Toothpicks can be fun

There’s something about bite-sized food on miniature skewers. It’s fun for kids to see food in a different presentation. Make homemade chicken fingers and skewer them onto toothpicks. Use delicious applesauce which you can easily whip up for dipping sauce. Store the rest of the applesauce in the fridge and use for fruit and vegetable dips. Toothpicks can be a fun way to introduce new food combinations such as sweet potato cubes and blue cheese dip, cherry tomatoes and cream cheese and melon along with cottage cheese. Use interesting combinations to encourage new tastes and textures. Toothpicks can be a great way to get kids to taste something they normally wouldn’t.

Play with cookie cutters

It’s easy to make a sandwich interesting with cookie cutters. You can use a variety of breads and cheese to cut out favorite shapes and stack them together. Have a fun snack theme for younger kids. For example, turn sandwiches into sailboats using a toothpick on top with slices of tomatoes as the sail. Cut out cheese in the shapes of fish and place alongside the sailboat sandwiches. For older children, make a tall sandwich using leftover meatloaf and lettuce cut out in circles with a toothpick to hold it together. Have small containers filled with ketchup and mustard for dipping sauce.

Make a colorful pattern

All children are drawn to bright colors. It’s easy to make a healthy patterned snack using a tall clear glass. You can make fun yogurt treats ahead of time and keep them in the fridge for the kids to take out. In a tall clear glass, layer yogurt with jello cubes, fresh fruit and top it off with granola or oatmeal. Get creative and try different things such as rice pudding or pudding with berries topped off with toasted coconut. You can make frozen snacks layering frozen yogurt ice cream, melon and top it off with fresh cream. Add a colorful spoon for younger kids and you’re set with a scrumptious snack.

Cut caffeinated and sugary drinks or snacks from your child’s diet.  At the very least don’t allow these after 3pm.  Caffeine stays in the system for up to 6 hours and can keep your child awake.  Young children should never be given caffeinated drinks.  Sugar raises blood glucose levels, which then drop during the night causing disturbed sleep.

 Turn off the TV at least an hour before bedtime.  Watching TV before bed is linked with poor sleep patterns.  Don’t allow a TV in your child’s bedroom.  This will start a lifelong habit of watching TV to fall asleep.  Turning off the TV also signals that bedtime is approaching which is important for younger children who don’t have much concept of time.

 Don’t allow your child to eat a heavy meal close to bedtime.  This can cause indigestion and restless sleep.  A light healthy snack is sufficient to keep blood sugar levels consistent throughout the night.  Oats contain the sleep inducing hormone melatonin.  So an ideal bedtime snack would be oatmeal or porridge.

 Reading a story is an important part of any bedtime routine.  Some time spent in closeness with a parent is comforting, especially when hugs and cuddles can be lost during a busy day.  Sitting and reading a story with your child is a precious physical and emotional bonding moment.  For a younger child, listening to your voice is also soothing and reassuring.

 Older kids need reassurance too.  Even if your child is able to read by himself, it is still important to spend time with him at the end of the day.  Instead of reading a story, gently talk through the days activities together.  While your child is asleep his brain begins making sense of the day, so talking the day through starts this process before he sleeps.  It also gives your child an opportunity to voice any worries he may have.

Ideas to Make Hand Washing Fun

Which game or activity you use to make hand washing fun will depend on your child’s age and interests. With babies and toddlers, you can “fly” them to the sink making airplane noises. Older kids can sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice to time how long to wash their hands. Other ideas include setting a timer, using a kid’s soap that changes colors and putting toys in the sink for your child to soap up and rinse.

What Kids Need to Learn About Hand Washing

The ultimate goal is to get children to wash for at least 20 seconds and wash thoroughly. Children should learn to use soap and warm water and dry their hands after with a towel. That seems like a lot of steps for a child in a rush to be done with hand washing. This is why children are tempted to skip steps. If your child is skipping steps, find ways to make each step more fun. For example your child may be more likely to dry his hands if he gets to pick out a special hand towel.

When to Teach Hand Washing

It is never too early, or too late to start teaching hand washing. Babies and toddlers will enjoy fun games. With older children, you can slip some fun facts into hand washing time by asking questions. One question to discuss is how many kids your child thinks do not wash their hands after using the restroom.

Proper Set Up

Give children as young as three easy access to the sink. For younger children this means keeping a stool in the bathroom and towels within easy reach. Kids of any age find hand washing more fun if they can do it by themselves.

