Mom

For the last month or so, the skin has been peeling on the bottom of my daughter's feet. She is four. It doesn't seem to bother her, but it looks awful. Should I be concerned? Is there anything I could do to help with this issue? Or should I have her doctor check it out? I was thinking it was something akin to athlete's foot.... noone else in the family has it, and not sure what to do about it!

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

My 4 year old daughter swallowed a quarter 3 days ago. I called the doctor immediately, and was told as long as she could get food and water down (which she could) it was not stuck and I'd need to check her bowel movements for the quarter to appear. If it did not appear within 4 days, I have to take her back to the doctors and get an x-ray done to see whats going on. We're on day 3 and she has 2-3 bowel movements a day and no sign of it yet. She feels fine and is eating and acting normally.

I was just wondering if anyone else's kids have swallowed any coins or something of the like, and if so, did they pass it ok, and about how long did it take? Has anyone had a child that was not able to pass a coin through? I'll see the doctor tommorrow but just wanted to hear others experiences. Thanks so much!!

My son is 5 and has mild autism - I have an important meeting at his school to prepare to transition him to kindergarten. I had asked my mother 3 weeks ago if she could babysit my daughter while my husband and I attended this meeting. She said yes. Today (the day before the meeting), she calls and said my sister asked her to babysit her kids because she is closing on a loan - so she is wanting me to make other arrangements for my daughter, so she can babysit my sister's kids. I got upset, so my mother suggested she come with my sisters 3 kids (all under the age of 4) to babysit my daughter. Am I being petty that I'm still upset? I'm so stressed about this meeting that I don't know if I'm thinking rationally. I feel like I asked first and shouldn't be the one to have to compromise or make other arrangements. Ugh, I hate feeling like this. Thanks everyone!!!

My 6 year old son gets frustrated very easily, and when he does he just explodes in anger/frustration, and takes it out on whoever is near him (usually me). For example for homework today, he had to read a book the teacher assigned and he was struggling with a lot of the words. He just freaked, started screaming "I hate this stupid book" - when I tried to help him, he started screaming and yelled to me "go away" and if anyone went near him for the next 30 minutes or so he screams at them. Or he loves legos, but he always gets frustrated building with them and ends up screaming and smashing them everywhere. I feel like I always end up feeding into it and we scream at eachother all day and i hate it. I would appreciate any advice how to handle his frustrations better so he doesn't always explode in anger and we're walking on eggshells around him. Thank you!!

My 6 year old son gets the worst chapped lips through the winter. And god forbid he gets a cold, good lord he is chapped from his nose down to his chin. His lips get so chapped they crack and bleed and look awful. I slather chapstick and vaseline on him every time he walks by me and at night before he goes to bed - which helps a little but they're still pretty chapped AND all the vaseline and chapstick is making his skin break out, so he has pimples all over his chin and cheeks!

If anyone has any suggestions to help I'd so appreciate it, thanks so much!!

My son's best friend (they're 6) lives across the street from us. Its great in so many ways, but lately the amount of times the friend comes over has become excessive. Every day, as soon as we pull in the driveway from school or wherever we've been he's ringing the doorbell before we're even out of the car. Today one of my friends came over with her kids, and he rang the doorbell every 30 minutes (now can we play? why can't I play?) He rang our doorbell at 8am on xmas morning! I politely send him away when its not a convenient time for my son to play with him, but not sure if I should handle it better or differently. Because every time if I have to send him away my kids have a fit. Thanks for any input!!

