Your child’s first tooth could start to appear in the center of his lower jaw at around four months after birth, or even earlier. By the time he is three years old, he should have all 20 baby teeth. When he gets close to six, his permanent teeth may be starting to grow and pushing out the baby teeth ahead of them. Between the ages of about six and 21, he will develop a total of at least 28 teeth – a whole mouthful of adult teeth.

An early appointment, for a specialist in pediatric dentistry to examine the child’s mouth once the first tooth has arrived, is a good idea. Even before the rest of the baby teeth arrive, the dentist can predict if any problems are likely to arise, and give you guidance on what to do about them, or on how to keep the teeth healthy.

A specialist pediatric practice will not just have a sterile waiting room where you can feel the tension and hear a pin drop. You’ll find an environment that makes the visit fun with attractive toys and activities that make waiting time fly by. All the staff will be specially trained to keep your children happy and comfortable. When it is all over and you leave, don’t be surprised if your children are keen to know when the next visit is due.

If a specialist practice is out of the question, ask your own dentist for advice about your children’s teeth and when you should have them checked. Any dentist can advise on oral hygiene for your children.

It is really important to supervise their teeth cleaning in the morning and again before bed. Find the right toothbrushes, small, with really soft bristles for limes, graduating into larger sizes as they grow. Make sure you also have appropriate toothpaste. That means checking the fluoride levels and ensuring around 1000 parts per million for any child under three, graduating to 1350-1500 parts per million for those between three and six. After their seventh birthdays, they can use the same toothpaste as you, and then you can teach them all about flossing and mouth-washes.

Start them off by doing the cleaning for them. Some parents find it easier to stand behind a little one with the hand not wielding the toothbrush gently tipping back his head from under his chin. Squeeze out just as much toothpaste as the size of a pea and brush all the areas of teeth and gums carefully back and front, using a circular movement for a total of two minutes. Teach them to spit afterwards rather than swallowing the toothpaste. Although a little is not harmful, swallowing too much fluoride toothpaste can cause discoloration problems later.

They’ll soon want to clean their teeth themselves, but you still need to supervise and make sure it’s done properly. Then remember to tell them how clever they are and how proud you are of them. This is the way to set healthy denial habits for life.

If a child has uncontrolled anger management issues then these can be a problem not only for them, but for the whole family too. Everyone in the family suffers no matter whether it is a small child or toddler who has this problem or whether it is a teenager.

Parents must recognize whether anger management is going to become a problem in their lives early on. If their tiny baby is having a problem controlling his anger then it can seem to be a trivial matter, but if left unchecked, this problem will keep growing and growing and growing.

Young children, it has to be said, are very good at manipulating their peers and particularly their parents. They know how to push just the right buttons and they know how to play one parent off against the other. Unless the parents present a united front to the child, then the child will soon learn when they can get their way, either by whining and moaning for endless hours, or by having a tantrum. These tantrums can occur anywhere from the living room floor, to the middle of the nearest toy store. If they see that they can have an effect at all by having an outburst of anger, then they will try it.

The parent’s reaction is often one of acute embarrassment and the need to shush the child up as quickly as possible and get out of there as fast as possible. Most people will be faced with this situation at least once a week because none of us has the luxury of being able to leave our little loved one somewhere, so they have to come shopping with us.

The key to management of this type of behavior is to 1. Be Consistent and 2. Plan Ahead. Being consistent is very difficult. If you say ‘no’ to something, then you both have to stick to it, and not give in. Children will try anything if they want something from you and having a tantrum in the middle of aisle five is just one of their weapons. Remember, ‘No’ means ‘no’. If they see that it never works and once you have said it there is no going back, then they will save their energy. If sometimes you mean ‘maybe’, sometimes you forget and buy them a treat, or you feel guilty etc, then they will wind you round their little finger. Planning ahead means you could all eat first before going shopping so there is no begging for sweets. You could promise them a treat if they first do this one thing, or you can involve them in shopping by getting them to write the list, etc.

Teenage anger is a little more difficult to deal with. Brooding silences, sulking behavior, or shouting and door slamming are just some of the things which come with the territory. With teenage anger management, it is first important to know what they are angry about. Their anger may be displaced, so that even they do not know what it is about. In order to be in a position to do this, you have to talk to them. So that when they are shouting and screaming at you about forgetting to wash their favorite t-shirt, you might have an idea that they have just had a disappointing test result, or been turned down for the track team. The better relationship you have with them before their teenage years, the better you will be prepared. Good Luck!

