HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sg@tredysvr.Tredydev.Unisys.COM (Susanne Gilliam)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Kids and Reactions to Flu Shots?
Date: 16 Oct 92 17:34:42 GMT
Organization: Unisys Corporation, Tredyffrin, PA


  My pediatrician recently told me that she strongly recommends that I get
my kids flu shots this year.  This is based on the fact that they have
pneumonia a minimum of twice a year, bronchitis at least that much, and my
2.5 year old daughter already had her first bout of pneumonia for this
season, in Sept, while on full strength antibiotics (Pediazole) which is
not a good omen.  She is 2; her brother is 5.
  So, what I'm interested in is experiences from those who's kids have had
flu shots in other years -- did the child have any reactions?  If so what,
and how bad and how long?  Anyone decide not to allow the child to have
them, particularly after getting them in a previous year?  She gave me
the basic run down, but the real world experience always is a big help.
  Thanks for any help you can give me!  The flu last year took the whole
family out for the better part of a month, three out of the four of us went
into pneumonia from it, and it was all in all one of the worst months of
my life, so I have to admit that anything that could avoid that kind of
scene again sounds at least faintly attractive!  On the other hand, I
have heard many, many adults (particularly those who have been in the
service that had to get them every year) say they had flu like reactions
to the shot, that sometimes lasted 3 to 4 days.  If that is true also of
the kids, I'd like to know before I make my choices.
 
					Susanne Gilliam

 
Newsgroups: misc.kids
From: cvantwrp@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (Cyndi Van Antwerp)
Subject: Kids far apart in age ~ 17
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 16:14:26 GMT

This is my experience from a parent's point of view.  At age 40, I had
my second son, Christopher, now 2 1/2.  My oldest son was 16 at the time.
They are crazy about each other!  Rick has been a fantastic big brother,
and has been willing to do a lot of babysitting since Christopher was
very small.  Christopher loves to rough house with his big brother and
Rick is _very_ protective of Chris.  

Granted, Rick will be out of the house while Chris is still young, and
they won't play together like they would if they were closer in age,
but I still feel theirs is a very special relationship and I think it
will be wonderful for Chris to have his big brother as a role model.

He will have someone older to look up to that is still quite young and
it may make it easier for him to have "older" parents.

Hope this eases your mind.

-- 
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
					-- John Lennon

Cyndi Van Antwerp
From: sg@tredysvr.Tredydev.Unisys.COM (Susanne Gilliam)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Odd Sayings...
Date: 8 Oct 92 12:30:08 GMT
Organization: Unisys Corporation, Tredyffrin, PA


  Quite awhile ago, there was a very funny thread about bizzare things
parents find themselves saying in all seriousness.  I really liked the
thread, and it made me notice such incidents more.  I've recently had
a few that fit the category:
 
  My 5 year old son was at the dinner table when I found it necessary to
say "Clint, don't wipe your nose with your feet"!  What on earth motivates
them to do this stuff?
 
  The same son was sitting on the couch in his pj's while I finished talking
on the phone.  When I glanced over, I saw he was doubled over, chewing
on the crotch of the pj's he was wearing.  This prompted me to say "Don't
chew on the crotch", which I'm sure made my caller think twice about 
finishing the conversation!

  Quite awhile ago, I was relaying some of the funnier stories from this
thread to a friend, over the phone.  My daughter (2) was roaming around
the kitchen.  In the middle of the conversation, I blurted out "Elizabeth,
don't you dare stomp on those noodles" which provoked a lot of laughter
from my friend because it sounded bizzare to her.  Elizabeth had taken
a package of Top Ramen noodles out of a drawer, and was about to explore
their "messy quotient" when I stopped her.

  "Get your shoes out of your mouth" is a common comment around our house
for both kids (2.5 and 5.5), but would be bizzare in many other families.
Sometimes the shoes are on their feet, and sometimes they aren't.  I can't
see the attraction, but then my feet are no longer that close to my mouth!

  "Get your roll off your nose" is another; my husband put on an unfortunate
performance one night at dinner when he pretended that his dinner roll had
attacked his nose, and we've had trouble ever since.  

  I sure get my fill of laughs every day.  Of course, sometimes I'm too
tired to enjoy them...
 
