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The end of Daylight Savings Time marks the time when we “fall back” or set our clocks back one hour. Those who aren’t parents delight in the gift of an extra hour of sleep. Those of us who have children fear waking at 5 am instead of 6 am! However, there are some basic techniques you can employ that will help this transition go smoother.

If your child’s bedtime is 7pm or later:

On Saturday, October 29th, try to push your child’s bedtime forward at least fifteen minutes to a half hour if possible. The key is not to force your child to stay up too much past his/her normal bedtime because this could be counter productive. If a child’s bedtime is pushed too far the night sleep may become disrupted and the child may also wake too soon. Continue this gradual change in time for the next night or two until your child’s bedtime has been adjusted by forty five to sixty minutes. Be sure to keep a morning wake up time no earlier than 6 am.

If your child’s bedtime is before 7pm:

If you have an infant who goes to bed between 6 pm and 7 pm then you can use this earlier bedtime to your advantage! On Saturday, October 29th put your baby down to sleep at his/her adjusted normal bedtime, i.e., between 5pm and 6pm. Treat this as a short nap and wake your baby after twenty to forty minutes. This will set your baby up for a later bedtime. Your baby will most likely adjust to the new schedule very quickly.

By implementing these easy techniques your family will be back on schedule shortly. If you are one of the lucky ones, it may only take a night or two to achieve this new schedule. If this is not the case, do not worry; children should take no more than a week to adjust to their new bedtime.

Copywrite 2005 Child-Works, LLC

Rachel Steinberg is a sleep consultant at Child-Works.

http://www.child-works.com is the ultimate parent toolbox providing parents consultation services, information, and resources in the areas of sleep, behavior, and education.

The idea of using potty dolls to potty train toddlers has been around for some 30 years. Many parents (including myself) have successfully potty trained their children using a potty training doll.

So if you are thinking about using a potty training doll to assist you in the potty training process, read on.

I will start by giving you some background on when, how and why the idea of using potty training dolls was introduced and then give you information on why you should use a potty training doll.

Potty Training Dolls - Some Background
The idea or concept of using a potty doll to potty train a child was developed by two psychologist named Nathan H. Azrin, Ph. D. and Richard M. Foxx Ph.D. in the 1970s. These two psychologists were studying what is involved in learning and how learning can be made more rapid.

They were researching how to potty train special needs (autistic, down syndrome and mentally retarded) children. They discovered that when using their methods, typical children could be potty trained in less than a day. In 1974, they published their findings in a book titled “Toilet Training in Less Than a Day”. The book has sold over 2 million copies.

Since then, several potty training books for parents such as “Potty Training for Dummies”& “The Everything Potty Training Book” have talked about using potty dolls for potty training, but not until Dr. Phil has this method become really popular.

Dr Phil has done two shows on Potty Training in One Day. His first show aired on November 8th, 2002 and the second show in prime time on September 22nd, 2004.

Dr. Phil inspired me to create Potty Training in One Day - The Complete System for for Boys or Girls with Potty Training Dolls - Potty Scotty and Potty Patty . These potty training dolls are Specially Designed to Potty Train .

Why use a Potty Training Doll to assist in Potty Training your Child?
There are several reason to use a potty training doll to assist in with potty training your child. The reasons are listed below:

We know that children learn from seeing, listening and hearing.

At the age of 18 months, children become fascinated by the behavior of other children their own age or older. By the age of 24-30 months, they start to understand gender differences and focus on imitating the behavior of the same sex parent. They learn actions and attitudes and will copy things that they have seen.

The second reason is that “teaching is the highest form of learning”. The best way to learn something is to teach it.

The third reason for using a potty training doll and more specifically a drink and wet-on-demand potty training doll is that you can also teach your child the natural and logical consequences of the going potty behaviors.

So, what is better than using a doll to model the appropriate potty training behavior for your child? In term of modeling the going potty behavior, a potty training doll is the perfect teaching tool.

Your child will not only teach the doll to go potty, but also teach the potty doll what are desired behaviors are and the natural and logical consequences of these behaviors. Once your child understand this, then you will teach your child to teach the doll what the undesired behaviors are and the natural and logical consequences of undesired behavior.

If you are the type of parent who wants your child to be an independent learner and thinker and believe in parenting by consequence (or as Dr Phil say - by currency), then this potty training method will probably suit you!!

Want more information? Click here to get more information on the concepts behind using a potty training doll and click here for more potty training information.

Copyright 2004-2005. Potty Training Concepts. All Rights Reserved.

Narmin Parpia, inventor of the Potty Scotty and Potty Patty potty training dolls and Potty Training in One Day - The Complete System for Girls and for Boys . Narmin has been dispensing products, information and advice online at http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/

Her products have been featured on the Today Show on Mother’s Day and in May 2nd 2005 Edition of TIME Magazine. Her products have been feature on the various TV and Radio stations across the country. Articles about her and her products have aslo been featured in newspapers and magazines across the US.