Childhood obesity is now a sad reality for millions of households around the world. Roughly twenty percent of all children are now thought to have some sort of problem with their weight, and this problem is increasing every year.

The sedentary lives we now lead, with all sorts of delicious fast food and easy access to transport make sure that we are able to increase our girth with no problem. Children especially are exposed to all sorts of influences which determine what they want to eat. Many of the foods that we now consume have far too many calories with not enough nutrients and minerals. We are all in danger of becoming overfed and undernourished.

Research now shows that if nothing is done to stop the spread of this growing problem, then in time, we may have produced a whole generation of children and adults who are twice as large as their ancestors.

In the prehistoric dawn of man, we human beings led a vastly different life to the one we now lead. Food was probably scarce and all day was spent in some kind of activity – whether it consisted of hunting for nutrient-rich food, or making shelters for defense from other predators. Now, we have an abundance of food and a lot of our time is spent either sitting in front of the television or a computer, both day and night in some cases.

Social worries now also mean that mothers are more reluctant to let their children roam freely outside. This means that they are restricted to going out and about with their parents. We also live more stretched out lives than ever before. We may live in one town, but work in another. The school may be several miles away and the nearest stores may be half an hour’s drive. All these factors mean that we are walking less with our children than ever before.

The speed of life has also increased and the composition of the family has changed. There are fewer nuclear families, that is, two parents and two children. Now mothers have far less time to prepare a healthy meal at the end of the day. They have probably come home from work at the same time, or after the kids come home from school, so take-outs are an easy option. Take away food is cheap and very readily available, but unfortunately is loaded with fats and salt and contains a ridiculous number of calories. Even the snacks which we consume between meals can now have thousands of calories!

Unfortunately, this means that we are setting our children up with problems which will last them right up until old age. Heavier children have more burden on their heart, lungs, joints and other organs. Childhood obesity has been linked to adult depression and particularly to eating disorders in later life.

If we love our children, we must do something now to stop the spread of childhood obesity and ensure that they grow up to be happy, healthy adults.

Children, especially babies, are more delicate and have much weaker natural immunity than adults. Although in the womb, they are exposed to a certain degree of natural immunogens through their mother’s blood, they are largely protected by the mother’s placenta. Once out in the real world, the exposure to toxins and allergens as well as potential illnesses increases by a huge amount.

Breastfeeding also provides a large amount of protection to the young developing immune system. Mother’s breast milk contains many naturally occurring antigens which can be absorbed into the baby’s system and give the baby added protection as it grows and develops. Because the mother’s immune system has already dealt with these harmful substances, when they are passed through to the baby they are in the harmless, neutralized form and all the baby needs to do is to produce its own little baby antibodies against them. It is a sort of natural immunization.

But, we all know that babies crawl and pick up everything in site and put absolutely everything into their mouths. This is actually good for them as it is allowing for more exposure to the germs and this gives a baby’s immune system more chance to grow and become stronger. Later in life, they will benefit from this constant oral exploration.

Despite all these protection, babies are still incredibly delicate and must be protected from the usual types of illness which they can encounter through physical contact with others, through contact with contaminated clothing, or by being exposed to air-borne germs and viruses.

The most common types of baby illness are as follows:

1. Coughs and Colds: Some babies have a continually runny nose, so it might be difficult to detect when they have developed a cold. Colds can be caught by babies quite easily if other siblings or parents have them already. If a baby does catch a cold it can be distressing for them since they will not feel comfortable and may cry. They may also have a cough. There is very little to do in this case except keep wiping their nose and keep an eye on them. If the runny nose starts to become yellowish, or green, then it may be time to consult your pediatrician, or if the cough starts to become a hacking, wheezing cough.

2. Influenza, or simply ‘the flu’ is similar to a cold, except that it will be accompanied by a fever. Even through quite a high temperature, babies and toddlers do play and wander around quite happily unless the other symptoms are especially bad. It is extremely important to keep an eye on the temperature and keep it under control by giving baby medicines containing paracetamol. If the fever persists for more than a few days then it is advisable to seek medical advice.