					Susanne Gilliam
 
  
Newsgroups: misc.kids
From: mgaudrea@afit.af.mil (Michele L.D. Gaudreault)
Subject: Re: Names (don't do this to your kids)
Organization: Air Force Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 20:46:34 GMT

My turn!!

In article <1b218aINNa7c@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) writes:
>
>
>   There was a story about a man who had no given names, only initials

This story reminded me of my high school history teacher whose son had
no middle name until he enlisted in the Army.  When asked for his middle
name, he wrote none.  Then decided it needed parens around it.  From
then on his middle name was "Wonel".  (the ( and n looked like a W)

This also reminds of the guy in California who thought it would be cute
to have a personalized car license plate that said "NONE".  A few weeks
later he got something like 700 parking tickets in the mail!!  The
computer finally had a license that matched all those tickets issued to
the car with license plate number "none"!

Michele

renamed by the army.  



Organization: Administrative Systems, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 09:29:27 -0400 
From: Laura McGinnis <lm3a+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Toddler furniture

>...  If anybody wants to post comments
>on why they like/dislike their picnic table, table and chairs,
>desk and chair, etc., we'd be most appreciative.
 
We don't have a kid-sized table & chairs, but from what we've seen/used
at friends houses, the best thing I've seen for the smaller kids seems
to be the all-in-one picnic table, rather than a table & separate
chairs.  The younger kids don't seem to balance quite as easily as older
children & there's more tendency to fall off the chairs.  The picnic
benches, on the other hand, can't be rocked back or knocked over.  If
you have a horde of kids you want to use this with, small chairs are
usually available seperately & can be place at the ends of the table.  I
imagine you could fit 6 kids around the table when set up like this.
 
>I also would like to hear about easels -- they seem so expensive for all
>there is to them.
 
We were also disappointed at the high cost of easels, last Christmas,
when we had decided that that was what we wanted to get Mickey for his
big present.  We finally settled on the Little Tykes easel (about
$40-50, I think), which is a bit smaller than the others.  It has a clip
on one side for holding paper and a chalk board on the other side.  It
also has crayon & chalk trays, one on each side; these are removeable,
for easy cleaning.  It also comes with a large pad of paper, a small box
of chalk, and a chalk board eraser.  To supplement, we put extra chalk
and crayons in his stocking.  BTW, the trays are wide enough to hold a
Tupperware cup (we keep a lid on it to keep too much chalk dust from
getting in :)
 
The easel has gotten almost as much use as the small Little Tykes
crawl-thru/sliding board we got for him the previous Christmas (which
was the centerpiece of our living room for a year :-).  Since it has
paper on one side & the chalk board on the other, at least 2 kids can
use it at the same time, more if they are willing to share the board or
paper.  Also, it makes a great place to hide (by crawling under the
cross-supports on the sides), as a tent, etc.  It's VERY well balanced &
hard to pull over, which was a concern, since 2 of Mickey's best friends
are climbers/monkeys.
 
Hope this helps.  Good luck in your search.
 
Laura
From: jbyrd@chpc.utexas.edu (Jan Byrd)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: Kids and Summer...What to do?
Date: 16 Oct 92 17:41:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: chpc.1992Oct16.174148.10371
Organization: Center for High Performance Computing, Univ. of Texas System

