Another way to overcome baby sleep issues is by finding out where your child can sleep the best at. Some may sleep better in their crib in their own bedroom, other might be better off with a bassinet sleeping in your bedroom. Some might even sleep better when lying right next to you in your bed. Parents usually cycle through many different sleeping arrangements within the child’s first 2 years trying to find the right one. It is also good to make sure you use many methods to get them to sleep, because they want to go back when they wake up the same way they originally fell asleep. So it is good to cycle through rocking them to sleep, nursing them sleep, singing or reading them a story. Both parents should take turns doing these things as well.

Another suggestion to help you avoid baby sleep troubles altogether is to set a nap schedule and stick to it. You can even set the times around when you are most tired throughout the day, just make sure to stick to that schedule. Lie down with your baby at these times every day and after a week or so, they will fall into the same routine with you. For your own sake, take this time to grab some sleep yourself, rather than trying to get something accomplished while the baby is napping.

To keep baby sleep issues away you and your child, get them in a routine of going through the same bedtime rituals every night. As your baby gets used to them and remembers them, they will be able to sleep more peacefully and will stay asleep longer too. Getting into a ritual of bath time, rocking, story, and song will get to realize that sleep is coming next.

If your baby has the opposite problem and can’t go to the bathroom, mix 2 ounces of Karo syrup with four ounces of warm water in a bottle.  This should help loosen their stools and get them moving again.  If your baby has croup, a breathing condition, have them breathe the moist, warm air that comes from either a vaporizer or hot shower.  If you baby comes down with a case of colic, other health remedies for babies include filling a hot water bottle with warm water, only about 1/3 full.  Put a towel over top of the bottle.  Gently lay your baby down, so that they are lying across the bottle.  This should help ease their stomach pain.

Other health remedies for babies can help with the common cold.  If your baby gets a case of the sniffles, mix some camphor and lavender oil with some warm olive oil and rub it on their chests.  You can help the cold go away faster by boiling water and adding some freshly squeezed orange juice to it for some extra vitamin C.  You can also mix a couple drops of eucalyptus oil with some hot water.  Put this in a close proximity to where your baby is sleeping, but make sure it is out of their reach.  This not only smells good, but it should help clear up any nasal passages that are blocked.

Health remedies for babies can help with things like teething too.  Using something called oil of cloves, found in any health food store, is great for healing toothaches.  Rub a small amount where the tooth is coming in at.  To help with constipation, add some prune juice to water.  Chamomile oil can also be rubbed on their belly to help ease them of their constipation pains.

One of the most significant jobs you surely have as a parent is keeping your child safe while riding in a car. Thousands of young children are killed or injured in car crashes every year. The correct use of car safety seats helps keep children safe in case there is a car crash. Nevertheless, with so many different car safety seats out on the market right now, it’s no wonder why so many parents find this overwhelming. The type of car seat your child needs depends on quite a few things, including the size of your child and the type of motor vehicle you may have.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) highly recommends that all infants should ride rear-facing right from the first ride home from the hospital. They ought to remain rear-facing until they reach the highest height or weight allowed by the manufacturer of their car safety seat.  At a bare minimum, children should ride rear-facing until they weigh at least 20 pounds or are at least 1 year of age. Once your child has reached the highest weight or height permitted by the manufacturer of the seat for rear-facing, she/he can ride forward-facing in a more convertible seat. Nevertheless, it is best for him/her to ride rear-facing to the highest weight or height allowed by the manufacturer of his/her car safety seat. She/he should ride in a forward-facing seat with a harness until he/she outgrows it, which in most cases would usually be at approximately 4 years of age and about when your child weights 40–65 pounds.

Once your child has outgrown his/her forward-facing car safety seats, they are now old enough for a Booster seat. It is in everyone’s best interest for children to ride in a harnessed seat as long as it is possible, which would mean at least to 4 years of age. If your child outgrows his/her seat before reaching 4 years of age, you should consider using a seat with a harness approved for children with higher weights and heights. Booster seats should be used with a shoulder and a lap belt and should never be a lap-only belt. When you are using a booster seat for your child, you must make sure that the lap belt lies low and fits perfectly across your child’s upper thighs. The shoulder belt should also be crossed in the middle of your child’s chest and shoulder.

Remember, be a good role model and make sure you always wear your seat belt. Our children always observe and learn from their parents. If you are not sure of how to use any of the safety recommendations for your infants always call the manufacture or read the instructions and make sure that you install your infant’ safety gadgets properly.

Review by Michelle Bruns

A growing trend among American children is not the latest fashion or a hot new slang word, it’s childhood obesity. This is a syndrome that experts estimate currently affects 25 million children. That’s a statistic that families cannot afford to ignore.

