Every year, approximately 70,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK, that’s about one in every eight babies. “The parents go through serious trauma which only time can heal,” says a leading psychoanalyst. The shock is all the more great if a baby is born underweight (e.g. under a kilogram), as this requires a long hospitalisation period and daily fear with each vital prognosis. “The baby is not the only one before its due date, the mother is too! She has been deprived of the third stage of pregnancy which usually serves as the preparatory stage for the separation between her and the baby she is carrying,” the psychoanalyst adds. Here is our suggested advice on how to best approach the return home.

Don’t turn your home into a hospital

There is the temptation to try and recreate the sterilised environment of the hospital, as a means of clinging on to what is familiar to you. But shutting yourself in a glass cage like this is not necessary; a baby that has been allowed to go home is a baby that is healthy and well. The only drawback is that given the frailty of their breathing, the smallest cough can quickly turn into severe bronchitis. You should ensure that any brothers or sisters do not sneeze over them, except in cases of more strict instructions from a doctor.

Allow visitors

There is no use in cutting yourself off from the rest of the world. A baby’s siblings and grandparents will see them in a much more relaxed way than its parents, and this can only be good for the little one. A premature baby needs to have varied sensory experiences in order to develop, such as being held in the arms of someone other than its mother, and hearing other people’s voices.

Don’t focus too much on feeding

During their hospitalisation, premature babies are subject to a certain form of attack in terms of their oral cavity, due to the amount of intubation and feeding tubes necessary. “It is not uncommon, therefore, that anything that comes anywhere near their mouth, in essence, any food, can be very disconcerting,” adds a senior paediatrician. As it is highly unlikely that parents are going to be calm in this matter, hospital staff will thoroughly examine a baby’s weight, which largely dictates the conditions allowing them to leave the hospital. “Often, on returning home, parents take this medical requirement into their own hands, and can have the tendency to over-feed their baby,” explains the paediatrician. “In this way, a force-fed child will not feel any pleasure in eating, and rejection and opposition risk setting in, which at times can have long-lasting effects,” warns the psychoanalyst. If your baby refuses to feed, it is said to be better to abandon the meal without any negativity or anxiety, and to tell yourself that they will eat better next time.

Avoid making comparisons

By their very nature, all parents make comparisons between their baby and another. This overarching need for reference points can soar when a baby is born prematurely. From the moment the baby arrives, medical staff will explain to parents that it is impossible to predict a baby’s intellectual and motor skills, and that they should remain attentive so as to be able to detect any potential difficulties. “This cautionary message is absolutely essential, but can also be deeply anxiety-inducing for the parents, and therefore a burden on the baby; being under constant scrutiny is hardly conducive of progression and development.  Parents who insist too much on, for example, learning to walk, can actually end up delaying the learning process. Typically, a child will begin walking at around 16 months or older, and this has nothing to do with potential consequences of their prematurity!” the paediatrician points out. So what is the secret to a ‘healthy’ attitude? First of all, don’t panic. “Around 5% of premature babies (10% of which weigh less a kilogram) will encounter some development difficulties, which will not necessarily become a handicap. This means that around 90-95% will have no troubles at all,” emphasises the paediatrician. Finally, trust the professionals. All that the parents need to do is to follow regular and thorough after-care of their baby, as advised by their paediatrician.

The long road to self-sufficiency

Many parents of premature babies find it difficult to place limits on their little baby. “When there are serious threats weighing upon the life of a baby, the parents don’t always manage to take any other approach than that of permissiveness – by not placing a ban on anything, they are giving their child the permission, or the order, if you will, to live life to the full. For these parents, imposing limits hinders the growth of the child that they want so desperately to see becoming big and strong”. Try to be aware of this, in order to find a solution. “The more you impose these limits, the more you give up their compulsion, and the more they will become distressed,” insists the psychoanalyst.

Keeping the right distance

“Quite often, mothers do not cope well with being separated from their baby. As soon as they are separated, they feel as though they are reliving the sense of loss they experienced the moment their baby was taken away from them to be hooked up to machines. With each of these separations, the constant threat of death is hanging over them,” says the psychoanalyst. However, a premature baby needs a certain minimum amount of distance in order to live through these experiences and gain their independence. If it becomes too distressing, parents can begin by confiding in the grandparents for support. If these separations become absolutely unbearable, a psychologist will be able to help them overcome the ordeal they have gone through.

