How to Teach your Children About Safety

Once you have kids, the world can seem like a frightening place. It’s easy to think of all the bad things that could happen to your vulnerable children, you want to protect them. At the same time, you don’t want your children to be fearful people, but rather friendly and openhearted. How do you teach your children to protect themselves from dangerous people without robbing them of innocent, joyous interactions with people in the world around them?

• Be aware that “stranger danger” is an oversimplified concept. Most child abduction and sexual abuse cases are committed by people who are not strangers to the children. Try teaching your children about suspicious behaviors, and consider using the term “tricky people” instead of “strangers”. Explain that while most people are good, some people try to trick children into breaking safety rules.
• Talk about safe strangers. Teachers, firefighters, and librarians are all examples of strangers that kids can go to for help. Teach your kids to seek help in a public place if something happens, and point out safe places to ask for help, like local stores and restaurants, or friends’ houses.
• Institute clear rules instead of overreaching guidelines. “Never talk to strangers” is not great advice, because you want your child to reply to the well-meaning grandmother in the grocery store or the librarian trying to help find a book. Try coming up with specific rules instead, like these examples:
  • Don’t get in a car with anyone you don’t know.
  • Don’t accept candy or food from strangers.
  • Don’t go into anyone’s house without permission from a parent.
  • Don’t listen to someone who wants you to disobey your parents.
  • Don’t keep secrets from your mom and dad.
  • Don’t do anything that makes you feel bad or uncomfortable.
  • Get a trusted adult if someone you don’t know asks you for help.
• Teach your kids to trust their instincts. If something makes a child feel uncomfortable, he or she needs to know that it’s ok to say no. Teach the concept of consent, and role-play scenarios in which your children have to stand up for themselves.
• Encourage your kids to be assertive. Teaching kids “No, Go, Yell, Tell” is a good way to help them remember what to do in a dangerous situation. They should say no, run away, yell loudly, and tell a trusted adult. Practice this at home, so your child is ready in the event of an emergency.

Keeping kids safe is a big responsibility, but you’re up to the challenge. If you’re ready to start a family, the Center for Vasectomy Reversal is here to help. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or help with their fertility. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 to arrange a free consultation.

Pool Safety

The weather is getting ever warmer, and soon it will be peak pool season! If you’re lucky enough to have a backyard pool, you probably can’t wait for the first pool party of the summer, or to watch your kids having fun out in the pool. It’s important to make pool safety a priority, though, because a fun day in the water can quickly turn tragic when parents aren’t paying attention.

Did you know that drowning is the leading cause of injury death in children between the ages of 1 and 4? The risk doesn’t end when kids leave preschool, either, and for kids aged 5-9, it’s the second leading cause of death, second only to motor vehicle accidents. Toddlers can drown in just an inch or two of water, but more than half of young children who die from drowning do so in home swimming pools.

What can you do to protect kids around water? Layer the safety measures.

• Fence the pool. Research indicates that over half of all swimming pool drownings of young children could be prevented with adequate fencing. All swimming pools, even temporary, above-ground pools, should be completely surrounded by a safety fence.
• Prevent kids from slipping outside without being seen. Safety gates, door locks, and doorknob covers should be your first line of defense, and all family members must be careful to shut doors after going outside.
• Be ready to perform a rescue. Have a shepherd’s hook and life preserver beside the pool, and learn how to swim and perform CPR.
• Teach kids to swim. Start getting your child used to the water early, around six months, and consider swim lessons by about age one.
• Never leave children alone around water. Supervision must be constant, your child needs your undivided attention, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends constant “touch supervision”, keeping kids within arm’s length.
• Designate a water watcher. An adult should be “on duty” at all times, to keep kids safe. If you’re the watcher, put down your cellphone, avoid distractions, and switch off with another adult when you need a break.
• Use life jackets and floaties. However, be careful not to let your guard down and trust those safety items to keep your kids safe without supervision.
• Don’t forget about additional hazards. Birdbaths, fountains, ponds, wells, and ditches are all hazardous to kids. Buckets, wading pools, and other water containers should be emptied as soon as you’re finished using them, as should trash cans or recycling bins that have collected rainwater. Inside, empty bathtubs after use, lock toilets, and don’t allow small children unsupervised access to bathrooms.

