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Whether you are choosing a hospital at which to deliver, or you have a baby that requires special care, it helps to know your options. Learn more about the differences between a well-baby nursery, a special care nursery, and a level 3 or level 4 nursery. Special care nurseries can treat babies with some health problems of prematurity, such as jaundice and trouble eating or staying warm. Since feeding is one of the tasks which often determines when a baby can be sent home from a special care nursery, you may wish to learn more about feeding premature babies....

It wasn’t a lot of blood, though, and she knew that spotting was pretty common in early pregnancy. Still, Alex called a friend—a registered nurse in a fertility clinic—to ask. Then she called her midwife. Then she sat down and cried. Neither professional had definitive answers to give her. “Basically, the answer was to wait and see,” Alex recalls. It was too early to detect an embryo on an ultrasound, so the only option was to test for levels of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone produced by the placenta to ensure sufficient production of progesterone during pregnancy....

Growth Predictors Curious about how big little Johnny will get in the early months? Concerned your baby is either bigger than or smaller than the average newborn? The truth is, rarely is there a cause for concern. There is a wide range of “normal” height and weight development. The size of your baby will be related to a few factors: The size of the birth parents as newbornsHow long the mother carried to termNutritionThe environment and culture of the birth parents...

Directions Pour small amounts of paint into the saucers. Spread a sheet of newspaper on a flat surface. Dip each leaf in the paint and place it paint-side down on the newspaper. Repeat until several leaves are arranged on the paper. Cover arrangement with another sheet of newspaper. Use the soda bottle to roll over the top. Remove the top layer of newspaper. Carefully remove each leaf, and your child will have a set of colorful leaf impressions....

Physical sensations can also be associated with being in the Zone. Examples of these are hunger, tightness, raciness, irritability, and anxiety. Again, these can vary for different athletes. It has been shown that by trying to remember the emotions felt before a successful athletic performance and repeating these emotions, the Zone is more likely to recur. The Zone is also known as the “flow” in which all brain and body functions are fully concentrated on the task at hand....

Large brown paper bag Scissors Paint Directions

Most gifted kids are very sensitive to family expectations. When children grow up hearing stories about a particular college, they may pick up the underlying message that they’ll simply go to that same school and don’t need to plan alternatives. Believing that there is lots of time while they’re young, many gifted kids avoid the topic for as long as possible. The decisions made in last-minute planning are not likely to be based on self-exploration....

Even though personal hygiene is something you think of as common sense, tweens need to learn about the impact puberty will have on their bodies and how to handle it. If your tween or teen lacks a serious hygiene routine, check out our top tips for helping your daughter through this time! Checklist Download: The Essential Personal Hygiene Checklist for Tween and Teen Girls When is it Time to Have the Personal Hygiene Talk?...

In October 2022, the agency authorized updated bivalent boosters for kids 5 and up. These updated boosters protect against the Omicron variant and the original strain of the virus, and the CDC recommends them for everyone age 5 and up. In December 2022, the FDA extended the authorization for these updated boosters to children as young as 6 months old. When they should get the booster depends on when they last received a COVID-19 vaccine and which brand it was (Pfizer or Moderna)....

Freshly-birthed newborns are covered in goop and other fun stuff, their skin may look blotchy and rashy, and their hands and fingers might even be blue. Some parents are understandably frightened by how their newborns look, but most of the newborn features you may notice—even the icky or unsettling ones—are totally normal. It can be helpful to know what to expect so that you are not alarmed by what your baby looks like at birth....

Set aside special times to play with your child, but even aside from these playtimes, try to make everything you do with your child fun. While you change your child’s diaper, sing a silly song or give him a toy to play with. When you dress your child, play a quick game of peek-a-boo as you pull a shirt over his head. When you cook dinner, let your toddler serenade you with selections from his pots-and-pans percussion band....

Plastibell Circumcision After a plastibell circumcision, a plastic rim is left on the penis while it heals for the first week. After the first day, you don’t need to use the gauze dressing. You can apply a lubricant to the penis after washing and cleaning the area with warm water. Do this for three to seven days to help keep the penis from sticking to the diaper.Be sure not to pull on the plastibell as it can cause soreness and bleeding....

5 to 10 minutes Materials None Directions Growing muscles make young children feel powerful, and this is the perfect age for racing you across the yard. Extensions Play a pretend game of “Magic Shoes” and race around together, pretending you are flying horses or rocket ships. Talk about where you are going and why.With shoes on, try racing across different kinds of surfaces such as sand; dirt; and hilly, uneven surfaces....