Female Care

Baby shower crafts are usually tied somehow to the theme of the party, which can be anything from storks to ducks to stars to teddy bears. Before deciding on what kind of baby shower crafts you would like to ask guests to bring to the party, decide on a theme and a color scheme for the event. If you are on a budget, at the very least decorate the party area with a banner that welcomes the mom. Featuring her picture in a prominent place is also a complimentary and flattering practice that makes her feel loved and appreciated by her friends.

Baby shower crafts are well suited to beading projects. A unique way to identify guests at a party would be to create baby necklaces, similar to the kind that are worn by babies at the hospital. These kinds of beads, which have letters on them, can be purchased at a supply store. The idea is that the necklace boasts the name of the guest and is worn during the party. Baby beads can be purchased at most bead and craft supply stores. Sometimes you can also get beads that are shaped like small toy building blocks. These building block beads suit showers that have an “ABC” or alphabet theme. Continue reading »

Choosing a babysitter is always a daunting task. How do you know if a person is safe? Reliable? What do you need to know, as a parent, and what information is important for your sitter to have on hand?

Trying to find a responsible and reliable babysitter can sometimes feel like attempting to locate the proverbial needle in a haystack. Sure, there may be a lot of children who are anxious to start babysitting and making a little extra money, but are they really ready for this kind of responsibility? Not only can it be frightening to relinquish the care of your precious angel over to a stranger, but it’s all the more difficult to leave your child alone with another who is little more than a child, themselves. For this reason, ensure that your babysitter is a minimum of 14 years of age; while there are exceptions to every rule, most children are not responsible, nor are they emotionally ready to take on the responsibility of watching another child. In fact, a good rule of thumb is that, the younger your child, the older your babysitter should be. Continue reading »

Traditionally, a baby shower is held for the Mother. It’s a time for her and her friends to enjoy the blessed event that’s about to happen. She will bring a new life into this world. A close friend is usually the one to throw the party. Gifts will be exchanged, games will be played and advice is sure to be given.

Having a co-ed baby shower is not quite common yet but it is certainly getting there. A baby shower doesn’t have to be just for the Mother anymore, it can be both for the Mother and the Father. The Father of this unborn child should certainly be included in the celebration.

Nothing really changes, except for now there will be men present at the party. The same original games can be played such as, “How Fast Can You Dress That BABY” and “Baby Scramble.” When you are planning the baby shower activities, you will want to keep the men in mind so you don’t have games that are for women only. However, you may want to go a different route when it comes to gifts. Continue reading »

It takes a village to raise a family, someone once said.

In an ideal world, the hospital, medical center, midwife or doula would send us home with our swaddled new life in our arms and a map titled: DIRECTIONS TO THE VILLAGE. A waiting entourage would whisk our little family immediately and directly to the village, where we’d be heartily greeted by its members as they broke the hand-holding circle to allow us entry. We would spend the next three years there, raising our children among veteran mothers, fathers and sage elders. After that time, we would cross the line between the cared-for and the care-giver, and stand ready in the hand-holding circle to open the gates for the next wave of new life. Continue reading »

Welcoming a new baby into the home is of course an indescribably joyous occasion, but it can be a frightening one as well. One of the biggest challenges faced by new parents is how to properly childproof the home. After all, there are many items in the home that we take for granted, but which can be quite dangerous to little explorers. Before welcoming that new bundle of joy into the home, it is important to go room by room and make sure everything is safe and secure.

The Nursery
Let’s start at the logical place – the nursery or baby’s room. The room where the baby sleeps will need a number of childproofing and safety enhancements, such as:

• Installing a baby monitor
• Wrapping any curtain or blind cords and place them out of reach. Unwrapped curtain or blind cords could pose a strangulation hazard. Continue reading »

Communication becomes especially tricky when your little one becomes a toddler. At this time they are just learning the tools necessary to communicate effectively and parents in particular are a young child’s most important teacher.

