Accepting Criticism: A Life Skill

Most Tweens think they know everything, and it is often very difficult for them to accept criticism. Although you may find this frustrating, it is developmentally appropriate for a child at this stage of development. One way you can help your child be successful at dealing with teachers and other authority figures is by teaching him or her how to accept criticism. Here is a guide for talking to your child about this subject.


When others give advice on how they think you can improve, they are giving criticism.


When you accept criticism, you need to:

1. Look at the person. Don't give negative facial expressions.


2. Stay calm and quiet while the person is talking.


3. Show you understand ("okay" or "I understand").


4. Try to correct the problem. If you are asked to do something, do it. If you are asked to stop doing something, stop it. If you can't give a positive response, at least give one that will not get you into trouble ("Okay," "I understand," or "Thanks").

Being able to accept criticism shows maturity and prevents problems with people in authority. If you can control yourself and listen to what others have to say about how you can improve, you will have fewer problems. And the criticism may really help you!

Here are some helpful hints to keep in mind when learning this skill.

• It is most important that you stay calm. Take a deep breath, if necessary.


• Criticizing, becoming angry, or making negative facial expressions will only get you into more trouble.


• When you respond to the person who is giving you criticism, use as pleasant a voice tone as possible. You will receive criticism for the rest of your life; all people do. The way you handle it determines how others treat you.


• Most criticism is designed to help you; however, sometimes it is difficult to accept. If you don't agree with the criticism, ask me or another trusted adult.


• Always ask questions if you don't understand. (But don't play games by asking questions when you do understand and are just being stubborn.) Give yourself a chance to improve!

If you have any comments or if you can share your parenting experience please send email to youandchildren@gmail.com

Parenting Quotes

Govern a family as you would a small fish – very gently. ~ Chinese proverb


Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. ~ James Baldwin


Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you. ~ H. Jackson Brown


Sometimes we’re so concerned about giving our children what we never had growing up, we neglect to give them what we did have growing up. ~ Dr. James Dobson


If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men. ~ M. Montessori


The school will teach children how to read, but the environment of the home must teach them what to read. The school can teach them how to think, but the home must teach them what to believe. ~ Charles A. Wells


Children spell ‘love’…T-I-M-E. ~ Dr. A. Witham


A child’s mind is not a container to be filled, but rather a fire to be kindled. ~ D. Brande


It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. ~ Frederick Douglas


Virtually every issue that we deal with, be it education… be it human services, gang problems or drugs, we find STRONG FAMILIES the ultimate solution. ~ Van Goethe


Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. ~ Roger Lewin


Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the tree is lost when raking leaves. ~ Marcelene Cox


The same boiling water that hardens the egg will soften the carrot. So it is with children. Everything depends on the individual’s particular reaction to stressful circumstances. ~ Hide or Seek


Be the change you wish to see in the world. ~ Mahatma Ghandi


When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world. ~ George Washington Carver


Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else. ~ Will Rogers


Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them. ~ Thomas Mann


There are two kinds of people: those who GIVE energy and those who DRAIN energy. ~ Freeman A Hrabrowski III


The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends in large measure upon how our children grow up today. ~ Margaret Mead


When your children reach adolescence, they fire you as parent. You’ve got to scramble to get rehired as a consultant. ~ Mike Riera


If you want to move people, it has to be toward a vision that’s positive for them, that taps important values, that gets them something they desire and it has to be presented in a compelling way so that they feel inspired to follow. ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


The child pulls parents and teachers together, but without the help of one another, parents and teachers pull the child apart. ~ Debora Tinnin


Parents are children’s first and most influential teachers. By reading to children or having them read to us, by making sure homework is done, by monitoring television use, by knowing how children spend their time, parents can have a powerfully positive effect on their children’s learning. ~ U.S. Secretary of Education


The difficult thing about children is that they come with NO INSTRUCTIONS. You pretty well have to assemble them on your own. ~ Turn Your Heart Toward Home (film)


