Exercising during pregnancy

Often we wonder whether it is right or not exercising throughout pregnancy. If any complication do not limit your ability to exercise, fitness can be a big plus for both you and your baby.
Exercising during pregnancy can have indeed positive effects on your mood, it helps to relax and relieve the stress and especially if performed during the first trimester, it increases blood flow and its capacity to transport oxygen and nutritional substances necessary for the foetus to grow.
Furthermore, exercising enhances cardio circulatory and respiratory systems efficiency allowing you to ease labour and delivery. That’s not all: by exercising on a regular basis, fitness can increase blood flow to lower limbs, avoid an excessive increase of body mass and reduce the risk of complications like gestational diabetes and backache.
Obviously, it is necessary to always keep in mind that pregnancy is a very delicate condition and everything has to be made with due cautions, as well as exercise. During pregnancy, you will need to discuss your exercise plans with your doctor early on and make some adjustments to your normal routine. No exercise has to be performed if complications or particular risks arose.

Which exercises are the most suitable for pregnant women?

Walking

The easiest and probably the best exercise for a pregnant woman is walking, an excellent way to tone muscles, get fresh air, keep the body regular, and help to sleep soundly at night. To get started, walk half an hour a day and choose places far from traffic and smog like public gardens or parks. Taking a walk is ideal to enjoy a few moments of relax. You can continue into your last trimester and right up until birth as long as it is comfortable for you. Moreover, walking can help you to regain your pre-pregnancy body more quickly: a good walk with your baby, with the pushchair or with a baby carrier, could be a useful and pleasant experience.

Bicycling

Making a cycle ride could be a good idea too for pregnant women. It is instead necessary to consider that with bike you have more chances of falling so it is recommended to avoid riding in the street or on uneven floors. In this case as well, the ideal place is a park, where the air is purer and there are no cars around. Instead, a stationary bike can be useful to prevent water retention in legs.

Swimming

Many health care providers and fitness professionals say swimming is the safest exercise for pregnant women, especially after the first months. Indeed, if up to the fourth month it is advisable taking light exercises, in the following months, considered the increase in weight and the consequent and gradual reduction of mobility, the most suitable exercise can be just swimming.
Swimming is an exercise easy to perform even when the body mass is increasing as it keeps your body toned without adding weight and stress to your joints until the last months of pregnancy. Besides swimming, you can also perform other activities like aqua gym and swim gym.

Specific exercises

Some gyms and hospitals organize specific pre-natal classes that include exercises to relax, to provide relief to the backbone and improve abdominal muscles. Specific exercises have been conceived to bring benefits to pregnant women avoiding at the same time excessive efforts. These exercises aim to stimulate cardiovascular system in order to enhance the transport of nutritional substances to foetus. Moreover, they are particularly effective for the prevention against water retention and varicose veins. You can also perform some specific post-partum exercises to regain pre-pregnancy shape after the stress that the event inevitably caused it. Weight increase, spine overloading and breastfeeding and everything a pregnancy may involve can both physically and morally exhaust woman’s body. But don’t worry, be patient and in a few time things will get back to normal.

Choosing the car seat

Baby car seats belong to the so called child restraints on vehicles since a child is not able to sit on the seat of the car firmly and steadily like an adult does: as a consequence, car seats the most safest instruments to transport our little one in the car in order for him/her to seat on the back seat in total safety.

It is essential, when we choose a car seat, to make sure that it is homologated according to the current laws, to be more precise it must be made of resistant materils, sprayed with non toxic paint and it doesn’t have to have sharp corners that may represent a danger for your child’s safety.
A car seat structure, normally includes: anatomic backrest, comfortable seat and 5 point safety harness.

Car seat groups

Considering all the different types and car seats and brands like Chicco, Inglesina and Peg perego that, nowadays, you can find on the market, there are many, many other things to take into consideration before deciding which car seat suits your child's age, size and weight as one of the most important jobs you have as a parent is keeping your child safe when riding in a vehicle.
For this reason, we would like to help you deciding with this small guide to show you the different typologies and groups:

-Group 0
From birth up to 10 kg (9 months)
It is actually the carry cot fitted on the seat thanks to the special kit that allows you to keep your baby in a horizontal position without the need of using the car seat for the first few months. It must be fitted on the rear seat.

- Group 0+
From birth up to 13 kg (12 months)
Like a proper cot, they can be used in the front or rear of the car. It is safer to put them in the rear. Do not put them in the front passenger seat if there is a passenger airbag. Rearward-facing seats provide greater protection for the baby's head, neck and spine than forward-facing seats. So, it is best to keep your baby in a rearward-facing seat for as long as possible. Only move them to a forward-facing seat once they have exceeded the maximum weight for the baby seat, or the top of their head is higher than the top of the seat.

- Group 0/1
From birth up to 18 kg (4 years)
This type of car seat has a spacious and comfortable seat; it can be fitted either front or rear facing: up to 13 kg it must be fitted rear facing, from 13 kg onwards it can be fitted front facing on the back seat much safer than the front seat as your child is now growing and it can be dangerous.

