Parenting Toddlers

Parenting often reminds me of being in the first car on a roller coaster ride that may or may not have passed it’s last structural inspection. It can be scary, extremely nerve racking, and sometimes makes you a little queasy in the stomach area, but in the end, it turns out to be the most amazing thing you’ve ever done. That’s why I’m even more excited that I’ve become a part of the Carnival of Family Life. The beginning of next week I’ll be hosting the Carnival here at Parenting Toddlers, and I’m really looking forward to checking out all the wonderful posts! Make sure and check in with us on Monday April 30th to see all the great parenting articles. And if you’d like to jump on board with all of us parents who are stuck somewhere between screeching in joy and clutching our stomachs in fear, swing by and submit your own article here. Also, don’t forget to swing over and visit Kailani at An Island Life. She’s the one who came up with the idea for this carnival in the first place, she’s the one who ends up putting in most of the work, and I think it’s time she got some of the credit already!

Now put your thinking caps on, dig through your posts and send us the best parenting articles you can come up with. Think of it as a secondary safety belt for the rest of us.

carnival of family life, parenting articles

So Alicia over at Parenting Sites 411 tagged me for this nifty blogroll idea, and after I woke up from my medically enduced haze (that’s cold medicine induced, nothing else), which is currently made necessary by the fact that I cannot, FOR THE LIFE OF ME, fall asleep without coughing and hacking for at least two hours every night. Anyway, after staring mutely at the screen for about an hour, I think I finally figured out how to keep this going! And don’t worry, it shouldn’t be hard at all for anyone who’s had a solid night’s sleep in the past week or so! So check out the great sites below, and tell them Parenting Toddlers sent ya!

Alex and I just love these sites!

Here are the rules:

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content string. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra linkback.
2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.
3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals� list.
4. Add up to 5 new parenting or (Mommy/Daddy) blogs to the list in the “My Adds� section.

My add ons:
A Work of Art: Raising Our Exceptional Son
Ever After … My Way
Adventures In The 100 Acre Wood
An Island Life
Adoption and Fire

The originals:

Lala Girl
The Bookworm Broadcast
Parenting Sites 411

Cass Knits
Geni Desu Yo

No Average Mom
Notes From The Trenches
Busy Mom.net

Groovy Mom
Coffee Time
My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings
Toil

My Single Mom Life
Tips From The Money Goddess
Army Mom: New Jersey

Melissa’s Place

Three Sons and a Princess
Moot Thoughts and Musings
A family runs through it
Uglyhead
Parenting Toddlers

OUR TODDLER OF THE WEEK KARI AASLAND

Childs name: Kari Aasland
Loves to: Chase the dog with her toy stroller
Hates to: Have her teeth brushed
Favorite Toy: Anything Elmo
Best Toddler Tip From Mom: Go with the flow…know when to give a little and when to take a stand…in other words, choose your battles and you will both be happier.

TODDLER TEETHING PROBLEMS

First and foremost, for those of you who have children who cut teeth quicker and easier than Justin Timberlake changes girlfriends, I envy you. I also need you to pick out my next lottery numbers, because apparently you are one of the luckiest people on the planet. The rest of us are tired of feeling helpless when our little ones are uncomfortable, tired of trying to choose between thousands of “possible” teething medicines, and just plain tired overall.

The doctors, the books, and the experts say there is no direct correlation between teething and having a runny nose, diarrhea, or slight fever. As all knowing as I might be (sarcasm being the key to that statement), I can’t tell you who’s right. What I can tell you is that Alex is currently cutting two more teeth, and he has all the issues listed above. I don’t know if one caused the other or not, and frankly, I don’t care. All I want to know is how to fix it. We’ve all been there, (except those lucky punks we mentioned in the beginning) our normally vivacious, over-active, last-nerve straining toddler is suddenly a whimpering, pitiful baby who desperately needs Mommy or Daddy to make it better. Here’s how to do just that.

1) Let them chew. Teething rings, cold wet washcloths, anything they want to chew on, let them (provided it’s not your stereo equipment or your cat). Chewing will do the most to help the offending tooth cut through the gum, and cutting it through is our ultimate goal.

2) Let them drink cool, icy fluids. Cold milk, ice water, chilled juice. Keep the fluids flowing, the temperature not only helps to soothe enflamed gums, but if your toddler has diarrhea the extra fluids are always helpful. Avoid sugary sodas or sports drinks as these can make diarrhea worse, and aren’t good for those teeth we’re working so hard to get in the first place.

3) Ease the pain. If your toddler is having enough pain that they’re having trouble sleeping at night, a child’s tylenol or other pain reliever won’t hurt. Make sure and contact your doctor or pharmacist though, for the proper dosage and frequency.

4) Keep them clean AND comfortable. Babies and toddlers both tend to drool more when teething. As parents, we constantly wipe, clean, swipe, dry, etc. This extra attention and extra moisture is likely to cause some drying or redness on your child’s face. Use soft cloth’s (your baby washcloths are great for this) or kleenex for cleaning, and make sure to soothe irritated skin with a baby safe moisturizer. Aquaphor by Eucerin is a favorite in our house, and a regular size tube lasts forever.

And perhaps the best, and most fulfilling way to help …

5) Baby your toddler. Offer plenty of extra cuddles, or some extra rocking before bedtime. Love always seems to help the most when soothing the hurt.

teething, sleep issues, toddlers

Wonderful, wonderful inventions! Those Baby Orajel teething swabs numb up his gums, I can stick that swab all the way back to where it is needed without getting holes in my fingers from his sharp little teeth. For the first few teeth, the regular baby orajel worked fine, but after that, it’s nearly impossible to avoid being bitten. If you have a ton of baby orajel and want to use it up, stick it on the end of a q-tip and stick it in there, has the same effect (just don’t put too much on, a glob can fall off onto their tongue and you’ll hear strange sounds and lots of tongue-grabbing until it wears off ).

Of course, you’ll want to keep these up high, as Lil’ Duck discovered them one day and took great delight in cracking them all open, then stuffing them inside my VCR (the q-tip dispenser of late, since he formerly placed an entire box of regular q-tips inside that same VCR).

Sounds rather obvious, but Lil’ Duck has never really taken to teethers in the past, but now he loves them, so it’s worth a try - the bumpy ones now, of all things. He takes great delight in putting them into the fridge and making them “veddy, veddy COLD!” The skinnier ones (Sassy makes some cute little bear ones) seem to slide to the back of his mouth a bit better to reach the painful molar area.

A clean flannel or slightly damp washcloth kept dry in the fridge can act to cool the face - Lil’ Duck loves to gnaw on it as well. He also tends to refuse a lot of fluids while teething, so this is a sneaky way to get a little more liquid into him. If I’ve forgotten to keep the cloths in the fridge, I stick them in the freezer for a few minutes to make them cold (but not hard) for quick relief.

For the toddler who is closely supervised and can chew and swallow well, freezing regular bagels and letting them gnaw away can be a lifesaver. Just make sure they don’t get a piece off and choke - they do stay hard for quite a while, so if you are paying attention it is just fine. It gets back to the molar area of the mouth much better than a lot of other teething toys.