Find info on your childrens health

The Childrens Health Blog

Subscribe to Find info on your childrens health

Archive for January, 2010

Jan
31

Breast Feeding And Positioning

Posted by admin

For some people, the process of breast feeding
seems to come natural, although there’s a level
of skill required for successful feeding and a
correct technique to use. Incorrect positioning
is one of the biggest reasons for unsuccessful
feeding and it can even injure the nipple or
breast quite easily.

By stroking the baby’s cheek with the nipple, the
baby will open its mouth towards the nipple, which
should then be pushed in so that the baby will
get a mouthful of nipple and areola. This
position is known as latching on. A lot of women
prefer to wear a nursing bra to allow easier access
to the breast than other normal bras.

The length of feeding time will vary. Regardless
of the duration of feeding time, it’s important
for mothers to be comfortable. The following are
positions you can use:
1. Upright – The sitting position where
the back is straight.
2. Mobile – Mobile is where the mother
carries her baby in a sling or carrier while breast
feeding. Doing this allows the mother to breast
feed in the work of everyday life.
3. Lying down – This is good for night feeds
or for those who have had a caesarean section.
4. On her back – The mother is sitting
slightly upright, also a useful position for tandem
breast feeding.
5. On her side – The mother and baby both
lie on their sides.
6. Hands and knees – In this feeding position
the mother is on all fours with the baby underneath
her. Keep in mind, this position isn’t normally
recommended.

Anytime you don’t feel comfortable with a feeding
position, always stop and switch to a different
position. Each position is different, while some
mothers prefer one position, other’s may like a
totally different position. All you need to do is
experiment and see which position is best for you.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

The invitations you send out for a baby shower really set the tone of the whole event!

Invitations are the first thing guests see and gives them the first impression of what the shower is going to be like. Just like the old expression, You never get a second chance to make a first impression, you want to make sure the baby shower invitations you select are appropriate for the type of baby shower you are hosting.

There are many different ways to approach a baby shower invitation. If your shower is going to be a more formal event, you can order some professionally printed invitations. Just by checking out the links below, you can get some ideas for verses for baby shower invitation.

If the shower date has yet to be determined, you dont have to settle for cheap store bought invitations. Most online stationary companies offer fill in baby shower invitations that you can have almost every detail personalized and just hand write in the date! These are perfect for showers that take place after the baby is born. After all, you just never know what that bundle of joy will decide to make his or her appearance!

Shower invitations come in a wide variety of themes. You can get them with everything from airplane, classic pooh, ballerina, Noahs ark and horse themes. If the shower is for twins, there are special invitations just for them! Ive even seen some precious twin baby shower invitations with 2 baby footprints on them.

When you go online to order them, be sure to look at the shower invitation samples to see the different wording you can use. Just be sure when you order the invitations, you dont put your personal preferences before that of the new mom! Keep her in mind to make this special occasion one she will treasure. Also be sure to double check spelling! Have someone else look everything over before you click the payment button. Once you submit the orders, few companies will refund anything if spelling errors were your fault!

Dont forget the mom-to-be who is adopting a child! Many adoptive moms can feel left out when they dont have the same rites-of-passages as birth mothers do. Make her feel extra special with a baby shower invitation that celebrates the uniqueness of being an adoptive mom. My favorite verse I have heard for adoption shower invitations is that while the baby didnt grow in her tummy, the baby grew in her heart! How sweet is that?

Remember that the first impression guests get of the baby shower is the invitation! Choose wisely!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Jan
31

Helping Your Kids Cope With Asthma

Posted by admin

Nearly 5 million U.S. children under the age of 18 suffer from asthma, causing them to miss out on childhood fun. They also miss school: Asthma accounts for 14 million absences per year.

Children with asthma do not go through it alone. Parents of asthma sufferers have to take time away from work to provide care to their children, resulting in decreased work productivity.

Additionally, children under the age of 15 suffering from asthma make more than 3.5 million visits to the doctor annually and require 190,000 hospitalizations.