Involved parents develop more positive attitudes toward school and school personnel, help gather support, and bring additional resources to benefit the schools. Teachers who participated in a parent involvement program improved their teaching and reported much greater job satisfaction. In addition, these schools reported that parent involvement programs prove to be a cost-effective way to increase student achievement. ~ 1987 Metropolitan Life Survey of the American Teacher


Any effort to give parents more opportunities to help their children learn will require a shift in public attitudes regarding the importance of learning, a willingness of educators to fundamentally rethink the role of parents and school – family relationships, and the cooperation of the entire community. ~ U.S. Secretary of Education


Successful family involvement is not a sporadic activity. It is a sustained commitment to instill the habits of learning and to set high expectations. It is making connections to teachers and schools not only when trouble arises, but as a part of the everyday process of children’s schooling. ~ U.S. Secretary of Education


Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope for in the future . . . .
~ Charles Kettering


Programs designed with strong parent involvement produce students who perform better than otherwise identical programs that do not involve parents as thoroughly, or that do not involve them at all. ~ Anne T. Henderson


One of the most important things we see happening is that not only do parents become more effective as parents, but they become more effective as people. It’s a matter of higher self-esteem. ~ Bronfenbrenner, National PTA


If you think one year ahead . . . plant a seed. If you think ten years ahead . . . plant a tree. If you think one hundred years ahead . . . Educate the People. ~ Chinese Proverb


If we are to prevent the fabric of our society from coming apart, we must teach our children to excel not only academically, but also in their appreciation of their obligation to others. ~ Clarence Page, columnist


Laughter is like changing a baby’s diaper. It doesn’t permanently solve any problems, but it makes things more acceptable for a while. ~ Unknown


Concentrate on: What you can do, not what you cannot do. ~ Unknown


Concentrate on: What you have, not what you don’t have. ~ Unknown


When a parent loses the early confrontations with a child, the later conflicts become harder to win. ~ Unknown


Learning makes a man fit company for himself. ~ Anonymous


There should be a healthy balance between work and play in every child’s life. Dare to Discipline. ~ Unknown


I don’t become what I think I can. I don’t become what you think I can. I become what I think you think I can! ~ Unknown


Stay on your child’s team, even when it appears to be a losing team. You’ll have the rest of your life to enjoy mutual fellowship if you don’t over react in frustration now – Parenting isn’t for cowards. ~ Unknown


Model for children how a well-put-together adult handles him/herself. ~ Unknown
You can solve a problem any way you want to as long as it doesn’t make a problem for anyone else! ~ Unknown


A bruised knee will mend; bruised courage may last a lifetime. ~ Unknown


NORMS – Stay on schedule: be on time. Participate actively – if you think it, say it; ask questions; take care of your neighbor; one person talks at a time. Take care of yourself. What is said here, stays here; what is learned here, leaves here! It’s OK to have FUN!! ~ Unknown

Compiles by esc16.net

If you have any comments or if you can share your parenting experience please send email to youandchildren@gmail.com

Is My Child Too Busy?

It’s pretty common to hear parents talk about racing their child from one club sport, to the next—or to an academic debate, school club or other roster of activities. For some children, adding extra-curricular activities may be due to the pressure of building a resume to get into a good college, while others feel peer pressure to hang out with a group of friends. Some parents might feel their child is “missing out” if he isn’t constantly occupied. There are various reasons, but it all adds up to overload.

How Can Parents Tell if Their Child is Too Busy?

• Boys Town Pediatrics helps parents look for signs of being over-loaded, such as:


• Feeling tired, exhausted or depressed


• Not enjoying the activity they once loved


• Lower grades in school


• Complaining of headaches or body aches, which may be due to stress or lack of sleep


• Having stomach pain, which may be due to missed meals or stress

An active schedule can wear on a child’s social and family life. When a child is too busy to play with friends, his friendships my suffer—as does the family structure if one parent is busy running one child to baseball practice while the other parent is at a dance recital. Not to mention, it can be extremely tiresome for everyone involved.