At the Center for Vasectomy Reversal, we love helping people build their families. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or have other fertility concerns. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 for a free consultation.

Car Safety

The first U.S. patent for an automobile seatbelt was issued in 1885, but the first modern, 3-point seatbelt wasn’t installed in vehicles until 1959, and the first seat belt law didn’t come into play until 1968. Car seats were first created in the 1930s, but they were just for containing kids and letting them look out the window; it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the idea of car seats as safety devices came on the scene. In the nearly 50 years since then, car safety guidelines have changed quite a bit, and car seats are safer than ever. Are you doing everything you can to promote car safety for your kids?

• We all know that infant car seats are important, since the hospital won’t let you take the baby home without one. Little babies should be in a rear-facing car seat in the back seat, because that’s the best way to protect their heads and spines. A baby in the front seat is at risk from the airbags, and if he or she is forward facing or at the wrong recline angle, there’s a risk of restricting the airway.
• Use infant car seats the right way. Never hang toys from the carrier handle, because they could become flying projectiles in the event of an accident. Don’t put your baby in the infant seat in a puffy winter coat, because during a crash the coat can compress and make the baby less secure. Out of the car, don’t put the infant seat anywhere unsafe, like the top of a grocery cart or on a soft surface, and never let your baby nap in the car seat, because that raises the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
• As your baby grows, car seat safety is still just as important. Always know where your child is before you start your car, and use automatic door and window locks to keep your child safe. Follow the appropriate guidelines for when to move to a forward-facing seat or a booster, and use extreme caution if you’re considering a used car seat. Don’t let your kids transition to an adult seatbelt until they’re 4 feet 9 inches tall.
• Be aware that 46 percent of parents make a mistake when installing the car seat and putting the child into it. The seat should be tightly secured, with no more than an inch of movement from side to side or front to back. The harness must be secure, the chest clip even with the child’s armpits. Be careful to install car seats according to the manufacturer’s instructions, either using seatbelts or the LATCH system.

At the Center for Vasectomy Reversal, we love helping people build their families. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or have other fertility concerns. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 for a free consultation.

How to Teach your Children about Respect

From the moment our children are born, we begin teaching them necessary life skills. We teach them to eat, train them to sleep, and teach them to walk, but sometimes we forget that we must also teach them how to be people of character. Children are not born respecting others, so how can you teach your children about respect?

• Give your kids the right tools. When babies cry, they’re not being disrespectful, but as children grow older, they must be taught that crying and tantrums are not the right methods for getting what they need. Establish clear limits and consequences for breaking rules, and teach kids how to politely ask you for what they need. When you set boundaries, you teach kids that the world doesn’t revolve around them, and when you teach manners, you’re causing them to think about how they speak to other people.
• Make sure your expectations are appropriate. Set your child up to succeed, by making sure his or her needs are met. A child who is hungry, tired, or stressed may react in a way that seems disrespectful without even realizing that’s what’s happening. Make sure kids have a clear understanding of what’s expected, and if they behave inappropriately, follow through on consequences but then discuss things later to clarify the limits. Talk to your child about what happened and why it happened, and listen to the child’s point of view.
• Recognize that compliance and respect are two different things. Some children are compliant without ever respecting their parents, just because they fear consequences. Discipline in a way that’s not demeaning or harsh, to foster an atmosphere of cooperation and respect.
• Monitor what’s going into their minds. Turn on sitcoms, movies, or YouTube, and you’ll immediately see that much of the programming directed at kids contains blatant examples of disrespect. Set limits on what your children see and hear, and talk to them about messages they’re getting from the world around them. Take the time to discuss the right and wrong ways to treat other people, so that your child understands the behavior you expect.
• Create a culture of respect in your home. Don’t lose your temper or allow inappropriate behavior to cause you to behave badly. Instead, model what you want to see reflected, holding yourself accountable for your mistakes as well as correcting your child in a respectful manner. Make sure your co-parent is on the same page, and that you treat each other with respect. When the rules of the house include treating other people respectfully, children will carry that behavior with them.

At the Center for Vasectomy Reversal, we love helping people build their families. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or have other fertility concerns. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 for a free consultation.