Decreased work productivity, partnered with doctor visits, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and prescriptions, translates into costs of billions of dollars each year.

Asthma occurs when the bronchial tubes become inflamed, creating extra mucus and causing airways to narrow. The result could range from a frequent tendency to cough to minor wheezing to severe difficulty breathing.

While researchers have been unable to pinpoint a cause of asthma, there are many triggers that play a significant role in provoking asthma attacks, including:

* Allergens (fungi/mold, animal proteins, cockroaches and dust mites)

* Irritants (tobacco and wood smoke)

* Viral or sinus infections

* Exercise, especially in cold, dry air

* Stress and strong emotional expression

Between 50 percent and 80 percent of children with asthma develop symptoms before they are 5 years old. As a parent, your doctor will rely on you to make observations about your child in order to make a proper diagnosis.

There are certain signs and symptoms to look for to determine if your child has asthma.

* Is there a family history of asthma or allergies?

* What are the child’s symptoms?

* How often and severe are the child’s symptoms?

* Which medications is the child using?

“There is no cure for asthma,” said Dr. Michael Kaliner, medical director of the Institute for Asthma and Allergy in Chevy Chase, Md. “Controlling bronchial inflammation caused by exercise, cold air or allergens in children is key to preventing asthmatic attacks.”

“For children 5 years and older, one option is Intal, which has been available for more than 35 years,” Kaliner said. “It works by preventing certain cells from releasing substances that may cause inflammation in the air passages.”

The most common side effects from Intal therapy in controlled clinical studies were throat irritation or dryness, unpleasant taste, cough, wheeze and nausea. Intal Inhaler should not be used in patients who have shown hypersensitivity to cromolyn sodium or other ingredients in this product. Intal has no role in the treatment of an acute asthma attack.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Anger can be a paralyzing and debilitating condition. But it can be a terrifying and degrading experience for your child if you’re taking your anger out on them. Physical and verbal abuse of a child can have lasting and lethal implications, so it’s crucial that as a parent, you do whatever necessary to get your anger in check.

As a parent, you have a wonderful opportunity to undo the wrongs that were done to you as a child if you had an angry and abusive parent or parents. It can be very curative and demonstrate you where your troubles lie are and inspire you to fix them. Perhaps your past is filled with unresolved hurt and anger. If so, take the necessary steps to heal yourself. If you don’t, you could unwillingly and unthinkingly harm your child. Studies have shown that children whose mothers often express anger are more likely to be difficult to discipline. Identify problems from your past and honestly look at current situations that are angering you. Maybe you aren’t fulfilled at work; perhaps your spouse and you are having relationship troubles, maybe you have other personal issues or unfulfilled goals that are bothering you. If all your child ever sees is your angry face and hears an angry voice, that’s what they’ll most likely grow into as well.

It’s important to ‘pick your battles’ when parenting. Accidents and nuisances don’t warrant the energy and agony it takes to get angry. But misbehaviors such as a child hurting themselves, others or property demand a firm, quick and appropriate response from you. You will probably have to continually remind yourself that the small stuff isn’t worth getting worked up over. And remind yourself also that you’re the one in control of your anger; don’t let your anger control you. Put yourself in time out, take a deep breath, walk away, do whatever you have to in order to get a grip on yourself before addressing the situation if you feel your anger coming on strong.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Speech and language skills develop at varying rates for children. Still, there are certain milestones most children reach at specific ages. Common, everyday interaction between children and those around them is the best way to boost and enhance speech and language skills. From birth, hearing is critical for children to learn and react to the world around them. An unidentified hearing loss can cause a delay in speech and language development. Consequently, it is better to identify and treat hearing loss as soon as possible.

Parents and other caregivers can do many things to encourage speech and language development and provide learning opportunities. Some examples:

• Listen and respond to your child. Acknowledge, encourage, and praise attempts to communicate.

• Talk to your child about what you are doing, what you see, what your child is doing, and what your child sees. Use language that is appropriate for your child’s speech and language abilities.

