Parenting Questions and Answers

There are times that you get invited in dinners by neighbors or other family members. Of course, you may have to bring your kid along with you. They may lose manners if they do not like the food that they eat or if an allergic reaction gets triggered. Here are a couple of suggestions that you might want to use in case you encounter this problem.

1. Talk to the cook. If your kid has dietary restriction, then you might want to call ahead of time so that food allergens can be avoided as quickly as possible.
2. Prepare your child. Practice a script with your child so that he can politely refuse a food that she can’t eat.
3. Try at least on bite rule. In case your child was offered an unfamiliar food, he should not just reject it but at least try a bite or two and see if he likes it. Also, make sure that he knows how to react appropriately just in case he didn’t like the taste.
4, Say thanks. Like any other gesture of respect, teach your kid to say thank you for the food that he had.

They should call her Lucky. Baby Durga was delivered at Darwin Private Hospital in Australia and astonished the whole world. She survived a full-term pregnancy outside the mother’s womb.

She grew inside the right ovary which stretched the organ’s tissue as thin as paper. It was perfectly unpredictable. The mother never had scans and she had no problems during the entire course of the pregnancy.

When the doctor delivered the baby through caesarean, he noticed that she was not in her mom’s womb. This situation is about 1 in 40,000 and the survival is rare. When the doctors and the nurses told the father about this situation, they just said that he is probably one of the luckiest people in the world as of this moment.

Just to confirm, the baby is in good condition. It was indeed a miracle.

While strolling along the park yesterday, I came across a mom breastfeeding her baby. It was a pretty sight actually. The connection between a mother and a baby could be clearly seen in this natural act.

I remember reading an article today about a woman who was still breastfeeding her child who is already 8-years old. Her other daughter stopped breastfeeding at around 5 years old.

This news has aroused many speculations. Cultural differences kicked in, religion and even sexual myths.

Science news say that the human body expects to be able to breastfeed a child for up to about seven years of age. Technically, this is her alibi. She also stated that a baby has the right to be the one to say that they should stop breastfeeding. She said the her babies loved her breasts too much. They want full access to them anytime that they needed to.

Speculators say that this has to do with the mother’s sexual life. They said that this could just be the mother’s way of stimulating herself. They stated that it is bothering to know that there is a child who would want to suck on his or her mother’s breast anytime he or she wishes to. They just grab them and breastfeed. Thinking of it could possibly turn them into sexual offenders one day. They said that there was a study on England that states that 85% of molesters were breastfed for more than 6 months.

Odd as it may seem, her action does not imply anything bad on her daughters (not now). I’m not implying that I am pro or against this practice but on my own opinion, a mother has to give everything that she could for their children but at the same time, she should also give them the right to live their lives on their own. Milk, on this case is something that a mother could give her child. Personally, I think there is nothing wrong with it. On the other hand, I think this mother should concentrate more on teaching proper values to her children just to make it clear to them that this is a motherly act that she is doing and that they should respect the practice of others as well.

If your kid is sick, sometimes it is very difficult to administer medication specially if it tastes bad and very difficult to swallow. I know how it feels since I had the same problem when I was a kid too. In some cases, I even spit the medicine out of my mouth.

The Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago gave the following suggestions in order to make it a lot easier for you to have your kid drink his medicines.

1, If it is really that unpleasant, check to see if your pharmacist can add some flavor to it or ask them on how you can do this on your own.
2. If your doctor would allow it, then crumble a pill and sprinkle them over food. Some pills are not meant to be broken down into pulp so make sure that you got your physician’s approval.
3. Give your child some popsicle or ice cube before and after drinking medicine.
4. Keep your kid from spitting it out by lightly squeezing the cheeks.

The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) declared that there should be a different method in labeling drugs for pregnant women. They focused on the soon-to-be moms because they know that they need more care because of their delicate condition.

By looking at today’s method of labeling drugs, there are codes that rank the medicines. Category A deems safe, Category X means that it is known to harm fetus, and B,C and D codes have different levels of evidence. FDA said that this type of labeling is rather confusing. They suggested that the codes be stripped off and replace them with clearly marked sections in the drug’s label that would describe what research shows about the risks to the fetus.