Neonates have no psychology. If operated upon, for instance, they are not supposed to show signs of trauma later on in life. Birth, according to this school of thought is of no psychological consequence to the newborn baby. It is immeasurably more important to his “primary caregiver” (mother) and to her supporters (read: father and other members of the family). It is through them that the baby is, supposedly, effected. This effect is evident in his (I will use the male form only for convenience’s sake) ability to bond. The late Karl Sagan professed to possess the diametrically opposed view when he compared the process of death to that of being born. He was commenting upon the numerous testimonies of people brought back to life following their confirmed, clinical death. Most of them shared an experience of traversing a dark tunnel. A combination of soft light and soothing voices and the figures of their deceased nearest and dearest awaited them at the end of this tunnel. All those who experienced it described the light as the manifestation of an omnipotent, benevolent being. The tunnel - suggested Sagan - is a rendition of the mother’s tract. The process of birth involves gradual exposure to light and to the figures of humans. Clinical death experiences only recreate birth experiences.

The womb is a self-contained though open (not self-sufficient) ecosystem. The Baby’s Planet is spatially confined, almost devoid of light and homeostatic. The fetus breathes liquid oxygen, rather than the gaseous variant. He is subjected to an unending barrage of noises, most of them rhythmical. Otherwise, there are very few stimuli to elicit any of his fixed action responses. There, dependent and protected, his world lacks the most evident features of ours. There are no dimensions where there is no light. There is no “inside” and “outside”, “self” and “others”, “extension” and “main body”, “here” and “there”. Our Planet is exactly converse. There could be no greater disparity. In this sense - and it is not a restricted sense at all - the baby is an alien. He has to train himself and to learn to become human. Kittens, whose eyes were tied immediately after birth - could not “see” straight lines and kept tumbling over tightly strung cords. Even sense data involve some modicum and modes of conceptualization (see: “Appendix 5 - The Manifold of Sense”).

Even lower animals (worms) avoid unpleasant corners in mazes in the wake of nasty experiences. To suggest that a human neonate, equipped with hundreds of neural cubic feet does not recall migrating from one planet to another, from one extreme to its total opposition - stretches credulity. Babies may be asleep 16-20 hours a day because they are shocked and depressed. These abnormal spans of sleep are more typical of major depressive episodes than of vigorous, vivacious, vibrant growth. Taking into consideration the mind-boggling amounts of information that the baby has to absorb just in order to stay alive - sleeping through most of it seems like an inordinately inane strategy. The baby seems to be awake in the womb more than he is outside it. Cast into the outer light, the baby tries, at first, to ignore reality. This is our first defence line. It stays with us as we grow up.

It has long been noted that pregnancy continues outside the womb. The brain develops and reaches 75% of adult size by the age of 2 years. It is completed only by the age of 10. It takes, therefore, ten years to complete the development of this indispensable organ - almost wholly outside the womb. And this “external pregnancy” is not limited to the brain only. The baby grows by 25 cm and by 6 kilos in the first year alone. He doubles his weight by his fourth month and triples it by his first birthday. The development process is not smooth but by fits and starts. Not only do the parameters of the body change - but its proportions do as well. In the first two years, for instance, the head is larger in order to accommodate the rapid growth of the Central Nervous System. This changes drastically later on as the growth of the head is dwarfed by the growth of the extremities of the body. The transformation is so fundamental, the plasticity of the body so pronounced - that in most likelihood this is the reason why no operative sense of identity emerges until after the fourth year of childhood. It calls to mind Kafka’s Gregor Samsa (who woke up to find that he is a giant cockroach). It is identity shattering. It must engender in the baby a sense of self-estrangement and loss of control over who is and what he is.

The motor development of the baby is heavily influenced both by the lack of sufficient neural equipment and by the ever-changing dimensions and proportions of the body. While all other animal cubs are fully motoric in their first few weeks of life - the human baby is woefully slow and hesitant. The motor development is proximodistal. The baby moves in ever widening concentric circles from itself to the outside world. First the whole arm, grasping, then the useful fingers (especially the thumb and forefinger combination), first batting at random, then reaching accurately. The inflation of its body must give the baby the impression that he is in the process of devouring the world. Right up to his second year the baby tries to assimilate the world through his mouth (which is the prima causa of his own growth). He divides the world into “suckable” and “insuckable” (as well as to “stimuli-generating” and “not generating stimuli”). His mind expands even faster than his body. He must feel that he is all-encompassing, all-inclusive, all-engulfing, all-pervasive. This is why a baby has no object permanence. In other words, a baby finds it hard to believe the existence of other objects if he does not see them (=if they are not IN his eyes). They all exist in his outlandishly exploding mind and only there. The universe cannot accommodate a creature, which doubles itself physically every 4 months as well as objects outside the perimeter of such an inflationary being, the baby “believes”. The inflation of the body has a correlate in the inflation of consciousness. These two processes overwhelm the baby into a passive absorption and inclusion mode.

