Our almost 2-year-old has had a rough string of ear infections over the last month or so. Went back to the doctor again today for another mild one.

Only ones he's had so far, so I guess we're lucky. Think it has to do with the stupid weather we've been having.

12/12/2011 1:42:04 PM

Has he seen an ENT? The ENT placed tubes and put my kid on Flonase and it's made a huge difference in the occurrence of ear infections.

[Edited on December 12, 2011 at 5:54 PM. Reason : .]

12/12/2011 5:54:11 PM

2^Is this his first year in any kind of daycare?

12/12/2011 7:54:22 PM

^^ No ENT yet. He's only really started getting them within the last few months. 3 in the last 4 or 5 months. After talking with my wife, I guess I had the timing wrong when I posted earlier. Might just seem that way since I stay so busy.

^ First time in daycare this year.

12/12/2011 8:08:42 PM

I just read this article.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/12/11/led-child-who-simply-knew/SsH1U9Pn9JKArTiumZdxaL/story.html

Parents, what do you think? If you were this child's parent, how would you react?

12/12/2011 10:36:58 PM

Just to clarify, no kids. With that in mind both my sister and I used to get ear infections all the time when we were little. Mom took us to an ENT doc and we both had a bunch of tubes. Finally my sister had her ear operated on and I had a small hole repaired in my ear that let water in. It was odd we both had defects inside our ear. Mine let water in and my sisters wouldn't let water drain out properly. I think overall I had 13 tubes put in and my ear drum burst 3 times. Ear aches are horrible and I hated those ear drops we had to take.

Since your son has had several ear aches over the past few months I would take him to an ENT specialist. Just based on my personal experience with ear infections.

12/12/2011 11:22:28 PM

^^that's an awesome story. I'm glad that this family was able to overcome and adapt for their daughter. I have been around two transgender growing up: male to female and a female to male.

The male to female was my caretaker's adopted son. That was always very hard for her, and she actually kept it hidden from our family for a long time. She thought my mom wouldn't let her care for my brother and i any more, and her husband never accepted it. I mean, he was a WWII vet, they were unabe to have their own children and the one they adopt is transgendered. He was very angry about the whole thing. My caretaker has long since passed, but my mom and Patricia still keep in contact.

The female to male was actually someone in my class who sadly experienced a lot of the same difficulties that Nicole faced--bathroom thing comes to mind, and just the cruelty of children/teenagers. I always wondered how things might have been different for Alex if he had been able to embrace his true self early on. He was so depressed in high school. Last I heard, he was doing really well.

If it was me, having known two, I would fully embrace them and be there for them in every way possible. Especially because of the boy in my class. It was really hard for him, and I remember how many days he missed from school because of depression. And you'd hear stories of suicide attempts. Heartbreaking. I'd rather support my child than have them go through the other...or worse end up burying them.

12/13/2011 8:13:09 AM

Never did call the pediatrician about sippy cups. I dunno...just felt my gut was right and calling to ask about a sippy cup seems really silly. Anywho...gave him one tonight and he took it like a champ. Didn't really drink any or much water out of it, but held on to it well, put the spout in his mouth and tipped it up like a cup. Kinda cool

12/16/2011 6:53:25 PM

Toddler puke. No bueno. Was sick a few times Saturday night and woke up a few times. Slowly eased back into drink and food on Sunday. Was fine all day Monday and then woke up last night at 2AM puking again. Not sure what the heck is going on. Probably head to the doctor today.

12/20/2011 10:39:42 AM

Hey nursing moms, breast pump equipment is considered medical supplies that can be included in med expenses to reach the 7.5% of adjusted gross income for medical tax deduction. Cool huh?

The more you know...

12/22/2011 11:03:21 PM

^ sweet. Not sure I saved the recipet though..

12/23/2011 1:08:22 PM

This is a cute way for Santa to say something to your kids if you want. Maya loved it!

http://iheart.portablenorthpole.com/home

12/23/2011 5:50:51 PM

Sooooo, baby poop.

