fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
What to Dress Baby in For Bed in Hot Weather?
By: Susan Urban
Tags: Breastfeeding, Sleep Training, Parenting, Moms, Baby

How to dress your baby in bed in hot weather may be a problem when you are a brand new mom and heat wave comes! Overheating your child may be dangerous, so it is very important to be well-prepared for the summer.

Layers

The first question is, what is your baby wearing now to sleep? Nappy, vest and sleepsuit or just a nappy and wrapping? The more layers you have now, the more options you get in a heatwave. It also depends on how warm the weather is.

Bedding

The key is to remove additional bedding. In the heat, your baby will only need a sheet as bedding. If he still seems hot, it’s okay for him to sleep in his vest or just his nappy.

Think about removing any waterproof sheets while the weather is hot — those are not breathable.

Windows

If you are not living in a crazy-loud neighborhood — open windows. If it is still too hot — open windows and doors in several rooms to allow a through-breeze. You could also try using a fan in your baby’s room before his bedtime. This will make the place friendly and cool by the time you lie him down to sleep. Of course, you have to turn the fan off before you put your baby down for sleep, or even get to the room.

Keep curtains drawn, and blinds closed during the day to prevent the sun from heating up his room.

Bathing

Asking yourself what to dress a baby for hot weather is not only about dressing up! Taking a cooler than usual bath before bed may help. Just remember your baby will be sweaty and clammy — it is a natural way to regulate their temperature.

Fluids

Even though increasing fluids may interrupt the night and cause late-peeing, your baby’s health is the most important. Breast milk is as hydrating as water so no additional water is required for breastfed babies, though that may need increased feeds. Formula fed babies should be offered cooled boiled water in excessive heat.

Sweating

Sweating is natural and is a way for our bodies to cool us down. [Interesting fact: The dampness on our skin actually helps us to pick up the coolness from any moving air]. But you’ll find some babies sweat more than others. If your baby feels very sweaty, check to see how hot she is.

When planning what to dress baby in for bed in hot weather, also think about your baby’s ability to self-soothe. It is highly possible that your baby will wake up sooner than you’re planned and will wake up repeatedly. Consider using my How to teach a baby to fall asleep alone before the summer comes!

Susan Urban
Baby Sleep Training: When And How?
By: Anna Wilson
Tags: Baby Sleep Training, Baby Products, Baby Sleep, Baby Sleep Music, Baby

Tips to Get Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night

Babies often wake up at night when they are hungry or uncomfortable. Parents help them get back to sleep and train them to sleep all night. This sleep training process helps babies develop a regular way of sleeping. While some babies learn quickly, others have difficulty getting back to sleep. When can you sleep with your baby? What methods can you use to sleep?

Baby sleep training techniques

Here are some sleep training techniques recommended by parents and children:

1. Be consistent

The best way to train anything is to keep a consistent schedule and routine. No matter what happens during the day, try to keep going to bed on a consistent schedule. This means making a lot of sacrifices, but you will find that the effort is worth it because babies tend to thrive on consistent routines.

2. Put him sleepy

Setting your baby to be drowsy after regular sleep will help your baby sleep longer. You can try giving her a warm bath so she can read and play and allow her to feed in bed until she falls asleep alone. A massage with her lavender ointment will also soothe her until she feels comfortable sleeping.

3. Submit Bedtime Signals

Let your baby know it’s time to sleep by singing him to the same sleep every night. Or you can also try playing a CD from your favorite lobby before going to bed. Hold her until she calms down if she cries and places her on the baby. Sit close without touching him until he falls asleep.

4. Swaddle Her

Some parents find that sealing your baby in a soft blanket every night can help him stay warm and comfortable all night without him having to wake up.

5. Let her be startled and calm herself to sleep

Once all the techniques are successful, some parents eventually give up and just allow their babies to get nervous until they return to sleep alone. It may take a few nights to get used to it, but in the end, the baby is less passionate and can sleep longer, like the parents themselves.

6. Start early

One way to sleep with your baby is to start early by taking regular bedtime. You can feed him until he is sleepy, use a padded pad on the surface of the bed and turn on the fan. He falls asleep every time you do this by bedtime.

7. Create a routine

Prepare your baby to sleep with a normal bedtime ritual that you can do in fifteen minutes. Do peaceful activities such as singing or reading in the nursery or near the crib. Avoid TV or other stimulating activities such as sleeping close to the bed. You can also use a blanket or stuffed toy to make your baby comfortable if he or she is over six months old.

8. Set the scene

Create a favorable environment in a cool and comfortable room. Set the temperature to about 65–70 degrees and dim the lights. You may want to use shades to darken the room and install a night light for use when your baby wakes up at night.

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Note: This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything after clicking an affiliate link, I will receive some commission that doesn’t add to your cost. Thank you.
Baby soap for skin whitening and glowing
Tags: Baby Products, Health, Beauty, Kids, Baby

Many of our kids are facing some skin problems such as dry skin, skin allergies, psoriasis, rash and dark skin. We are having a lot of products in the market to cure such diseases, but they might be so expensive as well as we can not assure 100% positive result and might give side effects.