Amy Hendel, author of Fat Families, Thin Families: How to Save Your Family from the Obesity Trap, feels that becoming overweight is a trend that starts with family; a trend that can be broken by taking an active role and setting a good example for good family health.

Hendel bases the strategies in her book on her personal experience as an overweight child and her experience as a registered physician assistant. She has developed a health strategy for herself and her family, and turned it into a career as a family lifestyle therapist to help guide families in developing good eating habits together.

According to Hendel’s book, the eating habits children develop and take with them into adulthood are taught by the parents. The first step is to make the decision to change your family’s way of life. From food choices to exercise, Hendel’s 4 “P” action plan (planning, preparing, portion, and play), is the key to her sure-fire strategy.

Plan Together

One of the most common saboteurs of a successful healthy eating plan is lack of preparation. Making eating choices on the fly or based on convenience provides the opportunity for poor food decisions to flourish. Deciding on menus, creating shopping lists (examples are provided in the book), and hitting the grocery store is a family affair on the Healthy Family for Life (HFL) program. With everyone involved, family members can offer each other support and are personally invested in accomplishing their HFL goals.

Prepare Together

It is all-hands-on-deck when it comes to the kitchen. Scheduling time to prepare and cook meals reduces impulse eating decisions, teaches kids skills they will use for the rest of their life, and gives families time to bond. Whether your meal preparation style is “Quick and Easy,” “Adventure in the Kitchen,” or “One Day at a Time,” taking time to stock your pantry and make a day of preparing the week’s meals is the secret weapon to making your planned eating choices a breeze.

Portion Together

Using small plates and eating more slowly can help put your family in the black with portion control, but changing portion perception is not an overnight undertaking.  Hendel offers that, “It takes time to change any habit, and portion perception is probably one of the toughest.” The promise that your new “feeding habits” will help squash cravings and have you reaching for foods that are better for you can create an optimistic attitude. Switching unhealthy foods for healthier ones doesn’t even have to mean skipping dessert; it simply means substituting olive tapenade for mayo and sorbets for whole milk ice cream. Plenty of small changes like this can have your family leaning toward lean in no time.

Play Together

Eating healthier is only one part of Hendel’s plan. Grabbing your kids and getting active is a vital piece of the pie. Simple activities like planting flowers, playing tag, and walking the dog can burn up the calories you don’t need and boost your metabolism. You’ll not only feel better, you and your family will improve your health. According to the Centers for Disease Control, “about 20 million people have type-2 diabetes, and more than 60 million people are overweight or obese.” If the statistics are not enough to motivate you to move, then perhaps another opportunity for family bonding will.

Make the Choice

Setting realistic goals, avoiding food traps, and creating healthy habits are just a part of Hendel’s lifestyle strategy. Fat Families, Thin Families offers more than guidelines for healthy living; it offers families a chance to learn to become healthy adults together. Packed with sample grocery lists, menu ideas, and tips on supporting one another, Fat Families, Thin Families is your chance to bring your family closer together, beginning at the dinner table.

How do you make eating healthy and fun in your family?

Why does my baby cry so much?

By Mary Fetzer

When our first daughter, Susan, was born, she was a little fussy. By the time she was a month old, though, she was way beyond fussy. Every afternoon at 5 o’clock, Susan cried – actually she screamed inconsolably – for more than two hours. This went on for weeks. Susan had colic.

What is Colic?

If your baby cries about the same time each day, and nothing you do seems to comfort him, he may have colic.

Colic is an extreme type of crying in a baby between three weeks and three months of age. The baby will cry for hours at a time, no matter what you do to try to soothe him. Colic is normal, but here’s the best news – it’s temporary.

Many doctors diagnose colic when a healthy, well-fed baby cries harder than expected in what is referred to as a “three pattern” – about three hours a day, at least three days a week, for about three weeks in a row. Colic usually peaks at six to eight weeks old. It rarely lasts beyond the baby’s third month, and eventually goes away on its own.

What Causes Colic?
“No one really knows what causes colic,” say experts at the Mayo Clinic (www.MayoClinic.com). “Researchers have explored a number of possibilities, including allergies, lactose intolerance, an immature digestive system, maternal anxiety, and differences in the way a baby is fed or comforted. Yet it’s still unclear why some babies have colic and others don’t.”

Colic is not related to health conditions, nor is it caused by pain or illness. Colic is not typically accompanied by vomiting or a fever. If a baby has physical symptoms (diarrhea, blood in the stool, fever) beyond inconsolable crying, he or she needs to be checked by a doctor.