Now that we're on solids the consistency/texture of his poop has changed this week. It's more tacky/sticky, and less liquidy like his former breastmilk turds. I'm thinking it's normal, bc he's still pooping regularly just may get a bit more red in the face while doing it. I don't think he's constipated in other words. Was this poop change similar for you veteran parents?

12/24/2011 8:51:31 AM

Yep. That is normal for sure! Eating the fiber rich greens and some prunes occasionally will help the poor little red faced guy.

12/24/2011 9:59:17 AM

His poop faces are hilarious! yesterday I can say he was constipated for the first time, not just an adjustment to solids, so I'm gonna pick up some prune juice today to dilute with water to help him out. It's funny how obsessed with your kids' bowels you can become.

We're fans of sweet potato, avocado, bananas, peas, apple sauce and broccoli. A lot of these I had to mix with sweet potato first to get him to eat it but now he'll pretty much eat em all straight up. Gonna try carrot, corn, chicken and green beans next

Anywho...for the future parents, finally found a cure for this nasty teething rash he has on his chest--lanolin! Thank you Dr Sears. Applied some last night before bed, and it's pretty much completely cleared up. He's been living in a bib since he had reflux (which is gone! Successfully weened him off the meds this past month), and even going through 3+ in a day was not keeping him dry enough to stop the rash.

6 month check up this week too

1/4/2012 8:55:05 AM

His poop will be all over the map. My boys have two distinctly different styles of poop even though they have the same diet. And they only do it in what I've come to consider their normal ways about 50% of the time depending on just about a million things (diet, hydration, teething, colds, temperature, nap time, activity level).

It's a little scary how much I can tell about how they're feeling from their poop.

1/4/2012 1:12:23 PM

Little guy got his first shots today. I can successfully say it's the first time I've heard the "I'm hurting" cry. Made me sad.

And I never knew how much I would analyze poop before he came along.

1/4/2012 7:57:43 PM

Daycare... does anyone have a recommendation for infant daycare starting in August?

1/5/2012 2:28:56 PM

What area is convenient for you?
I don't have anything negative to say about ours...it's a local chain - Children's Academy. $265 a week for infants. Yep.

1/5/2012 8:45:14 PM

So, what're your favorite children's programs? I mean ones that you like watching with your kids/babies, not just ones that your tykes might like.

For me it's

Sesame Street
Roary the Race Car: silly, but to me it oddly feels like Gumby and that's a positive
Lazytown: spastically colorful and bouncy, plus I like the general (if a little oxymoronic) premise of a TV show dedicated to getting off of your butt and playing/exercising
Dinosaur Train: because it has dinosaurs, duh

I miss Mr Rogers. He's not on in repeats up here in Chicago (at least not that I know of). It's almost enough to make me consider Amazon Prime.

And, as equal time, what are you reading to your kids? When they're up and playing we have a metric buttload of Dr Seuss books (thanks to my dad subscribing to a kids-books-of-the-month type thing) and nap time stories are currently Greek myths (on Hercules' third labor today). When I'm too tired or frustrated for nap time reading I tend to use the Storynory podcast as a substitute.

[Edited on January 6, 2012 at 9:53 AM. Reason : .]

1/6/2012 9:51:18 AM

We haven't gotten in to kids shows yet for obvious reasons, but we do enjoy storytime before bed. Curious George, Winnie the Pooh and Dr Seuss are getting a heavy rotation right now. He touches the pages while we read to him. It's sweet

1/6/2012 1:03:57 PM

Silas spends 99% of his day in motion, so TV isn't a big part of our day unless he can sing or dance while watching it.

Yo Gabba Gabba: We LOVE Dancey Dance Time!

The Veggie Tales: More music and silly songs! Wholesome Christian values in a warm fuzzy package without any of the negativity that can sometimes come with religious teaching.

Sid the Science Kid: Science and singing! What's not to like?

