Giving CPR to Toddlers

Choking can be fatal and a doctor is your first recourse in such a situation. Call 911 or your local emergency number before you do anything else. Obviously in a life-threatening emergency, you don’t want to be reading information off the web. That’s why every parent should get choking and CPR training at their local hospital. However, if you were to find yourself in this situation without a doctor or emergency facilities, here is how you can give CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to the choking toddler.

• Place the toddler on a flat surface, face upwards.


• Cover the toddler’s mouth with your mouth and blow in air two times. Each breath should take only one second.


• Support the head and neck with one hand and thrust the chest thirty times-be firm yet gentle as children's bones can snap easily.


• Continuously repeat the cycle of two breaths and thirty presses.


• The toddler should start breathing after four or five of such attempts.


• Whether or not the child starts breathing, get medical help as soon as possible. 

Here is how to give correct chest thrusts:

• Press two or three fingers of your free hand to push on the breastbone.


• Apply pressure to the chest thirty times at the speed of hundred thrusts per minute.


• The thrust should take the chest at least to half or one third of the depth of the toddlers chest.

CPR can be given by one or by two persons. In there are two persons giving CPR, one person will press the chest and the other person will blow air into the mouth. Both actions should not be done at the same time. When one person blows air the other person should stop thrusting the chest and vice versa.
 
Obviously, in a life-threatening emergency, you don’t want to be reading information off the web. That’s why every parent should get choking and CPR training at their local hospital.

Protecting your Child Against Poisoning

With toddlers in your home, poisoning is another potential danger you have to come to grips with. Their curiosity might induce them to ingest, or come in contact with, toxic substances that could be harmful to them.

You will be surprised to know that just about anything can be poisonous to your toddlers. Here is a simple checklist:

• Aspirin
  


• Lye
  


• Drain cleaning solvents
  


• Cosmetics
  


• Alcoholic beverages
  


• Moth balls
  


• Bleach
  


• Washing and cleaning liquids, soap bars, powders, etc.
  

To make your children aware of the dangers of ingesting unknown things, there are some simple thumb rules:

• Never call medicines or any bright-colored, small pellet, lozenge, etc. candy.


• Keep dangerous things out of your toddlers' reach; take into account the fact that they are adventurous explorers and terrific climbers.


• Make use of child-resistant locks, packages, etc. to stock the most dangerous things.
  

If any untoward incident were to happen, here are some signs that you need help:

• Your toddlers have difficulty breathing.


• They complain of severe throat pain or burning sensations


• You spot burns on their lips or mouth.


• Your children are experiencing convulsions, falling unconscious or are extremely sleepy.
  

In such a case, instant and immediate action could save your child. Always remember:

• Never try to induce vomiting. If a strong acidic substance has been ingested, throwing it up could further injure children by burning their throat and mouth


• In an emergency, call the American Association of Poison Control Centers at (800) 222-1222. You will be redirected to your local poison control center.

Useful Article: Child Development

Tips for Dads trying to cut down on Kids TV watching time

We like TV. After a long day at work, it’s like a frothy dessert at the end of a mediocre meal. It might not have any nutrition value, but it’s sweet and airy and enjoyable with very little effort.  However, when TV becomes the routine and more your reality than your real life, you or your kids might have a problem. 


How to know? Do you talk about TV characters’ lives as if they were your family or close friends? Do you miss important events because you can’t bear to miss the earliest episode of your favorite show rather than time-shifting to when it’s convenient?  Would your kids rather watch TV than go to the park or go swimming? Do your kids spend more than the two-hour daily-recommended maximum time in front of the tube? If so, here are a few tips to help you cut down based on a research study in November of 2006 by the Academy of Pediatrics.

• Keep track of TV watching so you really know how bad the problem is. Most people under-estimate how much they and their children watch. Remember to count the time the TV is on is “just on” in the background.


• Take the TV out of the kids’ bedrooms. Having a TV in the bedroom makes monitoring viewing habits more difficult, as well as actual time spent. Additionally, it promotes dual watching/studying.


• Ditto the dining room. Watching TV while eating ensure less communication within the family at a key time for family bonding.


• Set rules for TV watching on school nights. 


• Eliminate background TV.


• Take responsibility for finding other things for your kids to do rather than watch TV. This will be especially true immediately after you lower their consumption. After a while, however, you’ll be surprised how kids manage to find other things to do.  After all, kids have survived for millions more years without TV than with it.

Child Behavior Suggestions - Cleaning up their Mess

Are you tired of your kids acting like royalty around the house? Making a mess of their rooms as they throw away their clothes and food, expecting you to go picking after them?


Enough is enough - pull yourself out of the mess by teaching your toddlers to help. Its time for Operation Clean Up! As a parent, the following steps will certainly help with the clean up:

• STEP 1: Make an announcement. Let your toddlers know that it's time to clean up. Give them a specific place to put the toys - a plastic tub or a toy box will do fine. Place the container in the middle of the room.


