I don't reall yhave any pictures of Indiana's chalazion. Let me tell you about it though....it started on his right eye on the lower lid. It looked like a sty at first, but it persisted and grew. We visisted 2 pedicatricians and one pediatric opthamologist. We were told everything from "do nothing" to trying ointment, lid scubs, warm compresses, etc. Indi's chalazion persisted and in fact grew worse. New chalazia sprung up on his upper lid. One was absolutely huge at one point. You could easily lift the edge of the lid and see a large white pustule underneath.
In the last month or so we have finally resolved his chalazion issues. That is why I am writing this post. There is something to be done about chalazia. In desperation I looked into homeopathy. The recommended treatment for chalazia was sulphur and graphites. I went to Sprouts and bought some homeopathic pellets and what do you know...after 5 long months of continuous eye problems, the very nexy day, the chalazia already looked better. Within 3 days, the chalazion was gone. That's all I have to say about that and hopefully someone else out there can find it uselful.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion
At this point, I am struggling to determine whether Indiana has a strong passion or a disturbing obsession. The child cannot go anywhere without a train and a piece of track. He is delightful in so many ways, but is increasingly two years old. I keep reminding myself I need to do more yoga.
Speaking about passions... to kick off his blog, I guess I should do some catch up reporting. Anyone who knows Indi well, knows he has a real passion for swimming. I am truly astonished at his feats in the pool. People ask me if it worries me that he has no fear in the water, but I think I actually have a lot less fear than most moms of small children in this respect. He knows water better than a lot of small children. I think he has a much clearer understanding of his capabilities and limits. He knows that he will sink and not be able to breathe if no one is there to spot him. I really like this. Of course he is NEVER in the backyard without supervision as no child should be left alone around water, but it is nice to know he has some skills.
He knows how to monkey walk around the whole pool. He knows how to jump in and swim to mom or dad and he also knows how to turn around and swim back to the wall. He knows how to swim underwater a distance of about 15 feet. He is beginning to understand how to pick his head up and grab a breath while he is swimming. He knows how to float and glide as well as how to kick and paddle.
Several moms have asked me recently how to get your child to swim like this. I am not a swim instructor, but I have learned that at this stage of the game, most anyone can teach their own child to swim without "real" lessons.
Indiana had a lot of water time as an infant in our backyard pool. We wanted him to be very comfortable in the water. He loved it...a true aquarius! His first summer (4 mo-7 mo), we took him in the pool almost everyday. We let him splash around and occassionally we put him in a floaty. Here's the thing I don't get about floaties though.... you have to be right next to your child as they are in a floaty. You can't just leave them there. To me it made more sense to hold Indi and glide him through the water to let him have full range of motion than to stand there staring at him in a floaty. It seems like just one more method to try to containerize a baby in my opinion.
This is one of the rare occassions we used our floaty. At least it made for some good photo opps! Indiana was about 4 months old here.
Here he is working on his Michael Phelps abs.
Moving on...when Indi was close to 1 year old, a friend of mine suggested we try mom and tot swim lessons at the local high school. Sounded fun and the price was reasonable so we signed right up. Well, the water was pretty cold and was heavily chlorinated. The coach was very nice, but she had a very gravely voice that frightened Indi. Indi cried the first day nearly the whole time. I thought, "I am here to have fun. If Indiana isn't having fun, we just aren't going to do it". I wanted a bonding experience. I wanted to be able to go in the pool a little early (it was still winter/early spring when we started these). The coach took the lessons quite seriously. Her goal was to get the babies to swim underwater between herself and the parent. What can I say about this method? I think it is decent if done more in the child's time.
What do you do? Simply get a partner to stand about 3 feet in front of you. Say to the baby "1,2,3" and then without hesitation, dip the baby underwater and hand off to the person in front of you. The baby generally pops up and looks pretty startled. So at this point, smile, and cheer and be positive. That's what we were taught. After 3 or 4 dips, Indi came to expect he was going underwater on "3" and was prepared for it.
