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.

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.

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

Potty Training Mistakes to Avoid

Potty training can be a chore sometimes. But it got too be taught eventually. Here's some tips to make sure potty training do not become a hassle.

1. Don’t be unrealistic. We heard parents say that their baby was potty trained at the age of 2 without much help. Well, good for you. However, we like to emphasize that the average age for a child to understand or even start potty training between 2 and 3 years old. And it does not matters if your child is a boy or girl. There's no proof that girls or easier to train or whatsoever. Hence, be realistic. Establish your child routine and how acceptive they are to potty training. Even if your child is trained only by age 4, there's nothing to be ashamed of.


2. Don’t pin all your hopes on advice. Be prepared for lots of ideas when your toddler enters this phase. You’ll be told that diaper-free time is THE way to go. Or perhaps candy bribes. Or having your child help clean up the messes with you. Or use a special training pants will work. Unfortunately, every child is different and there’s not really a one-size-fits-all approach to potty training. So take advice for just what it is – ideas you can try out, but not perfect solutions to the problem. Just be positive and try. If a child is not ready, no matter how much you try, chances of succeeding is not high.


3. Do not buy too much stuff when you are potty training your kid. As this method might not work and the stuff deem useless.


4.Don’t forget that personality is key. A child’s temperament greatly affects the whole potty training experience. Confident, type-A (i.e. choleric) children might thrive on being given challenges or even taking dares (“Let’s see if you can keep your pants dry while you are playing this morning!”) Thoughtful and introspective toddlers who are prone to worry (i.e. melancholic) will benefit from frequent praise and encouragement and be ultra sensitive to any kind of negativity or disapproval from you. Happy-go-lucky types that flit from one thing to another (i.e. sanguine) are going to be so busy playing that potty training might become a boring, mundane interruption. So you might have to make it SUPER FUN for these free spirits! And last of all, the laid-back, careful and peace-loving (i.e. phlegmatic) children just aren’t going to see what the big rush is. Number two messes and puddles on the floor? Hmmm, not really a big deal for them. Learning to use the potty? Can we put that off another day? The slow and methodical phlegmatic needs more motivation than all the other personalities. This is the child you’ll have to kindly and gently “light a fire” underneath, or they may put it off until it’s time to go to school.


5. Don’t lose patience and don’t take it personally! They will make messes right on the floor. They will run and hide when it’s time to go. They will sit on the potty for thirty minutes and then have an accident as they walk out of the bathroom. They will miss and spray the bathroom walls, floor and furniture. They will create more dirty laundry than ten newborn babies. They will regress just when you’ve put away all their diapers and patted everyone on the back for a job well done. And when you think your patience has been tested to the limit, a few adventurous toddlers will want to put their hands in it, create art with it and quite possibly try to ingest it! So pray for patience; you’ll need loads of it. And try not to take all this personally, although it will be tempting some days to think they are doing all this to punish you for making them eat vegetables.

The benefits of FRUITS & VEGETABLES for children

Do you have to nag at your kids to take their vegetables and sometimes fruits as well? In our busy schedule where everything is speed required, did we give it a thought on why it is important to have a good diet in terms of the health nutritions and their nature? Children like adults need a balance diet. More especially for children since they are growing and their appetite is small and whatever they take in per meal is definitely limited. That's the reason the more we need to pay attention to what they consumed.

Fruits and vegetables benefit kids in many ways, including improved nutrition, decreased obesity risk and better school performance. However, most children don’t get the recommended four or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Only 22 percent of toddlers and preschoolers and only 16 percent of kids ages 6 to 11 meet the requirements. One-half of children’s mealtime plates should be filled with fruits and vegetables in order to reap the benefits.

Improved Nutrition -
Children’s growing bodies require good nutrition, and fruits and vegetables contain a multitude of vitamins, minerals and other healthy compounds. Citrus fruits and strawberries are rich in immune system-boosting vitamin C, carrots are loaded with eye-healthy vitamin A and spinach is a good source of iron, a mineral that helps prevent anemia. Eating fruits and vegetables in a rainbow of colors will provide a wide range of nutrients that help keep kids healthy.

Decreased Obesity-
Fruits and vegetables are high in filling fiber, but low in fat and calories. Encouraging kids to eat fruits and vegetables instead of sugary snacks and fat-laden fast food can help children avoid obesity. According to an USDA study of 3,064 kids ages 5 to 18 linked higher fruit consumption to healthier body weights.

Digestive Health-
High-fiber foods, such as fruits and vegetables, help the digestive system function properly. Constipation in kids can often be eased by eating more high-fiber prunes, apricots, plums, peas, beans and broccoli. As fiber passes through the digestive system, it absorbs water and expands, which triggers regular bowel movements and relieves constipation.

Better School Performance-
Children with healthy diets, including high consumption of fruits and vegetables, performed better on academic tests than children who consumed fewer fruits and vegetables. A number of factors influence the academic performance of kids, but nutrition is an important contributor to better school performance, the report noted.

Tips To increase Their Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables

1. Shop with your kids and let them prepare vegetable and fruit dishes.
2. Sneak pureed vegetables into your children’s favorite foods and stock kid-level shelves in the fridge with baggies of cut-up veggies and fruits and fruit cups.
3. Shop organic if you can. However, the most important thing is for kids to eat fruits and vegetables – organic or not.
4. Eat along with your kids. Do not have a separate type of diet with your children unless you are on medical restrictions.

We all are always guilty of not have enough fruits and vegetables, both adults and children. Thus with the explanation above, let's all incorporate more of these into our diet.

Extras:
1. When you have a buffet next time, do up a rainbow bowl of fruits and a cocktail glass of vegetables (as in pictures). When it looks good, it makes you wanna eat them.

Let us have your ideas and how you keep up on this fruits and vegetable routines. =)

Cultivating a good brushing routine with your child

We all know that we have 2 sets of teeth in our lifehood,  baby teeth and adult teeth. And in the current era, we are taught to teach our children to take care of their teeth from young;  actually at infant stage even before their baby teeths sprouts.  That's because we need to take care of ther gums too.

As they grow up, they need to learn how to brush their teeth and it can be a very difficult task. We have googled some info and find this article very useful and like to share with you.

Check this link:
http://candhnews.wordpress.com/category/brushing-kids-teeth/

From my own experiences, I would recommend these ways and some are also mentioned in the article from the above link.

1. Let your child chooses her own toothbrush, toothpaste and brushing gadgets from the ranges you pre-select for them.
2. Engage brushing with them meaning brushing together.
3. Be an example to stop eating after the bedtime brushing. Even though brushing can be done again, kids are not too keen to do it again.
4. Use products like Flipper and/or Steripod to generate their interest in brushing. For example, these products are cute and colourful and it makes pre and post brushing an interesting affair. The thought of getting your toothbrush out and back into these products are a fun thing for them as they get to touch them. This method is definitely proven with my kids. :).
5. Floss with them too. Don't forget this part.

Hope the above help you and let you have an idea where to interest your children to start paying attention to oral care and oral hygiene.

Steripod is our newly brought in product from USA and it definitely is a hit here. It helps to sanitize your toothbrush while you are not using it.  Believe me, you do not want poop particles to find residence on your toothbrush. That's yucky. And by engaging both oral care and oral hygiene routine,  we can ensure that we stay healthier and prevent ourselves from falling sick offen.

Steripod and Flipper are available at www.eobexclusive.com and www.qoo10.sg.

Ciao! :)))