It’s becoming more common, although many parents fear the diagnosis. Children are becoming overweight in startling numbers. There are many factors helping to cause the growing problem, but it is up to parents to help their child learn to live a healthier life style. If you are overweight yourself, helping your child will most likely help you as well.

Get the Right Attitude

If your child is overweight, it is likely a scenario you’ve caused by overlooking a poor diet or lack of activity. If you’re overweight, even if you’re comfortable with your weight, you’ve passed on future health problems and possibly self esteem issues to your child by not helping them learn to eat and exercise properly.

You can’t resolve a problem like this overnight and it is not the child’s problem to solve. The family is unhealthy or you’ve allowed at least one member to become unhealthy, so now the family must rally together to change lifestyles and regain focus on good health and proper nutrition.

Assess the Damage

It’s likely you realised there was a problem when you took your child to the doctor or to buy new clothes. If you didn’t realise your child was becoming overweight, you’re in a prime position to resolve the issue. But before you can start a new, healthy lifestyle, you must assess and eliminate the negative aspects of your current one.

Keep track for a few days of what each member of your household is eating. How much food goes into your child’s mouth and what is it? Ask what she eats for lunch every day and press her for an honest answer. Also keep track of everyone’s physical activity. Try not to pad your notes with good intentions. Good intentions didn’t get your family into this situation. You need to know the facts. Be honest, even if its painful and shocking.

Make a Plan

To create a healthier diet, you would do very well to find healthier versions of foods your children already like to eat. By doing away with chicken nuggets and macaroni, you’re opening yourself up to tantrums and food strikes. Instead, learn to make your own breaded chicken nuggets so you can skip the fried variety and make macaroni using whole grain noodles and organic cheeses.

You can make your food change subtly over time, or call the family together to announce the new plan. When speaking of your new healthy diet, try very hard to avoid mentioning anyone’s weight – except maybe your own – and leave your kids out of it. You want the family to be healthier, so you’re going to prepare things a bit healthier and there will be different kinds of snacks around. Make no mention of weight loss.

Include activities that are fun for kids to help keep them moving. Bring home a dancing game for the video system or sign your child up for an activity that he’d really like to play such as hockey or basketball. Take family bike rides and walks, or drive out on the weekends for family hikes. Make activities a part of everyone’s life so that they become fun and second nature – not punishment or work.

What Happens Next

When adults change diets and start excising, they lose weight. Your child might not lose weight, however. Children who are still growing need quite a few calories a day to give them energy and fuel. By changing a child’s diet, you are not necessarily taking away calories, but you are replacing empty calories with better food choices.

The calories your child is consuming will likely fall because the food items are less calorie laden. But as your child grows, his weight might stay close to the same amount rather than increase. This means that he’ll simply be growing into his weight. If your child is very overweight, it is very likely that he will lose weight, especially when he starts exercising.

When trying to help an overweight child, your goal is not to put the child on a diet. By teaching the child to eat properly and exercise, you’re simply changing the child’s pathways for the future. Exercise will burn off fat and help built muscle, and the healthier diet will keep your child full of calories that help him grow into a healthy, strong young adult.

It can be hard to balance all aspects of life equally, especially when one area, such as your marriage starts to unravel. Too often your marriage is put on the back burner while you wrestle with other obligations, only to boil over and take centre stage by force. When your marriage is rocky, your children should be just as important as your spouse.

What Kids Want

If you sense your marriage is in trouble, you are not necessarily better off single. Of course, nobody should remain in a marriage that is abusive or dangerous, but if you’ve simply unconnected, leaving the marriage might set you free, but your children won’t feel the same way.

Study after study has shown that children are strongly affected by divorce and the state of your marriage. If your children start acting up when your marriage is falling apart, the behavior is very likely tied to the drama at home. But even if you and your spouse spend every evening yelling at each other, your children would prefer that to a divorce.

Studies show that children prefer their parents to stay married no matter the cost to the adults. It’s not particularly surprising that children are selfish and want their parents together, even if both adults are completely miserable. This particular fact also throws out the satisfying thought that everything will be better resettled without all this fighting. Your kids prefer the fighting to separation, so long as there is no form of verbal or physical abuse, that is.

Children can survive a divorce and continue to thrive, but it take a great deal of work on the part of the parents. If your marriage simply fell apart, it might make more sense to devote that time and work to patching it back up rather than repairing your kids when it all falls apart.

