Chronicles of a “Mr. Mom”

Toilet training can be a tumultuous time for both a toddler and his parents. However, it doesn’t have to be. Though it is always a time of transition, it can also sometimes be a wonderful period of learning for both children and their parents. By following these six steps for effective potty training, you can minimize the conflict and maximize results.

6 Steps for Effective Potty Training

1) Communicate: You cannot pile your child high with expectation if they do not understand what it is they are supposed to do. Tell your child what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what you expect them to do and you will find a far more compliant child who is ready to slay the potty training dragons along your side rather than battle you from the beginning.

2) Model: Children are no different from adults, only smaller. Many people learn best by visual rather than auditory instruction. This means you must show them what to do instead of simply telling them. Provide your child with an example to follow and it is likely they will follow it with a smile.

3) Prepare: No one goes camping without a backpack. It is best to prepare yourself for any situation you must embark upon. Toilet training isn’t any different. You must first check for signs of readiness with your child. As long as they meet the basic criteria (listening comprehension, follows direction, and muscle control), then it’s green lights all the way.

4) Start: You will first want to develop a routine and then get down to getting it done. Once you start, don’t stop. You may hit a few bumps, but it is much easier to keep on going than to make a u-turn and have to start down the same road on a different day.

5) Reward: Children, like adults, are often willing to work hard for their rewards. No one knows the currency of their child better than mom or dad. Find out what rewards your child would be most willing to work for and implement a reward system that will keep their motivation high.

6) Repeat: Success is vertical. You must use each victory to climb toward the next. Be consistent and persevere. Soon enough, potty training will be just another fond memory.

Toilet training isn’t always easy, but it doesn’t have to be so tough. Use these six steps to get a good grip on your potty training.

Sean Platt is a dad http://writerdad.com who runs a preschool with his wife, a teacher with over two decades of experience. Their preschool has seen a long string of toddlers learn to use the potty in a developmentally appropriate manner, in no time at all. You can check out their site at http://pottytrainingpower.com for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Platt

The rate of accidental suffocation deaths among babies increased fourfold over the past two decades, according to a new study, despite a national campaign to encourage safe infant sleeping.

Authors of the study, which appears today in the journal Pediatrics, say the nationwide increase probably is the result of more thorough investigations and changes in how deaths are classified. Nevertheless, the researchers and local medical experts said the figures reflect a continuing problem and highlight concerns about whether babies should sleep in the same beds as their parents or siblings.

“These deaths are likely preventable,” said Carrie K. Shapiro-Mendoza, an epidemiologist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lead author of the study. “So this problem is ongoing, and we should not divert our attention. … We need an infusion of more efforts to make them reduce further.”

Researchers have long studied Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, a term that refers to infant deaths that cannot be explained after a medical investigation. Shapiro-Mendoza’s study sought to find out if a newer, more specific category of infant death - by strangulation or suffocation - was increasing.

Full story: Don’t share bed with infant, parents told

“If you want to reduce the likelihood of obesity in your children, start thinking about the hormonal consequences of your diet, before your child is ever born. He or she will be thankful that you did” - Dr. Sears.

New York, NY (PRWEB) January 1, 2009 — Recent reports have indicated that childhood obesity is set in place by the age of five, but, “Actually, it starts in the womb,” says Dr. Barry Sears, one of the world’s leading experts on the impact of diet on hormones and gene expression.

Dr. Barry Sears says obesity has a strong genetic component and starts in the womb. Bestselling author of The Zone, he founded MedWell Foods to help people lose weight. His new book is Toxic Fat.

“Obesity has an exceptionally strong genetic component. Couple that genetic predisposition with the wrong hormonal mix in the womb, and the child is destined to a life-long struggle against obesity and its health consequences,” added Dr. Sears, whose MedWell Foods was founded to help people lose weight.

“One solution to this problem is to make sure that the mother is controlling the dietary environment of the child,” said Dr. Sears. “Unfortunately, this is easier said than done, as it is likely that the mother has the same genetic predisposition as the child in the womb and more than likely is eating the types of junk food that ensures an obese child.”

Dr. Sears rose to prominence when he wrote The Zone, a New York Times #1 bestseller. He also wrote Toxic Fat, the just released book about obesity that addresses the causes of obesity and offers solutions to help people struggling with their weight.

Dr. Sears says, “It is often easier to change one’s religion, than to change their diet.”

Therefore, he set out several years to invent a new technology that could provide healthy comfort foods that would alter the gene expression of both the mother and the child in the womb.

He founded MedWell Foods, which offers products that are a result of new food technology that allows the production of once “forbidden” foods that normally cause people to gain weight, such as breads, pasta and desserts that now have been developed to decrease hunger instead of promoting it.

“By simply substituting the MedWell equivalent for the foods that people like to eat, you are ensuring a dramatic increase in appetite suppression along with beneficial changes in the genes that would otherwise promote obesity.”

MedWell food products can be ordered directly from the company at Medwell123.com.

What were they thinking?

• Apple
• Bronx Mowgli
• Sunday Rose

More about these names right here…

More stories:

Store Refuses to Make Birthday Cake for Adolf Hitler

Here’s one more:

6 Baby Names You Probably Shouldn’t Give Your Kid

Our baby was having a huge meltdown the other morning while my wife was already at work. As I dropped my older son in front of the television and picked a Bob the Builder cartoon from On Demand, I wondered how my parents raised me and my sister before VCRs and DVR players and YouTube. Did they simply have to hope there was a “Sesame Street” episode starting on KQED when the toddler-related chaos hit DEFCON 1? How did they entertain us when “Electric Company” wasn’t on? Elaborate puppet shows?
I’m perfectly happy to take this for granted.