Why it’s Important for Your Children to Get Enough Sleep

When it comes to kids and sleep, there are so many different schools of thought that it can be confusing. Some parents run a tight ship, with stringent sleep-training, bedtimes strictly scheduled, naps mandated, and nighttime rituals protected as though they’re sacred. Others have a more relaxed attitude, letting kids decide when they’re tired and get to bed whenever they feel like it. More and more, though, research is favoring the sleep-mandators, and doctors are urging parents to make sure their kids are getting enough sleep. Why is good sleep suddenly an urgent public-health mission?

• Growing kids need sleep. Growth hormone is principally secreted during deep sleep, which is why babies spend to much time sleeping. When children don’t get enough sleep, they don’t grow the way they should.
• Sleep is important to a child’s health. Sleep can help protect children from vascular damage. Additionally, excessive brain arousal during the night elevates blood glucose and cortisol, which are both risk factors in diabetes and heart disease. Kids who don’t get enough sleep are also at risk of becoming overweight, and too little sleep results in lowered resistance to infection, illness, and stress.
• Kids who don’t sleep enough are at a higher risk of injury. When children don’t get enough sleep, they’re clumsier and more impulsive. In fact, in one study of Chinese children, 91 percent of kids with two or more injuries in a year got fewer than nine hours of sleep each night.
• Good sleep enhances a child’s ability to learn. The impulsivity and distractibility seen in kids with ADHD are also seen in children who get too little sleep. Studies of school-aged kids have shown that adding as few as 27 minutes of sleep per night can make it easier for them to manage moods and impulses and focus on schoolwork. From infancy, kids process information while sleeping, and napping can boost recall in older kids.

So how much sleep does your child need? For children under a year old, the recommendation is 12 to 16 hours. For ages 1-2, it’s 11 to 14, and between 3 and 5, it’s 10-13 hours. Elementary kids need 9-12 hours of sleep each night, and teenagers require 8-10. To facilitate this, help your children establish good sleep habits, with a consistent bedtime ritual, a comfortable sleeping environment, and no screens for two hours before bedtime. If your child seems to be anxious about sleeping, snores loudly, wakes frequently during the night, wets the bed after age 7, or is excessively sleepy during the day, talk to your pediatrician.

At the Center for Vasectomy Reversal, we love helping people build their families. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or have other fertility concerns. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 for a free consultation.

How to Boost Your Child’s Brain Development

From birth to age three, children’s brains develop rapidly. You’ve probably heard these early years referred to as the formative years, and it’s true that brain development affects all areas of a child’s growth. What’s also true, though, is that much of the interaction you’ll naturally have with your child will help this brain development.

• Brain development starts before birth. When you do your best to have a healthy pregnancy, eating well and avoiding drugs, smoking, and alcohol, you’ll be helping your baby to develop properly. You can also talk to your baby before he or she is born, in order to begin to build both your bond and your child’s vocabulary before birth.
• Connecting with your baby is sometimes as simple as a smile. Smile at your baby, stick out your tongue, and react to the child’s facial expressions and vocalizations. Interact with your baby in an attentive and focused way, to help build a strong emotional bond. Respond to your baby promptly and consistently.
• Narrating the world to your baby builds language skills. Talk to your baby as you go about your day, telling him what you’re doing, or pointing out things of interest. Talk back when your baby babbles and coos, fostering communication. Research indicates that the size of a child’s vocabulary at age three is directly related to how many words are spoken in the home.
• Read to your little one, to foster a love of books. Begin before the baby is even born, and make reading part of your daily routine. Even before your child can recognize letters or words, reading boosts language and communication skills. In fact, reading is one of the best things you can do to promote healthy brain development. As your child grows, ask questions about what’s happening in a book’s pictures, engaging the child while increasing his or her understanding of the story.
• Children learn through play. Simple games like peek-a-boo, pretend play, and playing with toys are all great ways to help a baby’s brain develop. It’s been said that play is the work of childhood, and when you play with children, you help them build important social skills as well as fostering creativity and imagination. Perhaps even more importantly, you’re building your relationship with your child.
• Sing to your baby. You don’t have to need a great voice, or even to be able to carry a tune! Songs help your baby learn rhythm, rhymes and language patterns. Sing all the nursy rhymes you can remember, do all the body and hand motions, and dance or bounce along to the rhythm.

