Kids and food allergies

Do you know that about 5% of children under five years of age and 4% of kids aged 5 to 17, have at least one food allergy.

Being allergic to certain food can be just mild or severe. Therefore parents should always pay great attention when introducing new foods to them. To make matters worse, children with food allergy also have higher rates of asthma as well as skin and respiratory allergies.

Two things must happen before a child has an allergic reaction to a food: She must have consumed the food at least once before or been exposed through breast milk, and her immune system must produce antibodies to proteins in that specific food. This immune response is what helps allergists differentiate a life-threatening food allergy from food intolerance. Food allergy remains an important problem and can be life threatening. Methods of testing for food allergies have their limits. Allergists can help determine whether the problem is occurring on an allergic basis or not.

Common Food Allergies in Children

The most common food allergies in children are caused by only a few foods, with peanuts, and cows milk leading the list. However do refer to the below diagram on the big eight foods that can cause allergies. The most severe food reactions are caused by peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish, allergies that tend to last a lifetime. The good news is kids often outgrow allergies to wheat, eggs, soy, and cows milk.

Signs and Symptoms of Food Allergy

An allergic reaction to a food usually occurs within minutes to an hour.These are the most common signs and symptoms of food allergy:

On the skin: hives, itching, rash, swelling of the lips, tongue, face

In the digestive tract: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain

In the respiratory system: wheezing, congestion, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing due to swelling of the throat

In the cardiovascular system: drop in blood pressure, causing dizziness, lightheadedness

Anaphylaxis, the most severe allergic response, is a medical emergency. Swelling of the throat prevents breathing and swallowing, the heart rate rises and blood pressure drops suddenly. If your child has been prescribed an epinephrine (adrenalin) auto injector, it should be with them at all times and used immediately at the first sign of an anaphylactic reaction and call the ambulance instantaneously. A second dose of epinephrine should always be on hand in case it is needed.

Diagnosis and Treatment

If a food allergy is suspected, your allergist will collect a complete medical history and perform a physical exam of your child. Be prepared with a complete list of foods the child consumed before the reaction as well as the signs, symptoms, severity and length of the reaction. Again, this can help diagnose actual food allergy from food intolerance.

An allergy skin test can help determine which foods caused a reaction in your child. A small amount of food extract is applied to the skin on the arm or back. The appearance of a red, itchy bump (or wheal) within 15 minutes may suggest an allergy. Blood tests may also help indicate an allergy exists. Any positive food allergy test can be wrong as much as 90 percent of the time. The most important part of the evaluation is talking to your allergist, who is skilled in making a correct diagnosis, before testing is done. Allergy testing only confirms the history.

An oral food challenge is the gold standard and only definitive test to diagnose food allergy. It is typically done in the allergists office, and only if the risk of anaphylaxis is low.

There is no cure for food allergies. The only treatment is avoiding foods that cause reactions in your child. Your allergist will prescribe an epinephrine auto-injector to be used immediately if your child has a severe allergic reaction.

Living with Food Allergy

Keeping a child with food allergies safe is challenging and stressful. Parents must search food labels for ingredients that can cause reactions in their child; notify family, friends, schools, and restaurants of their childs allergy; and always be prepared for an emergency.

An allergist can provide you with tips and tools to help your child stay safe and healthy.

Exercises suitable for Diastasis Recti aka Abdominal Separation

From our previous post on Diastasis Recti, also known as Abdominal Separation, we like to further look at the type of exercises that are suitable.

We heard a lot of examples that instead of having flatten their tummy after doing crunches and abdominal exercises, the stomach ballooned up. Yes, these are the exercises that are definitely not suitable for just delivered mothers and ladies who have diastasis recti.

Remember, to recap: Avoid exercises that exacerbate diastasis recti after the first trimester and immediately postpartum. This includes sit-ups, crunch movements, oblique twists, and plank-position exercises.

Focus on building the core muscles concentrating on pelvic tilts instead. 

Refer to our post - Do you have diastasis recti after child birth to understand what is diastasis recti.

Do you have diastasis recti after child birth?

Recently I saw this article on diastasis recti and set me wondering what is it and do I have it.

Have you experienced what we have? 

No matter what exercises I did, I still have a tummy that looks like 4-5 months pregnant. Hence, I set forth to seek some info on it after some chance upon this diastasis recti picture. And now I like to shed some light on this condition and let mothers know that finally, we have the answers to our preggy-lookalike tummy and with great effort we can get rid of it too.

