jc2006

My daughter has developed separation anxiety with me, mom...which is normal at 2. But what isn't normal is that she has become afraid of other people. It takes her a while to warm up and then once she likes the person she develops a strong attachment and has a hard time separating. Recently we have spent time with our friend and her daughter and after two play dates she became so attached that when it was time to leave I had to carry her home kicking and screaming for twenty minutes. We recently hired a babysitter so I could leave earlier for work in the evening (part time a few hours a week). My husband came home and and relieved the babysittter and my daughter had a huge problem separating. My husband said it lasted twenty minutes at least. She does not want anything to do with him lately and he is beginning to really take it personally. I also worry about my daughter. It just seems very strange how she can form such strong attachments to people over a short period of time. Yet she will not give my husband the time of day. Any thoughts?

Let me first say that we have a pretty hectic schedule. I am working part time, down to one evening, and in two graduate classes two nights a week. I have my husband, mother, mother in law, sister in law watching her plus they take her out places. She is the tenth grandchild (and probably lots more to come). We do see other children during the week. She started going to Sunday school a couple of months ago just for an hour during church.

That being said...She has gotten sick every Tuesday/Wednesday for the last four weeks, except for the week before when she didn't go to Sunday school. Symptoms appear to be a typical cold. I have gotten sick almost every week for the last month with a small fast moving cold. (1-2 days at the most) This last time though I got a very sore throat.Strep? What does it sound like? Bacteria or just being in a day care environment? I don't usually get sick and up until the last couple of months neither did she. I know...take her to the doctor. I will this weeK. I don't like her doctor and am shopping around right now. In the mean time, just wondering if anyone had any similar experiences?

I have a two year old (25 months) that is driving me crazy! I believe in reinfocement, redirection, and time outs, but these things just do not seem to work with my daughter. She thinks that when adults get angry it is funny. Having a stern face or voice actually can be encouraging. I do try to talk with her about what she is doing, but this usually does not work either...she is still too young. In some ways she is ahead of her time. She looks more like a three year old and and has more coordination of a three year old, hence, she can open things she shouldn't be able to and get into serious trouble. She is over three feet tall so anything left on the counter is extremely dangerous as she pulls everything down. Lately I have been giving her a swift spank because she has been getting into serious trouble and this really isn't effective either. I'm at the point where I don't even want to take her anywhere anymore because she doesn't listen to me. This can be dangerous as much as it is frustrating. Yesterday I took her to Old Navy because we had a gift card. We weren't not there more than five minutes when she started running away from me and if this wasn't enough, she began throwing clothes off the shelf onto the floor. Once I had her with me I forced her to let me hold her and quickly bought an item while she screamed and yelled in my arms. Any suggestions?

My one and a half year old has been drinking a lot of juice (half juice, half water) lately. I know she pees often ,but how do you define what is excessive? At night I have to use overnite diapers or she definitely soaks through her diaper and pjs, but during the day she doesn't generally have any leaky diapers. Sometimes she has mildly fruity breathe, but she does drink juice. She doesn't seem fatigued, in fact she is very energetic. I noticed recently that she has started to become irritable around her typical lunch or dinner time. But then when I give her food she doesn't eat very much of it. She does appear to have slimmed down a tad, but she has also been growing like a weed since the day I brought her home from the hospital. She is over 97% for height and weight. My dog ate her diaper this morning, no poop. I thought that was strange. Made me think it had glucose in it. What do you think?

We rented out half our house less than six months ago to a couple and are having all sorts of issues with our tenants. Basically they have started to take over our house. We do have some breaches in the lease as well. The boyfriend hasn't spoken to us in months but keeps telling the girlfriend that he's talked to us about things, like installing a humidifier on the furnace. Apparently we gave the go ahead. An additional dog appeared shortly after they moved in, apparently we knew about the dog, maybe in our sub-conscious or something. The girlfriend keeps scheduling meetings with us to talk, but we know the boyfriend is a no show. What a mess. Most of the stuff is petty, but it adds up. We can also hear him cursing at us, especially at night. We live in such a quiet neighborhood. Two nights ago he was screaming the f word at us at 1 am in the morning outside.

She mainly does it with my husband and me and close relatives. I'm running out of ideas. Usually I tell her no and put her down and walk away. Sometimes she puts her head down after she is reprimanded, but usually she laughs. I know she is still quite young, but I want to nip this in the bud before it gets worse. Fortunately at this moment she does not pinch or scratch children, only adults.

Some things that I know are going on at this moment: teething four eye(canine) teeth, Christmas just ended, my husband was home for almost 1 and half weeks and has since returned back to work. Do you think it's a phase? Any suggestions on what I should do?

Myth vs fact

I feel like my grandma in law has a lot of wise tales. Granted some of them are true, but a lot of them I know are not. Anyway, my mother in law is always telling me wise tales when it comes to our daughter and I know that they come from grandma. This is one of them. What do you think.

I was watching Sprout and there is this segment in the morning now where this woman plays guitar and sings songs. The other day she was singing "say give me". I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was raised to never say give me...we said "May I". Another day she was singing, "I want". Like kids need to be taught these phrases! Then we wonder why our children sound like brats!

I know what your thinking...then don't let her watch it. I have started to really monitor what we watch and how much.

I woke up the other morning to find our tenants had covered half the house in blue and silver garland. It looked like the garland monster threw up all over our house!

Is their a number that is age appropriate or "the norm"? I am not concerned with my daughter, just curious about what other babies are doing.

I'm talking about ~30 and under. When I think of my parents, both college educated, they were completely independent making a living, own health insurance etc. by the time they graduated college (in four years I might add). What's going on? Do you think we are not offering our youngsters enough direction with career choices? I know I could have certainly used a push. Is our generation just scared of growing up? Are we lazy? confused? What's the deal? What really worries me is the next generation of Brittney Spears youth. yikes! "We're the kids of America!"

I am 29 and I could imagine having my daughter any younger than I am now. It is alot of responsibility. What do you think? I don't know how I feel about 18 year olds trying to conceive.

I have a friend that has a three year old with speech delay and possible learning disabilities. She enables his speech delay, she treats him like baby and she will not put him in a school setting. He is out of control. "No" means yes. There are no consequences. He gets frustrated because he doesn't have language to express his feelings, but she does not give him any language to use. Yesterday I tried to model giving him appropriate language. My one year old took his toy and had a tantrum so I held the toys out to him and said, tell her "i was playing with that first". Before he could say anything she pulled him aside and went over this whole "say your sorry routine" which has no meaning for him whats so ever. Would you say anything? He no longer receives speech from the state and doesn't qualify for free help from the district. He hasn't progressed for three months now. She has $ for karate and little gym and gymboree but not school?

I just read an article about a study pubished in 2006. Over 300,000 people were tracked over 20 years based on their occupation and rated for risk of exposure. People with occupations placing them at greater risk to lead exposure, such as painters, carpenters, machinists etc. were 50% more likely to die from brain cancer! There has been very little other research in this area following long term health effects of lead exposure. Scary right?

I do plan to call the doctor immediately tomorrow morning...My daughter had her one year shots given 8 days ago, I believe hepatitis and chicken pox. No reaction not even a little fussy. Earlier today though I noticed she had a red bump on her thigh, warm to the touch in the area where her shots were given. I thought it may be a bug bite. Just now she woke up from her sleep and I changed her diaper. The bump has become more inflamed and looks almost like a very large mosquito bite. Because it is so swollen I can't make out if there is a distinct bulls eye or not. Looks a little circular though. I know reactions to vaccines can occur weeks after, but what about no other physical symptoms except soreness where the shot was given?