Sleepy-time strategies from other parents

Disney FamilyFun magazine

We asked readers how they help their kids stay in bed after lights out, and here are some suggestions we got.

Craft a compromise

We made a deal with our 6-year-old son, Tate. If he lies quietly in bed for 15 minutes, we’ll come back in and check on him. If he’s still awake at that point, he can get up for a little while longer, usually 20 minutes or so. Not only is he willing to lie in bed for the entire time, he’s almost never awake when we check back. — Dawn McCormick Plano, Texas

Give them a pass

When our daughter, Caylin, was younger, we made her a Get Out of Bed Free card, which we laminated and placed on her nightstand. Caylin was allowed to use...

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Moms in Motion and in friendship

By Sam McManis, McClatchy Newspapers

A two-mile stretch of Laguna Boulevard near Interstate 5 in Sacramento, Calif., boasts not one, but two cavernous and hulking chain fitness centers — perhaps a counterweight to the gauntlet of fast-food joints dotting the roadside.

Peer into the tinted windows and see the gleaming rows of elliptical machines lined up like so many sentinels. Check out the state-of-the-art weight rooms, the juice bars, the perky receptionists handing out towels and fatuous compliments. Take a gander at the habitues, pumped and preening.

Now, forget about all that.

Let’s head a little farther down Laguna to the rear of a nondescript Elk Grove, Calif., shopping center anchored by a Walgreens. By day, Suite 120 is a day-care...

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Breast-feeding: If it hurts you’re not doing it right

By ARIAN SMEDLEY, For The Associated Press

ATHENS, OHIO — After a week of pain, sleepless nights and dread at the thought of the next feeding, new mother Paula Linscott was on the brink of giving up her attempts to nurse.

“It took like a month or two before it stopped hurting,” said the Ph.D. candidate at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. “I thought it was just going to be fine, like it was this natural thing you do.”

Nipples can crack and bleed. Breasts can become engorged with milk. If done correctly, breast-feeding is painless and easy, but many women face challenges like Linscott. An expert to help can be difficult to find, despite the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation that babies should get breast milk...

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Study: Teens with family dogs get more exercise

By SUE MANNING, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Is your teen a couch potato? A new study suggests the family dog might be able to help.

Researchers had 618 kids ranging from 12 to 16 wear accelerometers for a week to measure their physical activity. Half the families had dogs and half did not.

The study showed the kids in families with dogs got 32.1 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day, while those without dogs got 29.5 minutes. The difference isn’t much, but lead author John R. Sirard said it’s big enough to suggest more study be done.

Parents of the teens also wore the lightweight devices, but the difference in activity levels between adults in the two groups was nonexistent, Sirard said, suggesting the kids might have been...

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5 mistakes even the best baby namers make

nameberry.com

Ever feel like you’re a baby name klutz and that there are other, infinitely smarter baby namers out there who do everything right and magically arrive at the perfect name with no fuss or wrong turns?

Not true. Here are the five most common mistakes even the smartest baby namers make.

1. They try to psych out the Social Security list. There’s something about naming a baby that can inspire even the most math phobic among us to turn to the Social Security list of most popular names and try to deconstruct it with the precision of an actuary. But baby name ups and downs depend on much more than statistics, and you can drive yourself crazy trying to psych out the numbers in search of the name that’s unusual but...

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Schools boost efforts to ID fake student addresses

By KANTELE FRANKO, Associated Press

COLUMBUS — Kelley Williams-Bolar, alarmed after her home was broken into, yanked her two daughters out of their urban Akron, Ohio, schools and enrolled them in her father’s suburban school district nearby, using his address.

That way, said the single mom and teacher’s aide, they could come to a safer home after school.

Her peace of mind proved costly. Officials in the Copley-Fairlawn district challenged the residency of her girls in 2007, when they were 9 and 13 years old. Williams-Bolar was charged and convicted of felony records tampering.

Not only was she jailed last month for nine days, but the conviction threatens her efforts to earn a teacher’s license and could jeopardize her job as a...

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Celebrity baby scoop: Weird Al now a children’s author

By Jenny Schafer, McClatchy-Tribune

Weird Al Yankovic has made a career out of his two passions: music and comedy. For years he’s been creating parodies of popular songs such as Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” (which he turned into the catchy tune “Eat It”), and “Ridin’ Dirty” by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone (which became the hilarious song “White and Nerdy”). The Grammy Award-winning singer is now conquering the world of children’s literature with his book “When I Grow Up.”

But did you know he is also a devoted family man? Weird Al sat down with Celebrity Baby Scoop and discussed his adorable soon-to-be 8-year-old daughter Nina, how fatherhood has shifted his priorities, and how he...

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Weight management with children using their dominant sense

By Priscilla J. Dunstan, McClatchy-Tribune

With President & Mrs. Obama’s recent Nutrition bill, I thought it would be a timely to look at obesity and the senses and how we as parents can help our children.

Tactile children are energetic busy little people. Often too busy to eat, they tend to grab snack foods, and prefer the quick meal. Nutrition issues arise if they are unable to be as energetic as they’d like, either because their schedule doesn’t allow it, or they need to spend many hours indoors — it makes it super hard for them ti sit down long enough for a meal. The trick in these situations is to view their nutrition longer term, over the course of the whole day. Keep healthy snacks, and feed them on the go — foods like apple...

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An interview with Coupon Mom

By Coupon Sherpa, http://www.couponsherpa.com/

Stephanie Nelson is founder of CouponMom.com, a free grocery saving website started in 2001 that now enjoys a 3-million membership. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and two teenage sons.

We asked Stephanie to share her coupon wisdom with us. Read on for more.

You wrote the book “The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half,” a New York Times bestseller. Tell us a bit about it.

The book is a comprehensive guide to getting the most for your food dollar, from learning how to be a strategic shopper by combining sales, promotions and coupons to getting the most value in the meat, dairy and produce departments...

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Top 10 tips for a stress-free move

By Kate Davis, Hybrid Mom

I’m pretty sure I lost my sanity in the move between Chicago and Detroit. It fell off the truck somewhere on the I-84, probably between the never-ending road construction and the fourth consecutive replay of “Barbie’s Rapunzel.”

But after enduring 12 moves in 15 years, I’ve learned a few things.

Like it’s okay to say no when your movers ask you to go buy cigarettes for them. And that kids are a lot happier if you give them control over something. And, best of all, that there are methods to reduce the chaos that threatens to steal your sanity.

Top 10 tips for a stress-free move:

1. 1. De-stress the kids. Regardless of their ages, show them (don’t just tell them) the places...

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