It’s natural to want to avoid talking about death with your child. But if you skirt the issue or speak in hushed tones when someone passes away, your child may become even more curious. Most kids this age have trouble grasping the permanence of death because their sense of time isn’t developed. They don’t understand the concept of forever. When they play dead, for example, they can get up and run around a few minutes later. Kid’s understanding of death occurs gradually, and they use plat to make sense of what it means.

Your child may ask lots of questions; try to answer the, patiently and honestly, but keep your explanations simple. Tell him, for example, that when a person is dead, his body doesn’t work anymore and he can’t become alive again. You can say that it’s usually something that happens to older people when their bodies get very tired and can’t be fixed.

It’ll still take a while for the concept to sink in. even if a close family member has died and your child has attended the funeral, he might ask “Is grandma coming to my birthday party?”. It is very confusing to our little ones to understand death because they’re taking it literally. If you say that your guinea pig has “gone to sleep”, there’s a good chance that your child will develop a fear of going to bed. So try to be honest as possible and always use the right words that won’t traumatized your child.

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Nick Jonas has Type 1 Diabetes

Doctors really don’t know what causes Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes. Research is being done to explore both genetics and environmental triggers, but many kids who are diagnosed with diabetes have no family history of it at all.

Diabetes is manageable; kids who have this condition can live normal, active lives if they pay close attention to treating their condition. Diabetes can’t be cured, but its effects can be minimized. If your child doesn’t do this conscientiously, he or she might develop several undesirable complications. These can include:

• Neuropathy. This is nerve damage. It commonly causes problems in the legs, but it can also affect other systems in the body as well.

• Retinopathy. Diabetes can cause damage to the eyes, including causing blindness.

• Nephropathy. Nephropathy is kidney disease. Weak kidneys allow toxins to build up in the body and make a child sick.

• Heart Disease. Heart disease is more common to diabetics than non-diabetics. It can lead to other complications such as stroke, embolism, or heart attack.

So how do you know if your child has diabetes? There are some symptoms that all parents should be on the lookout for:

• Excessive thirst. Is your child constantly asking for something to drink?

• Frequent urination. If you find yourself saying, “Are you in the bathroom again?”…pay attention!

• Drowsiness or lethargy. They fall asleep over their homework, or they just can’t get the energy to do things they used to enjoy. If you’ve tried adjusting your child’s bedtime and it isn’t helping, bring this to your doctor’s attention.

• Sugar in urine. Obviously your doctor will have to test this, but it’s a pretty significant indicator.

• Sudden vision changes. The cells in the eyes are being attacked by the immune system, so vision decreases fairly quickly.

• Increased appetite. Are they suddenly hungry all the time, and can’t seem to get enough? They could be going through a growth spurt, as all kids do…but it could be diabetes.

• Sudden weight loss. None of that food is being processed like it should be. Instead of gaining weight, they might lose weight very quickly.

• Fruity, sweet, or wine-like odor on breath. The imbalance of sugar and insulin in the blood can come out in strange ways, including very sweet breath.

• Heavy, labored breathing. Your child might find it hard to catch his or her breath, even if they aren’t doing anything strenuous.

• Stupor, unconsciousness. If diabetes goes too long without being diagnosed, it can cause kids to faint or, in extreme cases, fall into a coma.

Taken alone, most of these symptoms seem harmless, but together, they could indicate the presence of Type 1 diabetes. Don’t be afraid to bring them up to your doctor; he or she can judge whether there’s anything to be concerned about. The sooner you start treatment, the more likely your child is to live a normal, active life.

Tags: child, complications, div, doctor, doctors, eat, family, fareast, font definitions, food, fruit, gaining weight, hav, heart, internet, kid, kids, LA, labor, legs, lethargy, mso, nature, orphan, parent, parents, pitch, roo, sick, sleep, span, story, style definitions, symptoms, thirst, times new roman, WHO

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We get a few of these “bank holidays” every year, where banks, schools, businesses, and government offices are closed.  We observe them by taking the day off and not getting mail (although hospitals, gas stations, and restaurants stay open, so not everyone gets the day off).  But every time one comes up, it’s important to teach our kids why this day is special in our national and community life.  It’s not just about getting a day off.

Memorial Day has been observed since the Civil War, when it was first established to pay tribute to the Union war dead.  It was later expanded to include tributes to the fallen of any American war.  Memorial Day is a day to fly our American flags, discuss the place of sacrifice in maintaining freedom, and to thank a veteran–because even if they didn’t die, they sacrificed.

Many families also take this day to visit the graves of loved ones.  This is an excellent activity to share with children.  It shows them that we remember those who came before us, and that we still care about them even after they’ve gone.  It’s a good time to share family stories, and to point out how we are all connected to people we may never have met. 

Enjoy your day off (if you get one), and remind your kids about the sacrifices other people made so that they could enjoy their day today.  Have a happy Memorial Day!

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While I always appreciate the extra hour of sleep in the Fall, when we “fall back,” that is, we set our clocks back an hour, the one in the Spring doesn’t really bug me that much.  I mean, it’s not like I get enough sleep, anyway, so what’s an hour here or there?

But it does mess with our kids’ schedules.  Depending on the time of year, we find them getting sleepy early, perhaps nodding off during dinner, or running around like…well, non-sleepy children when it’s bedtime.

Daylight Savings is this Saturday/Sunday–earlier than it’s ever been before.  I think it’s upposed to somehowe help the economy if we get extra hours to shop in the daylight–a theory which makes no sense whatsoever, but hey, I just do what they tell me.  Anyway, what can we or should we do for our kids to keep that lost hour from messing things up too badly?

• Nothing.  It’s a little bit inconvenient, but they’ll adjust eventually, within a week or so.  It’s probably more important to keep to a schedule that’s set by the clock, rather than the sun.  If bedtime is 8:00, then it should always be 8:00, whether or not we’ve sprung forward or fallen back.
• Compensate.  A few days ahead of time, perhaps Wednesday or Thursday, get your bedtime routine started 15 or 20 minutes early.  Kids won’t notice it that much, and it won’t put you out that much.  By the time they’ve lost the hour, they’ve accumulated enough extra sleep that it shouldn’t be that big a deal to settle things back at normal bedtimes.
• Take a Nap.  There’s nothing better than a Sunday afternoon nap, anyway, but if you’re missing that hour, stretch out on the couch with a kid snuggled up next to you.  If they don’t take naps anymore, have some quiet time.  They can even make a fort or tent and camp out in their sleeping bags during quiet time.  You’ll be surprised how often even older kids fall asleep if they’re tired enough.

We deal with this in some form twice a year, but still, missed sleep or disturbed sleep patterns can affect our health, our mood, and those of our kids.  It doesn’t hurt to prepare for it and make it as painless as possible.

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On February 4, President Obama signed legislation expanding S-CHIP, or State Children’s Health Insurance Program, by $35 billion, which includes about 4 million kids. 

What this will mean for your family is that if you are middle class and don’t have health insurance– a situation more and more families find themselves in–it might be possible for you to get coverage at least for your kids.  Even if you’ve been turned down before because you fall on that cusp (you make too little to make it without help, but too much to get any help), you should consider reapplying, because this money goes to the states to cover the cost of healthcare for more kids than before.

That might be good news for many families, considering that health care for our kids is an urgent priority for most of us.  Nothing’s free, though, so we’ll wait to see what we pay for this in terms of taxes in the near future.

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