Breast Feeding Baby

November 25, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

Breast feeding can be a great joy to mom and a boon to baby. Getting started can be a challenge. Along the way you may have problems that require more information to help you succeed. The following are articles and sites with a wealth of information.

Dr. John Newman’s – Information sheets to answer most questions about breastfeeding.

Answers to common problems with breast feeding – colic, sore nipples and breasts, increasing milk supply and more.

Reasons for using a breast pump

Expressing Breast Milk

How do I choose a breast pump?

Questions about breast pumps

Help for using a breast pump

Breast feeding and screaming baby

Finding a lactation consultant in your area

Warn the Unruly

November 6, 2012 By Diane Constantine 1 Comment

Last month I began a series from my husband’s web site called 21st Century Parenting. This part is Warn the Unruly.

The word unruly describes those who break the rules or ignore the rules. It refers to willful disobedience. An unruly person chooses to do wrong, though he knows what is right. Such behavior requires a clear, understandable, enforceable warning, and appropriate consequences if the child ignores the warning.

Parents set boundaries for their children. Though we know that our children could still get hurt living within the boundaries, we know there are hidden dangers, dangers they do not understand, outside the boundaries.

[Read more…]

Language Development

October 26, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

There are many resources on the internet to help with understanding your baby’s language development and ability to read. Here are some good materials from reliable sources. Follow the links to gain even more information on these topics.

Language Milestones

Mayo Clinic has some simple guidelines for language development.

For a checklist that you can use to evaluate your child’s language development go to: National Institute of Health

To better understand what is normal or average language development see: Kids Health

Strategies to Encourage Language Learning

The teacher’s voice was warm and caring as she soothed Katrina after a fall. Katrina, 9 months old, crying intensely, stopped and looked up at the teacher. The teacher continued comforting Katrina with calm words. The teacher then stopped and waited expectantly for Katrina to take a turn in the conversation. Katrina started babbling, as if telling the teacher all about the nasty fall. This communication exchange seemed emotionally satisfying to both Katrina and the teacher, as Katrina stopped crying, gave a big sigh, and began babbling excitedly.

The teacher in this example is using responsive language. She is empathic and waits for Katrina to take a turn in the conversation. We have identified a dozen strategies like those represented in the scenario with Katrina that parents and teachers use to support children learning to express themselves, to hear and understand language, and to become competent communicators.

1. Build Relationships—Be an Empathic Language Partner

When a person cares about another person, he or she usually wants to communicate with that person. An infant or toddler will want to communicate with you when she feels safe and cared for in loving ways. Infants and toddlers communicate when it is pleasant to communicate, when the affect or feeling of the communication is warm and loving, and when they understand that their communication attempts will get a response.

2. Respond and Take Turns—Be an Interactive Language Partner

Read the rest of this very applicable article at: Education.com

Why Bi-linguals are Smarter

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.

They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.

To read more: Benefits of Bilingualism

The Brain-growing Magic of Foreign Languages

Stammering

Feeding Toddlers

October 25, 2012 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

What’s the difference between a picky eater and a problem eater?

“Picky Eaters” Will Not Starve Themselves, but Problem or Resistant Eaters Might

by ISA MARRS

I spend a lot of time writing and speaking about picky eating. When I say “picky eater” I am referring to a child who has picky behaviors but can learn to eat a broader diet and change the bad habits that are negatively impacting themselves and their families. However, when it comes to feeding disorders there is a continuum of severity. And many of you have children with more severe food aversions.

Approximately two-thirds of children on the autistic spectrum have severe food aversions which can impact their growth and development. While this population of children often has feeding aversions it is in no way limited to them.

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