The Kids Health website reports that in a study of middle school aged children, 42 percent of girls and 52 percent of boys did not wash their hands after using the bathroom. If hand washing is not fun or important to your child, they can easily become one of the 40 to 50 percent that do not wash his hands when out of his parent’s sight. Start early using fun games to help make hand washing a habit that lasts into adulthood.
References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Clean Hands Saves Lives
cdc.gov/cleanhands/

Kidshealth.org: Defensive Hand Washing
kidshealth.org/teen/your_body/skin_stuff/handwashing.html#

 One of the fastest ways to heal sunburned skin is to make sure that they body stays properly hydrated.  Breast milk is best, but formula may also be used to ensure that your baby receives enough fluids.  The key is to let the body heal from the inside out.  Topical creams and lotions may soothe the burn, but the skin needs to rebuild itself to replace the damaged tissue. 

 2.  Soothe the burn with a bath.

 A cool bath will also help relieve baby’s discomfort.  While the skin is red and inflamed, only use extra sensitive bath soaps or a bath treatment that contains oatmeal to help gently moisturize the skin.  Make sure that the water temperature is not too hot, but do not make it cold either.  A bath that is only slightly cool is enough to ease the fiery sting of sunburn.  Wash baby with your bare hand instead of a rough washcloth, and either gently pat your baby dry with a soft towel or let the skin air dry to avoid further irritation.

 3.  Protect the skin.

 Sunburns can be very painful and irritating.  It is important that a baby’ sunburned skin is protected from chafing and friction.  Dress the baby in thin, soft clothing that is loose on the child so that it does not rub.  If a baby develops blisters from the sunburn, it is even more important to protect the skin.  A blister that gets popped may become infected, so keep these areas covered and protected.

 4.  Call your doctor.

 If you have any concerns about the severity of your baby’s sunburn, do not hesitate to call the doctor.  Some sunburns can be very serious and there are key symptoms that doctors will look for to determine if there burn is severe.  Even if you think that your baby is acting fine, it is better to be safe than sorry.

 Sometimes, when you have taken all of the precautions such as using sunscreen and keeping baby in a shaded area, your baby still may suffer a painful sunburn.  Although it is never good to subject a baby’s skin to a burn, a mild sunburn usually does not require professional medical attention.  Mild sunburns may be treated at home using these tips along with gentle, compassionate care.

 By Jennifer L. Tuso

 For some kids, letting go of the day and going to bed can be difficult. However, not getting enough sleep will make the next day with your child even more challenging. To successfully get children to bed on time means taking the time to get your child’s mind and body to relax.    

 No TV or Video Games Before Bedtime

 Even though your child is just sitting and seems to be relaxed, watching television or playing video games actually stimulates the brain. It’s the light in the screen that causes problems, actually making the brain think it’s daytime and time to wake up. Eliminating screen time before bed and removing televisions and computer games from a child’s bedroom will help children fall asleep at bedtime.

 Dim the Lights

 As with the light from the television, bright lights in the bedroom confuse your child’s body about whether it’s time to sleep or time to be active. Instead of using bright overhead lights when getting ready for bed, use a small table lamp with a soft light. This helps your child’s body naturally get ready to sleep.

 Play Music For Relaxation Before Bedtime

 One electronic gadget that can help your child fall asleep is a CD player. When you turn out the lights, turn on some soft lullabies. This gives your child something relaxing to focus on, lulling him to sleep.

 Talk About the Day

 Before getting into bed, talk with your child about the day. Part of a child’s resistance to bedtime may be that he had a good day and doesn’t want it to end. Talking about his favorite parts of the day helps him let go of the day. As a bonus, you’ll learn a lot about your child’s interests and school day.

 Make Bedtime Important

 If you make bedtime a time to focus only on your child (or children) without distractions, then your child will look forward to the bedtime routine. Ignore the phone, email and other distractions and devote yourself to your child when getting him ready for bed. This helps end the day on a positive note, which makes your child think of bedtime as a positive thing. 

 These simple steps don’t take much time to implement but can make a huge difference in your bedtime routine. The goal is to get your child to relax, transition from daytime to nighttime and keep bedtime a positive experience so that bedtime does not turn into a battle.

By Frank Hicox

 Reading to your children is one of the greatest gifts you can possibly give them. Not only will reading give them untold joy, but it will also help improve their future development. Are you curious as to the benefits of reading aloud to your children? Do you not read to your children very often, if at all? The following reasons will convince you of the need to devote time to this wonderful and valuable activity:

 1) Reading is a great way to spend some quality time with your children. Young infants enjoy hearing their parents’ voices and the physical and emotional closeness. Reading is a great way to develop strong bonds with your children.

 2) One of the most important benefits of reading to a young child is intellectual development. Reading aloud to infants stimulates the development of the brain and promotes both cerebral and emotional intelligence. It also improves language ability and cognitive function. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly endorses these benefits and advises reading to your children daily.