In article <EeriIC600Uh_829sdT@andrew.cmu.edu>, jm5p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Judi Mancuso) writes:
|> Karen asks about what to do with your kid in the summmer---
|> 
|> I felt the EXACT same way--I wanted my kids to have the same summers I
|> had when I was a kid--it nagged the hell out of me--well, I finally
|> figured it out--they aren't going to have the same summers I had--I
|> didn't have the same ones my parents had and that's just the way it
|> works.  How I figured this out was when I took the summer off 2 years
|> ago after my son finished kindergarten. It was an elongated maternity
|> leave of sorts. I was going to "GIVE HIM" this ideal summer I had in my
|> head! What I didn't think is--- what is a 5 year old supposed to do all
|> day?  We went to the pool--if there were kids there he knew, he played,
|> if not, he whined.  We went to the park--same thing. The mall wasn't
|> exactly his favorite place. Walks to "nowhere" weren't for him.  Board
|> games only lasted so long.  Don't get me wrong, we had some WONDERFUL
|> days--about 15 days stand out--not counting our yearly vacation (leading
|> me to believe that you could take extra days off, use weekends). It
|> sounds so corny but times are different--there weren't enough "at home"
|> moms to take their kids to the pool and the park so my son didn't have
|> any buddies to just hang out with (which is what I did every summer). 
|> Regardless, I had a very wonderful summer--it was a much needed break
|> from work for me and at the end of the summer, I had a beautiful baby
|> girl. Over all, I think my son had a decent summer but I know he was
|> bored quite a bit of the time (how many day trips can you make!).
|> Last summer I tossed around the au pair idea and the college girl coming
|> over daily idea but I wasn't comfortable with just leaving him home all
|> day.  He ended up going to this camp sponsored by the YWCA and it was
|> EXACTLY what summer should be like!  Swimming, baseball games, camp
|> outs, picnics, races, carnivals, crafts, ...... all the while making
|> friends and being with other kids.  He was happy as a clam in the
|> morning and dead tired each night!  And, now he tells me that when I
|> take a day off--it is a special day.  I don't think he is consiously
|> referring to the summer I stayed home--but it really felt pretty
|> good--knowing that I DO NOT HAVE TO  MAKE AN ENTIRE SEASON SPECIAL BY
|> STAYING HOME.  Check out your local YWCA---I an guessing that these
|> programs exist all over the country!
|> Summer is not that far off!   Good Luck.  Judi 

I agree with every syllable of Judi's excellent post.  This mirrors 
almost exactly my own experience with staying home with the children 
during the summer.

Jan
From: diane@vnet.ibm.com (Diane Goldman)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: Air travel w/2 yr old!
Date: 15 Oct 92 05:31:19 GMT
Reply-To: diane@vnet.ibm.com (Diane Goldman)
Organization: IBM Almaden Research Center

In article <1992Oct14.223151.6472@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> lauraf@classy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Laura Floom) writes:
>The only think I havent figured out is what to do about his ears. He doesnt
>drink from a bottle and he is too young for chewing gum. Those are the two
>standard I have heard to handle the problem. I suppose I can give him juice
>with a straw, but unless he is thirsty he isnt going to drink it. Anyone
>out there have any good ideas that they have used?

The last time we flew, the flight attendant gave us small ice chips for
Jeffrey (then 2.5 years old) to suck/chew.  It seemed to help.  At least
he enjoyed landing so much he said, "Land again!"  Anyway, ask the 
flight attendant to give you *small* ice chips (to keep it from being
a choking hazard).

--
Diane Goldman (diane@vnet.ibm.com)
Diane Goldman
From: sg@tredysvr.Tredydev.Unisys.COM (Susanne Gilliam)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: Active Baby In-Utero
Date: 15 Oct 92 17:32:19 GMT
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization

In article <1992Oct12.185810.12963@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com> farrell@areaplg2.corp.mot.com (tod farrell) writes:
>My wife asked me to post this as reassurance for
>the woman whose husband was concerned about the
>child who was very active in the uterus.
>
>Tod, Roda, and Elisa Farrell
>farrell@mot.com
>.

  I tried to reply to the original message on this topic by direct mail, but
it bounced, and by the time I got it back, the original had expired.
  Anyway, I wanted to say that I was told there is something called  
"Hyperactive fetus syndrome", and that if the baby truely moves almost
all the time, that may be what is going on.  I did **NO** research on
this topic, but my OB and the pediatrician we interviewed (and selected)
late in my pregnancy both came up with the same name without any prompting
on my part.                                    
  Both said the same thing about it -- it is utterly benign as far as is
known, it tells **nothing** about the child's behavior after birth, and
the cause is unknown, but isn't dietary (e.g. not caused by excess caffine
or anything).  The things that are clear is that the babies are born with
better muscle strength and control than average, and that it does not
predict problems of any kind.
  In our case, my first child was active enough that I figured I must be
pregnant with twins, since I kept reading that babies have sleep and
wake cycles before birth, as well as after.  As soon as I woke in the 
morning, I felt kicking.  The last thing I felt at night was kicking.
And I felt kicking all day long.  The longest break in activity I felt was
a very worrisome 30 minutes at the very end of the pregnancy when I slipped
and fell, but on an average day, breaks were no more than 10 minutes.  I
was disbelieving of the people that struggled to remember if they'd felt the
baby move yet that day; I never had to think about it!  My husband would
even get up in the morning clutching his back and saying "that baby
kept me awake all night" if we had been sleeping his back to my belly --
a nice change from the more usual mom-doesn't-sleep scenario.  I had no
trouble sleeping thru it, though I might have woken up if it stopped for
long!  He also had an awful lot of hiccups (he averaged about 8 sets a
day for the last 3 months), but I don't know if that has anything to do
with it (the original poster mentioned it).
  In our case, my son turned out to be far less physically active/demanding
than his much-quieter-in-the-womb younger sister, and in fact, is far
below average in this area.  He tends to be very quiet, and favors fine
muscle control over gross motor activities (he is 5 now).  So in our case,
it truely did not predict in any way his after-birth personality.  He
sure was strong after birth though!
  I don't know if this is one of those catch-all labels that some doctors
"believe in", and others don't.  But I hope it is of some help to the 
original poster.
 