My son is 6 and is friends with a classmate I'm not wild about but tolerated because my son really likes him. He was over for a playdate today, and when I went outside to announce it was time for me to drive the friend home, his friend squirted me in the face with a supersoaker gun, and then ran off and hid. I was calling his name, threatening to call his parents, then I was so frantic I couldn't find him for 10 min. I figured he was scared since I was quite mad when he squirted me... but he finally jumped out of his hiding place and was laughing! I told him very sternly to get in the car NOW and I would be informing his parents of this incident and that I was very angry. The kid could've cared less - was not even remotely nervous or upset about how angry I was. When I drove him home, I told his father what occurred and his father just said "oh, sorry about that". Didn't seem fazed. Doesn't that seem odd to you, that a 6 year old boy would not care that his friend's parent was

I interviewed a babysitter that one of my good friends recommended -she's a college grad and works with autistic kids, and is looking to babysit to supplement her income. I have three kids, one with high functioning autism, so I figured she's be perfect. My kids liked her, she played nicely with my kids while I interviewed her, but I felt like she didn't really "enjoy" kids (or at least mine!) She went overboard reprimanding my barely 3 year old daughter to say please every 2 seconds (while I was right there), made some disdainful comments when my son showed her his new pirate sword (she doesn't like toys that are weapons) and about them watching TV (they were watchign Dora so I could interview her in peace... she said "well, at least its educational). I'm sure she'd take great care of my kids, but I just didn't get warm and fuzzy feelings from her, am I asking too much? Previous to this I've pretty much only had my mother babysit, so I'm feeling lost. Thanks for any input!

My son (who's mildly autistic) was put on amoxicillin for an ear infection and literally a day into it started acting off the wall! He's been hitting himself, regressing so much behaviorally.... my older son who doesn't have any issues, was put in zithromax for pneumonia a while ago and had similar issues... behaved awful, acted like a wild energetic animal with huge tantrums. then as soon as he was done with the antibiotic went back to normal. Has anyone's child ever reacted strangely to an antibiotic? Are there any alternatives I can try other than an antibiotic at times? Or any antibiotics that are better than others? Thanks for any input!!!

My daughter is three, and has been fully trained since she was a little over two. Pooping has always been a problem since day one of potty training. For the longest time she would only poop in a pullup, not in the toilet. She finally has stopped asking for pullups when she has to poop, and will sit on a potty seat, but she FREAKS out whenever she has to poop. She will carry on for days, every time she feels the sensation, crying, saying "poops are coming!" and freaking out. She'll hold it as long as humanly possible. She will eventually go in the potty, but its such a painful process. She has held it so long in the past that she ended up constipated and gave herself a fissure, which of course created a whole new set of nuerosis about it. Has anyone else gone through this, and any tips out there how to make her relax? Thanks so much!

Anyone else with a 5 year old dealing with this? My son is 5 1/2, and he has a great group of friends, but sometimes when they come over for playdates he is so rude to them! If they don't do what he wants to do, he'll blurt out "You're not my friend anymore!" and other hurtful remarks. He also never wants to go over his friend's houses, he only wants them to come to our house. He also can be moody at times at home, and seems to have low self esteem. He's constantly saying that he thinks I don't love him and that he's the "worst" at whatever activity we're doing, etc. I am a loving, calm mother, I swear, I don't know where this is comign from! I should add I have a 4 year old son also, who is mildly autistic, and a almost 3 year old daughter. Anyways, I try to reassure him all the time how much I love him and boost his ego, not sure if anyone else runs into this? thanks in advance for any advice/support!!

My son has had a high fever (103-104 at night, 99-101 during the day) for 4 days now. I had taken him to the doctor yesterday and was told he had tonsillitis, since it was viral there was not much we could do but wait it out. His fever shows no sign of going away yet and he's so miserable (I'm giving him plenty of tylenol, he's drinking lots of fuids but refusing to eat) - anyways, how much longer would you wait until going to the doctor again? thanks!!!

My son who is 5 and my daughter who is two wake up occasionally at night crying, usually complaining that their leg hurts. I've been told its "growing pains", that some children actually feel some pain during a growth spurt. Just wondering if anyone else's child has had this, and if so, how did you deal with it? I've tried massaging their legs but did resort to giving them Tylenol a couple of times. thanks!!