Infant Safety Hints for New Parents

Filed under: Kids + Parenting — admin at 2:54 am on Friday, August 28, 2009

It can be exciting to be a brand new parent, but there are also times of feeling a little unsure. In the period before the birth of your baby, you have a lot to do and to consider. It’s right that every new parent looks on to the safety of their new born. Making sure their baby is safe is a priority for parents, even before the baby is born.

When you baby proof your home, start by looking around your home at the level at which your baby would. Babies are small and when they are crawling on the ground, they view things from a totally varied look than their parents. As you crawl around your house checking everything that your baby might see, many questions need to be answered including these:are electrical outlets covered or exposed, any electrical cords easily accessed by the baby, choking hazards, does furniture corners need cushioning, or are any breakable objects within the baby’s reach?

You are legally required to purchase a special car seat for your baby, no matter where you live in the US. It’s on the safer side to check the car belt with a nurse or car seat technician before leaving a hospital with a new born in hands. Don’t try to install your baby’s new car seat at the last minute; do it now and make sure it fits in your car OK. It is typically better to buy a car seat brand new rather than buying one used just because you want to save some money.

Products such as baby monitors is a device used to listen to the sounds of a baby. The sounds will be already recorded in it.

These truly are one of the best baby items, you will be able to hear or see everything your little one is doing in it’s room from anywhere in the home.

Childproofing products and, for many, baby safety gates will be needed as your child continues to grow. Once your baby turns mobile, he or she would want to find out and feel or catch everything he could possibly see.
Baby gates keep your babies limited to place that is too big to encourage them to explore, but confined properly for their safety.
You need to be aware that baby’s want to touch everything, and therefore must be protected from their own curiosity.

Choosing a Baby Name

Filed under: Aid, Education + Training, Kids + Parenting — admin at 6:40 am on Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I’m finally pregnant and it’s time to look for meaningful baby names. Ryan and I have been debating on a number of meaningful baby names and have still not been able to come up with a name that we both like. I like the name Shawn which means “God’s gracious gift”. If it’s a girl, I’m leaning towards Sandra, which means “helper of Mankind”.

By the way Ryan doesn’t like both the names. Guess he shouldn’t be so choosy. I’m not joking when I say God’s gracious gift, as we have been trying to have a child for a very long time. At first we were really worried about my not getting pregnant. My friend then suggested that there were a number of websites that talked about an ovulation calculator and that I should check them out.

I went through a couple of sites but just filling in the relevant information on the calculator and figuring out my ovulation dates would not help. I really needed to know exactly how this worked. Finally, I chanced upon a site that had loads of information about what the ovulation calculator was all about and how it worked, and all this in simple language, which was really easy to understand. Using the information I learned, we were able to change our planning schedule to one that better suited my cycle. Things kind of fell into place after that and I was finally pregnant.

At the time of writing this article we are still debating on meaningful baby names. Ryan likes the sound of Sapphire which means “True Princess” while if it’s a boy he wants a name that begins with the letter R. Rodney, Rupert, Ronald, Russel or Ryan? No, I don’t think I would like a Ryan Junior in the house. God can someone help me with some meaningful baby names? If Ryan and I both can agree not to disagree on one, then we promise to make you godmother.

Being Shortsighted

Filed under: Aid, Attirement, Kids + Parenting — admin at 3:38 pm on Monday, April 13, 2009

One of the most usual grounds for needing spectacles is shortsightedness

For a bundle of reasons, a person might become short sighted. The offical term for this is nearsightedness. When somebody is myopic, they can’t focus well into the distance, on the other hand they can see fairly distinctly, when looking up close at things.

The degree to which one is nearsighted depends on the powers of the cornea and the lens of the eye and the length of the eyeball. In a normal eye the incoming visual images meet on the retina in the back of the eye. If these visual images converge in front of the retina instead of on the retina, then one is nearsighted.

In General, shortsightedness gets better with age. It is not clear why this happens buy may well be something to do with the aging process. The thinking is that they lens becomes weaker or stiffer with age and doesn’t focus the light so quickly. Eventually, the light rays may even focus on the retina!.

nearsightedness affects about 25% of Americans.

shortsightedness is diagnosed by discovering a child’s unaided vision and is confirmed objectively by the eye practitioner with various techniques, including retinoscopy and refraction.

