In order to get rid of head lice naturally and to wipe the nits off from roots of your kid’s scalp, you can consider some home remedies for resistant head lice that I have listed below:

Here are some head lice remedies that will help you get rid of resistant lice and nits.

Vinegar is very effective as a head lice remedy. To use it, you need to wash your child’s hair with vinegar. It is able to kill both lice and nits and its effects are noticeable within just two days.

Another beneficial remedy for heal lice and nits is coconut oil. Apply it on your child’s hair as a conditioner. Also, you can combine any kind of mineral oil or Johnson baby oil with vinegar in equal proportion. The mixture is applied on the hair and is left for about an hour.

Tea tree oil is also very helpful for your battle with lice. Add 15 drops of tea tree oil to your child’s shampoo. This mixture can be used every day. Another recipe to try includes a tablespoon of tea tree oil, three tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon of eucalyptus added into the regular shampoo your kid uses. The mixture is applied to the scalp and the head is covered with a plastic bag. The hair should be washed with water after half an hour.

Bed wetting causes anxiety for both children and mother, but it can also lead to the development of skin rashes if the child stays wet for a longer period of time. In addition, children who experience bed wetting often develop coughs and colds because of the constant touch with the wet urine.

Below are some useful tips that may help you prevent bed wetting:

-         Make sure that your child has emptied his bladder before going to bed

-         Your child should be encouraged to go to the bathroom each time he or she feels pressure

-         Don’t get angry with your child when the problem occurs at night. On the contrary, you need to talk to your child and provide some advices.

-         Always encourage your child and praise him or her when they wake up dry

-         Do not allow your child to drink too much liquids before going to bed

-         As it is known that bed wetting is related to poor nourishment, your child should consume nutritious and healthy food

-         Avoid regular usage of diapers if the child is older than four years of age. The children should learn to notify when then need to pee

According to the study the infants who started eating solid food before the age of 4 months were six times more likely to develop obesity by the time they become 3 years old than infants who started eating solid food later on. The same applies to infants who stopped breastfeeding before they turned 4 months.

If the infants were breastfed for at least 4 months, the time they started eating solid foods is not related to risks of obesity in their childhood.

The experts who conducted the study say that obesity is the greatest health problem for children. According to them special prevention strategies may need to be implemented in early infancy.

Susanna Hud, MD in the Children’s Hospital Boston, believes that the first few months after birth are crucial for obesity development. She claims that the timing of solid food introduction is one of the factors that influence childhood obesity.

Oliver J. Rando, MD, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology at UMMS and principal investigator for the study says, that they explorer and receive that the parents were doing before you were conceived is turning out to be important in determining what disease risk factors you may be carrying.  Scientists have been studying how genetic mutations and DNA changes make humans sick. Dr. Rando says that a major and underappreciated aspect of what is transmitted from parent to child is ancestral environment. Offspring of the male mice given a low protein diet were found to have chances consistent with past studies linking paternal diet to epigenetic changes in the next generation.

They specifically found offspring of males fed low protein diet had increased lipid and cholesterol synthesis. One such study performed retrospectively on a Swedish population called the Överkalix Cohort Study, hinted that what a grandfather ate could lead to diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease in second-generation offspring. According to Rando, Our study begins to rule out the possibility that social and economic factors, or differences in the DNA sequence, may be contributing to what we’re seeing. It strongly implicates epigenetic inheritance as a contributing factor to changes in gene function.”

Hans A. Hofmann, PhD, associate professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin and a co-author of the study says, “It has increasingly become clear in recent years that mothers can endow their offspring with information about the environment, for instance via early experience and maternal factors, and thus make them possibly better adapted to environmental change. Our results show that offspring can inherit such acquired characters even from a parent they have never directly interacted with, which provides a novel mechanism through which natural selection could act in the course of evolution.” The findings from the study show it may be important to understand what parents eat when assessing for individual disease risk factors, and not just a person’s lifestyle. The researchers say they’re not certain how what your father ate transmits good or bad health, but they plan to explore how genetic information is passed from father to offspring and from mother to future generations.

Around

Accordind to the Association, most of the children are already born with vision problems, and there are not acquire in the older age. Indications of difficulties with vision in infants include excessive tearing, extreme sensitivity to light, encrusted or red eye lids, turning the eyes constantly, and white pupils.

The parents must notice for every unusual thing that may be appear in the vision of their infant. And after that they must counsel with their eye doctor. The eye associaiton said that the normal steps of an infant’s vision development on their website. Even if a child does not show any signs of vision problems, he or she should have their first eye examination by an optometrist at around six months of age.