If you feel your child is too busy, Boys Town Pediatrics offers tips to help you get back on track:

• Schedule activities in moderation. Start slow and add an additional activity when you feel your child is ready to multi-task.


• Make sure the activity is developmentally appropriate for the age of your child.


• Keep a family calendar to stay organized. Place the calendar in a place where everyone can see it and can add their activities.


• Mark off a day on the calendar as a family day. Do not schedule any individual activities on that day and do something together as a family.


• Parents may need to say “No”. If adding one more activity is going to overload your child, you can talk to her about dropping an activity to add the new one.

Take a moment and carefully examine your child’s schedule. If you feel there are too many activities scheduled, talk with your child and together decide where you can cut back. Keeping a structured active schedule can play a role in the health and well-being of your child.

If you have any comments or if you can share your parenting experience please send email to youandchildren@gmail.com

Is your Teenage Son Obese? Then slim chance of Marriage.

Men who are grossly overweight at age 18 have nearly 50 per cent less chance of marrying by their 30s and 40s, according to new research.



The findings, discussed on Thursday at a conference on obesity in Amsterdam, held true regardless of the men's intellectual prowess or socio-economic position. this could suggest that women rank looks higher than other traits when choosing a partner.



"Yes, that may be one explanation," researcher Malin Kark of the Karolinska Institute told Agence France-Presse on the sidelines of the event hosted by the European Association for the Study of Obesity.



Her study covered more than 500,000 Swedish men born between 1951 and 1961. It found men who had been obese at 18 were 46 per cent less likely to be married in 1991 - when they were aged 30 to 40 - than men with no weight problem, and 45 per cent less likely in 2004.



For men who had been overweight but not obese at 18, the chances of marriage were slightly higher - 10 per cent lower than for men of normal weight in their 30s and 9 per cent lower than for those in their 40s.



"We think this shows there is stigmatisation of obese young men that continues into adulthood, at work and in interpersonal relationships," said Ms. Kark.



While no information was available on the men's adult weight, other studies have found that obese adolescents were likely to become obese adults, she added.



For the purpose of study, the obese were defined as those with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30. To calculate a person's BMI, take his weight in kilograms and divide it by the square of his height in metres.



The World Health Organization estimated that in 2005, about 1.6 million adults were overweight, of which at lease 400 millions were obese.



Source: Agence France-Presse.

If you have any comments or if you can share your parenting experience please send email to youandchildren@gmail.com

Lunch Ideas for Kids

During the busy school year, the most important task many parents tend to forget is planning nutritious, yet delicious lunches for their child to take to school, according to Boys Town Pediatrics.

One of the biggest problems with lunches packed at home is the high fat, sugar and sodium content found in most lunch items from the grocery store. Not to mention the lack of fruit, vegetables and whole grains in most lunchboxes.

Try not to fall into the convenient trap of always including pre-processed packaged foods in your child’s lunch such as chips, cookies, cupcakes, and other snack foods. Instead, think ahead and put together individual baggies filled with nutritious and tasty foods at the beginning of each week that you can grab from the fridge or cupboard and place into your child’s lunchbox. A few good ideas include baggies filled with:

• Grapes, strawberries, oranges, melon, etc. Freeze fruits in the summer for variety during the winter months.
• Carrots, celery, broccoli, etc.
• A blend of dried fruits, such as raisins, apple rings, banana chips. Add a few of your child’s favorite low-sodium nuts.
• Low sodium pretzels, baked chips, low-fat cheese crackers, nuts, sunflower seeds, etc.
  Even the sandwich you pack for your child can be high in fat and sodium if you are not careful.

