Tips to Help Pets and Toddlers Get Along with Each Other

There is one thing in common between pets and toddlers in your household – both of them crave your love and attention, and both of them require your utmost care. If a pet has been staying in the household much before an toddler has come to stay there, the pet may feel threatened and even jealous of the attention given to the new toddler. It may tend to attack the toddler when unattended.

In another case, household pets may mistake a toddler for a game or an intruder and attack them accidentally. Sometimes, household pets are unable to gauge the strength and limits of a toddler and may unknowingly hurt the toddler while playing with it.

Here are some tips to ensure your toddler and your household pet live in harmony:

* Do not neglect your pet – pay the pet as much (or almost) attention as you did before the toddler arrived

* Let the pet know that the toddler is its friend and not a rival – you may introduce the pet to the toddler and familiarize them in a friendly way

* Train the pet to get accustomed to the toddler’s ways by playing tapes of toddlers crying and other means so that the pet is not frightened when the toddler cries in reality

* Do not leave your toddler unattended with a pet around – the pet may unknowingly (or knowingly, if not properly trained) hurt the toddler or indulge in things that may not be good for the toddlers welfare

* Keep the pet hygienically clean so that the chances of the toddler contracting diseases from it remain minimal

Trimming your baby’s nails

Even when babies are young, their nails are quite sharp. This can easily lead to babies injuring either themselves or adults who are handling them. To avoid this, it is essential that you start trimming children’s nails from the time they are still young.
Do not attempt to cut your baby’s nails with scissors or anything else that is likely to cause injury. Instead, use clippers and scissors that are especially designed for children. They have rounded tips and prevent accidental injury from taking place.
Here are a few things to remember about trimming your baby’s nails:

• The ideal time to trim young children’s nails is right after a bath when their nails are softer.
• If your baby is fidgety and refuses to sit quietly, you may need someone to distract your baby’s attention. Another option is to encourage your baby to fall asleep.
• Hold your baby’s finger (or toe) firmly in your hand and push down on the part that is under the nail, to prevent accidentally cutting it.
• Take care to avoid cutting too deep.
• Trim the nail by following the natural curve on the fingertip. (While trimming the nails on your baby’s toes you may cut them in a straight line.)
• Gently smoothen any rough or sharp edges by using emery board.
• Avoid biting your baby’s nails in an attempt to trim them. This not only prevents a clean and even cut, but may also lead to your baby contracting an infection through your saliva.

If you find that you have either injured the skin or cut too deep, so that there is bleeding, hold a sterile cotton wad or gauze over the wound and press gently. Ensure that the bleeding has stopped, before you release the pressure. Do not wrap a bandage around the wound as it may present a risk of choking.

How Can You Be Tactful with Unwanted Advice?

If you are a new dad, you may often receive unsolicited advice on how to bring up your baby. Close friends or family members may typically offer this. Casual acquaintances and even total strangers may add their bit.

While it may be well meaning, a torrent of unwanted advice can be highly annoying. Parents have the first prerogative of making choices and making decisions for their baby. Exasperated parents are not to blame if they see unwanted advice as interference in their freedom to bring up their child the way they want to.

However, it is also important that you respond to such counsel in a way that is not hurtful to the other person. These are different approaches you can adopt when faced with unsolicited advice:

• Listen before you react: Listen to and consider a suggestion offered to you before rejecting it. Chances are you may actually value it.
• Find something to agree upon: Even if the advice in its entirety is not acceptable to you, try to see if there is some part of it that you can agree upon, and acknowledge that.
• Be polite: If you know that your rejecting it will not go down well with the person offering you advice, you could thank the person for the concern and let him know you will consider it. It will keep the peace and you are not bound to put it into practice.
• Argue wisely: If you must counter unsolicited suggestions, do so logically, backing your arguments with facts.
• Be frank: If you think it necessary, do not hesitate to let the person know that you do not agree with his or her opinions.

Useful Article: Parenting Advice

Moving is the Best Exercise for Babies

We know that exercise is important for our health as adults, but did you know that the same philosophy applies to babies? It is recommended that babies should work their muscles at least half-hour each day, although not necessarily all at once. Here are basic exercises that you can do with your baby, to stretch and tone the muscles:
Stretching
With your baby on his tummy, roll a ball in his direction so he has to extend his arms to grasp the ball and then roll it back to you. Alternately, you could sit facing each other with your feet bottoms touching and roll the ball back and forth, stretching in the process.
Standing
If your baby is trying to stand, encourage him by making him want to move towards you. Make sure you do this within the safety of a crib or on well-padded baby bedding. Play with a toy to get his attention and then re-position yourself on the other side of the crib or bed to get him to come to you. You can also make the stretching motion yourself and show him what it looks like when you stand up.
Crawling
Your infant’s attempts to crawl are naturally going to help him exercise his little body since he will work hard to push himself forward with his arms and legs. Motivate him to move by clapping your hands and motioning your child to come towards you. You can also use a noise-making toy to grab his attention.
Jumping
Toddlers require a more advanced activity like jumping to help practice motor skills. You can make a line on your carpet using a folded piece of construction paper and help your baby hop from one side to the other. To add to the excitement, make up rhyming tunes as you go or listen to music.