• Accept mistakes as your child’s speech develops. Simply repeat or expand what was said, using the correct words or sounds.

• If you don’t understand what your child is saying, ask your child to repeat or help your child to rephrase.

Seek help if you suspect your child is having a speech, language, or hearing problem. An evaluation can determine whether or not a child’s skills are developing normally. Certified speech-language pathologists and audiologists are educated and trained at the master’s or doctoral level to evaluate communication skills and treat disorders.

The steps you take can be very important. During the first five years of life, the building blocks for lifelong communication are formed. Believing your child will “grow out of a problem” can hinder his or her ability to read, write, learn, and engage in social relationships.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

When you’re planning a baby shower, don’t fall into the trap that many do and settle for less than impressive baby shower invitations. It can be very amusing especially if it aims to invite friends and relatives to celebrate with the would-be parents in rejoicing for the arrival of the new baby.

In fact, most people contend that a baby shower invitation is the most important thing in a baby shower because no one will know about the celebration if not for it. Hence, the party will never be successful if there will be no baby shower invitations to guide the guest as well as the host of the party.

Good enough, finding baby shower invitation ideas are no longer hard these days. This is because technological advancements had definitely provided the humanity with utmost services that can be truly worth it. Simply put, you can now find hundreds of baby shower invitations ideas if you will just browse in the Internet.

In this way, you will have many ideas to choose from and come up with ideas that are perfect for the baby shower. These particular sites on baby shower invitations do not just provide you with themed ideas or other concerns of the invitation but also offer some practical tips on the other aspects of baby shower parties.

Generally, people who usually organize baby showers use general baby shower invitation themes. This is because in most cases the gender of the baby is yet unknown.

That is why, another aspect of baby shower invitation, which should not be taken for granted, are the wordings. It is the one responsible in setting the mood of the party.

Today, you can find many tools online concerning the choice of baby shower invitation wordings. You can either find them as quotes or as literary pieces like poems. Just be sure that before you decide on the final product, do not forget to proof read the wordings and spelling or typographical errors to avoid problems that may occur.

Whatever way you want it, you just have to be very careful on your wordings so that you get the best results that you want to have. Best of all, careful choice of words would be safer technique in order not to hurt or insult the would-be parents.

Moreover, when making baby shower invitations, please do not forget to include the important details of the party and to whom the invitation is for. These things are considered the core of the invitations.

For this reason, it is important to take note of the name of the guest of honor, date, time, and place of the party. It is important to indicate as well whether the party will be a surprise or not so that the guest will not be confused about the real motive of the celebration. Do not forget to include also an RSVP with the date and phone number included.

Lastly, make it a point to distribute baby shower invitations 4 to 6 weeks earlier. This will give the guests enough time to fix their schedules and find time for the said celebration. In this manner, it would be better to make the invitations earlier so that there will be enough time for any minor adjustments, when needed.

Indeed, creating baby shower invitations can be a daunting task, with all the preparations, research, and everything. But what matters most is that these invitations are the ones that will initiate the idea of the celebration, therefore, it should be well taken care of.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Jan
30

Helping Your Child Stay Fit

Posted by admin

Would your child rather watch television and play video games all day than move an inch? Children are battling obesity and inactivity at alarming rates. Its time to get our kids in shape now, before they face serious health problems in the future. But how?

As you can guess, the plan includes lots of fun. Any time you can add excitement and laughter into an activity, youve got a winner. Lets take a look at some of the ways you can help your child not only become healthier, but enjoy the process!

First, plan some family nights out, and by that I mean Outdoors. Catching fireflies, passing football, even camping out in the backyard get the whole gang moving. Plus, youre making memories for a lifetime.

Secondly, kids love fun, unusual games. Check out a book of outdoor games at the library, and play some of the oddest ones. Use a tennis racket and large plastic ball for baseball, a giant exercise ball for kickball, and balloons for volleyball. The simple changes make the game more fun sometimes downright hysterical!