To work out how badly myopic you are and the specific nature of your myopia, more tests will need to be conducted. This will help to determine the type of eye glasses that you will need. The optician will assess visual acuity, visual movements and the ability to focus on nearby targets. They may need to dilate the pupil to see if there are any rare or alarming complications.

The optician may deliberately choose to dilate a child’s pupils to prevent their natural tendency to over focus confuse the prescription generation process. .

shortsightedness is most commonly treated with spectacles or specs. myopia in preschool children does not need to be corrected with specs, unless either anisometropia, a condition in which there is a difference of more than 1.00 diopters between the two eyes, or amblyopia, a condition in which a child cannot be corrected to 20/20 with spectacles, is present.

For learning to take place at school, it is vital that they can focus on far away targets. So, if your child has shortsightedness, make sure that they have their eyes formally assessed every 6 months or so to ensure that they have the correction spectacles that they require.

Spectacles will commonly need to be worn all the time. There are a few children who have a rare problem with converging their eyes and they may need to actually remove their eyeglasses for when they need to do close up work.

5 Principles of Parenting That Prepare Our Children for Life in the Real World

Filed under: Kids + Parenting — admin at 2:02 pm on Thursday, June 12, 2008

Before I became a father, I was a son, a brother, and a nervous misguided child with no self esteem and no clue what life was all about. My father told me how big of a mess up I was and I soon came to believe him. My mother gave me love and encouragement and through her came the faith and belief that I was a good person with a good heart, and I was put on this Earth to do good things. My mother and her mother as well, had very strong standards and principles pertaining to loving each other and treating everyone with respect and compassion. Here are the 5 most important ideals that I grew up with and still apply to this very day. These are the values that shape our children’s character. These are a set of principles that they too will one day give this gift to their own children. Let’s start with Honesty.

HONESTY: The first and possibly the most important principle of them all. The later in life that a child understands the importance of being honest, the more likely they are to find themselves in many situations that are painful and discomforting. They must understand that there are no exceptions to the rule, such as white lies, withholding the truth, or not telling things the way they really happened. Honesty leads on into our second principle.

ACCOUNTABILLITY: It may sound harsh, but children must learn to take responsibility for their actions. Our kids have all the excuses in the world, although they forget that we were kids too and we’ve pretty much heard it all. They have to realize that there are very few legitimate excuses, but in general they need to apply our first principle, Honesty, and learn to tell it like it is. This is particularly important in our children’s school work. They must understand that they are the ones who need to make sure their homework’s done. This doesn’t excuse us parents from participating actively with our children’s school work, it only means that it’s their obligation to know their homework assignment, to bring home their study book, to do ALL their homework, and to be sure to turn it in to their teachers. If they aren’t fully adhering to our first principle of honesty, we can expect that our children will eventually fall into trouble at school, and as parents we must hold them accountable and not allow excuses or finger pointing. They messed up. They messed up and that’s part of life. We make mistakes and we suffer the consequences, but we must teach them a valuable lesson is to be learned here.

RESPECT FOR OTHERS: When teaching our children important life principles, it is imperative to set an example of respect for others. Our children must understand that we are not to judge, criticize, label, disrespect, or hold prejudice towards any individual based on their looks, religion, financial status, beliefs or disabilities. This lesson must be taught by example, and should strictly be dealt with right away when these problems arise, and believe me they will arise. We must teach them that we are children of God and our purpose here is to love each other and to help one another. If you don’t strongly believe this your self, then be prepared for your children to grow up selfish, judgmental, and in all probability racist. Respect for others starts in the home, or may never start at all.

GRATITUDE: Many of us take a lot of things in life for grant it, even more so with our children. They assume there will be will be taken care of and basically don’t have a care in the world. It is essential that our children realize that food doesn’t magically appear on the dinner table each night, and their playstations and game boys cost a lot of money that we as parents work very hard for. Children must understand how blessed and fortunate they are, especially children lucky enough to be living in the U.S.A, as opposed to the millions and millions of children who not only don’t have the luxuries we are afforded, but may not have food on their tables at all. Our children as a whole are spoiled and have very little appreciation for even the simple things in life. Teach your children wisely, not only to have gratitude for what they have, but to have gratitude for the problems in the world that we are fortunate enough not to have. Perhaps this will help to strengthen their character enough to see the importance of helping and caring for those less fortunate than us.

