An Art of Parenting

Archive for the ‘Child Care’ Category

Parents, while teaching their children, regarding any virtues to inculcate, they should be very careful in making them understand it clearly. Kids of the current generation are seen to be more adamant and stubborn compared to the previous ones and the sole reason is that the parents pat up their kids so badly.

In our younger age, we were taught to share, adjust and be contented. But in the current situation, as the kids are the single kings of their family, the parents spoil them by getting them all that they ask, do not teach them the art of sharing and more importantly, they turn greedy that they get the strong belief that either mom or pop would get the thing what they have asked for! This is not an healthy issue.

The delicate duty of parenting is such a beautiful task knitted with love and joy along with lots of care and a pinch of anger. The term ‘pinch of anger’ is to be stressed here because, anger too plays the important part in molding your child’s care. It does not mean that you should always exhibit an angry face to your kid and look like a Hitler!

When the anger should be shown, it must be rightly used to knock out the bad things in your child. For instance, your kid abuses someone else, with some bad words, instead of admiring his talking skill, you ought to show your anger to make him feel that what he has done is wrong and needs correction. In this way, at the right time, the parents should not fail to show their anger to correct their kids.

If you have a child at home who is allergic to pet dander or some other facet associated with keeping pets in the home, it can make your living situation difficult to manage if you keep dogs or cats in the house.  While most parents wouldn’t adopt a pet knowing their child was severely or even mildly allergic, in many instances adults have had their pets for years before their children were born, or their kids didn’t begin to show signs of more intensive allergic responses until they were older.  If you have to balance the well being of your child with care for your pet in the same home, there are some ways to do it that will make both more comfortable.  After all, no one wants to banish their pets to the backyard all day or make little Johnny sneeze nonstop inside because the dog’s in the house.

The best thing to do first is to consult a pediatrician or allergy specialist.  He or she will best be able to determine the severity of your child’s allergies.  In some instances, you may even find out that something else entirely (other than pet dander) is contributing to your child’s allergic reactions, which will be most useful.  In other cases, you may have been spot-on in predicting the cause of your child’s reactions, and the doctor may be able to prescribe him or her medication that will help contain his/her allergic responses.  Many people, adults and children alike, are able to live in a home with pets so long as they stay on routine with their allergy medication.

There are other ways to help as well beyond just a doctor’s visit.  Doing more frequent cleaning of pet hair left around the home will help reduce symptoms in many kids, as you’d be surprised how quickly and how extensively pet hair is distributed around your home.  Since you don’t want to spend hours each day toting a vacuum pack around the house, you should also try to encourage your pet to use a pet bed.  By lying on the sofa or in your child’s bed, your pet is exacerbating his shedding on furniture, making your cleanup job more difficult.  If you encourage him to sleep in one specific pet bed, you’ll better be able to control where his fur lands, making cleanup much easier and swifter to undertake.

Follow these tips and you’re sure to lessen the strain of pet allergies for your kids.

Dark green stool, basically, called as meconium is undergone by the baby which happens regularly for couple of days from the day of birth. It will have a sweetish smell and the milk which is consumed by the baby is the reason for the stool. Many people call it as diarrhea but it is very common in the life of the new born. Gaining in weight of the baby depends upon the feeding of the mother and the stool is not the reason for the illness or wellness of the baby. Even if the third or fourth day, the baby passes stool, the mother should not get worried instead she can consult a doctor and find out the reason for it.

The mother should keep in mind that the stool will not bring discomfort to the baby at the time of passing the stool. Mothers need not wash the napkins of their children. It may take three or four months to lessen the stool so that the baby passes stool once a day. Depending upon the breast feed and bottle feed, the stool may differ in smell and color. If a mother feeds her child using bottle, the stool will be harder and it will be whitish in color. Stool may also separately curdle with the water and it indicates that the baby have been fed by bottle milk. Hence, breast milk is always good for the health of the baby!

The bottle and teat will be found in most of homes where a new born baby is present. Cleanliness is the first thing that should be followed by the mother who wants their baby to live a hygienic life. The equipments or products which they use for their children should be clean and tidy. Soaps or detergents which are of best quality should be used to clean the bottle and teat. In the teat, the milk curd will be present and salt has the tendency to remove it. After the cleaning process is done, the mother should boil water in a large pan and place the bottle and teat inside it. This is the most excellent way to kill germs that is available in the bottle and teat. In fact, bottle boiling kits are also sold in the market which will be beneficial for the mothers. The mother should try to purchase four or five bottles in order to avoiding the bottle from boiling at all times.