• STEP 2: Using a loud voice, say "Look at this huge mess. Is there anyone who can help me?" as you are setting the container down. A toddler’s attention tends to pick up this tone. You can also make up and sing a cleanup song to get them into the swing. Remember to be happy and positive about the task.


• STEP 3: By means of demonstration, pick up some toys on the floor and place them in the container. All the while you can continue with the singing and coaxing.


• STEP 4: Now is the time to ask your children to (please) pick up a specific toy. Thank them when they start placing toys in your hand or in the container.


• STEP 5: Always keep a back-up plan, as a consequence for not helping. Give them a timeout or better still, you can threaten to take away one of their treasured items till they start cleaning up.


• STEP 6: Warn the toddlers only once and then follow through with the consequence they don’t help.


• STEP 7: Continue cleaning up the toys until all of the toys are picked up.

Related Article: Kids Activities

Reason Why Do Kids Lie

It wasn’t me Daddy! You must have heard your 5-year old say that you at some point or other, when you knew it was in fact he who did it. How do you deal with your kid, knowing he is lying to you? When your child lies to you, remember he is not doing it on purpose. The reasons why kids lie are:

 
Short-Term Memory: Children in the age group of five have short-term memory. If your kid tells you he didn’t do it, chances are that he does not remember doing any thing wrong.

 
Wishing it away: Often, children wish that the wrong did not happen, and tend to believe that it actually did not. So, if your child denies a wrong, he simply might be convinced that he did not do it.


Imagination: A five-year-old child has a very fertile imagination, and loves to conjure up fantasy worlds of his own. He lives in a fantasy world, and thinks that all of it is actually true.

 
Fear of disapproval: Your kid does not want to disappoint you. He might fear the fact that a mistake could upset you, and he does not want to be in that situation. He tries to avoid that by lying to you.


Feel good factor: Your child wants to impress not just you, but also himself. He makes up stories to ‘enhance’ his amazing feats. There is an underlying desire for approval from parents that leads kids to come up with such tales.

 
Seeking attention: Children often desire attention from people around them. Your kid can easily learn that a tall one definitely will elicit a reaction from you, and decides to play his cards. He does not care if the response is not positive, his motive has been met – you reacted to his tale. He is successful in getting the attention he seeks this way.

 
Control: Kids often love to be in control of a situation, and make believe situations where they are in control.

 
Testing parents: It may sound frustrating to you, but your kid at this age is constantly trying to test the limits you will allow him to go. This gives them an understanding of their own powers in the household. They resort to stretching the truth as one of the ways to do this.

Six Tips for Teaching Kids to Share, Save and Spend

With the economy what it is today, there is no better time for parents to teach their kids lifelong lessons about responsibly sharing, saving, and spending. These lessons can go far in shaping kids’ attitudes and habits about money and its use.



Here are some ways to introduce kids to the concept of saving money:

1. Discuss and demonstrate with your child how you share, save and spend money: For example: explain how you share money by supporting your place of worship or a charitable cause; how you save money by depositing it in the bank; and how you spend  money on groceries and the home.


2. Work together on establishing a guideline on how they'll manage  their money: For example: if you set "share 10 percent, save 10 percent and spend 80 percent" as a guideline, the next time  your child gets $20 as a birthday gift, the child should divide the  money to meet the guideline.


3. When older children want to buy something immediately, ask them to  'Stop, think and choose': Stop to consider whether they really want or need the item, think how the money spent could be used more resourcefully and choose whether the item is really more important than other wants and needs.


4. Make it visual: For example: label three clear jars to serve as share, save and spend piggy banks allowing the child to see their  contributions add up. Each child at "Teach Your Kids to Share Day" will receive a 3-slot blue piggy bank to encourage sharing, saving and spending.


5. Make it fun: For example: initiate activities such as making ice cream sundaes at home rather than spending money on them at a  fast food restaurant. Set up a lemonade stand and agree to donate the proceeds to a local charity.


6. Most importantly, make sharing, saving and spending an ongoing conversation: Talking with your child is one of the best ways to build a financial foundation for the whole family.

Run! It’s lice!

I guess at some point in America's history, lice was public health issue that carried a stigma. Now, it just seems to be added to the list of elementary school rites of passage. As a parent, you hear about lice as if it's a foreign country, and then one day, it's here, and your little child has it!


Our first and current experience started one Monday with a call from the school nurse. Eight kids out of 20+ had lice or nits (the lice eggs) and I was asked if I would pick her up and bring her home. That night, we gave her special shampoo from the drug store, and the following day took her to a hair lice specialist called Hair Fairies (is there no job too specialized that someone can't open a storefront to address it?). Ninety minutes later, my daughter was pronounced clear of nits and could go back to school. Luckily this very expensive trip to the hair salon is covered by many insurance companies (and a petition effort is underway to make insurance coverage mandatory). It will require two more visits of an hour each to make sure no microscopic eggs have grown large enough to be seen, to make sure the problem is gone.