Protecting Your Marriage and Your Kids

The best way to keep your kids happy is to make your marriage a secure one. No matter what sort of child you have, he thrives on predictability and stability. It’s only fun to be crazy and eccentric when you know you have a safety net to fall back on in the form of solid, stable parents.

When children feel that their rock is getting shaky underfoot, they react strongly which might be why your child is suddenly acting out after you and your husband have a row. To try and protect or repair a marriage, you need to pull that relationship back up into the front of your priority list.

Take time together

You should set aside time for the two of you to talk about anything and everything. Put the kids to bed early one night or arrange a babysitter so you can discuss the day and any concerns that might have arisen. Part of these conversations should be your children and any discussion points to consider, but once you’ve decided who’s taking Janie to swim lessons, turn the conversation back toward other things. Too often we feel disconnected because we don’t know what’s really happening with our partner. Find quiet muments to share your thoughts and emotions and elicit his as well. Your time together should not have distractions such as movies or television if you meant to reconnect through conversation.

Spend time as a family

Your children want to know that everything is solid, even if you bicker with your spouse from time to time. The best way to do this and to build strong ties within the family unit is to spend time together. Just sitting at the dinner table together can make a profound impact on how much you know about each other and your children’s comfort level. Take short trips and schedule a family night once a week to keep those bonds well developed.

Never fight publicly

If you feel a skirmish coming on, take it someplace private, or even better, wait until your children are in bed or away for the day before discussing the disagreement. Don’t just bottle up the emotion to keep from creating waves as that can implode, but do control your temper and responses to keep fights and disagreements as private as possible – especially if they are about the family in some way. You should always present a unified front to your children.

When a baby gets sick, it can be terrifying. A baby is so small and can’t tell you what hurts, so you must try and find the problem as well as the solution while trying to fight down your own panic that your little one is hurting and you are in charge of making it better. A sick baby is almost always serious. It may not be serious enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room, but it should always be taken seriously.

Assess the Situation

When you first start to get suspicious that your baby is sick, you should assess the full situation as quickly as possible. Undress her to look for rashes or spots. Take her temperature in two places (rectally and under the arm or with an ear thermumeter), check her soft spot on top of her head to see if it is sunken or looks normal. Don’t offer her any medicines until you speak with a professional if you haven’t dealt with infant illness before. Infants are not small adults. Symptoms of illness as well as treatment vary greatly from what you may be familiar with.

Make a List

Make a list of symptoms and observations. Here are questions to consider:

• Is she vomiting?
• Does she have diarrhea?
• When was her last bowel movement? Was it normal?
• How much as she eaten in the last few days?
• Is she coughing?
• Is it a dry or wet cough?
• Does she have a fever?
• What is her temperature? (Remember to take it in two places.)
• Is she blue on her hands, feet or around her mouth?
• Is her soft spot sunken?
• Is her nose running?
• What color is the discharge?
• Is she teething?
• How has she been sleeping?
• Has she had any new foods?
• Is she on any medicines?

Make a Call

Armed with your list of symptoms and observations, call your doctor’s nurse line. There is most likely not a need to disturb your doctor when a knowledgeable nurse can help walk you through the situation.

Act!

If your child has a high fever or symptoms such as a depressed soft spot or continuous vomiting, you may be told to take her the emergency room. Even if this feels like overkill, err on the side of caution. And if possible find someone to drive you so that you can sit in the backseat and comfort your child. Unless you are riding in a cab or public transportation, your baby should be restrained in her carseat.

For moderate symptoms, your nurse might make an appointment that day or the following to rule out ear infections or more serious conditions such as pneumonia or RSV (infant flu.)

Some symptoms might only indicate your child has allergies or is teething. Or she might simply have one of the many nameless colds or viruses that travel through day care centers and shopping malls.

If you are concerned that the situation is worse than it seems, or if your child continues to worsen rather than improve with rest and any recommended medicines, make an appointment with your pediatrician. A quality pediatrician sees as many healthy babies with panicked parents as she does legitimately sick ones. It is far better to put your mind at ease over a simple case of teething or hay fever than to underestimate a more serious condition because you are embarrassed you might be overreacting.

Parents, especially new parents, should call or see the doctor as often as they feel a trip is necessary. Over time their confidence and experience levels with grow, but when it comes to the health of your children. It is always best to overreact.