SAYING “I LOVE YOU”: You can never say “I Love You” too many times. Perhaps the three most powerful words in any language. Always end a phone conversation or a bedtime story with an “I Love You”. It seems a bit simplistic as far as principles go, however it could truly set the stage for our children growing up unafraid to express their feelings to another. Many of us have a difficult time with this. There is a wonderful feeling, so natural, that comes to us when we tell another “I Love You”, and of course when someone speaks those wonderful words to us. We must first make our children feel loved, before they can truly understand how to love themselves. Start every morning and end each evening by holding your child close to you and whispering those spirit lifting, powerful words we all need to hear. Just say to them “I Love You”, and perhaps they’ll grow up with a heart of gold and an abundance of love for all.

If you enjoyed this article, please visit Jay’s Family sites at Jays Plan - Secrets of a Single Dad and Family Health With Mister Mom

Jay Bartels - EzineArticles Expert Author

Jay Bartels is the author of many human interest stories. Jay’s own story of hope and inspiration can be found on his highly resourcefull family sites. Jay is a single father raising two young girls and shares his experiences in several journals that can be found on his web sites.

What Do You Teach Your Children About Money?

Filed under: Kids + Parenting — admin at 1:27 am on Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Whether we realize it or not we teach our children about money every day. Sometimes we teach with words and sometimes with actions. I’m sure at one time or another the following scenario as happened to you or something close to it: “Mom, can we go buy some toys?” You say, “We don’t have the money for that right now.” Your children reply, “Just go to the ATM and get the money.” You then make a comment to the effect, “There has to be money in my account in order to get money from the ATM.” I still remember the first time I had that conversation and my children’s jaws dropped. It never occurred to them that you had to have money in order to get money out of the ATM machine. They just saw the ATM as the cash machine - Free money. Don’t we all wish that was true!

Let me share with you another conversation we had in my house. We were giving out allowances and we always give it to them in change, so they can take their offering to church. My son said, “Why, do we give money to church anyway?” My daughter quickly piped up, “Because, the Bible tells us to.” She is accurate that the Bible instructs us to give to church, but there is a better explanation. (For the record, I don’t like using because the Bible says so - we need to teach our children about the reasons God gives us instructions and his promises in the Bible.) We give money to church, because God owns everything anyway. All that we have has been given to us from Him and he owns it all. We are only giving a small portion back to thank Him for the bounty he has given us. So, we give the church a praise offering for what God has graciously given us.

Many people have different views about money. Some don’t want to tell their children anything about how much they make and how they pay bills. They don’t want their children to know that and see that as private. Some people give their children way too much information and then children worry if things are tight. I think there is a middle ground. How are children going to learn to spend money wisely if we don’t show them? I think it is important for you to share with children how things were in the lean years of your family. That maybe right now. Many children today, when they become adults, want to start out where their parents ended up. They don’t see all the difficult times that led up to where their parents are now. Share with your children in age appropriate ways how to spend and save money. Teach your children how to compare prices and shop for a bargain. I have seen many teenagers over the years and I’m amazed at when they start spending their own money for clothing all the sudden Wal-Mart doesn’t look so bad anymore, instead of the high priced stores they want parents to spend their money.

In conclusion, what and how are you teaching your children about money? Do they know that God is in control? Do they see you giving to church? Do they even know how bills are paid? Maybe you are saying, “I have been a poor manager of money, who am I to teach them?” We are all learning and God is gracious to help us when we make mistakes. He can help you know what to say and how to teach your children about money. Ask God to help you manage your money wisely and set a good example for your children.