						Susanne Gilliam
Newsgroups: misc.kids
From: beth@col.hp.com (Beth Vail Jones)
Subject: Re: praise vs encouragement?
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 17:13:43 GMT
Organization: HP Colorado Springs Division

I've recently finished reading "How to Talk So Your Kids Will Listen &
Listen So Your Kids Will Talk," which addresses the question of
appropriate praise.

This book is GREAT.  I had thought when I bought the book that it was
about communication - which it is, but indirectly.  It's really about
effective ways to discipline, and raise kids who have the self-confidence
and self-control to make good decisions about their behavior.  I'll
say it again:  This book is GREAT.

Anyway, on the topic of appropriate praise and encouragement, they suggest
describing what you see.  Rather than "Wow, I'm so glad you hung up your
jacket," say, "I see your jacket is hung neatly in the closet."
(The idea is that the child will think to himself, "I can keep my clothes
neat," rather than, "Mom is happy; she likes me.")

They suggest avoiding labels for the child.  Rather than "Such a big
boy, hanging up your jacket all by yourself," say, "You hung up your
jacket all by yourself!"  (The child will think, "I can do grown-up
things by myself" rather than "Gee, sometimes I don't feel like being a
big boy.")

Labels for behavior are ok.  Rather than "You're my helper," say,
"You set the table.  That's what I call being helpful."
(The child will think, "Setting the table is helpful" rather than
"I don't WANT to be a helper all the time.")

They suggest describing how you feel.  Rather than "What's this mess?
Why are these clothes on the floor?", say, "I get frustrated when I
clean up the room and then I find a new mess!"
(The child will think, "Uh-oh, making a mess makes Mom mad" rather than
"Well, *I* didn't do it - all I did was take off my jacket; hey, don't
pick on "me*.")

I'm sure I haven't done proper justice to the great ideas and suggestions
in the book "How to Talk...."  There are also related suggestions in
"Siblings Without Rivalry" (which I also highly recommend).

Beth Jones
HP, Colorado Springs
beth@col.hp.com
From: boucher@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Teresa Boucher)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: Lead paint tester
Date: 15 Oct 92 20:52:51 GMT
Expires: 30 Oct 92 05:00:00 GMT
Reply-To: boucher@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Teresa Boucher)
Organization: Carderock Division, NSWC, Bethesda, MD

In misc.kids, dg10+@andrew.cmu.edu (David Goldreich) writes:
>Does anybody know of a cheap and/or easy way to test if the paint
>in my apartment are lead based?
>
>David
>
>"Yum.  These paint flakes taste good."


David:  There are several new test kits out on the market which make
it easy for you to test for lead.  On that I know of is LeadCheck swabs,
from Hybrivet Systems of Framingham, Mass.  These swabs are supposed
to work on ANY surface, INCLUDING soil and dust.  They come in the form
of large cotton swabs which contain encapsulated dry powder and liquid
that react when the swab is squeezed.  The two form a strong chemical
complex that bonds with any lead that's present.  This bonding then
activates the dye, turning the tip of the swab red.  A pack of four
swabs costs $10.00.  If you do find lead, I would suggest that you hire
a trained professional to remove it.