Author Bio

If you are currently expecting, or have just given birth, Nannies Inc expert maternity nurses can help you settle into parenthood and provide you with specialist advice. Our maternity nurses work on a 24-hour basis for up to 6 days a week; many will have experience caring for premature and multiple babies.

If you would like to enquire about a maternity nurse, we welcome you to contact us for further information: london@nanniesinc.com or 0207 0383 757. You can visit our website at www.nanniesinc.com.

The post How To Care For a Premature Baby appeared first on Kids Health.

A happy baby is a healthy baby! Making your baby laugh and smile is one of the best feelings you can have. Of course baby humor is not complex. They will laugh at the simplest of things. In my experience raising children I found a variety of ways to make them laugh; most of the time by accident. Here are a few fun ways you can make your baby laugh:

1. Hair flip – The first time my daughter laughed I was standing in the kitchen making a meal. I had her up on the counter strapped in her baby seat when I dropped something on the floor. I had longer hair at the time and when I bent over to pick up whatever it was my hair flipped. That was it; she was dying laughing so of course I did it again and again. This was the start of our adventure in finding out what made my baby smile and laugh.
2. Ripping/crumpling paper – Both of my children loved it when I ripped paper in half. I found this out by accident when I was cutting coupons. My daughter was sitting in her little bouncy chair next to me and when I could not quite get the scissors to cooperate I ripped out the coupon. She went crazy laughing. I tore newspaper in half, printer paper and more. Often times I could just reach for the paper and she would start smiling. My son liked me to tear paper too but he really laughed when I crumpled it up into balls. Crunching and crumpling the paper set him off. I do not know if it was the sound or the action that they loved but it was a hit. Even when they got older and went to visit their grandpa they laughed when he pretended to shred paper and made the exact sound without actually ripping anything. They thought it was a great magic trick.
3. Play fetch – At one point my daughter became amused by playing fetch with me. She dropped food off her high chair and I bent down to pick it up. Well, that was the start of a long night. After that she would drop or throw items and laugh as I picked them up. I guess I played puppy for her or something. While this behavior should not be encouraged you can find other ways of using it. You can have the baby drop items into a bucket or toss a soft ball towards you depending on their motor skills.
4. Funny noises – Speaking of noises, babies love funny noises. From air planes to cars to cows and other animals you can’t go wrong with making noises. It is a great teaching tool as well. After all, how long are they going to let you moo and crow at them? Play with toy cars and mini animals, or just make funny noises and faces while you are in line at the store or waiting at the pediatrician’s office. It is a great way to amuse your child without any toys necessary.
5. Ah boo – Like peek-a-boo, this is one is a child favorite. Instead of hiding your face you just sort of lunge forward and say “ah boo” with a big smile on your face. At first the babies kind of draw back like “what the heck are you doing, crazy person?” but after a few repetitions they get started laughing. I think even they have a concept of how silly you look! Another variation of this is to hide around a doorway and pop out saying something silly. Kids love this!

These are just a few fun ideas to make your baby laugh and smile. There is nothing like the laughter of a child to make your day brighter!

Author Bio:

Nancy provides feedback on all elements of the site “www.enannysource.com” helping us to really make sure that we are making it as easy as possible for caregivers to sign up and find work.  In addition, she spends quite a bit of her time on freelance writing tasks.

The post 5 Fun Ways to Make Your Baby Laugh appeared first on Kids Health.

1. Play Frisbee and award prizes to the best catcher or the best thrower.
2. Arrange a treasure hunt and ensure the kids get a good workout running from one treasure to another.
3. Shoot balls into a basketball hoop or a bucket.
4. Have a go at bowling, using empty plastic drinks bottles.
5. Try a long or high jump competition.
6. In the pool, you could hold a diving competition for items from the pool floor.

Take a look at http://www.education.com/activity/third-grade/ for more activity ideas.

The post Competitions for the Kids appeared first on Kids Health.

