Safety Tips for our Kids

By Safekids
August 13, 2009

 

Washington, D.C. – In the injury prevention community, summer is known as “trauma season” because of the dramatic increase in the number of children injured from May through August.

Sadly, by the end of this summer, more than 2,000 children will die because of injuries that could have been prevented, and children ages 14 and under will be rushed to emergency rooms nearly 3 million times for serious injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes, drownings, bike crashes, pedestrian incidents, falls and other hazards.

Summer safety tips from Safe Kids USA:

At home

• If you have a pool or a spa, it should be surrounded on all four sides by a fence at least four feet high with self-closing, self-latching gates, and it should be equipped with an anti-entrapment drain cover and safety vacuum release system. An inflatable pool needs to be surrounded by a fence, just like any other pool, and parents need to empty these pools when not in use.

• Make sure your home playground is safe. Keep 12 inches safe surfacing, such as mulch, shredded rubber or fine sand, extending at least six feet in all directions around the equipment. Remove hood and neck drawstrings from your child’s clothing.

• Keep children away from the grill area while preheating and cooking, and while the grill is cooling.

• Remove potential poisons from your yard, including poisonous plants, pesticides and pool chemicals.

At play

• Actively supervise your child when engaging in summertime activities, such as swimming and playing on playgrounds and backyards.

• Use the appropriate safety gear for your child’s activities, such as a helmet for wheeled sports and sporting activities, a car seat or booster seat as appropriate, and a life jacket for open water swimming and boating.

• Make sure your child drinks plenty of water. A child who seems tired or achy should rest in the shade or go inside for a while. Get immediate medical help any time a child’s skin is hot to the touch (with or without perspiration), if a child has a seizure, or if they become disoriented in hot weather.

On the way

• Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle, even with the window slightly open. Place something that you’ll need at your next stop – such as your phone or a briefcase – on the floor of the backseat where the child is sitting to help prevent you from accidentally forgetting a child.

• Parents should properly restrain their children in the child safety seat that is appropriate for their height and weight in the back seat of the car. Keep unused seat belt straps out of reach of children riding in a back seat.

• Role model proper safety behavior. Children are more likely to follow safety rules when they see their parents doing so.

• Walk all the way around a parked vehicle to check for children before entering a car and starting the motor. Don’t let children play in driveways, streets, parking lots or unfenced yards adjacent to busy streets.

• Apply sunscreen rated SPF 15 or higher to your child’s exposed skin 15 to 30 minutes before going out, and reapply frequently.

Active supervision, proper protective gear, and other simple prevention steps will help your child avoid danger. For more information about summer safety, call 202.662.0600

Source: USA Safekids

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

More Dairy Your Child’s Life

By Creative Years
August 13, 2009

Study beginning in 1930s suggests link, but experts unsure.
A 65-year-long study finds that people who took in lots of calcium and dairy products as children tended to avoid stroke and live longer than those who didn’t.

“This study shows a modest protective effect of dietary calcium intake in childhood against stroke risk later in life, and a modest protective effect against mortality from any cause from higher intake of milk in childhood,” said Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. He was not involved in the study, which was published in the July 28 online edition of Heart.

Risk factors for heart disease start in childhood, but there is little evidence of the effect dairy foods have on these risks. Some dairy products, such as whole milk, butter and cheese, have a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol. Studies have also shown that eating these foods in adulthood contributes to heart disease, researchers say.

For the study, a research team led by Jolieke van der Pols from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, collected data on children from 1,343 families in England and Scotland. All of the families took part in a survey of diet and health conducted in Britain from 1937 to 1939.

The researchers were able to track the adult health of 4,374 of the children between 1948 and 2005. By 2005, 1,468 of these individuals had died, including 378 who succumbed to heart disease and 121 who died from stroke.

The researchers looked at two main outcomes: deaths from stroke and cardiovascular disease. They looked at the associations between dairy intake and mortality and the associations between individual dairy foods and mortality.

They found no clear evidence that dairy products were tied to either coronary heart disease or stroke deaths.

However, children in the group with the highest intake of calcium and dairy products had lower overall death rates than those who ate less dairy.

