On Friday morning my 13-month old baby boy Wills had his Prevnar booster vaccine. That afternoon he fussed, and by late evening had a fever of 38.5. On Saturday he stayed pretty much the same, miserable and with a low-grade fever that went up to around 38.7 a little past Midnight. I gave him his last dose of Calpol by then, and by the next day the fever was gone.
I’m always wary after my children have a vaccine. I suppose its because of all the news one hears on television and in the papers, that vaccines like MMR particularly, have been linked to Autism. Its something that parents dread hearing the most, especially after pediatricians (like mine) are staunch defenders of vaccines. It was actually reported in the Huffington Post a few weeks ago that in spite of a federal ruling in the “vaccine court” which showed NO link between MMR and autism, a little boy named Bailey Banks was also awarded nearly a million dollars because the courts found that his brain damage leading to autism was indeed caused by the MMR vaccine. You read horror stories on blogs like this one, called Vaccines Exposed, or even by celebs like Jenny McCarthy:
We believe autism is an environmental illness. Vaccines are not the only environmental trigger, but we do think they play a major role. If we are going to solve this problem and finally start to reverse the rate of autism, we need to consider changing the vaccine schedule, reducing the number of shots given and removing certain ingredients that could be toxic to some children.
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Nintendo DS
Just a little more than a week and Christmas Day will be here! I bet that your kids can barely contain their excitement as you start your preparations for the big day. I know that in our house, putting up the Christmas tree and lights is making everyone jump and down with the anticipation of Christmas. But have you decided on your presents for the kids yet?
I have several in mind but to be honest, I won’t be doing my shopping till tomorrow. I am sure that I am going to regret keeping it till this late when I am met by throngs of late shoppers tomorrow as well. Anyhow, I found an article detailing the most popular toys for kids this Christmas. Some of the recurring items that I noticed were gaming consoles and iPods. Umm, I think I shall refrain from these this Christmas – it’s too early for these this year. Perhaps the Wii, but nothing more.
For girls, the things on the list include the Nintendo DS Lite, Webkinz toys, Hannah Montana toys, and Barbie (yep, she is still at it). For toddlers, some ideas include Tickle Me Elmo Live, Lamaza Baby Toys, Leapfrog Little Touch LeapPad, and V-Tech Vsmile Baby.
I am leaning towards the educational toys for toddlers although I am really thinking about giving more books than toys this year. Some might think that this is the boring route but then again, get your children used to books and you will see just how much delight they will take in them.
What are you getting the kids this Christmas?
Teething Bling
As any Mom (or Grandma, or Aunt) will tell you, babies love jewelry, especially if its hanging from your neck, as they can grab, pull and chomp on it. NOT good if we’re talking about precious gold, bejewelled, fatally-chokeable stuff. GREAT if its bling which the kid can actually chew, tug and and not only will it not break, but it’ll look good on Mom too!
And that’s exactly what the very clever people at Smart Mom made – lovely pendants and bangles which Moms can wear precisely for their babies to chew on. And as a proud owner of an orange pendant and bangle, I can honestly say that baby Wills, LOVES it too. I love love love the idea, especially because of what it’s made of:
“…We use only the highest-quality, phthalate-free, federally approved silicone in our Teething Bling™ line. The material is non-toxic, latex-free, food–safe, even dishwasher-friendly! It is the same silicone used in many other popular teething products and SGS test reports are available upon request. Although we stress that this is adult jewelry not intended for children to wear, all of our pendants come with a breakaway clasp as an added safety feature.”
And best of all, the Moms who made this great product are also giving a part of their proceeds to charity, like Cure Search and Dress for Success.
So if you haven’t thought of a Christmas present for another Mom in your life, or as a treat for yourself, Teething Bling is a fantastic idea.
Flu Shot
After the excitement of the Halloween festivities, we’ve all come down with colds in the past week or so. And I say “colds” in the plural because there have been more than one, when we seem to have gotten over one, another arrives.
I still can’t get over the fact that my two elder kids, who both had the flu shot this summer, seem to get over it incredibly quickly or don’t get it at all. For example last week, Ollie simply had a runny nose for a day or two, and Nat was fine. This week Nat had a cough for a couple of days, and Ollie a runny nose for a day. Today, both kids are fine. What matters was that nothing really came of it, no prolonged symptoms or worse, fever. Poor baby Wills, who obviously couldn’t get the shot, has had it pretty bad. Coupled with heavy teething (his top two came out this week, and one more is breaking too), he’s had a tough time. And so has Mommy, with a bad cold last week and again this week for round two.
But back to the flu vaccine. The Moms at my son’s preschool are divided on this. And until last year, I agreed that it made sense to go “au naturel”, of the let-them-get-sick-it-builds-their-immunity kind of thinking. But last year was a particularly bad flu season for us, with my son missing A LOT of school days which did him no good at all. So when a Mom raved that her son got through the season virtually unscathed because of the vaccine, I thought I’d try it out this year. Now I’m a convert. Even my husband, who’s had a miserable week coughing and sneezing, has grumbled,”why didn’t you make me get the shot??!” Well, next year one thing is for sure, we’re ALL getting flu shots.
