Finding Health Information on the Internet

 It can be difficult for families to find credible, current information about healthcare online.  The following suggestions from CaCoon Health Notes are designed to help parents and professionals navigate the world of internet searching.

1. Look for an "About Us" section to see who owns the website.  Website addresses ending in "edu," "org," and "gov" are more likely to contain unbiased information.

2. Watch for Advertising.  Although some very good sites have advertising, many sites are trying to sell their own product.

3. Be a Skeptic.  Watch for sites that claim "miracle cures." If it seems to good to be true, it probably is not true.

4. Look for evidence.  If studies or people are mentioned, see if the papers are cited, or seek more information on the person/reports mentioned.

5. If you opt to "google" a specific condition, try searching for "health care guidelines for condition name" or "critical elements of care for condition name." These phrases are more likely to turn up credible information than simply searching the name of the condition alone.

6. Consult a reliable website.  The list below provides some legitimate websites with information regarding medical conditions.

• Medline Plus (www.medlineplus.gov)
• Center for Children at Seattle Children's Hospital (www.cshcn.org/diagnosis-information
• American Academy of Pediatrics (www.aap.org)
• PubMed (www.pubmed.gov)

Some Basic Principles of Good Parenting

As we celebrate Oregon's Parenting Education Week, the staff at BHF have been focusing on finding tools/resources that help parents understand that they are the first and foremost teachers of their children.  While parenting is quite possibly the most challenging job around, offering no black and white formula to success, the experts at WebMD offer 10 Basic Parenting Principles as an idea of what skills and practices can  be critical in developing positive, nurturing relationships within your family.

1. What you do matters. "This is one of the most important principles," Steinberg tells WebMD. "What you do makes a difference. Your kids are watching you. Don't just react on the spur of the moment. Ask yourself, 'What do I want to accomplish, and is this likely to produce that result?'"

2. You cannot be too loving. "It is simply not possible to spoil a child with love," he writes. "What we often think of as the product of spoiling a child is never the result of showing a child too much love. It is usually the consequence of giving a child things in place of love -- things like leniency, lowered expectations, or material possessions."

 3. Be involved in your child's life. "Being an involved parent takes time and is hard work, and it often means rethinking and rearranging your priorities. It frequently means sacrificing what you want to do for what your child needs to do. Be there mentally as well as physically."

4. Adapt your parenting to fit your child. Keep pace with your child's development. Your child is growing up. Consider how age is affecting the child's behavior.

5. Establish and set rules. "If you don't manage your child's behavior when he is young, he will have a hard time learning how to manage himself when he is older and you aren't around. Any time of the day or night, you should always be able to answer these three questions: Where is my child? Who is with my child? What is my child doing? The rules your child has learned from you are going to shape the rules he applies to himself."

6. Foster your child's independence. "Setting limits helps your child develop a sense of self-control. Encouraging independence helps her develop a sense of self-direction. To be successful in life, she's going to need both."

7. Be consistent. "If your rules vary from day to day in an unpredictable fashion or if you enforce them only intermittently, your child's misbehavior is your fault, not his. Your most important disciplinary tool is consistency. Identify your non-negotiables. The more your authority is based on wisdom and not on power, the less your child will challenge it."

8. Avoid harsh discipline. Parents should never hit a child, under any circumstances. "Children who are spanked, hit, or slapped are more prone to fighting with other children," he writes. "They are more likely to be bullies and more likely to use aggression to solve disputes with others."

9. Explain your rules and decisions. "Good parents have expectations they want their child to live up to," he writes. "Generally, parents overexplain to young children and underexplain to adolescents. What is obvious to you may not be evident to a 12-year-old. He doesn't have the priorities, judgment or experience that you have."

10. Treat your child with respect. "The best way to get respectful treatment from your child is to treat him respectfully," Steinberg writes. "You should give your child the same courtesies you would give to anyone else. Speak to him politely. Respect his opinion. Pay attention when he is speaking to you. Treat him kindly. Try to please him when you can. Children treat others the way their parents treat them. Your relationship with your child is the foundation for her relationships with others."

