Parenting Children

These days blogs and social networking sites are a huge part of our every day lives. Whether you use a personal blog as your platform to talk about your family’s life, facebook to post pictures of your kids or twitter to swap stories, everyone is on the internet.
But not everyone is on those same networks and places for the same reasons we are. Most likely there are some bad people on those sites trying to collect information or pictures for their own use.

You may have noticed that I don’t post pictures of my kids on my site. There are many times I would love to share a picture with you or a video of my kids, but my husband and I agreed we will not post pictures of our kids on a public forum.
An occasional picture of my kids fully clothed and not of their faces is all you will get on this blog.

What if you posted a innocent picture of your child at the beach, in your home or in your backyard and happen to find out later it has been posted on a child pornography site?

Raising The Bar on TNT that will be premiering tonight, Monday June 29Th at 10p.m. (ET/PT), will talk about this very subject:
“A father is arrested when an innocent photo he posted of his son in the bathtub finds it’s way onto a child pornography site.”
I have received an advanced copy of this episode and I have to say, it is a great episode and raises many questions.

I want to know if you post pictures of your children online and why? Also if you do post pictures do you edit those pictures in any way, only post certain pictures or do you say “to hell with it” and post whatever you want?

children, internet safety, mom bloggers. mommy bloggers, dad bloggers, posting picture on the internet, Raising the Bar, TNT shows, bloggers, parenting, parenting children

New research finds that stimulant medications commonly prescribed to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children are associated with an increased risk of sudden death. Although rare the researchers in this study sifted through mortality data from 1985 through 1996, and found 564 cases of sudden death that occurred in children aged 7 to 19 and they found 10 sudden, unexplained deaths in children taking stimulant medications.
The study found that children and teens taking ADHD stimulant medications were seven times more likely to die suddenly than their peers.

“What we found — to our surprise — is that even if you take out confounding factors, the association between stimulant use and sudden death was still significant,” said study author, Madelyn Gould, a professor of clinical epidemiology in psychiatry at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City. “I’m confident the association is real and significant, but it’s very rare. I don’t want our findings to change prescribing patterns or for a parent to change their willingness to use stimulant medications if they’re called for, but physicians should monitor patients with any new medication you give a young person.”

Results of the study were published in the June 15 online edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
As many as 2.5 million children in the United States take ADHD stimulant medications, such as amphetamine, dextroamphetamine (Adderall), methamphetamine or methylphenidate (Ritalin).
reserchers say that if your child has been on a stimulant for awhile there may be no need to worry and parents should not abruptly stop their child’s medications,. If you are concerned call your pediatrician and go over the risks and side effects of the medication and if necessary have a full physical of your child before taking these types of medications.

ADD, ADHD, ADHD and sudden death, children, parenitng, parenting our children. ADHD medications, adderall, ritalin, teens, school age children

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?

No matter how many CPR classes I have taken, I know I still need a refresher course and I want everyone around my children to know CPR as well. With summer almost here and my knowing my kids will be exposed to numerous pools, oceans and water parks, I knew I had to do something fast. When I found this DVD, I was so happy, it was what I was looking for and I knew everyone in my life was going to get one as well.

The DVD is filled with step by step instructions on how to perform CPR on infants as well as children. It also has instructions on what to do if your child has an airway obstruction and how to keep your children safe in the home. The instructor is a registered nurse and a certified American Heart Association CPR instructor since 1991.

You can never be too safe especially when stories of children drowning pepper the nightly news and this video helps me feel confident I will know what to do and execute it properly while I wait for help to arrive.
I know we can review it as often as my husband and I need to. I will be buying one for the Grandparents, Aunt and Uncles. It also makes a great shower gift for an expectant Mother.

Order it now.
I hope you never have to use the skills you learn, but what if you do?

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When Mom Central had a blog tour about the American Heart Association and CPR Anytime, I wanted to participate. I am CPR certified but I wanted to brush up on my skills as well as have my husband brush up on his. You never know when or where you will need it, but it is great to know you are ready anytime.

With summer creeping up on us, I know my children will be around pools, lakes and oceans very soon. It makes brushing up on my CPR that more important. I received a CPR anytime kit which contains:
Practice DVD
Mini Anne CPR learning manikin
Choking and child CPR reminder card
Various spare parts and cleansing wipes

The DVD is very thorough and it taught us the Hands only CPR method. The DVD took us step by step through the CPR hands only method, the breathing and hands-on method, The CPR of both an adult and child, how to help choking victims and the use of AEDs.