Okay...so I didn't hate this method, but I think it could be improved on a lot. If I have another baby someday I will probably mesh this approach and another approach that I read about in this book by Rob and Kathy McKay, Learn to Swim and on their webpage here... http://www.babyswimming.com/
The biggest thing I learned from the lessons we went to is to not be afraid of your baby going underwater. They will sense your fear and will not want to do it again. Go slow, make the underwater exposures very brief in the beginning, but not rushed. Your baby should feel that you are relaxed and enjoying the experience and then they will be more likely to feel relaxed and enjoy it too. That being said, I agree with the McKays on the idea that you shouldn't rush an anxious baby. If you go to the pool and your child is screaming, the first step would be to sit near the pool and play. Maybe get a bucket of pool water and bring it to the child and let them play there. Once they are curious and want to be closer to the pool, then go to the pool and be excited.
One thing I have noticed is that a lot of moms want their kids to have enough fear of the water that they won't go near the pool. They say to their kids "Don't go near the pool! Dangerous! No! no!"...then they wonder why the child is so freaked out to learn to swim. When my son ventured near the pool before he has the awareness he has now, we did tell him to watch where he was walking, but in all honesty, he has fallen in twice. As always, we were right there ( as I said, he is never in the backyard without us supervising). We simply scooped him out of the water and dried him off. I was secretly happy he had fallen in. At least he knew that it's possible to fall in and that when he falls in... he sinks! That's a big lesson. He wasn't upset by either fall however. He fell in and held his breathe and kicked like the dickens to try to reach the side of the pool, but there were no tears.
Anyway, I know I am rambling a bit here. It's just a lot to catch up on. After our lessons, the weather was warming up again and we ventured back to our own pool again. I invested in an underwater camera which has been a ton of fun using and it has helped me to see how much he has progressed. Again, we were in the pool almost everyday. We continued practicing the "1,2,3 swim" approach and Indi was having a lot of fun with it. He would jump off the steps and swim to us all on his own accord. He was able to swim farther and farther distances underwater. he grew by leaps and bounds that second year in the pool.
He was 15-16 months in these next photos
This year we weren't sure what to expect. He had changed so much. We thought he might have forgotten how to swim, but nope! he was that much better. It has been such a joy to watch him progress and to do it becuase HE wants to do it.
All I am trying to say is that if you want to teach your baby to swim, you can, but you need to be positive about the water and not underestimate their ability to do things such as holding their breath when the child has reached the comfort level of being in the pool, having their face near the water, having water poured on their head, etc. In short, the McKay's book is a pretty good reference for those wanting to do this at home.
Speaking about passions... to kick off his blog, I guess I should do some catch up reporting. Anyone who knows Indi well, knows he has a real passion for swimming. I am truly astonished at his feats in the pool. People ask me if it worries me that he has no fear in the water, but I think I actually have a lot less fear than most moms of small children in this respect. He knows water better than a lot of small children. I think he has a much clearer understanding of his capabilities and limits. He knows that he will sink and not be able to breathe if no one is there to spot him. I really like this. Of course he is NEVER in the backyard without supervision as no child should be left alone around water, but it is nice to know he has some skills.
He knows how to monkey walk around the whole pool. He knows how to jump in and swim to mom or dad and he also knows how to turn around and swim back to the wall. He knows how to swim underwater a distance of about 15 feet. He is beginning to understand how to pick his head up and grab a breath while he is swimming. He knows how to float and glide as well as how to kick and paddle.
Several moms have asked me recently how to get your child to swim like this. I am not a swim instructor, but I have learned that at this stage of the game, most anyone can teach their own child to swim without "real" lessons.
Indiana had a lot of water time as an infant in our backyard pool. We wanted him to be very comfortable in the water. He loved it...a true aquarius! His first summer (4 mo-7 mo), we took him in the pool almost everyday. We let him splash around and occassionally we put him in a floaty. Here's the thing I don't get about floaties though.... you have to be right next to your child as they are in a floaty. You can't just leave them there. To me it made more sense to hold Indi and glide him through the water to let him have full range of motion than to stand there staring at him in a floaty. It seems like just one more method to try to containerize a baby in my opinion.