Happy Parent Education Week!

Building Healthy Families is excited to share that Governor Kitzhaber signed a Proclamation declaring May 20th - 26th as Oregon Parenting Education Week.  As part of the Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative, BHF is thrilled that the important role of parenting is being recognized and celebrated around the State.   Of all the things that influence a child’s growth and development, the most critical is reliable, responsive, and sensitive parenting. Effective parenting education programs have been linked with decreased rates of child abuse and neglect, better physical, cognitive and emotional development in children, and increased parental knowledge of child development and parenting skills.  

While we hope parents understand the importance of their role throughout the entire year, we will have several special posts throughout this week to help you focus on simple, effective ways to spend quality time with your child!  Thank you for the important role you play in the life of your child each day!

10 Simple Ways to Show your Child You Love Them
Sometimes we all need a little reminder to take a break from the daily chaos of life and let our children know just how special and loved they really are. In February we’re celebrating the day of love all month long, but here are some small ways to inject a little love into every day of the year! Of course the ways you show love to your children change with each new stage of development, but these ideas bridge all ages! Here are my top 10 favorite ways to take a moment to show your love:

1. This one works like magic – look your child in the eye when he/she speaks to you. Keep eye contact until they are done speaking. I guarantee that they will feel your love and validation. P.S. It works with adults too! It’s the simplest form of engagement between two people.
2. Put your cell phone, iPad and electronic games away and focus on your child when you are doing something with him/her. This goes for simple things like riding in the car together, taking a walk, playing or reading.
3. Trust your child to lead YOU sometimes. Let them take the lead when walking, playing or conversing. You will learn a great deal about how your child thinks and what they know.
4. Dance and sing with your child. No matter what age and no matter how badly you sing, mutually engaging with music is energizing and puts parent and child on an even playing field. This allows each to truly get to know the other in a new way.
5. Set reasonable limits for your child and consistently keep them. Although they won’t like it, it is essential in building a child’s sense of security in the world. And somewhere down the line they will realize that the limits are a message of love from you. But you have to be VERY patient!
6. Invite your child to teach you something. Curb any instinct to correct or teach them and you will discover many new and important things about your child that you never knew. And most importantly your child will feel loved, trusted and empowered.
7. Say you’re sorry when you’re wrong.
8. Take time out to do simple things together like:
   • Play in the rain and splash in the puddles
   • Give each other foot massages
   • Read to and with each other
   • Let your child brush and style your hair
   • Build with blocks
   • Ride bicycles
   • Color on a huge piece of paper laid out on the floor
   • Paint one another’s nails
   • Make up silly songs
   • Tell jokes
9. Establish and keep family traditions, no matter how big or small. Once you do, you’ll see how much love the traditions hold the first time you forget to keep one
10. Take lots of photos and/or video and look through these together often, sharing funny stories about the best times! Children especially like the story of when they were born, or when you brought them home for the first time.

Suprise your Kids with a Secret Message!

All kids love secrets and surprises, so why not tell them you love them with an Invisible Message....and teach them a bit of science too!  From baking soda to white crayon, the internet is filled with ideas for making mystery messages.  Here are two of our favorite.

Bizarre Bicarb.
What you will need

• White paper
  
• Paint brush
  
• 2 Tbsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
  
• 2 Tbsp water
  
• Undiluted grape concentrate or water colors

Mix together the water and bicarbonate to make your invisible ink. Write your message and allow to dry completely. To reveal paint over with undiluted grape concentrate or water color paints.

Crazy Crayon.
What you will need

• White paper
  
• White crayon or a white candle
  
• Poster paint
  
• Water
  
• Paint brush

Using the white crayon or candle write your secret meaages. To reveal mix a little poster paint with water and paint over your paper. Hey presto!

Happy Mystery Messaging!