Phineas and Ferb: It's just a cartoon without any real merit to it other than I like to watch it too.

I'm a big documentary watcher. I try to get Silas to watch science and nature documentaries with me whenever I can. If there are animals on screen and he's having a good day, I can usually get him to snuggle up with me and chat about what we're watching.

I don't let my 6 month old watch television, but Josh likes to plant her in front of it watching the Cosmos. He swears that she likes Carl Sagan.

We have a lot of books, but we don't have a child that likes to listen to us read stories. Silas does not have the ability to just sit and listen. He's too busy moving, dancing, singing, and talking to really attend to a story of any length. Because of that, I mostly involve him in songs and finger play and we stick to board books like Sandra Boynton. Anything that's any longer is a lost cause right now. However, Silas will take a book even a longer book and "read" it to us. Just don't ask him to sit quietly and pay attention to you.

1/6/2012 1:29:39 PM

Yeah, usually the boys can only tolerate about ten minutes of actual TV watching before deciding that there are too many other things they could be doing (unless they're tired).

Usually if I have it on at all it just ends up being background noise, although if I recognize the song on Sesame Street I'll sing it to the boys.

I guess I'll add that, at the moment, David likes to sit with me to watch The Daily Show. James is a Colbert fan. That'll end when we move back to Raleigh (may not even bother with cable, but either way they'll be getting old enough to remember it and they're not QUITE ready for stuff like the royal wedding video sketch).

^ who doesn't like Carl Sagan?

[Edited on January 6, 2012 at 1:43 PM. Reason : .]

1/6/2012 1:42:59 PM

Kids shows are: Yo Gabba Gabba, Sesame Street, and VeggieTales.

Ken watches a lot of youtube videos with her about baby animals, fire, the earth, solar system, other babies and kids, the ocean, cool activites, music etc...

I love that Maya likes to read her books and color but lately all she wants to do is "watch a show." I have to constantly limit it and let her know she only has a certain amount because if I let her she would stay in front of the TV prob watching the same show OVER AND OVER AND OVER and...

Her current favorite show to watch is Lord of the Bean by VeggieTales.

I def try to ask her questions about what she is watching because my kid would zonk out in front of all the pretty colorful pictures so keeping her stimulated WHILE "watching a show" is a goal of mine as well. It can be exhausting to do that all the time.

1/6/2012 8:56:57 PM

One of the families I worked with had the TV on all the time. The kids were one aand two and a half. My favorites to watch with them were

Little Einsteins
Sesame Street
Bubble Guppies
Handy Manny
Little Bill

The currently family does not watch tv "while elise is here." We can watch a movie if there is bad weather or someone is sick, but other than that we do not watch anything.


Oh! The twins I kept love Shaun the Sheep and Timmy Time! I LOVE both of those

[Edited on January 6, 2012 at 11:46 PM. Reason : .]

1/6/2012 11:42:26 PM

The fresh air = long nap/better sleep thing is so true with our kiddo. We went to pullen today, and he's been napping since 1:30.

1/7/2012 3:45:40 PM

I love Adele. She makes my fussy baby stop crying immediately. He loves her!

Any songs immediately calm your little one down?

1/10/2012 4:37:16 PM

I've got their bedtime play list. I'm trying to condition them to sleep for certain songs

Bert&Ernie - Dance myself to sleep
Laurie Berkner - Goodnight (this one's great because if you just want to sing it to a baby you can continually add versus for new animals, my favorite is to add squids and say that they squirt)
Voltaire - Goodnight Demonslayer
Bob from Sesame Street - Morning Town Ride (that one's had a good amount of success knocking out David)
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (the opening part of this song lulls James to sleep a lot)
The Beatles - Let It Be
The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road
Leonard Cohen - Take This Waltz (if they're still awake here this song has been pretty successful)
Johnny Cash - In My Life
Sarah McLachlan - The Rainbow Connection

Then there's a list of classical bits that follow, I use these for naptime too.
Humperdinck's Evening Prayer (instrumental)
Ave Maria
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Fur Elise
Nocturne from String Quartet #2 in D Major by Borodin
Valse Triste by Jean Sibelius
The Host of the Seraphim by Dead Can Dance

and then following that is a bunch of Rockabye Baby bits from Queen, Nine Inch Nails, and The Beatles.