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 3) Listening to stories helps your children develop larger vocabularies and be able to use longer sentences. This will also increase their attention spans and ability to focus – important traits needed for success in education and life.

 4) Reading to children helps give them the ability to succeed in life. Children who get involved in reading generally have a greater desire to learn, making them more likely to succeed in school and later life. By developing an interest in reading in your children, you are actively promoting their chances of success in their future academic and personal lives.

 5) Getting your children involved in reading is a gift for life.  Reading provides countless hours of excitement and fun, whilst also positively helping your children in the most influential phase of their lives. It also opens up their imagination and an entire world of knowledge.

 Before your child begins her formal schooling, you can help her to begin to write. Your young child may love to draw, however she may be holding the pencil incorrectly. It is important to show your child how to hold a pencil and encourage her to draw.

 The more your child practices drawing and holding her pencil, the more skilled she will become. Here are a few hints to help you encourage your child to become skilful at drawing and using a pencil.

 Purchase Triangular shaped Pencils

Purchase triangular shaped pencils for your young child. She will be able to develop her grip more easily if she uses triangular shaped pencils. Triangular shaped pencils are an ideal learning tool for both left-handed and right-handed children. You can purchase triangular shaped pencils from office suppliers, toyshops and art shops.

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 Show your Child how to Hold a Pencil

Your child needs to rest her finger on one of the sides of the triangle and her thump on another side of the triangle. The tip of her finger and the tip of her thumb should be an equal distance apart.

 Although both left-handed children and right-handed children use the same grip, a left-handed child should grip the pencil slightly higher from the tip than a right-handed child should. Holding the pencil in this position will give the left-handed child more control over her pencil.

 Do not expect your young child to hold her pencil correctly every time she uses one. Your child may forget how to hold a pencil and grasp it by curling her fingers completely around it. It takes practice to control a pencil, so be patient with your child and praise her when she holds the pencil correctly. Your child will be more eager to practice holding a pencil if you give her plenty of praise.

 Exercises to Help your Child Develop her Skills

Once your child uses her pencil correctly when she draws, give her exercises to help develop her skill. Write the child’s name on a piece of paper using a dotted line. Let the child trace over your writing. She will become accustomed to writing her name by tracing over your letters. Soon, your young child will be capable of writing her own name without your help.

 Buy your child activity books to help improve her pencil control. Coloring books, mazes, join-the-dots books, and tracing books will all help your child improve her co-ordination while she is having fun.

 Purchase triangular shaped pencils for your child, show her the correct method of holding a pencil, and give her exercises to help her develop her skills. Do not forget to give your child plenty of praise when she holds her pencil correctly. You will soon be pleasantly surprised to see how your child’s pencil control has improved.

A recent study conducted by Ohio State-Temple University researchers found that 20% of America’s four-year olds are not only overweight, but obese.  Though a great deal of this can be laid at the feet of poor diets, lack of exercise is also a prime culprit.  Over the past few decades, more and more U.S. children and teens are drifting toward weight gain through a sedentary lifestyle.  With many schools either reducing or eliminating their physical education programs due to impossibly tight budgets, parents are beginning to ask themselves: What can I do to get my child to exercise?  Below are five simple suggestions:

1. Nifty Fifties’ Fad: The Hula Hoop

This inexpensive toy can get your children up and moving. Watch them wiggle and wriggle their hips trying to keep the hula hoop spinning.   Set up daily or weekly goals as to the number of times they can spin the hoop without stopping or how many hula hoops they can spin at once.  Reward them with gold stars, trips to the library, or one hour of TV a day.  Better yet, challenge them to a contest.  Children love to outdo their parents and will work hard to show you up.

2. Try a Trampoline

Investing in a child-safe trampoline can be well worth the money when you see your child rushing outside to fling themselves willy-nilly on their own trampoline.  In no time at all, they’ll be bouncing back to health!

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3. Dance, Dance, Dance!

With the success of TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars”, children can see first-hand what fun dancing can be.  You don’t need to fly your kids all over the country for auditions.  Just put on a CD and have them put on a dancing show for you.  Or buy an inexpensive dance exercise video, or rent one from Netflix or On Demand, and away they go!

4. The Wonderful World of Wii

If your child is a video game addict, a Wii Fit might be just the ticket.  With activities from snowboarding to cheerleading, your kids can be running, jumping, swinging bats, kicking, and punching their way to fitness.  Even Jillian Michaels, the exercise guru from TV’s “The Biggest Loser”, has a Wii exercise game out that the whole family can use together.