I understand that it's depressing to know that we still look pregnant while others do not even have to go through any slimming regime.  We do not want to give up but it seems nothing can help unless we go for plastic surgery.

Different bodies need different treatment and hence, I am excited to start working on it, though I admitted that I was freak out and sad at the beginning to know that I had abdominal separation.

An extract from Wiki:

Diastasis recti (also known as ) defined as a separation of therectus abdominis muscle into right and left halves.

The distance between the right and left rectus abdominis muscles is created by the stretching of the linea alba which connects the two regions.

Diastasis of this muscle occurs principally in two populations: newborns and pregnant women. But anyone can has it too including men.

(However we like to focus on post delivery instead.) 

In pregnant or postpartum women, the condition is caused by the stretching of the rectus abdominis by the growing uterus. It is more common in multiparous women due to repeated episodes of stretching. 

When the defect occurs during pregnancy, the uterus can sometimes be seen bulging through the abdominal wall beneath the skin. Women are more susceptible to develop diastasis recti when over the age of 35, high birth weight of child, multiple birth pregnancy, and multiple pregnancies. Additional causes can be attributed to excessive abdominal exercises after the first trimester of pregnancy.

For a detailed read, click on link, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diastasis_recti.

Before you even exit our page, I like to emphasised on a few pointers and just a little more info on it since it is not a simple issue and can lead to other conditions if left untreated.

How can I Reduce My Risk of Developing Diastasis Recti in Pregnancy or Repair it Afterwards?

1. Exercise regularly and appropriately! Several studies have shown that women with no or mild diastasis recti were more likely to be exercising regularly than women with moderate or severe diastasis. Do not do strenuous exercise while pregnant but moderately.

2. Avoid gaining excessive amounts of weight while pregnant.

3. Check your alignment. Alignment is a huge component in any pressure related body ailment, including diastasis recti. This is especially important when lifting heavy objects, such as older children or when strength training. A tilted pelvis will push your uterus against your abdominal wall, creating even more pressure.

4. The definite NO NOs! Avoid exercises that exacerbate diastasis recti after the first trimester and immediately postpartum. This includes sit-ups, crunch movements, oblique twists, and plank-position exercises.

5. Performing transverse abdominal (TVA) focused exercises while pregnant will reduce your risk of diastasis recti postpartum. Studies have shown a significant difference in diastasis recti incidence between pregnant women who are active in TVA engagement and pregnant women who are sedentary. TVA training postpartum will help to close or minimize a gap.

How do I Check for Diastasis Recti?

Click on this video to learn how to self check. In this video it also teaches pelvic tilts to help stitch back the gap of those abdominal muscles.
http://youtu.be/uzIrt82maws

How is Diastasis Recti Related to Pelvic Floor Muscles?

Your abdominal muscles and pelvic floor muscles work together. What goes up must come down, what goes in must go out – so to speak. Diastasis recti affects the pelvic floor and vice-versa. In a study of women with diastasis recti, 66% also presented pelvic floor dysfunction symptom. This includes urinary incontinence, faecal incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse symptoms.

Can I Close my Diastasis Recti Gap Years After Childbirth?

Yes!  No matter you have just given birth or it has been 3 years, you can still start on it. You can close or significantly reduce your abdominal muscle gap through rehab exercise. Severe diastasis recti that does not improve with physical therapy may need to be surgically repaired.

My Gap Isn’t Closing and what can I do?

If you’ve been trying to close your abdominal muscle gap on your own and are having no success, see a women’s health physiotherapist for further treatment.

More info:

Type of exercises suitable for closing the gap on Diastasis Recti aka Abdominal Separation or 'Mummy Tummy'

Does your child grind her teeth during sleeping?

Recently, we realised that our 5 year old child grinds her teeth while sleeping. Initially we though it is a common thing and we overlooked it. Until then, we started to worry and do some research on it.

Hence, we like to share with you what teeth grinding actually is. Why it happens and how can we help in the situation?

After reading, we realised much that our child might be unhappy about the fact that she needs to give in to her younger sister often. And the fact that she is growing her self-confidence; and yet she is also feeling that we as parents are always scolding her, well nagging actually. Well, at their age, it might be hard for them to differentiate this two. Hence, this set us rethink how we can turn around the situation, by using another method of parenting. Remember, all kids has a different personalities and not one standard parenting method always works. We need to remind ourselves sometimes and reflect if we are doing it wrong.

