Building a good relationship with your child's caregivers

Your work isn't over just because you've found your dream preschool or daycare center. In fact, it's only beginning. Your child's caregivers are counting on you to keep up your end of the bargain — they keep your child safe and secure while you're at work, and you agree not to take advantage of them.

This article provides some pointers on building a good relationship with your child's caregivers.

Damon, Moore put baby hand-me-downs on eBay for charity

Matt Damon's diaper bag, Julianne Moore's high chair, Elisabeth Hasselbeck's car seat and other celebrity baby hand-me-downs are going up for auction on eBay.

Famous parents donated their used baby items to Johnson's Celebrity Hand Me Down Auction, which will benefit such charities as March of Dimes, Save the Children, Zero to Three and Baby Buggy. The online auction begins April 29 and ends May 9.

Damon provided his black, messenger-style baby bag while Moore, a mother of two, donated a beachwood highchair that she calls her daughter Liv's special "sit at the table with the grown-ups" chair. Mariska Hargitay from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit gave an Adidas track suit outfit worn by her son, August.

Other celebrities participating in the auction include Shark actress Jeri Ryan and recent mother Elisabeth Rohm.

Source: USA Today

View the latest fashions in designer baby clothes at www.ZaraBella.com

Mother’s Day Gifts for New Moms

You've been a total Super Mommy, what with birthing the baby and all, logging scads of late-night feedings, and blowing about 10 million giggle-inducing raspberries. You deserve a little treat for yourself if you ask us.

Check out Parent’s Magazine’s picks for the coolest, how-have-you-lived-without-this gifts for new mamas. Print out your favorites to leave strategically around the house to give hubs the hint you want a little post-baby bonus, or make use of our send-to-a-friend feature (click the link in the upper right) to give a little nudge.

Good baby-product buying takes a strategy

Just because baby superstores have products stacked to the ceilings doesn’t mean most of what they stock is worth buying. In fact, parents should pass by much of it.

That’s the advice coming from Heather Maclean, who has made a business of cutting through the clutter of baby merchandise. The mother of three’s new book, “The Baby Gizmo Buying Guide,” doesn’t list branded items but guides parents through what kind of merchandise to buy to handle everything from sleepless nights to playtime during their child’s first years.

There is a lot to mull, given that $8.9 billion in baby products sold last year, according to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, a trade group for the industry.

This article presents some excerpts from an interview with Maclean, who also helps run the Baby Gizmo Web site.

Baby Branding: Naming Little Tykes Today Can Be As Stressful As a Marketing Campaign

Somewhere between cooing over ultrasound images and registering for a bottle warmer or Diaper Genie, the debate begins.

Emily or Ethan? Christopher or Chloe?

Relatives lobby for old family names. Parents flip through books, checking into the old Irish meaning of the name Liam.

It used to be easier than this. But many of today's parents are planners. They track their baby's expected weekly progress in the womb through books and Web sites, and are enrolled in parenting classes by the second trimester. Coupled with the weight placed on first names in modern America -- your neighbor isn't Mrs. Johnston, but Shirley; a cashier looks at your credit card and calls you Doug rather than Mr. Smith -- choosing a name can be one of the most stressful prenatal tasks.

Click here for the full article.

The Most Expensive Celebrity Baby Photos

Never mind the baby's name or gender. These days, the real question surrounding A-list births is which tabloid will get the pictures first. It's an industry. Celebrity weeklies, forced to compete with a swarm of entertainment shows and tabloid-style blogs, all chronicling the minutia of celebrity life, have gone into a frenzy for exclusives. The result: The amount they're willing to pay for snaps of private moments has skyrocketed. And entrepreneurial celebrities stepping in to maintain control of--and profit from--their exposure, only fuel things further.

Click here to read the full article.

