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Water babies

  • June 19, 2011 1:36 pm

It has become part of our Sunday routine to take the girls swimming, this is something that they always look forward to. It has numerous benefits such as:

  • It can be done regardless of the weather
  • It is great exercise
  • It costs very little
  • It is something that we can all do as a family
  • The girls learn a new skill
  • It is a great confidence booster

Like any parent I encourage the girls to be active, whether this is playing a game of football in the park or playing on the wii so the fact that they enjoy going swimming is fantastic. Even when they were babies the girls have always loved playing with water, particularly Holly who now cries when she has to get out of the pool.

Another advantage of swimming is that they learn water safety but they learn through play so it reinforces the fact that water can be fun as long as you follow the safety guidelines. It also teaches them about diet and exercise, which is becoming a very popular topic, especially due to the rise in obesity. So as you can see there are lots of advantages to swimming, so why not see when your local pool have public swimming sessions and see for yourself.

Potty Training

  • May 12, 2011 6:33 pm

My daughter is nearly 2 and whilst I know she isn’t quite ready yet, I have started making sure that I have things in so that when she is ready we can start. This sounds pretty straight forward, however there are a few hiccups.

  • My daughter HATES wearing a nappy
  • Trying to find pants small enough, very few places make pants small enough (12-18 months)
  • She likes trying to play in the toilet

To resolve daughter hating wearing nappies I don’t put a nappy on her except when we go out and at bedtime. The only place that I managed to find pants that were small enough was mothercare. I have provided alternative water play so that she learns that the toilet is not a toy. Also the potty follows her around the house. When she wees on the floor I simply sit her on the potty and praise her when she does go on the potty or the toilet and include phrases such as “big girl”, “clever girl” and make sure I tell her sister and dad when she has gone on the potty or the toilet so they encourage her too.

Overcome your maths phobia!

  • April 4, 2011 8:41 pm

Maths, some people love it whilst others it can bring them out in a cold sweat. Well now help is at hand written by a maths teacher there is a book that teaches strategies so that you will be able to do it all in your head with confidence. The book is called Fun With Figures. It has already helped lots of people and I can personally recommend. Before I had kids of my own I used to childmind; so when I had children asking me to help them with homework I used to dread maths as it was my least favourite subject at school. This was because I used to get frustrated because my classmates were reeling off the answers to the problems before I had even got halfway through the problem. I stumbled on this book completely by accident but you can check it out for yourself just follow this link:
Fun with Figures

Interact with and respond to children

  • February 7, 2011 10:10 pm

The most important factor in childrens’ language development is interaction with other people. It is important that people who work with children adopt practices that contribute posititively to children’s language development. This is a recognised link between the quality of adult imput and the quality of childrens language. Listed below are some important pionts to remeber when interacting with children.

When talking to children rember the following:

  • The tone of your voice – does it convey warmth and interest in the child?
  • How quickly you speak – do you speak at a pace that is appropriate for the child or children you are talking with?
  • Listening how do you show the child that you are listening? -Eye contact and getting down to the childs level, together with becoming involved with the conversation, indicate that you are listening and interested.
  • Waiting – do you leave enough time for the child to respond? young children may need time to formulate a response. Rember that pauses and silence are part of a conversation too.
  • Questions do you ask too meny questions? This may make the conversation feel like a question-and -answer session.

The method you use to interact with children will vary. Depending on the childs stage of development and personal preferences. Some children will respond more easily than others but the important thing is not to worry about all these things and your child’s level of comunication will all come in time. All children develop conversation skills at different rates and good comunication from you will help them.

How to comunicate well with your child

  • January 28, 2011 11:57 am

Try to talk to your child in a positive way as much as possaible.
Be respectful to your child ,don’t scream,swear or shout. If your child shouts back at your dont retaliate by shouting back; screaming matches don’t work. tell your child in a calm way not to speak to you in that manner. Praise your child when he/she is behaving well don’t be abrupt or bark out commands (this will lead to instant resistance). Try not to offer to many choices to a young child as this will confuse them an may cause conflict where its not neccessary this is easily avoided by keeping choices short and simple. Instead of always telling your child what to you don’t want them to do, try putting it in a different way for example- instead of saying – don’t put your dirty hands all over the sofa try saying – let’s wash your hands now they are dirty , then you can come and sit on the sofa and we can read a story. all of these things will help you keep in control an help you to comunicate well with your child.

Eating problems

  • December 21, 2010 4:35 pm

I have found that a lot of my friends with young children have asked me about their childrens’ eating habits and the problems they have come across. This is a common problem for many parents. I find that the most important thing to do is from the moment you introduce your child to food to make it a fun and rewarding experience with everything they eat and not to make it a chore, more something they can look forword to each meal time. Making vegetables fun is easier than it sounds; doing simple things like making shapes and faces on their plates and giving plenty of praise for eating them or making a reward chart when they have eaten all the food they get a reward for it. Children also learn especially younger children by the sense of touch so setting up finger foods vegetables and fruits as a spread on the table can be very beneficial as they not only get to taste the food but but they get to feel the different shapes and textures aswell this can be very helpful with their development skills and fun too. You don’t always have to eat food using things such as potatoes and carrots to make print pictures is really fun and messy which as we all know is what kids love to do best it also keeps up with how fun food is and never a bad thing. Explaing to your children the importance of helthy eating and doing fun activities can all help and should help prevent any problems in the future and help your children lead a happy and healthy lifestyle.