© 2005 Kimberly Chastain

Kimberly Chastain - EzineArticles Expert Author

Kimberly Chastain, MS, LMFT is the Christian Working Mom Coach and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She was recently featured in the book the Myth of the Perfect Mother. She is the author of “Help My Preteen/Teenager is Driving Me Nuts!!!” To purchase a copy of this e-book please visit http://www.kimberlychastain.com/parenting To schedule a free, initial coaching session send an email to free@kimberlychastain.com or visit http://www.christianworkingmom.com Feel free to make comments on this article at the Christian Working Mom Blog, http://kimberlychastain.com/my-journal

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Retro Baby Clothing

Filed under: Kids + Parenting — admin at 1:06 pm on Wednesday, May 14, 2008

If it was cool when you were a kid, it’s cool for your kids!

Baby clothing is quite a bit different today than it was when you were an infant. From the designer styles of Baby Dior and Baby Phat to the bizarre offerings of the alternative baby clothing market, there’s now something for every parent to adorn her children with in an effort to transfer a bit of her own personality onto her offspring. One of the latest trends in baby fashions is the “retro” look in baby wear.

Retro baby clothing indicates baby sized tees and “Onesies” that have been printed or screened with images of pop culture past. In many cases the pictures are of icons from before even the parents’ time, making it cool to be the most obscure. Interested parties are not likely to find these offerings at the local Wal-Mart but will instead have to order them online. Fortunately for those interested in giving their children a little piece of the past to wear on their chests, there is no shortage of those sites available.

The most complete and probably best known of these sites is The Retro Baby. Perusing the offerings of the site is like a walk down memory lane for anyone who is in their thirties or has a keen fix on the pop-culture of the 1980s. Designs available here include television references like The A Team, ALF, CHiPs, and Dallas (the Dallas print will be instantly familiar to anyone who remembers the summer that America was wondering who shot J.R.) as well as older images from shows that the parents of today watched in reruns while growing up: Barbara Eden in her silky outfit from I Dream of Jeanie and Clayton Moore in his blue Texas Ranger outfit complete with black mask from The Lone Ranger. Prices for these printed “Onesies” are a bit steep at $14.95 ($16.95 for toddler-sized tees) considering the baby will grow out of them completely in a few months’ time, but even the most stoic of thirty-somethings will have to admit that they are getting a certain dose of cool for their cash.

Retro doesn’t just mean pop culture references, however. Several clothiers are offering styles that are a clear throwback to those worn by kids in the fifties, sixties, and seventies. One such company, Cakewalk Baby, offers flower print designs reminiscent of the post-hippie era of the late seventies; a time when PC meant petty cash, Elvis Presley was still with us, and no one knew what a video game or MTV was. A website called Milena Bee offers these designs and more and is definitely worth a look.

Whether you want to put stills of Bruce Lee from Enter the Dragon or flowery designs from an era gone by on your baby’s body, retro baby clothes may be just what you need to show the world that your baby is cooler than cool. Look hard enough and you may be able to find a tee shirt that says “I’m the Fonz” or “Frankie Say Relax.”

Kirsten Hawkins is a baby and parenting expert specializing new mothers and single parent issues. Visit www.babyhelp411.com/ for more information on how to raising healthy, happy children.

Saving your babies cord blood - www.stemcellstorage.org.uk

Filed under: Health Parlor, Kids + Parenting, Medical & More — admin at 4:16 pm on Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The method know as three dimensional ultrasound is that can be used during early pregnancy, it provides 3d images of the unborn baby. Most times the ultrasound images are collated and joined together and animated to produce a 4d ultrasound scan.

Three dimensional scans works in the same manner to the normal scanning methods except that the ultrasound waves are sent from multiple directions. The ultrasound waves are reflected back then captured to provide information to construct a 3d picture in very much the same way as 3d movies. 3d ultrasound was devised in the usa.

It’s important to understand that sonologists worldwide have always conjured three-dimensional images of anatomy or pathology in their minds while doing 2d scans. However, until recently it was impossible to do this kind of reconstruction on on info using ultasound scanning. With the introduction of baby scans for the first time allowed us a view into the thinking of a sonologist and so allowing us see the images on the ultrasound machine.

3d/4d imaging should utilize ultrasound energy following the same limits as conventional 2d ultrasound to create the 3d images. There is no data to suggest harm due to 3d ultrasound, its use in none medical situations should be undertaken with an understanding of the risks that exist.

Also remember to archive your new born babies cord blood by using a company like cells4life.