For more acticles on parenting, please check out the links.
Parenting a Strong-willed Child
Teaching your child what is Empathy and why it is important

Ok, let's start on knowing what is Teeth Grinding.

What is teeth grinding and why children grinds their teeth?

Many experts don't know for sure what causes teeth grinding but many point fingers at tension or anxiety, pain (from earaches or teething, ), and malocclusion (a dental term for when the teeth don't line up just right.) Dentist refer this condition as bruxism. Some studies also suggest that breathing problems – from a stuffy nose or allergies – may play a part in this teeth grinding role.

Teeth grinding isn't uncommon among babies who are getting their first teeth, beginning at around 5 or 6 months of age. It's also common among children who are starting to get their permanent teeth, at around 6 years of age.

About 38-40% of children grind their teeth. The average age for starting this habit is around 3 and a half years old, and the average age for stopping is 6 years old, of course, people of all ages grind their teeth.

Your child is a bit more likely to grind her teeth if you do. She's also more likely to grind her teeth if she drools or talks in her sleep. Almost all teeth grinding happens at night, though some kids do it during the day, too.


Is teeth grinding bad for my child?

In most cases, teeth grinding sounds worse than it is. It's very likely that your child isn't doing any damage to his teeth and he'll soon outgrow the habit. However prolong teeth grinding might wear off the enamel, causing sensitivities.


Helping Kids With Bruxism

Although the sound can be disconcerting, you'll probably just have to wait for your child to grow out of the habit. Whether the cause is physical or psychological, kids might be able to control bruxism by relaxing before bedtime — for example, by taking a warm bath or shower, listening to a few minutes of soothing music, or reading a book, and giving her a good relaxing massage.

For bruxism that's caused by stress, ask about what's upsetting your child and find a way to help.

If you think the grinding is due to your child is teething or has an ear infection, see a doctor.

If there's a problem with the way your child's teeth are lining up, the dentist may be able to polish them to fit together better. Older children who grind regularly are sometimes fitted with a night guard – a plastic device fitted to the mouth to prevent clenching and grinding of the teeth during sleep. But your child's dentist probably won't consider this until your child has at least some permanent teeth, around age 5 or so.

Parenting a strong-willed child

If you are having a strong-willed child, it does not means a bad thing after all? Strong willed children can be a challenge to parent when they’re young, but if sensitively parented, they become terrific teens and young adults. Self-motivated and inner-directed, they go after what they want and are almost impervious to peer pressure. As long as parents resist the impulse to "break their will," strong-willed kids often become leaders.

What exactly is a strong-willed, or spirited child?

Many define them as "difficult" and/or “stubborn,” but on the bright side, it also means strong-willed kids as people of integrity who aren’t easily swayed from their own viewpoints. Strong-willed kids want to learn things for themselves rather than accepting what others accept, so they test the limits over and over; simply do not give up that easily. They want desperately to be "in charge" of themselves, and will sometimes put their desire to "be right" above everything else. When their heart is set on something, their brains seem to have a hard time switching gears. Strong-willed kids have big, passionate feelings and live at full throttle.

Many a times, strong-willed kids are always in power-struggles with their parents. However, it takes two to have a power struggle. Remember, as parents, you don't have to attend to every argument to which you are invited to! If you can take a deep breath when your anger buttons get pushed, and remind yourself that you can let your child save face and still get what you want, you can learn to sidestep those power struggles.

Research shows that parents who pay attention can avoid power struggles, even with strong-willed kids, by empathizing as they set limits, giving choices, and clearly offering respect. Always look for win/win solutions rather than just laying down the law keeps strong-willed children from becoming explosive and teaches them essential skills of negotiation and compromise.


Strong-willed kids aren't just being difficult. Try understanding that they feel their integrity is compromised if they're forced to submit to another person's will. I believe if a parent was once a strong willed child, they can comprehend this thinking better. If you do not like being controlled by your parents when young, the more you should not do it to your own children. If children are allowed to choose, they love to cooperate. If this bothers you because you think obedience is an important quality, I'd ask you to reconsider. Of course you want to raise a responsible, considerate, cooperative child who does the right thing, even when it's hard. But that doesn't imply obedience. Morality is doing what's right, no matter what you're told. Obedience is doing what you're told, no matter what's right. Parents must get it right and know the great difference between morality and obedience.