Be sure to make a healthy sandwich by using:

• Whole grain bread instead of white bread – for variety, use a whole grain bagel or pita pocket.
• Low-fat lunch meats from the deli counter such as turkey breast, chicken breast, ham, bologna or roast beef, are much lower in fat than the pre-packaged kind.
• Look for meats that are at least 95% fat-free.
• Low-fat or fat free cheese – regular cheese is the second leading source of saturated fat in kids’ diets. You could skip the cheese altogether and pack low-fat yogurt, cottage cheese or calcium-fortified orange juice to obtain a significant source of calcium.
• Mayonnaise in moderation – better yet, use reduced fat mayo, salad dressing or margarine. Mustard is an even wiser choice with no fat or calories.
• Veggies – add nutritional value to your child’s sandwich by stacking on a slice of cucumber, romaine lettuce, pepper, tomato, or shredded carrots.
• Keep your child’s lunch interesting by packing a variety of foods. Don’t pack sweets every day. Instead, pick a particular day each week (Friday’s are always good) to pack a surprise treat like chips, cookies or a cupcake. Or, give your child some change one day each week to buy a treat from the school cafeteria.

If you have any comments or if you can share your parenting experience please send email to youandchildren@gmail.com

Five Leadership messages for a Daughter

Being a leader means being self-confident, open to new ideas and willing to take action. A study of 25 top women leaders found that, as children, they had all been given five messages.


1. You are loved and special. Children don’t automatically know they are loved. Hug your children. Let them know you love them even when they make mistakes or misbehave.


2. You can do anything you put your mind to doing. Let your daughter believe in her power to achieve. Don’t do things for her that she can do for herself. As a toddler, let her dress herself. Later, let her manage her allowance.


3. You can take risks. Mistakes are an unpleasant but inevitable part of learning. Let your daughter take risks and applaud her efforts. If she wants to try out for sports, the school play, or student government, encourage her. If she doesn’t make the team or loses the election, help her see what she learned from the experience and encourage her to try again.


4. You can use and enjoy assertiveness. Listen to your daughter’s goals and dreams. She may wish she could play a particular piano piece or she may envy her friend’s ability to ride a bicycle. Help her make a realistic plan to achieve her goal. Reward her through open displays of pride, such as attending a piano concert or taking a bike ride with her.


5. You are entitled to dreams of greatness. Don’t limit your daughter’s dreams. If she wants to be an astronaut, don’t tell her she’ll get airsick. If she wants to be an attorney, don’t tell her men won’t be attracted to an assertive woman. If she wants to be a teacher, don’t tell her she can do better that. Help her believe she excel at whatever she does.


Source: http://www.thelearningcommunity.us/


If you have any comments or if you can share your parenting experience please send email to youandchildren@gmail.com

3-Steps to praise your child

Praising is an important factor to motivate your children. You need to start this early to have more positive and healthy emotions in your child. Praising needs to be consistent in order to expect faster and dramatic improvements in your child's behaviour over time.

But every parent generally have this question: How much to praise? Any praise is a good praise?

The award winning book Common Sense Parenting describes a concept called Effective Praise.
Effective Praise is more powerful than general praise, which is usually a simple comment such as “Fantastic” or “Great.”


Effective Praise involves three steps:

Step 1: Showing your approval
Step 2: Describing the positive
Step 3: Giving a reason

Step 1 involves using words and actions to express your satisfaction. For example, saying “Amazing!” while giving your child a thumbs-up or a hug adds excitement to the moment. You are showing how pleased you are with what your child is doing. In turn, your child becomes more satisfied with himself or herself.


Step 2 involves making sure your child understands exactly what he or she did to deserve your praise. Praise what you saw or heard. This will motivate your child to repeat the behavior. For example, you could say, “Sarah, thanks for cleaning the dishes and helping me put the leftovers away.” Comments that are brief and to the point help with understanding.


Step 3 involves linking the relationship between the child’s behavior and the consequences or outcomes. Here are a couple of examples:

“If you do your homework right after school, you’ll have more time to play outside.”

“When you’re home on time, I will trust you more and probably will let you go out more often.”

When you do all three steps of Effective Praise, it should sound something like this:

Showing your approval“Thanks for calling me.”
Describing the positive“I’m really glad that you told me where you’re at and why you’ll be a little late.”
Giving a reason “Calling me shows a lot of sensitivity and shows that I can trust you.”