The world in which we are living now is chemicalized world. Every product has a chemical-rich compound. Even food products, beauty, health, medicine, etc are running with chemical-rich compounds. So these chemical-rich products are transferring the natural into artificial. The result will be nice but not natural. Furthermore, it will effects a lot of health issues later.

But when we approach natural products they never make a change to artificial but improve the natural more and more. As well as no changes in our healthy life.

When we are trying to make the remedies for our babies we care and concentrate more and more. Only organic and natural products so there will be definitely no side effects resulted and 100% positive results will be obtained.

This soap can be used by anyone from breastfeeding babies to the elderly. There is no any chemical included in this healthy soap.
Life interrupted
By: Millennial Mommy.
Tags: Motherhood, Ftm, Millennials, First Time Mom, Baby

I’ve never had so much to say until I became a mother. And it’s only been, let’s see… 10 weeks? I should know this. See, I’m already failing. Sadly, I’m so tired that maintaining coherence is impossible. Stringing together words like a toddler with beads and yarn. Is that even a good metaphor?

There are good days, and there are bad days. Today… was a bad day.

My baby is objectively the cutest. No one can deny it. And I’m already madly in love with her. Head over heels. But that doesn’t mean I don’t consider chucking her out a window sometimes. KIDDING. I would never. Don’t come for me.

The girl just won’t sleep during the day, which sets off this horrible, perpetual cycle of exhaustion. A tired baby will sleep. An overtired baby, ironically, will not. That’s just one of the many things I’ve learned since delivery.

I’ve learned the true healing power of crying uncontrollably in the shower. I’ve learned patience faster than ever. I’ve learned to appreciate the little moments spent alone with my husband. I’ve learned that I can, in fact, be an adult when I need to be. I’ve learned that even if you have trouble breastfeeding in the beginning, it’s not a lost cause. Everything is temporary, and that’s the most important lesson of all.

Like I tell my friends and family, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. It’s the absolutely beautiful moments of love and fun and smiles we get with our sweet girl that make it all worth it. Can’t say I would have been able to say that a few weeks ago, though. There were days I hated my life…. but everything’s temporary. What’s permanent is this miracle of a child we get to love and watch grow up.

My mom has always been my best friend. I can count on her no matter what…to a fault sometimes. If my and my daughter’s relationship is even a fraction of the relationship I have with my mom, it will be the greatest gift.
Duo Spoon Oral Motor Therapy Tools, 3 Pack, Textured Stimulation and Sensory Input Treatment for Babies, Toddlers or Kids, BPA Free Silicone with Flexible, Easy Handle
By: Best Bacare, Baproduct Top World
Tags: Babies, Bpa, Duo

Turn basic foods or purees into more exciting oral experiences with Duo Spoon’s textured spoon heads and fun, kid-friendly design.

When it’s finally time to move from milk and liquids into more solid foods, it can be challenging to get your child interested in trying something new; especially if they have an oral stimulation sensitivity. That’s why we created Duo Spoons, smart mouth exploration tools that feature textured heads and support those with sensory challenges.

Expand Your Child’s Palate

The innovative textures not only stimulate the mouth and gums it also “wakes up” the upper lip as it moves across the spoon bowl. This alerts the lip to increase activity during oral motor treatment, creating a more engaged experience kids will love. And because it works with all types of food textures, including crumbs, sticky foods, and purees, it offers a one-of-a-kind stimulation.

Product Details:

Dual Spoon Motor Tool (3-Pack) Oral Stimulating Textures Flexible, Ergonomic Handle Food-Grade Safe, Latex Free Silicone Helps Increase Upper Lip Activity (Food Removal) Safe for All Types of Foods and Purees Dishwasher Safe with Mild Soap and Hot Water Safety Note: Not Recommended as a Chew Toy

Get these textured Duo Spoons for oral motor stimulation by clicking Add to Cart above and help your child safely explore and overcome sensory challenges.

Creative Oral Motor Tools — An enhanced version of a baby spoon or toddler utensil these are more than oral motor chew toys. They stimulate the tongue, gums, lips and mouth palate with textured spoon ends.

Dual Stimulation Ends — Each Duo Spoon features a textured spoon head on either end to create varying experiences when kids are learning to self-feed, explore tastes, or enhance a sensory oral feel.

Make Mealtime More Fun — A more playful, fun, and friendly design that’s better than a standard spoon our sensory spoons can create new food textures to enhance every individual meal or snack.

BPA-Free, Flexible Silicone — Each spoon is crafted with high-quality, food-grade safe silicone that are easier for small hands to grasp and dishwasher safe to make cleaning up quick and easy.

Trusted Quality Assurance — Designed for ages 0 and up our oral stimulation tools are safe, effective, and backed by our premier customer service and support.