“Children whose family diet in the 1930s was high in calcium were at reduced risk of death from stroke. Furthermore, childhood diets rich in dairy or calcium were associated with lower all-cause mortality in adulthood,” the researchers concluded.

But there is only so much we can learn from this observational study, Katz said.

“Dietary assessments were [done] in Britain before WWII, at which time low-fat and fat-free milk were all but nonexistent,” Katz said “Thus, any benefits of dairy intake were likely mitigated by its high content of saturated fat.”

Furthermore, “dairy intake was higher in households with higher socioeconomic status, which may itself account for a health benefit,” he noted.

Studies using the American Heart Association-recommended DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension) diet suggest there are health benefits from dairy intake, Katz said. But, “there are some concerns as well, such as a potential association [of high dairy intake] with increased risk of prostate cancer. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can find a resolution to the persistent controversies about dairy foods from the current study.”

Another expert, Dr. David J.A. Jenkins, a professor in the department of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto, noted that those who ate the most dairy also ate the most fruit and vegetables, so they had the healthiest diets overall.

“To put it all down to increased dairy products in young life seems to be a marker for those who had a more reasonable diet,” he said. “If you have good nutrition in childhood it is important for longevity, but I would be wary about saying this was due to milk consumption,” he said.

Another expert advocated dairy products for kids, but suggested sticking to low- or non-fat products.

“The saturated fat in dairy food is what we are concerned about, not so much the calories,” said Samantha Heller, a Connecticut-based registered dietitian, clinical nutritionist and exercise physiologist. “A lot of times kids are not getting the calcium they need because they are replacing calcium-rich beverages with sugar-sweetened beverages, which have no nutritional value,” she said.

SOURCES: Samantha Heller, M.S., R.D., registered dietitian, clinical nutritionist, exercise physiologist, Fairfield, Conn.; David J.A. Jenkins, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., department of nutritional sciences, University of Toronto; David L. Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director, Prevention Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.; July 28, 2009, Heart, online

Source: Creative Years

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

The Myth of the Bad Kid”

By SMH
August 12, 2009

 

Six-year-old Jimmy is having trouble in school. As a first grader, he already has a reputation among the teachers as a “bad kid.” He spends most of his school day sitting in the corner or the principal’s office. With 30 other children in his class, the teacher has little time for Jimmy. He isn’t learning anything in the classroom, and he has trouble making friends.

We all have memories of the “bad kid” in our class – the child who was always in trouble and often alone. We tend to blame this kind of behavior on a lack of discipline or a bad home. We say the child was spoiled, abused, or “just trying to get attention.” But these labels are often misguided. Many of these children suffer from serious emotional problems that are not the fault of their caregivers or themselves.

Myths about children’s behavior make it easy to play the “blame game” instead of trying to help children like Jimmy. Often, in making assumptions, we “write off” some children. However, with understanding, attention and appropriate mental health services, many children can succeed – they can have friends, join in activities and grow up to lead productive lives. To help children with emotional problems realize their potential, we must first learn the facts about the “bad kid.”

• Children do not misbehave or fail in school just to get attention. Behavior problems can be symptoms of emotional, behavioral or mental disorders, rather than merely attention-seeking devices. These children can succeed in school with understanding, attention and appropriate mental health services.
• Behavioral problems in children can be due to a combination of factors. Research shows that many factors contribute to children’s emotional problems including genetics, trauma and stress. While these problems are sometimes due to poor parenting or abuse, parents and family are more often a child’s greatest source of emotional support.
• Children’s emotional, behavioral and mental disorders affect millions of American families. An estimated 14-20 percent of all children have some type of mental health problem. Jimmy and the many others mislabeled as “bad kids” can use the support of their communities.

Editor’s Note: For more information on children’s emotional and behavioral problems, call the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, one of the Public Health Service agencies in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at 1-800-789-2647.

We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

 

Source: Samhsa Mental Health

Everyday Life with Diabetes

By ADA/PIO
August 7, 2009

After the initial shock of a diabetes diagnosis wears off, your family will start thinking about adjusting to a new normal – a life with diabetes.