Hollywood Moms Glow With Hot Fashions

Imagine you're an expectant celebrity mom, eight months pregnant with a big belly and swollen ankles, but the paparazzi are following your every move so walking around in a smock and sensible shoes -- like the rest of us -- just won't do. Luckily, the baby boom in Hollywood has prompted another boom of sorts: maternity clothes offered from top designers.

Read the full article.

Check out the hottest fashions for kids at Zarabella.com.

Learn from the stars! Drop that baby weight

It’s hard enough to lose weight after having a baby, let alone if you’re a celebrity and doing it with the entire country watching your every move. The four women featured in this article did it successfully, and if you are pregnant or just had a baby, there are many ways to take off the extra pounds in a healthy, effective way.

Check out the article today!

The 10 Safest States for Kids

Of course, one of your top priorities as a parent is to keep your kids safe. It's never an easy job, but it could be a lot harder depending on which state you live in. Troubled by the fact that more than 5,600 kids die from injuries every year, Parents Magazine recently launched an exclusive three-month investigation of how safe it is for children around the nation. The verdict: It truly depends on where you live. After crunching the numbers on more than 30 criteria that involved protecting children from accidents or violence, we uncovered big differences that could impact your child's health.

Read the full article.

Splish Splash

We make sure what goes into our children’s bodies is healthy, but what about all those lotions, creams and washes that go on our kids? Alan Dattner, MD, New York holistic dermatologist, and founder of www.kiwimagonline.com , says, "Infants and children easily absorb chemical substances into their skin, and these are incorporated into their growing tissues." According to Dattner, ingredients like mineral oil (clogs pores), artificial color (potential allergen) and talc (lung irritant)—all common additives to mainstream children’s body care—should be avoided. "Exposure may be in small amounts," he adds, "but it can continue year after year, and we don't know the long-term effects."

So how can you tell if a product is safe? Click here to find out.

Multiple babies call for more household planning, flexibility

For most parents, hearing that they are having multiples is "joy mixed with terror mixed with moments of calm," says Patricia Malmstrom, co-author of "The Art of Parenting Twins" and director of Twin Services Consulting, a support Web site for parents with multiples. After absorbing the news, Malmstrom says, many parents-to-be find themselves "scrambling to find balance in the midst of a very unstable feeling."

Much of that scrambling centers on how to keep a household running smoothly - or just running - with two, three or more babies crying at once.

Read the full article.

Oh, baby! Look at you now in designer duds

While many adults find it difficult to dress fashionably, consider the plight of the toddler. There's nothing but applesauce-stained synthetic fabrics in their closets, and until those chubby fingers learn to fasten their own buttons, little girls are at the mercy of Mom.

However, as the average age of parents gets higher, they seem to be spending more money on their children's clothes. Mothers who have never owned Burberry items are splurging on designer plaid kilts for their kids.

Read the full article.

Check out Zarabella.com's large selection of designer baby clothes!

The Truth About Pregnancy Dreams

Catching a decent night's sleep when you're pregnant is tough, especially when your nights are filled with hormonally charged dreams that can be comforting, scary, or just plain weird.

Katie Smith, of Denver, recalls being awakened by the kookiest dream in her first trimester: "I was running down the freeway with my jogging stroller, chasing after a pickle. I finally caught up with it in the pickle shop and took it to the counter, where I realized I didn't have a quarter to pay for it. As I searched the stroller and my pockets for money, I woke up and went to the refrigerator to eat some pickles."

Indeed, Moms-to-be have a lot on their minds, and it surfaces during sleep. Here's what those wild visions might mean.

Celebrity tots get magazine bucks worth drooling over

They don't call 'em "bundles" for nothing. If you're a celebrity with a baby bump, what to expect when you're expecting is mega money - if you're lucky enough to sell their pictures.

We're headed into a bumper season of baby buggies. Halle Berry has welcomed daughter Nahla last Sunday, the day after Jennifer Lopez prepped month-old moppets Max and Emme for their first photo shoot.