Price:

Source Link:

Duo Spoon Oral Motor Therapy Tools, 3 Pack, Textured Stimulation and Sensory Input Treatment for Babies, Toddlers or Kids, BPA Free Silicone with Flexible, Easy Handle
Bumkins Silicone Chewtensils, Baby Fork and Spoon Set, Training Utensils, Baby Led Weaning Stage 1 for Ages 6 Months+ in Gray
By: Best Bacare, Baproduct Top World
Tags: Bumkins, Ages, Baby

Bumkins Chewtensils™ are intended for Stage 1 of baby led weaning — introducing babies to the concept of holding a utensil and feeding themselves. We made Chewtensils from soft, textured, food-grade silicone that easy to grip and is gentle on tender gums, with bendable heads for safety. They are perfect for dipping into puréed foods at the early part of baby led weaning. Chewtensils are intended for babies before they have a firm grasp on self-feeding (best for dipping and scooping, not yet spearing solid foods.) The back of the spoon head has sensory bumps to stimulate gums. Safe to use — made from 100% food-grade silicone and BPA-free, BPS-free, PVC-free, phthalate-free, cadmium-free and lead-free. CPSIA compliant. Dishwasher-safe (top rack). For ages 6 months and up. Each measure approximately 3” long, 1.75” wide. Do not leave child unattended with product. Discard if damaged or torn. Designed in Arizona, responsibly made in China.SELF FEEDING — Our Fork and Spoon Set is perfect to help guide little ones to self-feeding. Chewtensils help you to introduce babies to self-feeding by giving them utensils that can be chewed on before transitioning to silverware.

SAFE TO USE — Ventilated choke barrier for extra safety. Silicone does not contain petroleum-based plastics or toxic chemicals like those found in plastics. BPA-free, BPS-free, PVC-free, phthalate-free, cadmium-free and lead-free. CPSIA compliant.

STIMULATES GUMS — Back of the spoon head has sensory bumps to stimulate gums

BACTERIA RESISTANT — Silicone has a natural resistance to bacteria, making it safe and hygienic. Safe to boil to sterilize.

Ventilated choke barrier for extra safety. Designed for ages 6 months and up. Do not leave child unattended with product. Discard if damaged or torn.

DURABLE — Silicone does not warp or damage and can withstand both hot and cold temperatures. It is also resistant to age, sunlight, moisture and chemicals.

Designed for ages 6 months and up. Not a toy. Do not leave child unattended with product. Discard if damaged or torn.

Price:

Source Link:

Bumkins Silicone Chewtensils, Baby Fork and Spoon Set, Training Utensils, Baby Led Weaning Stage 1 for Ages 6 Months+ in Gray
PandaEar Divided Unbreakable Silicone Baby and Toddler Plates — 3 Pack — Non-Slip — Dishwasher and Microwave Safe — FDA/LFGB Certified Silicone Blue Green Yellow
By: Best Bacare, Baproduct Top World
Tags: Blue, Certified, Baby

Stackable for easy storage

This pack of colorful, non-slip toddler plates takes up minimal space in your kitchen thanks to their ability to stack neatly on top of each other. This makes storing them in small places ideal, especially if you’re travelling in an RV or staying away from home.

Perfect for toddlers and young children

Breakfast, lunch and dinner can all be difficult if you have a fussy child. Our silicone plate collection for children each feature 3 separate compartments on every plate so food items can be kept away from each other. Ideal for snacks, hot meals and cold meals too. Place fruit in one section, crackers in another and veg sticks in another. The options are endless, and it makes meal times exciting for little ones who enjoy feeding themselves.

Why silicone is best for your child

When shopping for baby and toddler friendly food dishes silicone is really your best option. The clean, BPA free surface is less porous than other materials which prevents build-up, illuminates soap residue, and is less of a breeding ground for nasties.

Bonus High quality food-grade silicone baby utensils worth $6 included

BUY NOW and add a splash of non-slip color to mealtimes with our silicone divided toddler and child plates 3 pack

TODDLER PLATES — give your little one more independence at mealtimes with their very own silicone plate featuring 3 divided sections. The non-slip design will ensure the plates cannot be thrown on the floor therefore reducing mess

EASY TO CLEAN — only the best materials have been used to make these kids plates as easy to clean as possible. They can withstand high heat making them suitable for microwave use and can be cleaned easily in the dishwasher

100% SILICONE BABY PLATES — we have used BPA Free and FDA and LFGB certified silicone in our silicone baby plate production so flavor and taste isn’t affected as well as giving you complete peace of mind

PRACTICALLY UNBREAKABLE — it takes a lot of force and effort to break these silicone kids’ plates which must sound like a breath of fresh air to any parent. They are robust and heat proof and can tolerate the oven and the freezer too

A PRACTICAL GIFT — mealtimes can be stressful for parents and care givers so why not treat young friends or family members to their very own set of silicone, divided plates. Ideal for babies and kids of all ages, they are a convenient and fun way to enjoy food without the mess

Price:

Source Link:

PandaEar Divided Unbreakable Silicone Baby and Toddler Plates — 3 Pack — Non-Slip — Dishwasher and Microwave Safe — FDA/LFGB Certified Silicone Blue Green Yellow
Why Choose Pumping. Pumping for many Mums is based on…
By: Nursing Tips
Tags: Breastfeeding, Pumping, Mothers, Feeding, Baby

Why Choose Pumping

Choosing pumping is especially helpful for babies who have a poor latch or other feeding issues.

