Toddler

Taking candy from a baby might be easy, but pacifiers are another story entirely. If you have a toddler or even a preschooler holding tight to the bink, you're not alone: pacifier weaning is a common challenge. While dental problems generally won't result from pacifier use unless the habit continues beyond age 3, many parents find that pacifier weaning is easier before a child reaches 2 years old. (If you're concerned, though, check with your pediatric dentist.) For a smooth transition, try these brilliant pacifier-weaning strategies from Circle of Moms members.

Keep reading.

The following information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.

It’s no fun when your child is sick or hurt, but having a well-stocked medicine cabinet can make it easier to manage, whether you're dealing with scrapes, bug bites, allergies or the kind of nighttime fevers and coughs that keeps everyone in your house awake.

As a Circle of Moms member named Tammy wonders though, it's not necessarily clear which items are truly essential. To help, I gathered road-tested advice from our communities. Here, veteran moms from our communities share seven medicine cabinet essentials parents should always have on hand. (And as poison control centers advise, remember to keep all medicines out of your children's reach.)

1. Thermometer

Thermometers are essential for determining the severity of an ailment. There are many types of thermometers — mouth, rectal, armpit, forehead, ear, or temporal artery. Amber O. prefers the temporal artery thermometer, available from stores like Walmart and Target, because it is easy to get an accurate reading and not invasive: “I have always had accurate readings from it, and I love using it,” she says. “They definitely do not wake up sleeping babies, which is great, and it's not uncomfortable.”

2. Children's Pain Reliever

It's important to never give children adult medicine. Check your children's medicine often to be sure that it hasn't expired or been recalled. Always ask the advice of your pediatrician before dispensing any medications. "Most pediatricians will say no cold medicine until age 6!" cautions a mom named Marcie. However, children’s Tylenol or Motrin are frequently prescribed for relieving minor pains and for lowering fevers, even for kids below 6. Some doctors even suggest alternating between the two. "Rotating Tylenol and Motrin is a good idea, especially if you can't keep [a] fever down. The Motrin will help with body aches as well," advises Shannon N.

3. Band-Aids and Antiseptic

Band-Aids and an antiseptic like hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol are essential for cleaning and protecting minor cuts and scrapes. Emilie B. recommends cloth over plastic adhesives because they are easier on sensitive skin.

If your children are very young, Chelle A. suggests keeping a pair of scissors handy as well. As she explains, "We cut my son's nails when he first got home and we nicked his pinky. We had to take a normal Band-Aid and cut the smallest sliver off it and put it on his hand. It worked great for us!"

4. Nasal Aspirator and Saline Drops

For the common cold, Circle of Moms members Minnie J. and Stephanie B. recommend a nasal aspirator and saline drops. The drops, "for helping clean out the nasal passages," are one of three essentials that Stephanie's pediatrician recommends for managing a child's symptoms (the others are a vaporizer at night and Tylenol, "for comfort)."

5. Benadryl and Anti-Itch Cream

It’s difficult to know what a young child may be sensitive to, but Benadryl will help to quickly calm any allergic reactions. Sarah A., for example, says her doctor once prescribed ½ a teaspoon of Benadryl for her son when he broke out in a bad rash. An anti-itch cream like hydro-cortisone or some other antihistamine-releaser also can help calm itches from bug bites, Cheryl P. says.

6. Your Family's Go-To Remedies

If you have your own remedy and it’s doctor-approved, then by all means it makes sense to keep it with the rest of your first aid and safety items so that it's easy to find when you need it. For example, Leigh R. likes to use Vick’s Baby Rub along with a cool mist vaporizer when her son has a runny nose and cough. "Vick's Baby Rub works wonders," she says. "The baby rub does not have the menthol or camphor in it, both of with are very unsafe for children."

Meanwhile, Michelle K. turns to a spoonful of honey to soothe sore throats and coughs. And for teething pain, Janet G. stocks her medicine cabinet with teething tablets.

7. Emergency Numbers

While a contact list of emergency numbers does not need to be in the medicine cabinet, you should have emergency contacts posted in an obvious place — such as by your land line and programmed into your cell phone. That way children who can work a phone have the numbers handy if an adult is unavailable. Laura F. posts her emergency contacts – the closest hospital, family doctor, poison control, and local police and fire departments — on the fridge. 