The American Optometric Association Survey

The AOA’s annual Eye-Q survey found that only 19 percent of parents took their child for his or her first eye assessment before age one year. A third of parents wait until their child is between one and two years of age, and 26 percent hold off until their child is five years or older.

Unfortunately, one in ten infants has an undetected eye problem, which may include lazy eye (ambyopia), crossed eyes, farsightedness, nearsightedness, and even cancer. While infants and toddlers cannot respond to standard eye charts, physicians use tests such as whether an infant can fix his or her eyes on an object and follow it, or identify which objects a baby prefers to look at and at what distances.

Dr. Glen Steele, optometrist and chair of the InfantSEE committee, a program of Optometry Cares The AOA Foundation, emphasizes that “the good news about a trip to the optometrist is that most babies seem to enjoy the ‘games’ we use to determine whether their visual development is progressing normally and their eyes are healthy.”

Any parent who has an infant between the ages of 6 and 12 months can get a free InfantSee assessment to determine if their child has vision problems. You can locate optometrists who participate in this no-cost public health program on the InfantSee website. The program is offered by the AOA in partnership with Vistakon, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc.

Maybe

And why in precise this is necessary to do in early age of child? Another pediatrician, dr. Patricia Parikin, said that “We and others have previously found an association between prolonged bottle feeding (beyond 16 months) and iron deficiency.”

Then the doctors make a research and found that the children who drinks a milk and juice from the bottle, to late age of the others babies, are fortified with iron.

The deficiency of the iron, this importan element, is connected, according the pediatricians, with behavioral problems, developmental delays, poorer achievement in school, and in rare cases, stroke. Beyond iron deficiency, children who stay on the bottle too long are at greater risk for tooth decay and obesity.

Sleep is a critical component of health. Although we do not understand all its functions, sleep is essential to grow, to restore our body and immune system and to enhance and solidify memory and learning.

For children with ASD, insufficient sleep appears to impact daytime behaviors, making challenging behaviors worse. In addition, sleeping difficulties for the child lead to sleeping difficulties for parents and sometimes siblings, adding to the stress and challenges of parenting a child who has autism. No one can function at their best when they are sleep deprived.

What Causes Sleep Difficulties in Children with Autism

The most common reasons for sleep difficulties in all children are environmental influences or inadvertent behavioral shaping. For example, parents may assist a child in falling asleep by rocking or holding them and then placing them in bed while asleep. But when children awake naturally later in the night, they do not have access to the things in their environment that are associated with sleep and so are unable to get back to sleep by themselves. Another common cause of sleep difficulties is putting a child to sleep in a bedroom where he or she engages in stimulating play activities during the day.

For children with autism, there appear to be more challenges. There are studies that suggest children with ASD are more likely to have circadian rhythm (natural wake/sleep cycles) disturbances and may have abnormal melatonin regulation. Melatonin is a hormone that regulates the wake/sleep cycle. In addition, children with autism may be more anxious about the bedtime routine and may have difficulty with the social cues that signal bedtime. They are also more sensitive to sensory experiences such as light, touch or sound.

There are medical problems that interfere with sleep, and children with ASD may be more likely to experience them. For example, medical problems such as gastro esophageal reflux, allergies, sleep apnea, night terrors or seizures can interrupt sleep. Mental health problems such as bipolar disorder or severe anxiety can disrupt sleep and may be difficult to identify when a child with autism cannot communicate.

What to Do

One of the most important steps parents can take is to keep a sleep diary, keeping track of time of sleep and number of nighttime awakenings. A sleep diary allows families to become aware of patterns and environmental situations that may be inadvertently contributing to sleep problems and to monitor progress. It also is invaluable when working with experts such as sleep specialists.

Routines that encourage sleep are important. For children with autism, it can be helpful to create a visual schedule to inform and reassure them of the expected steps in a bedtime routine.

Families should consider the activities that precede bedtime and their effect on calming or stimulating children. Children with autism learn best in small bites with plentiful opportunities to feel successful. When establishing a routine to improve sleep, remember that new learning takes time and reinforce small steps in a positive way.

There are no medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of pediatric sleep disorders, but there are some medications that have been used in controlled studies and have been found effective. Families should consult their physician for advice and guidance related to these treatments.

When to Seek a Specialist’s Care

Families should consider a behavior specialist when there are challenges in establishing a bedtime routine or when changes to promote a routine provoke challenging behaviors.

Consider a sleep specialist when improving sleep hygiene (creating a bedtime routine and providing a calming environment) does not lead to better sleeping or when there are suggestions of medical or neurologic problems associated with sleep.