Of course you want your child to do what you say. But not because he's obedient, meaning that he always does what someone bigger tells him to do. No, you want him to do what you say because he trusts YOU, because you are the parent and have his best interests at heart. You want to raise a child who has self-discipline, takes responsibility, and is considerate -- and most important, has the discernment to figure out when to trust and be influenced by someone else.

Breaking a child's will leaves him open to the influence of others who often will not serve him. What's more, it's a betrayal of the spiritual contract we make as parents to nurture our child's unique gifts.

That said, strong-willed kids can be a handful -- high energy, challenging, persistent. How do we protect those fabulous qualities and encourage their cooperation?

Here's 10 Tips for Positive Parenting Your Strong-Willed Child

1. Avoid power struggles by using routines and rules. That way, you aren't bossing them around. For example, The lights-out is at 9pm. If you hurry, we’ll have time for two books or a small game.

2. Your strong-willed child wants mastery more than anything. Let him/her take charge of as many of her own activities as possible. Don’t nag at her to brush her teeth; ask instead “What else do you need to do before we leave?” If she looks blank, tick off the short list: “Every morning we eat, brush teeth, use the toilet, and pack the bags. I saw you pack, that's terrific! Now, what do you still need to do before we leave?” Kids who feel more independent and in charge of themselves will have less need to be oppositional. Not to mention, they take responsibility early.

3. Give your strong-willed child choices. If you give orders, he will almost certainly bristle. If you offer a choice, he feels like the master of his own destiny. Of course, only offer choices you can live with and don’t let yourself get resentful by handing away your power.

4. Give her authority over her own body. For example, when she knows she is cold, she will want a jacket on. Don't force a jacket on her.

5. Don't push him into opposing you. Force always creates "push-back" -- with humans of all ages. If you take a hard and fast position, you can easily push your child into defying you, just to prove a point. You'll know when it's a power struggle and you're invested in winning. Just stop, take a breath, and remind yourself that winning a battle with your child always sets you up to lose what’s most important: the relationship. When in doubt say "Ok, you can decide this for yourself." If he can't, then say what part of it he can decide, or find another way for him to meet his need for autonomy without compromising his health or safety.

6. Side-step power struggles by letting your child save face. You don’t have to prove you’re right. You can, and should, set reasonable expectations and enforce them. But under no circumstances should you try to break your child’s will or force him to acquiesce to your views. He has to do what you want, but he's allowed to have his own opinions and feelings about it.

7. Listen to her. You, as the adult, might reasonably presume you know best. But your strong-willed child has a strong will partly as a result of her integrity. She has a viewpoint that is making her hold fast to her position, and she is trying to protect something that seems important to her. Only by listening calmly to her and reflecting her words will you come to understand what’s making her oppose you. It may not seem like a good reason to you, but she has a reason. And you won’t find it out if you get into a clash and order her into something

8. See it from his point of view. For instance, he may be angry because you promised to wash his favorite t-shirt and then forgot. To you, he is being stubborn. To him, he is justifiably upset, and you are being hypocritical, because he is not allowed to break his promises to you, but you broke yours to him. How do you clear this up and move on? You apologize profusely for breaking your promise, you reassure him that you try very hard to keep your promises, and you go, together, to wash the t-shirt. You might even teach him how to wash his own clothes! Just consider how would you want to be treated, and treat him accordingly.

9. Discipline through the relationship, never through punishment. Kids don’t learn when they’re in the middle of a fight. Like all of us, that’s when adrenaline is pumping and learning shuts off. Kids behave because they want to please us. The more you fight with and punish your child, the more you undermine her desire to please you. If she's upset, help her express her hurt, fear or disappointment, so they evaporate. Then she'll be ready to listen to you when you remind her that in your house, everyone speaks kindly to each other.

10. Offer him respect and empathy.Read more about empathy and how to teach kids empathy in our last post. Most strong-willed children are fighting for respect. If you offer it to them, they don’t need to fight to protect their position. And, like the rest of us, it helps a lot if they feel understood.

Teaching your child what is empathy and why is it important

Empathy, sometimes an adult have trouble with having this ability. And we can't expect young child to know what is it all about. However for 5 year olds, they are self-conscious enough to seek fairness and are feels good about being treated well. And it is a good age to start.