Hippy Parenting?

  • November 30, 2010 3:31 pm

I recently got accused of being a hippy parent because I don’t specify that my 2 daughters don’t have to play exclusively with girls toys amongst other things:

  • Getting them to try new things, regardless of whether I like them or not.
  • Allowing them items of an ethnic origin
  • Refusing to use smacking as a form of discipline

and the list goes on. It doesn’t seem to matter what I do I get accused of being a hippy parent; the latest 2 are using washable nappies and the fact that I tend to go to the local health shop and buy things like vanilla pods and various other things because Holly got hold of 1 ages ago and enjoyed chewing on it so have been buying them for her since.

To be honest as long as the child(ren) are happy and healthy what does it matter? The answer to this question should be nothing but because it seems odd or because it is different to the style of someone else it is criticised. News Flash everyone is different and you have to accept that regardless of whether or not you agree.

Low hormone levels in pregnancy linked to hard birth

  • August 14, 2010 7:13 pm

Expectant mums who are low in a hormone made by the thyroid gland in the neck are more likely to struggle in labour, findings suggest. Too little of the hormone thyroxine is already known to complicate pregnancy, increasing the risk of miscarriage, premature birth and pre-eclampsia.

Now a Dutch team has found even “low to normal” levels of thyroxine may cause problems, Clinical Endocrinology says. Babies were more often positioned wrongly, making labour more difficult. Although still head down, the babies tended to face the wrong way – towards their mother’s back rather than stomach.

Not only are these labours generally longer and harder, they are also more likely to end in an assisted delivery with forceps, ventouse or a Caesarean. It does highlight the importance of checking thyroid hormone levels in pregnancy.

The researchers from the University of Tilburg believe the hormone problem is so common – affecting about one in 10 pregnancies – a blood test for it should become a routine part of the antenatal check. In their study of nearly 1,000 apparently healthy mums-to-be, lower levels of thyroxine at 36 weeks of pregnancy was strongly linked to abnormal positioning of the baby’s head and risk of assisted delivery.

Professor Victor Pop and his team believe the relative lack of hormone might stop the unborn child moving as well as it should. This means that instead of getting into the optimal position for labour, the baby is stuck in a more awkward one.

The thyroid gland in the neck makes hormones that regulate metabolism. Too much of these hormones speeds up metabolism causing symptoms like weight loss and anxiety. Too few of the hormones slows metabolism causing problems like fatigue and weight gain. Medication can correct the imbalance

Professor Pop said: “Recent findings have shown that motor development in children at the age of two is related to low levels of thyroid hormone in pregnancy.
“It follows that impaired maternal thyroid function could also influence foetal movement.” The baby is unable to make its own thyroid hormones until 20 weeks into the pregnancy. Before this, it is entirely reliant on its mother’s stores, he said.

Professor Pop said more work was needed to explain the link found and to see if giving pregnant women extra thyroxine, even if they do not have full-blown thyroid disease, would be beneficial. Professor John Lazarus, an expert in endocrinology at Cardiff University School of Medicine, said the link found was not necessarily causal. “However it does highlight the importance of checking thyroid hormone levels in pregnancy.”

Is your child retarded?

  • May 8, 2010 3:55 pm

Recently I have had people asking me if my daughter is retarded. The answer is a definite NO. The comments are based on the fact that my daughter allegedly has a big head and sits with her tongue sticking out, usually blowing raspberries. Personally I find it rude and really offensive to use this term to define anyone and with regards to my daughter it makes me rather angry, she has had all the routine tests done and is a perfectly happy little girl.

People are either stupid or ignorant if they think that sticking your tongue out or having a big head automatically makes you retarded. I think it is one thing children making unkind comments but adults should know better and it’s quite sad if an adult deems it necessary to make these kind of comments about an 11 month old baby, possibly to make themselves feel better.

Special Need Parents to get more help?

  • May 3, 2010 5:40 pm

Parents of children with special needs should be given more support, an inquiry is set to recommend.
A government-commissioned study by Brian Lamb says that a significant number of parents are not satisfied with the help they receive. In response, the government will promise measures including a national support helpline and clearer information about rights to support.

Parents have complained that feel they have to “fight the system”. The report by Mr Lamb will reflect calls for more parent-friendly support for families with children with special needs. It will say that parents want to know what help is available and to have clearer guidelines about what should happen in schools.There will also be proposals that the Local Government Ombudsman should be funded to consider parents’ complaints against local authorities.

Special needs tribunals are also set to be improved and and there will be promises for more support for children who face bullying. The National Autistic Society’s chief executive, Mark Lever, said: “A great many parents of children and young people with autism have to fight huge battles to get the education support that should be theirs by right, often at considerable emotional and financial expense. “We hear terrible stories from parents of local authorities flouting the law by ignoring diagnoses, not meeting statutory timescales, failing to write statements properly, and even saying they ‘don’t do’ statements any more.

“It is hardly surprising then that parents have little confidence in the special educational needs system, and they could be forgiven for thinking that this report will do little to change what for them is an often complicated, intimidating, and sometimes infuriating system.” Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said: “In the New Year we will set our plans to address the recommendations that Brian has made to address the changes to teaching and learning that are necessary to improve educational outcomes for children with SEN. “We are now working to ensure all parents have confidence in decision making by giving them and their children a stronger voice at the heart of the SEN system.”