Parenting Children

The CPSC reports that Kolcraft is voluntarily recalling about 425,000 infant play yards following the death of a child.

Twelve different Kolcraft play yards are included in this recall. All of the play yards have raised changing tables with a restraint strap that forms a loop beneath the changing table, posing a strangulation hazard to a child in the play yard. They all come in different patterns and types. They were sold at retail stores nationwide from January 2001 through September 2007 for between $50 and $130.

If you want to see if your playyard was included in this recall or if you need more information, call Kolcraft at (888) 655-8484, or visit the web site at www.kolcraft.com.

recalls, play yards, pack n plays, pack n play recalls, kolcraft recalls, travel yards, children’s recalls, parenting, infants, children, kids

A 42-year-old women in Siberia gave birth to a 17.05-pound baby girl, the biggest newborn ever recorded in Russia. The baby was delivered by Caesarean section on Sept. 17. This baby was the 12th child for for Tatiana Khalina.

The biggest baby ever born was a 23.12-pound baby born in the United States in 1879. The baby died 11 hours after it was born.
That is one big baby!

biggest baby ever born, infants, baby

Do you have a ton of apples around your house from apple picking like I do? Make caramel apples with your kids, they taste better then store bought and it is a fun thing to do with kids. Here is what you need and how to do it:

Ingredients:
4 very firm apples
2 tablespoons water
bag of caramels
4 popsicle sticks

Instructions:
-Remove stems of apples and push sticks into the apple where the stem used to be.

-Put caramels and water in a bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals until melted. Stir occasionally.

-When caramels are all melted, dip apples into the mixture and twist letting the extra caramel fall back into the bowl

-Place on greased baking sheet and cool in refrigerator for 20 minutes.

*you can also dip apples into toppings like coconut, chocolate chips, nuts or crushed candy bars. Just roll warm caramel apples in topping then place in baking sheet to cool.

I may just do this with my kids today!

rainy day ideas, fall activities, kid activities, cooking with kids, kids, parenting, SAHM, caramel apples, how to make caramel apples

When I was very young my mother worked part time in retail. One night she came home and warned us to be very careful on escalators. That night she had seen a boy get his sneaker caught in the teeth of the escalator and it took a long time to free him and his poor toes. I am still aware of that story as I teach my children how to use the escalator.

Apparently if you wear the popular shoe Crocs, your chance of getting your shoe caught in the escalator is elevated. In the past couple of years “shoe entrapments” have happened all over the world. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said escalator accidents caused more than 10,000 injuries last year, but there is very few records of specific shoe problems. Now subways and some stores are warning to be careful on escalators if you are wearing soft sole shoes.

Have you heard of these escalator/shoe problems before? My daughter loves them so I will still let her wear them wherever we go, but I will take the escalator!

escalator injuries, crocs, dangerous kid’s shoes, kid’s shoes, children’s safety, escalators, parenting

I suffer from allergies and asthma, something I am so afraid my children will inherit. I believe a lot of things can be helped or cured by diet and now a new study of 460 children living in Minorca, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean, shows that diet may be a large factor in keeping asthma and allergies at bay.

The kids who were all about seven years old eat plenty of fish, tomatoes, and certain other vegetables. Kids who ate the most tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, green beans, and zucchini (more than 40 grams per day) were at least 62% less likely to wheeze, compared with kids who did not eat as many vegetables. The study also shows that kids who ate more than 60 grams of fish per day were 57% less likely to test positive for allergies as those who ate the least amount of fish daily.

Really, this is an ideal diet for anyone to help control cholesterol, heart disease and live a healthy lifestyle, kids and parents alike.

kids, children, healthy children, asthma, allergies, kids with allergies, kids with asthma, parenting, parenting children, keeping kids healthy

I so love Skimbaco the upscale children’s boutique. So when I heard there was a contest over here at So A Blonde Walks Into a Review for a $100 gift certificate to Skimbaco, I had to enter.

Also, 5 minutes for Mom is giving away a pink Dyson vacuum cleaner!
Go enter these great contests!

giveaways, children’s clothing, designer children’s clothes

Do you wish your body was back into your pre-baby shape? Many more moms these days are going in for makeovers, body makeovers after having their children.
Moms are seeking cosmetic surgery more then ever before to zap away those stretch marks, lift those sagging breasts and get rid of the skin problems. Having a baby takes a huge toll on your body, we all know that. There is only so much you can do with diet and exercise after being pregnant, like in my case where I have loose skin after being stretched so far with my BIG twins.

It is also a pricey alternative to just living with the saggy breasts you may have. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons the costs for the most common surgeries are: breast augmentation: $3,600, breast lift $4,200, liposuction: $2,750 and tummy tuck (abdominoplasty): $5,063.
I won’t even go into vaginal rejuvinations.

So tell me, if you are done having children, would you consider having plastic surgery? Would you mind some help getting back into pre-baby shape if money was not an issue?

pre-baby shape, pregnancy, women, moms, new moms, plastic surgery, mom makeovers, cosmetic surgery

Sophie Currier is a Harvard medical student who asked for longer breaks during her medical exams so that she could pump breast milk for her four month old daughter. The National Board of Medical Examiners initially refused her request, saying that all students must receive equal treatment when taking the exams. She then decided to sue.

