Toddler Car Seat Information to review, choose and help you buy your Toddler Car Seat sensibly and safely.

Regular updates and videos will help you understand the Car Seat Laws or Car Seat Installation for your infant or toddler.

Check out manufacturers such as Britax, Graco or Evenflo before you buy.

We want you to be sure you have the safest and best car seat for your precious cargo….but that’s not all!

Need information on Strollers, or Ride on Toys or any type of Child Carriers

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Another informative article from Levi Quinn.

Having your child restrained properly in a car seat, booster seat or seat belt is very important. Not only does it give your child a better chance of withstanding an accident but it is also the law. Laws vary from state to state as far as age, weight, height and what type of seat the child should be restrained in. So you should check with the state you live in to find out what the laws are for that particular state.

However the best rule of thumb is to follow the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) guidelines. The NHTSA recommends that children stay in appropriate car seats through 8 years old, 80 pounds, or up to 4’9″ in height.

Birth to Age One

For birth through one year of age, NHTSA recommends that infants should be an infant-only or rear-facing convertible seat and should ride rear facing up to one year of age or at least 20 pounds. Rear-facing seats should be at a 30 to 45 degree angle.

It may be hard for some parents to drive with their infant facing in the opposite direction. It almost seems unnatural not to be able to see your baby. But just as it is important to support a newborn’s head as you cradle them in your arms, it is also important that their head and neck be protected in a vehicle. Since baby’s neck muscles are not fully developed all those bumps in the road, twist and turns and sometimes-sudden stops can really impact a tiny baby. The rear-facing seat helps minimize these motions for the baby. You can purchase some mirrors to use so that you can keep an eye on your baby while they are in the rear-facing car seat.

One to Four Years

Children 1 to 4 years old and weigh 20 to 40 pounds should be in a convertible or forward facing car seat.

Four to Eight Years

Some states only require children to be restrained in car seats until the age of four. However, seat belts usually don’t fit most four-year-olds properly. The NHTSA recommends that children who are 4 to 8 years old and more than 40 pounds, should be in a belt positioning booster seat either backless or high back.

Eight Years and Up

All children under the age of 12 should ride in the backseat. Never seat an infant or child in a position where an airbag can be deployed. When used with seat belts, air bags work very well to protect teenagers and adults. However, air bags can be very dangerous to children, particularly those riding in rear-facing car safety seats and to child passengers who are not properly positioned. Even in a relatively low-speed crash, the air bag can inflate, strike the car safety seat, and cause serious brain and neck injury and death.

Remember to Follow Manufacturer’s Instructions

Always read and follow manufacturer’s instructions. If you do not have the manufacturer’s instructions for your car safety seat, write or call the company’s customer service department. They will ask you for the model number, name of seat, and date of manufacture. The manufacturer’s address and phone number are on the label on the seat. Also be sure to follow the instructions in your vehicle owner’s manual about using car safety seats.

[Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/]

Technorati Tags: carseat laws, carseat safety

In my opinion, the easiest way for her to test whether or not she is pushing her daughter can be found in this quote: “Is it too soon, or should I let her keep going as long as she is interested and is having fun?”

If her daughter is interested in the concepts that she is learning and having fun while learning then it is definitely the right time to teach her.

Young children are interested in the world around them and they are interested in what their parents know. Building on that interest to teach basic concepts is not pushing your child — it is meeting your child’s needs. One of the most important things you can do for your child is to offer an environment rich in learning opportunities. If you give your child the opportunity to learn then he will learn — it really is as simple as that.

Remember, young children are learning a great deal about themselves, their family and caregivers, and their world ever day. For most of those lessons you are the teacher. By the time your child has reached the age of 2 you have already taught hundreds, even thousands, of important lessons about how to function in the world and society.

Indeed, many of the everyday activities you perform with your child also have academic implications. For example, the books that you read to your child and the songs you sing with your child have a lasting impact on literacy. It is no great stretch to add other concepts into your repertoire and this can make a great deal of difference in how prepared your child is for preschool and kindergarten.

There are really only three things you should remember:

~ Keep it fun Making learning into a game and your child will always enjoys what you have to teach her.