To assume that the child is born a “tabula rasa” is superstition. Cerebral processes and responses have been observed in utero. Sounds condition the EEG of fetuses. They startle at loud, sudden noises. This means that they can hear and interpret what they hear. Fetuses even remember stories read to them while in the womb. They prefer these stories to others after they are born. This means that they can tell auditory patterns and parameters apart. They tilt their head at the direction sounds are coming from. They do so even in the absence of visual cues (e.g., in a dark room). They can tell the mother’s voice apart (perhaps because it is high pitched and thus recalled by them). In general, babies are tuned to human speech and can distinguish sounds better than adults do. Chinese and Japanese babies react differently to “pa” and to “ba”, to “ra” and to “la”. Adults do not - which is the source of numerous jokes.

The equipment of the newborn is not limited to the auditory. He has clear smell and taste preferences (he likes sweet things a lot). He sees the world in three dimensions with a perspective (a skill which he could not have acquired in the dark womb). Depth perception is well developed by the sixth month of life.

Expectedly, it is vague in the first four months of life. When presented with depth, the baby realizes that something is different - but not what. Babies are born with their eyes open as opposed to most other animal young ones. Moreover, their eyes are immediately fully functional. It is the interpretation mechanism that is lacking and this is why the world looks fuzzy to them. They tend to concentrate on very distant or on very close objects (their own hand getting closer to their face). They see very clearly objects 20-25 cm away. But visual acuity and focusing improve in a matter of days. By the time the baby is 6 to 8 months old, he sees as well as many adults do, though the visual system - from the neurological point of view - is fully developed only at the age of 3 or 4 years. The neonate discerns some colours in the first few days of his life: yellow, red, green, orange, gray - and all of them by the age of four months. He shows clear preferences regarding visual stimuli: he is bored by repeated stimuli and prefers sharp contours and contrasts, big objects to small ones, black and white to coloured (because of the sharper contrast), curved lines to straight ones (this is why babies prefer human faces to abstract paintings). They prefer their mother to strangers. It is not clear how they come to recognize the mother so quickly. To say that they collect mental images which they then arrange into a prototypical scheme is to say nothing (the question is not “what” they do but “how” they do it). This ability is a clue to the complexity of the internal mental world of the neonate, which far exceeds our learned assumptions and theories. It is inconceivable that a human is born with all this exquisite equipment while incapable of experiencing the birth trauma or the even the bigger trauma of his own inflation, mental and physical.

As early as the end of the third month of pregnancy, the fetus moves, his heart beats, his head is enormous relative to his size. His size, though, is less than 3 cm. Ensconced in the placenta, the fetus is fed by substances transmitted through the mother’s blood vessels (he has no contact with her blood, though). The waste that he produces is carried away in the same venue. The composition of the mother’s food and drink, what she inhales and injects - all are communicated to the embryo. There is no clear relationship between sensory inputs during pregnancy and later life development. The levels of maternal hormones do effect the baby’s subsequent physical development but only to a negligible extent. Far more important is the general state of health of the mother, a trauma, or a disease of the fetus. It seems that the mother is less important to the baby than the romantics would have it - and cleverly so. A too strong attachment between mother and fetus would have adversely affected the baby’s chances of survival outside the uterus. Thus, contrary to popular opinion, there is no evidence whatsoever that the mother’s emotional, cognitive, or attitudinal state effects the fetus in any way. The baby is effected by viral infections, obstetric complications, by protein malnutrition and by the mother’s alcoholism. But these - at least in the West - are rare conditions.

In the first three months of the pregnancy, the central nervous system “explodes” both quantitatively and qualitatively. This process is called metaplasia. It is a delicate chain of events, greatly influenced by malnutrition and other kinds of abuse. But this vulnerability does not disappear until the age of 6 years out of the womb. There is a continuum between womb and world. The newborn is almost a very developed kernel of humanity. He is definitely capable of experiencing substantive dimensions of his own birth and subsequent metamorphoses. Neonates can immediately track colours - therefore, they must be immediately able to tell the striking differences between the dark, liquid placenta and the colourful maternity ward. They go after certain light shapes and ignore others. Without accumulating any experience, these skills improve in the first few days of life, which proves that they are inherent and not contingent (learned). They seek patterns selectively because they remember which pattern was the cause of satisfaction in their very brief past. Their reactions to visual, auditory and tactile patterns are very predictable. Therefore, they must possess a MEMORY, however primitive.

But - even granted that babies can sense, remember and, perhaps emote - what is the effect of the multiple traumas they are exposed to in the first few months of their lives?

We mentioned the traumas of birth and of self-inflation (mental and physical). These are the first links in a chain of traumas, which continues throughout the first two years of the baby’s life. Perhaps the most threatening and destabilizing is the trauma of separation and individuation.

The baby’s mother (or caregiver - rarely the father, sometimes another woman) is his auxiliary ego. She is also the world; a guarantor of livable (as opposed to unbearable) life, a (physiological or gestation) rhythm (=predictability), a physical presence and a social stimulus (an other).