    Another home-tester on the market is the Frandon Lead Alert Kits.
They contain small pieces of paper and two bottles of solution.  You
place the paper on top of a test spot and then apply the fixing and
leaching solutions.  A color change indicates unacceptable amounts of
lead.  This kit will run you about $30.00.

    Both kits can be obtained by writing The Lead Institute, Box 591244,
San Francisco, CA  94118.

    Hope this helps you out some.  Good Luck.

    TRESE BOUCHER/NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER/ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
						      SPECIALIST
From: grant@panhed.psc.edu (Shirl Grant)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: High HCG
Date: 16 Oct 1992 11:16:18 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Sorry to post as well ---- can't send mail either.

Lisa,

	Betsy is right.  I've heard of women not having them because
they wouldn't abort, no matter what.  Being prepared, though, sounds reasonable.

	Did they test you twice?  I jear that is standard practice. 
Maybe you could make them do a sonogram to dtermine if there could be
twins.  That will sometimes drive up the levels too.

Good luck.
-Shirl
Newsgroups: misc.kids
From: neville@cs.washington.edu (Dorothy Neville)
Subject: Re: Meconium, cord, etc.
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 20:18:53 GMT

 (Lilei Chen) writes:
>I am currently in the 39th week of my first pregnancy and have been
>reading this newsgroup for a long time.  The recent postings of baby
>passing meconium before birth and getting wrapped by the cord really
>scare me. [...]
>
>A worried mom-to-be
>Lilei Chen 


I have no technical or statistical answers to your questions, but I do
have another anecdote to share.  Perhaps it will help you relax.  When
my sister's water broke, it had old and new meconium in it, showing
past and recent stress to the baby.  She was allowed to proceed with
labor for a while, but when that didn't look promising she had a C.
This was not a "we got 4 seconds to remove the kid" C, but it was
serious (unlike my other two sisters who have had unscheduled C's that
were probably unneccessary but that is a different story).  It did
turn out that James had the cord around him multiple times.

Anyway, James is now a wonderful, intelligent, creative nine year old.
He also is quite athletic, with a big stack of swimming ribbons.  He
is definitely my favorite kid to hang out with.  My sister also
had no long term ill effects from the operation.

Newsgroups: misc.kids
From: amy@hubcap.clemson.edu (Amy Slankard)
Subject: Cute almost 3 yo
Organization: Clemson University
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 16:55:38 GMT


About 4 or 5 months ago we moved our daughter (now 2.8 yrs) from her 
crib to a twin bed with a guard rail.  A few weeks ago we removed the
guard rail and haven't had any problems with falling out of bed until
the night before last.  Around midnight I woke up and she was yelling
because she had fallen out of her bed (no physical damage, we had made
sure that if she ever did fall out there was no way she could get 
hurt).  I comforted her and tucked her back in (tightly with the 
blanket tucked into the space between the mattress and box-spring).  
About an hour before wake-up time we heard her cry out again.  This
time my husband got to her first.  She hadn't fallen out of bed.  Instead
while moving around in her sleep her head had slipped under the covers
and when she woke up it frightened her because I had tucked her in
so well she couldn't easily just push the covers down.  

Anyway, last night as we went through the bed time ritual and went to
give Daddy a kiss goodnight she pointed her finger at me and said
"Mommy please don't tuck my head in tonight".  Apparently the falling
out of bed didn't even leave an impression but she'll probably grow up
with a weird phobia of having her head covered.  
Newsgroups: misc.kids
From: farrell@areaplg2.corp.mot.com (tod farrell)
Subject: Active Baby In-Utero
Organization: Motorola, CCR&D, CORP, Schaumburg, IL
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 18:58:10 GMT

My wife asked me to post this as reassurance for
the woman whose husband was concerned about the
child who was very active in the uterus.

Our daughter was very active.  When she was born
her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice
and her shoulders once!  There was meconium in the
water bag when the doctor broke that!

The doctor called a neo-natologist for the meconium
and we were very nervous.

As it turned out the baby is totally healthy (and
was healthy at birth too).  She is now four months old
and developing perfectly.

Also, the doctor said that she had the longest umbilical
cord he had ever seen.

Good Luck, and we hope the birth goes well

Tod, Roda, and Elisa Farrell
farrell@mot.com
.

Newsgroups: misc.kids