~ Keep it light Educational products and activities that are actually games are wonderful but don’t force your child into spending time each day with flashcards or the like. They’ll most likely learn faster and more meaningfully if you have an alphabet scavenger hunt at the supermarket.

~ Embrace the teachable moment but don’t schedule lessons and force educational activities on your child. When the opportunity presents itself (and it will countless times in a day!) take advantage and use it for a lesson. For example, simply putting on socks can be a lesson in right and left, colors, or counting!

HOW TO TEACH

So how do you teach your preschooler without scheduling lessons and forcing them to pay attention? You embrace the teachable moment!

What is the teachable moment? It is simply an opportunity that springs out of normal, everyday life or as children become older and more verbal a timely question or comment.

Time when you and your child are in the car, for example, is a wonderful teaching opportunity that many parents overlook. If you are reunited after a day’s separation then you can share stories about your day-and in the process work on vocabulary and literacy skills as well as teach your child about the world around them. You can also use cars and trucks to teach colors, road signs to teach shapes, and so on.

Mealtimes are also wonderful teaching opportunities. Counting is easily worked into almost any meal, such as telling a child they can have two cookies or giving them five tater tots. Shapes and colors can also be brought into mealtimes. For example, my son likes to choose the shape for his sandwiches-triangles or squares? As a child grows older you can also do letter sounds with the various foods, such as milk starts with “mmmmh”.

WHAT TO TEACH

Skills you should work on with your child fall into eight basic categories, according to early childhood educators:

~ Social/Emotional Skills, which will be the greatest predictors of success in life.

~ Self esteem, which is crucial for all learning.

~ Physical Skills

~ Communication Skills: listening, speaking, singing, drawing, gesturing

~ Basic Concepts such as colors, letters, numbers, vocabulary

~ Categorizing Skills, what is the same and different

~ Compare and Contrast Skills, which is the higher order level of Categorizing

~ Experiences on which to draw. These are perhaps the most important of all, as they provide a frame of reference for future learning. The more experiences from which a child can draw, the better s/he will understand both learning and the world.

These are all literacy skills and they are all key to your child’s future success.

Technorati Tags: educating a toddler, parenting, pre-school, toddler

Many children do not like to miss any of the activity going on in the home, even if they’re sleepy. All they want to do is be with their parents as much as possible. They feel cheated, because they are told to go to sleep before mom and dad do. These kinds of kids often cause disruptions to keep from going to their beds.

I am a parent of young children too, and have suffered through this type of behavior myself. My daughter requires a certain amount of sleep or she is extremely moody the next morning, when she does not get enough sleeping time in. It is quite frustrating, being a parent when your child starts whining or crying over having to go to bed. Statement such as “Please dad can I watch just a bit more TV?”, were all too common and it was tempting for me to back down at times.

Through reading certain books about parenting, I have learned the right way to cope with a situation like this. Each of the children has a certain time that is their bedtime. Both of them have agreed with this time.

They get their pajamas on about thirty minutes prior to their time and they can spend that time period viewing TV or playing games or with some toys. We just make sure that the games or toys are relaxing ones instead of ones that key them up.

If they have a program on that they want to watch that comes on too late, I record it for them, so now they understand they aren’t missing something.

I always read them a book too at their bedtime. Both of them enjoy this and it gets them calm enough to sleep. The can also have a drink with them at bedtime, this keeps them from getting out of bed for one. This should be juice or milk, not a carbonated drink.

Also I have told each of my children how important sleep is and they need to look forward to it and not think they are being punished. I even have said to them I would like to go to sleep when they do, sadly their mother will not permit that.

I also have made their bedrooms havens for them. The kind of place that they have fun spending time in, whether it be playing of just relaxing.

My son enjoys listening to music so he plays his favorite tunes in his bedroom. We set the volume real low so it will help him go to sleep a bit quicker.

The tips mentioned above made bedtime for our children a better experience, compared to what it used to be. Even the kids are happier with the routine now.

Technorati Tags: toddler bedtime

Once our child isn’t so little anymore and they’ve moved onto
their toddler years clothes aren’t the only thing you’ll need to
replace. One thing you can’t go without or afford to avoid
buying is a car seat made for your toddler. As your child grows
the requirements will slowly change and a new car seat is
needed.

