Parenting Children

Breastfeeding is normal and natural. Breastfeeding in public is not disgusting or abnormal, it is necessary and natural.

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Regular readers will know we moved to our town when I came home from the hospital with my twins. My husband had been here for a couple of weeks getting and setting up an apartment, but this was a new town for us. We didn’t know anyone and our closest friends and relatives were an hour away. Needless to say, my husband and I went out on “dates” very infrequently and we did not hire a babysitter until we found a teenager girl in our neighborhood we could trust.

Finding a caregiver for your child, pet or family members just got a lot easier. Care.com is a web site that lets you browse through listings of caregivers in your area. If you are looking for a nanny, a elderly caregiver, a pet sitter or a tutor you will find it on this site. It allows you to look at their qualifications for things like are they trained in CPR, if they have experience with multiples (perfect for me)if they would be willing to do light housekeeping and if they have a valid drivers license. They have written personal statements and video interviews.

Now that my teenage babysitter is often very busy with her personal life and is hard to get, I will be using this site to find someone reliable in my area. I also will find someone to care for my cats when we go on vacations. This is a terrific resource for all families, I know you could use it couldn’t you?

A big thanks to Care.com because they are offering a free three month membership to readers of parentingourchildren.com! Go here to sign up.

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Last week I wrote about how medicines for children under 2 may not only not be helpful but can be deadly. Although the makers of these medicines insist they are not harmful if used as directed they are voluntarily withdrawing products sold for infants, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association said Thursday.

If you pick up any over the counter medicine, on the product under recommended doses it will say “for children under 2 consult a doctor”. In some cases parents are not doing so and children have been affected.
Instead of giving children medicine you can use a vaporizer, saline nasal drops, and make sure your child is well hydrated.

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I have some news to share with you guys, I am pregnant. I am due with our third baby March 2008. I was much more sick and tired this time around so I have had some issues, but otherwise I am feeling fine now. I am happy to share with you all the things that are going on with me, my body and my family while getting ready for this new arrival.

Now that I am in my second trimester and feeling better, I am getting excited about this pregnancy. We are not going to find out the sex of this baby at my upcoming ultrasound, so I am having some fun online. I have writtten before on some sites to have fun on and I have recently found some more. Check out this site to track your growing belly. I know you see it growing before your eyes but it is fun to see it from a different perspective.
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When Lara from Hatleynature.com emailed me to see about reviewing their products, I didn’t hesitate. After checking out their website, and I was hooked. I loved the humor they had and more importantly, I loved their clothing. Plus I was always looking for a children’s retailer that had clothes that were well made, run true to size and comfortable, somthing you think would be easy to find, but it is not.

They generously sent me a pair of pajamas for each of my children and I felt like I was a kid at Christmas. I couldn’t wait for them to arrive to check them out. We received the glow in the dark PJ rex dinosaur pajamas and the nature rocks pajama set. The first thing I noticed about them was how soft they were! They were generously sized and did not shrink at all during the washing. My children LOVED them (who wouldn’t love pjs that glow in the dark?) and wanted to wear them that evening, even if the temperature wasn’t perfect for long sleeve pajamas.

I am now hooked on hatleynature.com and will be ordering some long sleeve shirts for myself. They have adult clothing, infants, organic tees, children and accessories like adorable rain boots with cute animals on them and my newest favorite, tote bags.

Also, for the entire month of October, Hatley is donating 20% of it’s online sales to Breast Cancer Research! That is fantastic, I love supporting companies that give back and are involved in charities that I care about. They are also featured in the October issue of O magazine. Go check them out and get “clothes to nature”.

children’s clothing, infants clothing, children’s pajamas, glow in the dark pajamas, gifts, children’s gift

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.

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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

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

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

When my son was about three months old my mother finally said to me “his head is very misshapen on this one side, do you think you should check with the doctor?” I had not noticed it, whether it was because I was a new mom living 100 miles away from all of our family, or because I was overwhelmed with twins, I felt like a terrible mother. I still do, because how do you not notice your son’s head is misshapen and was causing facial asymmetry?