Teething is a likely scapegoat for lots of things, and many medical experts try to tell mums that most of the teething symptoms are not actually from teething. But most of these experts must have been work-a-holics who didn’t spend the sleepless nights with their teething babies, because mums who have been there know that there is a lot that you can blame on teething (whether is gets written up in medical books of not!)

Night Waking

The first sign that something serious is going on is when your baby wakes at night, won’t eat and has a hard time falling back asleep. It’s almost as if she’s uncomfortable and wants you to make it better. This is exactly the case. Even before you can see white in the gums, your baby might be feeling her teeth move around and the feeling can’t be great. The pressure builds and starts to hurt and sucking can make it even worse.

When your baby can’t stay asleep and wants to doze in your arms instead, you have a few options. You can let her doze while you doze in the rocking chair. Or you can call your doctor and get an okay for some pain relief such as Tylenol or Motrin. Just be sure to ask first. Topical pain relievers might be a better solution if you’re hesitant about the Tylenol, just be aware that it can take some time to find the right one for your baby.

Fever

Teething often causes a light fever. If your baby’s fever goes above 38 degrees (Celsius), you are likely dealing with more than just teething, but a slightly elevated temperature is normal and can be left alone or treated with fever reducers according to your doctor’s instructions.

Runny Nose

A runny nose might start weeks before the tooth erupts. The nose may only run for the bottom teeth as these seem to be more symptom-producing than the tops, but it might just run for every tooth that comes in. A teething nose runs clear, almost like a water drip. If the nose is running yellow or green, you are dealing with a cold, not teething. A clear runny nose might also be allergies. Allergies or teething, just keep a tissue handy and wait for it to pass.

Drool

Around three or four months your baby will start some serious drooling. Part of this is just the increased amount of saliva babies have and the not so proficient swallowing your baby does. But when a tooth starts moving around in the gums, the drooling will likely intensify. Grab a bib and a burp cloth to keep her cleaned up. You can also plan on changing her shirt a few times throughout the day as the huge amounts of drool soak through the bib and drench her. With so much fluid leaving the body, also be sure she is staying hydrated.

Fussiness

Teething babies are usually uncomfortable, so you can expect them to complain about it a fair amount. A teething baby might fuss all day and sleep well at night or fuss around the clock until that tooth comes through. Not all babies show a great deal of fussiness and babies that are sensitive to the teething might fuss more with some teeth than others. The first teeth, bottom teeth and molars are the more painful of the batch, so you can expect a bit more whining when these are coming through.

Ear and Face Rubbing

When a tooth comes through, the entire jaw can ache which means your baby may rub at her jaw, mouth, or even ear as that is where the jaw is connected. The rubbing might also a symptom of a tired baby or an ear infection, so see what other symptoms are present before dismissing rubbing as a teething symptom.

Biting

When a tooth is pushing up, nothing feels better for baby than putting a bit of counter pressure on the area. This is why teething babies love to chew. Give your baby teething toys, frozen bagels, hard biscuits and even frozen wash cloths to chew on. The cold of the frozen items will feel good on her gums and the pressure of the bite will help to lessen the pain. If you let your baby chew on your fingers, be sure your hands are washed and be ready for that first sharp bite as that tooth comes through.

Refusing to Feed

Sucking can cause pressure in the mouth, and if the mouth is already under pressure, more pressure is painful. This is why so many babies stop sucking during teething. She may just go a day or two with less food, and if possible help to fortify her diet with more baby food or finger foods if she’s old enough. Clean wet wash cloths to chew on might also help to get extra fluids in here since she’ll be losing so many, but not drinking much in.

Ear Infections

Not a direct symptom, sometimes the fluids which are so prevalent while teething cause problems of their own. When the fluids get trapped in the ear canal, they can cause an ear infection. Watch normal teething signs carefully to see if suddenly the fever spikes or your baby shows increased symptoms such as fussiness and ear pulling. Have a doctor check anytime you’re concerned.

As much as we bucked the truth growing up, it seems mothers were full of wisdom regarding our health. Now, it’s time to transfer that wisdom to our own children in hopes that they will listen better than we did.

Never Leave The House Without a Hat!

In the summer, a hat can protect your skin from damaging sun rays. A nice brim can help to shade your eyes and allow you to see without squinting – a practice that causes wrinkles and poor habits. In the winter, a hat can help you retain warmth. Your body loses a tremendous amount of heat through your head and feet, so keeping a warm hat on your head will in fact, keep you warmer.