Learning how to manage blood glucose can be difficult at first. It’ll take some time to get used to shots and finger pricks. Day-to-day activities like, going to school, exercising, going out to eat and getting behind the wheel will require a little more planning. But soon enough, managing BG will become second nature.

Diabetes should not keep your child from doing anything she wants or achieving her highest goals. There are Olympic athletes, professional football players, congressmen, actors, actresses, rock stars, moms and dads who live with diabetes.

Anything can be done with a little extra preparation and planning!

This section will help you prepare for all the new “firsts” your family will experience with diabetes.

Everyday Wisdom is a kit to help your whole family live with diabetes. Oreder your free Everyday Wisdom tm  Kit! Click here.

Source: American Diabetes Association

Editor’s Note: We will each week bring you tips to help you. We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

Raising Kids In X-Rated World

By Jim Burns
August 7, 2009

Raising kids in today’s culture is not easy. There’s no question that the way we parent is influenced by the world we live in. And what a world it is! We need to help our children deal with drugs, sexuality, movies, television, video games, the Internet, terrorism and war. It’s our goal as parents to raise our kids in this X-rated culture to become G-rated people. It can feel overwhelming trying to give our teenagers the tools they need to make godly decisions in an ungodly world. Recently, I had the privilege of talking with youth ministry expert Doug Fields for a two-part broadcast on HomeWord with Jim Burns. Doug shared insights into 10 action steps that parents can take to raise healthy kids in today’s culture.

1. Instill belief in them.

The beliefs and values your children will carry into adulthood are very dependent on the examples they see parents setting at home. It’s critical to understand and believe that as a parent, your actions, values and beliefs will have the greatest influence in the life of your maturing child. Parental influence is a high calling. It’s part of your destiny and your enduring legacy, for better or for worse.

2. Be present in your kids’ lives.

Presence in a kid’s life is spelled T-I-M-E. One of the major contributing factors for healthy kids points back to parents who were present in those kids’ lives. Some parents subscribe to the theory that quality time beats quantity time. These parents are simply wrong. Parents must prioritize and reorganize their schedules to be present for their kids. When they get older, your kids won’t care that you worked more so they could ride in nicer cars or live in a bigger home. They will care about how much time you spent with them!

3. Make memories with them.

Our lives are a museum of memories that contribute to who we are today. That’s why it’s key to strive to create good memories for our kids. Good kids have good memories. This isn’t to say that our kids’ lives won’t have their share of bad memories. But, on balance, good memories trump bad ones. So, build great family traditions at holidays, birthday celebrations and summer vacations, just to name a few. Make memories for your family by creating new adventures for them. Solidify these memories by being sure to capture them through pictures, video, and in writing through journals or letters.

4. Give them encouragement.

Encouragement is food for our souls and we all long for it. Our kids need encouragement, too. Words are powerful. Words can either build confidence or they can destroy. A parent’s words have lasting effect. Learn to be an encourager. Catch your kids in the act of doing something right, and then take the opportunity to mention it! In addition, be sure to go beyond encouraging for just a job well done. Kids mess up and fail all the time. Find ways to encourage your kids, despite their failures. Encouraging beyond performance means conveying that you love and value your kids even when they mess up.

5. Be positive and caring role models.

You are your children’s role model for living life. Be assured that they are watching you. They know what you say and how you say it. They know how you treat people. They know how you respond to conflict. Kids need you to set a positive and caring standard for living life. They need your integrity and they need you to set the pace when it comes to faith. Your kids know that you aren’t perfect, so there’s no pressure to try to act like it. What your kids need are parents who demonstrate what it means to be a lover and follower of God, despite their shortcomings.

6. Give them discipline and boundaries.

Providing your kids with consistent boundaries and discipline is all about guidance, not punishment. Boundaries and discipline are the result of love. Giving kids too much freedom and not holding them accountable for their actions does not demonstrate love. When disciplining, be delicate. Don’t discipline in anger.