The first week in June begins National CPR and AED Awareness Week, You can go to their site and find local CPR or emergency aid classes. You ca also order their CPR anytime kit for your home. I think this is great to get for Grandparents, caregivers or even your local church groups. The information you learn may save someone’s life and that someone could be me, or my loved ones.

You can also check them out on Facebook.

CPR Anytime, AHA, American Heart Association, National CPR and AED Awareness Week, reviews, learn CPR, infant CPR, infants, parenting, parenting children, kids, safety, summer safety

Norton On-Line Family is software for parents to to help track where you kids are going on the internet. You can track what they are doing, what instant messages they are sending and what websites they hit.
The software enables you to block certain web sites, or a certain type of sites.
The software can warn the child they are getting ready to enter an prohibited site or block the site entirely. It has a safe search feature so your child doesn’t use a search engine to lookup something for a report and end up on a porn site.

The features of this software are:

-Simple, One-Time Set Up
-Easy to Use and Access
-Easy to adjust the settings to customize your preferences (which include Profile, Web, Search, Chat, Social, Time and Notify)
-Clear Reporting
-Secured Personal Information
-Real-time Messaging
-Custom Alerts and
-Useful Time Management (limit your childs time on the internet)

I am not sure I would use this for my teens in “stealth” mode meaning tracking keystrokes and websites. I think it is a good tool for parents who are given a reason for them not to trust their children 100%. I do believe everyone, even teens and tweens, do deserve some privacy in their lives including on the internet.
Click here to sign up for their free trial of Norton Online Family and tell me how you like this new software to keep your children safe on the internet and if you will use it for your family.

Norton On-Line Family, Norton On-Line Family review, parenting, teenagers, teens, tweens, parenting children, keeping kids safe online, Mom Central

Every week I hear another news story of a missing teen who left with someone he or she met online or cyber bullying. It doesn’t matter how safe of a town you live in, online safety should be a huge concern for parents, I know it is for me. My twins who are six like to play online games and they are learning to email with their freinds and cousins in New Jersey. I know it won’t be long until they will want a facebook page!
When I had the chance to review NSTeens for Mom Central, I was grateful to learn more about this site.

NSTeen.org is a new teen website designed to, “Educate, engage, and empower kids as Internet users.” Sounds good, right? NetSmartz, a leading online resource of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, developed NSTeens to help the tween and teenagers educate themselves on online safety.

The site includes bios, videos and comics of seven teen characters. They show the consequences of improper Internet use, how even a little personal information put online is too much, cyber bullying, offline consequences of their online actions and shows the power of teens and how they can empower their peers.

I think this site should be reviewed by all tweens and teenagers and ideally should be viewed with your children and make sure they realize the seriousness of this topic and that they don’t have any questions. It is a great resource all parents should use.

Netsmartz, NSTeens, internet safety, parenting teens, parenting children, tweens, teenagers, kids, being safe online, NSTeens review, reviews, parenting, family safety, cyber bullying

Mercury is in the news all the time. Whether it is about staying away from mercury-laden foods like Swordfish when you are pregnant or Jeremy Piven’s mercury poisoning. We know that this chemical is one that is toxic to people especially developing infants.
Then why are you probably giving it to your child every day?

Mercury is in high fructose corn syrup according to the results of a new study released by the Institute for Agriculture and Trace Policy (IATP). According to the IATP study, over 30% of products containing high fructose corn syrup tested positive for mercury!
Think it is easy to just take high fructose corn syrup out of you or your child’s diet? Just try to, if you eat processed foods at all it is pretty much all of it. Try finding a wheat bread that doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup in it, I have spent way to much time in bread aisles reading all the ingredients before I could find bread that was acceptable to feed to my kids.

Nutritionists have been telling people to avoid this substance for years, everyone knows that sugar, in any form, is not part of a healthy diet. What is surprising to some people though is that the Food and Drug Administration has known that mercury would put consumers’ health at risk and that it is in high fructose corn syrup since 2005.

The IATP study comes on the heels of another study, conducted in 2005 but only recently published by the scientific journal, Environmental Health, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of commercial HFCS samples tested positive for the heavy metal. Renee Dufault, who was working for the FDA at the time, was among the 2005 study’s authors. In spite of Dufault’s involvement in the study, the FDA sat silent on this one for three years, and in fact last August, allowed manufacturers to call the sweetener “natural.”
How does the mercury get in the HFCS? Caustic soda is one ingredient used to separate corn starch from the corn kernel and most caustic soda has been produced in industrial chlorine plants, where it can be contaminated with mercury then it gets into our HFCS and in turn, into our foods.