Next, its time to look for a physical hobby something that requires movement. Gardenings a great one plant giant pumpkins, King Sunflowers, grape tomatoes, mini carrots, and odd-shaped gourds for novelty. Check out a book on carpentry for kids, and let your child learn to build some simple items like birdhouses and feeders.

You may want to consider investing in one of the large, inflatable waterslides or rock climbing wall. Some of these inflatable items are surprisingly sturdy and provide hours of physical fun and exercise.

Finally, enhance your childs creativity as well by having him or her design an obstacle course in the backyard. Beware! You may have to run through it, too! But activities that provide fun and fitness for the whole family cant be beat!

Who knows? Before long you may find the video games on a shelf gathering dust. Wouldnt that be a nice change of pace?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Having a baby shower for a friend or family member is a wonderful event willed with the joy of welcoming a new life into the world. It can be a lot of fun planning for the baby shower event. Picking a theme, deciding on decorations, making a guest list and so on. While this takes some work and planning ahead of time it is often a labor of love and one that can be joyous. However, despite this fun many people struggle when they get to the baby shower invitation wording. It is easy to be at a loss for the right words to put on the baby shower invitation.

It does not need to be so difficult though and by following some simply guidelines this can also be very fun. Finding just the right words to write on the baby shower invitation can feel like a real accomplishment.

The following steps are suggestions that will help in finding the right wording for a baby shower invitation:

1. Use the Theme – If a theme has already been chosen for the event this will lend itself to writing the invitation easily. Try to pick up on the theme and use it to help write the words. For example if the theme is a stork bringing a cute baby you can easily write something like “Look at what the stroke is bringing”. Also try to use the theme to express the tone of the event. If the theme is informal then you will want the wording on the baby shower invitation to reflect this.

2. Rhymes – There are tons of nursery rhymes and fun kid songs that can quickly be adapted to make a very fun and easy baby shower invitation. For example use, “Row Row Row your boat, Gently to the Baby Shower” or some other rhyme that one can easily change the words for. Some suggestions might be Hickory Dickory Dock, Humpty Dumpty, or Baa Baa Black Sheep.

3. Poems – Poems are another great source of baby shower invitation wording that can easily be adapted to the event. For example everyone know the “Roses are red”. By simply changing this to baby rattles are red, onsies are blue I love baby (insert name) and I bet you will too!

4. Quotes – Famous quotes about babies can be a wonderful source of wording for baby shower invitations also. These are so easy to find with the power of the internet. Just type in something like famous quotes and babies, or newborn and discover what comes up.

5. Internet – Another great resource for finding a fun baby shower invitation wording can be the Internet. Search for terms like baby shower invitation. Find some catchy themes and wording from these online samples and then make your own using these as a guide. Be careful to not copy exactly word for word the online invitations but use them as a template and then spice it up with your own version.

Don’t forget to also include the basic information. Things like the name of the guest of honor, when and where the event will take place. It can be helpful to include a small map for those traveling to a new place they have not been before. This will ensure that they arrive on time and in a calm happy mood ready to celebrate the baby to be.

Some other optional ideas to include might be places where the couple has registered for gifts. It can also be helpful to the organizer of the shower to include a way for guests to RSVP. Make sure you include a date to RSVP by and a phone number and contact name.

As important as the wording for a baby shower invitation can be the artwork and presentation can be equally important. Including fun graphics, clip art and other add-ons that can help carry the theme for the event can be lot of fun. The main tip is to plan ahead and leave yourself extra time to complete the task. This will help you relax and simply have fun with the invitation. You can easily master baby shower invitation wording if you simply relax and have fun. Baby shower invitations written in love will express the right wording no matter what.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Helping Your Child Deal With The Birth Of A New Sibling

If youre pregnant with your second child, its time to be thinking about how to prepare your first child to deal with not being an only child anymore. This can be a difficult transition for any child, and most, regardless of age, have some adjustments to make. Here are some suggestions to help your child be prepared.