Whatever strategy is used to help a child with autism sleep better at night, it’s important to remain consistent in the approach. Finally, remember there are thousands of other parents going through similar experiences every day. Seek help and support organizations and talk to other parents whenever possible.

source:    http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/features/sleep-difficulties-parents-autism

Bonding

Scientists are still learning a lot about bonding. They know that the strong ties between parents and their child provide the baby’s first model for intimate relationships and foster a sense of security and positive self-esteem. And parents’ responsiveness to an infant’s signals can affect the child’s social and cognitive development.

Why Is Bonding Important?

Bonding is essential for a baby. Studies of newborn monkeys who were given mannequin mothers at birth showed that, even when the mannequins were made of soft material and provided formula to the baby monkeys, the babies were better socialized when they had live mothers to interact with. The baby monkeys with mannequin mothers were more likely to suffer from despair, as well as failure to thrive. Scientists suspect that lack of bonding in human babies can cause similar problems.

Most infants are ready to bond immediately. Parents, on the other hand, may have a mixture of feelings about it. Some parents feel an intense attachment within the first minutes or days after their baby’s birth. For others — especially if the baby is adopted or has been placed in intensive care — it may take a bit longer.

But bonding is a process, not something that takes place within minutes and not something that has to be limited to happening within a certain time period after birth. For many parents, bonding is a byproduct of everyday caregiving. You may not even know it’s happening until you observe your baby’s first smile and suddenly realize that you’re filled with love and joy.

The Ways Babies Bond

When you’re a new parent, it often takes a while to understand your newborn’s true capabilities and all the ways you can interact:

• Touch becomes an early language as babies respond to skin-to-skin contact. It’s soothing for both you and your baby while promoting your baby’s healthy growth and development.
• Eye-to-eye contact provides meaningful communication at close range.
• Babies can follow moving objects with their eyes.
• Your baby tries — early on — to imitate your facial expressions and gestures.
• Babies prefer human voices and enjoy vocalizing in their first efforts at communication. Babies often enjoy just listening to your conversations, as well as your descriptions of their activities and environments.

Making an Attachment

Bonding with your baby is probably one of the most pleasurable aspects of infant care. You can begin by cradling your baby and gently stroking him or her in different patterns. If you and your partner both hold and touch your infant frequently, your little one will soon come to know the difference between your touches. Each of you should also take the opportunity to be “skin to skin” with your newborn by holding him or her against your own skin when feeding or cradling.

Babies, especially premature babies and those with medical problems, may respond to infant massage. Because babies aren’t as strong as adults, you’ll need to massage your baby gently. Before trying out infant massage, be sure to educate yourself on proper techniques by checking out the many books, videos, and websites on the subject. You can also contact your local hospital to find out if there are classes in infant massage in your area.

Bonding also often occurs naturally almost immediately for a breastfeeding or bottle-feeding mother. Infants respond to the smell and touch of their mothers, as well as the responsiveness of the parents to their needs. In an uncomplicated birth, caregivers try to take advantage of the infant’s alert period immediately after birth and encourage feeding and holding of the baby. However, this isn’t always possible and, though ideal, immediate contact isn’t necessary for the future bonding of the child and parent.

Adoptive parents may be concerned about bonding with their baby. Although it might happen sooner for some than others, adopted babies and their parents have the opportunity to bond just as well as biological parents and their children.

source:   http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/learning/bonding.html#

Your son is

This scenario is common among parents of kids who are slow to speak. Unless they observe other areas of “slowness” during early development, parents may hesitate to seek advice. Some may excuse the lack of talking by reassuring themselves that “he’ll outgrow it” or “she’s just more interested in physical things.”

Knowing what’s “normal” and what’s not in speech and language development can help you figure out if you should be concerned or if your child is right on schedule.

Understanding Normal Speech and Language Development

It’s important to discuss early speech and language development, as well as other developmental concerns, with your doctor at every routine well-child visit. It can be difficult to tell whether a child is just immature in his or her ability to communicate or has a problem that requires professional attention. These developmental norms may provide clues:

Before 12 Months

It’s important for kids this age to be watched for signs that they’re using their voices to relate to their environment. Cooing and babbling are early stages of speech development. As babies get older (often around 9 months), they begin to string sounds together, incorporate the different tones of speech, and say words like “mama” and “dada” (without really understanding what those words mean). Before 12 months, children should also be attentive to sound. Babies who watch intently but don’t react to sound may be showing signs of hearing loss.

By 12 to 15 Months

Kids this age should have a wide range of speech sounds in their babbling and typically say one or more words (not including “mama” and “dada”). Nouns usually come first, like “baby” and “ball.” Your child should also be able to understand and follow simple directions (“Please give me the toy,” for example).

