February 19, 2009
Nutrition, Toddler
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It is a beautiful sunny hot day on the Sunshine Coast today and I hope your day is great too.
I was speaking with a dietician today and it became clear to me that I needed to remind parents with toddlers a few things…
1. It is your job to offer nutritious food regularly (5 times a day) to your toddler but it is their choice whether they eat it or not.
2. Do not force feed your toddler
3. Do not offer sweet foods as rewards
We do not want the obesity problem to get any worse in the years to come and by doing these few things above we could be doing just that.
There is research to show that if you are obese as a child you have a much greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes as an adult, not to mention the struggle with keeping your weight down forever.
Help us to have a healthier community in the future.
I would love to hear your comment below.
Jan
February 11, 2009
Parenting
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This was an email sent to me after the February 2009 horror fires in Victoria, Australia. I wanted to pass it on to people who may benefit from it.
Children are able to cope better with a traumatic event if parents, friends, family, teachers and other adults support and help them with their experiences.
Help should start as soon as possible after the event.
It’s important to remember that some children may never show distress because they squash it inside, but it may begin to ooze out in uncharacteristic changes in behaviour after several weeks or even months. Other children may not show a change in behavior, but may still need your help.
Children may exhibit these behaviors after a disaster:
1. Be upset over the loss of a favorite toy, blanket, teddy bear or other things that adults might consider insignificant, but which are important to the child.
2. Change from being quiet, obedient and caring to loud, noisy and aggressive or may change from being outgoing to shy and afraid.
3. Develop nighttime fears. They may be afraid to sleep alone at night with the light off, to sleep in their own room, or have nightmares or bad dreams.
4. Be afraid the event will reoccur.
5. Become easily upset, crying and whining.
6. Lose trust in adults. After all, their adults were not able to control the disaster.
7. Revert to younger behavior such as bed wetting and thumb sucking.
8. Not want parents out of their sight and refuse to go to school or childcare.
9. Feel guilty that they caused the disaster because of something they had said or done.
10. Become afraid of wind, rain or sudden loud noises.
11. Have symptoms of illness, such as headaches, vomiting or fever.
12.Worry about where they and their family will live.
Things Parents or Other Caring Adults Can Do
1. Talk with the children about how they are feeling and listen without judgment. Let them know they can have their own feelings, which might be different than others. It’s OK.
2. Let the children take their time to figure things out and to have their feelings. Don’t rush them or pretend that they don’t think or feel as they do.
3. Help them learn to use words that express their feelings, such as happy, sad, angry, mad and scared. Just be sure the words fit their feelings - not yours.
4. Assure fearful children that you will be there to take care of them.
Reassure them many times.
5. Stay together as a family as much as possible.
6. Go back as soon as possible to former routines or develop new ones.
Maintain a regular schedule for the children.
7. Reassure the children that the disaster was not their fault in any way.
8. Let them have some control, such as choosing what outfit to wear or what meal to have for dinner.
9. Help your children know that others love them and care about them by visiting, talking on the phone or writing to family members, friends and neighbours.
10. Encourage the children to give or send pictures they have drawn or things they have written to family and friends.
11. Re-establish contact with extended family members.
12. Help your children learn to trust adults again by keeping promises and including children in planning routines and outings.
13. Help your children regain faith in the future by helping them develop plans for activities that will take place later - next week, next month.
14. Children cope better when they are healthy, so be sure your children get needed health care as soon as possible.
15. Make sure the children are getting balanced meals and eating enough food and getting enough rest.
16. Remember to take care of yourself so you can take care of your children.
17. Spend extra time with your children at bedtime. Read stories, rub their backs, listen to music, talk quietly about the day.
18. lf you will be away for a time, tell them where you are going and make sure you return when you promised or call at the time you say you will.
19. Allow special privileges such as leaving the light on when they sleep for a period of time after the disaster.
20. Limit their exposure to additional trauma, including news reports.
21. Children should not be expected to be brave or tough, or to “not cry.
22. Don’t be afraid to “spoil” children in this period after a disaster.
23. Don’t give children more information than they can handle about the disaster.
24. Don’t minimize the event.
25. Find ways to emphasize to the children that you love them.
26. Allow the children to grieve losses.
27. Develop positive rituals and “anniversary” activities to commemorate the event. Help children understand that these events may bring tears, but they are also a time to celebrate survival and the ability to get back to a normal life.
