Jun
26
Posted by joever
The Benefits of Breastfeeding
During breastfeeding nutrients and antibodies pass to the baby while it helps to strengthen the maternal bond. Most people agree that, under normal circumstances, breastfeeding is best for your baby. It provides the perfect nutrients and has many known benefits:
-Superior nutrition
Breast milk has just the right amount of fat, sugar, water, and protein that is needed for a baby’s growth and development.
-Most babies find it easier to digest breast milk than they do formula. The protein that is present is more nutritious and digestible that the major protein component of cow’s milk. The mother’s fat is also more easily broken down. Infants also have an easier time absorbing the important micro nutrients in breast milk than those in cow’s milk. The proportion of protein in mother’s milk is lower than in cow’s milk, making it more digestible.
-Breastfeeding also helps a mother bond with her baby. Physical contact is important to newborns and can help them feel more secure, warm and comforted
-Breast milk has agents called antibodies in it to help protect infants form bacteria and viruses and to help them in fighting off infection and disease. Breastfed babies are less subject to lower respiratory infections, ear infection, septicemia and urinary tract infections. virtually no baby is allergic to breast milk, while certain substances in cow’s milk can trigger allergic responses.
-Human milk straight from the breast is always sterile, never improperly prepared, contaminated or spoiled.
-Breastfeeding saves time and money. You do not have to purchase, measure and mix formula, and there no bottles to warm in the middle of the night.
-Nursing uses up extra calories making it easier to lose pounds gained from pregnancy. It also helps the uterus to get back to its original size more quickly and lessens any bleeding a woman may have after giving birth.
-Breastfeeding may lower the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
-Nursed babies are healthier. The rates of constipation and diarrhea are lower in breast-fed children. Also, breastfeeding is less likely to cause overweight infants or obese children later in life.
-Breastfeeding in convenient for the mother. It requires no planning, packing or equipment. It is always available, and at just the right temperature.
Jun
04
Posted by joever
Safety Tips
- Always check bath water temperature with your elbow or wrist before putting your baby in to bathe.
- Never, ever, leave your child alone in the bathtub or near any water.
- Keep medicines and cleaning products in containers with safety caps and locked away from children.
- Don’t leave your baby alone in highchair.
- Lock household cleaning product, matches, knives, and plastic bags away from children.
Cleaning Tips
While keeping the newborn clean these guidelines can be taken into account:
- There is no need to bathe the baby everyday.
- While sponging your baby, always wash his/her face first while the water is the cleanest.
- Make sure that the nappy is dry and clean and in case the nappy gets infected, using a little antiseptic powder will help dry it.
- Always remember to wash the baby’s hands after he/she has come in contact with pets.
- Do not use disinfectants on your baby’s skin, because they take away the skin’s natural ability to fight infection.
- Till the baby is four months old, sterilize everything that goes into your baby’s mouth. Try keeping him/her away from people that are sick.
- After 4 months continue sterilizing milk utensils and water bottles.
- Never leave it at room temperature for too long, be careful about storage and heating milk.
- Good food preparation rules should be followed.
Tips to protect children from environmental threats
- Help children breathe easier.
- Don’t smoke or let others smoke in your home or car. Keep your home as clean as possible. Dust, mold, certain household pests, can trigger asthma attack and allergies.
- Protect children from too much sun. Have them wear hats, and protective clothing.
- Keep them out of the mid-day sun.
- Protect the children from lead poisoning.
- Protect children from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.
- Keep pesticides and other toxic chemicals away from children.
- Always wash children’s hands before they eat and often wash their toys and bottles.
- Wash floors and window sills to protect kids from dust and peeling paint contaminated with lead - especially in older homes.
- To keeps pests from coming into your home, put food and trash away in closed containers.
Jun
02
Posted by joever
The kitchen it can be a fascinating place for young children. They see grown-ups working briskly in the kitchen, watch the steam rise from pots on the stove, and smell what’s on the menu that night. Even older kids might be intrigued by how baked goods and meals come together. It isn’t always convenient to invite them into the kitchen to help, but consider doing so when time allows.