To start with, the delivery disrupts continuous physiological processes not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. The neonate has to breathe, to feed, to eliminate waste, to regulate his body temperature - new functions, which were previously performed by the mother. This physiological catastrophe, this schism increases the baby’s dependence on the mother. It is through this bonding that he learns to interact socially and to trust others. The baby’s lack of ability to tell the inside world from the outside only makes matters worse. He “feels” that the upheaval is contained in himself, that the tumult is threatening to tear him apart, he experiences implosion rather than explosion. True, in the absence of evaluative processes, the quality of the baby’s experience will be different to ours. But this does not disqualify it as a PSYCHOLOGICAL process and does not extinguish the subjective dimension of the experience. If a psychological process lacks the evaluative or analytic elements, this lack does not question its existence or its nature. Birth and the subsequent few days must be a truly terrifying experience.

Another argument raised against the trauma thesis is that there is no proof that cruelty, neglect, abuse, torture, or discomfort retard, in any way, the development of the child. A child - it is claimed - takes everything in stride and reacts “naturally” to his environment, however depraved and deprived.

This may be true - but it is irrelevant. It is not the child’s development that we are dealing with here. It is its reactions to a series of existential traumas. That a process or an event has no influence later - does not mean that it has no effect at the moment of occurrence. That it has no influence at the moment of occurrence - does not prove that it has not been fully and accurately registered. That it has not been interpreted at all or that it has been interpreted in a way different from ours - does not imply that it had no effect. In short: there is no connection between experience, interpretation and effect. There can exist an interpreted experience that has no effect. An interpretation can result in an effect without any experience involved. And an experience can effect the subject without any (conscious) interpretation. This means that the baby can experience traumas, cruelty, neglect, abuse and even interpret them as such (i.e., as bad things) and still not be effected by them. Otherwise, how can we explain that a baby cries when confronted by a sudden noise, a sudden light, wet diapers, or hunger? Isn’t this proof that he reacts properly to “bad” things and that there is such a class of things (”bad things”) in his mind?

Moreover, we must attach some epigenetic importance to some of the stimuli. If we do, in effect we recognize the effect of early stimuli upon later life development.

At their beginning, neonates are only vaguely aware, in a binary sort of way.

l. “Comfortable/uncomfortable”, “cold/warm”, “wet/dry”, “colour/absence of colour”, “light/dark”, “face/no face” and so on. There are grounds to believe that the distinction between the outer world and the inner one is vague at best. Natal fixed action patterns (rooting, sucking, postural adjustment, looking, listening, grasping, and crying) invariably provoke the caregiver to respond. The newborn, as we said earlier, is able to relate to physical patterns but his ability seems to extend to the mental as well. He sees a pattern: fixed action followed by the appearance of the caregiver followed by a satisfying action on the part of the caregiver. This seems to him to be an inviolable causal chain (though precious few babies would put it in these words). Because he is unable to distinguish his inside from the outside - the newborn “believes” that his action evoked the caregiver from the inside (in which the caregiver is contained). This is the kernel of both magical thinking and Narcissism. The baby attributes to himself magical powers of omnipotence and of omnipresence (action-appearance). It also loves itself very much because it is able to thus satisfy himself and his needs. He loves himself because he has the means to make himself happy. The tension-relieving and pleasurable world comes to life through the baby and then he swallows it back through his mouth. This incorporation of the world through the sensory modalities is the basis for the “oral stage” in the psychodynamic theories.

This self-containment and self-sufficiency, this lack of recognition of the environment are why children until their third year of life are such a homogeneous group (allowing for some variance). Infants show a characteristic style of behaviour (one is almost tempted to say, a universal character) in as early as the first few weeks of their lives. The first two years of life witness the crystallization of consistent behavioural patterns, common to all children. It is true that even newborns have an innate temperament but not until an interaction with the outside environment is established - do the traits of individual diversity appear.

At birth, the newborn shows no attachment but simple dependence. It is easy to prove: the child indiscriminately reacts to human signals, scans for patterns and motions, enjoys soft, high pitched voices and cooing, soothing sounds. Attachment starts physiologically in the fourth week. The child turns clearly towards his mother’s voice, ignoring others. He begins to develop a social smile, which is easily distinguishable from his usual grimace. A virtuous circle is set in motion by the child’s smiles, gurgles and coos. These powerful signals release social behaviour, elicit attention, loving responses. This, in turn, drives the child to increase the dose of his signaling activity. These signals are, of course, reflexes (fixed action responses, exactly like the palmar grasp). Actually, until the 18th week of his life, the child continues to react to strangers favourably. Only then does the child begin to develop a budding social-behavioural system based on the high correlation between the presence of his caregiver and gratifying experiences. By the third month there is a clear preference of the mother and by the sixth month, the child wants to venture into the world. At first, the child grasps things (as long as he can see his hand). Then he sits up and watches things in motion (if not too fast or noisy). Then the child clings to the mother, climbs all over her and explores her body. There is still no object permanence and the child gets perplexed and loses interest if a toy disappears under a blanket, for instance. The child still associates objects with satisfaction/non-satisfaction. His world is still very much binary.