What is empathy actually?
Research suggests that empathy is a complex phenomenon involving several component skills:
• A sense of self-awareness and the ability to distinguish one’s own feelings from the feelings of others.
• Taking another person’s perspective (or, alternatively, “putting oneself in another person’s shoes”).
• Being able to regulate one’s own emotional responses.

Why is it important?
It’s a core skill for what psychologists call “pro-social” behaviour – the actions that are involved in building close relationships, maintaining friendships, and developing strong communities. It appears to be the central reality necessary for developing a conscience, as well.

And as emotional intelligence (EQ) has become an increasingly popular idea over the last twenty years. While “IQ” (intelligence quotient) attempts to describe our thinking and reasoning abilities, “EQ” (emotional intelligence quotient) attempts to describe our ability to work with our own and others’ emotions. The importance of these skills for personal, relationship and even work success has become increasingly recognized in the psychological community, and researchers and therapists alike are developing ways of helping folks learn and make use of these skills.

Technically, “emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to perceive and express emotion accurately and adaptively, the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge, the ability to use feelings to facilitate thought, and the ability to regulate emotions in oneself and in others”

One of the most important of the emotional intelligence skills is empathy. When we instinctively tell our kids to “think about how what you did made others feel,” we are training our kids in empathy and inviting them to recognize the importance of taking others’ feelings into account.

There are degrees of empathy, and, with practice and an understanding of psychology, we can probably develop stronger empathic skills.


How do you teach children empathy for others ?
1.Show them empathy. Openly empathize with others as an example.

2.Talk about feelings, a lot. Theirs, yours, anyone’s. Talk about fictional character’s feelings. Connect these feelings to your children.

3.Role play. We use this strategy all the time from preparing our kids for special events like holiday parties to going on the airplane and conflicts with friends.

4.Work to see their viewpoint as often if not more often than we try to force them to see ours. When your kid is acting up it’s hard sometimes to put yourself in their shoes. It might make you feel soft or like a pushover even. You can still have clear and solid boundaries and consequences while empathizing and it will encourage empathetic responses from your kids as well. Teach by example.

5.Don’t wait for your child to feel an emotion before you talk about that emotion. Have them practice putting themselves in others shoes. Tell stories true and fictional. There are a lot of experiences my kids haven’t had but I have and I use those as we explore feelings. It gives them a connection to the feelings without having to have had to experience it themselves, at least not yet.

Once kids can empathize with children in different situations than their own they can really understand why these acts of kindness and giving matter.

=)

8 unintentional signals that might put your child off reading

We all know the benefits of reading; and some parents when young hate reading. This is absolutely common and if you wishes for your child to pick up reading, you must first generate interest both in yourself and the child. However, most parents might unintentionally give the wrong set of cues that indirectly tells the child to stop reading. We do not want any of that. Actually all kids love reading because of the stories and the colours in children books which generate creativity. Remember when we used to buy toys in white, black and red for babies. Keep it up. Get them books either by buying or borrowing or even exchanging with fellow parents.

1. Don’t put down your child’s reading materials. Comics and books with crude humor often get dragged through the mud, as do character-driven books. Their choices may not be your favorite, but when you say no to a book, what your child may hear is no to reading. Instead of banning their beloved reading material , find a way to add in some more desirable books into the mix.

2. Don’t provide the wrong level material. No one likes reading something that makes them feel stupid. If the books are too hard they will frustrate your child. If the books are too easy, they will bore your little reader. You don’t need to know your child’s exact level; their interest will let you know. Go to the bookstore or library when you have a chunk of time and let them explore. Take out a bunch of books and try them out. Find favorite authors and read everything they’ve written, then start again with a new author.

3. Don’t use reading as a punishment. Saying things like “Go to your bedroom and read!” or “If you do that again, I will make you go read.” sets kids up to associate reading as a negative thing. Keep punishments and reading separate.

4. Don’t forget to give your child books as a gifts. Gifts are special, and starting at birth books make the best gifts – especially if you read them with the person who gave them to you. Book fairs at schools are a great place for kids to get excited about books, and we use them as treats!

5. Don’t explain to your child they aren’t really reading yet when they are only looking at the pictures. If we tell our children they aren’t readers, they will believe it, and to a child this isn’t as fluid as it is for adults. They don’t see that reading is developmental, and this blow to their confidence can really stick with them. If they aren’t decoding words yet, let them know that they can “read the pictures” and tell the story that way until they can read the words too.

