Parenting | Family Resource

How to Sue a Physician for Medical Negligence

The first step to suing for medical negligence is to contact an attorney. You will want an experienced attorney such as a California medical malpractice attorney who regularly handles medical negligence cases. An attorney can advise you if you have a strong case and most will offer a first consultation for free.

For parents, don’t worry about future visits to the doctor for your child’s allergies or general first aid. You can find another physician.

To aid your case, your attorney will need documentation and witnesses. Your attorney will assist you in gathering evidence but you will need to recall names, dates and events. You will have to sign a release so your attorney can get your medical records to prove negligence. Medical records are also usually necessary to prove the damage that has been suffered from the negligence itself. Plaintiffs will need to available for depositions and court hearings if necessary. Sometimes it is possible to settle claims out of court but if a settlement cannot be reached then a court hearing and sometimes civil trial is necessary.

Medical negligence cases can be difficult, but with good documentation and a good attorney, you will be well on your way to gaining justice and financial help for the damages sustained.

Filed Under: Medical Care, Parenting Tagged With: Medical malpractice, Negligence, Physician

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

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

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

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

Common child ailments and their remedies

There is nothing more distressful not only to parents but to the entire family than a sick child. Although young children can get the same ailments as adults, there are certain ones that children tend to get more often and include the common cold, fever and disorders of the stomach.
The common cold seems to hit children under the age of six more than any other age range. Viruses cause colds and because there are so many types of the rhino virus, there really is no cure for the common cold. Fever, sore throat and a headache as well as a stuffy nose are the major symptoms of a common cold. The best remedies parents can use are to make sure the child gets enough sleep and to apply a healing compress to the child’s throat as well as to use steam in the child’s room that he or she can inhale. Medications like Tylenol, aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are good for reducing fever, while decongestant drugs can be used to reduce nasal congestion.
When the temperature of the child’s body goes above what is considered normal, it is typically a fever that might be a sign of illness or increased immune following vaccination. A temperature above 100â° indicates that the child has a fever. To treat a high temperature, remove excessive clothing from the child, sponge the child down with warm water, have the child drink plenty of fluids and give the child medications like Tylenol, aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to help reduce the fever.
Infections by stomach flu, intestinal virus and poorly prepared foods that can cause infections can trigger stomach disorders in children. The symptoms usually include sever cramping pains in the abdomen, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. The treatments are to feed the child warm liquids and to place a warm moist cloth over the child’s stomach.

Filed Under: Child Care, Medical Care, Parenting Tagged With: Common cold, Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, Tylenol

Children’s clothing

What a child wears is important to the experiences of a child and can make a difference in the very quality of those experiences. Their health, safety, comfort and well-being can even be affected by what they wear. That is why it is important to dress them properly for the variety of situations they will encounter.
When it comes to temperature, it is important that children are not wearing too many clothes or too little clothes and that their clothing is suitable to the environment. Smaller children are more susceptible to becoming overheated or chilled. It is therefore important, particularly during the change of seasons when the weather can be variable that spare clothes be sent with the child for potential unexpected changes of weather.
As for their feet, the shoes that children wear should be safe and comfortable and fit well. Shoes must not only provide protection but support as well, so that raised heels should be avoided that can cause accidents. Soles that provide some method of gripping make climbing and other physical activities safer for children.
Protection from the sun is also important for children. This can be provided by fabrics that are tightly woven, such as t-shirts, long sleeves and pants as well as hats with soft brims that enable movement while providing maximum protection.
Clothing types and accessories must also be taken into account when dressing children. For example, tripping can be caused by long hems while items such as necklaces, long drawstrings and ribbons can also be of risk to a child. Safety hazards with regard to clothing seem to affect younger children more than older ones and should be taken into account when dressing them.
The best fabrics for children are natural fabrics such as cotton and fabrics that are “scratchy” should be avoided. Having a low fire danger is another characteristic of children’s clothing.

Filed Under: Child Care, Parenting Tagged With: Child, Children, Clothing, Shopping

Keeping Kids Safe

Keeping kids safe involves developing a healthy and nurturing relationship between parents and children. This type of relationship requires a great deal of effort and work but the long term results in providing a safe environment for children are most rewarding.
There are many ways that such a nurturing relationship can be developed. One way is to make sure that children know they are loved even when they might do something wrong. Another is to encourage children by praising their achievements and accomplishments and recognizing their skills as they develop them. Parents also need to spend time with their children and plan activities that can be enjoyed together. When it comes to discipline, parents should not be physical with their children. There are many alternatives to physical discipline such as offering choices, redirecting the child’s attention or simply using a “time out’.
There are also many ways in which to make sure that children are well cared for and consequently can be kept safe. One way is to insure that the foods they eat are nutritious. Planning regular mealtimes that the entire family can enjoy helps to make sure that children are getting the right nutrition at the right time.
Keeping kids safe also requires that they receive good and regular medical attention. Even though care of children begins before they are born, after they are born, it is important to take them to see the doctor on a regular basis so that he or she can monitor their development and give them their required vaccinations against certain diseases.
Watching over children is also important. Infants should always be within sight of their parents unless they are in a crib or other place of safety. Once children begin to crawl, the house should be made childproof so that children will not hurt themselves. The selection of caregivers should also require special attention so that children will be safe in the absence of parents.

Filed Under: Child Care, Parenting Tagged With: Child, Health, Parent

Getting Yourself Vaccinated Keeps Your Kids Safe

: Image via Wikipedia

In June 2010 a whooping cough epidemic in the Los Angeles area caused the deaths of five babies. All five were under three months of age, meaning that they were too young for the vaccination to fully protect them.

Very young babies are more vulnerable to diseases such as whooping cough, which makes it imperative to protect them from being exposed to these diseases. Since the first round of preventative vaccinations can’t be administered until your baby is six weeks old, and the vaccinations take another two weeks minimum to fully protect your child, young babies are at risk for infection.

What many parents fail to realize is that, while you may have received these vaccinations yourself as a child, these protections wear off over time. Adult boosters exist for many of the childhood vaccinations and they can protection you â€“ and in turn, protect your child â€“ from infection.

Health and safety experts believe that the whooping cough deaths in Los Angeles occurred because the infants’ caretakers were infected with whooping cough without realizing it. Whooping cough can first manifest in adults without the telltale whooping noise, so the adult may think he has nothing worse than a bad cold.

How to Protect Your Baby

The TDaP adult vaccination protects you against tetanus, diptheria and pertussis (aka whooping cough) for up to ten years. Get this and the other adult vaccination boosters ASAP, as they take a couple of weeks to fully protect your system from these infections. Your doctor can provide more specific details.

If you have cold or flu symptoms, take precautions to keep from spreading the infection to your child. Wash your hands regularly and avoid coughing or sneezing in your child’s presence, as these infections are commonly spread through the air. You may even want to wear a surgical mask while in your child’s company to ensure their safety.

Filed Under: Child Care, Medical Care, Parenting Tagged With: DPT vaccine, Pertussis, Vaccination