7. Give them affection.

Emotionally healthy kids have been given lots of proper affection. Kids who don’t get adequate affection from their parents often turn to inappropriate sources of affection. And, there’s plenty of inappropriate affection to be found in today’s X-rated culture. Unfortunately, kids who have their needs for affection met in inappropriate ways, often become emotionally distant, not emotionally healthy. If you aren’t an affectionate parent, get over it! Learn to become one. It’s that important to the health of your child!

8. Develop responsibility in them.

Parents want their kids to grow up into responsible, functioning adults. Unfortunately, we often unintentionally teach irresponsibility, instead. We allow kids to become apathetic by too quickly solving their problems for them. We allow kids to pass the buck by blaming others. And, we are slow to force our kids to carry their own weight. The solution comes in not rescuing our kids from their problems. Sure, there are times that we need to lend a hand and help out, but these times are, in reality, few and far between. We must let kids wrestle with consequences. Whenever we jump in to bail our kids out, they never learn to take responsibility for themselves and they don’t have to experience consequences. Learning from mistakes is a great path to responsibility and wisdom.

9. Be fun.

In the book of Ecclesiastes it says this: One of the necessary rhythms of life is laughter and dance.  If you want to fully understand life, if you want to fully live abundantly, meaningfully, joyfully you need to have some laughing and dance in your life.  It’s one of the necessary rhythms of life. This generation of kids is totally stressed out. So, when kids see their parents injecting fun and laughter into life, it helps relieve some of the anxieties they feel. So, lighten up the mood in your home. Have some fun with the life and family God has given to you.

10. Give them a peaceful home.

Your kids don’t need a perfect home, but to thrive, they need a peaceful one. Kids are at battle all day long. They’re battling an X-rated culture and language and values. They’re battling bullies and peer pressure and body image and conforming. In your teen’s world, there are battles going on all the time.  They need to come home to a place where they can retreat and drop their battle gear at the door and be in a shelter where they can just be themselves. Your home ought to be the one place your kids feel truly safe; where they can be loved and known and cared for.

Source: Home Word

Editor” Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

Granddaughter Is Scared of Bees

by Susan Stiffelman
August 7, 2009

A grandmother seeks help for a little girl who won’t stay outside when bees are about.

My 9-year-old granddaughter is terrified of bees. She loves to swim, but will run in the house screaming and crying if she sees a bee. We’ve all tried to reason with her, but it hasn’t helped. She seems well-adjusted in every other way. I would be grateful for your advice.

So you have a bee in your bonnet about your granddaughter’s phobia? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) A child’s phobias can be immensely frustrating. In my long career working with children who sometimes have irrational fears, I’ve learned that reasoning does not help. In fact, it can make things worse.

Here’s why:

The left side of our brain is responsible for logic, language, and rational thought. It’s wonderful at taking in information and integrating it into new learning. If your granddaughter was “in” her left brain when she saw a bee, she would be able to process the reassuring words you offered — “Bees don’t sting unless they’re provoked,” or, “It’s more afraid of you than you are of it” — and move past her anxiety immediately.

The problem is, when she is gripped by irrational fear, she is entirely “in” her right brain where she is unable to process whatever rational, reassuring things you say. Coming at her with reason and logic will only escalate her distress, and yours.

• Be caring without fueling the drama. If she sees a bee and panics, stay relaxed and calm. Allow her to run into the house without making a fuss or creating a scene. If you insist that she stay outdoors when she feels such a desperate need to go in, you’ll be jeopardizing your authority.

• Wait for a calm moment when the danger has passed to ask her to tell you about her fear, and how she feels when she spots a bee. Ask, “What is it like for you when you see one? What do you think might happen?” When she begins to talk, don’t interrupt or try to correct her. Just say sympathetic things that will encourage her to continue, like, “That does sound scary.” Your empathy can help lessen the intensity of her fear.

• Take her seriously. She will not be receptive to your advice if she feels you’re minimizing her fear. But if she feels you’ve listened and understood, and she’s had some time to calm down, she’ll listen to your suggestions. Offer to share your ideas for dealing with her fear so she can have lots of fun outdoors with the rest of the family.