I took him to his pediatrician and he was diagnosed with torticollis and positional plagiocephaly. Plagiocephaly is the flattening of one part of the head. Maybe you have noticed many more children with flat heads as of the last few years, I know I see kids with it every day. The most common is braciocephaly, the flattening of the back of the head. This rise in braciocephaly is due to the back to sleep campaign to get parents to put kids on their backs to sleep to help ease the SIDS risk. It worked but far too many babies are spending too much time on their back and their soft skulls are paying for it.

In my son’s case his flattening was due to his torticollis (a shortening of the muscles on one side of his neck) which we know was caused by his womb conditions. He wasn’t a very large baby at 7lbs 1 oz but he was sharing the womb with his 8lbs 2 oz sister. That is not a lot of room! Boys for some reason seem to have plagiocephaly more then girls and twins are a common risk group. He had all the markers.
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It is the season for swim school, or at least it is here in NJ where all the swim classes are packed. This will be my four year old’s first time in swim classes. I think they will be great, but I am glad I didn’t take them much sooner.
A new European study has found infants who take classes or swim with their mother’s in indoor pools are at a higher risk for developing asthma.
Children who swim in indoor pools with overly chlorinated air, is associated with airway changes that, along with other factors, seem to predispose children to the development of asthma and recurrent bronchitis.

They think the exposure to chemicals, like chlorine, may alter the lining of the lungs making it easier for children to develop asthma.
They say you should not expose yourself or your children to overly chlorinated pools (you know, the pools when you walk in the smell of chlorine is very strong) and not allow children to swim in indoor pools for more then 20 minutes. Of course, try to make sure your children do not drink pool water.

The findings appear in the June issue of Pediatrics

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I have exciting news, if you read my post about child/infant CPR and you are looking to order a copy for yourself or as a gift, you are in luck.

Hurry and order your copy now to receive 10% off your order! Enter the coupon code: Tracy during checkout and enjoy 10% off.

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Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 1 to 14.

Most happen in backyard pools or open water areas. Most drownings happen while children are being supervised. The SAFE KIDS study examined data from 496 child-drowning deaths from 2000 and 2001 from 17 states and found that 88 percent of the drowning victims were under supervision.

Children can drown in as little as one inch of water. That means that the bucket you have outside, your hot tub, toilet or wading pool are all potential dangers. “Two minutes following submersion, a child will lose consciousness. Irreversible brain damage occurs after four to six minutes and determines the immediate and long-term survival of a child. The majority of children who survive (92 percent) are discovered within two minutes following submersion, and most children who die (86 percent) are found after 10 minutes. Nearly all who require cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) die or are left with severe brain injury.”

Do you feel confident about performing CPR? Could you do it accurately? What about your teenage babysitter or your neighbor?
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The Good
When you come home from the hospital with your new baby, you are still in a daze. When do I feed the baby, when was the last time anyone changed the baby and why is this baby crying?

The Bad
Sometimes babies are just, well, fussy. I am going to tell some new moms something you do not want to hear: sometimes they are fussy for no reason. I know! Why?

The Ugly
I once read that babies cry or fuss because it is their exercise. It is the only way they have to relieve their tension or little baby stress. I think that is a good explanation, but we will never really know.
You can try many things to get your baby to stop crying, some of them may work once or twice and never again, some may work for awhile before they peeter out. Nothing is forever in baby land.

So, Erinn What Can I Do? Help!
Have no fear, there are many different things to try. Swaddling, rocking in the stroller, white noise like a fan in the baby’s room and deep knee bends while holding the baby, are my personal favorites. If you tried those and you need more ideas, American Baby has 23 ideas to calm a fussy baby. Something will work for your child. I promise.
If I am wrong you can drop your baby off here with me, I will have my husband take care of the baby for you.

What are your go to ideas for soothing a crying baby?

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