From 18 to 24 Months

Though there is a lot of variability, most toddlers are saying about 20 words by 18 months and 50 or more words by the time they turn 2. By age 2, kids are starting to combine two words to make simple sentences, such as “baby crying” or “Daddy big.” A 2-year-old should also be able to follow two-step commands (such as “Please pick up the toy and give it to me”).

From 2 to 3 Years

Parents often witness an “explosion” in their child’s speech. Your toddler’s vocabulary should increase (to too many words to count) and he or she should routinely combine three or more words into sentences.

Comprehension also should increase — by 3 years of age, a child should begin to understand what it means to “put it on the table” or “put it under the bed.” Your child also should begin to identify colors and comprehend descriptive concepts (big versus little, for example).

The Difference Between Speech and Language

Speech and language are often confused, but there is a distinction between the two:

• Speech is the verbal expression of language and includes articulation, which is the way words are formed.
• Language is much broader and refers to the entire system of expressing and receiving information in a way that’s meaningful. It’s understanding and being understood through communication — verbal, nonverbal, and written.

Although problems in speech and language differ, they frequently overlap. A child with a language problem may be able to pronounce words well but be unable to put more than two words together. Another child’s speech may be difficult to understand, but he or she may use words and phrases to express ideas. And another child may speak well but have difficulty following directions.

Warning Signs of a Possible Problem

If you’re concerned about your child’s speech and language development, there are some things to watch for.

An infant who isn’t responding to sound or who isn’t vocalizing is of particular concern. Between 12 and 24 months, reasons for concern include a child who:

• isn’t using gestures, such as pointing or waving bye-bye by 12 months
• prefers gestures over vocalizations to communicate by 18 months
• has trouble imitating sounds by 18 months
• has difficulty understanding simple verbal requests

Seek an evaluation if a child over 2 years old:

• can only imitate speech or actions and doesn’t produce words or phrases spontaneously
• says only certain sounds or words repeatedly and can’t use oral language to communicate more than his or her immediate needs
• can’t follow simple directions
• has an unusual tone of voice (such as raspy or nasal sounding)
• is more difficult to understand than expected for his or her age. Parents and regular caregivers should understand about half of a child’s speech at 2 years and about three quarters at 3 years. By 4 years old, a child should be mostly understood, even by people who don’t know the child.

Causes of Delayed Speech or Language

Many things can cause delays in speech and language development. Speech delays in an otherwise normally developing child can sometimes be caused by oral impairments, like problems with the tongue or palate (the roof of the mouth). A short frenulum (the fold beneath the tongue) can limit tongue movement for speech production.

Many kids with speech delays have oral-motor problems, meaning there’s inefficient communication in the areas of the brain responsible for speech production. The child encounters difficulty using the lips, tongue, and jaw to produce speech sounds. Speech may be the only problem or may be accompanied by other oral-motor problems such as feeding difficulties. A speech delay may also indicate a more “global” (or general) developmental delay.

Hearing problems are also commonly related to delayed speech, which is why a child’s hearing should be tested by an audiologist whenever there’s a speech concern. A child who has trouble hearing may have trouble understanding, imitating, and using language.

Ear infections, especially chronic infections, can affect hearing ability. Simple ear infections that have been adequately treated, though, should have no effect on speech.

What Speech-Language Pathologists Do

If you or your doctor suspect that your child has a problem, early evaluation by a speech-language pathologist is crucial. Of course, if there turns out to be no problem after all, an evaluation can ease your fears.

Although you can seek out a speech-language pathologist on your own, your primary care doctor can refer you to one.

In conducting an evaluation, a speech-language pathologist will look at a child’s speech and language skills within the context of total development. Besides observing your child, the speech-language pathologist will conduct standardized tests and scales, and look for milestones in speech and language development.

The speech-language pathologist will also assess:

• what your child understands (called receptive language)
• what your child can say (called expressive language)
• if your child is attempting to communicate in other ways, such as pointing, head shaking, gesturing, etc.
• sound development and clarity of speech.
• your child’s oral-motor status (how a child’s mouth, tongue, palate, etc., work together for speech as well as eating and swallowing)

If the speech-language pathologist finds that your child needs speech therapy, your involvement will be very important. You can observe therapy sessions and learn to participate in the process. The speech therapist will show you how you can work with your child at home to improve speech and language skills.

Evaluation by a speech-language pathologist may find that your expectations are simply too high. Educational materials that outline developmental stages and milestones may help you look at your child more realistically.

