Struggle with solid food for babies has become one of the most challenging part of the motherhood journey. Creating variety of food can be the easiest & interesting for your little ones whereas making them eat can be equally challenging at times. Have you notice that whenever your baby has just started eating right, there comes some or the other barrier just to test your patience & to make your struggle even worse? Every new day will give you different experiences and surprises.    

I have been following a mix of both traditional weaning (making separate baby food starting with purees – mashed food – to solids & spoon feeding them) and baby led weaning (offering food from family pot, starting with finger foods & making babies eat on their own) for my son.

However, in my case I started with traditional weaning as I wasn’t aware about baby led weaning when I had to start solids for him. Please understand no technique is superior to other, it is all about what suits you and your child. Here are few tips that can be helpful in your child’s gastronomic journey.

Read about baby food techniques :

Research and study about baby food before your baby turns 6 months old and choose wisely which method you want to follow.  Read about when to introduce solids, find out healthy recipes of different textures, food that will encourage early chewing in them, number of meals to offer in a day month wise and when to keep adding

Introduce right thing at the right time :

Make sure you do not miss on anything important, as they are quick to adapt a certain format and making changes later can be more challenging. For e.g.:  A baby is ready to eat food that will encourage chewing in them after 6 months. But delay in introducing the right texture can delay the learning of chewing process in them.

Follow a proper meal routine/pattern :

Let them know that it is their mealtime while making them sit on a chair, wearing bibs, offering food in the same plate & spoon, follow certain time period for every meal and don’t stretch them too long.   

Focus on quality and not quantity :

Let baby decide for themselves. All babies are unique and so as their diet. They can be full with just few bites. Just keep offering different varieties, shapes, textures, and they can surprise you any time

Let them explore :

Allow them to make a mess. Let them touch, feel, throw and they will surely end up eating few morsels. Encourage them by clapping when they eat something on their own. Offer food from the family pot after one year and make them eat when all other family members are eating. Allow them to eat from your plate.

Understand reasons for food rejection :

There are various reasons for babies rejecting food or eating less at various stages from a baby to toddler. They could be hitting a milestone, drop in appetite due to growth spurts, teething, sickness, constipation, vaccination or sometimes they are just too tired to eat anything.

No Screen time and no Distract feeding:

No matter what, do not try to bribe them with the screen time for the sake of making them eat. You might want to show them TV just for a single meal but remember, once you do that, next time they know how to blackmail you when you offer them the food. In no time they will start associating their food time with the screen time. At the same time avoid distract feeding be it their toys or anything else so that they enjoy their meal time. Do not worry by paying too much of attention or reacting if they skip any of their meals or have not eaten properly, they know how to fill their stomachs

Establish a healthy positive relationship :

Allow your child to establish a healthy positive relationship with the food or else they will simply run away looking at the plate. Force feeding can definitely ruin their relationship with the food.

Establishing a healthy relationship between baby and food is an art that you have to master. There can be many instances where you might lose your cool, especially when people don’t fail to pass their comments saying baby isn’t gaining weight. Then the only thing you want to focus is how to make your baby eat; be it forcefully or giving them the screen time. That’s where you can go wrong. Baby’s weight is neither going to define how good or bad mother you are nor its going to define if your child is healthy or unhealthy. Till the time they are active and playful it is all good. So maintain your calmness and keep doing your best, rest will be taken care.  

The post Important Guide in Starting Solid Food For Babies appeared first on CosmicKolors.

Amazon allows you to sell your product under an already listed product (some other brand that is not registered under trademark) at your price, by simply using the unique ASIN number, only if you have a product category approval from Amazon.

For e.g.: if you want to sell a baking tray, you can search for an existing baking tray listing on Amazon that is exact similar to your product, get ASIN of that listing then go to “Add a product” section in your seller panel and search for the same ASIN, it will allow you to sell your product.

This is an amazon supported policy. You can map your product on some other seller’s listing  or some other seller can map their product on your listing.