When do we parents unite and stand up for our children and demand the government take these poisons out of our vaccinations, our children’s toys and our foods?
When is enough, enough?

[tags] vaccinations, mercury, mercury in our food, mercury poisoning, children’s health, FDA,
Corn Syrup Mercury, Environmental Health, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Institute For Agriculture And Trade Policy, Mecury Corn Syrup, parenting, parenting children [/tags]

I have written a lot about safe toys for kids and how the safety standard in this country have to be stricter for children’s products that we get from China. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know I love supporting small businesses, especially mom owned businesses.
I am all for making the safety standards of mass-produced toys made in China stronger, and banning toxins like phthalates and lead in all of our toys, and feeding products.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has passed the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act which goes into effect in February of 2009. This will eliminate the small toy manufacturers, crafters and all children’s product makers. The ones I am buying from this holiday season, the ones who make safe toys for our children right here in America. They same ones I beg you to buy from to support mom owned businesses, they will be obsolete. The price of testing and labeling all products will be too great for small businesses and I think all children’s products will go up if even large companies like Gap has to test everything from zippers to trims on clothing.
So in February basically all handmade toys and clothing will now be illegal.

Here is what you can do:
-Send everyone you know this artical to help save safe toys
-Write to your congress person and senators
-Send a letter directly to the CPSC
-Join the Handmade Toy Alliance and check out their proposed changes to the act

kids, parenting, safe toys, green toys, CPSC, Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, Handmade Toy Alliance, mom owned business, safe baby gear, parenitng children, baby gear

A report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety out today lists these vehicles as the ones that do the best job protecting in front, side and rear crashes. The best minvans and trucks have been equiped with anti-rollover technology called Electronic Stability Control, or ESC.
Minivans:
Honda Oddessy
Hyundai Entourage
Kia Sedona

Large Cars:
Acura RL
Audi A6
Cadillac CTS
Ford Taurus
Lincoln MKS
Mercury Sable
Toyota Avalon
Volvo S80
MIDSIZE CARS
Acura TL
Acura TSX
Audi A3
Audi A4
BMW 3-Series (4-door)
Ford Fusion (with optional ESC)
Honda Accord (4-door)
Mercedes C Class
Mercury Milan (with optional ESC)
Saab 9-3
Subaru Legacy
Volkswagen Jetta
Volkswagen Passat
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I have some tips and tricks for Halloween this year with your kids. We also want to keep kids safe this time of year especially those that are old enough to trick or treat alone so lets talk about saety also.

Don’t want to give out candy for Halloween? How about giving out juice boxes or kid sized waters? Try stickers or other craft items and if you have any leftovers, put them into your child’s craft box for a rainy day. The other thing I have seen lately, which I love, is the mini playdoh containers. Although the older kids may rather have candy!
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How many of us parents remember getting sunburn when we were young? Even though my parents used sunscreen on my sister and I, I still remember getting sunburns. When I was a teenager I actually used oil for tanning!
I lost my father to skin cancer a couple of years ago and I have made it my mission to not lose another family member to melanoma, so protecting myself and my kids is so important to me.
Did you know that:
-Just two or three blistering sunburns during childhood can double the risk of skin cancer
-The majority of lifetime sun damage occurs before age 18
-One in 5 Americans will contract skin cancer in the course of a lifetime
-Nationally, there are more new cases of skin cancer each year than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung, and colon

Have I scared you yet? Good.
The good news is I have an amazing company to share with you that will help protect your kids from the sun’s damaging rays, Cabana Life.

Cabana Life was founded by Melissa Papock, a melanoma survivor who, along with her husband who is also a skin cancer survivor, offers sun protective clothing that is absolutely adorable and hip. While a regular tee shirt has an SPF of 5, cabana life clothing has 50+UV protection through patented High IQ Sun Protection! They have everything you need from hats, cover-ups, tunics, shirts, and pants for boys, girls and women.

I was lucky enough to get to try out some of this clothing for my fair little ones. The clothing was made with amazing quality, it looked great and stood up just fine in the wash. I love the fact that some of the kids bathing suits and cover ups have matching set for adults!

Go and check out Cabana Life’s clothing because I know you will be smitten. Great, quality clothing that protects your skin, is reasonably prices and gives back, what more could you ask for? I know I am a lifelong fan.

