Child Care | Family Resource

Family Planning: Stay at Home or Child Care?

If you’re pregnant, you may already be thinking about what you are going to do after the pregnancy. Are you going to be a stay at home mom or take advantage of childcare services?

In either case, your calendar pregnancy software or other tracking methods can help determine when you need to start making arrangements, and those arrangements will depend on the decision you make. If you decide to stay at home, you will need to figure out when is the best time to put in your notice. If you choose childcare, you may have to go ahead and start getting on waiting lists.

When making your decision as to whether to stay at home or use childcare, one of the questions you may have is where kids can get sick the most. You may think that keeping them at home is best, and in most cases, it is (especially if your child has chronic health problems, was born prematurely, or had problems after birth). However, remember that any time you take your child out in public, he or she is being exposed to germs.

Your calendar pregnancy software can also help you with another decision—when to engage a pediatrician. Many mothers like to have one already chosen before the birth, because then they can request that the baby be examined by the pediatrician who will actually be providing continuous care. If you want to do this, your calendar pregnancy program or records will help you determine when the best time to do this will be.

Filed Under: Child Care, Parenting Tagged With: Childcare, Family, Pregnancy

Hand Sanitizer vs. Soap: What is the Better Option?

Image via Wikipedia

Hand sanitizers have burst onto the market putting up a mean fight against bacteria. Marketed as an effective way to wash your hands without soap or water when neither is available, hand sanitizers appeal to the germ conscious out there, especially those germ conscious people with little children. For these people hand sanitizers are a dream come true.

Hand sanitizers work by stripping away the out layer of oil which sits on the skins epidermis. This is where a lot of different bacteria sit that we come in contact with. It should be noted that most hand sanitizers claim to get rid of 99.9% of bacteria present on the hands. However in the laboratory the hand sanitizer is test on non-human surfaces which are able to be controlled.

Soap and water has been shown by several researchers to be just as, if not more effective than antibacterial hand sanitizers. People have been using good old soap and water to wash hands and keep hygienic for many centuries. The addition of hand sanitizers does not reduce a person’s susceptibility to certain germs any more than the traditional form of hand washing. In fact, there are those in the academic community who believe that the constant use of such antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers in fact weakens the growth of a strong immune system, thus weakening a person’s immune system and making him or her more susceptible to illnesses which are caused by bad bacteria.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using hand sanitizers or soap and water for keeping clean and healthy. Either way you will keep germs at bay.

Filed Under: Child Care, Expert Advice Tagged With: Hand sanitizer, Hand washing, Soap

Fun Activities for the Whole Family

Parenting can often feel like a thankless job, always pushing for everyone to do their chores, taking care of all the scrapes and bruises accumulated, cleaning up after sick children, and wiping tears away. It can be a tough job being a parent.

Therefore, it’s important to include and make time for family fun. Family togetherness is where the memories will be made. Mom can actually sit back, enjoy herself, and have a little fun, too.

Family activities don’t have to be extravagant or expensive. Some of the simplest and most inexpensive activities can be the most memorable. Taking a picnic lunch to the beach and staying late to watch the sunset will leave lasting memories. Planning a family hike through a park or mountain trail will also be inexpensive but memorable.

There will be times when you will want to include family friends in your fun activities. A BBQ is nice, but why not think out of the box? Instead of waiting for Halloween, plan a masquerade party in the summer months. People will have plenty of time to work on and plan childrens costumes. Setting up a party outside with fairy lights and a bonfire is sure to be a memorable event.

If you’re looking for easy ideas that don’t take a lot of time, why not make Friday’s homemade pizza and a movie night? Have everyone get together, make pizza, and eat it together while watching a movie.

If once a week is too much, how about setting aside time once a month? Whatever you decide, make time for family fun!

Filed Under: Child Care, Parenting Tagged With: Barbecue, Family, Halloween

Choose Your Child’s Pediatrician Before Birth

A pediatrician is one of the most important professionals in your life after having a baby. From the time of birth, your child will receive regular wellness checks, vaccinations, and urgent care when needed. Infancy and early childhood are particularly important in terms of growth and brain development. If there is an underlying health condition that may impact your child later in life, a pediatrician can help you detect it.

With all of the pediatricians practicing in your area, choosing just one may be intimidating. Here are a few things to consider when looking for a pediatrician:

Start by looking at your insurance network. Pediatricians are the most welcoming of insurance plans; still, some practicing physicians don’t accept particular plans. Your insurance provider can provide you with a list of in-network pediatricians.
Narrow your choices and perform a search of your top two to three pediatricians on Canada 411. The service can help you check a candidate’s background and schedule an appointment.
If you reside in the same area you grew up in, see if your pediatrician is still practicing. Chances are he will remember you and will have your personal medical history. This can prove vital for your child’s health outlook. Plus, you will feel more comfortable, putting your child at ease.
Ask for referrals from friends and loved ones. They can give you an honest opinion that can save you time during your search.

Keep in mind that your pediatric search should commence when you’re pregnant. A pediatrician is needed at the time of birth, and as well as visits soon after birth (typically at two weeks, two months, and so on).

Filed Under: Child Care, Parenting Tagged With: Canada, Insurance, Pediatrics

Why Prevention Is Better Than Cure

This is one of the most common terns that we have been hearing since childhood days. Whenever we asked our parents that why we must wear sweaters they have always mentioned that prevention is better than cure. Curing a disease in today’s date is however very easy. But it is important to understand the need to prevention measures. All these measures are intended to stop diseases and other disease causing pathogens harming your body.

There are several pathogens that aim to enter our body disrupt our bodily functions. It is important for us to stop them from entering and adopting preventive measures. We must not undermine the importance of preventive measures. These preventive measures are meant to improve your system’s resistance. This resistance is very much important to keep all kinds of diseases away. Many of us have this conception that prevention can only keep away small diseases. But this only proves to wrong. Several diseases like HIV can be kept away using preventive methods.

Preventive methods are really effective in preventing serious diseases and ailments. One can easily avoid diseases like malaria and dengue by preventing the mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are a problem is several tropical areas like Asia and Africa. People residing here can easily make use of mosquito nets and certain sprays. There are also certain mosquito coils that are effective in keeping mosquitoes away. Using mosquito repellent creams are also a great idea. Using these simple but effective techniques you will be able to ward off these serious diseases.

Parents should understand the importance of prevention for their children. If your children are really young, you need to adopt certain effective ways to save them from diseases. Children are susceptible to every kind of infection. Protecting them from simple infections like cold and cough is very important. Children have extremely sensitive skin.

Filed Under: Child Care, Medical Care Tagged With: Africa, Asia, Malaria, Mosquito

Cuts and Scrapes and Childhood

Have you ever heard the one about, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”? I’m sure you have. Well, based upon that, I guess it’s a good thing that our children are small. After all, kids tend to fall a lot; so, it’s a good thing they don’t have very far to fall.

Cuts and scrapes are part of childhood. Kids are still learning the necessary motor skills to make their bodies do everything they want them to. They’re also learning the necessary judgment, about what can and what can’t hurt them. While most adults will avoid doing something dangerous, because we know it’s dangerous, kids don’t always have that appreciation of danger. That’s okay, that’s why they have parents, to protect them from and teach them about the truly dangerous things in life.

So, if cuts and scrapes are a regular part of a child’s life, it would behoove us as parents to be ready to treat those minor injuries. There’s no sense sitting around the waiting room at the doctor’s, or even worse, sitting in the waiting room at our local hospital’s emergency room, for something we can take care of at home.

Generally speaking, you can gauge the seriousness of a child’s injury by how much they cry. While there are some children who will cry for anything, they’ll still cry harder and longer for something serious than they will for a minor scrape. If they can manage to walk home, you can be sure they didn’t break their leg. More importantly, if you can distract them from the pain with something as simple as a piece of candy, you know that there’s nothing so serious that you need to rush to the emergency room.

Yes, they will get hurt, they might even get hurt seriously; but children have a remarkable capacity to heal. Before you know it, they’ll be playing again.

Filed Under: Child Care, Medical Care Tagged With: Child, Emergency department

Allergic to Vaccines?

While vaccines for the major childhood diseases have been around for decades, there are still those who can’t be vaccinated. A fair number of people are allergic to the vaccines that modern medical science uses. Actually, it’s not so much that they are allergic to the vaccines themselves, as they are to the liquid that carries the vaccine.

Just as any other allergy, the reaction to these vaccines can range from mild to very serious. You never know in advance who has these sorts of allergies, although there is a genetic inheritance factor in this. In other words, if a parent is allergic to vaccines, there’s about a 25% chance that they’ll have a child who is also allergic. Or, if that couple has four children, one of them will most likely have that allergy.

For people who have these allergies, being vaccinated can be more dangerous than not being vaccinated. So, for those who are allergic, the decision is based upon which is the greatest risk. While the diseases which we vaccinate our children for are serious, the incident of their occurrence in western society is rare. Granted, part of this is due to the vaccines, but another part is that modern medicine and hygiene have largely eliminated these pathogens from our environment.

This isn’t necessarily true in other countries, however. So, if your family travels outside the United States a lot, the risk factors can change drastically. In some cases, it can change so much that the risk of taking the vaccine may be justified, even with a child who has previously shown allergic tendencies to vaccinations.

