Archive for the ‘Home and Family: Parenting’ Category

If you’re desperate to know how do I  get pregnant quicker , you’re in the right place. Researching online is a great way to learn about the latest methods and tips for getting pregnant. There are several books available online as well that will give you some great tips and even devices to try that will help you reach your goals faster and with more chances for success. Here is some pretty general advice …

A few things to keep in mind are:

Timing is everything!

Becoming pregnant is all about synchronising your ovulation with when you make love, get this right and you should be able to allow nature to do the rest in most cases. Getting the timing just right is sometimes harder than it sounds. There are things the woman can do to both help the body ovulate faster or more frequently, and to time when the body is ovulating thus knowing when to make love and create a baby.

There are a variety of different devices on the market such as ovulation calendars which give you a way to track your ovulation and to predict the best time to make love when you have the best chance of success, Basal thermometers which can track the body’s temperatures and give you a better idea of when your ovulating or ovulation prediction kits which essentially help you to track your ovulation as well. If there is one particular thing that mother nature is good at, it is consistency, so you can predict with some accuracy exactly when the very best time is to try and conceive. Nothing is exact, however every little bit helps!

Believe it or not, there are even studies done that have predicted that certain sexual positions will give you a better chance of getting pregnant, most likely based on the best position to give the sperm a clear shot at hitting the egg without obstacles! It is suggested by some, but not clinically proven, that some positions can improve your chances of conceiving a particular sex,. If you do your homework and learn about the many ways people and doctors respectively have discovered work for many, you may just find one or several of these work for you.

Finally if you would like to get pregnant and predict baby gender in advance, at the time of conception, you will find the information at this site really intriguing, it ties in well with the importance of timing and ovulation advice above.

Building a Swing Slide Playset

As parents we are constantly reminded that it is our responsibility to encourage our youngsters to be active, to get exercise and not to lie around eating burgers while playing computer games. Many parents will probably agree that tearing their children away from their televisions and computer games can be tougher than pulling teeth.

Last year I invested a significant amount of hard earned cash in a few pieces of outdoor play equipment, chosen by my two youngsters. They always enjoy a visit to our local park where they can race around, swing on the swings, slide on the slides, bounce on the bouncy things and climb the climbing frames. Unfortunately our nearest park is about 3 miles away so these visits are not as frequent as they or I would like. So I bit the bullet and shelled out quite a bit of money on a wooden swing slide playset and a good quality wooden climbing frame for our garden.

Now I would like to report that my generosity has paid off and my children are now fit and active and can’t get enough of their new outdoor toys. But nothing could be further from the truth. Since I installed the equipment (which presented many headaches, took a lot of hammering and quite a bit of swearing) they have probably only played on it three times. Admittedly I didn’t get the equipment until the Autumn of 2008 and since then our weather has been atrocious.

At least that is the reason they give when I try to convince them that they’d enjoy some outdoor fun. It’s too cold, they say. Or they say ‘the swings are too wet to sit on’ when it’s been raining.

I’m hoping that, as we move into spring and the weather improves, they will naturally want to get out into the garden and get some much needed exercise on their new outdoor toys. I’m dreading another miserable, wet summer as this will result in my fat children just getting fatter instead of working off those layers of blubber with a little outdoor adventure. Nobody ever said that being a parent was easy.

Failure To Thrive is a blockage in normal physical development which might be the precursor to slow-downs in the normal developmental process and normal maturation.

Failure To Thrive is a diagnosis given to children who are consistently underweight or who do not gain weight for unclear reasons. Many causes involve social and environmental factors that work together to keep the infant from having access to the nutrition the baby needs. There are times when medical conditions prevent a child from growing normally. Another significant cause is the child’s own intolerances and sensitivities.

When There Are Social And Environmental Roots

Many socio-environmental factors can be responsible for Failure To Thrive. Parental neglect or abuse, parental emotional health disorders, and disordered family conditions in which routine, nutritious meals are not provided, may all depress a child’s appetite and intake of food. The amount of money a family has available for food and the nutritional value of the food they buy also affects development. Inadequate intake of food may be a sign of inadequate parenting and environmental stimulation.