Here are some key facts about the vaccine:
The single best way to protect against the flu is to get vaccinated each year.
There are two types of vaccines:
* The “flu shot”— an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) that is given with a needle, usually in the arm. The flu shot is approved for use in people older than 6 months, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions.
* The nasal-spray flu vaccine — a vaccine made with live, weakened flu viruses that do not cause the flu (sometimes called LAIV for “live attenuated influenza vaccine” or FluMist®). LAIV (FluMist®) is approved for use in healthy* people 2-49 years of age who are not pregnant.
Each vaccine contains three influenza viruses-one A (H3N2) virus, one A (H1N1) virus, and one B virus. The viruses in the vaccine change each year based on international surveillance and scientists’ estimations about which types and strains of viruses will circulate in a given year.
About 2 weeks after vaccination, antibodies that provide protection against influenza virus infection develop in the body.
Photo via P. Swansen
Mini Donald
is huge in our household. Since the 1st of October, we’ve had our Halloween decorations out and increasing (who can resist a “Halloween Tree” I found at a sale last week? Picture a pumpkin on a spider web, black, with spiders, black cats and ghouls hanging from it- adorable!). There are orange lanterns with jack-o-lantern and witch faces dotting our house, giant spiderwebs with spiders, bats and bloody hands on our windows, a rather large “witch” wind banner blowing in the garage, an assortment of spooky garden stakes in the front lawn (with glow-in-the-dark eyes), and a “face” for our tree at the front of the house which makes it look like the apple-pelting ones in the
Wizard of Oz.
We threw a Halloween Party last Friday after school. Nothing fancy, just games and snacks for around 15 kids, and potent Bloody Mary’s for the grownups courtesy of my hubby, who’s perfected the art of the Bloody Mary. My three went as Wizardess, Cowboy and Superman, and there was Darth, Sandy from Grease, a Pirate, a Mermaid, 3 Rambos, a Fairy, a Spider and a kid who boringly went as himself with his skateboard.
On Friday my kids have their second set of costumes (except baby Wills), Wednesday Addams and Peter Pan (a gift from my Aunt), and we’ll have a little pizza party at home after the Trick or Treating. Exciting! If you aren’t a Halloween-obsessed Mom like me, and still haven’t decided on a Halloween costume for your little ones, here are some of my favourites.
1. Donald Trump (pictured above) – You have to love the hair! This costume makes the Donald look absolutely adorable.
2. Fire Breathing Dragon – A crafty Mom can put this together easily, and create a fantastic magical costume sure to be a showstopper.
3. Baby Yoda- Ok, its not the most original, but when I see a little one in this costume it makes me melt.
4. DJ Lance- He’s the funky guy from Yo Gabba Gabba and if my 3-year-old son didn’t have a costume already, this would be it.
5. Sushi Roll – My 6 year old loves sushi, so again, if I didn’t already have 2 costumes for her, and if I got myself organized a lot earlier, I would have made this her costume for Halloween. Oh so clever.
Written by Lara on October 28th, 2008. 4 Comments »
Filed under Activities, Babies, Crafts, Fun and Games, Holidays, Inspiration, Moms, Preschoolers, Shopping, Toddlers.
Teething
Even though Wills’ nasty virus is on its way out (since my last post he went through 5 days of fever, wheezing and even diarrhea), his constant drooling and swollen gums show that my little guy is still teething badly. He’s smiling more now, and is back to his active self, but he still still has his moments (of sudden pain?). Because I don’t recall my two elder children teething as badly as this (or is it Mommy amnesia?) I had some questions. How painful was it? When did it usually strike worst? When would it be over?
So I sought advice from one of my favourite online doctors, Dr. Greene who said this:
“….Young teethers can’t talk. We don’t know the moment teething pain starts and stops. Teething pain and its remedies are very difficult to evaluate scientifically. Therefore, we must rely on observation — general observations by many parents and care-providers, as well as specific observations of our own children.
When the mouth becomes a source of pain, it is quite unsettling for some kids. If you’ve ever bitten the inside of your cheek, you know how distracting a bit of newly irregular flesh can be. For a baby, the intrusion of a hard, sharp tooth through tender, swollen gums can be quite an adjustment. Some get used to it quickly, but at first it can be more uncomfortable than a pebble in a shoe.
The teeth (or tooth) that causes the most pain varies from child to child. It is often the first tooth that causes the most discomfort — or those big molars, when they arrive. For many babies, working on several teeth at once is the worst…..”
In a nutshell? The golden rule of parenting: Each child is different. I got off lightly with my other two on the teething, but Wills didn’t put me through the torment of colic like Ollie did. Ollie is now a saintly 3 year old, but Nat was a terror at that age. So I as I watch Wills playing on his exersaucer, he stops, looks right into my eyes and gives me a toothy smile,
I realize that no matter how tough these baby stages can be it doesn’t really matter when they smile at you like that.