Put Your Boots On!

Unattractive though they may be, large boots to protect your feet and legs from the cold rain can help you stay healthy and dry. Your feet help to regulate your body temperature, so keeping them warm and dry helps to keep your body temperature stable. Wet shoes can allow your feet to become chilled. This might not kill you, but it’s certainly uncomfortable and can lead to shivering and other uncomfortable states. Wet shoes and socks also encourage agitation on your feet causing blisters which might become infected by dirty rain water.

Pull or Brush Your Hair Back!

Having your bangs hang in your eyes can actually damage your vision. If you have long bangs constantly obstructing the view from one of your eyes, you can cause that eye to weaken as it is not being kept in shape. If the situation becomes serious enough, you might have to wear a patch over your good eye for a time to allow your now weak eye to strengthen again.

Don’t Leave The House Without a Jacket!

Jackets keep you warm and while your old winter coat might not be your most stylish accessory, if its your warmest on a cold, winter day, wear it. Staying warm keeps your body in check and allows it to function properly. Allowing yourself to get chilled while out can lead to various health concerns.

Don’t Touch Anything!

In public restrooms (and public anywhere, for that matter) you shouldn’t touch anything if you can help it. Don’t set your bag down on the floor of the restroom and try not to touch anything with your bare hands. Take care of business and then wash and scrub your hands thoroughly. Use a paper towel to turn off the water and avoid the air blowers as those might blow more germs onto your hands than just shaking them to remove excess moisture.

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

It takes more than a single apple each day to meet your nutritional requirements, but an apple a day can help you feel better. Apples have vitamin C which helps fight off colds, at least psychologically. The apple also have many other vitamins and nutrients, but perhaps most health inducing of all, the skin of the apple is full of healthy, natural fiber. This fiber helps keep your system regular. Thus you avoid stomach aches, constipation, cramping and the other ailments that come with irregular bowels.

As much as they try not to, parents put a great stock in the milestones advertised in doctor’s offices and popular parenting books. According to these milestones, a baby should be rolling over by four months, sitting by six months, standing by nine and walking by a year. The growth charts that accompany these milestones keep parents on their toes as well. Does a baby in the 50% for height but 90% for weight have a future battling the bulge?

Milestones

Milestones are designed to be rough guidelines of a child’s overall development to ensure he is not underperforming in a certain area. Unfortunately, they are increasingly being viewed as an area of competition in an already overly competitive world of parenting. Parents of early walkers find a way to work it into conversation, and parents of a child with only a word or two worry their child is already behind when in fact, he’s right on with his age group.

Competitive Parenting

Too often parents are turning their children’s development into a barometer of health, fortune, and future success. Proponents of “gifted children” products and services aren’t helping matters. Suddenly every parent is being told their child is gifted and that the child can benefit from special toys and classes.

Early crawler and walker? She’ll be a superstar athlete. Boy at the top of the height and weight chart? Sign him up for an athletics program before he loses valuable training time. Of course, early development programs and the huge educational toy and video market are booming which is a testament not only to the programs marketing ability, but to the eagerness of parents to give their child every advantage – real or cleverly advertised.

Real Milestones

Actual development occurs in fits and starts which can confuse parents tied up in the greater meaning of growth charts and developmental tables. A child may stop babbling while he learns to crawl. Then he’ll talk up a storm but stop trying to pull up to stand until the first word emerges. Just when he seems to have it all together, he’ll stop eating which sets parents into a tailspin – what happens if he loses his size? It was the main thing he had going for his future athletic career.

Not to worry. All babies, toddlers and children grow at their own rate. An early walker may not be a wonderful athlete, just like an early talker may not be a prime public speaker. It is likely that your child may beat a few milestones, be in line with others and possibly even fall behind on a few more. Those big boys (and girls) may have trouble rolling over and crawling as they have more bulk to move, but catch up once they’ve built up the muscle mass and jump straight into walking. There is really no telling, and there is almost never cause for concern if your child isn’t right in line with milestones.

When There is Cause for Concern

If your child is right on developmentally in social smiles, cooing but can’t roll over all the way, you have little to worry about, but get confirmation from your doctor. If your baby avoids eye contact, doesn’t smile and hasn’t cooed by the magical milestone date, speak with your doctor. The more milestones your baby isn’t meeting the greater the likelihood that there may be problem.