6. Don’t forget to let your kids see you read for fun. Studies show that kids with parents who read often for pleasure are more likely to read for fun themselves. So if you want a kid who loves to read, let them see you reading too.

7. Don’t over-correct and over-practice. It’s exciting when your child starts to read independently, but forcing them to read and reread text until they have it perfect is not the most effective way to encourage or instruct. Read with your new reader and help when they ask for it. If they miss a word but the meaning is intact, don’t interrupt. If the meaning of the sentence is all screwy, wait for a natural pause and ask them, “Did that make sense?” You can revisit the word if it didn’t. Use the pictures and the rest of the text as clues if the word is too tough to decode. If you have to do this often, the text is too hard for your child. Choose something easier, or if they are insistent take turns reading so there is some fluency being modeled.

8. Don’t forget to read to your kids. Every day. Even those days when you just want them to go to sleep already!!

A list of things your child needs to know before Kindergarten

Some kids are faster and some kids slower. However, it does not really denotes the capability of an individual. Some are good in academics while some excel in other areas like fine arts and etc. The key to it is to discover what your children is good in and what they are not so good in; thus reinforce.

Children nowadays are now being stress out by all the requirements at a young age to be better than the other children, or even fair as well as older children. That is sad. Hence, we have researched a list of things a chid should at least accomplished before heading into kindergarten. And we hope that through this list, it can help both parents and kids when they goes to kindergarten, main idea is that they are able to cope with the educational load and proceed better at handling future expectations.

We like to emphasise that competition is good but overly doing it may cause more harm. Like in one childcare my daughter was in last time, it is only needed of them to know until number 20 at K1. We shifted and the present standard was 40. Our friend's childcare standard was 50. Oops! Hence, let's all sit back and rethink what is neccessary and what is just way too much. Food for Thought!

All right, here you go on this list. =)

Personal and Social Development
Approach to learning
•Shows eagerness and curiosity as a learner
•Persists in task and seeks help when encountering a problem
•Is generally pleasant and cooperative

Self-Control
•Follows rules and routines
•Manages transitions (going from one activity to the next)
•Demonstrates normal activity level

Interactions with Others
•Interacts easily with one or more children
•Interacts easily with familiar adults
•Participates in group activities
•Plays well with others
•Takes turns and shares
•Cleans up after play

Conflict Resolution
•Seeks adult help when needed to resolve conflicts
•Uses words to resolve conflicts

Language and LiteracyListening
•Listens with understanding to directions and conversations
•Follows one-step directions
•Follows two-step directions

Speaking
•Speaks clearly enough to be understood without contextual clues
•Relates experiences with some understanding of sequences of events

Literature and Reading
•Listens with interest to stories read aloud
•Shows interest in reading-related activities
•Retells information from a story
•Sequences three pictures to tell a logical story

Writing
•Uses pictures to communicate ideas
•Uses scribbles, shapes, and letter-like symbols to write words or ideas

Alphabet Knowledge
•Recites/sings alphabet
•Matches upper-case letters
•Matches lower-case letters
•Identifies upper-case letters
•Identifies lower-case letters

Mathematical Thinking

Patterns and Relationships
•Sorts by color, shape, and size
•Orders or seriates several objects on the basis of one attribute
•Recognizes simple patterns and duplicates them

Number concept and operations
•Rote counts to 20
•Counts objects with meaning to 10
•Matches numerals
•Identifies by naming, numerals 0-10

Geometry and spatial relations
•Identifies 4 shapes- circle, square, rectangle, triangle
•Demonstrates concepts of positional/directional concepts (up/down, over/under, in/out, behind/in front of, beside/between, top/bottom, inside/outside, above/below, high/low, right/left, off/on, first/last, far/near, go/stop).

Measurement
•Shows understanding of and uses comparative words (big/little, large/small, short/long, tall/short, slow/fast, few/many, empty/full, less/more.
Physical Development

Gross-Motor Skills

•Pedals and steers a tricycle
•Jumps in place, landing on two feet
•Jumps consecutively- 7 jumps
•Balances on one foot for 5 seconds
•Hops on one foot 2-3 hops
•Hops on one foot- 6 ft.
•Throws a ball with direction- 5 ft.
•Catches a thrown ball with arms and body
•Climbs a playground ladder
•Skips smoothly for 20 feet

