Spring Newsletter 2012

I am excited to announce the birth of our daughter on February 17. Transitioning from two children to three has been a bit more difficult than I expected. Meal times are the worse with all three wanting to eat at the same time of course. It sort of feels like a tennis match going from each child to the other trying to fulfill all their needs, but I hope to get the hang of it soon!

What’s New at child-behavior-guide.com?

Child-behavior-guide.com updates

It looks like the birth of our daughter has temporarily slowed down my ability to work on the site, but I hope to be able to finish the updates for each page and add some new pages that I am already thinking about and very excited to put together soon!

Bonus Child Behavior Tip

Sleep Deprivation

If you have read my free eBook you know how important I think sleep is for children. As I am going through major sleep deprivation with my third baby, I realize even more how important sleep can be for parents as well.

Learning all of the information my site provides to help with behavior problems is the first step, but having the patience to put them into practice is a whole new ball game. Without adequate sleep, this can be extremely difficult.

So, I thought I would reiterate the importance of sleep. If you haven’t checked out my page with tips on helping a sleep problem, I high recommend not only checking out the tips, but looking to make sure you and your children are getting the recommended amount per age group.

One challenge many parents have is getting children to sleep in their own beds, the best solution for this is to never allow co-sleeping in the first place, but if you are already in need of help there are some tips below. Perhaps you and your spouse don’t view this as a problem and get plenty of sleep regardless, but for many sleep interruption is a big problem.

Some tips for getting kids to sleep in their own beds:

1. Make a rule starting on a certain date that they must sleep in their own bed and enforce it from that night on.

2. When they try to get in bed with you, immediately return them to bed. This may take many times at first, so start on a weekend when you can nap during the day.

3. To help with keeping them from your bed, you may try putting a child proof knob on your door or locking it so they have to knock. This eliminates sneaking into your bed. Use a monitor to be able to hear them if needed.

4. Try using a behavior chart to reinforce nights in which they stay in bed the whole night and give a big reward after so many days of staying in their own bed.

5. Make sure they have a night light and if they like music to fall asleep to, help them learn how to operate it on their own if they wake up in the middle of the night and would like to turn it back on.

Overall, it mostly takes time and patience teaching a child a new habit of sleeping on their own. So, don’t give up too soon. The short term struggle is well worth the long term sleep quality for you and your children.

What’s in the News?

Cell phone use during pregnancy may lead to behavioral disorders in offspring

A study conducted on mice has led researchers to believe that cell phone use during pregnancy may increase the risk of the fetus having behavioral disorders, such as ADHD, later on down the road. The study compared the fetuses of mice exposed to radiation from cell phones to those that were not exposed.

It concluded that those exposed to radiation appeared to be more hyperactive and had reduced memory capacity than those not exposed. Of course this may not be the case for human fetuses, but the findings are intriguing and provide a valid reason for further investigation. Either way it is probably a good idea for all pregnant women to attempt to limit their exposure to radiation regardless.