How to know if the seller’s brand is a registered trademark brand ? You can search if a brand name is registered on the website https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx

Enter the Brand Name, Class and hit search

Advantages of Mapping

Listing/Adding product becomes easy – Creating a quick listing of the product with the help of ASIN number makes listing very easy as it will save your time and efforts that is required for uploading pictures, updating specifications and descriptions

Increase in sales – Mapping a listing of a well-established brand with good reviews will result in good number of orders for you.

Disadvantages of adding a product on Amazon via mapping

• Original seller can claim your product as counterfeit – Since you have copied the listing that has resulted in less or no orders for an original brand seller, he/she may claim to amazon as a counterfeit product that can lead to suspension of your listing.
• Infringement filing – If an original seller is a registered trademark brand, he/she can file an infringement case against you, which can have negative impact on your selling rating and can lead to your account suspension.

Disadvantages (if your listing is mapped by another seller)

• Reduces your sales – Your listing can also be mapped easily by any seller which can result in lesser or no orders for you.
• Constant fear of bad reviews – You do not know what quality of product the other seller is selling under your brand, so any bad experience to customer can result in bad review on the product that can have long term effect on the listing and can automatically reduce your orders.

Ways to overcome mapping problems

If your listings have been mapped by some other seller, here are some useful steps that you can follow to remove the mapping:

• Get a trademark for your brand name.
• Register yourself on Amazon brand registry
• If you fulfill above both the requirements, write a proper email requesting the seller to remove the listing stating that you are the brand owner.
• Do a test order and once you find the product quality of the test order you received is not up to the mark or is different from yours, file an infringement case on Amazon brand registry.
• Try to differentiate your product by printing your logo on the product & packaging and upload pictures of the same on Amazon so that the possibility of your listings getting mapped becomes very low.

The post Mapping a product on Amazon appeared first on CosmicKolors.

So here is an excellent helpful guide for beginners To Sell On Amazon –

1. Identifying a Product –  

Choose a product wisely, something that you are interested in. Check for current trends on Amazon to know what people are searching and buying for. You can also use Google trend to know about trending products.

Take help of amazon seller calculator to know your profitability as Amazon has different referral fees for different product category.

2. Finding source of the product & deciding the quantity:

Initially, you can start with some local vendor by investing in less quantity to get some idea on how your product is doing so that you do not end up stocking non-moving items.

Once you know what is moving fast, source a reputed manufacturer/wholesaler and invest amount in bulk quantity at good, discounted rates.

You can source suppliers on sites like Indiamart, Justdial, Exporter India, Alibaba etc.

3. Company Formation (Proprietary or Partnership):

For creating a seller account, you will need the following –

• Unique brand name
• GST number
• Pan Number
• Current Bank Account
• Mobile number
• Email id

 All of the above is a one-time activity. Get in touch with a CA for GST & PAN application. Monthly filing of GST is mandatory which can be taken care by your CA with some monthly fee. 

4. Making a seller account

Submit all above necessary documents on amazon seller central and open a seller account.  

Submission of your product invoice is of utmost important for approval of product category, without which listing the product is not possible. In case you wish to add different product, which falls under another product category you need to repeat the approval process.

Some important facts that nobody will tell you –

• If you are selling a branded product (e.g.  Adidas, Nike) you need to have a brand approval letter from the brand.
• Secondly, if you have your own brand and selling generic products (e.g., sarees, dresses, shoes etc) then you need to apply as a private label seller on amazon.

5. List your products

Once you have a product category approval, you can now start listing your products.

You can either list your products one by one or use the bulk uploader to add products at once.

Start the title of the listing with your Brand Name followed by keywords that best describes your product & will be helpful for searching a specific product (brand name, color, size, what the product is, and it’s intended use).

Get good images of your product with white background, go for a professional photographer if your budget permits. A good photo, video, product features, specification is very important for a good sale. Fill in all the mandatory sections e.g., country of origin & HSN code, do remember to fill in the other details like product descriptions, keywords and other optional details once you are done with the listing of all your products.