As the child grows, his attention narrows and is dedicated first to the mother and to a few other human figures and, by the age of 9 months, only to the mother. The tendency to seek others virtually disappears (which is reminiscent of imprinting in animals). The infant tends to equate his movements and gestures with their results - that is, he is still in the phase of magical thinking.

The separation from the mother, the formation of an individual, the separation from the world (the “spewing out” of the outside world) - are all tremendously traumatic.

The infant is afraid to lose his mother physically (no “mother permanence”) as well as emotionally (will she be angry at this new found autonomy?). He goes away a step or two and runs back to receive the mother’s reassurance that she still loves him and that she is still there. The tearing up of one’s self into my SELF and the OUTSIDE WORLD is an unimaginable feat. It is equivalent to discovering irrefutable proof that the universe is an illusion created by the brain or that our brain belongs to a universal pool and not to us, or that we are God (the child discovers that he is not God, it is a discovery of the same magnitude). The child’s mind is shredded to pieces: some pieces are still HE and others are NOT HE (=the outside world). This is an absolutely psychedelic experience (and the root of all psychoses, probably).

If not managed properly, if disturbed in some way (mainly emotionally), if the separation - individuation process goes awry, it could result in serious psychopathologies. There are grounds to believe that several personality disorders (Narcissistic and Borderline) can be traced to a disturbance in this process in early childhood.

Then, of course, there is the on-going traumatic process that we call “life”.

Sam Vaknin ( samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

Visit Sam’s Web site at samvak.tripod.com

So maybe you aren’t familiar with gaming hall games of luck, do read on.

Typically, a casino is a structure that focuses on betting. Here, visitors will take a risk by having a bash at one armed bandits or alternate pastimes of luck. Betting room games as a rule include mathematically calculated balances included which safeguard the gaming company keeps up dominion above the clientele.

A large number betting house games can goad you into being obsessed swiftly. Let’s examine the infamous one-armed bandit, a cash operated contraption with 3, sometimes more reels that circle when a crank connected to it is yanked. The gadget commonly pays up in alignment with a run of glyphs asvisible on the front of the appliance. Unfortunately, gaming hall pastimes tend to convey the semblance of remaining in control, tricking the gaming enthusiast — the addressee is presented choices, but in actual fact these will not realistically compensate for the patron’s overall odds. That is induced by the betting room never paying the full stake as expected. This method is recurrently found in acclaimed casino games like five card stud poker, dice games, roulette or blackjack. Seven-card stud poker is truly an immensely popular casino pastime. The patrons, religiously guarding their fully hidden cards, must place bets in the pot that is ultimately paid out to the winning player bearing the best combination of cards. (Of course, the best bluffer may well prevail too.)

online casino

Quite like five-card stud poker, blackjack too is a highly trendy casino game. A sizeable chunk of its appeal is owed to the mix of luck and cleverness & decision making, not to mention a routine labeled “card counting”. It is a highly complex technique in which gaming enthusiasts may actually turn the winning odds of the card game to give them an advantage both by wagering and strategy decisions according to the hands dealt.

Craps is another very popular pastime where punters predict the throw of two dice. Gamesters may wager on the score of one cycle, or on a succession of cycles of two dice. Dissimilar to blackjack, there isn’t any probable bona fide winner strategy players can play on to improve the odds.

Roulette is another incredibly popular game of chance: here, a croupier twists a roulette wheel which holds precisely thirtyseven (European roulette) or, alternatively precisely thirtyeight (applies to Vegas roulette) distinctively tagged places in which a white ball will come to rest, which determines the winner and the other chances that come with it. Whenever the gamester wagers on a number and actually hits it meaning it’s their lucky day, the promised payout is 35 to one, the wager is tossed back. Ergo in total it’s increased by thirty six.

Make sure to be emphatically watchful for such betting saloon games of chance are categorically dependency building. An alarming number of lives are reported to have been wasted due to reckless gambling & much as it undeniably seems entertaining, do please attempt to practise self control.

One of the most popular types of baby shower invitations is the baby shower footprint invitation. These feature either an embossed or printed imprint of an adorable tiny baby foot. Nobody can resist a heartfelt “awww” upon seeing these. There are a fair amount of online sites where you can get free printable baby shower invitations in this theme.

Another idea is to make it yourself using either stencils or rubber stamps. Both of those ideas leave the invitation creativity entirely up to you. You can find free baby shower invitations online, some of which are editable giving you the option of keeping those things in them you like and adding others, in this case a baby footprint. With some creativity and good imaging software, you can create charming baby shower footprint invitations for just the cost of your crafting supplies and paper.

Free printable baby shower invitations save the hostess time that can be used on creating the preferred theme for the shower and taking her time on a tasty menu. The baby shower invitations make the initial impression of course and make a wonderful keepsake but one doesn’t want to get bogged down in spending hours traipsing around looking for the perfect invitation. That’s where free baby shower invitations found online come in handy.

If you choose to do it yourself, there are multitudes of sites where one can find clip art to make your own baby shower invitations, again eliminating the possibility of the invitation not fitting your personality. With the aforementioned, full color printer and a small amount of computer savvy, you can design baby shower footprint invitations that rival anything you can find at the best stationary shops.