Talk about how special it is to be a big brother or sister. Discuss the baby in terms of how important the older sibling will be in its life. This is your childs chance to be the big kid, which is usually a very appealing idea.

If youve been thinking about putting your child into a preschool program, now is the time. Dont wait until after the baby comes, or she might feel like youre trying to get rid of her. She should have time to make friends and get adjusted before the baby comes, and then she will enjoy the chance to get away.

Get her used to being away from you. If your child spends most of her waking hours in your care, its time to start having someone else take over some of this time for you. Maybe start using a sitter a little more, or sending her to play at a friends. This way, when the baby starts to demand your attention, she will be accustomed to having other caretakers.

Dont plan any major changes for her right after the baby is born. The adjustment to the baby is plenty, so dont try potty training, or changing her sleeping arrangements during this time. If you cant get these things accomplished before the baby comes, plan to put it off a few months.

Familiarize her with babies in general, particularly the amount of care they require. Talk to her about when she was a baby, and all the things that she did. Then when the new baby comes, she will have something to relate to.

Let her assist you with any baby preparations that she would like to help with, but dont force her. She might think its fun to pick out nursery items, for example.

Prepare her for the time youll be spending in the hospital, and explain what the situation will be like. If you can make it special for her, so much the better. When my daughter was born, we had arranged for my four year old sons favorite aunt and uncle to come and stay with him at our house while I was in the hospital. He was looking so forward to their visit; he hardly noticed I was away.

No matter how well you prepare your child, there is bound to be some difficulty in adjusting to the new baby. My son thought his little sister was cool, but he didnt much care for the fact that I was her Mommy, too. It takes a little time, but things work out well in the end. And, anything you can do to prepare them ahead of time will only make the transition easier.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Kayleen is serving tea and muffins to Oscar the Grouch while sporting a faded felt snowman hat. Not too far away, C.J. is holding a baby doll and gently taking her temperature with a big plastic thermometer. What do these two year olds have in common? Theyre both engaging in the time-less activity of make-believe play.

Through make-believe, young children learn about themselves and the world around them. Little babies playing pat-a-cake are making believe. Depending on the age of the child, their role playing games will vary. Imaginative children dont need fancy toys or equipment to pretend; theyre happy with a box and a toilet tissue roll. When they engage in pretend play with a variety of objects, theyre learning life skills that will help them as adults.

Weve all watched little kids playing dress-up or house. Children can create an imaginary world anywhere when molding clay animals, when helping mom or dad match-up socks (sock puppets are the best after all.) If theyre this creative with just a sock, then think what they can do with special make-believe props.

Often parents feel that their children require expensive furniture and household equipment for pretend play. Remember the little boy with the refrigerator box in his back yard when you were a kid? Everyone showed up to help build limitless structures and the play would go on for hours, or until the box fell apart. Oh well, the hours spent cooperating together and using colorful imaginations were worth far more than any expensive jungle gym or playhouse.

What spurs the imagination of a toddler or preschool age child? What type of props should parents provide to encourage make-believe even further than what kids will do naturally? Here are just a few ideas:

  • Dress-Up hats, jewelry, scarves, shoes, dresses and shirts, purses or backpacks
  • Kitchen lots of plastic bowls with lids, kid size broom/mop/dustpan, towels, spoons, measuring cups, pots and pans with lids
  • Family blankets, pillow, both male and female baby dolls, old or toy cell phones, boxes of various sizes for baby beds
  • House kid size table, cardboard boxes to serve as appliances, furniture or TV, full-length mirror

    Playing make-believe encourages little children to play together, and is perfect for play groups and for helping shy children overcome anxiety. Little children have boundless ideas for creative play, but love it when parents or caregivers take part in the activity. Many times, imaginative play can help parents realize that their child is fearful or worried about something in particular. Helping them talk about their fears through make-believe will often lessen the childs stress and bring you closer to your child.

    Encourage your childs imagination through make-believe with simple and inexpensive toys and props. Your refrigerator box may fall apart, but the fun of building it will last forever.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Related posts