Category Archives: Parenting babies

Kickin’ it around the clock to save lives!

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Great American Soccer Marrowthon

Mark your calendar for Saturday, Feb. 13, and Sunday, Feb. 14, and join us for the Great American Soccer Marrowthon!

As someone who sees children – from infants to young adults – with cancer and other blood disorders such as aplastic anemia and sickle cell anemia every day, I know just how important marrow donation is. Thousands of patients with leukemia and other life-threatening disease can be saved through transplants.

To help raise awareness, The Milwaukee Kickers Soccer Club will be hosting the second …Continue reading →

Winter coats and car seats

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Well, winter has officially arrived, and with it come heavy coats and snowsuits. While they are a necessity to keep our kids warm and dry, they are not for kids travelling in car seats.

The truth is, it’s not safe to put thick coats, snowsuits or blankets under the harness straps of a car seat because the straps need to stay snug on the child. Coats and heavy snowsuits actually compress in a crash, which can create a lot of extra slack. This could cause your child to be ejected from the car seat in a crash.

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Safe sleep for babies

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October is SIDS Awareness Month, so it’s a good time to review safe sleep practice for babies. Babies need to sleep safely and develop a healthy bond with their mothers. These two essential newborn needs must occur in the first months of an infant’s life, but they do not occur simultaneously.

How can a loving parent provide the safest possible sleep environment for that beautiful little infant? The most important advice has been repeated since 1992: Always place your baby on his or her back to sleep. This has cut the number of infant deaths from sudden infant death syndrome in half.

Unfortunately, 50 percent of babies still are dying. A close look at the deaths has revealed that many of these babies who died were sleeping in unsafe places. We don’t know all of the answers to the question of why these babies die. But we do know the chance of death would have been reduced if those babies were placed to sleep in the way recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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Urgent care or emergency room?

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Ear pain, sore throats, cold and flu, minor burns and cuts. For my own girls, childhood has been marked by more than just a few visits to the local emergency room or urgent care clinic. And, many times, when their injuries and illnesses disrupt our routines, the local doctor’s office is closed. When this happens, most parents are left asking whether to steer the car in the direction of the local emergency room or an urgent care clinic.

Children’s Urgent Care Clinics are for illnesses and injuries that your child normally would receive care for at his or her doctor’s offices. Most often, Children’s Urgent Care locations are open when regular doctor’s offices are closed. In many cases, urgent care clinics will offer lower co-pays and shorter wait times than emergency rooms.

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The ABC’s of safe sleep: alone, back, crib

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At the Infant Death Center of Wisconsin, a significant part of our job is to educate families about the importance of a safe sleep environment and what exactly that means: Infants should be placed alone, on their backs in a crib, bassinet or portable crib for every sleep time. If these safe sleep measures were practiced, the number of preventable infant deaths in our community would be greatly reduced.

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For crying out loud . . .

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It’s 2 a.m. and cries from the room next door begin again for the third time tonight. You have tried everything but nothing seems to work. You are at the end of your rope and pleading for just a few moments of sleep before you have to settle into another long, stressful day. Will the crying ever stop?

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