When all the kids in our family get together during the summer and the holidays we are always looking for ways to keep them entertained and to burn off that excess energy. Our family get-togethers include eight children of various ages so we always try to think of ways to entertain them as a group. The little ones do not want to be left out of the fun with the bigger kids so we do our best to make sure the games we pick are fun and easy for all ages. We have our favorites but I think the first game is our all time favorite. Even the older kid’s love playing this game and sometimes we adults get involved as well.

1. Hide and Seek – Who does not like to play hide and seek? Kids of all ages love this game and I even get in on the action when I can. One particular holiday I remember well was when all the other adults went out to finish a few last minute shopping errands and left me with all the kiddos. My daughter was the oldest and I believe she was fourteen at the time so she was a big help at the time. I was left in charge of finishing up the holiday cooking as well. When the kids started to get antsy I put the two oldest kids in charge of the youngest two and they had a blast playing hide and seek. We set down all the rules and set boundaries on hiding spots. The kids played for at least an hour and all had a wonderful time. I used to get invited to play quite a bit but when I started to jump out and scare them when they found me I got restricted to finding. Go figure.

2. Simon Says – This is a fun game as long as you have an older child or an adult in charge. The person calling out instructions says something like “Simon says to stand on one foot.” Everyone does what Simon Says. But if the caller does not say “Simon Says” but simply states “Stand on one foot” and someone does it then the person or persons who move are out of the game. The last one standing is the winner. The commands are generally said and done quickly so that the caller can take them off guard when they do not say “Simon Says”. It can get really silly and quite funny at times.

3. Red Light/Green Light – In this game, one person plays the “stop light” and the rest try to touch him/her. All the other kids line up about fifteen feet away from the person chosen to be the stop light. The stop light person faces away from the other kids and calls out “green light”. The kids then start to move towards the stop light but they should be encouraged not to run because at any point the stop light can call out “red light” and turn around. If anyone is caught in motion at this point then they are out. Then when the stop light turns around and says “green light” again it starts all over. The person to actually reach the stop light individual is the winner and becomes the stop light. If everyone is caught before reaching the stop light, the stop light person wins.

4. Relay Races – All the kids in our family loved it when the adults would set up relay races and we had a little friendly competition. We sometimes would have passing off the baton races and would pair up a couple younger children with an older child on each team. We had sack races and three-legged races. Children love these games and this is a fun one for the adults to get involved in as well.

5. Water Balloon Toss – A favorite of ours in the summer because it will definitely end with everyone getting wet. I have yet to meet a child who does not love to play with water balloons but you do have to have supervision for this game especially with the older children, and mostly the boys! They start a water balloon fight and the little ones can end up getting the short side of the stick. We loved the water balloon toss. You start by standing a few feet apart and tossing the water balloon to your partner and do your best to catch it gently without breaking it. You continue to move farther and farther apart as you toss the balloon and the last partners to have a balloon which is not broken are the winners.

There are so many lovely old games to play with your kids to keep them active and happy. These are but a few. Scavenger hunts are always a hit, find something round, find something green, find something hard, find something soft, etc. Then send them all out in the yard and whoever comes back with everything first wins. Hop Scotch, Dodge Ball, Red Rover, jumping rope, tag, and on and on. This is a great way to get your kids up and moving and laughing which is always a plus.

Author Bio:

Rachel is an ex-babysitting pro as well as a professional writer and blogger. She is a graduate from IowaStateUniversity and currently writes for www.babysitting.net. She welcomes questions/comments which can be sent to rachelthomas.author @ gmail.com.

The post 5 Fun and Active Kids’ Games appeared first on Kids Health.

First off, it’s important to get the basics right – this means filling up a table with children’s partystaples such as mini pizzas, sausage rolls, cheese on sticks, a selection of crisps and sandwiches; it’s a good idea to get the right mix of small items, from fruit slices to vegetable sticks, as well as matching up the amount of food you make to how many children are planning to attend – it’s usually better to have a bit too much food than not enough on the day.

You should also ensure that you stock up with paper plates and cups to cut down on washing up, and to reduce the risk of breaking your plates and glasses. With finger food buffets, you can alternate between cold food and crisps with food that can be warmed up in the oven or microwave and served during the day; check to see if anyone coming to a party is vegetarian or vegan, which can allow you to include plenty of non meat options and some vegan sweets.