Preparing Kids for the Challenges of the First Days of School

It’s hard to imagine what goes on in a little one’s mind when he goes to the big school, but you can help him overcome some fears by talking to him before hand.

For example, many kids at pre-school and even kindergarten level, are nervous about the bathroom. Reassure your child that he can ask to go any time. Some kids have accidents at school, and he should be aware that this type of thing can happen, and does happen to a lot of kids. If you have given him strict instructions on other people touching him in the bathroom, make sure he is aware of how changes in caregiving my change that policy, for example if a teacher has to wipe him. Some kids will time their bowel movements to avoid school time. Discuss this with your doctor if it becomes and issue.

Buy clothes for your child with easy closures. No child at this point wants to have to ask their teacher to help them button their pants. Just at the moment you are trying to teach them autonomy, don’t burden them suddenly with shoelaces that need to be tied by an adult.

School is an ideal time to teach about making friends. You don’t have to be a car salesman to know the value of walking right up to someone, pointing to something you have in common (your love of sand or the color of your tennis shoes) and introducing yourself. This is not a skill that comes easily, but kids can learn these skills to, especially if you show them how it works, by introducing yourself to other moms and dads.

Lunchtime might also be stressful, if your child has never had to eat on her own. Many kids get stressed at lunchtime because they don’t have the leisure to drag it out like they do at home. Make sure your child has items that are easy to manipulate on her own rather than complicated foods that need to be reheated and might be hard to eat.

Your child may be scared of other small details that don’t worry you at all. He might think the school nurse means lots of shots. Or the school bus looks like a big scary tunnel he might get lost in and never find his way back home. Explore and discuss things like this with your child by asking him about his likes and dislikes about the school.

With a very small amount of putting yourself in their shoes, you can easily take steps to ease into the transition to school.

Basic dining etiquette for little kids to learn

Quick ! You have 25 days to get the kids in shape to make a good presentation at Christmas dinner. Like a lot of stuff in parenting, consistency and patience are by-words and yes, you can teach a toddler few new tricks. Here are the basic etiquette skills little ones should have:

• “Please,” “Thank you” and “You’re welcome” are not optional. Repeat them over, invite your kids to correct you, and you’ll find by Christmas a pleasant and polite Pavlovian response.
• Eating with fingers is for babies, with the obvious exceptions ( pizza, ribs, chicken legs for example ). Little kids can use a fork, though you may have to help load it up from time to time. Resist the temptation to feed them and they will pick up this skill, leaving you free to get them another glass of milk.
• Kids need to ask to be excused to leave the table. Teaching kids not to run around during dinner is not that easy, but you’ll make it harder if you chase them around to get them to eat.
• Salt and pepper go together. Pass them together for a polished impression.
• Even little kids can and should use napkins, keep them on their laps, and learn to use them rather than wiping their hands on their pants.

You can make it easier for the kids by eating dinner in a room without distractions like TV, and make a rule not to allow toys or books while eating the family meal together.
Good luck and Bon appetit!

Baby Cold – How to Prevent Your Baby from Cold

Common cold is simply an infection that affects the nose and respiratory tracts. More than 200 different viruses can cause a cold. Babies, in particular, are more vulnerable, because their immune systems are not completely developed. Most colds are not dangerous, and usually last only a week. Colds that last longer than a week should be treated by a health professional. A cold may lead to pneumonia or other serious illnesses, especially in babies younger than three months.
 
Symptoms
 
Children with a common cold may display one of the following symptoms:

• Runny nose
• Low-grade fever
• Sneezing
• Coughing
• Watery eyes

Treatment
 
There is no cure for the common cold. However, here are some ways you can help your baby feel better:

• Wash your hands regularly. Keep the baby’s toys, pillows, and bed clean.
• Let your baby drink plenty of water, juice, or other suitable liquids to keep your baby hydrated. Breastfeeding is the best option at this age, since human milk contains the necessary antibodies to fight infections.
• Clear the baby’s nasal passage with a rubber-bulb syringe.
• Keep the air in your baby’s room moist by running a humidifier or vaporizer.
• Doctors may suggest giving a medication such as acetaminophen to reduce discomfort to babies older than three months but always double-check dosage since the doctor will calculate on exact weight and age of your baby.

