Poop or No Poop

October 25, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

Since we have to clean it up, we are very aware of what kind of poop our baby is making. We see different colors, different amounts, different consistencies. Some of them really worry us. The explosive poop of breast fed babies or the days of no poop, what does it mean and what can we do about it? Here are some helpful suggestions:

Baby or toddler constipation

Try Poop Goop– Two different concoctions to whiz up for your baby/toddler’s constipation

Long-term constipation – see When Your Child Just Can’t Go
To get the article in pdf – click here: When Your Child Just Can’t Go.

Breast-fed Baby’s Explosive Poop

Q.
I know breast fed babies have different colored and often softer stools then formula babies. My baby’s stools are very soft with the majority liquid. None of the seedy things the books and peds talk about seeing are present. When he goes, it’s nothing short of explosive. When I say explosive, even if the diaper is new and dry, it comes out with such force (and noise) that very little is caught in the diaper and it gets very little saturated. The poop shoots out the sides and back to the point you can feel it hit you if you’re holding him. Both docs told me I just need to get used to the softer stools of nursing and I felt like they thought I was exaggerating. Its been two weeks of what I would call liquid stools and I’m concerned about him being dehydrated or actually having something wrong. I called the nurse line today and talked to her about it and she said it sounded normal, but she’d be happy to bring in me to talk to another doc. Am I crazy to feel like this is not normal? We have gone through 5 blow out outfits since 5am, not counting spit up changes and its only 5pm.

Read answers from other moms

Positive Parenting

October 22, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

This article and a few more will be from my husband’s book called 21st Century Parenting.

The great news for parents is this: God can make you a better parent than you are, and you will like it! So will your kids, and so will all the people that interact with your kids: teachers, neighbors, extended family members now; employers, spouses, neighbors and friends later.

Couples conceive a child in a moment of pleasure. For nine months they wait patiently while a tiny life develops in the mother’s body. Then, after hours of painful labor, Mom and Dad finally hold their new baby in their arms.

Many years of pleasure, patience, and sometimes pain await them. The same darling baby whose every new accomplishment brings joy and pride might some day make them want to hide their faces in embarrassment. One day they’ll boast about what great children they have, ready to tell the world their formula for parental success. The next day they might feel like the worst parents who ever lived. They will laugh, and they will cry.

[Read more…]

The Importance of Child’s Humor

September 28, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

From LovingYourChild.com by Amy Brown, an editor of Livesnet, a site helping parents choose the best baby products and offering helpful parenting tips. Visit her site and read hot articles on Joovy Caboose Ultralight Stroller.

Humor is very important in anyone’s life especially that of a child. Why? Because it is during those years that so many things are lost such as imagination and the ability to have fun at any moment.

That is why you need to encourage humor in your child’s life. How? Read on and discover how easy it is to have fun and laughter to show your children that life is great.

Laugh with the Babies

Just because a baby can’t tell a joke or understand everything around them doesn’t mean they can’t experience humor. They love to laugh.

Spend some time with your baby and laugh with them as you play games with them, help them crawl and walk, and even make funny faces at them. This continues as they grow and develop. Start them young.

Stop Focusing on the Serious

Life is so serious and we all fall for it. I’m so focused on working and trying to keep things clean and organized. You know what? That will all be there later.

Preparing for Kindergarten

September 26, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

Prepping your kindergartner for the first day

By Marian Wilde

As the lazy days of summer slip away, it will soon be time to put away the beach chairs and corner lemonade stands and prepare your kindergartner for school. Here are some tips for making the transition easier.

Adjust to the new routine

Ease into the school-year schedule. Getting into a school routine can be a challenge for everyone in the family. To make adjusting to the new routine easier, start early.

A few weeks before school starts, move bedtime back to an earlier time.
Put a positive spin on going to school. Talk about the fun things your child will be learning, the friends he’ll make.
If your child is anxious about starting school, reassure her that other children have these feelings too.
Don’t make plans for big trips right before the start of school.
Establish school-day schedules for homework, TV, baths, and bedtime.
Arrange play-dates with children that are going to the same school to make connections or to create new ones.

