This play station bar offers babies loads of sensory stimulation when strapped to the front of an infant carrier (attaches with Velcro straps). The spinning panda bear, double link chain, twirling rattle, and flipping mirror are all easy for babies to reach and spin. Press the nose on the revolving bear and it plays a whirring electronic rendition of "Teddy Bear's Picnic."

Most babies will lack the eye-hand coordination to successfully trigger the music. (An adult tester had to grasp the spinning bear with one hand while pressing on the nose with the other.) Fortunately, this means it won't be accidentally set off and startle a drowsy or sleeping baby. (Or be played so much that it overstimulates babies.) Bear in mind that this is not intended for use in moving vehicles or in a baby's crib. --Hannah Reynolds
Customer Review: Bright and Stimulating BUT....
This item just didn't fit well on any of our baby seats. In baby's infant carrier, when strapped on ...
Customer Review: good for the price
i bought this toy b/c 1 it was [inexpensive] 2 it was black, red, and white to stimulate my sons eye... Click Here For More Info!

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Every year, a staggering number of children suffer horrific injuries from a dog attack. What is even more frightening, is that in many cases, the dog is known to the child.

Dogs are pack animals, where each dog understands its place in the hierarchy. Safe dogs are dogs that have been brought up to think that all humans, down to the smallest child, are above them in the hierarchy. Unfortunately, many dogs consider that children or adults that are not from their "family pack" are lower than them in the hierarchy and they consequently think they have permission to bite if the child or person does something that they don't like.

As we don't know how a dog is going to react to unfamiliar children or people, it is best to assume they may be nervous or defensive. As parents, we need to teach our children to behave appropriately around all dogs.

Children instinctively believe that a dog wagging its tail is friendly and can therefore be approached. However, no dog should be touched by a child without the owner's permission. A dog that has had little exposure to children could be nervous or afraid. If it is tied up or restrained in some way and is unable to "escape" from a fearful situation, the dog may bite out of fear. Likewise, encouraging children to "make friends" with it could also provoke the same reaction.

Never allow your child to approach or touch an unknown dog while it is eating, especially if it is eating a bone as this brings out the wolf in almost any dog. While children love to play with a dog, encourage them to be quiet and still around strange dogs. Noise and activity may provoke the dog to jump up at them.

Because of the dog's pack instinct, children should always try to stay "higher" physically than a dog to keep themselves in a dominant position. They shouldn't be encouraged to lie on the ground and let a dog jump all over them in rough and tumble play - even a little puppy. Supervise your children around strange dogs, even dogs you know quite well, as children are little balls of energy that can either over stimulate or frighten some dogs.

Dogs are fantastic animals and make great pets but they still have the ability to defend themselves or their family if they feel threatened. We need to be aware of this and treat them accordingly for the dog's well being and the safety of our children.

About the Author

Deborah Taylor has been an advisor on animal welfare matters for five years and has a blog on dog behavior training and related information.

Customer Review: Great Bath Toy
I bought this for my daughter when she was 8 months old and time to transition her into the "big" ba... Click Here For More Info!

Toddlers are adults in the making, let's not forget that they are people too.

Toddlers are adults in the making, let's not forget that they are people too.

Its humorous and sad at the same time that our childs first word learned is usually no. I started to wonder myself if I knew any other word besides no when it came to talking to my child. I dont recall ever hearing stories of children needing therapy because all they heard is no as a child. So lets not feel so bad about having to say no a lot during those crucial curious years.
Toddlers are mini adults in the making, what a wonderful time to start molding them. Why not start teaching them about making choices and decisions? Instead of always saying no, maybe we need to explain to them the consequences of their actions, or maybe let them do something you normally wouldnt let them do. Of course as long as its nothing that could harm them or someone else. Instead of saying no, dont touch that candle, what if we said that candle is very hot, you could burn yourself, you dont want to hurt yourself do you? What if you said yes to finger painting instead of worrying about them getting messy, isnt that the fun of finger painting to begin with?
I have found that allowing my toddlers a little more freedom with decision making, they are more likely to clean up after they make a mess, or brush their teeth when its bed time. Toddlers are people too; they like to be able to choose what they will wear, what they will eat, and what they will play. If we are always saying no to our children, then our children want to always say no to us.
Let your toddler feel important, let them have a voice and let them become the adult they will one day be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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It was one of the most anticipated vacations ever. I had spent over 8 months researching and planning our Disney World vacaction down to the last detail. My 3-year old daughter had already given up napping, was potty trained, extremely adventurous, and was used to spending the occassional night away from home. All we needed was good weather and we were going to have a great time exploring the Disney parks togethernot!

