Tips to Help Your Baby Sleep Better

Tips to Help Your Baby Sleep Better

Instilling Good Sleep Habits in Your Baby

by Visa Shanmugam

If you are a first time parent, congratulations! You have brought this tiny little human being home and it is your sole responsibility to care, feed and teach everything you know to him/her. It can be extremely overwhelming and despite all the child birth classes that you have taken and books you have read, it still doesn’t fully prepare you for the task ahead. No matter how much you prep, you learn by doing when it comes to taking care of a little one. But, a little bit of education and knowledge goes a long way in calming fears and building confidence.

Facts about Infant Sleep

  • It is a well known fact that infants (0-3 months) need a lot of sleep. In fact, they sleep 16-18 hours in a 24 hour cycle, however the longest stretch they sleep is 2-3 hours. It doesn’t mirror an adult’s sleep habits, hence the reason that parents of newborns are so sleep deprived and tired.

Talking to Kids About the Tragic Events

Talking to Kids About the Boston Martathon Tragedy

Child Psychologist Offers Tips on How to Talk to Kids About Tragic Events

Making sense of the tragic events such as the Boston Marathon bombings and the West Texas Fertilizer Plant explosion can be quite a challenge for children and parents alike.  Children are going to be asking difficult questions and parents need suggestions to help discuss the issue and address their concerns.

Below are some helpful tips from Child Psychologist Dr. Phyllis Ohr, the Director of the Child and Parent Psychological Services Clinic at Hofstra and the Assistant Director of the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program.  Dr. Phyllis is also the official psychologist forPress4Kids’s News-O-Matic, the first educational news app for children 7 to 10 years old.

It’s never too late to start setting boundaries

Setting Boundaries with Kids

Setting boundaries for grown kids too

by Amy Egan

Many times I have gotten the question, “Is it ever too late to start setting boundaries with children?” Parents wonder if they have missed the boat by the time their kids are tweens or teens. The truth is that it is never too late to set boundaries.  Even if a parent has an adult child that is disrespectful, manipulative or takes advantage of them, the best time to begin setting and enforcing limits is this very moment!

We don’t do our kids any favors by putting up with that stuff when they are 2, 10 or 30. Anytime a child can mistreat a parent, the parent loses – and so does the child, in a very big way.

How To Raise Emotionally Healthy Children: Feeling Secure

Emotionally Healthy Children - Feeling Secure

Fifth in a Series of Articles on Raising Emotionally Healthy Children

 

Guest Post from The Children’s Project

According to Dr. Newmark, the fifth critical emotional need of children is the need to feel Secure.  Security means creating a positive environment where people care about one another and show it; where people express themselves and others listen; where differences are accepted and conflicts are resolved constructively; where enough structure and rules exist for children to feel safe and protected, and where children have opportunities to actively participate in their own evolution and that of the family.

Letting Kids Be Self-Reliant at Sleepaway Camp

American Camping Association - Kids Running

Letting Go—Parents and Camps Foster Children’s Self-Reliance

Print a List of Questions To Ask Camp Directors

See North Texas Kids Guide to Summer Camps & Kids Activities

by Marla Coleman

I have witnessed, first-hand, the incredible journeys of children who come to recognize their own power in steering their own destinies.

Camp is a stepping-stone to self-reliance! It is one community in which children can learn to navigate on their own without well-intentioned parental course-plotting to avert choppy waters.  As a parent, I confess to the compelling desire to negotiate smooth sailing for my own children. Yet, over the years, as a camp director, I have witnessed, first-hand, the incredible journeys of children who come to recognize their own power in steering their own destinies. Opportunities for decision-making and problem-solving at camp, which foster a culture of success, allow children to discover their strengths and their abilities to make good choices and to influence positive outcomes for themselves.

After all, coaching kids to feel capable is what camp directors do. Not quite so obvious but just as central is their proficiency to coach parents to support their children with just the right combination of back-up and encouragement. Kids learn quickly to rely upon themselves and the adults they trust at camp instead of their parents, who could be one hundred miles away or more!

Kids Need to Feel Valued

Marta Fuchs - Legacy of Rescue

Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter’s Tribute

Kids Need to Feel Valued: Value Your Children for Who They Are – Not Who You Need Them to Be

By Marta Fuchs, MLS, MFT

“I got everything I wanted except what I needed.”

It was a breakthrough moment.  A therapy client suddenly discovered what he always knew and now could finally identify. By being able to name it, he became a witness to his experience, and could finally begin to feel compassion for himself. No wonder there were tears, in his eyes and mine.

Countless other successful people I’ve counseled have had that same sorrowful feeling that something basic was missing. They got everything they wanted from their parents except what they needed the most: to be seen and valued.

That is the essence of parenting – to see and value your children for who they are, rather than as an extension of yourself or as the means to fulfill your own needs.