3. Chicken Pox – chicken pox is highly contagious. It is infectious from two days before the first symptoms appear and for up to five days afterwards. It is passed on through saliva and sneezes. Chicken pox is better to be caught when the child is younger because it can be very mild. In adults it can be incredibly virulent and the symptoms of a very itchy red rash can be very troublesome. The good news is, if you have had chicken pox, it is very rare that you catch it again.

With the arrival of your newborn baby, you will necessarily have several concerns about their safety and security. You will have scoured the house from top to bottom and made sure that each room is as childproof as possible. You will also be given several presents including lots of the cutest little baby clothes. Many parents have questions about how to wash these baby clothes.

First and foremost, it is important to understand that a baby’s skin is more delicate than older children and adults’. Their skin can easily become irritated by things in their surroundings. If the clothes next to their skin are harsh and rough then baby’s skin can quickly become red and sore. They can even develop rashes and other skin problems.

This is also true of any harsh chemicals. The normal detergents that we use to wash our clothes may not be suitable for baby’s clothes. Because these powders and liquids can contain strong enzymes to get our own clothes clean. This is especially true of the biological washing powders. Fabric softeners can also contain many different chemicals to coat the fabric with static resistant ions and make them appear softer and more fluffy.

We have no problem with these for our own clothes. As we age our skin becomes more resistant to these and we don’t even notice anything on our skin. But for a baby, exposure to this kind of product might possibly have harmful effects. It is a good idea to select a product which has been specially formulated to be used on baby clothes. A mild detergent which does not contain so many potentially harmful chemicals should always be used. Some people always also wash their baby clothes separately from the main wash for this very reason. Any residual chemicals left over in adult clothes will leach out into the wash and will ruin the effect of using the milder detergent.

But, with a mild detergent and a cooler wash, it can still be possible to get clothes just as clean. The important thing is that if there are any stains on the clothes, to deal with them straight away. This can be done by washing the wet stain immediately with water. Use cold water as some stains can be set in further by using hot water. Then if necessary, soak the garment with some stain remover and wash as normal, making sure that it is rinsed properly.

If reusable diapers are used then these must always be washed separately from the main wash and also from the other baby clothes. These can be soaked in an acidic solution to counteract the ammonia they contain and then washed and rinsed thoroughly in a normal wash. It would be much more hygienic to use a diaper washing service.

It is very important to give the matter of baby’s clothes a lot of thought. It is one way to make sure that your child is comfortable and not irritated by their clothes. This is far better for all concerned because if baby is suffering from irritating clothes, then they will cry and you will not be able to work out why. Looking after their clothes is a good way to sanity for all concerned.

A lot of new mothers consider whether it would be possible for them to quit their job and stay at home and look after the children on a full time basis. This can be an agonizing decision for many couples. There is the attraction of spending all the time possible with their new little baby or other children and providing with a healthy, happy, loving home, but this is offset by the need to go back to work and start bringing in the much needed second income. If considered carefully, staying at home can be a reality for many women.

With generous maternity leave options, many companies may already give new mothers up to six months at home. This time can be used wisely to decide whether staying at home is all it’s cracked up to be. This can be a god time to evaluate whether you and your sanity can manage to stay at home. It is important to remember that with maternity leave options, there may be a penalty if you do not return to work for at least a few months. Make sure you know your company policy otherwise you may be stung for hundreds or thousands of pounds.

Apart from that, new parents must look at what sort of income they are likely to expect if one of them becomes a stay at home parent. Many costs will be greatly reduced. The costs of travel to and from work each day and of maintaining and replacing work clothes will likely disappear.

Then also, there will be no childcare costs if you are opting to stay at home and look after your children yourself. These are often a very large part of the monthly budget and will no longer be necessary, unless you wish to work at home. Even then, you may not need full time care. In this way, a very large part of the income that was needed before will no longer be needed.

For a new mother, there will be increased costs of looking after the baby. This can be quite considerable in the first few months to one year. So it may be necessary for her to take on a reduced role or part time job, maybe working from home.

There will probably still be the same bills to pay and these may even be increased slightly if there is someone constantly at home now, rather than before when the house stood empty all day. Heating and lighting bills may increase.

An important factor to consider which many people overlook is pension provision. If someone intends to stay at home over a considerable time, then they must have adequate retirement plans to make sure that they still have an income once they reach pensionable age.

It is also a very good option to stay in touch with people at work, or at least to keep an eye on the jobs market. Then if that dream job, or the need to go back to work does arise, then you will be best placed to apply.