While you can go through a catering company, you might find that you spend more overall than if you make the food yourself – if you arrange for catering at a party venue, you’re also often more likely to be left with more food afterwards than you were expecting. One idea to pursue with a venue is to speak to kids party organisers if you’re having a themed party for ideas over how to extend this theme to food – this might include a magic theme with chocolate wands, or a football theme with club badges on cupcakes.

The birthday cake is going to be the focus for many people’s catering challenges – talk to the birthday boy or girl in advance to find out what they want, and what food will serve different diets – check this through instructions on an invitation. For a cake, either consider making one yourself or buying one that you can then decorate with icing and toppings, depending on how much time you have.

When catering a children’s party, you can put the same degree of effort into party bags as the main spread of food; decide whether you want to include slices of cake, or mini bags of sweets alongside toys or biscuits. Personalised biscuits with children’s names on them in icing can be good ideas, as can including a few healthy snacks so that you’re not sending children home with just a bag full of sweets.

Author Bio: Colin Laird is a blogger who specialises in catering and putting together kids parties on a budget. He recommends DNA Kids birthday parties for special events and themed parties. When not blogging Colin spends a lot of time teaching his own two children how to bake.

The post Nom! Nom! Nom! Children’s Party Catering appeared first on Kids Health.

Organising a kids party in style is always going to be a bit of a challenge; this is mostly due to their being so much that needs to be kept on top of. In terms of going that extra step further with your planning, you can make a special effort with decorations and getting great food, while standing out with your entertainment choices, which can be put on at home, or organised through a larger venue and professional entertainers. The best kids parties are ones that reward attention to detail, and provide something that bit different to make for a memorable day.

In terms of basic organising, you need to decide on a theme that you can use to tie a party together; discuss what your child wants, and whether it’s achievable – they might want a sports themed party, something involving favourite film or television characters, or just a more general party with a disco and games – whatever they choose, spend time selecting and designing banners, and find tablecloths and paper plates that match up to a theme. Be careful, though, not to overwhelm particularly young children with too many colours and music.

The same balance between creating a memorable theme, and making your party practical, is also important when it comes to food. You want to have a good spread of food ready for when kids arrive, which can involve party favourites like sandwiches, crisps, and some healthier options such as carrot sticks and dips. Decide whether you want to save the cake to the very end of a party or not. If you have a set theme, consider having some food that matches it – this might include footballs made from marzipan, and chocolate fingers as wands for a magic themed party.

Choosing entertainment for a party gives you a lot of room to really stand out in terms of putting on an event. On the hand, you can use traditional party games at home like Musical Statues and Simon Says, which are easy to put together when you have a lot of children. On the other hand, you might want to go for a themed birthday party where you move the party, or hold the entire event, at a local venue with professional party entertainers – a party might then involve singing and dancing, games, football competitions, and prizes.

These kinds of parties are particularly useful if you’re expecting there to be a lot of children at an event, and when you can only manage so much at home. You can contribute to the party by selecting food and banners, and by working with entertainers to choose the best party games for the ages and the children you have – this will remove some of the pressure from you, but still means that you can make a party unique.

Ultimately, a kids party with style should mean finding a theme and a format that they’re comfortable with, and that’s going to be appropriate for their age; remember that children below 6 or 7 will get worn out quickly by a lot of food and noise, and that you don’t want to let a party run on too long. Have a few different options for food and entertainment, and don’t forget to have some friends and family around to help you out on the day. In this way, you can stay on top of any problems, while ensuring that children are being kept an eye on.

About the Author : DNA Kids are the kids’ disco and party game specialists for South of England. We’ve performed over 23,000 kids’ parties for over 1 million children – that’s pretty impressive! For more information on DNA Kids contact us on 01621 85 3000.

The post Let’s Party! Throwing a Kids Party in Style appeared first on Kids Health.

So Kids-Health.co.uk has been recognised as one of the top 100 health blogs to watch in 2013. Needless to say we are over the moon! There we are at number 42

An infographic by the team at CouponAudit

.

The post Top 100 Health Blogs To Watch in 2013 appeared first on Kids Health.