And if you’re up for it, Tammy P. suggests parents contact their local hospital, fire or police departments to find out about first aid and CPR classes. "As a pre-hospital care provider, I believe every new parent and grandparent should take a first aid and CPR class," she says "Even if you have had CPR before, there are lots of exciting new updates. It is a skill I hope no parent ever [has] to use, but if they do, they will be glad for the class."

The preceding information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.

Image Source: Erin Neeley via Flickr/Creative Commons

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, POPSUGAR.

Valentine’s Day offers a great opportunity to explore crafts and fun learning activities with your children. Help make the day of love and friendship special by trying some new activities together.

Valentine's Day Fingerprint Card

Valentine's Day Fingerprint Cards make great homemade gifts and cherished memories for grandparents or friends on Valentine's Day!

Materials Needed

• One red sheet of cardstock or construction paper (folded in half) for each child
• A black marker
• Paint trays (or paper plates)
• Assorted Valentine's Day colors of washable tempera paint
• Paint smocks (or old T-shirts) to protect clothing
• Scissors
• Glue sticks
• One copy (free to download) of the Valentine's Fingerprint Card PDF file

To Make the Cards

1.  On the folded piece of cardstock, assist the children in drawing a basic "stick" tree. Older children can draw their own, but younger children will need assistance (see card photo).

2.  Have the children lightly dip one finger into a paint color. (For infants or very young children, the paint can be brushed onto a finger with a paintbrush and washed off after printing.) Children should make two fingerprints for each heart (one print slightly left and one printed slightly right to form a "heart").  Have the children make several fingerprint "hearts" all around the tree on the card. Allow the prints to dry thoroughly.

3.  Have the children draw a heart around each of the fingerprinted hearts on their trees (see photo). Younger children will need assistance.

4.  Help the children cut out the caption from the Valentine's Fingerprint Card PDF file (assist younger children with scissors skills). Next, kids can glue the square caption inside the card and write their names.

Valentine's Day Patterning

This craft is a fabulous craft for preschool and kindergarten-aged children.

1. Print one Valentine's Day Patterning Page (free to download) for each of your children.  

2. Discuss patterns with your children. Have the children look at colored hearts to see if they can recognize any pattern that exists in the choice of colors used for the hearts in each of the rows. Help your children determine exactly what color the last heart in each row should be to complete the pattern. The children can use markers or crayons to color the last heart. 

As your children get used to working with patterns, they will begin to point them out as they see patterns at the grocery store, during family travels, at school, etc. It is fun to watch new and emerging skills take hold!

For more Valentine's Day crafts and activities for young kids (including the "Tree of Love" Craft) visit: The Preschool Toolbox Blog!

Image Source: Darla Hutson

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, POPSUGAR.

When you're growing up, getting to know yourself — your likes and dislikes, interests and talents, is your job, and it's not always an easy one. Moms of twins may appreciate this about their children even more than the rest of us. On the theory that the unique challenges posed by raising twins or multiples develops some special wisdom, I've gathered tips from Circle of Moms members who have twins or multiples on handling four common sticky situations. Whether you have same-sex or close-in-age siblings, a big family, or simply are parenting under the constraints of a busy, budget-conscious life, their advice on everything from shared after school activities and friendships to how to dress your kids is likely to he helpful to your family as well! 

On the Necessity of Shared After School Activities

In spite of the desire to let each child discover and explore separate interests in extracurricular activities, moms of multiples say that parents have to do what keeps them sane rather than what fosters individuality in kids. That’s one of the reasons mom of twins Sherri C. sticks to a “one activity per season” per child rule. She says not only is it too expensive to do otherwise, but that she simply can't be in multiple places at the same time to chauffeur and chaperone.

Janet G. feels the same way, and solved the logistics problem by coaching her twins’ soccer and T-ball teams. That way her twins were able to participate in after school activities, but also had to be in the same place at the same time, which made it manageable for her.

And Juanita E. says that while she certainly believes twins are individuals, unique from one another, the only way for a parent to manage children's participation in many different activities is to set up some kind of a system to keep track of schedules and to get help with all the drop-offs and pickups.