It was one of the most anticipated vacations ever. I had spent over 8 months researching and planning our Disney World vacaction down to the last detail. My 3-year old daughter had already given up napping, was potty trained, extremely adventurous, and was used to spending the occassional night away from home. All we needed was good weather and we were going to have a great time exploring the Disney parks togethernot!

She spent the first 3 days of the trip clinging to my leg and whining non-stop. She was afraid of many of the tame attractions. And what did she want to do more than anything? Swim. We had flown 1,000 miles to swim!

After speaking to a lot of other parents, my storys not unusual. So, whats the moral here? Well, its not dont take your toddler to Disney World. Because despite a rocky start, we had a great time. And you can too, with a few helpful strageies:

Leave your expectations at home. Every child is going to react differently to a Disney World vacation. If your child has not traveled much, being away from their familiar surroundings is completely overwhelming, even in a child-friendly place like Disney World. Your hope of spending long days in the parks hitting all the rides wont work with a child who is tired, hot, and out of sorts. Having a go with the flow attitude will serve everyone in your group much better.

Move at a more leisurely pace. Disney World is one of those vacations where you can come home feeling more tired than when you left. Youre up early to go the parks, walking all day, rushing to get to dinner reservations on time This type of pace is more than most toddlers who are away from home can bear. Plan a morning or two to sleep in. And dont try to see everythingchoose the top five attractions youd like to see at each park and see them first. Anything else you get to experience in addition is gravy.

Take a break from the parks every day for swimming and naps. Not only does it give your toddler a great time swimming and some much needed rest, its also a good strategy for dealing with the Florida heat. Get to the parks when they open, tour until noon or 1:00, head back to your hotel for a break, then hit the parks again around 4:00 or 5:00.

Stay in a Disney resort. In addition to their superior theming and service, the Disney resorts provide the best locations for easy commuting to and from the parks. Youll also find large swimming pools (some spectacularly themed), kiddie pools, playgrounds, and on-site laundry facilities. Several of the Disney resorts also have child care centers if youd like to have a grown-up night out.

Take advantage of what Disney World offers beyond the park attractions. Most of the Disney World resorts have facilities for boating and bike riding, in addition to elaborate swimming pools. Visit Downtown Disney to shop for kids of all ages. Go miniature golfing. Even inside the parks, theres much more to do than wait in lines for attractions. Watch the afternoon parade, take in the evening fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot or Disney-MGM Studios, or take in the live entertainment throughout the parks.

Go to a character meal. Disney World has almost a dozen different character meals where you can meet your favorite Disney characters as you dine. If your child is afraid of the characters, try going to a character meal with the face characters like the Disney princesses, which dont wear the large head masks that frighten many little ones.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rattling Caterpillar is made of a series of brightly colored disks that have a great feel for an infant to hold and enjoy. Hanging string can be fastened to baby's car seat or stroller. Made in Germany from maplewood and water-based lacquerers. A quality infant toy that is made to last! Length: 18 cm. Ages 6 months and up. Click Here For More Info!

You may be surprised at how often babies will sleep to & from the destination. Be sure to have their favorite stuffed animal ready & blanket for the trip (also a pacifier & bottle if the child is young enough).
For babies & toddlers, bring along cassette tapes filled with stories & music that is age appropriate. You can sing along to help entertain them.

Other items that you will want to take with you are :

A foldable playpen

An age appropriate car seat

A diaper bag

Something to keep the sun out of the child抯 eyes

For children ages 1 ? years, bring items to play with. Such items can include: scotch tape, window clings, books, coloring books, crayons, a couple plush animals & finger food.

Be sure to bring out toy at a time. When you get out one toy, put the others away. This way the items stay new. Switch toys every 10 ?5 minutes (longer if the child is older). This keeps the toys & books new and exciting. You will want to have at least 12 toys. 12 toys is appropriate for a trip of 12 hours or less. To be on the safe side add a couple extra or buy a few at stops on the way there. This will allow you to rotate for two hours without having anything boring. You will not need a ton of toys for under a year old, as they will sleep most of the way there (at least hopefully ?if you child isn抰 prone to sleeping in the car ?you will have to improvise).

