Starting School guide. - 4 weeks to go

There are only four weeks until excited children and nervous parents start the preperation for the first day of school and kinder and whilst it might still feel like a long time to go, there are some important things you should be doing now to help with the transition.

- it's all about the Food

Food is so important for them when they start school, they need to eat the right food to have energy to get through the day.

Seems simple, but there are a few things you should check now, four weeks out.  Can your child open and close there lunchbox without help. Often kids can open there lunchbox but then struggle to close it unassisted. This means you end up with a great mess in the bottom of the school bag, 

Also how long will they have to eat, pack meals accordingly

My son is a very slow eater and in prep he was often coming home with most of his snacks still intact. I worked out that the snacks I was giving him were taking to long for him to eat, so he was coming home tired and hungry. Once we changed a few things, like tub yoghurt to reusable pouches. Cut up fruit over whole fruit he began eating more.

Best way to work this out is to do what we do, we start packing lunches now, 4 weeks before school starts that way I know that the kids can work there new lunchboxes. I know that they can eat the food within their designated eating time, and I work out how long I will need each morning to pack lunches with two toddlers helping.

Nowadays most schools have a strict no nut policy so work with that aswell. If your child only likes peanut butter sandwiches start exploring other options now. 

Does it have a nude food policy, if so then what lunchbox are you going to use, do you need to buy reusable pouches.

Drink bottles, do they know how to open them and refill them if required?

Elfie's adventures

This year Elfie came to visit, however after watching on Facebook all the messy, cheeky things other Elves got up too, I firmly told our Elf,

There would be no shenanigans, no elaborate time consuming pranks, Elfie had about 15 minutes each night to execute his adventure, as any more than that and the magic would wear thin for this sleep deprived mum of four.

Here are some of my favourite ones, that didn't take Elfie and his helper much time or effort to do, but the end result was magical and resulted in very little cleaning up.

 

 

to see more of Elfie's adventures, check us out on Instagram

 

www.instagram.com/bubsandbeans

 

 

 

When your baby not sleeping is more than a bad habit.

I remember vividly back to the first time my oldest child 'slept through' she was 5 weeks old. We popped her down about 8 and I woke up in a panic at 6am and she was still asleep. This was her routine, each night from then on. 

 

So naively when my son was born two years later, feeling like I knew what to do I expected it to be the same and I waited as the weeks went past then the months, However despite my best effort I could never get my son to sleep through, I tried everything, deep down I knew that I was doing the "right thing' with his sleeping however nothing was working. Dispite my best efforts he would wake up every hour and a half all night long. He would wake up thirsty have a sip of water and go back to sleep.

 

I started blaming myself was it because I demand fed him when he was younger, should I have used CC, maybe it was because he was hungry (he was also a very fussy eater) should I be giving him water, milk? Was that making the problem worse?

As a mum though you just press on, you don't complain, you just learn to cope with the sleep deprivation. 

One day when he was a little over 3 as I was brushing his teeth I happened to look at the back of his throat and in shock I saw that his tonsils were enlarged, I couldn't see any gap at the back. It was a scary moment, I wondered how he was even breathing, I rushed him to ER as I assumed it was a severe case of tonsillitis. 

Imagine my surprise when the ED doctor said that they weren't infected, they were just naturally enlarged and to see a doctor about them.

 

Now I had been to doctors with him before, I had gone to all the MCHN appointments, no-one had ever said anything about it.

 

I had mentioned the lack of sleep, fussy eating but as he had always been within the norm's I was never asked any more information.

 

The next day I went to our local GP who said they were enlarged and she recommended a ENT appointment.

 

We talked to friends who told us that when there son was about the same age he had his tonsils and adenoids removed as they were enlarged and they told us the change was remarkable. I didn't really appreciate what they were telling me at the time, but I do now.

 

A few sleep deprived weeks later we got in and after the ENT looking in his throat and going through symptoms.

 

- Broken Sleep

- Snoring or loud breathing

- Sleeping with mouth open

- Fussy Eating (Extremely) our Son would struggle to eat food and would rely on milk as sustenance 

- Broken Sleep

- Extreme thirst at night

- Trouble with Clarity of speech

 

he was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. I was shocked, that was something I expected an adult to have not my cheeky 3 year old.

 

 

 

The ENT surgeon let me know of the severity and recommended he get them removed ASAP as well as his adenoids, he informed me that he was not waking up every hour and a half by coincidence, instead he was being woken as, the minute his body attempted to get into deep sleep and the muscles relaxed, his adenoids were blocking his airflow as they were relaxing over the already small gap and he was stopping breathing and that was waking him up.

 

In his 3 years of life he had been in a permanent state of sleep deprivation. We booked him in to get them both removed, however had to wait to see a Haematologist due to a family blood condition and the eight weeks it took to get everything finalised, was horrible, I worried each night that he would stop breathing and not wake himself up.

 

Finally the day arrived for his operation and whilst I wont go into detail here, (will save it for another day) after the operation the transformation was amazing.

 

He slept through 6 hours only 2 days after the operation, and within ten days was sleeping from 7pm - 6 am. Not to mention the change within himself it was like he had finally awoken. He had so much more life, energy, spark. His brain was sharper, his appetite increased.

 

For all his life he had learnt to function at 60% and all of a sudden he was at 100% energy and it was amazing.

 

 

 

Now when I talk to mums struggling with sleep deprivation I begin to sound like broken record, I urge them all to ask there GP to just take a look at there tonsils and adenoids. I tell them like our friends told us that if the ENT does recommend their removal, don't worry, That the change was remarkable and it was the best decision we have made for our brilliant, bright, energetic child.

 

www.bubsandbeans.com.au