You may want to add a fourth step for exceptional behavior – a reward. Rewards can be large or small, that’s up to you. Rewards don’t have to cost money. Just giving your child a special privilege can be reward enough.

Please share your parenting experience by sending email to youandchildren@gmail.com

Can you catch the flu from handling money?

Yes.

“Human influenza viruses can survive and maintain their infectiousness for several days when they are deposited on banknotes,” according to a 2008 study by Yves Thomas and his colleagues at the Central Laboratory for Virology in Geneva, Switzerland.

Scientists spotted different types of flu virus onto Swiss francs and found that they survived from a few hours (naked virus) to more than a week (virus mixed with respiratory mucus).The results depended on the type and concentration of flu virus.

According to the study, Swiss banknotes are mostly cotton covered by a nonporous resin. Bills from other countries may be composed of different materials, and this could affect viral transmission.

“Whether similar results would be obtained with banknotes from other countries and with different characteristics needs to be studied,” the authors wrote.In an interview with Reuters, Thomas said, “Our studies have convinced us that it is possible to catch flu from banknotes, but the chances are very, very slim and there is no cause for concern among the general population.”

SmartMoney had this to say in a recent story:To be sure, many kinds of frequently touched surfaces could temporarily harbor the flu virus. Broadly speaking, scientists consider the risk of transmission in this way to be low, particularly if hand-washing and other hygiene measures are practiced, says Dr. Philip Tierno, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University’s Langone Medical Center and author of “The Secret Life of Germs.”

Three things must happen for a flu virus to be transmitted from one person to another via money.

• First, a person who is infected with the swine flu must sneeze or cough onto the bill or blow their nose and leave remnants of their mucus on the currency.

• Next, an uninfected person would need to touch the money while the virus is still present.

• Finally, that person would need to put their contaminated hand in their mouth or pick their nose, says Dr. Murray Grossan, an otolaryngologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The best defense against infection: follow public health guidelines and wash your hands frequently.Source: “Survival of Influenza Virus on Banknotes” by Yves Thomas, Guido Vogel, Werner Wunderli, Patricia Suter, Mark Witschi, Daniel Koch, Caroline Tapparel and Laurent Kaiser, published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2008.

Source: http://blogs.america.gov/science/2009/05/02/can-you-catch-the-flu-from-handling-money/

How to Teach Kids about Swine Flu

Nightly news updates, school closures and family discussions about the rapid spread of the Swine Flu (also known as the H1N1 flu infection) may lead to anxiety and undue stress in young children as they worry about the epidemic. Calm their fears about the Swine Flu, while still educating them about prevention and symptoms in the event H1N1 reaches your community.

Use these tips to teach kids about Swine Flu to educate with unnecessarily alarming them.

Step 1 Teach kids about Swine Flu (H1N1) by letting them know that the outbreak is referred to as a health emergency so enough medicine (like Tamiflu or Relenza) will be allocated to areas that will possibly need it. Compare the Swine Flu to a regular seasonal flu, but acknowledge that it’s more serious because it’s hitting its stride after the traditional flu season and is a blend of three types of influenza (viruses that typically affect pigs, birds and people).

Step 2 Stress that the Swine Flu is easily passed from person to person. Equip them with “tools” to help prevent getting sick. Teach kids about swine flu preventive measures like washing hands often, particularly before eating meals or a snack. (You can also give them and their classroom an antibacterial hand sanitizer for use throughout the day.) Instruct them to stop rubbing their eyes, touching their noses, putting fingers in their mouth and avoid sharing drinks with other kids to keep germs at bay.

Step 3 Educate your kids about H1N1 symptoms (such as fever, an achy body, a sore throat, runny nose and occasionally throwing up or stomach upset) to empower them since they’ll know what to look for. If your children are known to “adopt” symptoms after they hear about them, however, you may just want to assure them that you’ll check them for symptoms each night before bed as reassurance.

