Best Parenting World

Children are notoriously bad at drinking enough liquids. They are so busy playing they sometimes ‘forget’ to drink. Sometimes, children seem like camels - able to go for ages without having a drink. Obviously, when they are thirsty they will rush indoors for a drink. But often they look for sugary, caffeine-laden drinks which are great for quenching thirst, but do little for the body’s fluid levels.

That’s because the caffeine in many drinks leads to extra urination. The result is that more liquid goes out of the body than is taken in. And therein lies a problem. Your child’s body has inbuilt mechanisms to maintain the liquid levels. A lack of liquid intake, combined with the effects of caffeine in fluid output, means your child’s body requires more liquids to maintain the right balance. In other words, their body starts to demand more liquid.

That demand for extra liquids usually starts at the worst possible time - early evening. Your child is home from school or from a day playing with friends and they suddenly want a drink. They gulp down whatever you give them and demand more - and more. This is because their hydration levels are low and their body’s self defense mechanisms have kicked in to ensure that they don’t become dehydrated.

Whenever parents discuss how to deal with bed wetting, the topic of alarms inevitably gets raised. Bed wetting alarms can be useful devices, but in spite of the popularity with which they get discussed, they should not really be considered a first line option. Bed wetting alarms are highly useful, but they are probably only worthwhile once you have tried a few other methods.

Children all develop at different rates. A child who hasn’t been able to master staying dry at night, may well be able to do some other task that a ‘dry’ child cannot do. Never forget, if your child wets the bed, they are almost certain to be better than other children at some other developmental achievement. All children are different.

That’s why patience is the best option for dealing with bed wetting. In most children the condition goes away naturally; the child grows up. That’s why bed wetting alarms are not always necessary. Not because they don’t work (they do) but because you will be spending money unnecessarily. Bed wetting alarms that get children to be dry at night may be helpful, but if your child was going to be dry anyway (as most children will be), you could well have wasted your money.

When your time comes to shower a new mom or family with baby gifts, keep in mind that not all gifts are created equally.

Baby gifts can be broken down into several categories, including those for infants, toddlers and beyond.

There are several well intentioned items that end up in a corner or drawer never to be looked at again when received. To make the most of your best intention, keep in mind that infants seldom need elaborate toys and educational accessories to crowd their nursery.

Some well appreciated and useful gifts for infants include the following:

*Diapers: lots and lots of diapers. The typical infant goes through 5-8 diapers per day that translates into as many as 56 diapers a week or more than 200 per month. Babies may not express their enthusiasm at the offering, but a parent certainly will.

*Diaper service: this is a wonderful and thoughtful gift for someone considering using cloth instead of disposable diapers.

*Wipes

*Diaper Disposal System

*Onesies of varying sizes and colors

*Baby Bath Items

*Socks to keep an infant’s feet warm

*Caps

*Teething rings

*Hampers

*Crib sheets, Changing Table Sheets

When a child wets the bed they worry. Children tend to become dry during the day more easily than at night. During the day they are awake and aware of their feelings and can go to the toilet normally. However, at night, when they are asleep, the usual feelings of a full bladder aren’t sufficiently strong to wake them. The result is a wet bed. Or, young children have to continue wearing diapers at night.

Fairly soon they realise this is not normal. They wonder why they don’t need a diaper during the day, but do need one at night. They might also talk to siblings or friends and discover that they don’t need a night-time diaper. This will only compound their worries.

Throughout childhood, your son or daughter is trying to establish their identity; they are trying to find out who they are. They also want to make sure they ‘fit in’, that they are just like everyone else and that they are not abnormal. As soon as they discover that wetting the bed is not usual, they worry.

How excited do kids get with the start of school approaching? Getting kids to go from the freedom of school holidays to move to that place of being settled and ready for school can be a challenge for some parents. Many children now days are identified as being ADD and ADHD I call these kids "go fasts" and the transition from holidays to school can be a bit more of a challenge for these kids. Being a "go fast" kid is fine, they are full of excitement and life, but it does not always suite the classroom environment. So how do you handle the transition time as they move into the structures of a new school year and a classroom environment?