How To Raise Happy And Confident Children

Isn’t this what every parent strives for? Whether they want their children to be sporty, academic or musically talented, above all else they want their children to be happy in their everyday life and confident in who they are.

Maybe you are looking for extra guidance if you feel your child is unhappy or not particularly confident in themselves… Or you might just be looking for reassurance that you’re doing it right.

Either way, here are some suggestions to help you help your child build their confidence and be happier.

Targeted Appraisals

If you have ever appraised your child for a specific skill, you have probably noticed how they take a lot of pride in that skill from then on. This is because it is much more interesting to them than the generic praises they may receive quite frequently.

Telling your child that they are ‘a clever girl’ or ‘doing very well at school’ is quite general. Try taking the time to look through their school work or talking to their teacher to find out where they are achieving highly and then praising your child for that particular thing.

For example:
‘You are doing brilliantly with your times tables’ or ‘you know all of the letters and sounds in phonics very well’.

Hopefully your child will begin to take particular pride in that subject area and it will give them a boost of confidence as they will have actually paid attention to you and retained the compliment. Your child may not have even known they are strong in that particular area.

Listen To Their Anecdotes And Respond

Sometimes it can be hard listening to everything your child has to say as they seem to have a tendency to choose the times when you are particularly busy.

However; taking the time to listen to your child’s stories about what happened at lunchtime today or what their friend did at playtime and responding to them is highly beneficial.

Their story may not seem important to you but it might have been the highlight of their day for one reason or another. You’ve probably found out by now that whenever you ask the question ‘what did you do at school today?’ is responded to with a shrug or ‘not a lot’. If they are telling you an anecdote from their day, this is what is usually what is important to them.

Listen to your child, give them your full attention, ask questions about what happened next or how it made them feel. This will give them a sense that what they have to say is important which will increase their self-worth and make them happier to share with you in future.

Criticism Is Hard To Swallow

Even as an adult, being told that you’re not very good at something is bound to knock your confidence. Think how a child must feel when they are criticised as they might not yet have an understanding of ‘constructive criticism’.

If you have noticed that your child is falling behind or struggling in a particular subject at school don’t tell them out right that they need to work harder at it or they aren’t as good as their classmates.

Children need encouragement and support above all. There is obviously a reason that they are struggling and they probably don’t know how to rectify the problem.

Helping Them To Keep Up

Talk to your child’s teacher and get an understanding of the specifics of the problem. It could just be that they can’t quite grasp long division, which in turn could easily put them off maths lessons altogether.

Once you have located the exact problem, help them! Spend a few hours a week going over how to do something until you are sure they have understood it. Empathise with them, maybe you struggled with something similar when you were at school?

If you can’t help them, consider hiring a personal tutor to bring them up to speed. Tutors often work with tricky issues like this and should be able to help your child to keep up with the class any maybe even restore their confidence in that subject.

School Is A Social Thing

We go to school to learn, but to be honest; your children are more concerned about making friends and playing. Making strong friendships and building on social skills is key to growing confidence and being happy.

If your child is struggling in this area or they are having problems with their existing friends, think about enrolling them into a youth club or extra-curricular group. It is a good idea to do this outside of existing friendship groups and try a club away from where their school mates might attend.

Having a few different friendship groups is a good thing, and a good alternative to relying on a close friendship with one other child in particular.

But Above All Else

Above all else take every opportunity to tell them how proud you are of them, you’d be surprised how many people say they weren’t told that by their parents… Even good parents can forget to say it sometimes.

Make sure they always know that as long as they try their best, that will always be good enough for you. You can’t really ask any more than that can you?

About The Author
This post was contributed by Dominic from UkTutors, a site dedicated to personal tutoring and helping children to make more of their education. Learn more about UkTutors here.

The post How To Raise Happy and Confident Children appeared first on Kids Health.

Keeping Your Family Safe & Secure In 10 Steps

For children there are few things more important than security… Of course your children aren’t consciously worrying about identity theft, but all the same, having a safe and secure home can contribute a great deal to their mental health.

Moreover, being a victim of crime is traumatic for most people and if you house is broken into it can make a previously happy home feel tainted and more fearful. Thankfully crime is relatively low in most areas of the UK, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about safety.