- Group 1
From 9 kg to 18 kg (from 9 months to 4 years)
Once children have outgrown a rearwards facing seat, the best option is to use a Group 1 seat with an integral harness, the large area of the harness helps to reduce the risk of injury if there is a crash. The bottom attachment between the legs will also prevent the child from sliding under, and out of, the harness. They can be used in the front or rear of the car, but it is safer to put them in the rear, especially if there is a passenger airbag in the front.

- Group 1/2/3
From 9 kg to 36kg ( from 9 months to 12 years)
This car seat is equipped with a practical adjustable headrest that prefectly adapt to your child’s body. It must be fitted on the rear seat front facing. The backrest cannot be reclined but it is removable to be used as booster seat when the child reaches 22 kg.

- Group 2/3
From 15 kg to 36 kg (from 3 years to 12 years)
For this type of car seats, you can choose between the ones equipped with backrest and the ones with just the seat (booster seat). It must be positioned front facing on the rear seat.

- Isofix car seats
Isofix car seats are equipped with the most innovative and safest way to anchor the car seat in the car. The Isofix system has been designed to make the car a children safe environment, even if they are not able to use the cars main restraints or seats. The Isofix system is a system of anchorage locations fitted to the seats of a vehicle to which a child’s seat or booster cushion affixes. The ISOFIX system has two anchorage points at the rear of a standard seat to which a ISOFIX enabled child seat affixes. Before buying an Isofix car seat, make sure that your car is equipped with Isofix anchorage points.

Drive carefully

Before any further information or advice on car seats, always remember to drive carefully and to pay lots of attention to other drivers’ because often, they are the cause of unpleasant accidents. Furthermore, when you drive and your child is in the car, make sure that the all the fitting systems work properly and never leave your child in the car seat without fastening the seat belt.

Bimbomarket DOES NOT go on holiday!

Bimbomarket never leaves you alone, not even in summer!

During summer holidays, as like any other month in the year, Bimbomarket will guarantee a 100% timely service.

All our products, our express deliveries and our customer service courtesy will remain at your disposal for all summer, even in August!


Moreover, until the 2nd of August, a fantastic discount for all your purchases!

Visit our web site www.bimbomarket.it/ie/en/ to choose your favourite products and use the discount voucher BMSUMMER: you will get an amazing 10% discount!*


Bimbomarket, a childproof world…..

…even in summer!

*The discount is valid on all the catalogue except Travel Systems and Nappies.The offer is valid until 02/08/2009 and cannot be accumulated with other existing offers.

General guidelines to use and choose the soother

The soother, also known as dummy, pacifier or comforter, is the best friend of most of the newborns. According to some estimates, about 70% of newborns use the soother on a regular basis. Nothing strange if you consider that babies has a natural instinct for suction even before birth. Indeed, it may happen during the ultrasound scan to see the baby sucking his thumb and after birth dedicating most of his waking hours sucking mother breast, the baby bottle or the soother.
The soother debate has raged for a number of years as it seems that it may lead to palate and dental arch malformation but actually the soother does not damage baby’s health: it is sufficient to choose the right one in the right way.

How to use the soother

One of the first good rule to follow is to do not let using a soother become a habit and limiting its use to 3 years. Actually, parents should try to wean their child off the soother starting from 2 years to encourage a gradual detachment from it. It is instead useful using the soother whenever the baby is in a situation of discomfort such as when he can’t get to sleep or in the event of gas colic.
In some situations, having something to suck is for the baby a way to calm down and settle. It is advisable to always have at hand more than one soother so to renew them often and replace the consumed one with a new pacifier immediately. Take always a new one with you so to be able to replace it easily in case it gets damaged or gets lost.
The soothers you use for your baby should be all of the same model as the baby gets used to one kind and then it is very difficult convince him to change it overnight.
Keep the pacifier as clean as possible in its holder and sterilize it before any single use.
Never dip the soother in sweet foods such as honey or sugar as this can lead to rapid tooth decay.

How to choose the soother

Depending on the shape of the teats, there are 3 different kinds of soother: cherry, drop or anatomic shape. In order to avoid the arise of dental problems, specialists usually suggest to use soothers with anatomic teats that better adapt to baby’s mouth. However, long-term use of anatomic soothers is not recommended as well.

The soothers teats are basically made from silicone or rubber. Silicone is more resistant to perforations than rubber and it is particularly suitable for babies who still do not see their first teeth coming through. Instead, when the baby starts to byte the soother with his teeth, a more resistant material like rubber results to be more suitable.

Instead, the shield that supports the teat could be made from silicone, rubber as well as from plastic. The soothers with soft shield are proved to be particularly suitable for younger babies especially if they are used during the night. The shields can have different shapes but the most common are the round and butterfly-shaped ones. The first ones are usually made from rubber or silicone, extremely soft that do not annoy the baby. The butterfly-shaped shields are made from rigid plastic and may result to be annoying in case of pressure. Instead the latter are at the same time less cumbersome and are characterized by joyful colours that make them particularly loved by older babies.

Anyway, to buy a good soother rely on the best brands specialized in baby products on the market: in some cases quality has to be the first criteria to follow.