I had to make my second call to the CDC today. Before they had eaten a bunch of my wife's makeup, today they got into some of her pills. I potentially have Vomiting, Nausea (I'm pretty sure this is happening), and Diarrhea to look forward to! Yay Babies!

[Edited on January 10, 2012 at 4:53 PM. Reason : .]

1/10/2012 4:52:16 PM

Quote :

"Ken watches a lot of youtube videos"

They Might Be Giants has a load of kids videos on youtube..Here comes the ABCs/Here comes the 123s/Here comes science. But, watch out clicking through to some of their older songs sometimes.


For TV it's basically:
-Curious George (my wife dislikes because George is always doing some shit and never gets in trouble for it)
-Berenstein Bears
-How it's Made (with my 5yo)
-used to watch Little Einsteins in the morning but it seems like with both of them that it made for worse days starting with TV, so now they get the choice of watching the morning news or playing with some toys or something.

We've been watching a lot of Disney movies in spurts lately because We're Going to Disneyland! in a few months and we want them to know something about the characters they're gonna see. Takes a few days/week to get through one movie.

1/10/2012 5:06:52 PM

Quote :

" and then following that is a bunch of Rockabye Baby bits from Queen, Nine Inch Nails, and The Beatles."

yesssss; I love those! We have Bob Marley, Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins & The Beach Boys.

I started playing music at bedtime from the get go and had made a playlist using the rockabye lullabies, but somewhere along the way we stopped. I think it was during the peak of the reflux. Now reading a story before bed and naps work best for us.

Quote :

"I had to make my second call to the CDC today. Before they had eaten a bunch of my wife's makeup, today they got into some of her pills. I potentially have Vomiting, Nausea (I'm pretty sure this is happening), and Diarrhea to look forward to! Yay Babies!"

that's scary hope it's over quickly.

^I'm so looking forward to Disney movies. My sister in law collects them; she and her niece have been watching Robin Hood.

1/10/2012 7:48:17 PM

I've only had to make a call once. We were rushing around getting ready one morning and weren't keeping the closest eye on Silas and realized that things were very quiet. Silas was sitting in Josh's chair eating Tums like candy.



Fortunately, they're not that bad. Eating like 20+ can cause constipation, but they're fairly benign for the most part. After that, we allowed him one a day if he asked for it and they totally lost their appeal.

1/10/2012 8:10:07 PM

Well, the boys got into one of momma's daily pill boxes when i was trying to clean up breakfast. I only found them in time because I noticed they were being quiet (sure sign of troublemaking). They may or may not have gotten some Cellcept, but that's the worst of it. The rest was just Vitamin D and Potassium pills. Still, called the CDC and stressed out a bit.

You can see the appeal of the pills. They're different colors and momma takes them every morning so they must be yummy. I'm just glad that prednisone tastes nasty, as it looks like one of them tasted it then rejected it.

The first time was because they had gotten into my wife's eye shadow. I called the CDC because for some reason it didn't occur to me that MAC might not want to poison it's customer's eyes. She thought she had put the makeup in a place the boys couldn't get to, but they are very tenacious. My only regret there was that I neglected to get apicture before bathing them.

They're fine now. With the way they poop it's probably mostly out of their systems. James had a low appetiteat dinner, but that's not unusual. Hetends to prefer snacktime to mealtime

[Edited on January 10, 2012 at 9:53 PM. Reason : .]

1/10/2012 9:52:09 PM

Nursing strikes are annoying. That is all.