Cabana Kids is offering parentingourchildren.com readers an amazing 40% off coupon! Use code MOMBLG when you check out and get 40% off all your entire order!! This coupon is only valid through Friday, July 25th, so hurry!

sun protective clothing, kids, parenting, beach gear, beach gear for kids, sunburns, melanoma, skin cancer, Cabana Life, preventing skin cancer, beach safety

As a parent I have forgotten to go somewhere with my child I was scheduled to be at, forgotten to feed them before i put them in a car for over an hour and forgotten many things in the diaper bag. I have not, however forgotten my child in a hot car but I easily could have. Any parent that thinks that they could never leave a child in a car is kidding themselves because we are all have so many things on our minds and accidents happen.

Already in 2008, we’ve had 352 incidents with children left in hot cars and 72 deaths. That is a very real and very scary statistic to me.
Harrison’s Hope is a web site that is devoted to informing as many people as they can reach about the dangers associated with leaving children unattended in or around vehicles.
Children should never be left in vehicles even if it is to run into a store for “a minute”, even if you have to wake up your child to go into the store. I have had to wake up my children many times to go into a store and I remember how tempted I was to go into a dry cleaners and leave my kids locked in the car right outside the dry cleaners where I could easily see them. I just couldn’t do it, I was too scared.

Harrison’s hope web site has many tips for keeping kids safe in and around cars. Things like keeping your car always locked and using drive thrus instead of having to go into a restaurant or store are ease to do.

parenting, kids, kids in cars, keeping kids safe, car safety, kids and hot cars

I have a couple of fears that have carried me through childhood into adulthood. One of them is a fear of burglars. I really fear my house getting broken into especially when I am home, so I am very careful about locking doors and windows. I was invited to try out the new Schlage keypad lock, and I couldn’t wait to receive it and try it out.

This lock is different from typical locks because it is a deadbolt but you can add, change or delete user codes. Perfect for families with children who think they will lose a house key or for a babysitter of housecleaner. You can give them their own code and delete it any time! Or what if you want a room in your home off limits to a caregiver or a child? This would be ideal way to keep them out.
It was easy for my husband to install, the directions were simple to program the lock and it looks great.

Schlage Locks have been named a platinum award winner in the Awards for Design Excellence but they also have great features.
They have a simple keypad with coated buttons, a ton of finish options, easy installation, locks for interior or exterior doors and a ‘Turn Lock’ feature that allows you to lock & leave without a key.

Schlage locks can be purchased online or in various retail stores.

Schlage locks, home protection, indoor and outdoor locks, keeping family safe

Since we don’t have family that lives near us, my husband and I do not go out much. When we do go out it is when one of our family members is visiting or on the rare occasions, we will hire a sitter. Having a checklist for myself and a information sheet for my babysitter has proven great for both of us and puts my mind at ease. You can use the checklist that follows for your own reference.

-Make sure your sitter has an updated information sheet with parents cell numbers, pediatrician’s number and your street address, what the kids can have for snacks, any allergy information and relatives or neighbors phone numbers

-Be straightforward about discipline and what is okay and not okay for them to do

-Give the baby sitter a schedule to follow

-If you don’t want the sitter to answer the phone have them call you at a specific time

-Talk to your baby sitter in front of the kids about what the kids are allowed to do and what is not allowed. can they go outside? Do they need to wear a bike helmet if they are riding a bike? Can they watch TV? and so on

-Have them write down any information you will need to know when you return, like how many bottles the sitter gave the baby, when was the last time your children ate or what time did they go to sleep.

What preparations or information do you give your babysitter?

babysitters, kids, parenting, leaving kids at home, hiring a baby sitter, babies, infants

As I walked into the pediatrician’s office yesterday morning, I didn’t know I was going to have to walk right back out 15 minutes later without my son’s three month exam being completed. I liked my pediatrician, he is a nice man with a quiet voice. I trusted him until yesterday. I didn’t think it would come to this. I didn’t think I would feel so hurt.
I broke up with my pediatrician.

We have had other pediatricians before, we had the one that was in our hometown that was too far to drive to and we had the one that was more like a business then a pediatrician’s office. This one was different, more personal.
Although I do vaccinate my children I do delay some vaccinations and I only give one at a time. Yesterday my pediatrician wanted to give my twelve week old baby two vaccines. I explained I only give one at at time, like I do with my older kids. He said he wouldn’t break from the “standard of care”. He told me he did not want to get sued and I understand. I told him that I couldn’t give my tiny baby that many vaccinations, and he understood.
Then, I started to cry.
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