Younger kids can watch on what you’re doing and help out with small tasks, like setting the table or stirring something. Older kids can be taught how to measure ingredients and crack eggs. Even teens might be
lured into the kitchen to help you something by telling them they can choose the dish and you’ll help prepare it with them.
To the kids, it will seem like fun, but there are other benefits to this time together:
-Preschoolers
see on how the dishes they eat are put together, and they get a hands-on experience, which is great way to learn and feel like they are helping out.
-School-age kids
can learn some cooking basics or lessons and use their skills in math as they help combine ingredients for the recipes. You can also use the time to talk about good nutrition and why you chose the ingredients you’re using. it can lay groundwork healthy eating later on.
-Teens
might appreciate the chance to improve their skills in cooking - good preparation for when they’ll need to cook for themselves. they might be interested in trying different cuisines. Do they love Asian foods? Visit and Asian market and put together something authentic.
Parents get out of this kitchen togetherness, too. First, there’s the quality time you’ll share. Then there’s a pleasure of sitting down the table together to enjoy what you’ve whipped up.
Here are some tips for having fun and staying safe while you’re cooking with kids
Choose the Right Time
If you’re going to have kids helping you in the kitchen, you don’t want to be on a tight time schedule. Instead of involving them in the dinner you have to cook lightning-fast, enlist their help on a weekend afternoon.
With younger kids, choose a time when they’re well-rested and not easily frustrated. And It’s also a smart idea to have another adult in the kitchen to help you something like helping you to keep an eye on your junior chef.
Choose the Right Tasks
Plan ahead a little when deciding what you’ll prepare together. For younger kids, consider starting with simple dishes with fewer than five ingredients. Then your child won’t have to wait it out while you tackle a complicated step. A tossed salad or easy muffin recipe can be good starter projects. Older kids can take cooking to the next level and work with you on more challenging recipes.
Stress Safety
Children need a supervision when they’re in the kitchen. Preschoolers must learn not to touch whirring electric beaters, hot pans. and stove tops.
Here are some safety tips:
-Give frequent reminders about what’s OK to touch and which items can hurt them.
-Talk about which kitchen tasks are for kids and which are for grown-ups.
-Establish a kitchen rules, such as washing hands and not touching knives or stove knobs.
Even older kids are need to be remind for their safety, especially if they’re working with knives and appliances, or at the stove.
Loosen Up
Kids cannot be counted on to be neat in the kitchen. Even adults have trouble with that. To make your experience together more enjoyable. Try to be patient and allow for some extra mess. To prevent cooking disasters, be sure that your child isn’t measuring ingredients over the bowl - risking a big oops. Instead, you might measure them separately and put them in bowls, like they do on TV cooking show.
May
28
Posted by joever
With your child in child care, there are many things you might be hoping he/she takes away from the experience. There are the lessons that will be carried throughout life, and healthy eating is one of them. Not only you want your children to learn about the importance of healthy eating, but also you want your children to practice eating healthy.
Below are some suggestions that your child care provider to promote for healthy eating in your children.
More than graham crackers
Help build self-esteem and teach good eating habits by allowing children to plan, prepare and serve simple nutritional snacks. For example, create smiling faces using rice cakes and cheese. Introduce new foods in small portions to encourage children to taste their creations.
Integrate learning activities
Use seed catalogs and real vegetables. Children can conduct a taste-test on different raw vegetables and cooked vegetables. Then they can discuss the nutritional value of each vegetable. The children can also work together to make vegetable soup and create a labels for their own soup cans.
Learn about different cultures
Discuss at mealtimes how factors such climate help shape food habits.
Choose the cultural heritage of one or more children as for the theme
of a day’s meals and snacks.
Foster Creativity
Under adult supervision, young children can bake their own whole breads. Make fun of it by shaping the dough into different animal shapes.
Visit a local farm or farmers market
this type of outing will put the children in touch with local surroundings
and create awareness of how food is grown and sold in a supermarket. If your child is unable to take a field trip, maybe a local farmer could speak about the vegetables and fruits on his farm.