Don’t be shocked if your child completely skips a milestone such as crawling. He may decide to go straight to walking after scooting around a bit. This doesn’t put him farther ahead or behind developmentally. If your child’s growth slows down gradually after six months, again, speak with your doctor but this is likely simply the normal pattern. As children become more active, they burn more calories and begin to trim up. Toddlers grow very little, so it may appear that they stop eating completely, but track intake carefully. You’ll likely see that your baby is eating enough to stay on his track on the growth chart.

The most important development to watch for as a sign of problems is social development. All children develop at their own rate, but work with your doctor closely if your child smiles later than the text books state, coos later, babbles later and especially if he rarely makes eye contact or tries to ‘talk’ to you. Delayed speech is important enough to be concerned about, so have your child evaluated if you are at all concerned. Of course, a typical one-year-old should only have one or two words that his parents understand, not an entire vocabulary. Also consider using baby sign language to help your child develop a more extensive vocabulary.

If you do see your child falling behind in an area, try to avoid panicking, as is the habit of many parents. Many reported milestones are for the “average” baby. This means a good half of babies may not yet be achieving that particular milestone by a certain age. The most commonly misunderstood milestone is walking – only roughly half of babies have taken their first independent steps by a year. It can take up to fifteen months for that first step, and your child is still considered a perfectly normal walker. The same pattern is true for most milestones, so before you panic, speak to your pediatrician and do your best to relax, encourage your child’s development and enjoy every mument of parenthood.

Children of divorce are up against some serious odds. Children whose parents have divorced are more likely to be injured, suffer illness, misbehave, have trouble in school, and made seriously poor choices such as drug and alcohol abuse at an early age. While this news may be devastating to the single parents who are working so hard to keep the family unit functioning, the good news is that children of divorce aren’t required to suffer this. In fact, all of it is preventable – provided you are ready to work at the situation.

Poor Health

Children of single parents are more likely to get sick or seriously ill than children of two family homes. The explanation is simple enough. When there are two parents keeping tabs on a child, they are twice as likely to catch a stuffy nose or ruddy complexion as a hard-working single parent.

The single parent has only one set of eyes, after all. If those eyes aren’t seeing the state of your child every day and night, it’s very possible you might overlook something for a day or two giving an infection or cold time to grow into something more serious. To solution would be to take time every morning and evening to truly watch your children and monitor their wellbeing.

Injuries

Children of single parents are more likely to engage in risk taking behavior and get serious injured. Broken bones, sprains and serious knocks are common with all children, but especially so with children of divorce. The rationale behind this, however, is two fold.

One reason children act out in this sort of behavior is because they are not as supervised as they need to be. Adolescents especially will push the limits if there is nobody there to stop them. If you’re working when your children come home from school, you can’t effectively monitor their behavior and prevent accidents and foolish injuries.

The other reason children engage in risky behavior is the behavior itself is a call for attention. Too often divorce causes us to turn inside in order to process the emotions and survive the turmoil. Children are experiencing just as much turmoil inside, but are not as mature and therefore can’t process it the way an adult can. Instead of crying and talking it out, you might see your child playing chicken on his bike with moving cars or jumping off roofs.

The solution is just as two-fold as the problem. Te first solution is to find your child a constructive way to spend his time when you’re not around. Send him to an after school sports program at the community center or see if the school offers an after school study hall. Ask a neighbor to watch your child for an hour or two until you get home, or send him home with a friend whose parent is waiting at home. So long as there is an adult present, most risky behavior is eliminated.

The other step you must take is to find your child a means to express himself. Some children do well working with a counselor or therapist. Others can express themselves through art or music. Still others can use physical activity, such as boxing, to work through their emotions and issues. While talking to you might help some, children need their own space to process emotions. After all, it’s very likely there is some anger directed at you and your former spouse that must be handled your presence won’t help with that.

Misbehavior

When a child begins to misbehave at home or at school, it is often for one of two reasons. If he is desperate for attention and needs help with his emotions, he might act out as a call for help. Again, children can’t just talk about how they are feeling, so they will act out their anger and frustration similar to the way toddlers throw tantrums.

