Train your child to sleep early, it will benefit the child as sleep will allow the body to generate cells for growth. You need more sleep when you are young compare to elderly person. If you child sleeps late say 11pm, you can slowly move his/her sleeping time earlier by 15-30 minutes until you hit a suitable time. I get my children to sleep by 9:30pm.

When you child understands you (above 2), you can train her very easily. Tug your child in with a dim light, you can also read a bedtime story or sing her a lullaby. Teach your child to sleep on her own.

The hard part is she cries when you leave. You leave the room and tell her that you are outside, it is ok. If she doesn’t stop, you go in after 10 minutes and tell her that you are outside. Try to use positive words like she is a big girl or a good girl. Do these steps until she sleeps on her own. It is tough but you need to be persistent.

You can use security blankets like a blanket, a toy or a teddy bear to accompany her. Some extra, you can make your child room as comfy as she wants to sleep in there with toy area, books area and lots of posters of her favorite cartoons.

We always like to say “No” and “Don’t” to our children. No you cannot have this, no you cannot do that, don’t touch, don’t run, don’t bully your sister …etc. All these are negative instructions. I bet you don’t like your manager telling you all the negative characteristics of you right. We like to hear positive stuff. If we hear positive stuff and build on our positive characteristics, it will outshine our negative characteristics.

Same goes for disciplining a child. Always use positive approach. Catch the good actions your child makes and praise him for it. Example, if you see your child keeping their toys, you can praise him while he is doing that. I assure you, next time around, he will be happy to keep their toys. By the way, I use this trick to potty train both my children.

Lastly, never call your child stupid, lousy and good for nothing. These words will affect them greatly and it will be in their mind subconsciously.

Gbay: Environmental Friendly.

Children remember promises. I guess I have to be cautious when I make small little promises with them. No one likes an empty promise, even for an adult. Yesterday when I tugged Emily to bed, Emily wanted me to sleep with her. I told her when I finished my work, I will sleep with her.

In the middle of the night Emily creped into my room and being a light sleeper, I was half awake. She whispered to me “Mummy, you said you will sleep with me after you finished work”. Wow she reminds me of my promise in the middle of the night. I had to follow her to her room and sleep, to keep my promise to her. She was happy and fall back into sleep.

I haven’t totally mastered this yet but I can say that when my children were 1-2 years old, they can sit at the dinner table throughout dinner. You see children attention span is very limited. They cannot sit doing nothing for long. They like to explore and do things. Create little activities for them to occupy themselves with.

For younger children, you can put a bowl of honey stars for them to pick and eat. When Emily was young, she likes to pick rice one by one to eat. As for Tim, he likes to draw. Ask Vien, he almost drew every paper mat on the table and ask the waiter for more. You can also give them finger food and let them eat on their own. Take color pencils and notebook for them to draw or color.

This has to be done when they are young. If you cultivate the habit of letting them run around during dinner time, it will stay with them and you will spend more effort chasing them around.

Generally medicine is sweet with added flavor, only a few antibiotics are difficult to swallow. Some children when they see the medicine bottle or the syringe, they will either scream or run far away. Again, there is the fear associated with either the syringe or medicine bottle.

You try taking a syringe and take out a Vitagen drink, showing it to your child. Pump out the Vitagen and give it to your child. See whether he/she will run away. You can try it with Ribena, Yakult and any drinks your child like. Do not try it on babies, they are not allowed to take these drinks, only milk or breast milk. :giggles:

Once your child does not have the fear, you can try it with medicine. Of coz, do it when they are sick and really need the medicine. Do not show them the medicine bottle.

Another tip when pumping the liquid into the child mouth, always point the syringe to the side of the mouth, giving a small squeeze each time until it is finished. This is to prevent choking. Always put your child in an upright position.

Lastly, never use medicine to threaten your child. Some older generation folks like to say “If you are naughty, ask the doctor to give you medicine.” This will only create more fear with medicine.

Note: Always keep your medicine out of your children reach. Better put in a lockable cabinet.

How to make bath time fun for your children? My children just love bath time because they love playing water. I have 2 small stools for them to sit and a big pail in front of them. I filled the pail of water and put some toys in the pail. Toys like cups, plastic bowls or containers where they can fill them with water. As I wash their hairs, I make shampoo while foam that they call ice-cream to fill the cup.

You can also throw in a small towel and teach them to wash her toys. By the way, I also trimmed their hair during bath time. They will be distracted by playing and doesn’t notice that I have cut their hair. My children just love bath time and never once I have to drag them into the bathroom.

I am starting a series of parenting tips here. I would like to share my ideas on some of the success I had with my children. These tips may or may not work with your child because children are born with different characteristics. If it works, please drop a comment.

Many children do not like you to touch their nose or clean it. They will yell and scream if you ever go near to it. It happens when they are baby up until 2 or 3 years old. As they grow older, they probably will let you clean without any problem.

How do you overcome that? Firstly, you need to take the “pain” out of the picture. Maybe first time when you clean their nose, they felt the pain. After that, they will not trust you with their nose. You can play a “nose touching game” with them. You request your child to touch your nose and you touch theirs without inflicting pain. After many times of letting you touch their nose, they will trust you with their nose.

When they trust you with their nose, you try to clean in gently without inflicting any pain. Simple. Bottom line is when you touch their nose, it is not always cleaning and let them feel that it can be fun too. Believe me, once they trust you with their nose, you can even put nose drop without any problem. Funny, now my children like to squeeze my nose, inflicting pain on me.