This is one of the rare occassions we used our floaty. At least it made for some good photo opps! Indiana was about 4 months old here.
Here he is working on his Michael Phelps abs.
Moving on...when Indi was close to 1 year old, a friend of mine suggested we try mom and tot swim lessons at the local high school. Sounded fun and the price was reasonable so we signed right up. Well, the water was pretty cold and was heavily chlorinated. The coach was very nice, but she had a very gravely voice that frightened Indi. Indi cried the first day nearly the whole time. I thought, "I am here to have fun. If Indiana isn't having fun, we just aren't going to do it". I wanted a bonding experience. I wanted to be able to go in the pool a little early (it was still winter/early spring when we started these). The coach took the lessons quite seriously. Her goal was to get the babies to swim underwater between herself and the parent. What can I say about this method? I think it is decent if done more in the child's time.
What do you do? Simply get a partner to stand about 3 feet in front of you. Say to the baby "1,2,3" and then without hesitation, dip the baby underwater and hand off to the person in front of you. The baby generally pops up and looks pretty startled. So at this point, smile, and cheer and be positive. That's what we were taught. After 3 or 4 dips, Indi came to expect he was going underwater on "3" and was prepared for it.
Okay...so I didn't hate this method, but I think it could be improved on a lot. If I have another baby someday I will probably mesh this approach and another approach that I read about in this book by Rob and Kathy McKay, Learn to Swim and on their webpage here... http://www.babyswimming.com/
The biggest thing I learned from the lessons we went to is to not be afraid of your baby going underwater. They will sense your fear and will not want to do it again. Go slow, make the underwater exposures very brief in the beginning, but not rushed. Your baby should feel that you are relaxed and enjoying the experience and then they will be more likely to feel relaxed and enjoy it too. That being said, I agree with the McKays on the idea that you shouldn't rush an anxious baby. If you go to the pool and your child is screaming, the first step would be to sit near the pool and play. Maybe get a bucket of pool water and bring it to the child and let them play there. Once they are curious and want to be closer to the pool, then go to the pool and be excited.
One thing I have noticed is that a lot of moms want their kids to have enough fear of the water that they won't go near the pool. They say to their kids "Don't go near the pool! Dangerous! No! no!"...then they wonder why the child is so freaked out to learn to swim. When my son ventured near the pool before he has the awareness he has now, we did tell him to watch where he was walking, but in all honesty, he has fallen in twice. As always, we were right there ( as I said, he is never in the backyard without us supervising). We simply scooped him out of the water and dried him off. I was secretly happy he had fallen in. At least he knew that it's possible to fall in and that when he falls in... he sinks! That's a big lesson. He wasn't upset by either fall however. He fell in and held his breathe and kicked like the dickens to try to reach the side of the pool, but there were no tears.
Anyway, I know I am rambling a bit here. It's just a lot to catch up on. After our lessons, the weather was warming up again and we ventured back to our own pool again. I invested in an underwater camera which has been a ton of fun using and it has helped me to see how much he has progressed. Again, we were in the pool almost everyday. We continued practicing the "1,2,3 swim" approach and Indi was having a lot of fun with it. He would jump off the steps and swim to us all on his own accord. He was able to swim farther and farther distances underwater. he grew by leaps and bounds that second year in the pool.
He was 15-16 months in these next photos
This year we weren't sure what to expect. He had changed so much. We thought he might have forgotten how to swim, but nope! he was that much better. It has been such a joy to watch him progress and to do it becuase HE wants to do it.
All I am trying to say is that if you want to teach your baby to swim, you can, but you need to be positive about the water and not underestimate their ability to do things such as holding their breath when the child has reached the comfort level of being in the pool, having their face near the water, having water poured on their head, etc. In short, the McKay's book is a pretty good reference for those wanting to do this at home.
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