Or simply because it works for their lifestyle. Some mothers are going back to work and want to continue to offer Breastmilk to their babies. And Pumping allows Mothers this convenience to continued to feed their babies solely on breast milk even when they are away.

Be it Pumped fresh and or pumped and stored for a later time.

Pumping can also help many mothers increase their milk supply in between actual latching and feeding of baby. The benefits of pumping also allow Father and others to feed baby. Pumping helps baby learn to feed from a bottle as well as Mothers’ breast. Pumping can also give you more control of your daily time.

Although it is said that the benefits of exclusively breastfeeding is more beneficial than pumping. As the milked pumped may not be specifically tailored to your babies needs when pumped and the immune benefits may be less. The benefits are still quite great!

Pumping also can help Mother get an idea of how much milk she’s actually producing for her baby. As well a privacy for some Mothers who choose not to breastfeed whilst out.

P umping can be more costly for some. Considering the supplies needed to properly pump. Most insurances cover the rental cost of pumps.

However, the pumping supplies needed an out of pocket expense:

Additional travel breast pump bottle

Milk storage bags

Phalanges for the breast pump

A hands-free pumping bra

Sterilizer

Extra storage freezer

Overall, pumping can be a great benefit and is an individual and personal choice that deserves the same support when deciding how to feed your baby.
Baby Room Rugs — 5 Tips For New Parents
By: Susan Urban
Tags: Parenting, Moms, Design, Kids, Baby

Baby room rugs are more important than you may think. Unless you are a huge interior design maniac, you should choose a rug for longer than one season. It means that the rug is going to go through a few phases of your child’s development: crawling, playing, potty training… How to choose the one that can survive all of these and — at the same time — gives you an excellent experience?

Softness

All baby room rug should be soft, but surprisingly, it is not always true. That is why you may need to shop for the carpet offline. There is no better solution than touching the rug of your choice. It’s crucial to guarantee that the rug that you decide for your infant’s room is soft and comfortable. Improper material may chafe your baby’s hands and feet.

Textil

Rugs made of wool are great for your baby’s experiences, even if the little one is hypersensitive. Also, those are quite simple to clean. Nylon is another decision — it would probably be cheaper, but not that soft and may be harder to clean.

Color

Best baby room rugs are bright rugs. I know cleaning them might be burdensome. But bright, brilliant color intrigue infants and stimulate them.

Style

I can guess that your baby’s room has got a theme, or it will have. Right? If not, check out my ideas for baby girl room and baby boy room themes! Carpet should be an integral element of the chosen design. Unicorn field? Pink rug with silvery reflections. Pirate ship? Ocean blue or white-blue stripes.

Number

The main rug is supposed to be placed next to the nursery station. But you can put rugs at different parts of your baby’s nursery and as well — in other parts of the house. Everywhere your baby will crawl! Taking naps in a living room? Have a rug for a baby there as well.

Picking the baby room rug and designing the baby chamber is one thing; another is keeping it tidy! If you’re afraid that having a baby (and all of the baby stuff) is going to bring chaos to your life — grab my “How to create order in your child’s room” guide. I have the perfect Box System figured out that helps you keep everything tidy. And the best part is — I can tell you how to teach your baby to love the right order too!.

Susan Urban
Three newborns taken .
By: Diane Nicholson
Tags: Calcium, Vegan, Farm, Dairy, Baby

Three newborns taken.

This headline would grab our attention, cause outrage. and a cry for justice if the babes were human.

That stab of empathy may begin to dissipate when you realise I’m talking about calves and cows. You may even stop reading here… but I hope you will indulge me for two more sentences.

These cows were inseminated by their owners/captors and this is not an isolated incident. They are inseminated regularly and their calves taken repeatedly.

If those sentences bother you as they do me, realise that the milk in your shopping trolley, and the dollars you pay for it are the fuel that drives scenarios like this.

Weaned humans don’t need milk. Calcium is readily available in green vegetables, such as kale and broccoli, nuts and legumes. See link below for more information.

As I listen to the mourning of the cows from my cosy caravan on a friends property, near a farm, I reflect on almost a year of being vegan. For me, it is about choosing to disengage from the cruel practices of our culture. It is being true to myself; honouring the sentience of other species and endeavouring to tread lightly on our planet. I’m glad I chose this path for my life.

Early this morning I watched a calf playing near it’s mother, she dipped her head to allow the calf to butt her forehead. It was a sweet moment.

One of the cows saw me standing on the top of the rise and looked, a long look, assessing whether I was a threat I guess. I am glad that I no longer am. Even indirectly or behind the scenes.

