How much Sleep do Children need
Children often argue with Mom and Dad when it is time for
them to go to bed at night or even take a nap: "I'm not
sleepy." Well here is a chart I made with information
I got from Dr McGeorge on our local channel 4 news on how much sleep
children actually need according to their ages.
|
Ages
|
1 to 3
|
12 to 14 hours include naps
|
|
Ages
|
3 to 5
|
11 to 13 hours naps included
|
|
Ages
|
5 to 12
|
10 to 11 hours
|
|
Ages
|
Teenagers
|
9 + hours a minimum of 9 hours
|
Sleeping in on
the weekends to catch up on sleep does help. So there you have it. Do not let
your children tell you otherwise. Lack of proper sleep can lead to childhood
obesity. Which can contribute to other health problems in children? Sleep
really is important.
There are so many
products out there to help new mothers with potty training it is really not
that complicated. There is even the potty dance to go with the new products. I
have found the best thing for potty training is to start as early as 18 months
for girls and no later than 2 years for boys. Your child has to be old enough
to verbalize their need to go potty for your training to be effective. Also, their bodies and mind have to mature to learn to develop the ability to control
their bladder and bowels. I am not in the mindset to let the child
decide when is best for him or her to potty train themselves. The earlier
you start with bladder control with your children the better you develop self-control
and self-esteem in your child. You have to train your child to control his
bladder you cannot wait for him or her to tell you when he or she has to use
the potty. I am in the mindset that the old fashion training pants are the best
thing for potty training your children. They are enough thick not to soak
through their clothes. If you can still find them in the stores. If the child
feels the wetness they will stop the stream and feel uncomfortable. If they
have on a pair of the undies that hold the moisture with plastic outside like
diapers hey let mom change me when I wet. Ultimately you can make your own
choice of what you want to use.
The method I used
that worked. It took 2 days to train my youngest son. My mom helped me to
train my eldest son. My mom did not live long enough to help with my youngest son.
I used this technique. You will have to devote a 2 day weekend away from
the job do not go anywhere. To me, it is worth it. During this time,
spend time reading to your child, playing games. Use this day as mommy
and baby time. Devote your whole 2 days to your child you will see why
when I explain. Do not try to go anywhere during this 2 day
period. It will be best not to have an additional company. It is
real simple:
Give your child:
milk, 100 % fruit juice any kind, and water in between meals
throughout each of the 2 day period. DO NOT give your child soda/pop
or unhealthy sugary drinks. Set a timer to go off every hour. When
the timer goes off sit your child on the potty for 10 minutes, no longer
than 15 minutes. If he potties in between the timer going off, don't
despair reset the timer for 1 hour again. Your child will then learn to
release his/her bladder thus learning to hold fluid in his bladder. After
2 days while you are out a check, ask your child if he/she has to
potty. They may forget to tell you. Make your child aware
of themself of the issue of potting, when they have to go or not have
to go. If they forget and have an accident, do not spank
them. Above all, if they say they have to go potty please take them,
even if you think they don't have to go. I have seen too many
accidents happen because the parent though the child really did not have
to go or made the child wait too long. I know some children will tell a
fib and say they have to go when they don't have to. Take them anyway.
Most times when I see that happen is when the child is on an
extended shopping trip with mommy and they really don't want to be
shopping. So does that tell you, something mommy? I
never had that problem with my children. To this day I do not
like to go shopping, so my sons did not have that big of a problem with being
out with me shopping for hours at a time. At night you may want
to still put a diaper or pull-ups on your child until he/she sleeps through the
night and wakes up dry the next morning.
Actually, when you
start potty training your child it is the same method for boys and girls in the
beginning. To potty train, a boy is a bit more challenging than training a girl
child. The reason, we girls sit on the potty/toilet to do numbers one and two.
After you train a boy on the cute little potty chair then you have to go to the
next stage to teach him to hold his bowels and stand and tinkle in the middle
of the toilet after you have taught him to sit and do both with a shield in front
to catch everything. To stand to hold themselves aim and then tinkle inside the
toilet, they may have accidents and do both while standing at
the toilet. If they do don't despair they eventually get it. My Mom
and Dad passed this method on to me. They raised 4 boys and 3 girls, I'd say
they had a lot of practice and developed a good method. I was old enough
to see my Mom potty train my younger brother and sister so I saw their method
work for first hand. I was eleven years old when my youngest sister was born and 12
when my youngest brother was born. They are the special two youngest ones in
our family.
When your child
does go in the potty, cheer gives them praise makes a big deal of
it. This helps to give them encouragement to do it again and
again. When they have an accident just say awe you will get it next
time. If when you do start to potty train if your child does not get it
and balks, put the chair away and wait a few days or a couple of weeks
and start again.