On Shared Friends and Birthday Parties

When it comes to twins, Circle of Moms member Nete N. thinks it’s rude not to invite both of them, and indeed, Sara B. reports that the first time only one of her twins was invited to a birthday party was a struggle. She debated whether or not she should ask the mom to invite her other twin, but decided against it, as she thought her girls needed to learn how to deal with having different friends.

Siblings who are not twins also sometimes have to deal with the exclusion of one of them from a mutual friend's birthday party. Siblings close in age often share friends, and even if they don’t, some parents expect birthday party invitations to be package deals, especially when kids are very young.

Not all moms agree. Whether you’re talking about twins or not, Becky F. thinks it’s simple: "If the invitation is only addressed to one of my children, then only that child goes."

On Matching Outfits

Like Sherri C., who loves seeing her two oldest (non-twin) boys dressed alike in family pictures, many moms are sometimes tempted to dress their kids in similar clothing, whether to keep things simple or to sit for a polished family picture.

Moms of twins who fall into this camp say that dressing your kids alike when they’re younger is not only cute, but can also help you keep track of them in public places. On the other hand, many feel that there's a built-in expiration date for matching outfits: as kids get older it's likely to hamper their independence. And Megan S. takes a harder line, saying she never dresses her twins alike. “They are two different people and should be treated as such,” she says.

Alicia D., who has twins, suggests a compromise for youg siblings: similar outfits with different prints. 

Image Source: Joe Goldberg via Flickr/Creative Commons

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, POPSUGAR.

The terrible twos have struck in my household, and they have struck hard. As a mom of two, one would think that I would already have experience in this department but, believe it or not, it has taken me completely by surprise. My eldest has high-functioning autism and, while she had her own type of "fits" fairly often, we were busy with occupational and speech therapy throughout the terrible twos and somehow managed to dodge them completely. My son, though...my son might be the death of me. 

See, all the stories I've ever heard about the terrible twos were of fits of rage, tantrums, and ungodly screaming. We have a bit of that, here and there, but what no one bothered to warn me of is the manipulation. No one thought to tell me, "Oh, by the way, age two is when the sass and smirk appear!" But, they do. And, they work. Even more importantly, my son knows they works. 

When he gets into trouble for coloring on his face with a mysteriously reappearing marker for the thirtieth time in a day, he doesn't throw himself on the floor wailing. Either he, Mother Nature, or some other heavenly being has decided I'm much too prepared for fits. Instead, I get onto him, and he lowers his little face, looks up at me out of the top of his eyes...and just stares at me with this irresistable smirk. 

When I tell him that it's bedtime, he doesn't kick and scream as I carry him across the house. He simply collapses face first on the floor, with a grin, and refuses to budge. I have to carry him and his completely limp dead weight all the way to the bedroom, while he looks at me with those smiling eyes. 

Earlier today, I said, "I love you son, but you're driving me crazy!" He simply giggled and said, "Otay." He's climbing furniture, getting into drawers, coloring on walls, and tearing every single wipe out of the container just to watch them float to the ground. 

While I know none of it is malicious, and I should probably be thankful, I'm still having a hard time admitting that I am being defeated by a two-year-old — a happy jokester of a two-year-old who knows his charm and good looks will get him out of anything and uses it to the best of his ability.  I can just hear his little wheels turning when he gets into trouble, thinking, "Just make Mommy crack a smile, then she's done for." How do you discipline a child when you can't even keep a straight face? 

I will not let this toddler defeat me. He doesn't actually turn two until March, so I have plenty of time to figure this out...right?  For now, I will lock myself in the bathroom and meditate while taking a long, hot bath. Without bubbles, of course...he used those to "wash" the floor. 

Image Source: Photo by Shai Smith

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, POPSUGAR.

When it comes to potty training, we've seen our fair share of bizarre ideas. (Remember these potty training products gone wrong?) Still, the new digital iPotty is quite a surprise.

Revealed at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the iPotty is essentially a training toilet with an iPad stand. The goal is to keep tots entertained and seated — in much the same way as board books and songs have done for years. 

Get the full story at The Huffington Post>>

Would you buy the iPotty?

Image Source: AP via Huffington Post