Books help ease the transition

Reading books together about the first days of school is a good way to start conversations about the excitement and fears. To get you started, here are some suggestions for your kindergartner:

Berenstain, Stan and Jan. The Berenstain Bears Go to School. Random House, 1978
Bridwell, Norman. Clifford’s First School Day. Scholastic, 1999
Carlson, Nancy. Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come. Harcourt Children’s Books, 1999
Davis, Katie. Kindergarten Rocks! Harcourt Children’s Books, 2005
Penn, Audrey. The Kissing Hand. Child & Family Press, 1993
Rey, H.A. and Margret. Curious George’s First Day of School. Houghton Mifflin, 2005

For more ideas: GreatSchools.org

Reading

September 26, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

This is one of the most important and difficult skills your young child will undertake. You begin the process early with helping him learn to speak and reading out loud to him. Here are some good resources for helping your child learn to read.

Reading Aloud Everyday from Birth Onwards

The American Academy of Pediatricians has issued a policy statement encouraging pediatricians to promote literacy by encouraging parents to read aloud to their children from birth onwards. Read the post: Read Aloud Everyday

Also read the original article by the Huffington Press.

Why reading to your baby is so important, gives lots of reasons and ways to read to your baby and growing child.

Teaching Sight Words

Sight Word Flash Cards from Parents.com are a free download of printable flashcards. These are the 200 most frequent words that cannot be sounded out with phonics. When children learn these words, they can read much more fluently.

Be sure to stop by the Mr. Printable page for many more options. You must sign into the site, but no personal information is required.

Teaching Toddlers to Read

The mom of a 22 month old asked me recently what she should be doing to teach her child to read. Her daughter reads words that she has never been taught. She was saying, “Moot,” while pointing to an apple juice bottle. Her mom had never referred to it as anything other than apple juice, but the brand name was Mott. Is she reading and what should this mom do to teach her daughter?

Recently an infomercial aired in the US for Your Baby Can Read. It sounds like a great idea, but is it worth the money and time?

Researchers are agreed that the neural pathways necessary for decoding letters then mentally combining them to form words are not ready until around 5 years of age?

So, who is right and what is a parent to do?

The Role of Memory in Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension involves a variety of neuro-developmental functions, including attention, memory, language, and higher order cognition. In this post, we’re going to focus on the role of memory.

Memory:

While reading, we must hold important information and concepts in our minds. We must process words, sentences and paragraphs together in order to gain full meaning of what we’re reading. In addition, we must call up relevant information we already know. Memory is essential in helping us comprehend as we read, make associations between prior knowledge and new information, and remember that same information at a later time, such as during a test.

Here are some possible signs that a student is succeeding with the memory demands of reading:

How to Read with a Beginning Reader

Most beginning readers are inconsistent. Learn more about the characteristics of a beginning reader and simple techniques and tips to nurture your child’s skills and joy in reading.

Sometimes parents of beginning readers wonder if their child is on track with reading. They don’t understand why their child can’t read a word today they were able to read yesterday. They think their child reads too slowly. They grumble that their child only wants to read the same book over and over again.

Most beginning readers are inconsistent. They may know a word one day but not the next. They may read a particular word correctly on one page, but they have to stop and sound it out again on the next page. When you listen to a beginning reader, you hear short, choppy words with little attention to punctuation. Sometimes a new reader can tell you very little about what they just read.

At the beginning stage of reading, all of these reading behaviors are to be expected. Beginning readers are building their fluency. This means they’re working to make several skills, like matching a letter to a sound and decoding, more smooth, accurate and automatic. Without fluency, each word must be decoded, and that takes time and energy. This means that other reading behaviors like reading with expression and comprehension have less of a focus.

Learn more from: Reading Rockets