Kelly Jezek is a successful Webmaster and publisher of mybabyshowerhelper.com. She provides more helpful tips in planning the perfect baby shower at her site. Visit my baby shower helper today.

Your child eats too little or, on the contrary, too much, he sleeps bad or has sudden fits of anger - as a rule, this worries careful parents, the rest are just giving up on it: why bother because of small things! And meanwhile, some peculiarities of behavior and state of a child’s organism give warning of his predisposition to these or those diseases or even of their development long before a doctor diagnoses them.

Usually parents pay attention to a child’s body temperature: if it is normal - then everything is ok, high - he should take aspirin. However, it is not so simple. For example, temperature raises, and hands are cold like ice. This tells about a spasm of peripheral blood vessels. And, besides aspirin, it would be good to give an injection of analgin, diphenylhydramine and nicotinic acid - a vitamin, dilating small blood vessels.

If a baby’s hands are always cold, this tells that excitability of his nervous system is heightened. In general, defect of heat regulation tells about vulnerability of a children organism, inability of its nervous system to cope with stresses. This concerns also such peculiarity of a baby, as sweatiness. Palms that are always wet, underwear that is covered with sweat, even if there were no any active games, - this is a signal of some defects in nervous regulation of organism. Other signs also testify to a state, close to neurosis, - a baby likes fingering something, biting nails, starts often suddenly, speaks while sleeping (don’t worry, if this happens from time to time, but if this repeats every night, then there is sense to consult a neuropathologist).

If a child is always nervy, excitable, if it is difficult for you to carry him away with a game, and having started a game, he already cannot stop, falls into a reverie, reacts to attempts to interfere aggressively, goes into long hysterics, then you should not allege on his bad character - these are symptoms of heightened intracranial pressure. Such child should be observed by neuropathologist constantly. Defects of thyroid gland’s work also may cause excessive excitability of nervous system. And you baby also may have rapid pulse. Slightly bulging eyes also tell about excess of hormones of thyroid gland. In this case you should consult endocrinologist. Old school doctors started examination with a request to show one’s tongue, even if a person suffered from back or stomach pains. Tongue is a mirror of alimentary canal, all our diseases are “pictured” on it, not worse, than on a prescription blank.

If there is a constant yellow or white fur on a tongue, this testifies to defect of stomach’s or bowels’ work. So-called “geographic” patterns on a tongue also should put you on your guard, they often are observed after long taking of antibiotics or while dysbacteriosis, lack of wholesome bacteria, populating it.

Your child’s skin also can tell a lot about his organism state. Thus, while dysbacteriosis it is dry, peels off, allergic rash often appears on it. If lips are dry and chaps, this may happen due to serious defects of stomach’s and bowels’ work. So-called “marble” skin - pale, with clear drawing of small veins, situated close to skin surface, slightly spotty, also should put you on your guard. Quite probably, there are defects in your child’s involuntary nervous system’s work, which controls work of our internal automatically. This may lead to quick fatiguability, irritability, headaches.

Shadows under eyes testify to lack of iron or some vitamins in a child’s organism. If “sacks” are formed under lower eyelids, don’t hurry to make a conclusion about bad work of kidneys - probably, this is just a peculiarity of hypoderm.

Pay attention to nails - during teen age period they can crumble, white lags are formed on them, which “signal” of lack of calcium in organism. Its lack also influences state of teeth. In general, teeth are an index of the whole osseous system’s state in organism. If something is wrong with them, then a child’s bones have same problems.

Most often parents pay attention to very obvious things: for example, appetite and sleep. Does bad appetite tells of something? Of course, as this is a reflection of general state of a baby’s nervous system, its balance, comfort.

If a chills is a so-called “bag of bones”, has shadows under eyes, he catches cold often, you may suspect of his susceptibility to tuberculosis and in this case you need to consult phthisiatrician urgently. However, if a child eats a lot, regardless of his physical activity, and does not gain weight, this may tell about presence of worms or some psychological problems. Appetite should correspond to energy organism spends, and when a child is not mobile, likes playing quiet games, you should not worry he eats little. If, on the contrary, he is rushing about during whole day and comes back home with his tongue hanging out, most likely, you will not have to persuade him eat properly.

A child’s bad sleep also worries parents. Most often healthy children don’t awake in the night, but can fall asleep nor so quickly. Think whether your child sticks to a certain day schedule, goes to bed in a certain hour, watches scary cartoons or thrillers before going to bed, sitting evenings away at computer. All this excites a child’s nervous system, confuses his biorhythms.

Yana Mikheeva is the creator of Baby Health Directory - Pregnancy, Birth, Parenting and Baby Care resources. Are you going to get pregnant? Visit our friendly resource and read information on pregnancy and parenting, painless childbirth, growth and development of a baby, baby health, safety, signs of pregnancy.