An easy way to assist the transition process is to integrate some basic aromatherapy into your child’s routine. Aromatherapy is a simple and effective way to create a calm, grounded and positive environment for your children and environment. Now we know that you cannot control the classroom environment, but what you can do is take that environment the child is used to and move it into the classroom. This way you are transforming the child’s environment to one where they make the transition easier. This transformation can be achieved easily with aromatherapy. All that is need is to place a few drops of essential oil on a tissue to be inhaled during the day as needed or a massage a couple of drops of the oil onto the soles of their feet before school.

Question 1
"How do I get more time to play?"
Answer:
Schedule it in.
Why? Because if you don’t schedule it you will generally let other things have a higher priority and put yourself and a life further down the list.

So just write 15 minutes a day, play time into your diary and don’t change it for anything. If you have little kids it may be five x three-minute blocks for you. To get started, get your diary NOW and write in one fun thing you have been hanging out to do. Call a friend and tell them that you are going to do it, and DO IT today.

Question 2
"What happens when I feel guilty for not having enough time with the kids?"
Answer:
Get over it, and value yourself. Here’s why: Guilt is more damaging to your health than any physical stress. So, when you feel guilty you change your body chemistry negatively and you can produce symptoms like headaches etc. If you give yourself a hard time for feeling guilty you add more stress. Relax and realise you are human we all get busy. Go for quality time if you cannot get the quantity you desire.

On a recent Saturday evening, I noticed a young teen-age girl crying alone. My first impulse was to go over and check on her. Worried that my approach might be taken the wrong way, I just smiled at her and went in the store to meet my wife. I forgot about it until we came out to the car.

Same girl, still crying.

My wife went to see what was going on. Turns out that the girl was upset because she’d been treated badly by some friends and felt left out. My wife told her she went through that, too, as a kid. Then the girl hit her with the big question:

“Does it get any better?”

Does it? Well, yes and no.

The yes part

When you are young, it seems almost like life and death. As you get to the other side of the current crisis, you are able to gain some perspective, and it feels less urgent and hurts just a little less. As you learn to effectively deal with these situations, it can definitely get better.

Lisa Fozo (37), a Fair Oaks resident, wanted to breastfeed so much that when her two sons didn’t latch on, she pumped her own milk and bottle fed it to them. With her first child, Alex, (5) she had an excess of milk and had to discard it. But when she had her second child, Kyle, (15 months) Mercy Hospital of Folsom referred her to Karen Evon, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Evon is also part owner of Maternal Expressions in Folsom, a maternity and breastfeeding specialty store. Evon advised Lisa to donate her surplus milk to the Mother’s Milk Bank in San Jose, California.

The Mother’s Milk Bank is the only one of its kind on the West Coast. It ships milk within California, outside of the state, and even occasionally to foreign countries. In the U.S there are six other milk banks: Newark, Delaware; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Fort Worth, Texas; Austin, Texas; and Raleigh, North Carolina. The milk banks are overseen by The Human Milk Banking Association of North America. Milk banks provide human milk for premature and ill infants and children under a doctor’s prescription.

While on a recent trip to the grocery store, I happened to hear a mother telling her teenage daughter not to answer her ringing cell phone. Of course, the daughter explained to her mother that “she just had to answer it” As the mother was in the middle of stating how she barely gets two minutes of her daughters time in a day, and her daughter answering the ever so “important” call anyways, all I could think was how much I could relate with this poor woman. In fact, I’m sure most parents with teenage children can relate to her as I did.

The Internet Provides a Virtual Classroom
 by: Katie Robbins

Do you have a passion for a certain subject? Maybe you want to know more about elephants or the computer code to create computer games. You can find information about any of your interests online. The Internet not only provides basic information on any subject, but also lesson plans, activities, and real world examples. It is a privilege and adventure to have such robust information at your fingertips.

The Internet is a virtual classroom. You can read about any topic you desire. You can take online tests and quizzes to track your progress. You can access free worksheets and lesson plans. The amount of information can be overwhelming. Let’s take a look at the advantages of different virtual classroom resources.

Online Reference Resources:

Reference resources include information from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and any scholarly journal or publication. The advantage of this information is that it is credible, well respected academic information. It is like having the entire library in your computer. Instead of flipping page and page trying to find your information in heavy, dusty books, you can easily search the electronic versions with keywords.

Online Activities: