Avoid homemade goods unless you know the neighbor.
Avoid candy that is not properly wrapped.
Consider healthier treats for trick-or-treaters, such as individual packs of raisins, trail mix, or pretzels.
Consider having your children turn their candy into cash through the Halloween Candy Buy Back Program. This program, usually run out of participating dentist offices, gives one dollar for every pound of Halloween candy. This candy is, in turn, then sent as part of a care package to troops serving overseas.
Parents of kids with allergies and asthma don’t need to be afraid of letting their children enjoy the holiday. But it is important to take some precautions to make sure that kids avoid potentially serious reactions to the allergy or asthma triggers that sometimes lurk in candy, costumes, and makeup.
Be cautious about candy. Don’t let kids who have food allergies eat any treat before you’ve checked its package—or the company website—for a list of all ingredients. Should you have any doubt about the ingredients, throw the candy away. Also, teach your child to politely refuse any home-baked treats, such as cookies or cupcakes.
Don’t be tricked by small treats. Be aware that small candy bars may have different ingredients from their regular-size counterparts. Consequently, even if a certain candy is safe for your child, its “fun-size” version might not be.
Take away temptation. Feed your trick-or-treater before leaving home so that he or she will be less tempted to gobble up possibly problematic candy. When your child returns home with loot in hand, collect any treats with troublesome ingredients and replace them with allergen-free treats. Or arrange a candy swap with siblings and friends where your child can trade harmful treats for safe ones.
Make your home the haunted house. You might bypass trick-or-treating altogether and invite your child’s friends to a Halloween party—where you can control the food that’s served.
Send your youngster out with more than a candy bag. If he or she has asthma, pack a quick-relief inhaler. Cold weather or mold spores hidden in piles of leaves might trigger an attack. Likewise, if your youngster has a life-threatening allergy, pack injectable epinephrine in case of a severe reaction. Any child with severe asthma or allergies should wear a medical alert identification bracelet or chain—even if he or she objects that it’s not part of a Halloween costume. This safeguard can speed treatment in the event of an emergency.
Choose safe costumes. Masks can interfere with breathing, which means kids with asthma should either wear a half mask or no mask at all. Masks and costumes may also contain latex and other allergy triggers, so be sure to read their labels if your child has allergies. Also keep in mind that makeup and hair dyes may harbor irritants that can bring on an asthma attack.
Don’t let your child trick-or-treat alone. Depending on your child’s age, either accompany your child or see that he or she heads out with a group of friends or a responsible adult. If you’re not present, be sure that whoever is with your child knows about your youngster’s allergies or asthma and how to respond to a severe reaction or attack.
Do you have allergy- or asthma-prone children? What are your tips and suggestions for a safe and healthy Halloween?
7) As you roam through the neighborhood collecting your treats, please look both ways before crossing the street. (Speaking of streets: The corners are the place for trick-or-treaters to cross, no matter their pace.)
10) You may fly on a broom or a space ship from Mars, but please be on the lookout for drivers in cars. (Between parked cars is no place to hide - be sure that you’re seen whether you’re a clown or a bride.)
11) Monsters and zombies should stay off the lawn and only visit homes with their porch lights turned on.
While two kids in one room can conjure up sweet thoughts of siblings bonding over bedtime giggle-fests and early morning playdates, there are bound to be challenges, especially when one of the roommates is still a baby. You’ll have to juggle two different bedtimes, for one, and come up with creative ways to give your toddler the space he needs ot build his block masterpieces in pace - all while keeping your baby safe from the potential chocking hazards of a soon-to-be-preschooler’s playthings. Not to mention the constant reminders you’ll need to give your tot (over and over again) that screaming at the top of his lungs while the baby naps isn’t acceptable roommate behavior.
Two-in-a-room can mean sweet dreams for all involved - eventually - and a little preparation can go a long way to ensure that. So before you do up the room for deux, take time to ease your toddler’s transition from only child to big brother or sister. Consider keeping your newborn’s crib in your room during the early months. It’ll help make those middle-of-the-night feedings faster and easier on you and give your older child more time to get used to sharing his life with the baby. During those first few months you can talk up your toddler’s future roomie in a positive way (“It’ll be fun to show your favorite stuffed animals to Sam when you’re sharing a bedroom together”) so he’ll have something to look forward to when the room-share becomes a reality.
Once your littlest sweetie is sleeping five to six hours at a stretch (at around the four-month mark), move the crib into his new (shared) digs. To make the switch go more smoothly, try these tips:
Give your toddler the lowdown. Explain that you’ll be coming in to feed the baby at night and that he shouldn’t worry if he hears his baby brother crying. The first few times your infant does make him up, just pat your toddler on the back and let him know everything’s okay and he should go back to sleep. After a while, he’ll get used to hearing you come in to feed the baby and he’ll know to settle down and drift off to dreamland on his own.