A "Sign" of the Times

From an early communication tool for toddlers,  to providing older visual learners with a way to "connect" to language, the developmental and social benefits of learning American Sign have encouraged more and more parents to explore this second language.  While foreign languages can often be intimidating for English speaking parents, basic Signs that related to a child's daily routine (thank you, help, hungry, done, etc) can be easily learned and often are associated with everyday gestures.  While the Internet provides a myriad of resources for parents looking to explore ASL, many families have given positive impact about Signing Times. Based off an interactive PBS television show meant for parents and infants/toddlers (see local listing for times), their website offers a myriad of resources, products and printable activities encouraging families to explore language together.  With Summer approaching, now may be the perfect time to start thinking about introducing a second language to your family.  Contact BHF with questions and/or additional access to resources for parents and children!

http://www.signingtime.com

Growing Little Gardeners

Children are natural gardeners.  They're curious, like to learn by doing, and love to play in the dirt.

Working in a garden, a child can experience the satisfaction that comes from caring for something over time, while observing the cycle of life firsthand. 

Here are 5 simple plants to help your kids have a fabulous, first-time gardening experience!

sunflower
A must for a child's garden. Plant just one or two, since they take a lot of room. Sunflowers will sprout in 1 week, become a small seedling in 2 weeks, and should be 2' tall in a month. In 8 weeks, the buds will flower revealing hundreds of seed kernels. Be sure to gorw 'confectionery' sunflowers, the type grown for food. They will dry naturally in the late summer sun; the seeds, rich in protein and iron, can be roasted for snacks. Save a few for next summers' planting.

 radishes
Quick results for the young gardener. Radishes germinate in 3-10 days, and have a very short growing season of 20-30 days. They can be planted closely, 4-6" apart. Plant in cool weather for a mild radish, or hot weather for a hotter radish.
snow peas
A quick-growing early crop, and fun for kids to eat right off the vine. They take about 10 days to germinate and mature in about 60 days. Peas prefer cooler, partially shaded locations in the garden; they should be sown closely, about 1" apart at most. Snow peas are popular because the pod is edible and since they are a dwarf plant they can be grown without a trellis.

cherry tomatoes
Gotta have 'em! These may be the most fun crop for a child, aside from strawberries. Plant in full sun and use seedlings rather than planting from seed. Put in a 2' stake alongside each seedling; they need to be tied loosely to stakes as they get taller. Add lots of compost. Water at ground level, trying to keep leaves dry. Growing season is 50-75 days. Cherry tomatoes can also be grown in containers.

pumpkin
A 'must' for a child's garden, if you have the room. Plant seeds in a small hill; poke three holes in the hill and put one seed in each hole. Seeds will sprout in about 1 week; after a few days, vine leaves begin to form and creep along the ground. Once there are 3 pumpkins on the vine, pick off any new blossoms. Pumpkins take 80 - 120 days to harvest: it's ready when it feels hard on the outside and sounds hollow when tapped. Let an adult supervise the cutting, using shears. Seeds can be dried to eat, or save for future planting. The meat can be used for pies, and the pumpkin for carving.

Raising A Good Sport

From CandyLand to High School Sports, competition plays a role in the development of all children.  However, raising a good sport can prove to be a challenge.  In a recent article, the experts at PBS kids offered these great tips for raising a team player!

10 Tips for Raising a Good Sport

In the classic “Peanuts” comic strip, woeful Charlie Brown gears up to kick the football time after time, only to find himself face down on the ground after Lucy whisks the ball away at the last minute. It’s a running joke — poor Charlie Brown never learns to hold back! But as a parent, I find it’s the hapless hero’s tormenter who captures my attention. Why is Lucy such a bad sport and — more importantly — how can we keep our kids from acting the same way? Here are 10 tips to set your kid on the path toward good sportsmanship.