If you’re looking for a car seat for your toddler there are
several great ones to choose from. Although, first it is
important to realize what kind of car seat you need first!

Convertible car seats: Convertible car seats are great because
they are usually used for children up to 4 years of age. They
can be used from the day they’re born until they out-grow their
seat which is usually around 60-70s lbs.  When you go this
route, you don’t have to worry about buying an infant car seat
but a booster seat is still needed for the future.

Booster car seats: Booster seats are used later down the road
typically at the age of 5. The weight for these is usually
40-100lbs so your child can definitely get a lot of use with one
of these! These are also cheaper than most convertible car seats
which is nice.

3-in-1 car seats: These are great because they are an infant,
convertible and booster seat all in one. You change the seat
around as your child grows. It is important to pay attention to
the weight and height requirements that way you know when to
adjust your child into their new seat. These are reasonably
priced and can be used from the day they’re born until they no
longer need a car seat!

Our favorites:

Convertible: When it comes to convertible car seats our
favorites are always Britax. Britax has so many great
convertible car seats to choose from. Not to mention, they have
some of the best safety ratings, reviews and ratings from other
parents that own them. Also, the features they come with are top
of the line. Everything from removable, washable fabric covers,
to cup holders, 5 pt harnesses and true side impact protection
to protect your little one from crash forces are the reason they
are at the top.

Booster: There are a lot of great booster seats on the market
but some are better sellers than others. The ones we tend to
like are the Cosco High Back Booster, the Evenflo Big Kid
Booster and the Graco Backless TurboBooster.

3-in-1: When it comes to 3-in-1 car seats these are limited.
Although, Safety 1st has a great selection of these to choose
from! If you’re interested check out what that company has to
offer.

Finding the right car seat for your toddler isn’t too hard to
do it just takes some simple researching like this! Here you’ve
learned what kind to look for, what features to look for and now
you have a good understanding as to which ones are the best for
each category! Take your time and be sure to give a good look
around!

About the Author: Find the best Car Seats for Toddlers at
http://www.findmycarseat.com/convertible-car-seats/ and more of
my work at http://FindMyCarSeat.com.

Source: http://www.isnare.com

Technorati Tags: booster seat, car seat, graco, toddler

This stage happens somewhere around 14 month or a bit older; however, it is more obvious when the toddlers are around others like a social event or daycare center. Even when the children have advanced linguistic skills for their age, they can still get frustrated like the ones who don’t.

First off, you should not overreact. Parents do have differing ideas on spanking, but this is not a time to resort to this, it can just make matters worse.

Using the approach of giving a time-out is helpful, typically just around two minutes of sitting still in the chair located in a place where they can’t kick anything or stomp or beat the floor. It give the child an opportunity to calm down.

While in time-out, explain why he or she is there such as kicking, hitting or biting someone and that it is inappropriate behavior, and do not talk further with him or her until the time-out is up.

After the time-out is over, tell the child again why their behavior was not appropriate and that it can hurt others. There is not much sense in asking how it would feel to the child if someone did the same thing to him/her because he/she is too young to relate to it in that way.

However, punishment given in a non-confrontational manner, with an explanation of what the child did that was unacceptable and what you will do if he or she keeps doing it.

If he or she does repeat the undesired behavior, put them in for another time-out. If your child is old enough, you could teach him or her about making apologies and why this behavior calls for one. Again praise him or her using positive reinforcement (can be just a simple kiss) for telling the one he or she hurt an apology or giving up one of his or her toys to the kid he or she pushed.

Technorati Tags: parenting, toddler, toddler behaviour

I talked to a woman whose young son was four years old had a stuttering problem for quite a bit of time. She has tried speech therapy with him and was very stressed over the reason for him stuttering. The stuttering could have begun because the child’s father also stuttered quite badly; this boy could have acquired some of his speech problems this way.

A lot of parents contact me to inquire about why their child is speaking with a stutter, also they want to find out what types of treatments there is for it.

The tell them have patience with their child and to play speech games and other games with him/her. This way they can encourage the child to speak fluently in the fun manner. The parents first show the child the right way to say a word, and then have the child say it back to them. When the child successfully says the word correctly and fluently, the parents praise the child, exclaiming to him/her how good he/she did, and saying how proud his/her mom and dad are. I also recommend that the parents reward their child in some small way.