Step 4 Let your children know that they should come to you with questions if their friends are discussing the Swine Flu or if something they see on television or read about on the Internet upsets them. Look up information together on the computer, for example, if you don’t have the answers. Discussing it calmly (be sure to temper your own reactions to the “pig flu”) and supplying them with accurate information can make them feel confident and prepared.

Source: http://www.ehow.com/

Swine Flu (H1N1): 5 Ways to Keep Your Kids Safe

Swine flu has parents seriously worried. With the suspected death toll mounting in Mexico and at least 64 confirmed cases in the United States, there's good reason to worry. One New York City school is closed because dozens of students have fallen ill.

Parental fears get amplified when the public-health experts say, correctly, that they don't know what's going to happen next. "We don't know how worried we need to be," says Joseph Bocchini, chairman of the department of pediatrics at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. "We know that this is a virus that has caused severe disease in Mexico. But so far the cases that we know of in the United States have been mild. The potential for this to become a pandemic is real, but we don't know how likely that is."

Is it time to start hoarding Tamiflu and face masks? Not yet, Bocchini told me today. "We don't need to change what we routinely do for our children right now," he says. Instead, he says, parents can put their worry to good use by getting prepared, in case this outbreak turns out to be really ugly.

Here are five ways to do something about protecting your family from swine flu without going bonkers, gleaned from pediatricians like Bocchini and other experts:

1. If a family member has a flulike illness, call the doctor right away. The new swine flu can be treated with antiviral medicines, but those medicines work only if taken within a day or two after symptoms start.

2. To reduce the risk of infection, follow the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 5 simple habits: (a) Keep your distance from people who are sick; (b) make sure family members wash their hands often; (c) stay home when sick; (d) cover your mouth and nose when coughing; and (e) avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.

3. Cancel that trip to Cancún. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends postponing nonessential travel to Mexico until the outbreak there is resolved.

4. Start thinking about what your family would do if your school or day-care center were closed because of swine flu cases in your community. Many companies have emergency plans that encourage telecommuting, for instance. The pandemicflu.gov site has advice for families and employers, including checklists for schools and employers.

5. Keep current with the swine flu news. The CDC's swine flu website closely tracks cases, as does the World Health Organization's swine flu site.

Source: http://health.usnews.com/blogs/on-parenting/2009/04/28/swine-flu-5-ways-to-keep-your-kids-safe.html

H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu): Information for Concerned Parents and Caregivers

What is H1N1 Flu?

H1N1 is a type of influenza (flu) virus that causes respiratory disease that can spread between people. Most people infected with this virus in the United States have had mild disease, but some have had more severe illness, and there has been at least one death. Young children, pregnant women, and people with chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, or heart disease may be at higher risk for complications from this infection. More information about who may be at higher risk will be available when more is known about the disease. There are steps you can take to protect your family and to know when to seek medical care.


What are the symptoms?

In most children, the symptoms of H1N1 flu are similar to the symptoms of regular flu. They include:
Fever
Cough
Sore throat
Body aches
Headache
Chills and fatigue
Occasionally, vomiting and diarrhea

Young children may not have typical symptoms, but may have difficulty breathing and low activity. Little is known about how H1N1 may affect children. However, we think the infection may be similar to other flu infections. Typically, flu infections cause mild disease in children, but children under 5 years old are more likely to have serious illness than older children. Although rare, severe respiratory illness (pneumonia) and deaths have been reported with flu infections in children. Flu infections tend to be more severe in children with chronic medical conditions.


How to keep from getting it:

Flu viruses spread from person to person mainly through the coughing or sneezing of a sick person. Flu virus may also be spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with the virus and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth. We think H1N1 flu spreads the same way as other flu viruses. Right now, there is no vaccine to protect against H1N1 flu, but there are everyday actions that can help prevent the spread of germs that cause respiratory illnesses like H1N1 flu:

• Teach your children to wash their hands frequently with soap and water for 20 seconds. Be sure to set a good example by doing this yourself.
• Teach your children to cough and sneeze into a tissue or into the inside of their elbow. Be sure to set a good example by doing this yourself.
• Teach your children to stay at least six feet away from people who are sick.
• Children who are sick should stay home from school and daycare and stay away from other people until they are better.
• In communities where H1N1 flu has occurred, stay away from shopping malls, movie theaters, or other places where there are large groups of people.