Fine-Motor Skills

•Stacks 10, one-inch blocks
•Strings 4 1/2″ beads in two minutes
•Completes a seven piece interlocking puzzle
•Makes a pancake, snake, and ball from playdough
•Grasps pencil correctly
•Copies: vertical line, horizontal line, circle, cross, square, V, triangle
•Copies first name
•Prints first name without a model
•Grasps scissors correctly
•Cuts within 1/4″ of a 6″ straight line on construction paper
•Cuts out a 3″ square on construction paper
•Cuts out a 3″ triangle on construction paper
•Cuts out a 3″ circle on construction paper
•Uses a glue stick appropriately
•Uses appropriate amount of glue for tasks


The Arts

Creative Arts
•Identifies 10 colors: red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, black, white, brown, pink
•Uses a variety of art materials for tactile experience and exploration

Music/Movement
•Participates in group music experiences
•Participates in creative movement/dance

Creative Dramatics
•Makes believe with objects
•Takes on pretend roles and situations

Induced labour Explained

In some countries, a lot of women focus on natural birth and that also means no induction birth, no pain relieve, no assisted birth and definitely no to epitomsy.

However, in Singapore, natural birth is defined otherwise. As long it is a vaginal birth, it is consider natural birth. Mostly all mothers give birth in a hospital than birthing centres; and most babies are delivered by professional doctors, gynaes rather than midwives.

In today's context, having a birth that is induced is very common. Why do we have induced birth? There are varied reasons for doing so and most of them are due to medical reasons.

For most induced birth, you are more likely to need instruments such as forceps or ventose to help deliver your baby. This may be due to the complications of the pregnancy that led to induction and/or it may be due to problems caused by the induction itself. Consider what pain relief you would like if the induction works and makes your contractions very strong and difficult to cope with.

Reasons for inducing:
- Your pregnancy has gone beyond 41 weeks and is considered overdue. You will usually be offered an induction sometime between week 41 and 42.
- Your water bag has broken but labour hasn't started. Most women go into labour within 24 hours of their waters breaking. If it does not happen, there is a risk that you or your baby could develop an infection, so you will probably be offered an induction.
- You have diabetes - provided your baby is growing normally, it is recommended that you induced after 38 weeks of pregnancy.
- You have a chronic or acute condition, such as pre-eslampia or kidney disease, that threatens your wellbeing or the health of the baby.
- Your water level is low.

There are a number of methods your doctor can use to try get your labour to start. Some may need to be repeated depending on individuals.

How to speed up labour
1. Membrane sweep
A membrane sweep often helps to stimulate labour and is now offered routinely to women who are overdue.

The membranes that surround your baby are gently separated from your cervix. The doctor can carry out this procedure during an internal examination.

2. Prostaglandin
Prostaglandin is a hormone-like substance, which help stimulate uterine contractions. Your doctor or nurse will insert a tablet, pessary or gel containing prostaglandin into your vagina to ripen your cervix.

Vaginal prostaglandin is most commonly recommended method to induce labour because it often works better and has fewer disadvantages than other methods.

3. Artificially rupturing the membranes (ARM)
ARM is sometimes called "breaking the waters". Breaking your waters is no longer recommended as a method of induction (unless vaginal prostaglandin cannot be used for some reason). However, doctors may use it to speed up labour.

This procedure can be done during an internal examination. The doctor will makes a small break in the membranes around the baby using an amniohook. This procedure often works when the cervix feels soft and ready for labour to start.

Artificial rupture of the membranes (ARM) does not always work and once your waters have been broken, your baby could be at risk of an infection if labour is too long. If there's an infection, you will be given antibiotics.

4. Syntocinon
Syntocinon is a synthetic form of the hormone oxytocin. You would be offered it if your labour hasn't start following a membrane sweep or prostaglandin or if your contractions are not very effective.

You will be given the Syntocin through an intravenous "drip", allowing the hormone to go straight into your bloodstream, through a tiny tube into a vein in your arm. Once contractions have begun, the rate of the drip can be adjusted so that contractions happen often enough to make your cervix dilate without becoming too powerful. As syntocin can cause strong contractors and put your baby under stress, so you will need to be monitored continuously.

For a detailed read, we found another website that is quite extensive that you can go take a look.

REST & NO WORK makes you a HAPPY Mom

Yes, we really mean it. After confinement, rest and no work really makes a mother a happy mom with a happy baby. Confinement in the first place means mother has to rest to get back her health back after months of pregnancy. By resting it also means getting enough breastmilk to feed baby. Therefore, please rest. =)