She also has All about women site where you can find articles on various subjects, such as: diets, receipts, health, cellulite, figure, aromatherapy, wholesome food, psychology of relationships, pregnancy, parenting, fashion and many others.

I’ve hosted several baby showers for friends and family members, and attended many more. So I can definitely state that playing games at baby showers is something which your guests will enjoy very much. And through my experience hosting baby showers, I’ve learned which particular games are the most fun and enjoyable. I’ve included many of these ideas in this article.

1) Baby No-No. This is a game which can be played all during the shower. When your guests arrive, give each of them a plastic pacifier or baby bottle (found at party stores) strung on a ribbon or cord. Explain that throughout the shower, no one is allowed to say the word “baby.” If they slip up and say “baby” then someone else can take their pacifier necklace(s) from them. Whoever has the most necklaces at the end of the shower is the winner. This will be very amusing because it’s very difficult not to say “baby.”

2) Name Game. For this game, you’ll need pads of paper and pens, one for each guest. Give these to each person, along with a scrap of paper on which you have typed the full names of the mother-to-be and father-to-be. Tell everyone they will need to use the letters of the parents’ names to write down as many other names as they can think of in one minute. The person with the most correct names at the end of a minute (or however long you want to give them) wins a small prize.

3) Baby Word Scramble. For this game, you’ll need to prepare beforehand a list of twenty baby items, such as pacifier, stroller, walker, monitor, bassinet, high chair, swing, baby food, formula, receiving blanket, diaper, baby powder, wipes, crib sheet, applesauce, and so on. Scramble the letters around; doing this on a computer is a good idea. Give the scrambled list of items to your guests and the first person to unscramble all the items is the winner. Give her a small prize.

4) Baby Relay Race. Here’s a game which I think it’d be fun to play, but because of limited space I haven’t done it before. You will also need more items on hand to play this game. You’ll need two baby dolls, two packages of wipes, two containers of baby powder, and two changing tables (although a regular table will work just as well if changing tables are unavailable). To play: divide your guests into two teams of an equal number. Set the starting point a little distance away from the changing table or regular table and have the teams line up. Hand the two people in the front of the lines a baby doll and tell them they must carry the doll to the changing table where you’ve placed a stack of diapers, wipes, and powder. Then they must remove its diaper, wipe, and powder the doll, put its clothes back on, and then carry it back to the next person in line who must then repeat the procedure. Tell the guests they must not run or handle the baby doll roughly or they will have to go back and start all over again. First team to successfully complete the relay race wins.

Prizes. I’ve been to some showers in which the prize that is won from the games is something baby-related which is then given to the mother-to-be. I like the idea of doing that, but I also think the game winners should receive a prize gift also. So I usually do both; the game winner receives a gift for herself and one to give to the expectant mother. These are always something small, like a bottle and nipple brush, nail clipper set, plastic bottle, baby powder - things that the mother will need but aren’t usually given as shower presents.

Whether you decide to give two prize gifts, or just one for the expectant mother or one for the game winner, these games will provide much merriment and entertainment for your shower guests.

Mary Arnold is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/

This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.BabyNameVote.Com/ which is a site for Baby Names.

When it comes to fly fishing, tying a knot is not the most glamorous of subjects. Without a knot, however, you’ll not be snatching the Muskie of your dreams.

Fly Fishing Knots

First thing first, we need to get the lingo down since we wont be using illustrations in this article. Three basic terms will cover practically any aspect of the knot tying process. “Tag end” refers to the last ten inches of so of line you are holding in your hand, to wit, the pointy part you will be pushing through and wrapping around things. “Standing end” refers to the rest of the line. Yes, very complicated and difficult to understand. “Wrap” refers to the action wherein you move the tag end of the line one full revolution around the standing end. The wrap can also be called a turn, but you have the general idea.

As with practically anything in fly fishing, there are an infinite number of variations to knots. Mysterious variations include the Steroidius Double Flip [good for catching professional athlete fish], the Marigold Hammer [good for catching the neighbor’s plants while practicing in your back yard] and the Wifeous Annoyous [a complex knot that gets you in trouble with the wife since you’re supposed to be painting the garage], but you probably start with the “Aarrgg, Dammit…” knot common to beginners.

Fisherman’s Knot

Other than tying your shoes, the easiest knot to learn is the fisherman’s knot. Get your hook in one hand and tag end in the other. And a one and a two…

1. As you proceed, keep everything slack. We will be passing the tag end through loops we create. DO NOT tighten anything until told to!

2. Pull the tag end through the eye of the hook.

3. Bend the tag end back to the standing end and wrap four or five times. Make sure you do not tighten the wrap. [You should now have a closed loop through the hook.]

4. Take your tag end and push it through the loop formed by the wrap. Do not push it through the hook eye, just the bigger loop of line.

5. You will have just created another loop and should pass the tag end through again.

6. Slowly pull on the hook and stag end until the knot is tight. Watch those fingers.

Congratulations! If you’ve tied the perfect knot, it is time to hit local fishing spot. If you’ve made a mess of it, try again. Either way, you get to avoid painting the garage.