1. Explain what sportsmanship is — using kid-friendly terms. As with any behavior, the first step is to let your kids know what’s expected. Leslie Susskind, the author of “The Kids’ (and Parents’, Too!) Book of Good Sportsmanship,” describes sportsmanship as an extension of the golden rule. “It’s treating others the way you want to be treated,” she says. Simply put: if you don’t want the football moved when you kick it, don’t move it for someone else.
2. Be a role model on the sidelines. As a spectator, your job is to be a force of positivity. Cheer on success, efforts and progress. Hand out high fives as if they were Halloween candy. Congratulate both teams on a game well played. “Kids really do take the example of the coach and the parents,” says Justin Bredeman, part-owner of and coach for Soccer Shots, a franchise organization that teaches soccer to kids between the ages of 3 and 8.
3. Respect the coach‘s role. Susskind has seen well-meaning parents try to instruct from the sidelines — only to get in the way of the actual coach. Parents should “allow a coach his or her time to instruct,” she says. After all, your eyes are probably trained only on your child, but the coach is looking out for the entire team. Bredeman adds: “Kids won’t respect each other if they don’t respect the coach.”
4. Avoid comparing kids to one another. Parents have a natural tendency to measure kids against one another, but Bredeman warns that that’s not constructive. Instead, we should focus on our kids as individuals. “Emphasize progress—not compared to the teammates, but to where [the child] started,” he says. (It’s good advice to take off the playing field too!)
5. Don‘t make it all about winning and losing. Sure, trophies are cool, but the focus should be on nontangibles like learning the game, figuring out how to interact with others and — especially — just having fun.
6. Celebrate success as a group. NFL players may do individual victory dances in the end zone after every touchdown, but that doesn’t mean your kid should too. Keep celebrations low-key and communal. Bredeman says he typically ends practice and games with a group high five.
7. Accept loss gracefully. When your child’s team comes up short, encourage her to congratulate her opponents for a game well played. “Some of the best lessons come from losing—not winning,” says Dan Doyle, the founder of National Sportsmanship Day. Susskind agrees: kids “need to understand you can’t always win, and that’s okay. You can always come back and try again.”
8. Present consequences for poor sportsmanship. What happens when things get ugly on the field? “The best consequence is to take a kid out of a game,” says Doyle. Or, better yet, support the coach’s decision to do so. If you need to talk to your child about his attitude, Bredeman suggests doing so after things have cooled down a bit. “Get down on [his] level,” he says. “Start with encouragement, then get into ‘We want to be nice to one another.’”
9. Commit to having your child attend both practices and games. Life with kids is hectic no matter how you slice it, and as a result some parents allow kids to skip practice repeatedly. Not fair, says Susskind. Your child needs to understand how his or her absence affects the team. “If you make a commitment [to a team],” says Susskind, “you need to have the courtesy of being there.”
10. Remember that your child is not you. Your having been the star of the basketball team doesn’t mean that your child will fall in love with the sport. “This is not your chance to relive a glory moment of your past,” says Susskind. “Don’t put that pressure on your child.”

Parenting Tool: The Wheel of Choice

Pre-discipline strategies are a primary focus of all evidence-based parenting education programs.  The Wheel of Choice, a tool from the great folks at Positive Discipline, provides a meaningful way to involve kids in their own behavior management.  The following post from the Positive Blog, explains how this creative strategy works!

A primary theme of Positive Discipline is to focus on solutions. The wheel of choice provides an excellent way to focus on solutions, especially when kids are involved in creating the Wheel of Choice.  Some parents and teachers have their kids make the wheel of choice from scratch. This Wheel of Choice was created by 3-year-old Jake with the help of his mom, Laura Beth. Jake chose the clip art he wanted to represent some choices. His Mom, shared the following success story.

Jake used his Wheel of Choice today. Jake and his sister (17 months old) were sitting on the sofa sharing a book. His sister, took the book and Jake immediately flipped his lid. He yelled at her, grabbed the book, made her cry. She grabbed it back and I slowly walked in. I asked Jake if he’d like to use his Wheel Of Choice to help—and he actually said YES!  He chose to “share his toys.” He got his sister her own book that was more appropriate for her and she gladly gave him his book back. They sat there for a while and then traded!

Have ideas of some great "Choices" for your wheel?  Share them by commenting below.