Child Care | Family Resource

Kisses Make It Better

To a child, a mother’s kiss is healing magic. To a mother, it is a simple way of loving your child. In reality, when something has happened to your child, this is a good time to teach them lessons on safety. Children are very impressionable, and using a coddling moment to help them learn something valuable is priceless.

There is a unique bond that mothers and children share. For some reason, children crave their mothers love and affection, even to the point of faking an injury to receive healing kisses. Use the incident to teach them that falling on purpose, or running in the house could be unsafe. Then give them hugs and tell them to play safer in the house. This is important for a couple of reasons. First, when a child is intentionally harming themselves to get attention, it is only a matter of time before a serious injury could occur. Second, encouraging them to come to you after an injury only encourages the child to continue with the behavior. By giving them a brief lesson in safety, you are telling your child that they have to be more concerned for themselves. There is a point when coming to mom for every type of incident has to wane. This is a necessary step, and difficult for moms, because by encouraging the child to come to you, you are saying that the behavior and the causes that lead to the reasons for behavior are acceptable.

Here is food for thought, a child will behave the way he or she is trained to behave. If there is not training to curb a behavior, then essentially the current behavior is being trained to remain intact. It is better to teach your children to be safe, than literally sorry later on with a more serious injury.

Filed Under: Child Care, Parenting Tagged With: Child, Mother

Poison Control

One of the biggest fears of parents is that there child will get into a cleaner, or medication, and hurt themselves with it. This could come about by either ingesting a toxic material, or by getting something harmful into their eyes. Regardless of how they could get hurt, it is always wise to be trained in preventing poisonous interactions, as well as what to do when something poisonous has caused harm to your child.

Some experts say that by having your child drink lots of milk right away that that is the best way to slow down anything from getting into the system, or by having your child drink lots and lots of water, because that will do the same thing. In reality, there is one thing you should do first, call poison control. They can guide you, based on the product that your child has come into contact with, on how to handle the issue. This could be a life or death situation, so it is good to have their number in an easy to find place in your home. This is also important if you have a babysitter, and he or she runs into an issue with harmful chemicals.

When you call poison control, it is best to do exactly what they say. Meaning, if they say, “hang-up, and dial 911, or go to ER right away,” it is in your best interest to do so. However, many cases of poison control issues are easily solved at home without the need for medical attention. This is because there are things that you have at home that can counteract the affects of many hazardous materials. Remember, that luck favors the prepared. Make sure that you never have to call poison control by being responsible about keeping your children away from harmful products.

Filed Under: Child Care Tagged With: Poison control center

This Is For Your Own Good

Setting rules in the house, or while the children play outside is truly for their own protection. You have a rule that they not run in the street. This is by design, you do not want to see your child hit by a car. Many children get frustrated by rules, especially when they are little because they simply do not understand the consequences of certain actions. This is very true of children that see things on television and since the characters do not seem to get hurt, then why should they? It is a frustrating thing for many parents because they do not want to tell their children “no.” However, it is in your child’s best interest to do the one thing that is difficult.

Protecting your children from harmful things like poisons, cars, or even bugs is a daunting task. Whether you want to admit it or not, your house is full of poisonous things that can cause serious harm to your child if they were to ingest or play with them. Cleaners are the number one accidental overdose among children under the age of seven. Teaching them how to behave around cleaners, and establishing rules, is really for their own good. Establishing rules will also help them learn that there are certain universals in our world. For instance, if you are not to be playing with cleaners in one house, chances are, you are not to be playing with cleaners in someone else’s home either. By teaching them these lessons at an early age, they will be able to grasp rules when they attend school or a birthday party. This will also help them learn how to take direction as well, and those are ideas and concepts that will help them later on in life, not just as a protective measure now.

Filed Under: Child Care Tagged With: Child

Food Allergies

Many children suffer from food allergies and many of the types of allergies that children have are very serious. For instance, a peanut allergy is a progressive allergy. This means that the allergic response gets worse with every occurrence. For example, if the first allergic response involves a hard time breathing, hives, or discoloration of the skin, the second and third responses will have the same type of events, but just at an increasingly stronger magnitude. Especially with peanut allergies, the affects of the allergic response can be get to the point that touching a peanut can cause a sever reaction.