When you first hold your little bundle of joy in your arms, probably the last thing on your mind is whether to use cloth nappies or disposables. Or, like a growing number of parents these days, have you already decided which one is best for you? The jury is still out on this one and both sides of the argument seem to be quite valid and legitimate.

So, which type of diaper is best both for you and for the environment, and the planet as a whole? As a new parent, you have to consider your own circumstances and whether you will find it easy to wash the cloth diapers yourself. Will you have time? If you are a first-time parent, you will undoubtedly underestimate just how much time is taken up just caring for a new baby. Do you want to spend a significant proportion of this time washing diapers? You will be washing lots of baby clothes, so maybe it will not make so much difference to you.

Then there is the consideration of how many cloth diapers you will need in comparison to disposables. The advantages of disposable diapers are that they are very easy to use. Just take one out when it is needed and throw it away at the end. Almost all of them now contain sodium polyacrylate – a polymer which is absorbent to one hundred times its own weight. This means that everything is absorbed into the diaper and away from your precious baby’s skin. This means that these diapers can be left on longer. They have recently advertised a 12-hour diaper for dry nights. This means that you use fewer of them over your day.

The reusable diaper must be lined and pinned. Then, when it needs changing you must dispose of the inner lining and then keep the soiled outer diaper in a container until you can wash all of them together. Since they are not as absorbent as disposables, you will use much more – maybe more than double the number of disposables. Then, once you have gathered enough for a full load in your machine, then you can wash them together. It would not do to wash less than a full load because this would not be environmentally friendly. Urine-soaked diapers can be washed at a lower temperature, but soiled diapers must be washed at 60 degrees. Then to save more of the environment, you can dry these out on the washing line. Rather than have bucket-fulls of diapers hanging around, at least one of these washes must be performed everyday – and where do you put your crawling baby while you hang everything on the line everyday?

Disposable diapers do not break down in land fills easily at all. Also, people often throw them away in scented sacks to save their house from filling up with bad odors, which increases the time needed for them to break down. But, it is thought that diapers make up less than 1% of the nation’s waste, so a true environmentally friendly policy should examine all types of waste sources and minimize all routes to landfill.

Until adequate reporting and perhaps legislation can determine policy on these, it must be left up to the individual conscience whether it is better to use cloth or disposable diapers. Realistically far fewer parents choose to opt for cloth reusable diapers for the reasons described: those of economy, hygiene and practicality. But, if there is a good diaper-washing company in the area who can service thousands a day and return yours to you at a reasonable rate, then reusable diapers may prove to be a viable option.

When is it a good idea to get a tutor and who needs a tutor? Well, a tutor is someone who can be a specialist in their field and who sometimes also has a teaching qualification. Teachers become tutors sometimes, either to earn extra income or to help their pupils to do better in their subjects. But tutors can also come from all areas such as students, professionals and family members.

There are two types of situation in which getting a tutor is a good idea. If a child is finding it a struggle to understand a subject at school or is not keeping up with lessons because they do not understand what the teacher is talking about then it should be discussed with them. Similarly if they are finding it hard to understand that homework that is being set for them and you can see that they do not know how to answer the questions, then certainly think about getting a tutor for them.

They might find it embarrassing to tell you that they don’t understand, and also in front of the other class members they will not admit that they don’t know how to answer the questions. In this case a specialized tutor will give them the confidence they need to catch up with the rest of the class and do better both at home and at school.

Another situation where a child needs a tutor is if they are excelling in a particular subject. This can be maths, science, art, music – whatever subject it is, you might find that they are bored in class because they already know how to do what is being taught. This can manifest in many ways. They can be uninterested in the subject and sit there being bored, so the teacher might tell you that they don’t pay attention in class, or worse, they can be disruptive! Often particularly clever children do get bored very quickly and look for excitement by causing the excitement themselves.

In both these situations, a child would benefit from a tutor in the specialized subject.
How to find a tutor can be difficult. From the many different people available, you need to find one who will get on with your child and fit with the way that they learn and need to be taught. Word of mouth can be a good source. Ask other parents if they know anyone good. Sometimes there are adverts in local newsagent. These can be good because you need someone who is local to the area in which you live.

You may be able to visit tutoring agencies that have several people on their books. These are often good because they provide a consistent framework of payment and schedule, and the tutors are very disciplined and turn up when they say and do what they are supposed to do. If you do decide to go for a tutor, be sure to explore all the possibilities before picking the best person.

