Online Walk of Shame

While writing The Parent’s Nook, I struggle to find balance between my desire to share the exciting things going on with my own child’s development, and the desire to keep the tone of the site somewhat neutral.

Certainly the main goal for this blog is to share with other parents some of the tricks I learn and discover as I go through this journey, but it’s sometimes difficult to know when I’ve focused the discussion too much on myself and my own thoughts (except, of course, for this particular entry).

This web site is certainly not a journal by any definition, but in some ways it is journal-like because the topics I write about tend to be the ones I’m dealing with at the moment. My intent is to make you better, dear reader. So if I go on too much about myself please tell me in the kindest way possible.

This is where I should promise to write more often and get back to my regular daily posting schedule. The problem is many bloggers will do that and then not post. So here’s to the spirit of posting regularly, and let’s see that it happens!

When Baby Refuses Bottle

Just when you become accustomed to your baby behaving a certain way, suddenly their habits change and you find yourself dealing with a whole new set of circumstances. You may have been fortunate enough to have a baby that takes lots of naps during the day but now decides not to take any more naps at all. Or, like us, you may have a baby who suddenly decides that drinking from their bottle is too boring for their newly refined sense of self.

It can be tricky to figure out your child’s needs, particularly around the one-year mark. They can’t talk yet and tell you what’s on their mind. At the same time they want to experience more independence and begin learning skills (like walking and crawling) that they may not be fully prepared for. Before you know it you’re picking dirt out of their mouth even after you thought your floor was spotlessly clean.

When the baby refuses to drink, you have the tough job of figuring out whether they have become sick, whether they’re in pain because of teething issues, whether they are just being picky and need to be given a “sippy” cup, or whether they need to be left alone to play.

How to tell when your baby’s refusal to drink is serious enough to call the doctor

1. If the baby has a high fever (39.7/103.5 or more) take them to the emergency room immediately.
2. If your baby has a more mild fever, is sleepy or hard to wake, and refuses their bottles take them to see their doctor.
3. If your baby hasn’t passed stools for more than two days and is irritable, they could need help to soften their poop before they get a blockage. Take your child to the doctor soon especially if they are showing signs of pain when forcing.
4. Check for rashes, bug bites, ticks. Check everywhere – chest, back, arms, legs, armpits, groin area, scalp. A bug bite or infection can sometimes cause enough discomfort to preclude eating.

Air Conditioning Not Harmful to Babies; Fans Reduce Risk of SIDS

As I sit here in the humidity brought by the first heatwave of the summer, laptop burning a hole into my

thigh, I can’t help but wonder how my infant son is coping with the heat. He’s pulled his favourite toys together in front of the baby gate behind which I’ve placed a box fan in an attempt to circulate the air. If the heat bothers him, he’s not saying anything; he grins one of his toothy smiles at me when he notices I’m watching him, then goes back to playing.

Downstairs there is a central air unit missing one of the parts it needs to drain properly. The knowledge of its presence is almost taunting us. I look forward to the relief we will experience when we are finally able to cool the house down by only a few degrees.

Like everything else having to do with childcare, you will run into a lot of differing opinions about how best to help your children handle warm weather. The bottom of the pyramid here is hydration – like adults, children need more fluid to replace what they lose through sweat. Don’t feel shy about being generous with water and bottles especially if your child is going through a growth spurt.

Juices and pop should be avoided because they don’t give your child’s body any extra benefit – in the case of pops and sodas, the caffeine in the drink will actually act to dehydrate. Sport drinks like Gatorade may be helpful in small quantities during extreme heat because they will boost the electrolytes in your child’s body and help them feel more replenished.

There is a myth circulating around that air conditioning units are not safe for children because the cold can cause a chill or asthma later in life. This is hogwash. Air conditioning is safe for babies and can help them get a full night’s rest rather than tossing and turning because they are wet, sweaty and uncomfortable.

If you’re not fortunate enough to have an air conditioner, or if you don’t use one because you don’t feel your climate is oppressive enough, you may choose to use fans to help circulate the air. Good news! Research has shown that fans can greatly reduce the risk of SIDS. Sadly, fans do not cool the air, they only circulate the warm air already in the room.

Leave a comment with your tips for beating the heat in child-friendly ways!

Swine Flu and You (Don’t Be Afraid!)

I wanted to stay silent on the entire swine flu front but now that I’m hearing about it daily in my own

community it seems like the right time to say something.

If you’re terribly worried about the H1N1 (Swine flu) strain of influenza, my advice is don’t let it affect your daily life. Unless you’re able to stay in your home and have zero contact with the outside world, you may very well get infected.

Here’s the big thing to remember: there is nothing novel about this strain of the flu. It’s just like any other flu with symptoms ranging from runny nose, aches and pains, diharrea and vometting, high fever and coughing.

Not a Novel Disease

There’s really nothing brought to the table by H1N1 that you haven’t already seen during your previous encounters with the flu. What makes swine flu newsworthy is the fact that it is a mutation of the virus for which most people do not already have immunity, meaning it is capable of becomming a pandemic – that is, a lot of people infected over a wide area; it does not mean a lot of people are on their death beds.

Like any flu, the elderly and the very young are most at risk for serious complications. Take your baby into the hospital if they become listless, refuse to drink their bottle, have a high fever, are vomitting, do not want to be held or are unusually difficult to wake.

Back to Driving School

If it weren’t for other drivers, the roads would be a pleasant place to drive. Winter conditions don’t frighten me as much as the inept motorists I seem to be sharing the road with – maybe it’s just the time of day I drive to and from work that brings out the worst in people. We’re always told we shouldn’t be afraid of air travel because we’re more likely to be injured or killed in the car on the way to the airport; it is very telling when the police refuse to use the term ‘accident’ because ‘collision’ is more apt – it implies human error and responsibility.

Over the May long weekend here in Ontario, the OPP issued 468 charges for seatbelt offenses. Maybe we could use a physics refresher to remind ourselves that taking two seconds to affix that thin strip of fabric to ourselves when we get in the car will prevent us from flying through the windshield at 40km/h when the car stops suddenly in a crash.

This is important: 7% of Canadians do not use their seatbelts; 40% of collision fatalities did not use their seatbelt.

I can’t help but wonder if more seatbelt use would have improved chances in the deadly crash that killed eight people in Bathurst this May as they returned from basketball tournament in Moncton. Six of the eight victims weren’t wearing their seatbelts when the vehicle crossed the path of a tractor-trailer on an icy road.

Accidents happen fast (I’ll call them that only because ‘collision’ sounds a bit stuffy in this context). The speed in which cars can go from 60 to 0 is incredible and devastating. With so much power beneath us, it only makes sense to stop and think about what we’re doing. Let’s be careful, courteous, and stay alive out there.