i was surprise to see how long do  you breatfeed. Unfortunately i only breastfeed 1 month because when i start to work and extract so little that there was no milk anymore. Remenber i am a grandma and in that time (1975 to 1984) there was only the manual pump to help exttract but we have no idea that the milk could be refrigerated for later.

Thanks for all the recomendations. I will also look into that pages you mention.

Only one question. Do any of you work outside ofr the house?
i know that being at home and taking charge of all the chores is also a lot of work but having to go to an office and specially it is far from home, then it gets harder.

I breastfed my son until he was 2. I donated my extra milk to a milk bank until he was about 5 months old.

nhockaday, until 2 month or 2 years?.
Lucky of you to have much more milk than wsas requiered and congratulations for donating and helping those that need it.

I was convinced that it was a world recomendation that babies should receive exclusively milk (better breastmilk than formula) for at least the first 6 month of their lives.
I was surprised to read on another thread that some countries recomend start giving solid food after the fourth month of age.
Is this only different point of view of doctors, is it somthing cultural, regional or what?

This is something that si important if you are planning to give breast milk to your baby for a long time.

It will be nice to see the comments or recomendation of those momes that succesfully breastfed their babies for more than 6 month.
Please tell us how long did you breastfed and if you are presently doing it (more than 6 month) and share with us what do you think have to do with the fact that you had a long milk production.

Thanks for sharing.

We have read about the importance of breastfeeding. The longer the better.
I understood that at least until 6 month old there where many benefits not only for your baby but also for the mother.

It is said that women that bresatfeed their babies loose weight faster than those who did not.
On the other hand just recently someone told me that a breastfeeding mom starves more for sweets (candy, cakes, etc) while breastfeeding. Sometimes even if she eats too much chocolate, she can transmit it to her baby and some pimples will appear on her baby's face.

So maybe there are some people that think that breastfeeding in not good or at least not as important as they say.

Here we will like to hear your opinion and some of the reasons why you did not or could not breastfeed your baby at all . if you breastfeed some days or month less than 4 month (being in favor of breastfeeding) will also help those moms to avoid situations where this can occur.

Thanks to all for your participation.
The poll results show that breastfeeding has become very very important and most woman go for it.

My grandaughter (3 month old) is being breastfeed (no formula requiered yet) and I am greatfull that my daughter has more milk for her.  I' ve heard that it is important to drink a lot of water in order to keep producing milk and keep away from stress. She wants to breastfeed at least until her baby is 6 month old. But..... it is a lot of work specially if you are a working mom. She has to take milk at the office and save it for the next day. This procedure takes more or less 2 hours divided into 3 times. She reaches ghe end of the week very tired.

there are 3 questions that will derive from this thread and i will alow myself to open them and see if we have more persons sharing their opinion. they will be:
1) If you did not breastfed your baby at all or until 4 month old, tell us why?
2) What to do for having milk and prolonging breastfeeding
3) When did you start giving solid food and what type?

Thanks DadDude. I read som comparisons and have a lot to learn.
When you say Ipad is it the ipad2 ?

I think about what i read that if i buy know, it has to be ipad2 else i will have to wait for more apps.
Thanks again.

I cant ' t believe it.... Thanks for informing. How can this be? i am also a fan of their web page samples and show them to  my grandsons 4 years and 3 month old.

... it is really surprising as to how many do the puzzles for the child or even place the blocks next to eachother and let them put the finished piece together or tell them where to put each piece as my DD picks them up. 
...

ariel, i was really glad to read your question because i had many times a similar situation with the girl looking after my grandson. Sometime i feel as if she was having a very good time 'doing' the puzzle instead of giving him the time and opportunity of looking for himself. Luckily when he is with me i follow the same guidelines you mention. When the puzzle is a little bit difficult for his age, i keep telling him to look for the borders first but found out that his vision is much more accurate than mine and many times without the borders first, he keep putting the right pieces together.
I think it is something we have to work according to the situation. There are some times when he wants me to do the puzzle with him so i look for some pieces but a little bit slow so that he can find most of them.