What to do if your child is sick:

• Unless they need medical attention, keep children who are sick at home. Don’t send them to school or daycare.
• Have them drink a lot of liquid (juice, water, Pedialyte ®).
• Keep the sick child comfortable. Rest is important.
• For fever, sore throat, and muscle aches, you can use fever-reducing medicines that your doctor recommends based on your child’s age. Do not use aspirin with children or teenagers; it can cause Reye’s syndrome, a life-threatening illness.
• If someone in your home is sick, keep him or her away from those who are not sick.
  Keep tissues close to the sick person and have a trash bag within reach for disposing used tissues.

If your child comes in contact with someone with H1N1 flu, ask your doctor if he or she should receive antiviral medicines to prevent getting sick from H1N1 Flu.

If your child experiences any of the following warning signs, seek emergency medical care:

• Fast breathing or trouble breathing
• Bluish or gray skin color
• Not drinking enough fluids
• Not waking up or not interacting
• Being so irritable that he or she does not want to be held
• Not urinating or no tears when crying
• Their symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/parents.htm

For more information call 1-800-CDC INFO, or go to http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1

How to Protect Your children from Swine Flu?

As swine flu spreads across the country and around the globe, its youngest victims may also be among the ones who are in the most danger of losing their lives, infectious disease experts say.

Their comments follow the first reported death in the United States from the swine flu -- a 22-month-old Mexican boy who had arrived at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston for treatment, but who died on Monday -- as well as the World Health Organization's decision to raise their pandemic alert level to phase 5 from phase 4.

"Classically, in seasonal influenza it is the very young and very old that die from influenza," said Dr. George Rutherford, director of the UCSF Institute for Global Health. "The CDC has not done full analysis on pediatric deaths this season, but last season 50 percent of childhood flu deaths occurred in those under 5 years old. The majority of these were in kids under age 2."

Young children, especially those less than one year of age are particularly susceptible to influenza," agreed Dr. Rich Whitley, professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "The younger the child, the more likely the severity will be greater, and risk for death increases."

Additionally, past research has shown that, in general, infants' immature immune systems make them more vulnerable to infection and death from viral infections like influenza.
But whether these past findings will be borne out with this new virus have yet to be seen, warns Ed Hsu, associate professor at the University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences and School of Public Health.

"We may need another week until the H1N1 outbreak runs the full course of its incubation and infectivity period," he said. "By this weekend we should have enough data to make some meaningful inferences from worldwide distribution of the disease, including susceptibility or vulnerability by age over time."

Will Swine Flu Show Death Spike in Young Adults?But while many infectious disease experts expect very young children to be more vulnerable to the new virus, it is a spike in deaths among young adults that could be a sign of a much more troubling outbreak.

H1N1 Pandemic of 1918: Will History Repeat Itself?

Such a pattern was seen during the infamous 1918 influenza pandemic, which caused at least 675,000 U.S. deaths and up to 50 million deaths worldwide. Researchers say many of these deaths were among the young, whose healthy immune systems mounted a response to the virus that was so destructive it killed them.

"The 1918-1919 flu had a W-shaped mortality pattern, with elevated mortality rates in the young, old and 20- to 39-year-olds," Rutherford said. "It's this middle bulge in mortality that has everyone worried."

Thus far, patients in the United States with swine flu have ranged from infancy to 81 years old. But 64 percent of these cases have been in those under the age of 18. While the number of cases is still too low to draw any solid conclusions, some say this preponderance of younger patients is a potentially troubling sign.