Calcium:
I can honestly say death was never on my mind during my pregnancy and then my son’s birth.
By: Crystal Hager Goh
Tags: Birth, Baby, Motherhood, Giving Birth

I can honestly say death was never on my mind during my pregnancy and then my son’s birth. I was terrified of giving birth. I mean so terrified that to this day I believe I kept my body from going into labor. Death, no I wasn’t scared of it. I was terrified of the pain to come.

Like Jemima I knew I had a big baby cooking in the oven. One time, I was finishing up my degree while pregnant, I told a classmate I would drive her home. I was a tad slow walking and I apologized saying my pregnancy slowed me down. She responded, “Oh. I didn’t want to say anything because you never can tell if a person is pregnant or just overweight these days.” Thanks.

I had to be induced and after 12 hours according to my OBGYN I had only dilated maybe the size of the tip of his pinky. My son was going into distress so it was best to do a C-Section. Heck I was ready. I was like let’s go I can walk to the OR. I never even felt my contractions while they tried to induce me.

I didn’t want to actually go through giving birth. I would tell my mom I wished they still knocked you out like they did in the 1970’s when she had my brother and I.

Yup, mind over matter. I was so scared of the possible pain and trauma my body wouldn’t go into labor. In the end I had a beautiful baby boy with a head full of jet black hair weighing 9 pounds 4 ounces and 21 inches long with suprising head and neck control by day 2. And no I chose never to do that again. Once was enough for me.
Birth after 50? Israeli researchers say bring on the baby
By: The Jerusalem Post
Tags: Research, Birth, Health, Pregnancy, Baby

BY JERUSALEM POST STAFF

pregnant woman . (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)

New research by Israeli scientists determines that it is possible to give birth after the age of 50 without endangering the mother or the baby.

The study, conducted by a group of doctors and researchers from Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba and Ben-Gurion University, examined the possible pregnancy complications for women over the age of 50 and whether mothers who have babies at this age put themselves or their fetuses at increased risk in comparison to younger mothers.

The researchers found that while until a few decades ago, giving birth at a later age seemed unfathomable, thanks to medical and technological advances — including extracellular fertilization and egg donation — the age at which a woman can give birth has gradually increased.

In an article published by the Hebrew website Ynet, data from the Health Ministry shows that in 2017, about 1,300 women aged 45 and over gave birth, some of whom were even over 50. This compares to 950 women four years earlier.

During the study, the researchers examined the outcomes of pregnancy among 68 women aged 50 and older who gave birth in recent years. The study found that about half gave birth through fertilization and some, surprisingly, got pregnant in a natural way.

They compared the pregnancies and births of 558 women ages 45 to 50, to 7,321 women who gave birth between the ages of 40 and 44, to 240,000 women who gave birth under the age of 40.

The research specifically tried to see if these women were prone to complications like gestational diabetes, pregnancy hypertension, premature births and cesarean sections. It was also examined if the newborn suffered from complications such as low epigraph scores indicating poor physical condition, distress during labor and even mortality.

The researchers concluded that all complications (maternal and fetal) were higher among women who gave birth to children over the age of 40, compared with those who gave birth below that age. Surprisingly, however, there was no escalation of complications in women over the age of 50, compared with women who gave birth between the ages of 40 and 50.

Ynet interviewed one of the lead researchers, Prof. Eyal Shiner, who said there “is no doubt that medical teams are going to see more and more births to women over the age of 50.” He noted that it is still advisable to treat the pregnancies of women over the age of 40 as high-risk, and even more so, the pregnancies of women over 50.

“But it turns out that the risk is not much higher as the woman gets older,” he said.

Originally published at www.jpost.com.
Episode 1
By: Desola Olabode
Tags: Lifestyle, Baby, Birthday, Pregnancy, Life

Episode 1

A letter to my 2year old.

Dear Tireni- 18/02/2019

Whenever you get to read this, you are not 2 years old yet. You will be in less than 7 days.

Someone once. told me that you should have come with a pre warning sign ⚠️ and a manual. It cracked me up but they were right!

Never judge a book by its cover goes the old saying. When I gave birth to you 2years ago, you were the darn coolest baby 👶🏽 I knew. It was my second caesarean op, which I don’t mind, giving my “lazy ass” I couldn’t push a lump of meat down my throat needless to say a baby through “wellydingalyly” (don’t ask me what that meant I made it up)

Ok…where was I? A book and cover yes!

After the birth, your dad wasn’t allowed to stay over except we pay for a special room at the hospital, last time I checked it was still called a hospital not “Premier Inn” we weren’t having that! So he skedaddled( besides he had to pick up and tend to our 2year old son whose space was about to be massively invaded) and I was left with my sour swollen. sown up belly and you of course

I was a bit scared. How on earth would I tend to you

How would I heed to your midnight needs

Catheter still stuck down below

And the CS pains still potently lingered

The codeine didn’t help

But you did..

You didn’t cry…through the night

You didn’t wake…through the night

Literally, you slept like a baby

This you did for the two nights I was at the hospital

This you have done for the past years… now going on 2.

But hey… I was never to be deceived for long, for though you gave me the luxury of the nights you set me on my “head, shoulders, knees and toes” during the day…phew!!! 🤦🏽‍♀️

Something got to give right?

