Tumbuh Kembang JAGOAN-JAGOANKU

September 15th, 2007 in Baby Care

In the modern world nowadays, there is a trend of going out for the weekends with family and friends to some nearby spots. So far the grown up family members are concerned, moving out anytime at anywhere hardly matters, but if you have young baby then it is hell of a job. It is quite possible that the baby may not be comfortable during the drive to the spot or even perhaps may not adjust with the new environment and ambience etc.

Baby’s safety is the prime factor that demands active consideration, while planning for any short or long travel programs.Various essential travel accessories for maintaining baby’s safety are required to be arranged for and dragged along even for a day or two’s holiday camps. You just cannot afford avoiding such necessities and put your baby in trouble anyway. In fact, certain essential travel accessories for baby safety are so ideally designed to give your baby optimal safety while making your entire journey truly remarkable.

Traveling with baby could be indeed enjoyable if the baby relishes the environment with you as babies normally relax only if the ambience is pleasant, cozy and attuned. Make your journey rather pleasant and refreshing by carrying necessary travel accessories for the baby’s safety and health reasons, like:

Baby wipes for quick wipe-up for infants during your traveling by any mode of transport

Carry the baby travel safe seat preferably with bulkhead, especially if the baby is an infant.
Such seats are exclusively meant for the babies kept in hooded cradle

Carry scented bags enabling you to dispose off the diapers in the toilet bin after putting the used diapers in the bag

Adequate quantity of baby foods like milk, cereals etc must be carried while traveling averting food scarcity and infection through market foods as well

Feeding bottles and latex nipples should be carried if the baby is not breast feeding, besides carrying hot water in the thermos flask

Sufficient sets of baby clothing are recommended to be carried as you never know how many sets would be required for the child

If the child is being medicated, take sufficient quantity of all the concerned medicines in order to maintain the dosage and avoid unwanted consequences

Even general medications like syrups or drops for cold and cough, stomach upset etc would always prove to be helpful in emergencies

By Rae Pica

Besides the fact that they were built to do so, there are a great many reasons why infants need to move. The truth is, even though their movement capabilities are extremely limited when compared with even those of a toddler, movement experiences may be more important for infants than for children of any other age group. And it’s not all about motor development either.

Thanks to new insights in brain research, we now know that early movement experiences are considered essential to the neural stimulation (the “use-it-or-lose-it” principle involved in the keeping or pruning of brain cells ) needed for healthy brain development.

Not long ago, neuroscientists believed that the structure of a human brain was genetically determined at birth. They now realize that although the main “circuits” are “prewired” (for such functions as breathing and the heartbeat), the experiences that fill each child’s days are what actually determine the brain’s ultimate design and the nature and extent of that child’s adult capabilities.

An infant’s brain, it turns out, is chock-full of brain cells (neurons) at birth. (In fact, a one-pound fetus already has 100 billion of them!) Over time, each of these brain cells can form as many as 15,000 connections (synapses) with other brain cells. And it is during the first three years of life that most of these connections are made. Synapses not used often enough are eliminated. On the other hand, those synapses that have been activated by repeated early experiences tend to become permanent. And it appears that physical activity and play during early childhood have a vital role in the sensory and physiological stimulation that results in more synapses.

Neurophysiologist Carla Hannaford, in her excellent book, Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head, states: “Physical movement, from earliest infancy and throughout our lives, plays an important role in the creation of nerve cell networks which are actually the essence of learning.”

She then goes on to relate how movement, because it activates the neural wiring throughout the body, makes the entire body — not just the brain — the instrument of learning.

Gross and fine motor skills are learned through repetition as well — both by virtue of being practiced and because repetition lays down patterns in the brain. Although it hasn’t been clearly determined that such early movements as kicking, waving the arms, and rocking on hands and knees are “practice” for later, more advanced motor skills, it’s believed that they are indeed part of a process of neurological maturation needed for the control of motor skills. In other words, these spontaneous actions prepare the child – physically and neurologically – to later perform more complex, voluntary actions.

Then, once the child is performing voluntary actions (for example, rolling over, creeping, and walking), the circle completes itself, as these skills provide both glucose (the brain’s primary source of energy) and blood flow (“food”) to the brain, in all likelihood increasing neuronal connections.

According to Rebecca Anne Bailey and Elsie Carter Burton, authors of The Dynamic Self: Activities to Enhance Infant Development, whenever babies move any part of their bodies, there exists the potential for two different kinds of learning to occur: learning to move and moving to learn.

Still, recent evidence indicates that infants are spending upward of 60 waking hours a week in things – high chairs, carriers, car seats, and the like!

The reasons for this trend are varied. Part of the problem is that more and more infants are being placed in childcare centers, where there may not be enough space to let babies roam the floor. Or, given the number of infants enrolled, there may be little opportunity for caregivers to spend one-on-one time with each baby. This means, in the morning, an infant is typically fed, dressed, and then carried to the automobile, where she’s placed in a car seat. She’s then carried into the childcare center, where she may spend much of her time in a crib or playpen. At the end of the day, she’s picked up, placed again into the car seat, and carried back into the house, where she’s fed, bathed, and put to bed.

Even when parents are home with baby, they seem to be busier than ever these days. Who has time to get on the floor and creep around with a child? Besides, with today’s emphasis on being productive, playing with a baby would seem almost a guilty pleasure! And if the baby seems happy and safe in a seat placed conveniently in front of the TV, in a bouncer hung in a doorway, or cruising about in a walker, then what’s the harm? It’s a win/win situation, isn’t it?

