meta-dad

Is your child more prone to ear infections?

Ear infections are pretty common in children, but what causes them? I had lot of ear infections as a kid, bad ones. Now, it pains me (of course) to see my kids experience the same pain and discomfort. I have found there are a variety of factors that can lead to ear infections for toddlers and children, some preventable.

The American Academy of Family Physicians lists these common risk factors for ear infections in children:

• Being around cigarette smoking.
• Having had ear infections before, frequent colds, or having a family history of ear infections.
• Going to a day-care center.
• Being born premature or at low birth weight.
• Going to bed with a More »

The cough & cold conundrum – Should they stay home?

Every parent, has struggled with this problem at some time, do I send my marginally sick kid to daycare or school or should I keep them home? The boogery truth about this is most of us parents have probably dropped off our dosed kid to school wondering if they were going to be able to make it through the day or would we get a call from the school nurse saying that we need to pick up our feverish kid.

Most adults are likely to have a common cold two to four times a year. Children, especially preschoolers, may have a common cold as many as More »

Play it safe this 4th of July

The latest report from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) indicates that there were reports of seven fireworks-related deaths and an estimated 7,000 hospital emergency room treated injuries in 2008. In 2007, CPSC had reports of eleven deaths and an estimated 9,800 injuries. Injuries have More »

20 healthy ways Dad can praise his child

As parents we love to praise our kids. A good grade they got on a paper, a touch-down they got or cleaning up their room without being told – these are all fair examples. We feel this is the proper positive reinforcement they need to grow into healthy, well-balanced adults, right? Based on the results of over thirty years of scientific study is revealing More »

Expansion of second recall for Jardine brand cribs

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has received 31 incident reports of slats breaking, including two reports of children becoming entrapped in the gap created by the broken slat on the crib models identified below. In 10 of these incidents, consumers reported More »

Simplicity play yard recalled

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has received at least five reports of one or more rails on the Simplicity Travel Tender Play Yards can collapse unexpectedly, posing a fall or entrapment hazard to young children. These were sold at the Burlington Coat Factory stores nationwide and online at Babiesrus.com, Target.com and Kohls.com from March 2005 through January 2009. The recalled play yards are portable and were sold with a bassinet, changing table and mobile features.

In the past year there have been a number of recalls for the now defunct Simplicity brand. In August 2008, a five month old Kansas child was strangled to death More »