If the parents or other adults are impatient and snap “Speak up child!” or “Spit those words out!”, then the child will just withdraw and not try to talk fluently. You might think this is obvious to most people, however, many have informed me that this is how they were talked to when growing up.

Even though it is just a small horse, the rocking horse will be sturdy enough for your kid to just sit or ride on. It usually made in a horse’s shape including the back, legs, tail and of course the head. Be the horse’s hooves are located right at the curved part of the rockers. This is where the joints are that are very much like the ones on everyday rocking chairs. They allow for the backward and forward movement and let your child enjoy rocking on his horse.
 
The rocking horse comes with either straps or footrests for stirrups. When your kid sits on the horse he places his feet securely in these stirrups. Typically there is a handle on each side of the horse emerging for the horse’s head. Your kid holds onto each one of them, as he rocks on his toy.
 
The first known rocking horse for a child comes from the Middle Ages. These horses were first made for the knights to work on their jousting, and then later on in history (17th or 18th century) in Germany, these horses made from wood became a child’s toy. Nonetheless, back then only the wealthy can buy these kinds of toys for the children they had.
 
The rocking horses became more affordable later on and are in a number of houses throughout the world. Many of them are kept in the attic when the child outgrows playing with them. The new models are available in plastic as opposed to wood. In spite of computer games, robots, Barbie dolls and other toys being so popular, children still love a rocking horse, which is so simple in design.
 
Some of these rocking horses actually have genuine-horsehair manes. Many of them can also be padded to allow your child a comfortable seat on them to rock. Others also have cloth saddles and reins. Colors of the rocking horses today are not just the traditional brown or gray. Now they come in an assortment of vibrant and bright colors too. Fabric, leather and more come in accessories on them too.
 
Some innovative styles of the rocking horse include toilets. These help with potty training as well as being fun. The prices on these run from about $200 to around $3500 based on the style of the rocking horse. Always supervise any child less than about 4 years of age while he rides his horse.    

1…Let the age recommendations that are included in the packaging guide you. Look for these facts on the back or the lower corner of the front on the box, in small print.

2…When the toy has smaller parts, think of your kid’s behavior before buying. Even though the child could be within the recommended-age range as stated by the toy’s manufacturer, you need to determine if your child behaves good enough for a toy with smaller parts.

3…Don’t ever let your child be alone when they play with that toy and its small parts. It only takes turning your back for a second or two for your kid to place the toy into his mouth. This could be extremely hazardous, so you need to always supervise your kid when he is playing with the toys he has and doubly so when small parts are involved. Along with this, do not permit your kids to run around while playing with toys that contain protruding or sharp points.

4…Do not let your kid place toys into his mouth. If your kid was to swallow the toy or its parts, it could cause serious problems. When you notice your kid placing his toys in his mouth, make them remove it and tell him no firmly. It is unnecessary to remove the toys all together from your kid, just watch him closely.

5…Watch closely for the product recalls and notices for the department of consumer safety. All the information included in these updates you on the safety of various products, and any of the defects recently discovered. A product recall can be issues to prevent injuries. Do not permit your kid to play with any of the toys that are on recall lists or have safety issues.

6…Always buy non-toxic crayons, paint or markers for drawing or coloring. With each product, it has been put through tests that prove it non-toxic, it label does hold these findings. Read the packaging close and look for this seal. Buy only the art supplies that have the seal.

7…Make sure the paint on a toy is not pealing before buying it. Paint chips can be hazardous if the kid places his toys in his eyes or mouth, so always watch the peeling and chipping of paint.

8…Dolls and toys should also flame retardant. It is obvious why this is important in protecting your kid.

9…Be certain the toys are not an imitation or authentic product; this is not manufactured as good. When you are buying toys, make certain you get good quality for your money.

10…Watch for the rating or message that the video game or toy is focused on. Today, a lot of the toys are focused unhealthy ideals or messages. Monitoring all the toys your kid plays with, is very important to be certain they are only being influenced positively and right for his age.

Toddler toy safety: in everyone’s best interest but mostly the child themselves.