When it comes to toddlers there are many barriers to communication; such as vocabulary, maturity, and physical ability. Many times these barriers result in ineffective communication and can cause many troubles, such as behavior problems, self esteem problems, and even learning disabilities. The following are some things to remember when communicating with your little one.

Remember silence is useful many times when it comes to toddlers. They are eager to express their feelings and thoughts but cannot do so if they are always being interrupted or spoken for, try to listen closely and speak clearly.

It is also incredibly difficult for toddlers to communicate. They are not physically able to say all of the words that they understand, or explain how they are feeling. Your toddler may know that he doesn’t like the food you have given him but he cannot say, “Mommy this tastes bad.” Instead he may dump his food in the floor, or even become frustrated and cry. Toddlers are just learning to use words. Try to help them expand their vocabularies by making their one to two word sentences longer. If they see a dog and point saying “Dog” you can try saying, “Yes, dogs say ruff ruff,” or “The dog is very big isn’t he?” Eventually the one word sentence dog may expand into “Dog, ruff ruff!” or “Big dog.” Continue reading »

With both parents at work and increasing number of single parents, daycare provision for children has become essential to the American existence. Running a daycare operation can therefore be lucrative, but it is not without its challenges. Children are prone to accidents, and because of their vulnerable nature are also the first to succumb in emergency situations like natural disasters and fires, or to toxicity or infection in their environment whether indoors or outdoors.

Whether it is a large organization servicing entire communities or small groups coming together to earn extra cash, one of the biggest concerns for a daycare is to keep the children safe under their charge. Children at a daycare need continuous supervision, and have to be within sight and hearing of the staff at all times, even when they are sleeping. This is important, because children can get into trouble pretty quickly, as any parent or babysitter can testify.

This supervision obviously extends to monitoring child behavior: any aggression should be discouraged with positive education, because child aggression often translates to injuries to other children. Children, especially toddlers, tend to eat or lick anything that comes their way, the staff needs to promptly intervene in such cases. Children need to be kept away from moving parts, any hot object, substances unfit for consumption and any other object that can pose a threat to their well being.

The daycare needs to put in place rigorous emergency safety procedures and train the staff at regular intervals about the activities in such a scenario. This would kick into gear in case of fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or earthquakes depending on the threat most likely in that particular region. Children should be guided and protected as the topmost priority in such situations.

To prevent children from harming themselves, the indoor and outdoor environment should be screened regularly for hazards, such as toxic substances, sharp, pointy objects, plastic bags or storage containers. All toys are to be of non-hazardous nature, and should be available to only the age group they are meant for. All playground equipment should be certified safe for children and should be checked for any potentially hazardous chipped paint or splinters from time to time. The daycare has to identify and follow a checklist of potential threats like tripping hazards, unprotected elevated areas, even contaminated playground soil and so on at small, regular intervals.

The daycare should ensure that all the children under its charge receive all the immunizations at the correct time so as to reduce risk of infections circulating within the daycare. Any sick children should be kept isolated from other children. Medications for children need to carefully documented and administered according to strict procedures to avoid missing medical doses, overdosing or wrong medication. In case of any overdose or wrong medication, emergency procedures should be in place. All medications should come with prescriptions and the contact of the health care provider that recommended it. A complete and well-equipped first-kit should be easily accessible to all the daycare staff.

Hygiene and sanitation are of the utmost importance, because activities like changing of diapers bring the staff in contact with bodily excretions which might carry infecting microbes. Staff has to be adequately trained on safe sanitation procedures and all toilets are to be scrupulously monitored for cleanliness. Children also to be coached hygienic habits and behaviors, and all childcare products used are to certified safe for children. The daycare venue should be free of pests, and no children should be present during or after any pest-control treatment, till the place is declared non-toxic.

Food for the children, in case provided by the daycare, should follow nutritional standards for each age-group, and should be cooked, presented and served in hygienic environments. In case the food is provided by the primary caregivers, care should be taken to see that it is stored and served properly, and suggestions for better diet should be made available to the caregivers. The same goes for all fluids consumed by the children.