Secondly, if you are selling something that is already available on Amazon, you can list your product by Mapping/Latching it to an existing product with the help of ASIN number

6. Scheduling the order

Schedule your order as per your “Ship by date”, Amazon has two time slots i.e., 10.00 AM – 1.00 PM and 1.00 PM – 4.00 PM. Depending on your number of orders and as per your convenience choose the slot. Try to avoid rescheduling situations as possible as you can as this can have effect on your seller’s performance.

7. Packaging & labeling

Packaging must be presentable & at the same time durable enough to protect your product from any physical damage which is possible during the transit. One must be very careful as improper packaging can result in bad review on the product. In case of plastic, go for only recyclable plastic poly bags. Stick auto generated barcode labels on the parcel. Barcode visibility is very important here.

8. Shipping

There are three ways to ship the product

Easy ship by Amazon – Amazon transportation Service (ATS) will arrange for the pick up of the product from your store and the entire logistics will be taken care by them till it reaches end customer.

Self-Shipment – Seller can ship through any courier company for shipping the parcel. For e.g.: Delhivery, Ecom, India Post etc.

Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) – Seller can choose to keep their inventory at Amazon warehouse at nominal fees, where amazon will take care of shipping, packing, delivery and returns. Seller automatically gets a prime badge on all FBA products that help increases your sale. 

Irrespective of whatever shipment method you choose, dispatching product on time is very important. Missing shipping deadlines can lead to account suspension.

9. Returns & Claims

You can expect returns of your products for various reasons. However, in case the returned product is in damaged condition, has some missing item or a completely different product, you can claim on Amazon’s Safe-t Claim with proper pictures of the returned product. Depending on case to case you will be refunded some percentage of the product price.

10. Revenue

Funds from the completed sales will be transferred in your bank account by Amazon in every 7 days. Know about Amazon charges and fee structure https://sell.amazon.in/fees-and-pricing.html            

Understand thoroughly about various expenses behind selling a single product on amazon to calculate ROI.                

Few tips –

• You can run ad campaigns for your products, offer automated discount coupons to customers, share your listing on social media platforms to promote your products.  
• Ask for a customer review after each sale to increase your product review and seller’s performance too.
• Download Amazon app on your mobile for quick updates on your order or to know anything urgent that needs to be addressed

The post How To Sell And Make Money On Amazon appeared first on CosmicKolors.

No wonder motherhood brings so much of joy after all that wait. A dream that has finally come true. While a mother is still recovering from everything that her body has gone through, she already starts ignoring her own health, busy taking care of her little one. She wants to do so much on her own as she looks for perfection in everything that her child deserves.

Let us all accept that not every moment in the motherhood is enjoyable or a happy moment. There are times when you will get frustrated, angry and look for some breathing period.

I have tried highlighting few challenges of my motherhood journey and how probably you can overcome them:  

1. Lack of immediate help after delivery –

Everyone in the family is excited to welcome a new born however it is equally important to know how prepared they are, to provide you with the required support.

There was a phase, I had a tough time when Taksh was three weeks old. He used to sleep throughout the day and stay up the whole night. Probably, every parent goes through this phase, as infants are still adjusting to the day night pattern. In my case this continued for almost three weeks for him to settle down which left me completely exhausted as this was an equally important phase for me to take enough rest and sleep.

• Do not expect or rely much on family members or even on your spouse for that matter who is equally nervous and confused as you are, but still trying to do his best. Don’t take it as surprise when your mother or mother-in-law tells you that they don’t remember certain things that you expected them to know. It has been ages for them and not everyone is expert in everything. They all can help you till a certain extent.
• Family members will already have their own routine to follow and a new addition to the family is only going to increase their work, which will make them even more occupied. They too deserve a sound sleep after the hectic day.
• Communicate & start planning with your family members, well in advance, as to who will take up what so that the necessary arrangements can be done beforehand.
• Hire a dedicated care taker if possible. There has to be someone who can take care of your baby and your needs too in the start, right from the day one for at least a month or more, depending on case to case.
• Don’t get overburdened by doing everything for your baby alone, this can delay the recovery process that your body needs initially which can further disturb your mental peace.