Here are 10 simple steps to keeping your home secure and your family safe:

Tidy Up A Little

Keeping a tidy house can be tough with a small family to manage, but you should be particularly keen to keep your front room tidy for a couple of reasons.

Thieves will often see a messy room as an indicator that the owner is dis-organised and that often also means less security conscious. So if your front room is often messy it could attract unwanted attention.

Playing Outside

Kids should never feel afraid to play outside, especially when it is bright and sunny (it’s a vital part of their development), but there are dangers.

Always ensure that your children tidy up their toys and avoid leaving expensive toys out on the lawn where they are easy to spot.

Another hazard is leaving doors open. According to some estimates, as much as 30% of burglars enter through an open window or door – often just meters from where your children are playing. These sorts of crimes are easily prevented by making sure that doors aren’t left visibly open, particularly when your children retreat inside and the garden is left empty.

Hiding Keys Is Bad

Plenty of people do it, but it really is asking for trouble. Thieves will often look out for people hiding or retrieving keys as this makes for a very easy break in.

Don’t think that your hiding place is ingenious or hard to find either. Thieves are very experienced at finding hidden keys and they know all of the best hiding places.

Educate Your Children

No parent wants to scare their children of course and you should be careful to enable your children to feel safe in their home and neighbourhood. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t educate your children so that they know basic precautions.

Things like “don’t talk to strangers” is a good start of course, but you can also tell them not to broadcast to anyone and everyone that you are going on holiday or that they got a new iPod for Christmas.

Alarms Are Worth It

Alarms often go off and people ignore them, but that’s not a good reason not to get one because in spite of their flaws they will put most thieves off.

Additionally, around 47% of burglaries happen at night, normally whilst the family is in bed. A burglar alarm significantly reduces the risk of this happening, helping you and your family to sleep soundly and dramatically reducing the chances of some accidentally startling a potentially dangerous criminal.

Never Leave Valuables On Show

You can pretty much guarantee that every house contains one or two valuable items, but for a thief, that’s not enough. When breaking in, time is everything. If a thief spies a laptop and an iPod on your kitchen table, they will know that after breaking in they don’t need to waste time searching around, which makes the whole prospect much lower risk.

Anything that is highly portable should be hidden, you don’t want to give opportunist thieves any information that could make robbing you any easier now!

Don’t Be Too Private

Privacy fences and bushes are great for stopping the neighbours from prying, but they also provide valuable shelter for thieves who wish to break in.

If your home (and especially your doors and windows) can be clearly seen from the road it makes it that much harder for a thief to get close without being spotted.

Use Window Locks

If you don’t lock your windows, a thief can quickly gain access by smashing it, reaching in and opening it. But if you have locking windows it is much harder to gain access.

With a locked window a thief has to actually climb in through broken glass, which is dangerous and takes more time – both are things that thieves like to avoid. Hence locking your windows can deter most thieves.

Securing Your Post Box

Ok, so we’ve secured your home against regular thieves, but don’t forget about identity thieves. Those guys are everywhere and they want your personal information.

One of these easiest ways for a thief to steal your identity is by stealing your mail (it’s pretty easy to do), so remember to pick up your mail regularly and never leave it by your front door.

Or go a step further and invest in a secure, lockable exterior post box to keep your personal mail extra safe.

Digital Protection

Once you have secured your post box, you need to consider your personal information online and in particular that of your children.

Educating your children with regards to the internet is vital. You should teach them about using sites like Facebook and any other sites where they could potentially reveal personal info which could endanger them or your household.

Summary

Well there you have it, if you follow these tips you will dramatically reduce the chances that your household will fall victim to opportunist criminals and you can rest assured that your children are safe to enjoy the world.

Guest post by Dominic from Letterbox4you

The post 10 Tips To Make Your Home and Family More Secure appeared first on Kids Health.

• One in 11 children has asthma and it is the most common long-term medical condition.
• On average there are two children with asthma in every classroom in the UK.
• The UK has among the highest prevalence rates of asthma symptoms in children worldwide.
• Every 18 minutes a child is admitted to hospital in the UK because of their asthma.

Allergy Asthma Zone

The post Asthma Facts for Kids appeared first on Kids Health.