• Suggest small, measurable steps you’re sure she can handle, to help desensitize her to her fear. For example, start with staying outside for 10 or 20 seconds after she spots a bee. As she’s able to stretch the time she stays outside with a bee around, hopefully some of her anxiety will relax.

• Teach her to assign a number to her level of fear — 1 for okay, 10 for terrified. Have her announce what number she’s at on the scale while she’s outside — first, when she’s across the yard from a bee, then, when she’s closer. In part, this will make her anxiety, feel more like a game, but more important, being asked to keep thinking and evaluating will turn up the volume on her left brain, helping her remain rational even if there are bees around.

• When things calm down, try doing a project together that will help make bees less terrifying. Check out library books, watch videos, or read information online about bee societies, their amazing dances, or their fascinating communication strategies. Bees may become more interesting when she learns that their wings beat 11,400 times per minute, or that, in her lifetime, a worker bee will produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey.

Sticking by your granddaughter’s side, keeping her calm, letting her express her anxiety without judgment, and creating baby steps toward success, you’ll help desensitize her from her phobia. If all goes well, soon you may have to drag her out of the pool to come back inside!

Editor’s Note: Susan Stiffelman is a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT). She has become a source of advice and support for parents and grandparents through her private practice, public presentations, and website. You can find more articles at susanstiffelman.com.

We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

Children with Attention Problems

by Stanley I. Greenspan MD
August 1, 2009

 

Learn about the many causes of inattentive behavior.

Five-year-old Stephen just got his first “bad” report card from his kindergarten teacher, and his mom, Cynthia, is upset. “His teacher tells me that Stephen doesn’t seem to be able to focus on an activity, regardless of what it is, for any length of time. He buzzes around the room, bumping into chairs, tables, even other kids. Naturally, all this activity disrupts and upsets everyone else.” She has started to wonder if could have ADD.

Stephen’s mom is wise to be concerned, and he should be properly evaluated to see if it could be Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADD and ADHD are characterized by several symptoms, including difficulty in paying attention, distractibility, having a hard time following through on things, and sometimes, over-activity and impulsivity.

While this collection of symptoms may result in a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD, it doesn’t always have one underlying cause. Clinical observations of children with ADD and ADHD suggest quite the opposite: that there are many different reasons children have these symptoms. To make matters more confusing, two children can display the very same symptoms for completely different, and in fact, totally opposite, underlying reasons.

 

The Patterns of ADD/ADHD

 
One child with focus issues may be overly sensitive to his environment. Sights, sounds, smells, even other kids’ movements are all overwhelming to him. In a busy classroom, this child is experiencing a sort of sensory overload, distracting him and making him appear inattentive. Meanwhile, another child may under-react to things like touch and sound. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by sensory input, this child actually craves more of it. He requires increased sensory involvement in order to remain attentive, and without it, he seems to have retreated into himself.

However, the symptoms of children who under-react can differ. Sometimes children who under-react have low muscle tone. In this case, a child’s muscles are not very strong, and he finds it difficult to move easily. Some children with low muscle tone have a hard time simply standing, walking, or sitting — so they find it easiest to elect to play alone in a corner. If the child is very imaginative, he may be involved in pretend play all by himself, talking to himself, retreating from the world, and living in daydreams.

Other kids who under-react might have fine muscle tone, and they are quite physically active. An under-reacting child like this doesn’t just enjoy movement, he actually craves it to increase his sensations. In other words, because he’s not “feeling” a ton of sensory information, he tries to find more of it in his world. This child is into everything. He bounces into people, furniture, and walls. Craving commotion and loud noise, he becomes a sort of one-man band, creating action wherever he goes.

Some children may be more defiant, stubborn, and negative. A child may be oversensitive to stimuli and try to control her world so that she won’t become overloaded. She is focusing on trying to remain calm. Often, such a child is blessed with a strong visual-spatial capacity and is a good big-picture thinker, so she anticipates the overload and tries to prevent it. It’s the stubbornness and negativism that end up interfering with completing tasks. Since she experiences classroom activities as overloading, she will avoid them, and do her own thing instead. Often such children are labeled ADHD early in life but surprisingly become successful later, finding their interests in adolescence or adulthood when they can be more in control of their world.