MORAL ARMOR’S Irrational Parenting, Part I

Filed under: Kids + Parenting — admin at 10:44 am on Tuesday, April 1, 2008

“If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is “God is crying.” And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is, “Probably because of something you did.”"Jack Handey

My view on parenting holds one key premise in mind: that every decent parent should assure that upon leaving the nest, their kids can fly! So herein lies a critique against the attributes which make this crucial moral obligation impossible.

The Wrong Decision.

Stupid men and stupid women are dysfunctional on their own. They are dysfunctional together. Their answer to fix everything? More people. Babies are the one gigantic liability people can assume in America without credit or common sense. At upwards of four-hundred thousand dollars to raise a child responsibly these days, if you didn’t take specific actions to earn and plan for that expense, you cannot afford it independently. Affording a kid is like affording a Ferrari. The stature for extravagance takes time to earn, and requires a tenacious discipline to reach that economic class. Being a responsible parent is no different.

If you can’t afford to buy a median priced home with all the trimmings, you can’t afford a baby, and probably haven’t accumulated the knowledge necessary to raise one. This however, is a luxury the Fear-driven indulge in. Most have kids because they don’t know what else to do with themselves. They don’t know what’s next, where to take their lives, or where to take their relationship. There is no order to their lives, only what they saw their parents do. Life for them amounts to adolescence, datinguh ho!a baby, marriage and game shows. Unable to stop their own biological maturation, they develop an adult mind with adult needs within a being already trapped by prior errorsso discontent follows, then fighting, divorce and poverty. Then they do it again.

To some, having children is a form of involuntary companionship, an unthreatening presence that demands little cognitive action. They claim this route because kids “keep life simple.” Isn’t it simple enough? They extol the simple joy of children and spend their lives looking at the floor. What’s so interesting about it? Someone has to grow up, take adult action and advance the world. Instead they waste their early productive years stagnating at the level of baby talk when they should be building a solid future, and through productive action, learning the true nature of consciousness before they commit to another, or try to raise another.

The most laughable life-cowards are the moral missionaries. Everything in their lives, as if a flower blooms with their words, is “for the children.” In youth I recall overhearing, “If I didn’t have kids, there would be a void of time I wouldn’t know how to fill.” Exactly. Children, when not a planned occurrence along a romantic sketch of living desire, are a substitute for the frustrated need of achievement. Kids are just other people. Thought and spirit are the exclusive domain of the individual. There is no social endeavor that trumps the moral value of individual action. That action must generate more than enough to feed ourselves, whose surplus feeds them as well, not by social concern, but by purposeful productive ability. One’s purpose in life must be self-defined, whose core is to be pursued and accomplished without assistance. Any living purpose requiring people is by its nature, neurotic. It is the confession that one does not know what to do with oneself alone; that one cannot live independently and be happy by the functioning of one’s own brain, meaning that for this person, life is not an end in itself. Worse yet, if a central purpose is not defined, one cannot convey its importance to another. They can’t teach happiness and can only pass along their own statusslave, master, predator, host or parasite. Their blissful concern for the children doesn’t earn them jack for respect in anyone past the age of five.

Through children, some people generate liabilities for the free ride our legislators permit, using a combination of the above excuses. “We can’t afford it” becomes “We need not consider the expense. The government will give us $X for the production of each baby. The government wants babiesbabies can be our enterprise. If we control costs and push the remaining burden onto the shoulders of others, we won’t have to work.” There is nothing as heart-wrenching as a hungry child? Well, it’s nothing compared to the collapse of a nation by internal corruption. En masse, they and their sympathizers including those responsible for such laws, are responsible for all segments of overpopulation, of rent-control slums, inner-city crime and societal breakdown. The shortest-term thinkers and those willing to submit to them, always have the longest-term disasters.

Next time, we’ll explore what bad parents hand down and what it does to their children’s lives.

Copyright 2005 Ronald E Springer

Ronald E. Springer is the Author/Philosopher of Moral Armor, the world’s first fully-integrated moral philosophy based on the nature of Man. Featured on The Mitch Albom Show, NBC and FOX News radio affiliates, Mr. Springer is available for interviews, speaking engagements, philosophy workshops and seminars. Please contact RonaldESpringer@MoralArmor.com or visit http://www.MoralArmor.com for details.