A few things I learned along the way:

1. When you get the call, act fast, get the shampoo and start the treatment. Nits are a pain, but what is worse is full-on lice, which can jump form child to child to mom, dad, dog, cat and around the neighborhood turning your house, sheets, upholstery into a mini epidemic site. Lice jump from head to head and lay eggs, jump off and lay more eggs.
   


2. Nits are not contagious the same way lice are, but they can be picked up by other people. Our "hair fairy" said that many moms especially, who often get stuck with the "nit-picking" often go through the scalp and then scratch their own heads, moving the microscopic eggs from head to head. The nits can also fall on pillows and be transmitted that way.
   


3. Take this seriously. If you've never had any exposure, you'll probably think it's another thing easily fixed by a medicine or home remedy. It's not. It takes a week or two of vigilance if you just have nits, and turns the household upside down if something more. It's a community problem and everyone needs to jump in to stamp it out as quickly as possible to stop it.
   


4. Natural oils are available to put on the scalp that “scare away” the lice. You may want to find some of this stuff before sending your child on the next group sleep-over, which is, by the way, probably the best way to be exposed.

Common Child Behavior - Whining

Kids whine when they are hungry, tired, bored or if they are sick. But they also whine when they need attention from their parents. Parents tend to worry, and not without good reason, that their children will grow up to be whiners and never be anything less than miserable in their behavior.


Give positive attention to non-whiny behaviors and learn to practice refusals calmly against whiny requests. Your toddlers will eventually understand that they need to ask you properly in a reasonable manner to get what they want.


Here are a few tips to help you maintain a smiling happy child:


Put a face to it: Toddlers are often unaware of what whining is even if they are doing it almost constantly. Show them what it looks like. Record it to make them hear what it sounds like. They will help your children identify whining.


Don’t give in easily: Be consistent in parenting and don’t give in to silly requests when your toddlers are whining. Show them that it doesn’t pay. Otherwise, it may send the wrong impression to the children about the way to get things done and only make things worse.


Structure their day: The more organized your children’s day is, the less likely they are to get bored and restless. The latter often trigger off whining. Keep them busy with interesting activities and games.


Reward good behavior: When your children ask for something nicely or behave well, they should be acknowledged and rewarded for showing signs of maturity.

Tips on How to Deal with Toddler Tantrums

Toddlers may throw tantrums from time to time. As a parent, you have no choice but to put up with it or try to subdue your toddler. Most parents usually ending up taking action with the idea that stopping the behavior quickly is important in developing good habits. However, try to correct a child in a way that corrects the behavior in a positive and loving way.


Tantrums most frequently occur between the ages of two and five. Before you can curb toddler tantrums, you need to know the causes behind them:

• Fatigue or hunger pangs
  


• Lack of proper attention
  


• Not getting what they desire
  


• Unhappiness or frustration

Here are some tips on how to deal with your toddlers’ tantrums:

• Do not pay attention to tantrums: Your toddler is looking for a reaction from you. If he does not get it, he may just move on.
  


• Encourage quiet and balanced behavior: This will also indicate to your child that throwing tantrums is not productive.
  


• Allow other alternatives: This will prevent situations where toddlers might feel trapped and allow them to get in control of the situation by exercising their choice on the matter. Try to provide your child with options that give the impression that he is exercising free will. “Would you like to put your pajamas on first or brush your teeth first?” “Would you like to eat carrots or peas?” Would you like to put on your socks first or your shirt?” While none of these questions are real choices for an adult, a child will feel more control and will often willingly follow through because 'he has decided what to do next.'

Head banging in children

Head banging is a behavior characterized by a toddler’s repeated banging his or her head, against a solid surface or object such as a wall or the side of a crib. It is estimated that one-fifth of all healthy children display this behavior at least once during their infancy. Moreover, this disturbing behavior is more common in boys than in girls. Head banging usually starts around the age of nine months and ceases by the time the child is two years old. 


Causes

The exact causes are not known though the reason may include:

• Comfort – Odd as it may sound, some experts believe that head banging, along with other rhythmic movements such as body rocking and head rolling, may be a source of pleasure or comfort to a toddler. Though parents may be concerned about the pain caused by the behavior, it may be producing a soothing effect for the one doing it.
  


• Pain relief – Head banging may also help to relieve pain in another part of the body, such as that caused by an ear infection, by serving to distract the child.
  


• Attention – Some children may simply bang their heads to draw attention or out of anger, a strategy that usually succeeds, as worried parents show more concern.
  


• Disorders – In addition, head banging is often associated with autism and other disorders. However, head banging itself does not indicate a serious disorder.

Treatment

Contrary to what most people think, the objective is rarely self-injury, and usually this habit does not lead to fractures or bruises. Most children with this symptom have been seen growing up as normal, well-adjusted adults.

• Positive reinforcement is necessary to reassure toddlers when they are not banging their head. During bouts of head banging, parents need to avoid making a fuss or encouraging this behavior further.
  


• If the child displays injury, fever, or any other illness, consult your family physician immediately.