 

Problems With Planning

 
These four patterns of ADD/ADHD are often coupled with problems in planning or sequencing activities. A good example of a sequencing problem would be a child who has obvious difficulty following two- or three-step instructions: “Please pick up your toy, put it in the bin, and put your jacket on.”

A child with planning and sequencing problems will certainly appear inattentive or distracted because he has trouble completing a plan of action. Let’s say he’s supposed to be drawing. He has his own crayon in hand, but then he sees the child beside him with an interesting red crayon and gets distracted. He’s having trouble following the steps and planning out his next move, and the immediate appeal of other child’s crayon is enough to shift him off track. The more severe the planning and sequencing problems, the more challenging the child’s attention problems are likely to be.

 

How to Help

 
Any of the causes discussed here can explain distractibility and inattention. Now the question becomes, what can you and your child’s teacher do to help? Fortunately, especially with young children, there are plenty of opportunities to work on the underlying issues that lead to inattentiveness.
 

Become a keen observer. It’s imperative to carefully observe children who may have ADD/ADHD, and try to figure out what’s behind their behavior. What you’re trying to do is look for the circumstances and situations in which your child is both inattentive and attentive. Let’s say your child is usually attentive in a quiet one-on-one setting. Then, when she’s surrounded by a lot of commotion, her attention wavers or disappears. This suggests she is oversensitive to sensations. It might be worthwhile to ask your child what kind of sounds she likes best, and which she hates. You’ll probably discover that she finds high-pitched noises unpleasant.

Let’s say you’ve observed that your child, in relatively quiet situations, ends up whirling about in activity. Likely, this child is under-reactive and craves sensations. The quiet is too much for her. Ask her what she likes best in terms of play: chances are, she enjoys dancing, roughhousing, and wrestling with her brothers.

Watch how your child reacts when he’s given a task that requires more than one step. If he indeed has poor motor-planning and sequencing abilities, he’ll struggle with the task, and you’ll be able to read that frustration in her actions.

Compare notes with your child’s teacher. Your child’s teacher is, of course, a valuable source of information (as you are to the teacher), as children behave differently at home and school. Compare notes with each other in your effort to figure out what underlies your child’s difficulty paying attention.

 

Play to your child’s strengths. Try to address your child’s particular needs. There may be ways you can strengthen her processing capacities, for example, if that is where her issues lie. It is also very important to take a good look at your child’s current environment, both at home and at school. Is it supporting her attention capacity — or making things worse? A child who is hypersensitive to touch and sound and is part of a busy, active household might find school overwhelming. Talk to your child’s teacher to see how she might be able to make the classroom more soothing.

 

Consider outside factors. Is your child on any medication? Some, such as those to treat allergies, may make him irritable and cause him to over-react. Ask your pediatrician or allergist if you’re unsure. Your child may have a language problem that underlies his apparent attention issues. If he doesn’t completely understand what you or his teachers are saying, it stands to reason he’ll appear inattentive. If that’s the case, your child may be greatly helped by speech and language therapy. The child who has motor-planning and sequencing problems may benefit from occupational therapy.

Ultimately you’ll have to face the question: “What do we do about our child’s ADD?” Talking with your pediatrician, and perhaps getting a referral to a professional, is your first step. There has been tremendous pressure in recent years to put younger and younger children on medication. Unfortunately, parents feel the pressure even before their children have received an adequate clinical evaluation (if they ever do). So if your child’s attention problems are severe enough to warrant considering medication, then they are certainly serious enough to warrant a full clinical evaluation by a trained professional.

 

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on scholastic.com © Scholastic Inc

We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

 Source: Grand Parents      Scholastic News Online

Ready for Visit to the ER?

By Winnie YC
July 31, 2009

 

When emergency strikes, will you know what to do?

Your grandchildren are visiting for a few days and you’re having a delightful time, until one of them crashes into a bookcase and bangs his head. His unceasing screams — and the gash on his head — convince you to get him to the emergency room. The parents aren’t around. You’re on your own. Are you ready?