2. Worrying too much about the baby –

Once you get your new born home, that’s when the real journey starts. No matter how much you have prepared yourself, there’s always going to be so many such instances where you will feel helpless and will not understand what to do and how to do. That’s when we get scared and instead of enjoying the beautiful moments, we end up spending these moments worrying for our baby.

When we were back home after delivery, we didn’t know how to swaddle the baby but we knew swaddling kept him comfortable all this while, not sure why baby was crying even when fed? was I not making enough milk? scared of clipping those tender nails as we could see some scratches already on his face and so many such small things. This can sound funny when you think about it now but they can be equally worrying for new parents.

The new chapter of your life has just begun and you are still building the confidence.  Just take it easy. It’s a phase that shall pass soon. Take help, read, practice and you are there. 

3. Lack of knowledge on breastfeeding –

Utilize your pregnancy time in reading and gathering as much as information as you can on breastfeeding, one of the most precious things that you can gift your baby. With some difficulty in the beginning, I was successfully able to make it within a week.

• Read about how to latch babies and diet to increase your milk supply
• Arrange for a feeding bed, bending too much towards your baby can increase strain on your back.
• Take enough fluids
• Don’t take stress and get enough rest
• Go for lactation consultation if required as delay in feeding can harm your milk supply.

4. Colic and crying

This is one the most common problem that babies go through specially in their first trimester. One of those sleepless night, I had spent with just no clue what the problem was? Taksh was four weeks old when I was at my mom’s place, already having tough time with my sleep and a colicky baby was like a cherry on the cake.  All he wanted was to keep nursing as he looked to soothe himself.

In such situations, identifying the problem itself can give you half of the solution and that can be a major relief. You can then try & find some solutions to cope up with it for time being. Also, when you know the problem is not very serious, you can always wait to consult your pediatrician the next morning & the late-night chaos can be avoided. Gently massaging baby’s tummy, bicycle kicks, laying baby tummy-down across knees, warm bath, swaddling, holding them for some more time can help here.

5. Work – Life balance

From an independent professional to having a completely dependent child, is a huge transition and will change your life completely, struggling to find some ‘ME’ time. You will always have some or the other work lined up back-to-back.  All that you enjoyed doing this while is now a struggle. Besides, meeting everybody’s expectation, unwanted suggestions, judgements, comparisons and conflicts due to difference on opinion can be more distressing. One can expect all these coming your way along with motherhood.  

Following your passion along with motherhood can be a very challenging task and to balance it, one need to have a good support.  Start preparing & planning on how you can deal with it in a best possible way that will have a mix of everything. Take out some time for the activity that you like and do not forget on exercising regularly.

You all are doing a wonderful job out there. The feeling that you are always worried for your little ones, itself makes you a good mother. Don’t look for perfection every time. Let it go with the flow. People will judge you anyway. So do what is best convenient for both you and your child. Nobody else is walking in your shoes.

With some foresight, a little knowledge and of course an on-time pediatrician guidance can make your life much smooth and easily overcome these challenges of motherhood.

The post 5 Top Most Challenges in My Motherhood Journey appeared first on CosmicKolors.

Have you all ever thought of jotting down any of such great moments before they just go dim??   

Parenting comes with a number of responsibilities and spending time with our little ones is just one of them. One thing that I have understood after becoming a mother is even when you are not with your baby, they are still observing, listening & learning from the people they are surrounded with.  Their mind is running way faster than we adults can ever imagine.

Ours is a joint family and we all in the family have been talking and engaging with our little one from the day one. More people more interaction and thereby more learning. Those eye-contact, babbles as if he understands it and has all the answers, those facial expressions and his complete body language kept us going all day long.

At the age of 3 months, he could recognize all of us in the family and at 4 months he was familiar with few of his toys as he could move his head immediately to look at them. By 6 months, he started responding through actions and by making animal sounds when we asked him certain questions, that he had learned watching us.

Like any other parent we thought that his first word would be Mummy or Papa but he had different plans. His first words were “Kya Hai Yeh”? when he was in his ninth month.  An extremely overwhelming moment at an unexpected time along with those unexpected words.  One fine morning when I was serving breakfast to my husband, our curious tiny human, looking at his Papa’s plate asked “Kya Hai Yeh”?