Photo via sarniebill
Teething Ring
Just as you start patting yourself on the back for having a good week of parenting (i.e. no major arguments, tantrums or illnesses), you get thrown a challenge. Yesterday morning it suddenly came in the form of baby Wills being a little more cranky than usual. By afternoon he was a lot fussier, waking several times from his naps, and by early evening he had a low grade fever. Ugh. I hate fevers. I know that doctors say that when low, fevers actually help the body fight an infection – so leave it until it hits the upper range of 38. But when one of my babies get it I have to admit that I slightly panic and go straight for the paracetamol.
At his “well baby” check-up the other day, Doctor J noticed that his upper gums were swollen. So last night when he woke up every 2 hours screaming in agony (not his style at all!), I knew that teething was at least one of the culprits. His fever had also risen to 38.6 even 3 hours AFTER I had given Calpol, he was clearly in pain and discomfort, so I enlisted my husband to give an extra dose of ibuprofen. I don’t know how he does it, but my husband can work some serious Daddy Magic! With a few silly-faced peekaboos, he turned the dreaded “medicine time” into comedy hour, and literally had Wills laughing so hard, I secretly wondered if he had become slightly hysterical with the fever.
Mission accomplished, Dad went downstairs to watch his DVD reruns of “Las Vegas“, while I kept Wills in bed with me, hoping that the meds would kick in and we’d get some sleep. Well, you know that that wasn’t to be. This morning, I noticed a cough and a slight runny nose, which means that we’ve been hit with a double whammy.
Teething-wise though, here’s what I’ve done. Will report results in my next entry.
1. Homeopathic Teething Gel
I rubbed this in this gums every time he woke up during the night. It seemed to have helped because he went back to sleep after a couple of minutes.
2. Frozen Teething Rings/ Washcloth
Those went into the freezer this morning. When he wakes from his nap, they should be ready.
3. Paracetamol
I don’t like this, but I just felt it was necessary with the fever.
4. Chamomilla Drops
I’ve been starting to give him this homeopathic remedy for teething. It is in the gel as well, so the jury’s out on if this will help.
5. Mom’s TLC
The most important thing of all!
Photo via cjbvii
Gymboree
So we arrived at Gymboree, all ready for his trial class in “Level 2: Play and Learn”, which was for babies aged from 6-10 months. We entered the play floor and he looked around curiously at all the bright colors and babies around, the happy “Gymboree” music playing in the background.
For the first few minutes he was shy, not wanting to leave my lap, holding on quite tightly. But as the teacher eased into the 2nd song (they use the old standards – like “itsy bitsy”, “this old man” etc etc and put their own lyrics), he was off my lap, crawling to Gymbo the clown on the teacher’s lap, checking out the other babies and Moms by grabbing their shirt, watch, feet (oh dear).
The 45 minute class flew by – he crawled up a padded incline and was the first baby to grab the ball the the top (beating the 9-month-olds I proudly note), walked on a wooden plank then slid down on a wooly rug, played some singing games on my lap (he preferred crawling though), sang and danced (a good workout for Mum), and watched the bubbles with utter amazement – and it wasn’t until the last minute just as the goodbye song was ending did he start fussing with a few whines which signaled “ok Mummy, I’m tired now”.
The verdict? A good class for crawling babies, can be a bit rushed (as in moving from one activity to the next fairly quickly) for others especially those who aren’t very mobile yet.
I have a curly-haired, 7-month-old baby boy named William. Wills is one of those “angel” babies, who has been all smiles since day one, only cries when absolutely necessary and reaches all his milestones on time, with no trouble whatsoever. And when he started crawling a couple of weeks ago, it completely took me by surprise because this didn’t happen with my other children until they were 8 or 9 months.
With his new found mobility, Wills seemed to be getting bored with his routine, and I don’t blame him – who would want to go from the foam squares on the floor to the exersaucer to the sofa – so I thought it may be time to try a class at our local Gymboree, which luckily lets you try every class, in every level for free.
My 3-year-old boy already goes once a week for the art class which he enjoys thoroughly. It has to be said though, that with my #2, we tried Gymboree several times, from the time he was about 7 months on, with little success, only signing up when he was around 18 months as he refused to crawl and actually seemed quite annoyed by the whole thing until he was older.
So, as we made our way to the trial class I wondered, was Wills ready?
Nothing’s too expensive or too much for my baby, right? I suppose that this is a normal way of thinking for some parents, especially those who are going to have their first baby. Though it may sound nice and loving, it is not necessarily right nor is it practical. The truth is that you can still give your baby the best without having to spend an arm and a leg. What are some things that your baby can do without? Here are several that have come to mind.
Changing station
There are tons of items at the store that you can get for your baby and a changing station is one of them. Though they can be useful, I think that you can very well change your baby on the bed, on the floor, or on the table. The important thing is that you have a towel or thick covering to protect your baby. You don’t really need to buy a changing station, that’s the bottom line.
Specially designed baby baths
You will definitely need a baby tub but I suggest not buying the designer ones. This is because your baby will outgrow the tub much quicker than you originally think. So, pick out a reasonably sized tub which is also reasonably priced.
Special toys
There are toys and there are branded toys. I have nothing against the good brands when it comes to baby toys. However, some of them are just way too overpriced. Do not buy those just because of the brand. Look around for toys that would meet your baby’s developmental needs and do not focus on the brand.
