January 16th, 2008 | Children, Computing, Parenting | 2 Comments
My sister called me today. She wanted to know if there’s an easy and effective way to make Internet surfing safer for kids. That means blocking websites with adult content, violence, unsafe chatrooms and virtually any stuff that’s deemed unsuitable for kids. Her children, aged 7 and 4, are very computer savvy. Browsing the web is literally child’s play these days. It’s very important to keep unsafe content out of their reach.
I thought I’d share with you a simple way to prevent your kids, and everyone else in the house, from accessing malicious websites. For adults, weeding out pornography sites is easy but phishing websites are much harder to detect. Phishing refers to dummy websites setup by pranksters to steal your private data like usernames, passwords, credit card details and such.
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January 11th, 2008 | Babies, Children, Diet, Health, Parenting | 202 Comments
G6PD deficiency and jaundice
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, one of the most common metabolic disorders afflicting newborns, requires special dietary care for both babies and their nursing mothers. Babies born with G6PD deficiency means their body lacks a specific enzyme, G6PD. Without G6PD enzyme, red blood cells have a shorter life spans when exposed to certain chemicals, usually found in food and drugs. Hence when red blood cells are destroyed (anaemic hemolysis) it will cause anaemia, resulting in dizziness, pale-skin, persistent tiredness, headache, tea-colored urine, abdominal or back pain.
Newborns are by nature born with excess amount of red blood cells. Their bodies will break down excess red blood cells and this process creates bilirubin, a waste product which their liver needs to dispose of. Often, their immature liver are taxed when excess bilirubin are required to be disposed from the body. This causes jaundice which is very normal in newborns. However, newborns with G6PD deficiency, with more than normal excess of bilirubin needed to be extracted from the body, taxes the already overloaded liver even more. As a result, they often experience higher and prolonged levels of jaundice than normal newborns.
How do you care for babies with G6PD deficiency?
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January 7th, 2008 | Children, Health, Parenting | 17 Comments
Respiratory infections such as flu or a common cold are known to affect toddlers younger than five years old an average of 10 times per year. Those who are sent to day care, nursery or pre-school have a much higher chance of developing colds. On the bright side though, the common cold or flu is their body’s way to ward off viruses and they recover, your toddler’s immune system would’ve developed antibodies againsts these familiar viruses.
Barring complications like severe sore throats, ear infections, high fever or pneumonia, toddler’s common cold or flu usually doesn’t require a consultation with the paedatrician. Viral infections can’t be cured medically. Parents will have to let their toddler’s cold run it’s course and bear with the symptoms. Your child’s body will heal itself. What you can do is to relieve your kids from the discomfort and here are some home care ideas to provide such relief:
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