5. Good Old Walking!

Walking is one of the best ways to get your child exercising.  It’s free, natural, and helps families bond.  Add your dog into the mix and everybody benefits.

Getting your children to exercise can have even more health benefits than weight management, stress reduction, good muscle development, and mental stimulation; it just might get their parents off the couch too!

 As a parent, you have to juggle numerous questions about what your child should be taught, and how. Add the trend of political correctness to the mix and it’s hard to know how to react when your child asks about a person with a disability.

 Some parents brush off their children’s inquiries with a short, “Don’t stare, it’s rude,” or treat a person with a disability rudely, passing along cues to the children to follow suit. Instead, use this opportunity to teach your child about treating everyone with equal respect.

 When your child points out a person with a disability, briefly and quietly tell them that the person has a disability that affects their vision, hearing, movement, or mind, but that person is “just like us” in every other way. Emphasize that your child should treat him or her just the same as anyone else, as it can be embarrassing and frustrating to be treated differently because of a disability.

 Often, a curious child won’t even ask you, but will ask a person with a disability, “What’s wrong with you?” or something similar. When this happens, resist the urge to apologize and drag the child off. Curiosity is a part of childhood that should be encouraged. Instead, tell the child to be respectful and see how the person reacts.

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 Many people with disabilities are actually very willing to tell a child what makes them “different”, and don’t like parents interfering with a chance to educate an impressionable segment of the population on disabilities. Children will remember the experience for a long time, and it will affect how they treat people with similar disabilities in the future. For a person with a disability, this is a great chance to connect with someone who sees nothing wrong with acknowledging and asking about the disability, when others sometimes shun or ignore them because they simply don’t know how to react.

 If the person seems unwilling to speak, angry, or embarrassed, then quietly apologize and wait until you’re in a more private place before taking the opportunity to capitalize upon the experience. Let your child know that some people don’t like to acknowledge that they’re different, or are embarrassed to be called out on it in public, and then teach your child about that disability yourself. 

Above all, children should be taught to respect people with disabilities and treat them like anyone else.

 Some techniques cited by Dr. Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block (Bantam, 2003), as well as Tracy Hogg, author of Secrets of the Baby Whisperer (Ballantine Books, 2005), include:

• Swaddling – wrap the baby tightly in a receiving blanket.  Believe it or not, swaddling the right way is important.  Neonatal nurses are experts at this, and Karp gives an excellent demonstration in his DVD.  If you can’t get the hang of it, infant gear maker Kiddopotamus carries special Velcro swaddlers.  Beware:  overheating can increase the chance of SIDS, so babies who are swaddled should only be dressed in a t-shirt under their blanket. 

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•  Noise – Different babies have different sound preferences, and parents might have to try several before they find one that works.  Pediatricians recommend various forms of white noise, because they mimic sounds that babies hear in the womb.  Examples are:  vacuums, hair dryers and radio static.  There are tons of products that feature sounds like heartbeats and waves crashing, and you can even buy CDs of nothing but white noise.   Karp recommends shushing loudly near the baby’s ear.  Some babies are soothed by the sound of running water. 

• Swinging or rocking – The infant swing is one piece of equipment that many parents could not live without.  Some babies spend much of the first few months of their life strapped into their swing.  African American slave mothers are reported to have hung their babies in baskets from tree limbs to sway in the breeze while they worked.  Similarly, mothers have employed rocking chairs for centuries. The back-and-forth motion seems to lull babies to sleep (or at least calm them down). 

•  Bouncing – Many babies are pacified by bouncing through the air, which could mean several things.  Some parents stand and hold the baby close to them while they bend their knees and bounce up and down.  Some find that a bouncy walk around the house helps.  Others simply bounce their arms up and down while holding the baby.  Sitting on an inflated exercise ball and bouncing with the swaddled baby cradled in your arms can help tremendously.  Many babies go from screaming their heads off to peacefully silent as soon as you start to bounce. 

• The Outdoors – Babies love to be outside.  Who knows if it’s the sunshine, the breeze, hearing birds chirp, or what, but most crying babies hush up the minute you take them outside.  This trick is especially useful when you’re away from home – say at a restaurant or church. 

Having a baby who wails for hours at a time is extremely frustrating, but it’s tremendously important to stay calm. Babies can sense your emotions, and if you are tense or upset, they will only become more so.  As difficult as it is, try to stay calm; be positive if you can muster it.  Take a deep breath.  Try humming or singing a happy song, for example, “Sunny Days” from Sesame Street.  It might not calm the baby down, but it’s hard to be angry when you’re singing that one.  While you’re stuck in the rocker or bouncing through the living room, watch something hilarious on TV.  It will make the time go by much faster and take your mind off your aching back.