While J.Lo's love don't cost a thing, the snaps of her duplicate darlings sure do. Estimates run from $4 million to $6 million for the cover shoot that hit People.com at 7 a.m. Thursday morning.
In 1953, the first cover of TV Guide boasted newborn Desi Arnaz Jr., only the son of the most famous woman on television.

In the half-century since, fascination with celebrity families has swollen to third-trimester levels.

Read the full article!

Health & Your Family

Today's families are especially hard-pressed. From endless information on the Internet to headlines that seem contradictory at every turn, it all can be overwhelming and confusing.

That's where relationship expert Dennie Hughes comes in. Having written the RelationTips column for USA WEEKEND over the past seven years, he has read thousands of letters from readers looking for ways to resolve personal issues. Many of those letters are from parents; some even come from kids. To give his readers the most up-to-date answers, he read dozens of magazines, websites and news releases, and I talk to experts in different fields. And one thing is clear: Matters of the heart often are triggered by those of the body. Our emotional health is intimately connected to our physical well-being.

Take a look at this article -- maybe you'll discover some ways to help your family grow more healthy, both inside and out.

Unique Baby Announcements

Your little one has finally arrived, and now it is time to let everyone know! This article details out a variety of unique baby announcements. Choose the best from the following categories:

Custom Announcements
Most stationers offer a range of standard announcements that can be personalized with different paper, colors, typography, and illustrations or motifs. Delivery time averages two to three weeks.

Preprinted, Off-the-Shelf Announcements
With space for all the vital statistics, preprinted announcements require a little more effort than custom-made cards. But they are typically less expensive and don't involve a wait for delivery.

Not Now, We're Bonding

When baby arrives, so do the guests. How do you get what you need—and discourage what you don’t—in those first few weeks at home? Let’s face it, babies are magnets. It’s like Bill Gates announcing he’s giving away Microsoft shares to all comers—the hordes descend. But, after 40 weeks of pregnancy, interminable hours of labor, and that long final push or C-section, you’re not exactly in party mode. How do you cope? Know what you need—and what you don’t need. Then make a plan to whip those visitors into shape.

Read the full article!

The Magic of Play

Today we call unstructured fun "free play." But many kids don't get nearly enough of it anymore, a growing chorus of child-development experts is warning. It may seem obvious that kids need to play. Trouble is, a lot of what passes for play lately doesn't quite cut it. "Playing" organized sports, for instance, isn't child-led or open-ended -- two key traits of true play. Neither is "playing" computer games -- and today's kids spend more time with computers, TV, and game screens than on any other activity except school and sleeping. Even babies miss playtime while watching "brain-building videos," going to classes, or being dazzled by toys that do the talking (and thinking) for them.

Nobody's suggesting that playtime should be another "to do" penciled on a parent's list and programmed into a child's day. Just the opposite, in fact. Providing it is as easy as stepping back and encouraging what comes naturally to your child, age by age.

Read the full article.

Babytalk Baby Tracker

Your baby probably already has his own little routines -- you just might not be able to see them yet. That's why Daniela Montalto, Ph.D., a pediatric neuropsychologist at New York University's Child Study Center developed this daily log exclusively for Babytalk readers. Use it to keep track of your little one's sleep, feeding, playtime and more. All you have to do is circle or "x" out the blocks of time for activity. For example, if he naps from 7am to 8am, circle or cross out those numbers. For time that begin on the quarter or half hour, simply write in "15" or "30" in the space above. In a couple of weeks, you should begin to see some patterns emerge -- and to make it easy on yourself, print out several copies now so you have enough to last you at least a month.

Get the Babytalk Baby Tracker!

15 things you need to know to care for Baby

Forget sugar and spice and everything nice. Your little one is a lot more complicated than that. USA WEEKEND wants to make sure you have a recipe for success, so each year we sift through the most recent scientific studies and research to compile this list of the 15 most important findings you need to know. From getting Baby to love her green beans to avoiding tooth decay, we've got you covered so your child can be the focus.
Read the full article!