Call the doctor immediately in the following cases:

• When the cold symptoms persist for more than two weeks
• When the child displays symptoms such as wheezing, panting, or other breathing difficulties
• When the child complains of pain in the ears
• When a fever higher than 100F persists for more than three days
• When the sputum is tinged with blood

Autism – Early Signs in Babies

The World Health Organization or ( WHO ) and American Psychological Association or ( APA ) recognize autism as a developmental disability resulting from disorders of the central human nervous system. Though the most apparent signs of autism in children are visible at two or three years of age, parents should also be wary of symptoms of this disorder in their infants.
Though specific causes remain unproven, autism is usually judged to be caused by some of the following:

• Genetic influences
• Anatomical abnormality or variations (e.g. head circumference)
• Abnormal blood vessel functions

According to the National Institute of Mental Health or ( NIMH ), some common early indicators for autism are when babies:

• Don’t ever babble or smile.
• Never respond to gestures.
• Avoid eye contact.
• Seem to be hearing impaired at times.
• Do not respond to calling by name.
• Don’t play with other children or toys.
• Seem to be losing their scarcely developed language skills.

Autistic children fall off the charts when it comes to achieving basic developmental milestones. Generally, babies smile or react in some way when ‘ooh-ed’ and ‘aah-ed’ at. They tend to reach out to grab at pacifiers or crayons handed to them. Autistic children are unable to perform these simple actions.
Keeping in mind that autism usually isn’t diagnosed until about age 3, it is best for parents to trust their instincts about their children and get a full formal developmental evaluation done by a medical expert. The earlier children are diagnosed for this disability, the better are their chances for treatment and intervention.

Useful Article: Parenting Skills

Cord Blood Banking – Learn More About this Medical Procedure

What is cord-blood banking?
Cord blood banking refers to the collection and storage of the umbilical cord blood of your child. This blood, from the placenta and umbilical cord, is rich in hematopoietic stem cells. Stem cells from this cord blood play an important role in the treatment of certain serious blood and immune system related genetic diseases such as cancers that are treated with bone marrow transplants.
Benefits

• Cord blood stem cells have a higher success rate than stem cells from the bone marrow.
• They are valuable in treating conditions such as leukemia or lymphoma, aplastic anemia, severe sickle cell anemia, severe combined immune deficiency, and other diseases that require bone marrow transplants.
• They may prove useful for a family that has a medical history of diseases that are usually treated using bone marrow transplants.

Disadvantages

• The odds that the baby’s cord blood will ever be used to treat a family member are very low; odds that it will ever be used to treat the same child are even lower.
• It is expensive. Storing a sample of cord blood may cost approximately $1, 500, along with an annual maintenance of $ 150.
• It has limited use. Cord blood stem cells are mostly used in the treatment of children and young adults. The quantity of stem cells provided by cord blood is not enough for transplant into adults.
• It is not yet certain whether stem cells from close relatives actually offer a higher rate of success than those from strangers.
• The process of collecting the blood holds some risk, though very low, to the baby.

Protecting your Child Against Poisoning

With toddlers in your home, poisoning is another potential danger you have to come to grips with. Their curiosity might induce them to ingest, or come in contact with, toxic substances that could be harmful to them.
You will be surprised to know that just about anything can be poisonous to your toddlers. Here is a simple checklist:

• Aspirin
• Lye
• Drain cleaning solvents
• Cosmetics
• Alcoholic beverages
• Moth balls
• Bleach
• Washing and cleaning liquids, soap bars, powders, etc.

To make your children aware of the dangers of ingesting unknown things, there are some simple thumb rules:

• Never call medicines or any bright-colored, small pellet, lozenge, etc. candy.
• Keep dangerous things out of your toddlers’ reach; take into account the fact that they are adventurous explorers and terrific climbers.
• Make use of child-resistant locks, packages, etc. to stock the most dangerous things.

If any untoward incident were to happen, here are some signs that you need help:

• Your toddlers have difficulty breathing.
• They complain of severe throat pain or burning sensations
• You spot burns on their lips or mouth.
• Your children are experiencing convulsions, falling unconscious or are extremely sleepy.

In such a case, instant and immediate action could save your child. Always remember:

• Never try to induce vomiting. If a strong acidic substance has been ingested, throwing it up could further injure children by burning their throat and mouth
• In an emergency, call the American Association of Poison Control Centers at (800) 222-1222. You will be redirected to your local poison control center.

Useful Article: Child Development