“My little Ondo Ijogbon” … that was how that name was born!

Love Mummy 💕 💖 💗
Quick tips on Capybara
By: Zoe Larsen
Tags: Best Practices, Capybara, Ruby on Rails, Software Development, Testing

Asserting Elements

Before your system test runs any javascript or starts clicking on any DOM elements, you want the test to wait for any page changes or AJAX requests to resolve. This helps prevent race conditions.

Methods like has_selector? has_no_selector? are useful for making sure you are on the expected page.

def assert_first_visible_row row_text

has_selector? ".rowWrapper" ## Rest of code block.

end

Scoping

There are a lot of elements on your DOM that Capybara has to sort through. Especially if you have multiple of the same element like rows in a table. If you click on a link in a particular row then it might be hard for Capybara to find the correct row since there are many rows in a table.

Robust scoping helps avoid this problem.

within find_all(".rowWrapper")[1] do

assert_text row_text

end

Using within is great to help narrow down where you want Capybara to look on the page.

Additionally, if using normal element ids, classes or names is not working then within() supports XPath. The ability to use XPath can help you drill down when css selectors are failing.

Element matching

Capybara will match elements partially by default. This can be extremely frustrating if you have several buttons with different variations of “Submit” for a form.

<button>

Submit Now

</button> <button>

Submit

</button> <button>

Submit Later

</button>

Capybara will match on the first one if you use click ‘Submit’ .

One way to resolve this is to pass in an argument to the click method.

click 'Submit Later', exact: true

You can also change Capybara’s default behavior in your test setup.

## Match Exact.

Capybara.exact = true ## Method `find` returns the first element and ignores the rest.

Capybara.match = :first ## Capybara will raise an error if more than one element is found.

## Helps to prevent inexplicable breaks.

Capybara.match = :one ## Return exact match if exists else will default to partial match.

Capybara.match = :prefer_exact ## Raises error if more than one match.

## Same behavior as :prefer_exact if Capybara.exact is set to false.Capybara.match = :smart

Capybara Don’ts

NO Sleeps

Don’t use sleeps() to make you tests wait for AJAX or other page elements to load.

It’s a sloppy practice and Capybara has native configurations to address waiting for elements or requests to show up such as the Capybara.default_wait_time .

Additionally you should be using the methods that wait like described in the above section.

Don’t Add Selectors just to satisfy your tests

You should write up your HTML views with concise selectors to make it easy to style and for javascript like jQuery to hook onto. However you should avoid going back after you are done and add more selectors in order to help pass your system tests.

Robust scoping within your tests should help avoid any need to add more selectors to your views.

Resources

The following are some helpful resources that helped me with system testing with Capybara.
5 Easy Steps To Improve Your Productivity
By: Anna Sisianu
Tags: Empy, Self Improvement, Productivity Hacks, Best Practices, HR

“Let’s Work Smarter, Not Harder” — FusionWorks

If you work hard and spend a lot of time on an elementary task, it does not mean that you are productive. Firstly let’s try to analyze what productivity is.

Productivity is commonly defined as a ratio between the output volume and the volume of inputs. Or, the rapport between completed tasks and the time spent while completing them. Employee productivity (sometimes referred to as workforce productivity) is an assessment of the efficiency of a worker or group of workers. Typically, the productivity of a given worker will be assessed relative to an average for other employees doing similar work.

Now, when we have an idea of the productivity concept we may think about the ways to improve it. Try the following and you will definitely increase efficiency! Let’s start working smarter instead of harder:

This article is powered by Empy.io — an all-in-one tool that helps HRs synchronize with the employees and handle all the internal requests in one single place. Try it for free!

1) Finish planning. Start acting.

It’s good to take the time to plan your actions, but you can waste too many hours just planning. Check what you have to do and don’t wait, start! If you count tens of thousands of times the activities you have to undertake, you gain nothing. Avoid friendship with procrastination, break with it! You can do it. Start the activity. A small step is still a move forward.

2) Meetings can last a maximum of 30 minutes.

Are all the meetings so important? Who counted how many hours a week he/she spends for: on the way to/from the meeting, unimportant discussions, boring people? If you have what to skip, do it. But if you are sure of the importance of all meetings, drop them on time. Half an hour is the perfect time to find out the latest news, decide and go on happily.

3) Say YES only to the important things.

Someone said that the difference between a successful man/woman and a very successful one is the ability to say NO. Every time we agree to do something for another person, we waste our time on activities that have absolutely nothing to do with our mission and goals. As a result, we are unhappy. We have not achieved anything important. We are tired — half a day has passed for nothing. And we are depressed — we do not find meaning in what we do. We can achieve more if we only get involved in what matters, we know exactly what we do when we do it and why we do it.

4) Free your mind.