Seeing is believing
Trade some of the unhealthy plastic foods in toy kitchens with replicas of vegetables and fruits, wedges of cheese and bread loaves. Better yet, replace the unhealthy foods in your real refrigerator with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits. Lessons about healthy foods will “STICK” more when eat healthy too!
Parents, caregivers, teachers should work together to establish an understanding of how best to meet child’s nutritional needs. Teaching the children to eat moderately and wisely is an investment in the future and important.
May
28
Posted by joever
The first few years of a child’s life are important to form a basis for good education, morality, self-discipline and social integration. Consistency of approach, skills and qualifications of careers have been shown in many studies to improve the chances of a child reaching his or her full potential. However, the choice of childcare can be extremely difficult, even traumatic for parents. Social scientists have recently started drawing on popular folktales such as urban legends in order to uncover some of the complex socio-psychological elements in the decision, which is often more protracted and involved for middle-class parents[1]. Here it is also possible to see the influence of older story-telling elements such as Grimm’s Fairy Tales where children learn about the dangers of allowing strangers into the home.
May
27
Posted by galleca
Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents. It occurs when a child is well above the normal weight for his or her age and height. Childhood obesity is particularly troubling because the extra pounds often start kids on the path to health problems that were once confined to adults, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
One of the best strategies to combat excess weight in your child is to improve the diet and exercise levels of your entire family. This helps protect the health of your child now and in the future.
The Problem of Obesity
Not all obese infants become obese children, and not all obese children become obese adults. However, the prevalence of obesity increases with age among both males and females (Lohman, 1987), and there is a greater likelihood that obesity beginning even in early childhood will persist through the life span (Epstein, Wing, Koeske, & Valoski, 1987).
Obesity presents numerous problems for the child. In addition to increasing the risk of obesity in adulthood, childhood obesity is the leading cause of pediatric hypertension, is associated with Type II diabetes mellitus, increases the risk of coronary heart disease, increases stress on the weight-bearing joints, lowers self-esteem, and affects relationships with peers. Some authorities feel that social and psychological problems are the most significant consequences of obesity in children.
Although there are some genetic and hormonal causes of childhood obesity, most excess weight is caused by kids eating too much and exercising too little. Children, unlike adults, need extra nutrients and calories to fuel their growth and development. So if they consume the calories needed for daily activities, growth and metabolism, they add pounds in proportion to their growth. But children who eat more calories than needed gain weight beyond what’s required to support their growing bodies.
Far less common than lifestyle issues are genetic diseases and hormonal disorders that can predispose a child to obesity. These diseases, such as Prader-Willi syndrome and Cushing’s syndrome, affect a very small proportion of children. In the general population, eating and exercise habits play a much larger role.
May
26
Posted by galleca
Cancer (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, and do not invade or metastasize. Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia, do not. The branch of medicine concerned with the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer is oncology.
Typically, the factors that trigger cancer in children are usually not the same factors that may cause cancer in adults, such as smoking or exposure to environmental toxins. Rarely, there may be an increased risk of childhood cancer in kids who have a genetic condition, such as Down syndrome. Those who have had chemotherapy or radiation treatment for a prior cancer episode may also have an increased risk of cancer. In almost all cases, however, childhood cancers arise from non inherited mutations (or changes) in the genes of growing cells. Because these errors occur randomly and unpredictably, currently there is no effective way to prevent them.
Chemotherapy is the treatment of diseases such as cancer with drug therapy. Since the 1960’s the development and use of drugs has significantly improved the prognosis for some types of cancer. Chemo- means chemicals, for most types of cancer chemotherapy will consist of a number of different drugs, this is known as combination chemotherapy. Chemotherapy may be given in a variety of ways; Intravenously (IV) -into a vein is the most common, Intramuscularly (IM) -injection into a muscle, Orally -by mouth, Subcutaneously (SC) -injection under the skin, Intralesionally (IL) directly into a cancerous area, Intrathecally (IT)-into the fluid around the spine, or Topically -medication will be applied onto the skin.
Imagine a world without childhood cancer.
No painful chemotherapy treatments.
No emotional stress on children and their families.
No financial sacrifice.