Stagger bedtimes. If the baby goes down at 7:00 PM, delay your toddler’s bedtime a bit with a few extra stories and tuck him in at 7:30 M. Hell appreciate being made to feel like a big boy by staying up later than the baby - and getting to spend extra time with you. To turn that special time into more of a trat, give your toddler a choice of where he wants to read - for instance, your bed or a cozy chair in the family room.
Create separate but equal spaces. Corral smaller items like miniature cars and tiny blocks (they can be choking hazards) in baskets or bins and keep them on a highter shelf where your toddler cazn reach them but the baby can’t. The baby’s toys can be put on lower shelves or in containers under the crib - places where he can easily grab them once he starts crawling. Special toddler-only projects (block castles or train tracks) should be built on a play table in another room so th ebaby doesn’t accidentally knock them down.
Turn the experience into a teachable moment. Sharing a room gives your toddler a chance to shine as the big sib and to learn about respect and responsibility. When he wakes up before his baby brother, for example, encourage him to get up quietly and close the door gently before he comes to see you - rather than poking his head into the baby’s crib and belting out a wake-up song.
Here’s to happy days (and nights!) for your little roommates.
Do your children share a room? Do they sleep by themselves? What tips & tricks do you have to share from your experiences?
Hide the chocolate milk behind the plain milk. Get those apples and oranges out of stainless steel bins and into petty baskets. Cash-only for desserts.
These subtle moves can entice kids to make healthier choices in school lunch lines, studies show. Food and restaurant marketers have long used similar tricks. Now the government wants in on the act, giving $2 Million to food behavior scientists to find ways to use psychology to improve kids’ use of the federal school lunch program and fight childhood obesity.
About one-third of children and teens are obese or overweight. Bans on soda and junk food have backfired in some places. Some students have abandoned school meal programs that tried to force-feed healthy choices. When one school district put fruit on every lunch tray, most of it ended up in the garbage.
So instead of pursuing a carrot on a stick approach, schools want to entice kids to choose the carrot sticks, figuring children are more likely to eat something they select themselves.
Some tricks used:
Keep ice cream in freezers without glass display tops so the treats are out of sight.
Move salad bars next to the checkout registers, where students linger to pay, giving them more time to ponder a salad.
Start a quick line for make-your-own subs and wraps.
Renaming food in elementary schools to “X-ray vision carrots” and “lean, mean green beans”.
Cafeteria workers get more involved by asking, “Would you rather have green beans or carrots today?” instead of waiting for a kid to request them. Just asking “Do you want a salad with that?” on pizza day at one high school raised salad consumption 30 percent.
Schools try hard to offer healthy choices for their students, but the real lesson starts at home. What are your tips and tricks for encouraging healthy eating habits? The first 25 comments will receive a $25 gift certificate to CookiesKids.com.
Saying “I love you” to my baby for the first time felt kind of weird. I mean, OF COURSE I loved him! I gave up margaritas and raw cookie dough for 40 weeks and 2 days for him. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is! But still, telling this little person in those early days that I loved him felt…I dunno..redundant? Surreal? Overstating the obvious?
At first, I’d just kind of quietly whisper it when no one else was around, getting used to the way it sounded. Then I’d say it in my regular voice to him, but again, only when I was alone.
And suddenly, I found myself saying it more and more, whether people were around or not. I’d say it, I’d sing it, I’d shout it from one room to the other. I loved this little baby and he would know it.
It’s funny how “I love you” never comes without a little adjustment, but once you realize how easy it is, it’s nearly impossible to stop saying it.
Now pardon me, it’s been about 3 minutes since I last told my son I loved him. What, me? Smother him? NEVER!
The Retail Mogul Behind Cookie’s Department Store Talks About Two Of His Passions: Fashion And Giving Back
In September 2009, New York Family Brooklyn’s “Behind the Storefront” interviewed Cookie’s the Kid’s Department Store’s owner Cookie Falack about fashion and giving back to the community.
With his love for kids and his eye for great retail concepts, it’s no wonder why Cookie Falack has created one of the largest children’s shopping emporiums in the country. Cookie’s (known as “The Department Store For Kids”) gives parents the opportunity to dress their children from head to toe with a range of styles offered at great values. The Fulton Street store that I visited (one of seven locations throughout the city) is filled with everything a parent would need, from essentials for starting a nursery to the latest fashions for dressing kids through their tween and teen years. I was fortunate enough to have the chance to sit down with the retail mogul and speak with him about his love for the business and his visions for the future.