Questions for parenting experts
I know I'm asking a lot of you all today, with my calls for favorite close-by family vacation spots and great child-care providers in Baltimore City. But it's also time to submit more questions for the Monday Consult.
In case you're new to the blog, this is a Monday feature in which I get an expert on a topic of interest to parents to answer a reader's question, or to provide general tips on something that's timely. I always like it better if I can answer someone's question, because I know I have a million of them.
So ask away.
Comments
I would like info on postive vs. negative discipline. Thanks.
Posted by: Karen | June 18, 2008 7:02 PM
A seasonal topic: how to remove ticks safely, and whether it makes sense to have an annual blood test for Lyme's disease. My children have started camp, and are have a great time hiking in the woods, etc. A neighbor's child just came down with Rocky Mountain Spotted fever. And I'm already a semi-paranoid mommy! What should I do?
Posted by: Baltomommie | June 19, 2008 9:37 AM
I agree about ticks. I found a deer tick on my daughter a couple weeks ago and have been paranoidly checking the spot every day since. If there are no obvious symptoms, can you assume all is well?
Posted by: Debra | June 19, 2008 10:42 AM
Over the past two months my young 4-year-old son has started having bowel movements in his pants at preschool, almost every day he goes (M,W,F). At home, he has been potty-trained for 1.5 years and never misses. At school, where he has been relatively happy for two years, he has NEVER had a bm in the toilet. Up until two months ago, he would hold until he got home or go before school (and he had two accidents earlier in the school year, which I figured were just par for the course). We have worked with the teachers to make him "own" this problem, having him help with the change/cleanup of the b.m. at school; we've tried rewarding him (he did go once at the end of the school day when we came to pick him up and we managed the door and the wipes) with a family celebration; we've invested in beloved underpants, only to have them tossed in the trash with the mess; we've given him prunes in the early a.m. in the hopes he can go before school starts at 9 a.m., we've guided him to ask the teacher or his friend to "guard" the unlockable door -- to no avail. He is my third son and he is my only strong-willed child. He refuses to speak at all about these accidents, saying only that he doesn't like the bathroom there. Incidentaly, this coincides with his giving up his afternoon nap, if that matters. Having spoken to teachers him and his little friend (and it is a VERY open classroom, I am convinced there has been no trauma at school, other than that of having accidents). What I need an expert to tell me is: what should we do next?
Posted by: Mary G. | May 20, 2009 10:05 AM