The other reason might be that the child simple enjoys getting away with it. Most parents feel intensely guilty over the breakup of a marriage and how it affects the children. This guilt leads them to overcompensate by allowing their child to stretch or completely eliminate limits. If a child can get away with something, he probably will keep it up simply because he can.

To resolve these issues, again, find help for your child to allow him to communicate and process emotions in a healthier way. The school counselor might be an excellent place to start if you’re seeking help with the situation. The other piece of this particular puzzle is to institute the same limits you had before the divorce. Keep your child’s routine in line and give him more structure in his daily life than every before. Children need limits to feel safe and loved, so give him firm boundaries and then maintain them consistently.

Academic Troubles

There are two strands of trouble in academics with children affected by a divorce. The first group of children were once good students, but have slipped academically with the stress of the divorce. This is very normal and your child is just having a hard time concentrating on the tasks at hand when his world is changing so dramatically. Nip this problem in the bud by being around more often at homework time. This ensures it is getting done and follow up with teachers to be sure work is turned in.

Although it is your business, you should also share the news of the divorce with the school. Educators are used to working with children under stress, but they might not recognize the symptoms of a major life change if you don’t give them a head’s up. Again, firm limits at home and school with as few breaks in the routine as possible will help to keep this problem in check.

Another, issue many children of divorce face is long-term academic issues. If you are parenting your child without help as well as working to support the family, you simply don’t have as much time to work with your child on reading fundamentals, vocabulary and math skills.

These skills are critical to building a solid foundation for educational success, but if a parent is working up until a child’s bedtime, the clock is simply working against you.

Studies have said that the quality of the time spent with children is more important than the quantity. To have the maximum positive effect on your children, you should devote yourself to them on the weekends and the scare evening hours. Take care of duties and household chores while they are napping or after bedtime, and while they are awake, engage your child and work many of the educational fundamentals into play.

Sing the alphabet and point out letters on billboards. Play counting games and kill time by letting your child count the number of items in the cart of the number of cars at the light. Repetition is important, so reinforce the lessons daily, or at least a few times a week.

Only the parent of the poor sleeper can understand what it feels like to have less than eight hours of sleep for three solid years. The parent of the poor sleeper knows that taking a shower in the morning is off-limits as it can wake up the incredibly light sleeper upstairs. The parent of the poor sleeper practically cried when he heard about babies as young as six months sleeping twelve hours a night. While some babies seem to be born to sleep, others take a while longer to learn the art of a good lie-in.

1. Your Child Is Sleep Dependent

Just as you can become dependent on a certain pillow or a certain ritual every night before bed, so can your child. And if that ritual isn’t followed, your child might just demonstrate his discomfort with the idea by sleeping badly. The most common examples of this are the child who requires rocking or nursing to fall asleep and the child who needs a pacifier.

If you nurse your child to sleep or rock him until he is sound asleep and then tip-toe out the door, you’re setting yourself up to keep up the routine every time he wakes up until he learns to fall asleep himself. The same is true of the child who needs his pacifier, but can’t seem to get it into his mouth himself when it falls out. To break a sleep dependent habit, you can vary your routine slightly to show your baby it’s okay to fall asleep without every detail being covered. You can also start to put him down almost asleep as opposed to completely asleep. This will help him learn to fall asleep on his own in the middle of the night if he wakes up a bit.

2. Your Child Naps Poorly

If your child takes poor quality naps, it’s likely he’ll sleep poorly at night. Bad sleep begets bad sleep. Unfortunately, many parents try to “fix” bad sleep at night by keeping their babies up during the day to “wear them out.” This only makes the baby sleep worse at night as they are jittery from the lack of sleep. Encourage your child to nap properly in his cot or on your bed with you beside him for safety, of course. Napping in the car or the swing is more of a doze than a long, deep sleep – it might just make your child more tired in the long-run.

3. Your Child Has Allergies

If your child has an ongoing case of the sniffles, it’s hard to get much rest at night laying on a flat surface. Hay fever and other household allergies, such as being allergic to dander or dust, can be helped by elevating the mattress (not your baby’s head) to help the extra mucus drain away. At the same time, you should use specialized air filters and keep pets out of your child’s room. Dust the room frequently as well and avoid opening the window if pollen or other outdoor stimulates seem to be a problem.