After that his “Kya Hai Yeh” never stopped, pointing at each and every new thing he would see. We use to get tired answering him but he never failed to ask us again and again until we answered it. I have always heard people saying that children are very curious and they have so much to ask, but it was little unbelievable for us that someone who is still on his knees has started asking questions too. Was he busy involved in making his own dictionary?  What can be the level of his curiosity?

I remember the day when we visited the pediatrician for his 12 months check up when the doctor asked us about his milestones to which I added that his dictionary already has so many vocabularies. Infact when I told her about his “Kya Hai Yeh” wala incident, she just didn’t believe us. According to her, it was way too early and that they start with one word initially, but the very next moment TAKSH asked his papa “Kya Hai Yeh” ? pointing at the teddy bear in the clinic.

When he completed 10 months, he could speak Mummy, Pappa, Dada, Dadi and so many other small words. He could speak two & three words sentences by the age of one and some more bigger sentences by 15 months.

Taksh is now 19 months old and no less than a chatter box. There is so much he can understand by now and just can’t stop talking at all. He can frame sentences very effortlessly. A good Communicator, Listener and an Imitator who knows how to get things done from us, ask for what he wants, follows instructions, gives instructions and so many other things. He likes to help us in small things like bringing, picking, collecting things that we ask him to do. He enjoys pretend play a lot, along with many other games like peek-a-boo, catch-catch etc.. Playing cricket and his Papa’s tabla are his favorite.

By each passing day he was getting smarter and this kept me motivated even more to bring out the best in him which will help to channelize his abilities in the right direction at the right time. I personally never missed to keep him busy with my conversations while breastfeeding, bathing, diaper changing, playing, mealtime etc. be it any imaginary story.

Below are few pointers that we all followed for our little one and they can be helpful as an advice to new parents:

Spend quality time – It is the best investment you can ever make. Early parent – child interactions contribute positively to the brain development. Take turns when you feel bored but don’t get complacent. Play with them, keep doing different activity, sing poems, spend time like you would like to spend with any of your best friend.

Narrate them everything – Talk to them about everything. Not only about their stuff but everything that you would want them to know.  You can talk about place, people, pets, toys or any single new thing that your little one must have come across throughout the day.

Strictly no screen time – Screen time at a very early age can have negative effects on their language development along with many other issues. Try to avoid as much as you can but till 18 months it’s a big NO.

Read books – Try to spend at least 5-10 minutes daily on reading books together. Any interesting picture book or a story book can be good enough.  This will keep adding to their vocabulary. We started reading books for him when he was 6 months old. “My First Library – Boxset of 10 Board Books for Kids” and “Where Is Baby’s Belly Button” were among the first two books that we introduced to him. Gradually I kept on adding.

Show outside world– Let them explore and learn about the world around them. Make a habit of taking them out regularly for at least 15 minutes if not more. Nature has so much to teach to your little ones. Looking at every other new thing will increase their curiosity that will contribute in developing their cognitive skills.

Brain Development Games – The more the toy does the less the baby will. Do not introduce electronic toys at the very first time to them. Give them options for open ended play that will encourage imaginative and independent play. Taksh is lucky to have so many beautiful organic wooden toys from his Papa’s shop FunwoodGames

Encourage pretend play – Pretend play will be more like a case study for them. Assign them a responsible role and they will enjoy the game.

Healthy Diet – Nutrition is one of the important factors in the intellectual development of young children. Their tummy is small and hence every bite counts. Avoid junk, sugar, preservative, highly processed food in all possible ways in their early age. Prefer homemade meals.

P.S : If your kid is reaching a milestone early, even before you expected it, doesn’t mean that they will always be early achievers. Every child is different. Some may excel early in few things but may take long for other things and vice a versa. Our advice to new parents is to give them their space and time to grow.

All they need is your attention and love. Just love them for who they are and keep doing your bit to help them come out with flying colors in their life.

The post Our Cute Chatterbox appeared first on CosmicKolors.