You will want someone next to the young child at all times to make sure they stay happy during the entire trip. It can be upsetting to the driver if the baby is constantly crying.

For those crying fits: First try the basic easy things by offering a bottle, pacifier, blanket, doll/stuffed animal, finger food or new toy. If these don抰 work and the child continues to cry for longer than five minutes, pull over at a rest stop. Check the child抯 diaper, look for rashes, or places the skin may be rubbing against the car seat, and check for food or items underneath their bottom. If none of these work, re-adjust the child in their chair & keep driving. If the child is old enough to talk, ask them what is bothering them. If nothing works and the child continues to cry, strap him/her back in the car seat and continue to drive. This time don抰 stop the car until 30 minutes or longer has passed. During this half hour try the things you tried initially. If all is hopeless, ignore the child. Before 30 minutes, it is very likely the child will calm down or fall asleep unless something is seriously wrong. If you stop every time the child cries, he/she will cry MORE! If you do end up stopping a second time (after 30 minutes), first re-check the diaper (it is not uncommon to have two incidents in a half hour) and second check to see if the child is ill. If the child is old enough (2-3 years) and there is nothing wrong (diaper etc) & the fit continues, it may call for disciplinary action (always give the child try to give the warning before disciplining ?this way the child chooses his/her own fate). A quick note: choose a driver that can handle crying for 5- 10 minutes without getting too irritable.

It is true that there may be the occasional crying, but for the most part the trip should go well for both you, the riders and your child.

Sarah Delaporte is the owner of Freebie Coupon Corner. She loves helping consumers save money on their groceries with her helpful e-book publications. For more information about Freebie Coupon Corner, you can visit the website at: http://www.couponcorner.net

Trampoline safety measures urged
New safety guidelines are needed to stem the rise in trampoline-related injuries, child health experts say. The person weighing less is five times more likely to be injured and children under six years old are particularly vulnerable to injury.
Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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Honestly, self-esteem is not taught to little babies and toddlers. It's an innate sense that drives them to roll over, to crawl, to walk, to begin speaking, and to learn how to get their basic needs met. Children are naturally self-confident. Babies and toddlers don't say, "What if I can't accomplish this goal? Perhaps I should settle for less and just do without that toy. I don't really need to learn to walk. I can lay here forever." We don't have to coach a baby to feel good about themselves so that they'll learn how to hold their own bottle or how to manipulate a toy. The toy exists and they simply want to reach for it. The bottle is there and they simply want to hold onto it. Learning new things is just what they do without any thoughts about self-esteem and their ability to succeed. Either we reinforce their sense of self, or we systematically destroy it.

Why would anyone destroy a child's self-esteem? Rarely do parents and other adults in a child's life make a conscious decision that they want to raise a child to have low self-esteem. Typically, the parents have no idea they are even doing it and worse, if you tell them so, they become quite defensive about it. After all, they love their child so how can it be their fault that their child's self-esteem is low? The word 'parent' is meant to describe any adult in the role of guardianship. A 'parent' is a steward who must watch over the child's well-being and insure that nothing happens to mess with the child's development.

It's the parents' job to protect the child's self-esteem by setting up and monitoring their environment so that the child can grow, learn, reach, aspire, and accomplish goals. Through real accomplishments and real achievements, real self-esteem is reinforced. Children know when they are being handed a ribbon just for showing up and win they are receiving a real award that took hard work and determination to earn it. The parent doesn't give the child self-esteem, but sets up opportunities and lessons that allows the child to develop and grow into a balanced sense of self that knows their own personal limits and their own personal gifts.

It's the parents' job to make sure that siblings, family friends, teachers, and others who come into contact with the child are not allowed to verbally tear a child's sense of identity apart. Nobody, including the parents, should be allowed to belittle the child, abuse the child, or in any way make the child feel that they are an inferior human being. No name-calling should ever be allowed. The child should not be allowed to say such things, as "I'm stupid." The child needs to be taught the power of words and thoughts and if someone calls the child stupid, dumb, or in any other way ridicules the child's ability to accomplish their own dreams, the parent has an obligation to stand up to the bully and say that they are wrong. Children need to hear adults speaking up in their defense.

