Parent Gossip

After the birth of your baby there are a number of birth checks that take place to ensure the baby is healthy and put in place measure to treat any thing that isn’t. As soon as the baby’s born they are checked against five points – heart rate, respiratory rate, colour, activity and response to stimulation. As days progress the doctors are at this stage aware of your/family health history, labour and delivery. They then carry out further checks to ensure everything is fine. Things like head circumference and length, fontanel’s. Mouth and palate etc are all checked. There is also a heel prick test which takes place between 5 & 8 days of birth and screens the baby’s blood for rare diseases.

Everyone knows to follow a low fat diet and the benefits it provides to our physical and wellbeing. Now, paediatricians say that a low fat diet is good for kids too. By teaching kids from an early age to eat healthy, low fat foods and instil good habits from the start.

Very young children under the age of 2 should not be limited from any fat intake as it’s essential for them to get all the nutrients they can get. by the age of 5, kids should be getting no more then 30% of their calories from fat so it’s essential you monitor their eating habits. As a parent you can take some simple steps to lower fat. Instead of whole milk, switch to semi-skimmed or skimmed; cook chicken without the skin and limit the amount of sweet treats they get.

Have you ever noticed family members talking to kids with a slow, high pitched voice that enunciates each syllable of every word? While some older kids groan at this and look for an exit, it draws younger kid’s attention and they will pay close attention to what’s being said. This is an important thing to note when helping our children to develop language.

It’s regularly suggested to parents that they start talking to babies from day one, because although they cannot yet speak, they are actually primed to learn speech. Best practices are to maintain eye contact and start off with simple, short words they are able to pick up easily.

Every parent knows the difficulty of feeding a child, particularly when they’re still extremely young. So the transition from feeding liquids to solids can be a arduous task. The age a baby usually switches to solids is around 6 months but if your baby refuses solids, don’t worry.

A sign that a baby is ready for solids is when they are able to hold and support their head and body well and begin picking up objects and placing it in their mouths. The best way to be sure is to give your baby a teething biscuit before moving onto puréed food on a spoon.

This hotly debated topic brings divided views from parents, some who claim children should not be left alone until absolutely necessary and some who believe kids can be left on their own if they are mature enough. But how old does a child have to be to be classed as ‘mature’? Well, the law states that a child must be at least twelve years of age before they can be legally be left unsupervised.

You need to ask yourself if you believe your child is responsible; will they do their homework unsupervised; do they know not to open the door to strangers? Another to be aware of is whether your child is actually comfortable with being left alone.

A survey by YouPoll recently suggests that parents are more concerned over the threat of murder than current health problems such as the obesity epidemic. The survey was polled with over 1,200 parents who gave these surprising results.

The statistics however show that the chances of a child being killed by a stranger is in fact a million to one so their fears are clearly unfounded, whereas the risk of developing childhood health problems is one in three. A separate study has shown that the number of children walking to schools has dropped significantly to an all time low of 48% and this may be attributed to fears of the threat of murder.

I don’t have children yet because I am only 26 years old, nonetheless when I do have children I want to do my utmost to ensure they turn out to be well rounded and normal young adults. I was watching an episode of Super Nanny the other day and it was about a mum and dad who were breaking up and were going through a separation and eventually getting a divorce.

The best way to explain this to your child is to make sure it is simple and explained in a way that a child can understand. So make it clear that you will always love the child no matter what and it is not their fault that his parent are getting a divorce.

Breast feeding has a huge number of benefits. Firstly and most importantly breastfeeding gives your child the best nutrients and vitamins which are essential for your baby to grow up healthily and free from sickness and illnesses. Breastfeeding also allows mums to bond with their baby, as you can make eye contact and cuddle the baby whilst they are suckling. When feeding your baby using your breast – this is convenient as your breast are ready to feed your baby at the drop of a hat. If you had to make a bottle this would take a lot longer to prepare.

Ultimately breastfeeding is healthier, better for your child’s emotional development and saves you time. What do you think about breastfeeding?

There is much debate about when is too old to have a dummy. Letting your child have a dummy when they go to bed, is acceptable to help the child to get to sleep. However, allowing your child to have a dummy when they get older is not good for your child’s development. Children don’t like to be different, if they are considered to be different they are more likely to be teased at school because of the difference.

Therefore do not allow your child to go to school with a dummy as they will get bullied. Having a dummy for many years, can have adverse effect on your child’s teeth as they will get pushed forwards by the dummy.

As I have mentioned previously my sister who is 24 still sucks her thumb when no one is looking. She has done this ever since she was a baby. There are lots of things you can do to stop your child sucking their thumb. Try to keep you child occupied so that they are not bored and have nothing else to do, make sure your child feels comfortable so they are less likely to need to suck their thumb for reassurance. However at the end of the day thumb sucking is not hurting anyone so why not just wait and your child will eventually grow out of this habit.