The Papers You’ll Need

You probably don’t think about visits to the ER when you agree to watch kids. You may focus more on choosing great books, shopping for dinner, or planning a park outing. But when you assume responsibility for another person’s children — even your grandchildren — you must have the information and documents to get them the medical care they need, says Jay Berkelhamer, M.D., past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and chief academic officer of Children’s Healthcare in Atlanta.

Doctors always do whatever they must to care for sick or injured children, especially when the kids face life-threatening injuries. But having the right documents, information, and attitude can make things go more smoothly.

A signed permission letter. Hospital officials will want to know whether you’re authorized to seek care for your grandchildren. “It would be a good idea to carry a letter authorizing [you] to seek care and make decisions on the child’s behalf,” Berkelhammer says. The letter should include your name, the child’s name and a parent’s signature. If possible, it should be notarized.

Without this authorization, care might be delayed while the hospital tries to contact a parent. The call will probably have to be recorded and witnessed by an employee of the hospital.

A health insurance card. Having the children’s insurance cards — or at least a photocopy of them — helps ensure that all or part of the cost of your visit is covered and spares parents the challenge of a billing problem later on.

Medical history. Whether it’s a peanut allergy or a recent bout of the flu, it’s important to know your grandchild’s medical history when you see a doctor. A good history includes allergies, prescriptions for existing conditions, and details of significant recent illnesses. “An informed caretaker is going to get the child help more effectively,” Berkelhamer says. “The more you know, the better you’ll be able to care for your grandchild.”

If you don’t have a child’s medical history —  parents could leave you a copy of the forms they send to the children’s schools or day-care centers — make sure you have contact information for the children’s pediatricians so you or the hospital can call for the records. Click here for more emergency information parents should always leave for you when you sit or when kids stay over.

What to Do at the Hospital

Be reassuring. Rushing off to the hospital is upsetting for children, especially  young kids. It’s your job to soothe their anxiety. If the visit involves a ride in an ambulance, ask to go along. If that’s not possible, find out exactly where the ambulance is going and follow in your car. Once you’re at the hospital, stay at your grandchildren’s side, holding their hand, as long as possible. Tell them what will happen: A doctor and nurse will examine them to see what can be done to make them feel better. Some of these things might hurt, but reassure kids that it will be okay in the end.

Be an advocate. You need to act as your grandchild’s advocate at the hospital. “Be assertive, so your grandchild gets what he needs,” Berkelhamer says. On the other hand, making comments like, “Did that mean doctor poke you?” can make things worse, especially if unpleasant procedures or treatments are involved, in part by lessening your grandchild’s confidence in the doctors. “It may actually frighten the child more or set up the next visit to the doctor as a very negative experience,” Berkelhamer says. “The doctor should always be cast as the nice person trying to help.”

Know when to step away. Anxious grandparents can make it difficult for doctors to care for children. Some might ask too many questions; others might simply talk too much. “You want to be a calming influence, not a disruptive one,” Berkelhamer says. If you’re too nervous to help keep your grandchildren calm (or if a doctor asks you to), step out of the room and take a moment to collect yourself.

Get help. If you think you’ll have a hard time keeping your cool, or dealing with the doctors and nurses at the ER, ask someone you trust to drive you and the child to the hospital and stay by your side.

Source: Grandparents

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

 

Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

By Jim Burns, Ph.D.
July 30, 2009

Every day in this country, children are being tricked, seduced, intimidated and forced into sexual activity with another person. Whatever state you live in, I guarantee there are thousands of children in the social services system. They’re not the criminals, mind you–they are the victims–kids who have been abused.

I believe that like many other things, when it comes to sexual abuse, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So, what can parents do to prevent child sexual abuse? Allow me to share with you five tips I believe can help you address the issue–and with God’s help–keep your kids from becoming another statistic.

Learn as much information as you can about physical and sexual abuse. Learn who is most likely to commit crimes of abuse, why adults abuse kids, etc. There are lots of Internet websites that have preventative information about child sexual abuse. A simple search will turn up many of these resources.