At the Center for Vasectomy Reversal, we love helping people build their families. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or have other fertility concerns. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 for a free consultation.

Why you Should Interact with Your Unborn Child

Before a baby is born, there’s a lot of preparation and excitement. If you’re expecting a baby, you probably can’t wait until your child is born, so you can begin to interact and bond with each other. The good news is that you don’t have to wait! You can start forming a bond with your baby before he or she is even born.

It may feel silly to have a one-sided conversation with a person inside your body, but research indicates that babies begin to react to sound as early as 24 weeks. Even before that, though, you can interact with your baby by massaging your bump. You can also gently push back against your baby’s kicks, and you may be surprised when you get a nudge or a kick in response!

Interacting with your soon-to-be-born child can help you feel more connected to your baby, and it benefits the baby as well. Research shows that your voice can be calming to your baby, and that babies remember their mothers’ voices after they’re born. What’s more, there’s evidence to suggest that language development begins before birth. Once your baby can hear, there are some great ways to begin to communicate with this new little person.

• Talk to your baby. The conversations you have with your unborn baby are paving the way for his or her social and emotional development, as well as language skills and memory. The sounds babies hear before birth begin to shape their understanding of the world.
• Sing songs and play music. Skip the earphones on the belly, as this can lead to music that’s too loud for your baby. There’s evidence, though, that music can have a big impact on a child’s development, and even babies as young as one day old can detect differences between rhythms. Sometimes, babies are soothed by the lullabies they heard their mothers sing before they were born.
• Read to your little one. Reading to your unborn baby can help stimulate his or her senses and promote brain development. Books that have a clear rhythm and rhyming patterns can be soothing and almost melodic. Reading aloud to your baby before and after he or she is born can be a calming experience for both of you.
• Encourage other family members to bond with the baby, too. Reading to the baby or feeling the kicks can help the baby’s dad feel more connected, and the baby will be able to hear and remember his voice. This goes for older siblings, too, and it’s a great way to give them some “ownership” of the pregnancy.

At the Center for Vasectomy Reversal, we love helping people build their families. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or have other fertility concerns. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 for a free consultation.

Items to Have Before Your Baby is Born

When you’re expecting a baby, it’s natural to feel unprepared. The very idea of welcoming a whole new person into the world can feel overwhelming, and you may wonder how you can possibly anticipate everything you’ll need when the baby arrives. Sometimes, though, knowing what you need means identifying what you don’t need. It’s not necessary to buy every available baby item:  newborns need far fewer things than you might think. We recommend sticking to the basics.

• Your baby will need clothes. You won’t believe how many changes of clothing a baby can go through in one day. Stick to sleepwear and onesies for those first few weeks, with only a couple of “photo ready” outfits. Be aware that babies outgrow newborn clothes in a flash, so you’ll need some larger sizes. Socks and hats are a must, newborn mittens can prevent face scratches, and you’ll need some baby laundry detergent.
• You’ll need to feed the baby. If you’re breastfeeding, you may not need much gear. A breast pump, some bottles and milk storage containers will allow someone else to handle a feeding sometimes. You may want a nursing pillow, nursing bra, and some nursing pads. If you’re formula feeding, stock up on bottles and formula, being careful to check the expiration dates, and purchase a bottle and nipple brush. No matter how you plan to feed the baby, buy tons of bibs and burp cloths. Get more than you think you could possibly need. Trust us on this.
• Diapers are a necessity. Whether you plan to use disposable or cloth, you’ll want to lay in a good supply of diapers and wipes. Just as you did with baby clothes, anticipate that your baby will quickly outgrow newborn diapers.
• Bath items are important. You’ll need a baby bathtub, several hooded towels, soft baby washcloths, baby soap, and a soft-bristled baby hairbrush. Baby nail scissors and a bulb syringe are also nice to have.
• The baby needs somewhere to sleep. This can be a crib, a co-sleeper, or a bassinet, as long it meets safety regulations. Excessive baby bedding is not considered safe, but you’ll need crib sheets, mattress pads, and a good supply of receiving blankets in which to swaddle the baby. Swaddlers and sleep sacks are useful.
• You’ll need something for outings with baby. Some people like strollers, while others prefer slings or baby carriers: it’s a personal choice.
• A car seat is a must. You won’t even be allowed to take the baby out of the hospital without it.

