Olivia Kononyuk was born on 22 Sept 2016 and has since followed Plunkets annual fundraising campaign Raise a Bundle RAB Onto day 610 of Raise a Bundles life Olivia has had an amazing start to life

We have a chat with Tetiana Olivias mother about the first 500 days of Olivias life and the value Tetiana has gained from having access to Plunket nurses in her area and resource provided by Plunket Read below for more

Plunket How were the first 500 days of Olivias life for you and Olivia

Tetiana It was definitely challenging because we have got one other older child It was quite easy going at first up until Olivia was about 8 months where we discovered she was lactose intolerant It was a very frustrating process as it took us 2 3 weeks to find out what was actually wrong with her Her symptoms included a very upset tummy all the time so it was frustrating trying to pinpoint what was wrong so we could fix it for her But life so far with Olivia has been fun and she is an easy baby so we are not complaining

Plunket To you how crucial are the first 500 days of a childs life In terms of progression and making the difference of a lifetime

Tetiana I think the first 500 days are very crucial and very important for not only critical development but also mental development of a child They learn so many new things in the first 500 days not only to sit up with their heads up and other necessary skills but also how to react emotionally Olivia learnt very quickly how to use her emotions and she can be quite manipulative It is so important for a child to have so much attention and giving their small bodies attention at all times as they learn and grow

Plunket What has been the biggest value of using Plunket and your Plunket nurse

Tetiana The biggest value for me was having the great advice available to me at all the necessary times For example during each visit with our Plunket nurse we covered big milestones and it was really important for me to get given advice on those milestones as well as how they were growing and developing in other ways Our Plunket nurse always had great advice to give and to support me as well as answer any questions She helped me to understand what I could do help push Olivia along in terms of her development and help progress her milestones I am very thankful for the Plunket nurses we had for Olivia and our oldest child as well

Plunket What has been your biggest learning from your Plunket nurse and the resources you were provided

Tetiana For me it was the advice given about various things Both our children struggled with ear infections at an early age our Plunket nurse advised us on how to deal with this how to monitor it and just gave great general advice on how to manage these I also must include that our Plunket nurse helped us a lot once we knew about Olivia lactose intolerance We were advised to keep an eye on her at all times monitor what we were feeding her and when and how to introduce various foods back into her diet She can now eat soft cheese and yoghurt in small doses thanks to our Plunket nurse who helped us to understand when to introduce these back into her diet

Plunket How has the support from Plunket positively enhanced your baby experience

Tetiana Plunket has influenced both our children and our lives as parents Plunket has influenced the way Olivia has developed in all ways but they have also taken care of me immensely over this challenging time of my life I have always had valuable and great advice given to me and we really appreciate the help Plunket has provided for us

Thank you Tetiana for your time we appreciate those kind words

Raise a Bundle RAB will be doing a monthly story and interview with each of the RAB babies and families we have associated with this Plunket National Campaign Check out httpsraiseabundleorgnzarticles for more stories and updates