If The Causes Are Medical Disorders

Sometimes Failure To Thrive Syndrome is caused by a medical difficulty in the baby. The disorder can be as simple as difficulty drinking, chewing, or swallowing (as with a cleft lip or cleft palate). Medical issues, such as gastroesophageal reflux, esophagus narrowing, or poor intestinal absorption, may also affect a child’s ability to obtain nutrition from food. Infection, tumor, metabolic or hormonal disorders (such as cystic fibrosis or diabetes), heart disease, kidney disease, genetic disorders, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are other medical reasons for Failure To Thrive.

When The Problems Are Based In Intolerances

And, sometimes child and infant Failure To Thrive is caused by the baby’s defenses responding to normal environmental factors as if those normal things were toxic. This is a intolerance of some environmental factors which the child’s defenses thinks is toxic.

This response to this “toxic attack” could be shutting down the baby’s normal developmental process as a temporary protective measure until the “attack” goes away. But, because these environmental factors are not toxic to others, the family and the medical professionals do not know to eliminate these “toxic” factors from the child’s environment. In this case this temporary protective defensive reaction continues without stopping. This means that the infant’s own defenses interrupts the infant’s normal developmental process on an ongoing basis, because of the child’s intolerances.

Diagnosis For The Roots In Medical Problems And Social And Environmental Roots

Doctors diagnose Failure To Thrive when the baby’s weight or rate of growth is much lower than what it should be when compared with past measurements or standard age-height-weight charts. If the physical development is adequate, the infant may be small but still developing normally.

To determine why a child may be failing to thrive normally, medical practitioners ask parents specific questions about feeding, bowel habits, social, emotional, and financial stability of the family, which might affect the child’s access to nutrition, and illnesses that the infant has had or that run in the family. The doctor examines the baby, looking for signs of conditions which might explain the child’s delay in development. The medical practitioner makes decisions about blood and urine tests and x-rays based on this initial evaluation. More extensive examinations are performed only if the doctor believes there is an underlying medical condition.

Determining The Child’s Intolerances and Sensitivities

There are some published diets (GFCF Diet and Feingold Diet) which attempt to address these sensitivity issues. These diets work well for those children who are sensitive to the things which are specifically restricted by these programs. But, for the majority of children whose intolerances are affecting their growth and development, these diets are incomplete and not specifically tailored for them.

It is best to have a specialist, who knows how to perform this specific test for intolerance, work with your child to determine your child’s precise list of sensitivities. Those who specialize in this testing can include some chiropractors, nutritionists, and other wellness practitioners trained for this type of evaluation.

Treatment and Prognosis For The Roots In Medical Difficulties And Socio-Environmental Roots

The medical disorders and socio-environmental roots approach assumes there is something wrong with the infant’s body or the child’s social environment. These treatments are focused on a fault in the baby’s nutritional processing or access.

Treatment depends on the root of the problem. If a medical problem is found, specific treatment is given. Otherwise, treatment depends on how far below normal the infant’s weight is. Mild to moderate Failure To Thrive is treated with nutritious high-calorie feedings taken on a regular schedule. Parents could be counseled about family interactions that are damaging to the child and about financial and social resources available to them. Severe Failure To Thrive is treated in the hospital where nutritionists, social workers, psychiatrists, feeding specialists, and other specialists work together to determine the most likely causes of the child’s Failure To Thrive and the best approach to feeding.

Treatment For The Issues In Intolerances and Sensitivities

The interventions for the intolerances and sensitivities approach is to determine which things in the environment the baby is responding to and eliminates those from the child’s environment. When the infant is no longer reacting to those, the normal developmental process re-engages and development and growth can proceed normally. With this approach, food is absorbed appropriately and growth gets back on track. There are specialists in Failure To Thrive syndrome who can determine your child’s intolerances and sensitivities and coach you in getting your child back on track.

Summary

The socio-environmental approach assumes that something is wrong in the baby’s social environment in such a way that nourishment is not available or is not accepted by the baby.

The medical difficulties approach for Failure To Thrive infants and children assumes that nourishment is not being processed and absorbed by the child because of some medical difficulty.

The sensitivities approach for Failure To Thrive children assumes that the baby is having responses to environmental factors and these defensive responses are shutting down the normal growth and developmental process.