In fact, it isn’t. Being confined (as one colleague says: “containerized”) affects a baby’s personality; they need to be held. It may also have serious consequences for the child’s motor – and cognitive – development.

Other trends in today’s society having an impact on infants’ opportunities to move are the inclination to restrict, rather than encourage, freedom of movement and the misguided belief that early academic instruction will result in superbabies. (In 1999, 770,000 copies of infant software – “lapware” – were sold!)

Humans are meant to move and play. The inclination – the need – is hardwired into them. Babies, in fact, spend nearly half of their waking time – 40% – doing things like kicking, bouncing, and waving their arms. And while it may appear all this activity is just for the sake of moving, it’s important to realize a baby is never “just moving” or “just playing.” Every action extends the child’s development in some way.

© Rae Pica

Rae Pica is a children’s physical activity specialist and author of Your Active Child: How to Boost Physical, Emotional, and Cognitive Development through Age-Appropriate Activity (McGraw-Hill, 2003). Rae speaks to parent and education groups throughout North America. Visit her and read more articles at http://www.movingandlearning.com.

Babysitting can be an extremely rewarding job, especially for a young person who is looking to earn a little extra spending cash. In addition, working with children can be a fun and exciting experience. However, there are some important and serious issues to think about before becoming a babysitter.

The biggest risk in babysitting is that something disastrous will happen while you are caring for children. While not every accident can be avoided, if you are safety-conscious and being prepared, you can avoid many of these types of disasters. Some important safety tips while babysitting include:

- Keep doors and windows shut and locked while you are babysitting. Don’t open the door to a stranger.

- Make sure that TV or musical appliances are not turned up so loud that you can’t hear a crying child.

- Keep dangerous items out of reach of children.

- Watch out for plastic bags, pillows, cushions, and other items that could cause a small child to be smothered.

- Know where exits are located.

- Know where the children are at all times. Whenever possible, try to keep them within sight. Never leave them unattended.

- Take the time and care to do things safely.

- Be prepared to administer first aid. Organizations such as the American Red Cross offer training in first aid as well as infant and child CPR. Taking these courses can also make you more marketable as a babysitter.

- If you are babysitting a small child, make sure that he is keeping small objects out of his mouth.

- Make sure that the children are playing with age-appropriate toys.

- Be prepared for an emergency. Know where the emergency numbers are located, and familiarize yourself with the familys emergency plans if they have them.

You should also try to familiarize yourself with any state or local laws regarding child care. Some states require that you be a certain age to baby-sit, and some localities may even require a license or a training course of some sort.

Jika Anda harus membawa bayi kecil Anda di dalam mobil, sudah saatnya Anda melindunginya dengan car seat. Inilah panduan lengkap cara penggunaannya.Sekilas, bukan hal yang sulit untuk membawa si kecil sambil melaju dalam mobil.

Itulah, pemandangan khas yang bisa kita saksikan di Indonesia.

Kebanyakan orang tua tak merasa perlu berpusing-pusing berpikir bagaimana caranya menjaga keamanan si kecil selama berkendara. Toh, anak bisa digendong atau dipangku.Masalahnya, cara seperti itu sama sekali tidak aman.

Sadarkah Anda, cara itu sebenarnya hanya menjadikan tubuh si kecil itu menjadi bumper orang yang menggendong atau memangkunya?

Ketika terjadi kecelakaan, hentakan yang keras dari benturan mobil dapat membuat tubuh anak terjepit tubuh orang dewasa yang menggendongnya, atau ia justru akan terlempar ke depan.

Yang gawat adalah bila kaca depan pecah. Ia bisa langsung terlontar keluar melalui kaca yang pecah itu. Sekedar menggunakan sabuk pengaman ( seat belt ) juga bukan jawaban, karena sabuk ini tidak dirancang untuk tubuh anak-anak, yang berisiko tercekik.

Karena itulah Anda harus menggunakan kursi khusus buat anak, yang biasa disebut car seat. Kursi ini bisa dipasang dan ditarik, jadi tidak menempel permanen ke mobil. Anda juga bisa menggunakannya ketika naik taksi.

Car seat adalah alat krusial untuk mengamankan anak dalam mobil. Bukan itu saja. Dengan melatihnya duduk sendiri di dalam mobil, sebenarnya Anda melatih kemandirian si kecil disamping membuatnya nyaman selama perjalanan.

Masih belum yakin?

Perhatikan saja kutipan berikut ini. Dalam situs www.aap.org disebutkan, sepanjang tahun 2000, sekitar 539 anak berusia di bawah 5 tahun di Amerika Serikat tewas dalam kecelakaan mobil. Terjadinya kecelakaan ini hanya karena tubuh mereka sama sekali tidak terikat atau tidak terikat dengan benar ke car seatnya.

Beda usia, beda car seatBerdasarkan jenisnya, car seat dibagi menjadi 3 jenis, yaitu:
- Infant car seat, yakni kursi mobil khusus untuk bayi usia 0-1 tahun dengan berat badan maksimal 10 kg.
- Toddler car seat khusus untuk anak usia 1–4 tahun dengan berat badan antara 10–20 kg.
- Young children car seat adalah kursi khusus untuk anak usia 4–8 tahun dengan berat badan lebih dari 20 kg.

Laila Andaryani Hadis