What Parents Can Do

Like so many other things, speech development is a mixture of nature and nurture. Genetic makeup will, in part, determine intelligence and speech and language development. However, a lot of it depends on environment. Is a child adequately stimulated at home or at child care? Are there opportunities for communication exchange and participation? What kind of feedback does the child get?

When speech, language, hearing, or developmental problems do exist, early intervention can provide the help a child needs. And when you have a better understanding of why your child isn’t talking, you can learn ways to encourage speech development.

Here are a few general tips you can employ at home:

• Spend a lot of time communicating with your child, even during infancy — talk, sing, and encourage imitation of sounds and gestures.
• Read to your child, starting as early as 6 months. You don’t have to finish a whole book, but look for age-appropriate soft or board books or picture books that encourage kids to look while you name the pictures. Try starting with a classic book such as Pat the Bunny, in which the child imitates the patting motion, or books with textures that kids can touch. Later, let your child point to recognizable pictures and try to name them. Then move on to nursery rhymes, which have rhythmic appeal. Progress to predictable books, such as Eric Carle’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, in which your child can anticipate what happens. Your little one may even start to memorize favorite stories.
• Use everyday situations to reinforce your child’s speech and language. In other words, talk your way through the day. For example, name foods at the grocery store, explain what you’re doing as you cook a meal or clean a room, point out objects around the house, and as you drive, point out sounds you hear. Ask questions and acknowledge your child’s responses (even when they’re hard to understand). Keep things simple, but never use “baby talk.”

Whatever your child’s age, recognizing and treating problems early on is the best approach to help with speech and language delays. With proper therapy and time, your child will likely be better able to communicate with you and the rest of the world.

source:   http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/not_talk.html#

Whether

Learning to walk takes time and practice, and it’s common for kids to start walking with their toes and feet turned at an angle. When feet turn inward — a tendency referred to as walking “pigeon-toed” — doctors call it in-toeing. When feet point outward, it’s called out-toeing.

It can be upsetting to see your child develop an abnormal gait, but for most toddlers with in-toeing or out-toeing, it’s usually nothing to worry about. The conditions do not cause pain and usually improve as kids grow older.

Almost all healthy kids who toe-in or -out as toddlers learn to run, jump, and play sports as they grow up, just the same as kids without gait problems.

In-toeing and Out-toeing

Most toddlers toe-in or -out because of a slight rotation, or twist, of the upper or lower leg bones.

Tibial torsion, the most common cause of in-toeing, occurs when the lower leg bone (tibia) tilts inward. If the tibia tilts outward, a child will toe-out. When the thighbone, or femur, is tilted, the tibia will also turn and give the appearance of in-toeing or out-toeing. The medical term for this is femoral anteversion. In-toeing can also be caused by metatarsus adductus, a curvature of the foot that causes toes to point inward.

The reason some kids develop gait abnormalities and others don’t is unclear, but many experts think that a family history of in-toeing or out-toeing plays a role. So, if you toed-in or -out as a child, there’s a chance that your child could develop the same tendency. Additionally, a cramping of the fetus in the womb during pregnancy could also have led to in-toeing or out-toeing.

As a fetus grows, some of the bones have to rotate slightly to fit into the small space of the womb. In many cases, these bones are still rotated to some degree for the first few years of life. Many times this is most noticeable when a child learns to walk, because if the tibia or femur is tilted at an angle, the feet are, too.

Does Walking Improve?

As most kids get older, their bones very gradually rotate to a normal angle. Walking, like other skills, improves with experience, so kids will become better able to control their muscles and foot position.

In-toeing and out-toeing gets better over time, but the change occurs very gradually. And, it’s hard to notice. Therefore, doctors often recommend using video clips to help parents track improvement. Parents can record their child walking, and then wait about a year to take another video. This usually makes it easy to see if the gait abnormality has improved over time. In most cases, it has. If not, parents should speak with their child’s doctor to discuss whether treatment is necessary.

In the past, special shoes and braces were used to treat gait abnormalities. However, doctors found that these didn’t make in-toeing or out-toeing disappear any faster, so they’re rarely used anymore.

If Walking Does Not Improve

Speak with your doctor if you’re concerned about the way your child walks. For a small number of kids, gait abnormalities can be associated with other problems. For example, out-toeing could signal a neuromuscular condition in rare cases.

Have your child evaluated by a doctor if you notice:

• in-toeing or out-toeing that doesn’t improve by age 3
• limping or complaints of pain
• one foot that turns out more than the other
• developmental delays, such as not learning to talk as expected
• gait abnormalities that worsen instead of improve

The doctor can then decide if more specialized exams or testing should be done to make sure that your child gets the proper care.

source:   http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/movement/gait.html#