Sodium hypochlorite is also a solution for cleaning the bottle. Just by mixing a tablespoon of the sodium hypochlorite in one liter of water and by immersing the bottle in it, the bottle becomes dirt free. Make sure that the bottle is immersed for about four hours so that the mother gets confidence that the bottle is crystal clear and germ free. Another solution that can be used for the bottle cleaning is Lugols iodine. Many mothers think that feeding with a bottle saves time for them but their duty is to sterilize the bottle and then use it for feeding their baby. The brand of milk should not be changed always as it may lead to the illness of the baby.

When should a baby have his first bath? Many pediatricians now feel that there is no hurry to give a bath after birth. He has come out of a very comfortable and warm environment. He also has a protective whitish material called vernix, particularly in the neck folds, arm pits and groins. No effort should be made to clean this off, as the delicate skin of the baby will be damaged. The baby’s face should be cleaned, and a blood from the delivery should be wiped off. His body including head should be dried with a soft towel, and clothes put on. The less he is distributed for the first few hours the better. He can be given a bath on the second or the third day. Many hospitals do not give the baby a bath at all during the hospital stay.

To give the baby a bath at home, you will need a good size wash basin or a baby bath. Plastic ones are freely available and you can choose any attractive color. The water should be comfortably warm and should fill half to three-fourths of the basin or tub. The room should be warm and free of draught. The fan should be switched off. First the baby’s face and head should be washed. The baby can then be put in the tub while supporting his head properly. If the baby’s buttocks are soiled with stool, he should be cleaned before being put in the tub. The baby’s skin is very sensitive and only a mild soap should be used. A shampoo can be used for the head and a soft brush can be used for the hair.

Nappies must be thoroughly washed to remove all traces and ammonia and faecal bacteria which would otherwise cause irritation and possible infection. Special nappy sterility are now available which makes this process much easier and less time-consuming. With this method the nappies are soaked in the sterilizing solution for a specified length of time and then only the soiled nappies are washed with powder; the wet nappies are thoroughly rinsed. Whenever you wash nappies use pure soap flakes or powders. Avoid strong detergents as these will irritate the baby’s tender skin. If you have to use a fabric conditioner because the toweling has become stiff make sure that you rinse it all out; despite manufacturers’ instructions to the contrary, this too can cause irritation. Unless the nappies are very stained or have become rather grey, there is no need to boil them. Hot water is sufficient for both rinsing and washing after using sterilizing tablets. Never add colored clothing to the sterilizing solution – the color will run. Even if the clothing has been soiled, just remove the worst of the mess, rinse the item and then wash as normal.

Nappy Washing Routine: To balance the chores of feeding, changing and nappy washing, try to develop a routine whereby you wash the nappies in sufficiently large loads. The prerequisite of this routine is a large sufficiently large loads. The prerequisite of this routine is a large supply of nappies – I suggest no less than 24. In order to sterilize the nappies you will need two plastic bins: one for soiled nappies, one for wet ones. They should be large enough to hold at least six nappies, and they must have lids and strong, reliable handles. Special nappy bins are sold but any bin of a decent size with a lid is suitable.

It is well known fact that the neonate is a homeothermic animal and that he makes every effort to regulate his body temperature and approximate 37^o C by increasing oxygen consumption on exposure to cold. The basal oxygen consumption in natural environment is 5 ml/kgm/min, when new born baby is exposed to external environment, he starts consuming oxygen to generate heat, and however as the heat loss exceeds his capability of heat production, and progressive hypothermia develops. The cold new born baby struggles to keep warm by performing physical and metabolic work. Thus all the work can prove exhausting to small babies with limited energy stores for example glucose is an important metabolic fuel, and the levels of blood glucose have been observed to be lower in cold infants than in babies who are continuously kept warm after birth. Thus it is essential for infants in the neonatal period to have regular monitoring of environmental and body temperature.

The Body Temperature: It is the measurement of the balance between the heat being produced inside the body and the heat being lost from the surface of the body. When the temperature is stable, the amount of heat produced is just equal to the amount being lost. If the body temperature of the baby starts raising it means that either excess amount of heat is being produced as in infant with fever or that a diminished amount of heat is being lost (as seen in over heated nurseries and incubators). To understand fully regarding temperature control in newborn babies, clear information based on how the heat losses occurs in newborn babies should be known.