Parenting Toddlers

I love Katie Holmes. I think she’s the cutest little thing - I want to look like her when I grow up. And Suri is a gorgeous little baby. (I dislike Tom Cruise immensely, though). Anyway, I saw pictures of Suri with a baby bottle. This is one of my pet peeves. I try not to be judgmental about other people’s parenting, but I had to make an exception. When you’re in the public eye, I think a lot of people look at you and what you do with your children. With such a high profile kid, people may think it’s ok to let their two year old have a bottle. It’s not! It is so bad for their teeth. My little sister had a bottle for the longest time, and it caused her to have serious issues with her teeth. It’s called bottle rot and it occurs when children are given a bottle - it can happen to babies too, which is why you should never put your baby to bed with a bottle. Constant exposure to the milk or whatever is in the bottle is damaging to the litle teeth. It just really really bugs me! Don’t let your two year old have a bottle! Not only is it unnecessary, it is not good at all for their teeth. It can be hard to wean your baby off a bottle, but it is harder to have to sit with her while she endures trip after trip to the dentist or oral surgeon. I’m not exaggerating. My sister had to have oral surgery when she was about three or four. My parents were loving parents, but they overindulged her a bit too much, and couldn’t take away her “baba.” Take it away!! When Peanut turned one, I was going to rip it out of her hands! I didn’t but we weaned her away so she was bottle free shortly after she was one.
If your toddler still has a bottle, try to wean her off right away. You’ll save yourself a lot of money in dental bills and your child will be spared a lot of pain. You can try having her go cold turkey - she’ll cry for a while and put up a fuss, but toddlers are resiliant. Otherwise, you can gradually reduce the number of times she gets a bottle a day - don’t let her carry it around with her at all. Buy her a cool drinking cup or water bottle. Toddlers like to be “big kids,” so this may work to help her ditch the bottle. Ask your doctor or dentist for more ideas, but get started on it now. It is really really really bad for toddler’s teeth!!

I’m sure by now, many of you have heard about the tragic case of dry drowning that was in the news. A little boy went swimming and then went home. He complained of feeling tired (and he had defecated in the pool). He went to lie down about an hour after he got out of the pool - it was his first time swimming - and drowned. When I heard about this, I was astounded. How do you drown in your bed? Apparently, he’d gotten water in his lungs while at the pool and showed no signs of respiratory distress (though his soiling himself was probably a symptom or sigh?). His mother went to check on him and he had a white spongy material on his face. He was rushed to the hospital but it was too late. He’d drowned an hour after getting out of the water.

This just really upset me. Obviously, no one wants to hear of a ten year old dying. But the fact that he drowned after getting out of the water is really disturbing. I guess this happens though in 10-15% of drowninig deaths. People can die up to 24 hours after getting a little water in their lungs. And according to the CDC, that can happen to a child in a bath.

My thought was, “How do you know?” If your child seems fine in the water and then gets out, you would think you could stop worrying about drowning at that point. There are signs to look out for: difficulty breathing, fatigue, and changes in behavior. But the latter two could be for a host of reasons: it’s hard to know sometimes. There’s more info on the story here.

This was heartbreaking, and I can’t imagine being that poor kid’s parents. Everyone is talking about warning signs the day after it happened, but they had no idea. I would have no idea: I didn’t even think that was possible. It’s scary how little we can protect our kids.

So, why am I depressing myself and scaring other parents? It’s summertime, and more and more kids are going to be swimming. While this is far from a common occurance, it is always good to know what can happen and how you can spot it before it’s too late. I was talking about this with former Parenting Toddlers writer Randi, and she said her husband’s mother always used to tell him not to lie down for an hour after swimming. I had never heard that before, but apparently an old wives’ tale had some truth in it there.

I was thinking of things to write about, and Randi (former Parenting Toddlers writer and mother of two great kids) told me about Bento boxes. She has a neighbor who is Japanese and introduced her to the idea. A Bento box is a single portion takeout or home-made meal common in Japanese culture and usually has rice, fish or meat, and pickled or cooked vegetables on the side. As you can see in the above picture, the food looks not only tasty but healthy. Another benefit, as Randi pointed out, is that it is economical. The meal in the above picture uses food mainly from dinner the night before. This is a great way to use leftovers - which I know I have a problem with. They also help with portion control. Other cultures eat way less than we do, so we don’t always have a great sense of portions. These boxes can help you eat a balanced, nutritious meal and stay within your portion.

There are different ways to use Bento boxes: packing one for your older child’s school lunch, preparing them at night for you and your toddler’s next day lunch, making them for picnics, and more. They can get pretty elaborate and there are gorgeous boxes available:

There are even contests where homemakers compete to make the most aesthetically pleasing and complex Bento box. I know I would have a hard time rolling out of bed and preparing a gorgeous nutritious lunch for my child. I would have all I could do to slap together a peanut butter sandwich. With Bento boxes, you can make it easy on yourself. You can just get a tupperware container or a child’s seperated container or plate and put together some leftovers from dinner. If you want to get more into it, then you can always progress.

It can also put some fun into your toddler’s day; and if you want, you can explain how it comes from a different culture. It’s just something to try if you need a switch in your routine.