Digestive problems do not cause colic, though many babies will pass gas or have a bowel movement toward the end of a crying episode. Girls and boys – regardless of their birth order or whether they are breast- or formula-fed, experience colic in similar numbers.

Most important to realize is that colic is no one’s fault. It has nothing to do with your parenting style, and it doesn’t mean your baby is unhealthy.

How To Deal

Doctors and child experts offer various tips for comforting colicky babies, although there are times when nothing will seem to work. Here are a few to try:

• Try holding your baby more before the crying begins.
• During the expected fussy time, limit visitors – unless they’re willing to help! – and keep the household as calm as possible.
• Some colicky babies are comforted by rocking, some by the outdoors.
• Others are soothed by riding in a car or listening to “quiet noise” like a fan or a clothes dryer.

Beyond comforting your child, be sure that you enlist in lots of help as this can be an especially difficult time for parents to deal with. When you need to, it’s OK to put the baby down and let her cry for a few minutes while you compose yourself.

We could do nothing to console Susan. We took turns holding her – and crying with her. One day, in the middle of an episode, my husband turned on the vacuum cleaner, and Susan stopped crying. We tried it the next evening, too. After a few days of wearing out the vacuum cleaner, we taped the noise onto an audio tape and played it for Susan, but it didn’t work. Susan needed the “soothing vibration” of the real thing. So we resolved to vacuum our carpet every day for two hours. The result: a calmer baby – and very clean carpets.

What soothing techniques have helped you quiet your baby’s cries?

These products can help get your “pretty” back

When it comes to aging gracefully, it’s easy to pinpoint one area. Most say eyes, some say skin. But here’s a question: What about your hair, neck, and teeth? We gathered some beauty goodies that can help any mom turn back the clock. From skincare to hair health, even a teeth-whitening wonder, these products should give you back years.

Get an All-Natural Package

When it comes to aging gracefully, you want to do it all. From eyes to skin, even your makeup routine, you want a step-by-step guide to looking younger. Dremu came out with an anti-aging bundle ($152 at www.dremu.com), which includes the Deception wrinkle-cheating cream, the eye-refining Airbrush, and the miracle skin care cure-all of Dremu Oil. The oil powerfully moisturizes, penetrating deep into skin to stimulate cell regeneration and reduce wrinkles and sagging. A pea-sized amount of the Deception cream will create an optical illusion that will make your wrinkles disappear. And, the Airbrush will work on crow’s feet and lines around the eyes.

Moisturize Daily

Sun damage is the main culprit for aging. The most important thing you can do is to moisturize on a daily basis. When choosing a facial moisturizer, though, it’s also important to keep vitamins and UV protection in mind. Oi of Olay’s Total Effects 7-in-1 Anti-Aging UV Moisturizer ($17.14 at www.amazon.com) accomplishes those two feats. The fragrance-free UV facial treatment contains B3, Vitamin E, and Pro-vitaminB5, which will prevent the signs of aging.

Use Creams for Eyes

Since eyes are the most prominent feature on the face, it’s important to maintain them as you get older. As you age, the delicate skin around your eyes change — you may develop crow’s feet, dark circles, and more as a result. Plantogen’s new Skin Brightening Eye Lift ($42 at www.plantogen.com) with GABA (Gama Amino Butyric Acid) complex will relax muscles and smooth wrinkles around your peepers. The cream is also made up of licorice root (an anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and skin-brightening agent) and Kakadu Plum (which contains the highest concentration of Vitamin C in any known natural fruit).

Hair Loss Help

One surefire way to tell someone’s age is by looking at their hair. From sun exposure to other chemical strains, your mane may need an intervention. Jan Marini’s Age Intervention Hair Revitalizing Conditioner can turn back time with its patent-pending technology. The result from using this hair anti-ager includes lusher, fuller, and younger-looking hair. The serum should reinstate body, bounce, and vitality to your tresses in no time. Visit www.janmarini.com for more information.

Whiten Your Teeth

Many people neglect to consider their teeth when giving themselves an anti-aging makeover. As you get older, your teeth become stained from coffee, brown foods, even red wine. You can visit your dentist regularly, but teeth stains are hard to control. Lucky for you, there’s hope. Rembrandt Whitening Strips ($29.99 at mass retailers nationwide) can visibly lighten and brighten your choppers. Just apply for 30 minutes per day, and you should start to see a difference in five days.

A Neck Treatment

Don’t neglect your neck! You can hide behind that turtleneck or trendy scarf, but here’s a better solution: Clarins Advanced Extra-Firming Neck Cream ($78 at www.clarins.com). As we age, the muscles in our necks spread apart. This cream’s target treatment will visibly smooth and firm the skin in the delicate area so your age won’t be revealed.