Our brains are overworked. We bombard them with all kinds of information and more and more voluminous. Why do we remember what we only need for a very short time? Why were all kinds of diaries invented? When we want our computer/phone to work faster, we get out of all sorts of unnecessary applications, as well the mind works. Everything we can write — meetings, classes, topics for discussion, questions, etc. — write down instead of trying to memorize.
Sorting Lists in Python
By: Sebastian Witowski
Tags: Tips And Tricks, Performance, Best Practices, Writing Faster Python, Python

There are at least two common ways to sort lists in Python:

With sorted function that returns a new list

With list.sort method that modifies list in place

Which one is faster? Let’s find out!

sorted() vs list.sort()

I will start with a list of 1 000 000 randomly shuffled integers. Later on, I will also check if the order matters.

sorted is less than 10% slower (385/352≈1.094). Since we only run one loop, the exact numbers are not very reliable. I have rerun the same tests a couple more times, and the results were slightly different each time. sort took around 345-355 msec and sorted took around 379-394 msec (but it was always slower than sort ). This difference comes mostly from the fact that sorted creates a new list.

Why do I make a copy of the original list in each test? Well, in the original version of this article, I forgot to do this, and I ended up with completely wrong benchmarks. sort was running on a sorted list (because the first iteration of timeit sorted it), and sorted was running on a random list. You can see the whole explanation in the original post.

Initial order matters

What happens when our initial list is already sorted?

Now, sorting takes much less time and the difference between sort and sorted grows to 37% (16.6/12.1≈1.372). Why is sorted 37% slower this time? Well, creating a new list takes the same amount of time as before. And since the time spent on sorting has shrunk, the impact of creating that new list got bigger.

And if we try to sort a list of 1 000 000 numbers ordered in descending order:

The results are almost identical as before. The sorting algorithm is clever enough to optimize the sorting process for a descending list.

For our last test, let’s try to sort 1 000 000 numbers where 100 000 elements are shuffled, and the rest are ordered:

Both functions get slower as the input list becomes more scrambled.

Using list.sort() is my preferred way of sorting lists - it saves some time (and memory) by not creating a new list. But that's a double-edged sword! Sometimes you might accidentally overwrite the initial list without realizing it (as I did with my initial benchmarks 😅). So, if you want to preserve the initial list's order, you have to use sorted instead. And sorted can be used with any iterable, while sort only works with lists. If you want to sort a set, then sorted is your only solution.

Conclusions

sort is slightly faster than sorted , because it doesn't create a new list. But you might still stick with sorted if:

You don’t want to modify the original list. sort performs sorting in-place, so you can't use it here.

performs sorting in-place, so you can't use it here. You need to sort something else than a list. sort is only defined on lists, so if you want to sort a set or any other collection of items, you have to use sorted instead.

If you want to learn more, the Sorting HOW TO guide from Python documentation contains a lot of useful information.
Dear Procrastination, let’s break up!
By: Anna Sisianu
Tags: Empy, Self Improvement, Best Practices, HR, Productivity

“… procrastination is a well-known process: we leave the tasks for the last moment, then we panic.”

Your deadline is here. But your task is not in progress, it is not even started yet. And you do not rush to do it. You may recheck a 10th time if you have a new message. You may remind yourself about a very interesting video that must be reseen at this very moment. You are hungry. You have to respond to an urgent call. Yes, you understand that you need to work. Also you, as a rational being, understand that you have to force yourself to start this task/activity. But it is simply impossible. Yes, procrastination is a well-known process. We leave the things we have to do for the last moment, then we panic. Do you remember the Panic Moster Ted talk? This habit destroys us, but what would be the solution? Here are some options:

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1. Divide everything you need into small pieces. They say it is impossible to eat an elephant, but it could be done by breaking it into small pieces. One of the causes of procrastination is the understanding, on a subconscious level, of the excessive volume of the task. Focusing on small things we will be willing to quickly finish what we set out.

2. Change the work environment. Different environments have different impacts on our productivity. Choose where it is easier for you to do a certain activity.

3. Draw up a calendar and set deadlines for every particular activity. Having a single deadline for all activities is like an invitation to procrastinate.

4. Eliminate distracting factors. One of the reasons for procrastination is the availability of other occupations, so limit your access to what distracts you. Put the phone on silent, close all tabs where you do not work, do not leave any opportunity to escape!

5. Communicate with people who inspire you to action. The people in our entourage directly influence our behavior. By interacting with other people, each of us takes something from the interlocutor.

6. Clarify your goal. Maybe the cause of procrastination is the discrepancy between what you want to achieve and what you do. It happens that during our journey in reaching the goal, we grow and we already have other desires and needs. Instead of wasting time, take a break and decide what you really want to achieve.

7. Don’t complicate things. Are you waiting for a perfect time to start? Now is not the right time to start because x, y, z? Here’s a secret — the perfect moment will never be or is right now, you choose!
Just follow the best practice
By: Isaac Perez
Tags: Best Practices, Systems Thinking, Systems Change

Most of the time to have a world-class system, you only need to follow the best practices.

One of the hardest parts is to identify the best practices that can be applied and get the time needed to implement them.

They are best practices for a reason, and one would think it would be straightforward to make a case to implement them. But sometimes they are a hard sell because the benefits are not evident. Not evident until something breaks, and then everyone realises how vital would have been to follow the best practices.

