The things you should expose your baby to, from horseplay with Dad to spicier food

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By Deborah Skolnik

Even the most devoted moms and dads often overlook some of these — or feel that they're the opposite of what a loving parent should do. But each is important in its own way. Here's why you should give your baby...

...more sleep
Quick: How much shut-eye does the average baby need? Many parents guess it's 8 to 12 hours per day, but it's actually more like 14 to 16, including naps, for infants up to age 1, says Juan Martinez, M.D., director of the sleep lab at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, in Hollywood, Florida. This misunderstanding can lead to babies who are as sleep-deprived as the rest of us.

Sure, it's tempting to try to keep that dozing cutie awake for his aunt's visit. But helping your child to snooze without interruption as often as possible is worth it. Jennifer Winn of Spring Lake, New Jersey, sometimes has to cancel her 2-year-old's playdate if her 10-month-old is overtired. "It's not easy, but I think it's really important that he have his rest," she says.

She's right. A child must be well rested to be receptive to new experiences. So know the signs that your baby needs more shut-eye. "Instead of acting drowsy, he may be irritable and hyper," Dr. Martinez says.

Setting a sleep schedule, especially once your child is at least 6 months old, is a good way to make sure he's getting enough rest. Make naptimes and bedtimes as consistent as possible, and build in a cushion of time beforehand to help him unwind you can try showing him a book, rocking him, or giving him a warm bath before bed.

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Pregnancy

The onset and degree of pregnancy symptoms will vary within women. Many women experience them within days of conception, others take a few weeks before pregnancy symptoms kick in and a lucky few feel no discomfort at all. The early pregnancy symptoms listed on this page generally can be felt once implantation occurs (8 - 10 days from ovulation) and will lessen after the first trimester.

From Marcy Zitz,

Your Guide to Family Internet.

about.com

Acronyms are an abbreviation that is formed with the first letter of each word in a phrase. They have made their way into the English language as common language that becomes a new word. For instance the word "laser" is commonly used to describe an intense beam of light but it is actually an acronym that stands for lightwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Acronyms are used extensively in online chat conversations and Instant Messaging (IM) as a short cut to typing an entire expression. Not only is this done to save time, children use them to "secretly" communicate even when a parent is standing in the room (for instance POS (Parent Over Shoulder) is typed by a teen to let their chat partner know that their parent just walked in the room).

September 05, 2006

TUESDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- The American Academy of Pediatrics has a new attitude about consumption of milk and milk products by children with lactose intolerance: Hey, give it a try.

New guidelines say the academy "supports use of dairy foods as an important source of calcium for bone mineral health and of other nutrients that facilitate growth in children and adolescents." Specifically, it does not recommend eliminating dairy products to treat lactose intolerance.

In practical terms, said Dr. Melvin B. Heyman, a member of the committee that wrote the guidelines, the new advice is for parents of children with lactose intolerance, in collaboration with pediatricians, to "test the system and see how much milk, cheese and ice cream they can tolerate."

One reason for the new advice, said Heyman, who is a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, is that "we have more information about what people will tolerate. We know that children who have lactose intolerance have a tendency to tolerate some dairy products."

keepkidshealthy.com

 

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the "sudden death of an infant under one year of age that remains unexplained after a complete investigation, which includes an autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the symptoms or illnesses the infant had prior to dying and any other pertinent medical history."

Unfortunately, there is no 100% way to prevent SIDS, but there are steps you can take to reduce your infant's risk of SIDS.

It most commonly occurs between the ages of 1 and 4 months. Fortunately, the incidence of SIDS has decreased dramitically in recent years. This has been thought to be secondary to the Back to Sleep campaign that instructs parents to put their infants to sleep on their backs and not their side or stomachs.

The most important thing that you can do to reduce the risk of SIDS is to put your baby to sleep on his back (sleeping on his side is not as safe, expecially if he can roll over onto his stomach) and never put him down alone on a waterbed, bean bag, or soft blanket that can cover his face and cause choking. Also make sure that daycare personal or baby-sitters also know to put your baby to sleep on his back.

keepkidshealthy.com

 

Even parents who don't effectively use other parenting techniques, like time-out, using natural and logical consequences, distraction or extinction, likely know about reverse psychology.

Using this technique, to get your kids to finish their dinner, you might say something like:

"I bet you can't eat all of those peas in 30 seconds."

or when trying to get him to put away a toy, you might say:

"I'll put it away for you. You probably don't know how to fit it all back in the box anyway."

So you are essentially trying to get your child to do the exact opposite of what you really want him to do.

This should not be confused with trying to make chores fun. If you say 'let's see who can put more toys away in 5 minutes,' then that isn't reverse psychology, since you are actually telling him to do what you what him to do.

Your Mommy Body
A head-to-toe guide to the changes — and what you can do about them

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By Jeannie Ralston from parenting.com

I was getting out of the shower recently and did something I normally don't dare do. I took a glance at my body in the mirror. The glance turned into a stare.

My body, once so lithe and lean, looked shockingly like the lumpy, droopy bodies of older women I used to pity smugly in locker rooms. What happened? I thought.

Kids are what happened. Ever since my body endured two pregnancies, childbirth, and nursing, it's never been quite the same, even now, eight years later. "Creating a baby and giving birth, your body has gone through some remarkable changes," says Iffath Hoskins, M.D., an obstetrician in Savannah. "Many parts of your body will revert back to normal, but not everything. After kids, your body redefines what normal is."

Ask Dr. Sears: Nighttime Bottles and Tooth Decay

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By Dr. William Sears

 

From parenting.com 

Q My husband and I recently adopted a baby, and he's been exclusively bottle-fed. He always feeds at night from a bottle, and I've been hearing that he will develop cavities from this. He doesn't take the bottle to bed; rather he has his bedtime bottle and we put him down to sleep right afterwards. Is this indeed dangerous for his teeth?

A Indeed, it is, as the milk sugars in formula can cause tooth decay. Even natural milk sugars present in breast milk can occasionally cause tooth decay from night nursing. The reason for the night feeding-tooth decay correlation is that when you fall asleep, saliva production drastically slows and you lose the natural rinsing action that saliva provides. This allows the milk sugars to settle on the teeth and stay there throughout the night, possibly causing decay. It's a true dilemma, because one of the time-tested ways of putting babies to sleep is feeding them. Instead, try these tricks:

To Spank or Not to Spank? By Dr. William Sears
Q My husband believes in spanking, but I don't. How can we come to an agreement on how to discipline our kids? A I've practiced pediatrics for 35 years and raised eight children with my wife. I've seen lots of children grow up and through the years, I've become more and more convinced that spanking is not the best solution when it comes to child discipline. In my opinion, "sparing the rod" results in emotionally healthy and well-disciplined children. Increasing scientific evidence against spanking and anti-spanking opinions among child development researchers have prompted most European and Scandinavian countries to have laws against spanking. Even the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child declared spanking a form of violence and is in favor of laws against physical punishment. Here, some information you can share with your husband that might encourage him to rethink his position on spanking: