Part 2: One more day until Halloween!

Halloween is tomorrow. Are you prepared? Here are some guidelines for dressing your children in Halloween Costumes:

Costumes:

• Only Fire Resistant Material should be used for costumes


• Costumes should not be long due to tripping hazards. Falls are the number one cause of unintentional injuries on Halloween.


• If children are out after dark, try to dress them in clothing besides black. Use reflective tape on costumes to help motorist see them.

Masks and Facial Dress up:

• Masks can obstruct children’s vision. A good way to avoid this is face painting. This can be more fun and creative as well.


• If masks are worn, make sure they have large openings in the eyes, mouth and nose.


• Some masks can cause face irritations as well as makeup.


• Make sure when buying makeup they are approved and laboratory tested. They should be labeled: U.S approved Color Additives.

Accessories:

• Do not allow children to carry sharp objects. Make sure they are flexible and made of material such as cardboard.


• Like clothing, bags or buckets should be light colored and lined with reflective tape.


• Using Flashlights will help children see as well as be seen.

By: Natasha Browning

Part 1-Countdown until Halloween

Halloween may be an exciting for tradition for children, but for many parents it is a time for worry and fear. Here some tips in making sure you have a happy and safe Halloween this year. Please do not take lightly, even for the Motorists. When I was in high school, a friend of mine hit a small child running across the street. It is a busy time on the streets and in neighborhoods, so let’s all join together to keep it safe.

Parents:

• Before letting your children go out trick or treating, be sure there is adult or responsible youth supervision for anyone under the age of 12


• Make certain rules for children to follow-such as NEVER GO INTO A STRANGERS HOME or ONLY TRAVEL IN FAMILIAR AREAS OR A SPECIFIC ROUTE or ONLY GO TO HOMES THAT ARE WELL LIT.


• Go over all pedestrian safety rules


• Instruct them to not eat any candy until they return home


• Give them a strict return time


• Pin a slip of paper with child’s name, address, and phone number, in case a young child gets separated from a group.

Treats:

• Give children an early meal before going out


• Insist treats be brought home for inspection before eaten


• Wash fruit and slice into small pieces


• When in doubt throw away.

Motorists
The National Safety Council urges motorists to be especially alert on Halloween.

• Watch for children darting out from in between parked cars


• Watch for children walking on medians, roadways, or on curbs


• Exit and enter driveways carefully


• Watch for children dressed in black.

By: Natasha Browning

As I was gloriously strolling down the grocery isle with my preschooler we spotted the new Nestle Toll House Halloween treats. First, we saw the Halloween brownie dough package, which have soft witches and pumpkins on top of the brownies. Second, we saw the sugar cookie package with an assortment of ghosts, witch hats, bats, and jack-o-lanterns. I love the Toll House pre-made dough packages, as they make for easy cooking projects with my son. My preschooler can break apart the dough, mold them a little to the shape he or I wants, and decorate the treats with anything extra of his choosing. My preschool chef chose reeses pieces and Halloween colored sprinkles to put on top of the goodies. What will yours choose?

Karen Preston

I love cooking with my preschooler. Not only is it a great math lesson but also it is simple, tasty fun for the family. Every Halloween we enjoy baking and cooking fun meals together with spooky themes. This past week we made pumpkin cupcakes using vanilla cake mix, an extra large container of white icing, decorative cupcake wrappers, and food coloring. While the freshly baked cupcakes were cooling we made orange and green icing in separate bowls. Together, we made orange circles for the pumpkins with green, spiky leaves on top of the cupcakes. Afterwards, my preschooler enjoyed making faces on them with a small tube of brown icing I found in the baking isle of the grocery store. My son’s favorite part of this cooking project was dying the icing. He giggled with excitement as he watched the icing turn different shades of orange and green.

Karen Preston

Recently my toddler began riding a scooter and a more advanced bike for his age as well as size. I knew right away I wanted my son to wear a helmet and protect his brain from injury. I found some frightening statistics from the Bicycle Safety Helmet Institute website.

The following are four statistics that stand out to me:

* About 540,000 bicyclists visit emergency rooms with injuries every year. Of those, about 67,000 have head injuries, and 27,000 have injuries serious enough to be hospitalized.
* 1 in 8 of the cyclists with reported injuries has a brain injury
*A very high percentage of cyclists' brain injuries can be prevented by a helmet, estimated at anywhere from 45 to 88 per cent.
* Indirect costs of cyclists' injuries due to not using helmets are estimated at $2.3 billion each year.

My son and I read Elmo’s ebook on the importance of wearing a helmet. Click here to view this wonderful, colorful resource.

Karen Preston

ContestForMoms.com is having a free Halloween Theme Baby Contest. You can enter a photo of your baby in a Halloween costume, with a Halloween theme, or even a Fall theme photo. The Halloween baby contest is free to enter for everyone and they have some cool prizes to give away from MyMiracleBaby.com and many more. Enter Your Baby's Halloween photo today HERE. They are accepting entries until the 25th of October, 2005. Join the fun and enter your baby, toddler or preschooler up to age 5.

Show your kids what Santa Claus is doing right now with this cute screen saver for your computer. Go to the Jinglegram website to get your free Santa Picking Pumpkins Screensaver. This is what Santa is doing this October. This is such a cute screensaver for your baby, toddler or preschooler.

http://www.jinglegram.com/screensavers.htm

apparenting.com is an attachment parenting blog that I read quite often. It is a blog written by a husband and wife about their attachment parenting lifestyle with three kids. It is an interesting blog to read and always has very good topics. Some recent topics included why we do not spank our kids, prolonged crying lowers IQ in babies, cheating spouses, and much more. Stop by and see what these attachment parenting parents will be talking about next. It's sure to be a great read!

On our way home yesterday in the car, we heard on a radio program that up to 40 % ( or more) of kids these days do not get enough sleep. Doctors and experts agree that our kids need between 12 and 15 hours of sleep per night. Now I know that my kids are in that 40 % because they do not get that amount of sleep per night and our oldest who is 4 years old does not take a nap anymore during the day. Our youngest, almost 16 months, takes about an hour long nap everyday so he is probably not getting enough sleep either. Sleep is very important for a child's well being and overall health. So, how do we get our kids to sleep more? Should we encourage a more strict bedtime routine? What other things can I do for a 4 year old to get him to sleep his "recommended" amount of sleep each night?

Running a Successful Playgroup - Part I

People often ask me why I decided to start my own playgroup. Simply answered, I like to be in control! That doesn’t mean I am a “control freak”… I just like to have control of my situations. I wasn’t crazy about the way some other groups operated or where or how often they met, so I took matters into my own hands and started my own, along with another mommy friend of mine.

3 ½ years later, we are 40+ moms strong, and I honestly believe there couldn’t be a closer, fun, interesting… and best of all, welcoming and friendly… group of moms in this area! Like plenty of playgroups, we have developed close relationships with each other – as have our little ones! After all, they have grown up together! But in addition to those friendships, I am always happy to see how welcoming and hospitable our members are to our newest members. Our members welcome with open arms new and expecting mommies from all different backgrounds and beliefs, and as different as we all are, we find out similarities in motherhood and build friendships on that. Here are some of our secrets to success!

~ There’s a method to our madness! We do not have planned or scheduled playdates. That works for some groups, but not ours. But even with no set schedule of events, we still manage to meet as a group at least once a week – usually more. We “fly by the seat of our pants” so to speak, and the laid back nature of our group really seems to work for us!
~ Get the daddies in on the action! We have quite a few annual events that the dads and older kids are invited to attend and participate in. This helps the dads get to know other dads – men they may not have met otherwise – and find out they have a lot in common with. Summer picnics (dads love to grill!), holiday parties and couple’s nights out are a great way to keep your partners involved with your “other life”. (to be continued...)

Carol M.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/home/carolm

As I was walking through the park last week I began noticing a ton of pinecones covering the ground. My toddler loves how they feel, smell, and apparently taste as he has put one or two in his mouth! He talked about the pinecones every time we passed the playground and his fascination would not cease. So one day we collected a handful, brought them home, and came up with a fun art project- making ornaments out of the pinecones!

How to make pinecone ornaments and decorations:

Step 1: Collect the pinecones. If your hands are sticky afterwards simply use cooking oil on your hands while washing them.

Step 2: Bake the pinecones at 200 degrees for 45 minutes to kill all little critters.

Step 3: Paint the pinecones any festive, holiday colors. Use a variety of mediums and let your kids use their fingers to paint the pinecones. Feeling the texture is part of the fun! Lay the pinecones on tin foil or any other solid surface to dry.

Step 4: After the pine cones dry, use a festive, holiday ribbon to tie around the top of the pinecone! You may also put the painted pinecones in a decorative bowl and use them as decorations.

The art project is not only fun but can be used as inexpensive holiday presents and decorations!

Karen Preston
http://www.notsoordinarymom.blogspot.com/

I came across some recent news today regarding SIDs in newborn babies on Yahoo news. The information is from the American Academy of Pediatrics and is part of the new updated policy on SIDs that says giving pacifiers to newborns and having them sleep in their parent's bedroom reduces the risk of SIDS in newborns.For the whole story read it on yahoo here

As we play outside with our three-year-old son he loves to be one of the big kids. Luckily, we have sweet neighborhood children who help him do tricks on skateboards and safely take rides with him on their scooters. Over and over again we explained to our preschooler that when he is older, he too would have a scooter. Well, to our surprise we discovered a 3-wheel scooter that our three-year-old son can ride. Being the budget hounds we are, we searched and surfed for the best deal around. The most inexpensive 3-wheel scooter we found is at Wal-Mart at $24.84. Depending on the interest of your child, you can choose from the Disney princess or action heroes themes.

Upon bringing it home it took approximately 25 minutes to put the three pieces of the scooter together. Our son is a little short so we had to play with the front piece in order to adjust it right for his height. Once the scooter was put together our son jumped on it with ease, scooted down the sidewalk, and has been scooting ever since! To our delight the wheels on the scooter circle slower and do not allow the preschooler to loose control of the speed.

It is exciting to see him develop different gross motor skills as well as gain independence. He enjoys feeling like one of the big kids and at three-years-old he could care less that his scooter has three wheels instead of two wheels. Since the scooter is more advanced, it is recommended your child wear a helmet while riding the scooter.

Karen Preston
http://www.notsoordinarymom.blogspot.com/

Lately it seems like one tragedy after another on the news.  I know everyone knows what I am talking about.  Do you think our children know it as well?  I live in Texas and have been affected greatly between hurricane Katrina and now Rita.  We have so many survivors of both hurricanes here now and I have wanted to help in as many ways as a can.  The sad thing is I haven’t thought about how this is affecting my 4 year old.  When you are living in the middle of it, it is constantly on the news and in his school.  He has children at his school now from New Orleans.  This can have an effect on him and I already believe it is.  When Rita was coming he asked me very disturbing questions such as, “Are we going to have to move to a different city” and “Are we going to die?”  Terrible questions for a four year old to ask.  This is probably my fault for having the news on twenty four hours a day.
     How can you help children deal with these kinds of feelings?  All ages will take it differently, but I am going to stick with the younger children.  I did much research to find out how I can talk to him.  What I found was strange but truthful.  You can help by letting your children express their feelings.  They might be sad or angry.  In his case he didn’t understand, but I do remember after Katrina him saying that he would be so sad if he lost his toys and couldn’t go back home..  You can also let them get involved; this will give a young child a sense of control.  My son helped me get things together to donate.  Now here is a weird suggestion I got off of another website, “To let your child act it out.”  Let them play out the hurricane so they can bring out the outcome themselves.  Give them blocks to knock over and hide toys in the rubble and let them find the toys.
     The best thing you can do to avoid this all together is to avoid the media exposure.  Limit the time you spend watching the news around your children.  It can be hard in a time of tragedy because that is all that is on and you want to see it.  Also a young child usually will lose interest in the news but sometimes the live reporting can show some scenes that may get your child interested.  Try to make sure you avoid this also.  If you believe your child is old enough to be involved in current events, try to find other ways of exposure such as newspapers of the internet.  You will have much more control on the content they see this way than what they show live on television.

(c) Copyright  2005 Mom Advice Central.  

Check out this new toddler toy blog. Featuring new toddler toys, reviews, and toddler toy gift ideas. It will be a great place to bookmark for the upcoming holiday season.

The 4th Annual Blogger Boobiethon is underway. Mommies, do your part this month for breast cancer research & cure. You can help by submitting a photo and/or donating to help support Breast Cancer Research. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Food Allergies – Our Experiences Part II: Erin

As difficult as a time that was, I am thankful for it, as it prepared me for when my second daughter joined us... and only 4 short months into her life, she also showed signs of a serious food allergy - signs I was ready for, and able to distinguish and act on immediately. Erin's food allergy proved to be much more serious, as her reactions were not simply skin rashes - but hives around her lips, an indication of an anaphylactic reaction. Her first reaction at 4 mos was to a teaspoon of cereal that had formula ingredients in it (she was breastfed and hadn't had milk of any kind). Skin testing showed that she was severely allergic to cow's milk.

Elimination was easy with her - we just never introduced milk! I nursed her until she was 13 mos when she self weaned, and put her right on soy milk. At 14 months, she also tested a negative on her skin test, and passed an oral challenge with flying colors.

I must say that diligence in elimination (and I mean total elimination) really paid off. In less than 2 full years, both of my girls now test negative on all food allergy tests - both blood and skin - for all foods! Relief? Absolutely. Foreign? Yes! It’s very strange to be able to just give them anything, and people still ask "Can they have this?" and with a little reluctance, still, I say "Yes... they can."

With the help of a great online community and a couple of good cookbooks, our family got through this. I know many food allergic kids have it much worse than mine did, and I feel for them - but it can be less overwhelming and manageable with an understanding pediatrician and a good support system.

Carol M.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/home/carolm

Food Allergies – Our Experiences Part I: Sara

Perhaps you were thrown into the situation after experiencing a frightening instant reaction to a new food... or maybe you have been battling a persistent rash, digestive or even behavioral issue... In the end, the outcome is all too common: Food allergies.
I found out my oldest daughter (now 4, and "outgrown" her allergy) was severely allergic to egg whites when she was about 18 mos. She had eczema from the time (in retrospect) we started "real" foods with her - about 12 months when we started introducing all the fun stuff - never taking into consideration that food might be causing the unusual and seemingly incurable rashes that affected her torso, legs arms and face - keeping her up all night, itching until she bled.Several prescription creams and 3 pediatricians later, we found ourselves at an allergist who skin tested her for the "big ones" (egg whites, peanuts, soy, milk etc)... and turned out to be a +4 to egg whites - severe - but not anaphylactic, thank goodness.

So... now what? Avoid all egg products? Oh my goodness! Eggs, in one form or another, are pretty much in everything - baked goods, hard candy, breads... name it, it probably contained eggs. I was overwhelmed, to say the least... and my husband was in denial. We spent quite some time scrutinizing every single label on everything that came into our house, but soon, it began to come naturally. Egg "code names" would pop off labels to me as if it said "POISON" in big bold letters... I became a pro at reading labels! I also baked a lot more... making "Sara safe" cupcakes for every birthday party we attended was a chore - but we made the best of it, making sure to decorate them with Elmos or something creative.... and if you didn’t tell people it was an eggless recipe, guess what - they never knew.

Carol M.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/home/carolm

TheRetroBaby.com has some of the coolest & cutest Baby & Toddler clothes I have ever seen! Most, if not all, of the baby/toddler t-shirts have a retro theme from old cartoons like The Smurfs, Snoopy, and The Fraggles. There are so many unique styles & graphics to choose from. This is a great gift idea for the baby or toddler in your life!

Visit TheRetroBaby.com online store today for afforable baby/toddler clothes. Dont forget to check out their new Fall line.

Fall is upon us and this is the time of the year that everyone does most of their crafting! It's such a fun time of the year for everyone. I have put together a few fun fall craft ideas below:

1.) Coffee Filter Flowers

You Need coffee filters, pipe cleaners, and markers to make this cute flower bouquet.
Here are some complete instructions on what you need to do
Flower Bouquet Instructions from KidsDomain.com

2.) Homemade Snow Globe

You need baby food jar, white paper, glitter, and water

Instructions: cut up small pieces of paper with your preschooler. Make sure your child uses kids scissors to cut up their paper. Then put the paper into the baby food jar with water. You can also add glitter for a shiny effect. Then seal the lid tight and you now have a homemade snow globe. Your kids will love shaking their homemade snow globe. Mine sure does!

3.) Egg Pumpkin Patch


You need a dozen hard boiled eggs, orange food coloring, and black & green markers or other supplies to draw on the pumpkin faces. You also need some green construction paper or left over green or yellow easter grass. You can add other personalized items/directions also. This would make a cute fall/halloween themed center piece for your kitchen table.

Stop by the Mommy Forums at ContestForMoms.com for Fun Crafts & Ideas for Baby,Toddler & Preschoolers everyday!