4. Your Child is Teething

For some children, teething is mildly painful and their sleep is generally not affected. For other child, sleep is the first thing disturbed as a tooth starts moving deep in the gums and the last thing to go back to normal when that tooth comes through. If your child’s sleep is affected by teething in this manner, the sheer number of teeth cut in the first eighteen months might make it seems as though your child never sleeps through the night. Topical treatments might help to relieve some of the pain during the night and encourage better sleep, but always ask a doctor before using any kind of medicine – herbal or otherwise on a young child, especially if the condition doesn’t seem to be improving.

5. Your Child Might Enjoy Your Company

The savvy, older child knows that you are out there somewhere. If he wakes up during the night, he might cry out to you in hopes that you’ll come and spend some time with him. After all, it’s much more fun to fall asleep help by your mother’s loving arms than by yourself in a dark room. Fun or not, spending time in the middle of the night with your child is rewarding the behavior, especially if your child forces himself to stay awake to spend more time with you.

To resolve this particular problem, wait a mument before going to your child to see if he’ll fall asleep again. If not, go to him, but avoid eye contact. Tell him to go back to sleep or offer him a sip of water without speaking. Don’t engage him in any kind of discussion, and soon it won’t be as much fun to spend time with you after all.

If you enjoy your child’s company in the middle of the night, you aren’t alone. Many working parents especially like to spend time near their children at night to help offset the many hours they spend apart. If this is the case, you might consider a safe version of co-sleeping or allow your older child to creep into your bed in the middle of the night if he awakens. So long as everyone goes right back to sleep, there is little harm.

6. Your Home Might Be Too Noisy

If you put your child to bed, then crank up the television and talk on the phone, you might be the reason for your child’s poor sleep. Even if you’re quiet in the home after night-night time, the noise on the street, barking dogs or even the creaking and groaning of pipes during the night can arouse a light sleeper.

Help your child sleep through these sounds by putting white noise in his room. A noisy fan or a machine that produces a steady white noise can help to mask sounds from the house and the street. White noise might also give you a chance to flush the toilet or take a shower while your child is sleeping – again, only parents of light sleepers can understand what a luxury that is.

7. You Child Might Have a Medical Condition

Sometimes the child who wakes up frequently has a bona fide medical condition. Reflux or another digestive disorder might be to blame for the broken sleep. Painful digestion or acid creeping up the esophagus while laying prone in his bed could be responsible, or at least a symptom, of broken sleep. If you have suspicions that you child has other symptoms of a medical condition, such as reflux, speak to your doctor immediately to help find a solution.

8. Your Child Might Have Gas or Intolerance Issues

Surprisingly few babies are actually lactose intolerant, but many more are sensitive to the enzymes that appear in formulas based in cow’s milk and later the milk itself. Considering a bottle or cup before bed is customary for many months, if not years, that gas or pain caused by milk products could be causing poor sleep every night. Symptoms caused by milk or other food sensitivities should be evident in the daytime as well as the night if your child is receiving milk or the item in question any time other than bedtime.

9. You are Putting Your Baby to Bed Too Late

Many parents don’t realize that babies and children as old as seven or eight should be in bed well before nine o’clock at night. The conventional wisdom is that babies who go to bed late, sleep late in the mornings. While this might be true for some, for many others, there is an internal alarm clock that wakes your baby close to a particular hour every morning – regardless of bedtime. By putting your baby to bed close to your own bedtime, you’re shortchanging her sleep making her overtired. When she’s in a state of being too tired, she might fall asleep almost immediately, but she’ll toss and turn as well as wake frequently as it’s hard to sink into a restful deep sleep.

10. Your Child is a Light Sleeper

As adults we can easily discuss our own sleeping habits. You might be a heavy sleeper who customarily sleeps through alarm clocks. Your wife might be the light sleeper of the family who has to move to another room when you start snoring or even breathing too heavily. Likewise your child can be gifted your sleep style just as any other of your traits. If you are a light sleeper, there is no reason to suspect your child won’t be a light sleeper, too. If you wake up during the night, your child might also. So long as he knows how to roll over and go back to sleep the way you do, you should be okay, however.

Likewise, although many parents will swear they’ve done something to cause it, some babies are simply born deep sleepers. They fall asleep easily and sleep through the night every night. If you’ve done your research, provided white noise, done a bit of sleep training and know you’re doing everything you should be doing to encourage solid sleep and you’re still not getting it, rest assured that this rough time will pass and someday in the not-too-distant future, you’ll be fighting your child to get our of bed not to get back in it.