If the new rule takes effect, it will be open for 90 days for public comment before the FDA makes a final decision. This will uncover suggestions and bugs that need to be fixed.

There is no denying the fact that boys will always be boys. My son is in his puberty stage and he is actually starting to notice the opposite sex. He begins to understand his body and he is learning to appreciate the opposite sex as well.

Just the other night, I accidentally tumbled upon this folder in my computer that I was not totally aware of. I checked it out and to my surprise, I saw a couple of videos and images that are rather obscene. Of course, I would know if it is mine but I never really looked into those kinds of things. My wife denied that she was the one who did it and so, we only have one culprit left - my son.

I had a one on one talk with my son. I told him that he should learn to respect himself and then respect others as well. I told him that pornography would not do him any good since the human body is a gift and should be treated like one. You just do not flaunt it to everyone and I told him that those evil thoughts will bring him nowhere. He should learn to respect the body of the opposite sex in the same exact way that he wants to be respected too.

I just hope that I would no longer see any of those pornographic films and images anymore.

Global food increase poses a huge threat on the welfare and health of children from poor countries. A few parts of Asia and Africa has the most number of malnourished children and this shortage and increase in food prices will not help at all.

As we all know, children must have the luxury of eating 3 full meals everyday and must have their daily balance of nutrition. There are times that in the poorest countries, children get to eat only one full meal every 2 days. Every other food that they take in are either junk or even spoiled.

UNICEF is doing their best to fund and to extend a helping hand to this kids. I even joined the parade too. In case, you have not noticed, these children will mark the future of the world, if we don’t help them out, it would be like saying that we no longer care for the future.

There are times that your kid would crawl into your bed at night especially after a horrible nightmare. I used to be like that when I was young. I sort of grew up over it though. Anyway, the Nemours Foundation said that it is not recommended to just allow your child to slip and crawl through your bed in the middle of the night. Here are some of their suggestions on how to bring them back to their bed.

1. Make them understand that you are there when they need you again or if they get scared once again.
2. Explain that everything is fine. Although the dream was scary, it is acceptable to be scared from time to time. Tell them that you were in their shoes before too.
3. Do what it takes to make your kid feel safe like turning on a night light for example.
4. Tell them pleasant tings to soothe them up back to sleep. Place a comforting blanket or a stuffed animal.

MOM Enterprises has stopped selling Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream after the Food and Drug Administration warned women about the said product. The purpose of the cream was to help soothe dry or cracked nipples. However, it has a dreaded side effect. If contains ingredients that can cause respiratory diseases, vomiting and diarrhea in infants. To narrow it down, the harmful ingredients are clorphenesin and phenoxyethanol.

FDA urged consumers to stop using the cream in the event that they already bought it. The agency added that they should consult their doctors immediately if they experience problems or if their infant have experienced problems due to the said product.

If proven that this product is indeed the culprit, then mothers should keep in touch with FDA’s MedWatch at this number: 800-332-1088. We should all work hand in hand in dishing out this valuable information to everyone that we know.

Death is a scary reality that leaves a vague description in the young and futile minds of children. It will always be hard to tell them if a relative dies especially when they are not around to witness it. Sometimes, it makes things better if their sick relative died when they are around.

When I was young, my grandfather died right in front of me. I can still remember his last gasp for life but it seems that life already left his body. I did not have a hard time understanding the fact that he was gone because I witnessed it right in front of my eyes. It was a totally different experience when my father died. I was not around when he passed away and it took a lot of explanations from my mom when my dad left us due to heart complications.

Here are a few suggestions on how to talk to your child about death as suggested by the US national library of medicine.

1. Keep it plain and honest. Make sure that whatever it is that you say is appropriate for the child’s age.
2. You must understand that the topic of death will inflict fear in the minds of children.
3. Talk about it as openly as possible. Give time to discuss matters.
4. Talk about your feelings as well. Show your kid that the sadness or any other emotion that they feel is perfectly normal.
5. Help them understand that it is the cycle of life and that they had nothing to do about it. The least that you want to happen is for your kid to blame themselves. Tell them that they could not prevent death from happening.