May
25
Posted by galleca
Almost fifty per cent of the developing world’s population – 2.5 billion people – lack improved sanitation facilities, and over 884 million people still use unsafe drinking water sources.
Kids need constant supervision around water — whether the water is in a bathtub, a wading pool, an ornamental fish pond, a swimming pool, a spa, the beach, or a lake.
Young children are especially vulnerable — they can drown in less than 2 inches (6 centimeters) of water. That means drowning can happen where you’d least expect it — the sink, the toilet bowl, fountains, buckets, inflatable pools, or small bodies of standingwater around your home, such as ditches filled with rain water. Always watch children closely when they’re in or near any water.
It’s a good idea to learn to swim, and kids older than 4 years should learn to swim, too (check the local recreation center for classes taught by qualified instructors). Don’t assume, however, that a child who knows how to swim isn’t at risk for drowning. It’s important to supervise kids while they’re in the water, no matter what their swimming skill levels.
Invest in proper-fitting, Coast Guard-approved flotation devices (life vests) and use them whenever a child is near water. Check the weight and size recommendations on the label, then have your child try it on to make sure it fits snugly. For kids younger than 5 years old, choose a vest with a strap between the legs and head support — the collar will keep the child’s head up and face out of thewater. Inflatable vests and arm devices such as water wings are not effective protection against drowning.
May
25
Posted by galleca
Babies, and children, have perfect skin: soft, velvety, smooth and blemish-free. So what happens to skin, when children enter their pre-teens and teens? Raging hormones, an unhealthy diet and pollution, all combine to play havoc on the skin’s surface, and your child’s face soon feels like sandpaper and resembles the surface of the moon
A rash is a reaction of the skin. It can be caused by many things, such as a drug reaction, an infection, or an allergic reaction. Many different agents can cause similar rashes because the skin has a limited number of possible responses. Very often the associated symptoms in addition to the rash help make the diagnosis, such as a history of tick bites, exposure to other ill children or adults, recent antibiotic use, environmental exposures, or prior immunizations.
Babies up to 6 months should be kept out of the sun completely.
- All children need regular daily applications of sunscreens that are waterproof and sweat proof. Some of these sunscreens are available in spray form, which is often more convenient for children.
- Depending on the size of the child, approximately one ounce of sunscreen should be applied to the entire body surface one half-hour before going outside and should be reapplied after swimming.
- Parents should also note that if their child has freckles, this is a sign that their skin has sustained some sun damage.
- Moles present at birth need to be evaluated by a dermatologist. In some cases, they may need to be removed because of a possible risk that they may develop into a melanoma later in life.
- Teenagers, who are often very concerned about having a tan, should be reminded that tanning creams are safe and will give them the same look without the harmful rays of the sun.
- Tanning beds are not good for anyone!
May
22
Posted by galleca
Teeth (singular tooth) are small whitish structures found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates that are used to tear, scrape, and chew food. Some animals, particularly carnivores, also use teeth for hunting or defense. The roots of teeth are covered by gums. Teeth are not made of bone, but rather of tissues of varying density and hardness.
When to Start Caring for a Child’s Teeth
Proper dental care begins even before a baby’s first tooth appears. Remember that just because you can’t see the teeth doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Teeth actually begin to form in the second trimester of pregnancy. At birth your baby has 20 primary teeth, some of which are fully developed in the jaw.
Running a damp washcloth over your baby’s gums following feedings can prevent buildup of damaging bacteria. Once your child has a few teeth showing, you can brush them with a soft child’s toothbrush or rub them with gauze at the end of the day.
Even babies can have problems with dental decay when parents do not practice good feeding habits at home. Putting your baby to sleep with a bottle in his or her mouth may be convenient in the short term — but it can harm the baby’s teeth. When the sugars from juice or milk remain on a baby’s teeth for hours, they may eat away at the enamel, creating a condition known as bottle mouth. Pocked, pitted, or discolored front teeth are signs of bottle mouth. Severe cases result in cavities and the need to pull all the front teeth until the permanent ones grow in.
Parents and child care providers should also help young children develop set times for drinking during the day as well because sucking on a bottle throughout the day can be equally damaging to young teeth.