Another intense food allergy is with shellfish. Many children that have this allergy usually react with anaphylactic shock. This is the where the body can not fight off the histamine in the fish, and begins to swell. The areas that have touched the fish are the areas that begin to swell. This means that the throat, mouth, tongue, and lips swell. With anaphylactic shock, the swelling can begin immediately, and unless there is immediate intervention, can be extremely harmful. This allergy is much like a peanut allergy, in that is can worsen with each event. However, this allergy does not worsen with the same speed like that of a peanut allergy. Peanut allergies can take only two or three events to become at is fullest reactionary stage. With shellfish, this can take years.

All food allergies are serious, and should be taken very seriously by those that are around, and care for your child. It is recommended that a bracelet be worn by your child, identifying the allergies that are present. It is also imperative that you notify their schools about the condition, so that your child can remain protected. This includes not allowing certain snacks or foods in the classroom by other students, and separating your child from others at lunch to make sure every precaution is taken.

Filed Under: Child Care, Expert Advice, Medical Care Tagged With: Allergy, Peanut allergy

How Children Get Sick

Children get sick, that is common knowledge. Do you know exactly how that happens, or what it takes to get certain illnesses? Well, many of the ways that viruses and bacteria are spread is through direct contact with the illness. This means that if a child wipes their hands on their face, and they have a cold, then touch a door knob, then the next person that touches that door knob is coming in direct contact with that cold. The way that it is given to people is through a couple of different ways. First is air born. Someone coughs, and then other inhale the sickness. The next is when someone touches an infected surface, then touches their eyes, licks their fingers, or touch foods that they are going to eat. This gets the illness inside of the body.

One of the dirtiest illnesses to get is diarrhea. This illness is spread fecal to oral. Which means if someone uses the restroom, and does not wash their hands, then interacts with another person, that other person is potentially affected. So, if that other person touches their face, or foods that they are eating, they can get the diharrea bug that was passed on by another infected person.

The best way to counteract getting sick, especially with children, is by encouraging good hand washing. If the illness is bad, encourage using anti-microbial soap. This will kill any diseases or harmful bacteria that can cause you and your children to get sick. Especially with the oral-fecal illnesses. Those include stomach bugs, diarrhea, nausea, constipation, and even bouts of food poisoning. It is best, when caring for someone that has any of these illnesses, to carry around a bottle of wash free hand soap. This will make sterilizing easier to manage, and hopefully keep you and yours healthier.

Filed Under: Child Care Tagged With: Bacteria, handwashing

How To Prevent Burns

The prevention of burns in the home is an easy process, and one that should be taken seriously. In fact, many accidents in the home are related to burns, and many times could have been absolutely prevented. The key to avoiding such accidents, especially with children in the home, is to educate your child on the seriousness of playing with fire, electrical socket safety, and why it is important to turn off light and appliances when leaving a room. The other topic of safety, which is directed to small children, is kitchen safety, more specifically, stove safety.

When teaching children about safety around the house, it might be wise to allow your child to experience a slight sensation of heat, or to see what can happen if the worst were to occur. This will give your child a respect for the household hazards. This is also a good time to tell them what to do if something were to happen. The reason this step is so important is because many children can develop a fear of the certain things, and you would not want your child to be afraid while in their own home.

The second caution that you can do is to make sure that you are using good safety precautions. Have fire extinguisher readily available in the home, make sure the batteries in fire detectors are all up to date, as well as simple things like having the handles for cooking pots facing away from the open room. Another is candle safely. Many children like to play with the candles while they are burning, and this is something that can cause burns, and is unnecessary. Place candles on shelves or stable ledges that can not be reached or knocked over. This will help ensure that a child can not get close enough to the flame to receive a burn.

Filed Under: Child Care Tagged With: Candle, Child

Common Childhood Ailments

Children are always going to have little ailments that come along during their lifeteimes. The common is the sniffles, colds, tummy aches, and ear aches. These are very normal things to deal with, but it is a parents role to figure out if these ailments are symptomatic of a more serious condition. For instance, if your child has the sniffles, the mucus is clear, there is no fever, but your child is very tired, chances are it is just allergies. This is a quick fix with antihistamines, or with treatment with herbal remedies such as teas or homeopathic drops. The key factor is fever. If fever is not present, then the best thing to do for your child is to help keep their sinuses clear, allow them to rest, and pamper them for a little while. Pampering goes a long way to helping your child feel like they feel better.

