Parenting Report

Shhh....

White Noise For Babies

When my infant daughter is screaming loud enough to wake Godzilla in his watery home (despite the fact that we live in Minnesota and he lives in the Pacific Ocean), one of the most effective methods for calming her down is simply to keep saying “shhh” to her over and over.

I'm not sure why this is, really, but I've heard two theories on the matter. One is just that it's white noise, and all people tend to find white noise calming, whether infants or adults. The other is that it somehow mimics what the baby would have heard in the womb for nine long months, and because of this the baby finds it deeply calming.

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She Really Was Hurt

"I suppose that even though she is a drama queen, I will have to take her more seriously from now on."

My oldest daughter has always been a bit of a drama queen. When she was 4 years old, she stubbed her toe on the sidewalk while walking to the beach. She refused to get off of the couch for three whole days, and even demanded that I carry her to the bathroom when she had to go.

One day my she was roller blading in the dining room with her cousin and landed funny when she lost her balance. She complained that her arm hurt. Naturally, I examined the area, but didn’t see anything wrong. I gave my standard answer of “put some ice on it,” thinking it wasn’t really a big deal. The complaining continued for the next few days, but I was use to that because she would complain for days even if she just had a paper-cut.
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Waking Up Before Dawn

It's Actually Not So Bad

The baby has started to get up around 4 am. Only she doesn't really get up- she's half awake and half asleep, not really doing much of anything but not being willing to be put down in her crib either. The result of this is that my wife can't go back to sleep, and nobody who has to go to work in the morning can realistically keep getting up at 4 am.

Keeping it Together When You Receive Bad News

My youngest daughter has a condition known as Angelman Syndrome. It affects almost every area of her life, but the one that is the biggest concern for parents is the seizures. Over 90% of children with Angelman Syndrome suffer from seizures, many of the uncontrollable. Some of the children have even died from the severity of their seizures.
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Sibling Rivalry

“Maybe that baby just doesn't want me to be able to play games at all anymore!”

This was my precocious pre-schooler's unfortunate analysis of the situation a few days ago, when the baby had been screaming her head off for about three hours and no one in the house could really do much of anything but try to deal with it.

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New Research Shows The Power Of A Mother's Voice

Instant message and text messaging don't have the same biological benefits as hearing a mother's actual voice.

We 've long know that a parent's voice has a measurable effect on their children. Infants search for their parents when they hear their voices, and often the sound of mom or dad on the other end of the phone can soothe and calm an upset child when the babysitter's not enough. However, for older children, it seems that the same principles hold true. A new study by Leslie Seltzer, anthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, shows that although IM and texting are convenient ways of relaying messages, they're no substitute for actually hearing a parent's voice. This is primarily because of the release of oxytocin, a feel-good hormone that counteracts the stress-hormone cortisol in our systems, when we're hearing mom's voice. Read more about New Research Shows The Power Of A Mother's Voice

Keeping Your Child Occupied at the Doctor’s Office

Every once in awhile you get lucky and see your child’s pediatrician at the appointed time. Most of the time, however, you end up waiting for an hour or more. This is hard for most kids. My kids are excellent about waiting, but this is because they have done it so often due to my youngest daughter having Angelman Syndrome. Still, there was one little girl who screamed the entire time we were in the waiting room. The mother had nothing to keep the child occupied.
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My Daughter The Pugilist

Aggression Is A Natural Instinct

My baby daughter has a good right hook. How do I know this? Because she used it on her dear old dad just yesterday morning, knocking my glasses off my head in a fit of rage when I failed to produce her Mama on demand.

Some people believe that violence is unnatural, a twisted creation of an unhealthy society. Those people are drastically, completely wrong. They are actually so wrong I think they must be willfully blind, because if there's one thing I know about violence it's that it comes very naturally to all of us.

When you don't do what a baby wants when the baby wants you to do it, that baby will start hitting- not with any intention or aim at first, although that will come later. Initially it's just a crazy flailing of fists in frustration, possibly knocking your glasses flying. When the baby gets a little bit older, though, it becomes deliberate. My older daughter once made a fist, looked at it, then socked me straight in the jaw because I didn't get her the toy she wanted.

Should Parents Put Their Children on a Diet?

"My goal is for my daughter to reach a healthy weight, which I understand is higher than what my healthy weight is."

According to Redbook Magazine, there are good arguments for and against parents putting their children on a diet. I recently decided to go ahead and place my daughter on a diet (that I am doing along side her) when she gained 20 additional pounds in a short time period. My daughter has always been slightly overweight, although certainly not even close to the obese category. This most recent visit the nurse who weighed her gave me some pretty ugly stares with a comment about my daughter getting big, and not in a good way. Since her weight equaled mine (she just turned 12 and I’m about to turn 35), I decided a diet was in order.
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The Devastating Effects Of Stress On Children

A new book, "Scared Sick" illustrates the long-term impacts of early childhood trauma.

Many people innately seem to understand that early childhood trauma can negatively impact them later in life. Childhood neglect, lacking a loving or nurturing environment, physical abuse; all of these things have been shown to create a higher likelihood of emotional or social disorder later in life. A recent book, Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease, by authors Robin Kayy-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley, sheds light on just what those connections are, and how catastrophic they can be to those children as they grow up. The truth, it seems, is that even from a very young age, our brains are being tuned to deal with stress. Too much too early can stack the deck against us.