Take the case of the TSB migration, which it probably was very complicated, but a best practice for migrations is to have a rollback mechanism. If they had one, they could have rolled back when the first problems appeared and had minimal impact on the users. Maybe the rollback mechanism was complicated, expensive, would have delayed the migration, and any other excuse that’s typically used in these cases.

What would have been more expensive? To do a rigorous migration with a rollback mechanism or the chaos that ensued the ruined migration?

The TSB migration is an extreme example; let’s think about more simple ones like creating infrastructure in AWS. AWS has best practices for at least their most commonly used services.

Is it that hard to just read through their best practices and apply them?

We are not talking about months of development from a team of 50; we are only talking about reading a couple of PDFs and apply the best practices they recommend. Which, incidentally, most of the time are exclusively common-sense practices!

Another side of the best practices is that some best practices, or best ways to do something, are not widely spread yet. I like the phrase “The future is here; it’s just unevenly distributed.”

Trying to figure out which new methods are going to become best practices and should be adopted is not only one of the most exciting parts of designing a system, it also shows the difference between the level of expertise of an engineer.

It is worth mentioning that saying: “You should follow the best practices”, like an old man nagging about everything it’s straightforward.

Another of the hardest parts I found of applying best practices is having the rigour of actually doing it.

It’s much easier to do something quick and not think much about it.

That is another difference between top-level engineers and less experienced, or competent ones.

Always apply best practices, the time spent reading, understanding and implementing them it’s guaranteed to pay off.
Do batteries expire?
By: Sem Team Unilag
Tags: Best Practices, Expiry Date, Battery Life

Like most things, batteries too have expiry dates. However, unlike the regular expiry dates we know of, batteries don’t ‘spoil’ or become completely unusable when their expiry date is reached.

This means that when your batteries have crossed their expiry dates, you don’t necessarily have to throw them away because they still have some useful life in them. The battery still functions but with less efficiency.

The idea of keeping batteries even though their expiry dates have been reached comes with a downside and this is mostly as a result of a bad practice that we engage in, albeit unintentionally.

When we notice that a battery doesn’t function as well, we often replace it but the problem with this is that we don’t necessarily replace the entire set or unit. If your device uses more than one battery, chances are you don’t replace the entire set at once and this is a problem.

It is a very wrong practice to mix old and new batteries together. Doing this reduces their overall performance and may cause battery leakage or rupture.

Does this mean you have to change all the batteries at the same time?

Yes, it is recommended to change all batteries in a unit at the same time.

Damaged or not, a partially used battery will drain energy from a new one and inevitably reduce the total amount of battery power available. Talk about being counterproductive.

Now let’s get into a little physics to aid our understanding of what goes on when we mix old and new batteries together.
JavaScript Best Practices
By: Dan Romans
Tags: Best Practices, Programming, Web Development, JavaScript

A JavaScript web developer fixing bugs because they did not read this article.

All things can be done many ways. Some ways yield better results than others and become standardized. In the realm of web development, conventions exist because the extraordinary amount of data and communications being executed demand a shared understanding of how systems work, and how work is performed.

All programming languages have best practices, but I’ll discuss some for JavaScript because its rise to dominance makes it very relevant, and it’s sort of the wild west of programming languages. Consider these points before saddling up and slinging scripts:

Naming

When declaring names for variables and functions, be succinct and descriptive. Use enough characters to clearly identify what the thing is, but use the least amount needed. Say you have a function that adds a <div> for a product to a <div> on a products page.

addP() // Not great...

addProductDivToProductsDivIfProductsDivNotContainsProduct() // NO!!!

addProductToProductsDiv() //Sensible and contextually understood 👍

Formatting(Code Organization)

A language’s syntax must be used correctly to produce executable code, but, in addition to whitespace, the now optional statement separator ( ; ), and many variations (e.g. function: concise vs. arrow), there are boundless ways to fill the page. You should explore your own style and feel free to innovate, but make sure to write neat, legible, and consistent code that is D.R.Y. and easily navigable by other developers and your future self.

Modularization

It’s a fun word to say. It’s also very important. JavaScript works with many events, which can require many functions which require callbacks which require… It’s important to follow the single responsibility principal and modularize the work that’s being performed. This leads to flexible, dynamic, and efficient code that is easier to alter or debug. Abstract repeated work into a helper, like this function that removes all children from a parent node:

function removeChildren(parentNode) {

while (parentNode.firstChild) {

parentNode.removeChild(parentNode.firstChild)

}

}

Just Enough JavaScript

JavaScript is highly dynamic. It is responsible for the highly interactive web experience we constantly experience. When developing with JavaScript, remember its primary role: to provide functionality. While tempting to perform all work with JavaScript (because it can be used to do almost anything), don’t neglect the importance of HTML being ultimately responsible for content, and CSS for styling. Considering accessibility and functionality, it is most important to have a solid foundation of content, independent from the enhanced features of Javascript, that still provides a positive user experience.

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