Hopefully you will have a good relationship with your child so that when he or she starts to grow up into a teenager you should not have too many problems. But, if like the rest of us, you need a little bit of help in dealing with your little teenage rebel, then read on for help is at hand.

No matter how wonderful your relationship has been up until now, there is no question that children do change. Around about puberty, which can be as early as age nine or ten, especially in girls, or can be as late as fourteen in some kids, their attitudes start to change. And is it any wonder really? The body goes through such huge confusing changes at around this time that the mind can find it very difficult to keep up with things.

This is the time that your darling little angel, who promised never to be like their older sibling, starts to be exactly like their older sibling. They start to develop the exact same whiny tone. You start getting the blame for everything and start to get criticized for absolutely everything that you do too – especially if it is in front of their friends!

This is also around the time that you hear the phrase ‘Oh you’re so embarrassing!’ for the first time. You have been changing their nappy, wiping their nose, you have been standing around in front of a bush on the side of a busy road because they absolutely had to go wee-wee for over a decade, and now, just the way that you are standing is embarrassing – or your hair, or your clothes, or, well, just all of you really.

A good way to judge when ‘that time’ is near is the kissing goodbye index. Up until seven or eight, you can’t drop your child off anywhere without getting enthusiastic and very squishy kisses and hugs and lots of “I love you’s”. Then, at around nine or ten is when they start to pull away when you bend down to kiss them. Their eyes widen in shock as if you are going to wave your underwear at them or something and they try to push you out of the door before anyone gets the chance to see that they actually have a parent at all, let alone such a giant embarrassing blob like you!

So, how to cope? There are many ways to try to hang on to the semblance of a relationship.

1. Talk, talk, talk! Keep the lines of communication open as much as you can. Talk about anything and everything. It is best to keep nagging and scolding to a minimum if you can.
2. Listen, listen, and listen! Hopefully it should not just be the sound of your voice in the conversation with a few grunts from them. Try to leave some awkward pauses so that they are compelled to answer you.
3. You have probably had some very strict rules about bedtimes and chores, etc up until now, but it may be time to slacken off a bit. Let them set their own bedtime a bit more, or read a bit in bed. Give them some leeway. If by some miracle, you have survived up until now without any rules or boundaries, then it is time to get some in place, quick!
4. This is absolutely not the time to try to befriend your lovely little monster. Time and time again, it has been shown very clearly that what children need more than anything are real parents, not grown-ups who are more childish than themselves.
5. It is a very good idea to nurture any talents or hobbies that they might be interested in. If it is possible to get through the teenage years simply ferrying someone around from point A to point B without too many traumas, then it is all good.
6. Even better, try to find things to do together. Go for walks, or take up a sport. Having an interest together can be very rewarding and set you up for many years together. Involving each other in a mutual activity can not only give you something to talk about, but you can find out a lot about each other when you do things which are out of the usual daily grind.

Keep trying. It will be hard, that is without a doubt, but hopefully, with some good practices which you can both stick to, it might be at the easy end of hard rather than like swimming through treacle and wanting to chew your own leg off to stop the pain.

Until the age of four or five, children take for granted that they are who they are and that others are how they ought to be. They may not be happy with the way things are, but they accept them as normal or inevitable. Though younger children also make comparisons between themselves and others, these comparisons tend to be practical and momentary: who gets a place on the parents lap, whose birthday is coming sooner, who gets the longest cuddle with the puppy, which gets the most attention or approval. But by the age of six or seven, children begin to conceptualize the differences among themselves and to put themselves and others in certain categories. A child now makes new kinds of judgments about herself and others. Some children are better at school. Some are better at sports. Some are quicker to make friends. Some easily gain the approval of adults. The child sees her peers as people who, like herself, are small and dependent but who are also vastly different from her and in some ways “better,” in some ways “worse.”

During this phase, as a child develops a strong sense of how much others can do, she may feel that she falls short of her own and others’ expectations. A child needs our special help in making these comparisons safe, especially if she shows at least two of the following tendencies: she is reluctant to admit that something is difficult for her she dwells only on reaching and far-away goals (such as becoming an Olympic medalists or media star, without actually working toward these goals) she speaks disparagingly of all her friends she thinks all her friends are better than she at everything she loses interest in school