Early Motherhood

“At 18 months most children have the ability to understand that with a time-out you’re removing them from a particular situation,” says Howard Reinstein, a pediatrician in Encino, California and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). But that doesn’t mean it’s an effective discipline technique. Reinstein worries that the original concept of “time out” has been lost, and that parents and caregivers overuse it, especially for children under 3. “Originally a time-out simply meant not responding to a child’s negative behavior,” says Reinstein. Now it usually involves making the child sit alone in his room or a certain chair for a prescribed amount of time (often one minute for each year of age). But, says Reinstein, “there’s no evidence that using the one-minute per year marker works, or that time-outs themselves work, so I would caution parents to use this method of discipline sparingly.”

At this age toddlers are transitioning from the foods and eating habits they had as infants toward a diet more like your own. Your job is to keep broadening your child’s palate by introducing new flavors and textures. Food preferences are established early in life so help your child develop a taste for healthy foods now.

Toddlers have little tummies, so serve foods that are packed with the nutrients they need to grow healthy and strong, and limit the sweets and empty calories.

Every step a child takes toward learning to read leads to another. Bit by bit, the child builds the knowledge that is necessary for being a reader. Over their first 6 years, most children

Kids toys are an important part of a toddler’s life. They teach a little boy or girl about colors, sounds, letters, motion, and friction. They can also inspire a child’s creativity. Yet, it’s also important that toys be safe so that children do not get hurt while playing.

The Risks

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that more than 191,000 children were treated in hospital emergency rooms for toy-related injuries in the year 2000 alone. The figure includes some 70,000 toy-related injuries to pre-schoolers. As a result, fire and safety experts have put together some tips for keeping children safe at play.

Parents role in child dental care is very important for child ages up to five years old. This is because young children do not have the manual dexterity required to brush teeth effectively.

The key to establishing good child dental care is by starting an oral care program early. In fact, the American Dental Association suggests that you begin cleaning your baby’s mouth the first few days after birth.