Through trust and honesty the adult earns the child's respect and in times of doubt, hearing a trusted adult say that they believe in the child's ability to succeed can mean the world to that child. If the adult is someone who always offers sappy unearned praise for inferior performances, then that adult is not going to be a real cheerleader in the child's eyes. They will discount that parent's statement as simply being prejudice or worse they'll think the adult is lying. It can backfire causing the child to assume that since the adult lies to them about their abilities that the adult must not really believe in them. As a parent, we have to talk straight with our children and give them real tips and pointers about how to succeed. Don't just slobber 'Yeah! Good job!' all over them when they haven't really earned it. When they fail, you have to teach them how to handle failure. That means teaching them how to analyze what went wrong and how to improve their performance for the next time. It also means teaching them how to get back up in the saddle to ride again.

Often as parents, we want to protect our children from feeling like failures. We think the experience of failing causes our children to lose heart and give up. The truth is that part of growing and reaching beyond our comfort zones involves failing once in awhile. If you protect your child from ever seeing themselves as less than a winner, then you rob them of the opportunity to learn tenacity and determination. You don't carry a toddler around on your hip and give them rewards for learning how to walk. You put them down on the ground and let them fall down and get up and fall down and get up and fall down. You can cheer them for their tenacity, but you have to let them figure out how to do it without your help. Successfully accomplishing their goals is what builds a 'can do' attitude.

It's not our job to make sure they always win and they always succeed. It's our job to make sure that nobody interferes with their ability to learn how to win and how to succeed. You protect the environment, set the atmosphere for self-growth, self-determination, self-discovery of one's own natural talents and one's natural limitations. You coach them, but you don't lie to them about their successes. You cheer them on but you don't tell them that they are a winner if their work was sloppy or less than their best. When a child really works hard and gives it their all, then yes they have a winner's drive and a winner's attitude, but don't reward them as if they've crossed the finish line. Real self-esteem is earned, it's not given to someone as a consolation prize.

Copyright 2005, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow's Edge

About the Author

Skye Thomas is the CEO of Tomorrow's Edge, an Internet leader in inspiring leaps of faith. To read more of her articles and free previews of her books, go to www.TomorrowsEdge.com. Webmasters interested in generating more repeat traffic to their websites are invited to visit www.TomorrowsEdge.net/horoscopes-generate-website-traffic.html.

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There are myriad things that you can fancy with your child so many things in fact, that unless you will be living for a few days, you won't need time to do them all. Disneyland was designed for kids of all ages and toddlers are no exception!

Begin with Toon Town. Here is where you will find your toddler's favorite Disney Characters, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse. All of the Characters have homes in Toon Town, full of things that desire amaze your toddler, and make them guffaw.

Your toddler will absolutely enjoy the Disneyland Railroad. This is a great way to get about the parkland, because there are stations in New Orleans Square, Toon Town, Tomorrowland, and on Main Street. This will amuse your toddler, and give you a chance to see various sights and repose a bit.

Its A Small World is very proper for toddlers. Music and colors will have your child fascinated while you relish a relaxing ride across the water. The Storybook Land Canal Boats is additional good choice, as it will take you through the miniature villages that your child liking be quite well-known with from their story books.

Rides that you and your toddler must not miss comprise all of the rides in Fantasyland, King Arthur's Carousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, the Circus Train, and the Mad Tea Party. Rides that are apt for youngsters, but that may cause a little fear are the rides that are dark. These include Peter Pan's Flight, Pinocchio's Daring Trip, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White's Scary Adventure. Buzz Lightyear is a popular ride for all toddlers.

There are other areas of the parkland that have attractions and rides that are becoming for toddlers. Remember that Disneyland is a place for kids of all ages. Pay attention to the level and age requirements for each attraction, and avoid engaging your toddler to rides that they will not be able to enjoy. This will only cause your child disappointment.

Stick to the areas where the toddler appropriate attractions are located as much as possible. As an adult, you realize that sundry rides are merely not unharmed for small people, but your small person will not comprehend this! Your Disneyland vacation have to be satisfying for everyone, and Disneyland has made sure that there is another thing for everyone at the parkland.

It is up to you to keep your child happy, and to keep them curious in the rides and attractions that they are meant to enjoy.

About the Author:

Chris Elliott is a toys expert who owns Child Toy Info, Dog Toy Secrets and Educational Toy Secrets.