At the Center for Vasectomy Reversal, we love helping people build their families. Under the direction of Dr.  Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or have other fertility concerns. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 for a free consultation.

Why it’s Important to Teach Your Children about Responsibility Early

As parents, it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day tasks of childrearing. There’s an old saying, “The days are long but the years are short”, but when you’re in the midst of those long days of childhood, it’s hard to remember that eventually, children become adults. It will happen more quickly than you think, so it’s important to remember that teaching your kids about responsibility is a major part of your job. Ultimately, we’re all raising adults, who need to be able to manage their own lives.

There are plenty of different ways to teach kids responsibility. Beginning when kids are very young, offer them choices throughout the day, to help teach them to make decisions. Make a chore chart, even when they’re little, to show them that they are contributing members of the family. Give consequences for failure to follow through on things you ask them to do, and rewards when they live up to their responsibilities. When they’re little, include them in your everyday chores like cooking and laundry, and as they get older, teach them how to do these things themselves.

Why is all of this so important? Because raising kids to be responsible will help them to more successfully navigate adulthood.

• Responsible kids tend to lead healthier lifestyles. When your kids are doing important things, they won’t have time for less meaningful pursuits. Instead of flopping in front of the TV or playing video games, they’ll be exercising, playing an instrument, cooking, doing chores, or gardening. All of these things are good for their bodies and brains, and help them learn the value of healthy habits.
• When your children know how to be responsible, they’ll be better prepared to hold a job. Teaching kids to follow through and make deadlines, and talk to them about getting a job when they’re old enough. Teach them how to manage money, and help them set goals for their future.
• Kids who learn responsibility early are more confident and resilient. They’ll have a thicker skin when criticized, believe in themselves and their abilities, and learn how to be problem solvers. Learning how to take responsibility for themselves and fix their own problems enables them to resolve difficult situations in the future.
• When they learn responsibility, they learn independent thinking. You don’t want your kids to follow the crowd, and teaching them to think on their own will help them make decisions for themselves instead of just going along with what others say.

Teaching kids responsibility is an important part of building a successful family, and at the Center for Vasectomy Reversal, we love helping people build their families. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or have other fertility concerns. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 for a free consultation.

Nursery Decor Ideas and Tips

Of all the things you must do to prepare for the arrival of a new baby, decorating the nursery may be the most fun. You get to daydream about your new little one as you design a space that’s fun and functional as well as beautiful. Here, we offer some tips for making the most of your nursery’s décor.

• Start with the crib. You may think of a crib as a temporary piece of furniture, but some kids stay in their cribs until they’re two or three years old. With cribs that convert to toddler beds and even full-size beds, you may get even more years out of it than that. Look for a crib that meets all safety standards and suits your aesthetic sensibilities, and if you plan to have more than one child, keep it gender-neutral. To go with the crib, you’ll need at least 5-6 fitted sheets, but skip the crib sets.
• Do you need a changing table? This is actually a hotly debated topic. Sure, it’s convenient to have all the storage a changing table provides, but a piece of furniture solely devoted to babyhood is likely to have an expiration date. Many parents opt for a dresser with a changing top, because when you’re out of the diaper phase, you’ll still need a dresser.
• One thing you do need is tons of storage. Arrange your nursery so that everything you need for a change of diapers or clothes is within easy reach of the changing table. This means diapers, wipes, changing table covers, burp cloths, pacifiers, toys to distract- anything you can think of needing, and extras of everything. You don’t want to have to step away from the changing table to reach something when you’re mid-change. Beyond that, you’ll need storage for all the baby stuff, so that it doesn’t end up tripping you in the middle of the night.
• Choosing a theme will help guide your décor. Find one thing that speaks to you, whether it’s a book, a painting, or some other piece of the nursery, and build your décor around it. It’s smart to keep the paint color and furniture neutral and accessorize within your theme. Don’t forget to include personal items like family photos and other elements that represent your loved ones.
• Remember that babies grow. However you decide to decorate the nursery, make sure that your décor is easy to change as your baby grows into a child. From furniture to storage to artwork, everything should grow with your little one.

If you need help with fertility in order to fill your dream nursery, Center for Vasectomy Reversal is here to help. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or help with their fertility. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 to arrange a free consultation.