Listen and talk with your children. Good communication is the most important principle in keeping your kids safe from sexual abuse. Work to create a climate in your home where kids aren’t afraid to share information about things they may be embarrassed or afraid about. Be willing to share with your kids about what you know about sexual abuse and how to prevent it. For instance, be sure to share with your kids basic information like, “no one has the right to touch your body without your permission.”

Teach your kids personal safety rules. Start early with your children (in an age appropriate way) and set clear safety rules for your kids. Here is a list of safety rules to help you get started:
• The proper names for all their private parts; many children are not able to tell about the abuse because they don’t know the words to use.
• Safety rules apply to all adults; not just strangers.
• Their bodies belong to them and it is not okay for another person to touch their private parts.
• It is okay to say no if someone tries to touch their body or do things that make them feel uncomfortable; no matter who the person is.
• They should not keep secrets about touching, no matter what  he person says; if someone touches them, tell and keep telling until someone listens!

 

Know the adults and teens in your children’s lives. From getting to know school teachers, coaches and youth workers to interviewing potential baby sitters, you should know as much as you can about the adults and teens your kids spend time with. Any adult that seems more interested in your children than you do, should raise a cautionary flag in your mind.

 Keep tabs on your kids. As much as possible, know where your kids are at and whom they are with. Make it a family rule that if your children’s plans change, they must notify you before they do something or go somewhere that you don’t know about.

Source: Home Word

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

Small Mean Alot

by Adair Lara
July 24, 2009

Sometimes, it’s the quiet moments that make the best memories.
I enrolled my 6-year-old granddaughter, Ryan, in the Monday afternoon “Seahorses” swim class at the local Jewish Community Center. I even offered to take her to each class myself. I’d always been skeptical of the amount of time and effort it takes for city parents to shepherd one kid to one 30-minute lesson once a week. There’s the scheduling, the driving, and the debating over who picks up the kids when and where. And then when you see the actual class, where the kids all hang onto the edge of the pool kicking their feet, you think: All this, for that?

 

This was no different. Idiotically I had, on the day of Ryan’s first lesson, scheduled a new writing class at my home for Mondays at 6pm. So taking her to kick her feet for a while in the pool meant leaving my house at 3:30 to pick up Ryan and her sister, Maggie, 4, who would watch the swim class with me, at school; racing across San Francisco to get to the center on time; delivering Ryan to her class and, 40 minutes later, plucking her, dripping, from the pool; getting her dressed; flinging her and Maggie back into the car; dropping them at their mother’s house across town after insisting that she actually BE THERE; and, finally, racing home to open the door for my writing students.

It was only later that I noticed some other things about these swimming lessons: how much fun the girls and I had discussing my parking problems, learning to use the bathing-suit drying machine together, chasing each other through the palms in the lobby, and riding the elevator to gawk at the gymnastics lesson on the third floor.

I was reminded that when my own kids were teens and I took them skiing, it was never really about the skiing. It was about talking in the car as we sped across the state at dawn, ducking under apple orchards, and wearing our jammies to breakfast. It was about all of them bonding in mutual exasperation at my slow skiing as they stood together at the bottom of the hill with their snowboards, waiting.

I was reminded that life is never really about the great events, but the little ones on the edges, those in-between moments that go almost unnoticed at the time — the long drive, the cleanup after the party with the music still blasting, or the rare ten minutes of downtime spent contentedly potting plants together.

During one recent weekend, the girls, their father, Trevor, and I did nothing. No parties. No expeditions to the beach or the museum. We walked for coffee. I stopped at a garage sale, gave Ryan $3 and let her negotiate on her own how many stuffed animals it would buy, and bought Trevor a straw hat and fake cigar, which he wore and “puffed” all the way home. Ryan threw the rubber snake she got at the garage sale on me 15 times, and 15 times I shrieked and ran. At home, there was more time-wasting: My husband, Bill, cleaned the canary cage while the girls supervised. He and Ryan made a chain out of beads. Maggie played with the dog.

Yet as we went to bed that Sunday night, Bill and I said to each other, “That was a really nice weekend.”

Source: Grandparents

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

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