All Search Results
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Newborn Sleep Safety: Preventing SIDS in Your Home
One of the most frequent concerns of new parents is getting their baby to sleep. And when it comes to this topic, there is no shortage of advice offered by family members, products to buy to make sleep easier, and advertisements to convince you of your need for these things.
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How do you know when you’ve crossed the line from effective parenting to control freak?
Growing up, it seemed like most of the parents I knew were struggling simply to manage the basics for their kids. Perhaps it was where and with whom I was raised, but it stands out to me in stark contrast to my parenting peers today. We aren’t struggling for the basics, but we are certainly struggling.
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Fighting a Fever without Fear
Many parents worry when their child is having a fever. We know that fevers can be scary for parents, especially if it is your child’s first fever. It may be difficult to think clearly and make important decisions when your child feels very warm. Learning what causes a fever and how to take care of your child when it occurs can help relieve some stress and anxiety.
What is a fever?
Your child’s normal body temperature with vary based on age, activity, and time of day. Infants tend to have higher temperatures than older children. Usually, our body’s temperature is the highest in the late afternoon and early evening. Each person has his or her own internal “thermostat” that helps to regulate their own body temperature, and this number is around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, plus or minus one degree. When your body detects an infection or illness in your body, your brain responds by raising its temperature to help fight the condition. Many conditions can be associated with fever, such as ear infections, croup, pneumonia, sore throat, influenza, urinary tract infections, meningitis, and many different viral illnesses. -
I Don’t Need to Worry About Pornography and My Child, Right?
Therapists are required to get continuing education to maintain our professional licenses and I recently attended a workshop on youth and pornography. The information presented was not good news, but I was glad I attended because I found out my education in this area was definitely out of date!
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January: National Birth Defects Prevention Month
January is National Birth Defects Prevention Month. One in every 33 babies is born with a birth defect. If you are thinking about becoming pregnant in the near future, there are a few things that you can do to improve your health and reduce the chance of your baby being born with a birth defect.
Start taking a prenatal vitamin with folic acid.
Folic acid is a B vitamin that our body uses to make new cells. This vitamin is important because when you have enough folic acid in your body, that helps reduce the risk of birth defects of the brain and spinal cord in your baby (also known as neural tube defects such as anencephaly and spina bifida). Folic acid works best in preventing neural tube defects if taken before pregnancy and during the first few weeks of pregnancy, before most women even know that they are pregnant. -
Learning to let them fly
Am I an overparent-er?
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Listen up! How to effectively communicate with your teen
A few weeks ago, I was at work (I’m a counselor with the Teen Xpress program). I sat there, speaking with Mike*, an eighteen year old male. He is someone that I’ve worked with in the past, providing counseling on various issues; relationships, coping skills, and stress management. On this day, we were talking about family dynamics and stress… particularly stress that he was feeling in regards to his relationship with his parents.
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What’s all the fuss about the flu?
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere, you’ve probably seen a lot of coverage lately on television and online news about the flu. We hear so much about it each year that often it’s tempting to brush that information aside.
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Alcohol advertisements affect drinking behaviors in kids
During the last week’s Super Bowl, how many of you sat down to watch the game, only to be entertained by the infamous commercials? I bet many of you would raise your hand, kids included. Each year, the commercials continue to steal the show and are often talked about in the days after. But have you noticed how popular the commercials featuring alcohol, specifically beer products, are among kids?
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What it means if your child fails his/her newborn hearing screening
Amid all of the excitement of a newborn child, there are several tests that your baby will undergo shortly after birth while the baby is still in the newborn nursery. One of those tests is a hearing screening, which checks to see if the most basic parts of the hearing mechanism are intact. We will discuss the newborn hearing screening, how it works, what the results mean, and what you should do if your child has an abnormal test result.