. The previous anxiety was all in vain. My friend's baby is even more exaggerated. He has been eating independently since he was a child. When he was 3 years old, he suddenly had to be fed by an adult. After two months of feeding, he started eating on his own without any bad habits.

As for the psychological aspects, there are more controversies. In the past two years, there was a particularly fierce debate about "Should I hug the baby immediately when it cries?". The close parenting group said that hugging the baby too late will destroy the sense of security. The cry immunity group said that hugging the baby too much will make the baby cry and threaten others. My eldest is a high-needs baby. He cried when he was put down when he was born. I held him in my hand almost every day for the first three months. Now he is 4 years old. He feels very safe. He didn’t cry on the first day he went to kindergarten. He dared to take the initiative to be the team leader when playing with children. ； My best friend's baby is a natural angel baby. She cries occasionally and just lies down for a while. She has used the cry immunity method. Now the baby is very cheerful and seldom behaves or rolls around. Really, there is no right or wrong in the method itself. Just adapt it to the temperament of your child. There is no need to argue with others over which school to follow.

My biggest feeling in the past few years of raising children is that don’t treat raising children as a project. You have to stick to certain time points and achieve certain KPIs. Many times, the six-month feeding plan that you spend a long time making is not as effective as a small change when the baby suddenly wants to eat vegetables. As long as you stick to your health bottom line, don't do anything that poses a safety risk, and let your baby take you for the rest, it will be more effective than copying a hundred parenting templates. To be honest, babies are much more fragile than we think. Many times, anxiety is caused by ourselves.