Ear aches are another common occurrance. In fact, many ear aches come after the sniffles have developed. There are couple of causes for ear aches, and one of them is that mucus is backing up in the sinuses

Filed Under: Child Care, Medical Care Tagged With: Common cold, Fever

Developing Healthy Children

When children are growing, they need a healthy variety of foods, in order to have the best possible health that a parent can provide. This goes beyond vitamins and minerals, but includes a hard look at fats, sugars, and sodium that a child takes in at every meal. Providing child with optimal foods can prepare their bodies for a long and healthy life for many years to come. What many people do not realize, is that fat cell development, circulatory development, and internal functions are changing and forming until a child has finished growing. This means that whatever a child has set while still growing, is what they will have for their lifetime. For instance, if a child has a weight issue as a child, their body has developed more fat, and they will have that additional cell development the rest of their lives.

As parents, we can shape our children to be healthy, active, and fit, so that they can carry on those attributes as they age. Encourage your children to exercise by playing outside. We live in a society where children stay indoors, playing video games, and they do not exercise, through play, outdoors anymore. This has led to an increase in childhood obesity, and other childhood health issues related to poor diet and lack of exercise. The other thing that you can do is encourage your children to complete chores in the home, but make it fun, by making it a race. The serves two purposes, it helps you with housework, and it gets your child moving. It has been shown that housework, vacuuming, sweeping, cleaning mirrors, can burn up to 300 calories an hour. Make exercise a family affair. By including yourself in the exercise that you are asking of your children, this shows them the importance of what you are asking, as well as create a bonding moment.

Filed Under: Child Care Tagged With: Health, Physical exercise

Protecting Your Children From Hazards

Many injuries for children are caused by things that can be prevented. In fact, many accidents in the home could be prevented with very inexpensive products. For instance, door locks for cupboards can prevent children from getting into cleaners and medications. Children are curious, and not all child protective seals keep children from getting into pill bottles, or other products that could seriously harm your child. These locks can be the basic plastic zip tie type, or they can be a magnetic release. Both of which range from $1-$5 dollars. This type of product is especially important if your child has an allergy, and needs to be kept from specifics types of foods that you may have in your home. This would include things like Peanut Butter, or Gluten containing foods.

Another safety precaution that can be made in the home is with covering things that are sharp, or has sharp corners. Many moms want to protect their children from this type of accident, but how is this done without hurting the aesthetics of your home? Simple, there are clear corner protectors that come in a matte or clear finish. The covers fit around slim corners, like that of coffee table, and around thick corners, like what you would see with a stone fireplace.

Finally, another protective product that can help moms is the ever popular safety gate. This keeps small children out of rooms, or spaces that can contain harmful items. This is especially true if there is a room that has a lot glass, or has objects that are sharp, low to the ground, or can fall of shelves that are not secured to a wall. Many accidents in the home are caused by little ones that are maneuvering around the house, bump into something, and it either causes an injury, or something falls and has the same result.

Filed Under: Child Care Tagged With: Child, Peanut Butter

Dressing Your Kids For The Weather

How many times have you seen a child outside in the winter, wearing only shorts a t-shirt, and thought, “If I were their mother…”? Many parents respond with, “They just insisted on wearing that.” As a parent it is our job to make sure that our children are protected. Protecting them from the flu or colds, it just as important of a job. So how do you go about doing that, without making your children feel like you are taking over? Simple, this requires some imagination, creativity, and the old habit of layering. Imagination because you might have to con your kids into going along with the plan. Creativity because you going to have to find clothing they like, and layering because then you can compromise on the clothing. Compromising on clothing means that your child can pick what they want to wear out, and you pick what they have to wear over their choice. What this does for your child is give them freedom, while you are trying to prevent illness. Once your child is indoors, they can take off the heavy layers, revealing their choice for an outfit.

Winter is not the only season to take into account. The Summer is just as important, because you have to protect your children from the suns cancer causing rays. There are certain fabrics that allow the suns harmful rays to penetrate, and a child can sustain a burn while being fully clothed. These fabrics include large weaves, or fabrics with small holes. Many jerseys, inexpensive prints, and lighter cottons do allow the suns cancer causing rays to reach your child’s skin. During the summer months, it is best to also wear light colored clothing, as this reflects the sun rays, and make your child cooler in temperature. Wearing darker clothing can make your body warmer than necessary.

Filed Under: Child Care Tagged With: Child, Clothing