If you, your spouse, or any of your children have had any symptoms of allergic reactions to any vaccines in the past, be sure to tell your physician. Each and every time that it is time to administer vaccines, make sure they are aware of this history of allergy; that way, an informed decision can be made by you and the doctor about whether to proceed with the vaccination.

Filed Under: Child Care, Medical Care Tagged With: Allergy, Vaccine

How Warm is Warm Enough?

Have you ever heard the joke, “Why do babies wear sweaters?” The answer is, “Because their mommies are cold.” While many will laugh at that answer, there is some strong element of truth to it. Most of the time, we dress our children for our comfort, not for theirs. It is possible that they aren’t cold when we are.

Each person’s metabolism is different, and that affects how easily we get cold. If someone has a slow metabolism, they tend to get cold easily; but if they have a fast metabolism, they don’t tend to get cold easily. Here’s the kicker; most children have higher or faster metabolisms than adults do. As we get older, or metabolism slows down, and we get cold easier. Not only that, but children outside playing don’t know how to walk, they only know how to run; or at least, that’s the way it seems sometimes.

So, if we dress our children to make ourselves comfortable, than we might actually be overdressing them. If they are playing outside in the cold, all bundled up, they could actually be sweating, at the same time that we, as adults are shivering. Sounds okay, right? Wrong! Sweating in the cold can lead to them actually getting colder than if they were wearing lighter clothing. If the sweat freezes on their skin, it can really cause problems.

It is important to be sure that the way our children are dressed when they go out in the cold is adequate for their needs, not for ours. Put your hand inside their clothing from time to time, to make sure they aren’t getting too hot. Have extra layers to put on them if they need it, but also have them dressed in layers, so that something can be taken off if necessary.

In the long run, it’s better for our children to be just a touch cool, than to be overly hot. It might be a little harder to judge that, but with a little practice, you’ll know what they need for whatever activity they are going to do.

Filed Under: Child Care, Expert Advice Tagged With: Metabolism, Perspiration

Protecting Your Child from Poisons

Image by msmail via Flickr

Homes today are filled with many poisons that can be harmful to our children, especially small children. That stage where babies put everything in their mouths just doesn’t seem to pass quick enough. Even later, when they stop putting things in their mouths, children can still be harmed by household chemicals.

The only way to protect your children from these dangers is to make sure that they can’t get their hands on them. That means you need to keep all cleaning supplies and chemicals locked away where they are safe from little fingers. Most people put them under the sink and put a child safety lock on the cabinet door.

But wait; there are other things which many people forget to put in that locked cabinet under the sink, which are just as dangerous to our children. Things like medicines. How many prescription and over-the-counter medicines do you have in your home? Are they locked away, or just in the medicine cabinet? For most of us, we just leave that stuff in the medicine cabinet and don’t think about our children getting into it. Some of those medicines can be deadly, especially in strong dosages.

Children don’t know which ones are dangerous and which ones aren’t. Since most children’s medicines and vitamins are made to taste like candy, they can easily get the idea that they are candy and go looking for them. What they encounter may not be what they’re looking for, it might be even worse.

One other area that can be truly dangerous is the garage. How many chemicals do you have in your garage that can be dangerous to children? Paint thinner, poisons for bugs in the garden, adhesives, spray paint, and many other things which we don’t think of, can be a real problem in the hands of our children. Those too need to be locked up, out of reach and out of sight.

Take a walk though your home, look in all the hidden places, what’s there that can be dangerous. More importantly, what can you do about it?

Filed Under: Child Care, Parenting Tagged With: Chemical substance, Poison

Milk Makes Strong Bones

Having a healthy diet is one of the best things that a parent can do for their child. A healthy diet consists of food that will help your child grow into a strong adult. By providing good nutrition now, your child could look forward to having a long life without many of the health concerns that many people today face. Some of the major health concerns today revolve around weight, and childhood obesity. This is a scary epidemic in today’s world because so many of our children are overweight. With fast food, and convenience foods being so ever-present, it is easy to see why our children are struggling with this trend.

One of the best things that you can do right away for your child is to give him or her, a variety of foods. This will help to control the pickiness that some children have. Statistically speaking, picky eaters tend to have more issues with their weight. This is part related to the fact that picky eaters tend to be picky about healthy foods. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables is a key way of keeping your children healthy. If you do not like those types of foods, pretend that you do, because your child will mimic what you do and eat. If you claim that you do not like something, your child will soon claim the same without ever trying the food in discussion.

The other thing that you can do is to change up foods that you know your child likes, and start integrating healthy options. For instance, if your child likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, consider using low sugar jelly, low fat peanut butter, and multi-grain bread. This will cut down on the calories and fat, provide more fiber in their diet, and you can have the comfort of knowing that you were able to provide a healthy snack.

Filed Under: Child Care