Toilet training can be fun and drama free. The most important thing to do to ensure that the process is easy for all involved is to make sure that your child is ready before you start the process.

How do you know if your toddler is ready to be toilet trained? Well, there are some clear indicators that your child might be ready. These include long dry spells followed by a big wet nappy, being able to tell those around that they have wet or dirtied their nappy, and being able to pull their pants down/ up and sit on the potty independantly. Those are the main things to look for. If your toddler is showing these signs then they may be ready. So, it is your job to get the environment ready for them to learn to use the potty or toilet.

If you are using a potty then consider putting it in the place where your child spends most of it’s awake time. That way it is easy to access and you can remind your toddler to use it regularly. If you are using the toilet then consider using a toddler attachment to make your child feel more secure and comfortable. A step might also help your child begin to toilet independantly.

In order for toilet training to be as painless and smooth as possible, make sure that you and your child are ready. Some toddlers toilet train quite easily, while for others it becomes what seems like a long drawn out battle. If you are incredibly busy at work, moving to a new house or a new baby is due soon, it’s ok to wait a few months to let things settle down. You might need to be prepared for a few accidents and extra dirty clothes during the process.

Above all you need to make this a positive process for your child. They need to learn that this is a natural thing and should never be told that their body is dirty or yucky. Use lots of encouraging words and hugs to reward your child’s successes. Praise is a fantastic motivator! This is probably one of the biggest steps for your child and it’s worth your patience.

In 1995 I completed my Bachelor of Teaching, specialising in Early Childhood Education. I have worked in education since 1996. I started in Child Care as a Preschool teacher. I have also worked as an ESL teacher and have been promoted to the level Teacher of Exemplary Practice.

I’m a mother of two boys, 5 and nearly 2 years old. Although parenting my two wonderful children is my main focus, furthering my understandings about how children learn and develop is something of great interest to me. I have been doing a Master of Education for the past two years.

I am interested in parenting, as a teacher, as a mother and a member of a wider community. How we look after our children does impact on others in the world around us. I believe I have something valuable to share. I hope you find it interesting and useful.

For more informaiton and articles please check out my website http://www.saneparenting.com

Baby Showers -There has been a time in some of our lives where we have said - if I had my life to live over again there would be no kids, and then you think about the laughter and joy babies bring and those thoughts change to - I would not change my life for any thing. If a new baby is on the way then back into our thoughts they come where friends of the expectant mum gather to hold a Baby Showers party.

Special occasions as such are celebrated between close friends and family of the mother and father-to-be. Baby Showers is a popular way to welcome the good news of a pregnancy. These types of parties differ in many ways because of the host`s preferential taste in what she or he would see as the ideal way to celebrate the new edition on the way.

Baby Showers can be grand or on a more low key - depending on the budget. Common activities or themes on these occasions will always evolve around the baby. The venue or home where the party is being held will be decorated accordingly to a particular topic if there is to be one, Decorations may include balloons, streamers, cuddly toys and baby bits and bobs. You will find at Baby Showers all attendee`s appetite and bellies will be filled with scrumptious edibles laid on by the host - a running buffet or a sit down meal - the choice is yours.

Guests on arrival always have a pre conceived notion before entering the venue on what they think the Baby Showers party is all about. Well to add a touch of uniqueness to this celebration you need to keep the guest guessing and surprise them with something totally different so that their experience when coming into the room is a jaw dropping one.

Shower parties can still have baby knick knacks around the room but not as much if you were to direct the Baby Showers celebration around the expectant mother.
You can add a little unique fun by showing home video clips of how mum-to-be looked in her holiday bikini and how those days of looking like a bay watch babe are over for a little while. Decorate the room with gifts of maternity wear this will help the future mum with cost - so instead of having to splash out on her self she can spend it on more important essentials like a pacifier and more pacifiers for those sleepless nights a head.

Even though the Baby Showers party on this occasion is about mum - still have the room bright and colourful.

Remember if the Baby Showers party is to be held while the future mother is heavily pregnant she may tire with so much commotion. Another thing to remind your self of is the choice of goodies laid on to eat which may not be agreeable to her digestive system while carrying her baby. (This does not apply to all)

You can direct all the energies of your Baby Showers party around the expectant mother while at the same time dedicating a corner of the room for the new baby on the way with colourful cuddly teddies - baby bottles and baby care essentials.

Even though happy occasions like Baby Showers are fulfilling and rewarding the new mums have to feel good about themselves - unfortunately this is not the case for some mums - although happy with the new baby on the way they can feel down with losing their figure and other niggly concerns. But there is a way to make mum the happiest person at this Baby Shower party - all you have to do is ask all the guests that their gift favors be a small money donation to help mum get back into that holiday bikini by sending her to keep fit classes - of which I hasten to add she will need to keep up with the demands of a new baby.

This will also save the guest a headache on deciding what to buy for their gift favor.

Remember bikin mums the joy and laughter that a new baby brings will make this all so worth while.

Higly reccomended for all baby essentials by mothers who have had success
with planning their baby showers is
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