The individuals allowed to drop, pick up or interact with the child should be well documented and according to rigorous procedure, so as to avoid risks of missing children or kidnaps. At least two adult guardians should be easily accessible by phone at all times in case of emergencies. In case the guardian is not available on the spot of the emergency in stipulated time periods, the daycare needs to arrange immediate escorts for the affected child to a health care facility, and hand over the charge of the child to authorized caregivers only. This should not affect the care of the other children in the meanwhile.

The emotional well-being of a child is just as important  as his or her physical security. This means that not only is corporal chastisement of any kind totally unacceptable, but also any public or private humiliations, any form or emotional abuse, neglect, isolation, or corruption is prohibited. A child learns quickly, and is thus to be kept away from contact with any abusive or profane language or activity.

The staff should be trained to recognize signs of child abuse  caused by parents or guardians, and should have a health care and social welfare consultants reachable in case of suspicious injuries on the child or aberrational behavior from him or her. No member of the staff will be left completely alone during the hours of daycare with the children under their charge, in order to avoid providing opportunities for abuse. Any reports of abuse from a member of the staff or a guardian regarding any of the staff members should be thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action taken. Extremely strict remedial measures should be in place should any of the staff be found guilty, including a handover to the authorities.

All of this is only possible with three factors. Firstly,  knowing and maintaining the staff to child ratio, which varies with different ages. The following table provides a good indicator of the staff ratio and number of children that can be kept together in a group.( For instance, absolute infants require more attention, and thus there has to be more staff to take care of less children, and group sizes are smaller. Thus,  one member of the staff can look after a dozen 12-year-olds, but only 3 infants).

Age
Staff ratio
Group size
Birth-12 months
3:1
6
13-24 months
3:1
6
25-30 months
4:1
8
31-35 months
5:1
10
3 year olds
7:1
14
4 year olds
8:1
16
5 year olds
8:1
16
6-8 year olds
10:1
20
9-12 year olds
12:1
24

Secondly, the staff should be trained to the best standards in the industry, and have the safety and security of the children under their charge as their topmost priority. Thirdly, all the staff hired by the daycare should have unimpeachable records, and established references of good behavior and competence: absolutely no compromise to be made in this regard.

The entire reputation of a daycare organization depends on the safety and security it provides. Safety and security procedures as outlined here will ensure happy, healthy children for working parents and an established clientиle for the daycare organization.

Once your baby is on the move, it is time to childproof your home. To effectively childproof your home, you need to think like your child.

Get down low.
For starters, get down low. Take a crawl around your home in every room your child might possibly spend time in, and look for hazards. It might feel ridiculous, but seeing dangers from your child’s eye view is the best way to discover potential harm to your child, as well as to spot breakables you’ll want to move to higher ground.

Carry a notepad with you and take note of everything that needs childproofing. Don’t rely on your memory to recall every danger. Continue reading »

“Can we have a dog?” is one of the most common questions kids ask their parents. Almost as soon as a child is old enough to speak, he’s asking for a pet.

Even if you don’t think that dogs are the best pets in the universe, you should consider adopting one for you and your child to raise together. Dogs are loving, loyal creatures who are almost always ready to play with anybody in the house.

More importantly, they’re living things that require love and care. This responsibility, which you can talk to your child about every day of his life, is best taught through doing. Having your child help take care of a dog will show him the real meaning of what you’ve been saying. Continue reading »

Breastfeeding is natural, so milk from a healthy mother is obviously better for a baby than formula. The colostrum or pre-milk that comes in during the first days after birth is said to be especially beneficial, and it cannot be mimicked by synthetic formulas. It may help strengthen a baby’s immune system, help prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and help babies fight off childhood diseases. Breastfeeding may also help prevent allergies and disease later in life, including chronic diseases, such as diabetes.

Because it is all natural, breast milk contains easy to digest, easily broken down proteins. This not only eases digestion and passage of waste, but may also help prevent colic.
Continue reading »