"As was the case in 1918, young and otherwise healthy individuals seem to be disproportionately affected," said Dr. Oren Cohen, chief medical and scientific officer at Quintiles Transnational Corp. and consulting professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. "It is too early to know about death rates."

Protecting Your Child From Swine Flu

Jacqueline Civitano is just one parent who is dealing firsthand with the specter of swine flu. Her 17-year-old son, Frankie is a student at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, the site of the first reported cases in New York City. He tested positive for the illness on Sunday.

Since then, she said, three of her other children and her daughter-in-law have also come down with the disease.

She said everyone in her family is recovering. But she said she was particularly concerned about her infected 10-year-old son, who also has diabetes.

"Yesterday we thought we were going to have to take him to the hospital because he couldn't eat or drink," she said Tuesday. "It's a little scary when you don't know what's going on and you hear all this stuff about people dying in Mexico. It's extremely frightening."

Fortunately, infectious disease experts noted, there are steps that families can take to protect children from the worst consequences of the disease.

Simple Steps Help Protect Kids From H1N1

Rutherford said Tamiflu, one of the two antiviral medicines said to be effective against swine flu, is approved for use in babies as young as 1 year old, and because of an emergency order from the government, the FDA has already said that doctors may use Tamiflu to treat babies even under 1 year of age.

Relenza, the other antiviral that has shown promise against swine flu, is approved for use in kids age 7 and up; that prescribing information has not been altered.

But perhaps the best defense for babies is to keep them away from possible infection through social distancing -- in short, making certain they do not come into contact with infected individuals.

Parents of younger children can also make sure that their kids follow established hygiene practices in order to lower their risk of infection. These include frequent and proper hand washing, as well as staying clear from friends and family members who are known to be infected.

The ABC News Medical Unit contributed to this report.

Source: abcnews.go.com

Stop Teeth Grinding and Clenching

Bruxism is the term that refers to an incessant grinding and clenching of the teeth, unintentionally, and at inappropriate times. Bruxers (persons with bruxism) are often unaware that they have developed this habit, and often do not know that treatment is available until damage to the mouth and teeth has been done. Damage caused by bruxism often includes the following symptoms. However, each individual may experience symptoms differently.

Symptoms may include:
abraded teeth
facial pain
oversensitive teeth
tense facial and jaw muscles
headaches
dislocation of the jaw
damage to the tooth enamel, exposing the inside of the tooth (dentin)
a popping or clicking in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ)
tongue indentations
damage to the inside of the cheek


The symptoms of bruxism may resemble other conditions or medical problems. Consult a dentist or your physician for a diagnosis.

What causes bruxism?

Although this habit is unintentional, oral health specialists often point to excessive stress and certain personality types as typical causes of bruxism. Bruxism often affects persons with nervous tension such as anger, pain, or frustration, and/or persons with aggressive, hurried, or overly competitive tendencies.

How is bruxism diagnosed?

During regular visits to the dentist, the teeth are examined for evidence of bruxism - often indicated by the tips of the teeth appearing flat. If symptoms are present, the condition will be observed for changes over the next several visits before a treatment program is established.


Treatment for bruxism:
Specific treatment for bruxism will be determined by your dentist or physician based on:
your age, overall health, and medical history
extent of the disease

your tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies
expectations for the course of the disease
your opinion or preference

In most cases, bruxism can be successfully treated. Treatment may involve:
behavior modificationTeaching the patient how to rest his/her tongue, teeth, and lips properly, and learning how to rest the tongue upward may relieve discomfort on the jaw while keeping the teeth apart and lips closed.

mouthpieceA specially-fitted plastic mouth appliance may be worn at night to absorb the force of biting. This appliance may help to prevent future damage to the teeth and aid in changing the patient's behavior.

biofeedbackBiofeedback involves an electronic instrument that measures the amount of muscle activity of the mouth and jaw - indicating to the patient when too much muscle activity is taking place so that the behavior can be changed. This is especially helpful for daytime bruxers. Further research is needed to develop a treatment program for bruxers who clench during the night.
(Source: /www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/)

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