Activities for Children
1. Encourage the children to draw or paint pictures of how they feel about their experiences. Hang these at the child’s level to be seen easily.
2. Write a story of the frightening event.
You might start with: Once upon a time there was a terrible ___________ and it scared us all_________. This is what happened: ____________
Be sure to end with, “And now we are safe.”
3. Playing with playdough or clay is good for children to release tension and make symbolic creations.
4. Music is fun and valuable for children. Creating music with instruments or rhythm toys helps relieve stress and tension.
5. Provide the children with clothes, shoes, hats, etc. so they can play “dress up” and can pretend to be adults in charge of recovering from the disaster and “being in charge.”
6. Make puppets with the children and put on a puppet show for family and friends, or help children put on a skit about what they experienced.
7. Read stories about disasters to and with children making sure to talk about how people coped and recovered.
By Dr Janet Hall
Clinical Psychologist:
Author: Fear-free Children, Fight-free Families, How to be Boss of Bedtime.P.S.
Every little bit helps - together, we can make a difference.
February 9, 2009
Parenting
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Is your ‘V’ upside-down?
I recently attended a session held by Stafford Williams (Director of Family Foundations and father of four young adults) on parenting styles and skills which was aimed at parents of teenagers.
As I sat and listened over the two evenings it occurred to me how much it was connected to parenting toddlers and preschoolers only at a different level. It was about setting boundaries and determining how far you will allow your teenager to push them.
Does that ring any bells with your parenting experiences so far?
Dr Sylvia Rimm quotes ‘The ‘V’ of Love’.
“This is where the bottom of the V represents the close control you have of your baby at birth, while the top represents the release of control as the child leaves home for adult life. Unfortunately, many parents have this V upside down and are trying to tighten the reigns of control as their child gets older. People of all ages compare the amount of control they have in a relationship only to the amount of control they used to have - not the amount they feel they should have. Therefore, when parents relinquish control in increasing amounts, children, especially teenagers are usually satisfied with the level of control”.
A toddler throws tantrums as they attempt to gain more control.
In what areas is your toddler winning?
Are you giving them so much control now that you will have to pull in the reigns of control as they get older?
Access a proven program that will help you to communicate and understand your toddler. Go to Talking to Toddlers under BLOGROLL on the right of this screen.
“I have a 2 year old daughter who is going on 16. I was ready to pull my hair out and was tired of her telling me what to do and tired of yelling at her in return. Then I came across your course, which was heaven sent. I saw improvements after the first lesson. It was a miracle. I was waiting for her to fight back and then there was nothing. The conflict was resolved. Wow! Chris Thompson is the Toddler God indeed. This program was worth every single penny.”
Rachel Turner
Utah, USA
I would love to hear your thoughts and stories below.
February 9, 2009
Parenting
No Comments
I was recently reading a book by Robert Kiyosaki from his Rich Dad Poor Dad Series.
He shared many things throughout this book that was of interest to me but one specific statement stuck in my mind and I would like to share it with all parents.
“Always remember that your values determine your reality“.
As parents, we choose what values we instill in our children. Such values may have been learnt form our parents or perhaps mentors we have had in our own life.
It is our country’s future that relies on the generation that we are raising. Let us raise children on a solid foundation of values. Show your children how to be positive, healthy and vital, to dream big and live with faith not fear.
Living positive can be hard in a fairly negative world but it depends on who you look to for your own support and encouragement.
Would love to hear your comments.
February 1, 2009
Christian Influence
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Proverbs 22:6
“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”
We need a SOLID FOUNDATION - a road map to follow to pass onto our children.
‘Train up’ in Hebrew translates to ‘BIT’ inside a horse’s mouth to bring under submission.
As a parent I see it as our job to help guide, train, shape, mould, instruct, love, warn and teach our children but ultimately it is Jesus who leads them to God and the destiny he has for their life.
The first 7 years of a child’s life is the perfect time to set the blueprint for how you want them to live.
Personally, I see the Bible as having some good instruction. I will share these with you in this category.
