Kids & Family TV

Sooner or later your baby’s bound to develop an ear infection. Here’s what to do when it happens.

A father whose infant is a frequent visitor to my office for ear infections recently opened his visit with, “My baby’s ears are the most expensive part of his body to maintain.” Correct, but when you consider the valuable speech and hearing that ears provide, they are well worth the price of good maintenance.

What Parents Need to Know

Understanding how the ear structures work and how an infant’s ears differ from an adult’s ears will help you appreciate why babies are prone to ear infections and why it’s important to treat them correctly.

Let’s travel with a germ from nose and mouth to ear to see how an ear infection develops. A germ enters the nose and throat and travels up the eustachian tube to the middle ear space.

Question:

I’ve never had regular periods. They usually come about every six to eight weeks. Will this affect my ability to get pregnant? If so, is there anything that I can do to improve my chances of conceiving?

Answer:

The mythical “once a month” cycle applies to only about 25 percent of women whose period arrives every 28 days.

Cycles ranging from every 22 to 40 days are common and all are normal. However, cycles that are shorter than 21 days or longer than 40 days, like yours, fall outside the normal range.

You should discuss this with your health-care provider, who will probably want to test you to rule out uncommon causes of irregular periods like premature menopause, a pituitary tumor, thyroid problems or problems with your immune system.

Remember, a period signifies that ovulation has taken place,

It may look like bug bites in the beginning, but you’ll know soon enough if your child has chicken pox.

Cause

Virus (incubation 11-20 days)

Signs and Symptoms

Rash on trunk begins like bites, rapidly forms blisters and spreads over trunk, face, mouth; then scabs; rash in different stages at same time; itchy

Home Treatment

Cut fingernails; try Aveeno bath for itching; use cap to avoid sunlight to sensitive eyes; apply antiseptic cream to avoid scarring

Medical Treatment

None unless secondary bacterial infection; silver-sulfadiazine cream may lessen scarring; anti-itch prescription

Together, we can work to change the larger consciousness about children and families in this country. As anthropologist Margaret Mead once put it, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

Here are ten things you can do to make things better for all families:

• Broaden your concern from your immediate family. Think about ways you can support the health of families and children around you. Some parents routinely send extra money when their child’s class takes a field trip, to make sure that all children can go. Others send contributions to homeless shelters, women’s crisis support groups, church or synagogue programs for families. Families with more limited financial resources can donate time or used clothing.

• Greet the kids in your neighborhood.

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Interact with us on DIGICOSM TV by leaving a comment on any of their films as you explore this Web TV. Your feedback and interaction will assist us in delivering the best content possible for you to enjoy. Thanks to your viewership, this Web TV generates funding for our future projects and sustains our community of filmmakers, technicians and actors.

A tubal pregnancy occurs when the embryo attaches outside of the uterus. The fetus may be in the falopian tubes or on the ovary, but generally, it is in the tubes. Tubal pregnancies occur in 1 out of 100 pregnancies and is generally diagnosed by the 6th week of pregnancy.

Things that increase your risks for a ectopic (tubal) pregnancy:

• PID (Pelvic Inflammatory Disease)
• Previous Ectopic pregnancy
• IUD in place when conception occurred
• Previous ruptured appendix
• Surgery on fallopian tubes (for example, tube reversal or having tubes tied)

Signs of a tubal pregnancy:

• Cramping on one-side only (later may radiate around waist)
• HCG levels may be normal at first and then decline

As your belly grows bigger and bigger, you may find it difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position. Here are some suggestions for sleeping positions during pregnancy.

Recommended sleeping position:

The best sleeping position during the last couple of months is on your left side. Lying on your left side has many advantages. These advantages include: better digestive functioning, better breathing, baby gets more oxygen, and less swelling of hands, feet and legs.

Laying on your back during the last couple of months:

During the last months of pregnancy, sleeping on your back may feel very uncomfortable. It may cause backaches and make you feel like you can not breathe.

This is due to the baby putting a lot of pressure on the back and inferior vena cava (vein that returns blood from the lower body back to the heart).

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One of the many decisions which must be made while your are working on your adoption plan is to what degree you want your adoption to be Open or Closed.

This is something you need to decide before you start looking for parents. You need to know and understand what these terms mean so you know what you are willing to accept.

There is a very wide spectrum from Totally Closed to Totally Open. Totally Closed is when you as an birthmother don’t know anything about the adoptive parents and the adoptive parents don’t know anything about you.

The court would know the details, but this information would be confidential until/if the child became of age and requested the information. The other extreme is Totally Open.

This is when you have an ongoing relationship with your child after birth and the child knows you are the birth mother. Most adoptions fall somewhere in between.

As the birthmother you need to decide how much openness

In all of his infinite wisdom, God chose you to conceive and have a baby. . . You are the chosen one!

It must make you feel special! As your body goes through so many changes, you must be happy knowing that something so precious is growing inside of you.

Did you know that a healthy woman in her prime child-bearing years between ages 18 and 25 only has a 20% chance of getting pregnant every month? You were “chosen” to be in that 20 percent. . .

God chose you because he thought that you could somehow provide a life for this child. He believed in you. . . that you would love this child enough to provide a home where the child will be loved and taken care of.

God trusted that you would not do anything harmful to your body or the baby. . .