Yesterday a judge rejected her request for longer breaks saying that she does not deserve extra breaks during the nine hour test. Sophie had already asked for and received special accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act for her dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, allowing her to take the one-day test over two days. The board has also offered her to take the test in a separate room so she could pump right there.

Interesting how a medical school, where I assume they teach people how to become doctors, who in turn promote breastfeeding and the benefits of it to both mom and baby are quite negative about a mom pumping milk for her baby. Should she have to wait until she is done nursing her child to take the test thereby putting her career on hold?
Do you think the judge is right in this case?

breastfeeding, Sophie Currier, infants, parenting, moms, working mothers, pumping breast milk, mother’s rights

I was lucky enough to have a ADHD specialist answer all of our questions about ADD/ADHD. Lets begin:

We hear about ADD/ADHD so much these days in the media. It seems that every other child has been diagnosed with one or both of these disorders. Is it being overly diagnosed?
Many children are too young to make and accurate determination, physicians need to do a complete evaluation focusing on home life, siblings does the parent have ADD, diet, before determining if it is indeed an ADD case. While ADD is a biological disorder, acting out may not be ADD related. (more…)

Tonight is the premiere of Kid Nation, the show features 40 children who are left to fend for themselves in a abandoned town. The show is not without controversy, parents complained, child labor law agents couldn’t get on to the set and television critics were kept at bay.

I admit it is intriguing to me, but I don’t think I will watch.
I want to know are you going to watch this show tonight at 8pm ET?

kid nation, kid nation show, parenitng, tv shows, kids

Tomorrow September 19, 2007 is National ADHD Awareness Day. To get more information on ADHD, I have an expert who will be answering questions, concerns and giving information to all of us on this disorder.

If you have any questions on diagnosis, medications or anything else for the expert, please leave them in the comments or email them to me.

ADHD, parenting, families, kids with ADHD, kids

Here are the developmental milestones for your seven to nine month old.

Your baby should be able to sit on her own, by six or seven months. Around nine months he should be able to pick up objects with his thumb and index finger, known as the pincer grip. Great for getting those Cheerios! Around nine months your baby may be able to pull himself up to a standing position.

By seven months your baby should be able to imitate sounds like clucking her tongue or sounds like “ta” or “da”. She will start to like to play peekaboo.
She now understands you still exist even if you are out of her sight, so this is when separation anxiety can start. She may even fear strangers at this point.

Around nine months you can start feeding your baby table foods, like Cheerios, bananas and ground meat. Around this time he will responds to simple direction like “press the button” when it is accompanied by a gesture. Read to your baby every day and label things you come in contact with like “chair” or “ball”.

Of course, like I always say, all babies develop at their own pace. Seek the advice of your doctor when starting all new foods and if you think your child has a developmental delay.

7 to 9 months, infants, babies, parenting, milestones, development, babies development, parenting children

Thanks to Mother Talk I had the chance to review BOB Books Set 1, Beginning Readers. My kids are only 4.5 years old but they have a desire to spell and read words so I thought I would give it a try with these books.

The BOB book set is made up of 12 short books starting with book one which had 1-2 words on each page to book 12 which had five word sentences. In the beginning of each book they have letter sounds/picture dictionary to preview what sounds you will be using in each book.

I started off with one child at a time. We went through the sounds the letters make and then tried to put them together. They did very well with the first book and were so proud of themselves. They learned to sound out words like “mat” and “sat”.

I think my children are not fully ready to move on to any of the other books and I try to only do a little at a time, but I think these books are a great tool to learn to read.

learning to read, teach kids to read, reading, kids, BOB books, parenting

My son has a bad habit that I am hoping all the parents out there could help me with. He is only four so I never expected a bad habit to appear so soon, of course with a boy I expected as he got older there would be belching, maybe gas issues and a addiction to ESPN that would rival his father’s. None of that has appeared, yet.

A couple of weeks ago he started biting his nails. What is up with a four year old who can’t keep his hands out of his mouth, I mean he still has dimples for knuckles for crying our loud!
At least it is not as bad as a two year old who can’t keep his hands out of his diaper.
Now I am at a loss of how to break him of this gross habit. I threatened him with awful tasting nail polish that my mother threatened my sister with many years ago, but do they really even make that? Or is it the equivalent of the toothfairy for nail biters? Am I going to have to put him in a 12 step program for pint size biters?

So wise parents, what can I do to help him save his poor fingers and my sanity?

parenting, preschoolers, nail biters, stop nail biting, parenting advice, kids

We ordered Chinese food the other night for the family. My kids wanted to use chopsticks for the first time. I wasn’t excited to show them how to use them because I knew it was difficult and it would frustrate them.

Yesterday I came across these chopstick kids. They attach to the supplied melamine chopsticks or your own chopsticks. They help small fingers maneuver the chopsticks and keep them in line. They are soft, washable and food safe. At $6.00 each for the boy or girl kid, it is not for the occasional Chinese food eater, or maybe it is.

It is a cute idea either way and anything that helps my kids not get frustrated and cry at the dinner table, is worth it for me.

chopsticks for kids, chopstick kids, Chinese food, kids, dinner time