1/11/2012 7:49:21 AM

Happy to report that the boys didn't seem to have any ill effects from their little pill adventure. When my wife got home we went through the remainder pills (I made sure to save everything I did find in a plastic baggie) and determined that what I thought was a Cellcept pill might have just been a potassium pill.

Still probably upset the tummy a little bit, but not nearly as troublesome. The problem for me is that with the coating off of each pill they look alike. They boys still probably got SOME Cellcept in them, but not nearly a whole dose.

Now it's just figuring out how to get them back to naptime when they BOTH now have toddler beds (they're both walking now, and one can completely crawl out of a crib). It's hard to enforce naptime when their nursery has no doorway to put a gate in front of and there's no crib wall to keep them in.

EDIT: I feel like Gorgeous George from Snatch... "YOU NEED TO STAY DOWN!!!!!!"

[Edited on January 11, 2012 at 11:28 AM. Reason : Only without the yelling or boxing...]

1/11/2012 11:25:12 AM

I'm glad no ill effects from the pill incident.

Today started out as a day full of work appointments and meetings, but turned quickly into hosing off a vomit covered toddler. I'm guessing it's just a day care virus, as another kid in her class is sick too.

She threw up several times at daycare, but has been fine since I picked her up. Maybe a little quieter and clingy, but fine otherwise.

So it's one o'clock and she's napping and I'm FINALLY sitting down with a cup of coffee. Tis the season, I guess.

I miss the days when I actually HAD sick days to use when I was sick!

[Edited on January 11, 2012 at 1:09 PM. Reason : .]

1/11/2012 1:07:46 PM

^So, my little one has been fine from her stomach bug, but has thrown up every night in the middle of the night for the last three nights...
I'm wondering if her intestines are still inflamed/irritated from the virus and what should I be feeding (or not feeding) her to help avoid a middle of the night hose off/bed change?

1/16/2012 8:02:44 PM

This is miserable. I've been home alone all day with my preschooler and a very discontent teething infant. Amelia has cried off and on all day long. I am using every trick in the book, but nothing seems to work for very long. I don't remember going through this with my son. Her last crying jag has been the longest. I despise "cry it out," but I am at the end of my rope. I've put her in her swing with the water sounds on and hoping that she'll work it out on her own she's asleep!!!!!!!!!!!

*huge sigh of relief*

Are there any secret teething tips and tricks? My son was so easy. A little Oragel, a frozen waffle and he was good. That doesn't work for Miss Priss.

1/21/2012 8:22:26 PM

I'd expand that to the 80s as well.


and I'm just as guilty of it as anyone, making my kid wear a helmet to ride her tricycle around.

[Edited on January 22, 2012 at 9:10 AM. Reason : .]

1/22/2012 9:09:45 AM

^ haha truth.

^^ My grandmother used to dip frozen rags in Jack Daniels and give them to my sister when she was teething. It worked but may not be the road you want to go down. I wonder if my mom ever knew about that

1/22/2012 9:38:08 AM

Teething... Lets's see... Frozen damp rag, chewy food, actual teething rings, baby pain meds (not for every time, but for major crying spells its been necessary and effective), and human flesh.

Seriously, David will just chomp and gnaw when teething, his brother and I both have bite marks. I'm trying to break the habit but damn does he like to play Hannibal Lecter. For James's part he prefers to just chew on fingers.

One of my friend's Italian family used to hand her a stick of pepperoni to teeth on. It was effective, but she's a vegetarian now and I wonder if there's a correlation

1/22/2012 10:49:04 AM

Quote :

"My grandmother used to dip frozen rags in Jack Daniels"

I think that this is probably the most common advice that I've gotten from anyone over the age of 50. I think that there are probably better ways of controlling the pain now, but if I get desperate I'll try the Jack Daniels (on myself).

Today is better than yesterday, but I chilled some apple slices and put them in one of those mesh feeders for her. She really seemed to dig it. Her brother has also done a MUCH better job of entertaining her instead of antagonizing her. We'll see what happens around dinner time. That's when it seems the worst.