We also do some reading of books that have to do with math and he likes them.
You can see them at amazon. The y help in reasoning and doing some counting or addition.

tp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064467163/ref=wms_ohs_product_T2

An important issue is not only to count forward but backwards to prepare for subtraction. I think a 100 number chart would be very good to start counting by 5, 3 etc. Now he likes counting fast in spanish and specially saying odd numbers.

[Montessori apps by Rantek]

Montessori apps by Rantek - These are a little expensive (as is anything Montessori) and limited in scope but Ella likes doing them. She especially likes the Geography ones.

For parents teaching foreign languages, here are some of the best (in our opinion) apps for learning Chinese, French, and Spanish:

Rye Studio multilingual storybooks - You can read and listen to the stories in English, Chinese (with the options for Trad or Simplified characters), French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Japanese. Most of the stories have all the languages but some are still in development and only have English, Chinese, and Japanese, so check the available languages for each story first before you buy. These stories are perfect for us because Ella is learning French, Spanish, and Japanese. It is certainly much cheaper than buying books in each language, plus there is audio narrated by native speakers!

iLearn Chinese - the best app I've found to teach Chinese handwriting to kids (and non-native speakers). Good for practicing fine motor skills too.

play2learn Spanish and play2learn French - great for learning vocabulary and has a quiz mode in which you color in the picture as the Spanish/French word is called out.

eFlashSpanish and eFlashFrench - I wouldn't use this for English, but good for teaching/reviewing vocab in Spanish and French. Nice pics and they're free.

24/7 Tutor - nice free app I've found for parents trying to learn another language along with their kids.

aangeles,
1) since you started recently maybe you can recall more or less how moch are we talking about for the expensive one and the others?
2) play2learn comees with both languages or you may choose only one? Not free?

I am 'trying' to learn some chinese (simplified) but find it very difficult. Nonetheless i would like to learn to read the symbols and maybe that app you mention can help me in that.

Dad Dude thanks for your review and ir looks very complete.
I am anxious to start using that technology. Nevertheless i know nothing about it. Can you or anyone who knows about this, give me a short description and the difference between the devices in the market right now (ipad, ipad touch, iphone, motorolla XOOM? They are all tablets or do they differ also in size? I have an IPOD which i use only for my music and think it is a little bit small to show something to a baby (3 month old)

Your thread started last June, its going to be one year old. WOW.  I imagine a lot of changes have been given.

My son (on a trip at tis moment) know more than me and told me about Motorolla (much cheaper) but as i read here maybe we can not get that many apps for it? They are not compatible or some apps are?

Another question i have is 'How can anyone get all those apps? are they free? Besides the device (that is a little expensive) do we have to inveest a lot on the apps?

We started swimming when my daughter was of almost 7 months. Here it is recommended at the age of 6 months not younger.
.... Swimming is great for the immune system and we have never been ill.
If you are worried about their ability to hold their breath under water there are simple excersises which will teach them to hold the breath. And if you are worrie about too much chlorine in the water try to attend the later classes when is the chlorine level lower.

lelask, thanks for sharing.

I am worried about the climate since we are starting autumn and the cold days are starting to feel. Maybe it is better to wait until days get warmer (November).
My doubt is that then she will be 9 month old.
Since you start alfter 6 month old did you experience any problem with breathing under water?
After how many classe did you see our baby confident under water.?

qzee, those videos really talk for themselves. It is very important to teach a baby to swim and the benefits are many. Thanks.

I came across to this page on Sparkabilities Blog and found very interesting ideas we can do with our babies that will help their development.

http://blog.sparkabilities.com/hand-finger-play

I hope you enjoy it.

thanks luckybabe, i too am incline for the simplified chinese. I find it difficult enough for me to learn with the pinyin presentation in order to understand and then go to the symbols that trying the traditional will be almost imposible. Since I will be the one teaching my granddaughter, or at least learning wih her through DVD, CD and LR mandarin i think i have to choose Simplified version.

Thanks a lot. I will start in one or two month from now and take it slowly since she is only 2 month old and do not want to force her vision watching much TV or PC and i will start with LR english.