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Shopping with Babies:

Shopping with babies can be a very fun experience. Many people love to come up to strange babies in stores, and talk to them and coo at them, and babies tend to love all that extra attention. They are usually amazed at all the lights and bright colors surrounding them, and are often happy and occupied the entire shopping trip. It usually stays this way, too, until they begin to want things that they see. It is a lot harder to tell a baby that they can't have something than it is an older child. They just don't understand reason yet, and this can make it difficult when they want something.

One of the best ways to keep your baby happy while shopping is to pick something in the beginning, and give it to them. Let them play with it the entire time you are shopping, and they might stay completely occupied with their new toy. This helps tremendously when they have reached that age where they want to grab things off the shelves. And, you can always try to keep the cart away from the shelves, but in many stores the isles are so small that to do this, it means you are preventing people from getting by.

There are a couple of very important tips to keeping your shopping trip as enjoyable as possible. You may know some of these, or it may be something you never thought of or expected, but they are all true and a good idea to follow:

• Buckle them up—this is something that parents don't always think is important, even though the cart tells them to always buckle the child up. It is very important, though. Your child will be pulling up and standing in no time, and it is just better to always be safe than sorry. It is also good to buckle your child up in the beginning, even before they can pull up or stand, simply because this will get them used to it, and you won't be suddenly buckling them up one day.

• Be careful if they are in the back—some kids love to stand up and ride in the big part of a cart while shopping. This can be fine, but you will have to always watch them very closely while shopping. You are there to shop, which means that at some point it is necessary for you to be looking at the shelf or rack you might be buying off of. You will want to pull the cart to right beside you so that in your peripheral vision you can see your child. Even though the top of the cart may reach your child's chest, making you feel safe, they are not completely safe. You never know what a child will see in a store that he wants to reach for, and it doesn't take long for them to flip over the side. In fact, you can turn away for a second, and your child can end up landing on their face in the floor. So, it is always very important to be able to see your baby.

• Take the tag off—this is something that happens to just about every parent, and yet no one bothers to inform them in advance. When you plan on buying your child something, and they have been holding it during shopping, it can turn into quite a fiasco when you try to pry that toy out of your child's arms to have it scanned at the checkout. Even if the checker is fast and manages to get it back to your child within seconds, your child will not be satisfied. They very well may continue crying for a while even after they have their toy back. The best way to avoid this situation is to simply take the tag or sticker off the toy at the checkout and hand it to the person. If they are a parent, they will understand. If they aren't, they will still understand when you inform them that you would prefer your child not scream over a toy.

Shopping with baby can be fun and enjoyable if you remember and follow these tips and safety rules.

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