1/22/2012 1:03:31 PM

Hmmm... chilled apple slices, I might try that for David when he's feeling chompy. We also use cold celery sticks, I forgot to mention that.

I swear both of my boys would be walking most of the time now (one of them is) but when they go more than a few steps they each collapse in a fit of giggles.

Apparently walking is VERY funny.

1/22/2012 4:23:00 PM

Today I went to the Museum of History and they had a display of old tobacco advertising. One of them was for some sort of smokeless tobacco (I'm guessing chew) and it was basically, "Rub this on your baby's gums while teething and they'll stfu!" lol

1/22/2012 9:49:37 PM

Skoal For Kids! Now in new bubblemint and strawberry flavors!

1/22/2012 10:42:04 PM

Can you all give me some good facts to circumcise or not to circumcise? Try to make it no opinions please and seriously I will not validate anyone who compares it to female circumcision. Not the same thing at all. Thanks.

I've been reading up on it periodically, the benefits to do it and not to do it, but I want to know what brought you to your conclusion.

1/23/2012 5:40:15 PM

It was very easy to choose not to circumcise my son.

I do not feel that I have the right to make that decision for my child. My child's body is his or her own and it is my job to protect it until my child is able to make decisions for his or her self. For the same reason, I would never pierce my child's ears.

I view circumcision as cosmetic and unnecessary. Even though practices have improved, circumcision is not a perfect practice. Why subject your child to avoidable pain and risk? There were complications with my uncle's circumcision and my grandmother always regretted having him circumcised and chose not to circumcise my father as a result. While weighing minimal benefit against even the slightest chance of complications when the results of the complication can be so life altering, it made no sense to me to do it.

My brother and husband are uncircumcised and quite happy with their equipment. Neither of them have had any problems with their equipment as God gave it to them. Never once have either of them felt bad about being uncircumcised or wished for any different.

It was just an easy decision.

http://www.circumcision.org/

While this site has a definite bias, so much information out there is so pro circumcision because it is our cultural norm that I think it is worth viewing the negative.

[Edited on January 23, 2012 at 6:59 PM. Reason : .]

1/23/2012 6:44:26 PM

After watching a documentary on circumcision and watching a grown man basically say his parents ruined his life by circumsizing him (note that physically he had nothing wrong with his penis) and was attaching weights to his penis to "regrow" his foreskin, I've decided I'll let my kids decide if they want circumcision so they can't blame me for cutting it off. I'm only half joking because that dude really freaked me out lol.

1/23/2012 9:41:00 PM

You know, I have been reading medical things that don't give a bias for or against but most of the social networking site/forums are against circumcision. You would not believe how quickly the mindset is changing for this practice. There is a slight medical benefit to having it done but not enough to persuade me. I def have never seen irl a non-circumcised penis so i think that is why i tend to have an aversion to its appearance and I always think of how it could possibly not be cleaned well (foreskin cheddar). Appearance means nothing to me if my child will be just as healthy with or without his foreskin. I just need to teach him how to clean it properly if we end up deciding against it. I just REALLY hope he would be satisfied with an egg roll and hopefully would not get an infection later in life that would cause him to have to get it done.

I know that I have seen the national average for circumcision is still 64% but that number varies widely throughout each state.

Thanks for the input. Still on the fence but I appreciate the people who give a bias with reason and aren't nazis about it.

1/23/2012 10:32:07 PM

As someone who is up close and personal with 2 uncircumcised penises every single day, I can honestly say that I have never seen "foreskin cheddar" and that there's nothing special that really needs to be done to keep one clean. Just take a bath. The only thing worth noting is that my husband always rinses his dick off after sex, but that just seems prudent with or without a foreskin.

The thought of changing baby diapers after circumcision makes me shudder. Poor raw penis.

1/23/2012 10:49:56 PM

teehee....foreskin cheddar.

1/23/2012 10:59:55 PM