Hygiene is a learned behaviour although most children do show a desire to stay clean. From a very young age, you should actively work to teach your children healthy habits both by example and by demonstration. Most of what your child learns, he gathers by watching you. His learning in many cases is almost cemented by the time he can speak in complete sentences, so early examples and acquired knowledge will be your most powerful weapon in teaching proper hygiene.

Lead by Example

Your child will almost never have proper hygiene if you don’t. Wash your hands before meals and after using the restroom or playing outside. Go a bit over the top singing a little song to be sure you’re washing up long enough. If you repeat the same procedure throughout your little one’s childhood, someday you’ll catch him singing the little song as he washes up, too.

Talk to your child about what you’re doing and include him in your routines. Bring him with you to the bathroom every morning as you brush your teeth and brush his as well. Do everything correctly for his benefit, even if you don’t think he can understand yet. Not only will you develop improved hygiene yourself, you’ll also be laying a proper foundation for his hygiene down the road.

Speak Your Thoughts

The most powerful method of instructions parents can use is speaking your thoughts while you set a good example. This means that you actually say out loud what you are thinking. For example, after you sneeze, rather than just grabbing a tissue, talk to yourself or your child explaining your action. “Goodness! I need to wipe my nose with a tissue after a sneeze like that, and then I should wash my hands.”

By telling your child what you’re thinking he’s learning what he should be thinking in the same instance. This creates a lasting inner monologue that may very well stay with him the rest of his days. After all, most adults still have phrases and patterns that pop into their heads that sound just like their own parents.

Take Control

Take control of your child’s hygiene by leading him through the proper steps. Wash his face and hands before a meal and afterwards. At first you might do this in the high chair and later using a stool to reach the sink. Brush your infant’s first tooth and gums and later help your toddler develop a tooth brushing routine of his own.

Lead your child through the steps of the restroom even if potty training is still a long way off. In a public restroom especially he can wash his hands with you after using the facilities. This engrains good habits and ensures he doesn’t gather any germs while out.

When you hold your tiny baby, there is nothing more terrifying for a parent than thinking of the many inoculations, or injections, that your little one will have by her first birthday. The number of vaccines has jumped substantially in the last five or ten years, and today babies are receiving for or five injections at every check-up.

Not only are injections scary for mum, they sting when administered to baby. Often the scariest part of the injection process is restraining your little one so that the injections are administered smoothly. But there are ways to make the process simpler, and possibly less painful for both mother and child.

Pain Relief

Some parents swear that giving baby pain medicine before the appointment helps to reduce pain and complications from the many injections. Many doctors recommend pain medicine following the injections to reduce the small fever that often follows inoculations. Be sure to discuss any pain medicine with your doctor to be sure this is a good option for your child.

Comfort Items

Being along a baby’s comfort item such as a pacifier or blanket to help soothe her through the process. If she’s comfortable and able to grab her favorite item after the injections, the worst of the crying will pass quickly.

Sucking or Feeding

A baby, especially a young one, is most comforted by feeding. In some cases, doctors and nurses are willing to administer injections while a mother is breastfeeding the baby or feeding a bottle. The baby is restrained in the mother’s arms, is severely comforted by the feeding, and might not even register the pinpricks if she’s content enough and otherwise engaged.

If you can’t actually feed baby during the injections, have a bottle or breast ready following the injections. Food is an excellent comfort and distraction from any lingering pain or outrage.

Stay Calm

Babies feed off your emotions, so stay calm throughout the process. If you’re tense, that tension will transfer to your little one. Remind yourself that injections are terribly common and the anticipation is usually what makes them so scary. Keep your baby focused on happy things both before and after the process and the injections will simply be one bad minute in an otherwise happy outing.

Rest Assured

If you’re concerned about the number or purpose of the injections your little one is receiving, talk to your pediatrician and read the materials she like provides with each round of vaccines. Research the injections if it makes you feel better that you know exactly what each injection is for and any possible side effects so that you’re better prepared to face them.

Go to Bed Early

Injections make anyone tired and cranky, especially if the site of the injection is irritated and sore. Give your baby an extra long soothing bath, carefully apply lotion, then put her to bed early. As soon as you can, go to bed yourself. Many babies sleep very well following a round of injections, but many more have a restless and grumpy night, so you need to be ready to comfort and soothe during the night as many times as your little one needs you.