This is a thought I have almost every day. Whether it’s jumpy houses to wear my kids out at the Farmer’s Market or technological developments such as portable DVD players on plane trips, I frequently salute the parenting inventions that have come along during my lifetime.

Full story: The greatest parenting invention of your lifetime

The diaper area is dark, moist, and warm. Therefore, by the virtue of wearing diapers, infants are prone to develop diaper rashes and even yeast infections in the diaper area. It’s important to learn how to prevent diaper rashes, as well as how to tell a diaper rash from a yeast infection, to protect your baby’s skin integrity.

Prevention Is Key
You can keep your infant’s diaper area healthy by frequently changing her wet and soiled diapers, applying barrier ointments, such as petroleum jelly (Vaseline) or A & D ointment, and allowing the area to air out after every diaper change. Using cloth diapers decreases your infant’s risk for diaper rashes, because the air can circulate better through cloth than though a synthetic diaper.

Diaper Rash If you notice redness or pinkish red pimples in the diaper area, your infant has developed a diaper rash. You need to reach for over-the-counter zinc oxide cream like Desitin. Apply a thin layer to the diaper area 3-4 times daily, and then cover it with a thin layer of a barrier ointment. Continue to air out the area after each diaper change.

Yeast Infection
If the redness in the diaper area has spread to the bends of the legs and looks very red and shiny, most likely it is a yeast infection. You might have already tried the zinc oxide cream at this point without any results, so it is the time to consult with your infant’s health care provider. The best treatment for yeast infections in the diaper area is an anti-fungal cream applied 3-4 times a day for 7-10 days.

Contact your child’s health care provider if your infant has a rash and develops a fever, the rash is spreading, or you are concerned in any way with how the diaper area looks.

Dr. Hillary is a pediatric nurse practitioner with a doctoral degree in health promotion and risk reduction. She works as a pediatric clinician and writes for Plugged in Parents. Plugged In Parents provides up-to-date info on pediatric health, safety and nutrition along with movie reviews, recipes, tech-savvy tips, and a parent’s only forum. You can also contact Dr. Hillary for personal questions related to health and nutrition.

Please visit http://www.pluggedinparents.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barbara_Hillary,_PhD

(ARA) - When Janeé Pedersen gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Noelle, last year, she was certain that cloth diapers were the right thing for her.

“I knew I would use cloth before I was even pregnant with my daughter. I did a lot of research online and by the time we came home from the hospital, I had my stash ready to go!” she says.

Pedersen, like many of today’s eco-minded new moms, is part of a growing number of women who are ditching disposable diapers for more environmentally-friendly diapering options. The influx of moms going green has been a key contributing factor to the booming resurgence of cloth diapering.

The good news is that there are many cloth diapering systems for a mom to choose from, however, this plethora of options can be overwhelming. Here is advice from three veteran cloth diapering moms on how to get started — and stick with — cloth diapering.

Get Educated  
“The first thing a mom needs to do is become educated on the different types of cloth diapering systems, from pockets to all-in-ones to fitteds,” advises Kelly Wels, who is expecting her third baby and is the founder of KellysCloset.com, a popular cloth diapering boutique. “After a little research, moms will realize that cloth diapering has nothing to do with pins, rubber pants or soaking and swirling dirty diapers.”

Wels also recommends that moms turn to the Internet, specifically the DiaperPin.com, to learn the cloth diapering lingo and read about the different cloth diaper brands.  

Try Different Types and Brands  
New mom Jesi Josten from Denver concedes that figuring out what type of cloth diaper to choose can be overwhelming. “I always suggest that you buy a couple of each kind of diaper, then sell off the ones that don’t work and go with the ones that do. Sometimes what sounds great on paper doesn’t really work for you in real life,” she counsels.

Go With the Tried and True  
With new diaper brands popping up every day, Wels advises that you can’t go wrong using the tried and true brands. “I usually recommend new moms use Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers because they are so easy-to-use and wash at home,” she says. In fact, Wels has dedicated an entire online boutique, FuzziBunzOnline.com, to exclusively selling this type of diapers and accessories.

Other tried and true brands include BumGenius and Happy Heinys, which are popular one-sized pocket diaper brands available online at OneSizeDiaperStore.com. These diapers allow parents to squeeze maximum value from their investment because the same diaper fits most babies from newborn to toddler.  

Josten says when she first started cloth diapering her 16-month-old daughter, Violet, pocket cloth diapers were all the rage. However, these diapers just didn’t work for her daughter so she switched to Thirties fitted diapers. Josten is happy she made the switch rather than give up on cloth diapering altogether.

“I’ve learned that there is no such thing as one-kind-fits-all. There are literally hundreds of different brands and styles to choose from, so even if you have a hard-to-fit baby you can find something that works for you,” she says.

Follow Your Heart  
Josten believes that it’s important to make decisions that mean something to the world-at-large. “My husband and I try really hard to follow the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ motto in our daily life, and I just couldn’t see throwing away literally dozens of diapers a day into landfills. My research into cloth confirmed my beliefs that this was the best way to go.”

Don’t Give Up  
Josten also advises that moms shouldn’t give up if cloth diapering doesn’t seem to be working for them right away. She suggests getting support from a local mom who uses cloth diapers too. “It would have been great to have a mentor to meet with where I could actually touch and feel the diapers and ask questions about cloth diapers in real-life.”

Wels says that cloth diapering is so much easier than most people think and tells moms that they should at least give cloth diapering a chance if they are even remotely curious about it. “Give it a shot. You might just surprise yourself and become a fellow mom of the cloth.”

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Just another video in our “Funny Babies” series

I wish we could all be made this happy, so easily

There’s something about a laughing baby. Makes you forget all your woes, all of your problems, your tensions, and just helps you let your guard down - which is not really a bad thing at all!