In celebration of April being Autism Awareness Month, ABC of Kuwait is hosting a free public seminar this coming Monday, 8thApril, from 5.30 to 9.00pm at GUST University.
Category Archives: Awareness
Food Revolution Kuwait
Breastfeeding is revolutionary ~ especially if your mother didn’t…your sisters or friends aren’t…or your work and other life circumstances make it difficult to support. All these scenarios are likely here in Kuwait where the exclusive breastfeeding rate at 3 months is only 12%. So the decision to breastfeed is counter culture, with large marketing industries and social pressures trying to convince you to do otherwise. For those of us who were raised by hippies…or at least mothers who believed everything that was natural was better (garlic paste under the feet or in drinks for illnesses, comfrey tea for congestion, homemade home-ground wheat bread)…it was a decision that was second nature. But if you are new to to breastfeeding, your decision could be revolutionary for you, your children, your sisters and friends, and everyone you influence. Read the rest of the article on Birth Kuwait.
Food Revolution Kuwait will be held on Saturday May 19th from 11am-7pm
Location: The Women’s Culture and Social Society.
Get the chance to meet local farmers and chefs, taste free organic nibbles and find out how to get the best food for you and your family!
By, Sarah Paksima Co-Founder BirthKuwait, Doula, Childbirth Educator and Prenatal Yoga Teacher
Filed under Around Kuwait, Awareness, Breastfeeding, Eating Habits, Education, Food, Health, Kuwait, Organic
Children hanging out of car windows!
As parents it is our job to keep our children safe. When I see kids hanging out of car windows I wonder to my self how can a mother/father put their children in such risk ? Don’t they know that god forbid any sudden break while their children are hanging out the window would have tragic consequences ? I feel like a lot of parents don’t take car safety for their kids seriously. We see kids jumping around the car, sitting in the front seat, no seat belt, no car seat and to make matters worse have them hanging out of car windows. This is a daily scene in Kuwait and it makes me so mad!! Something has to be done about it.
Filed under Around Kuwait, Awareness, Kids, Kuwait
Color a Life Campaign
We are blessed to be born into families that love us, take care of us and who would walk the earth for us. We are blessed to give back to our parents who raised us to be the best we can be. We are blessed to be able to come home to families that are there for us always.
Close your eyes for a couple of seconds and think about your parents. Think about the love they gave you as a child, the security you felt being tucked into bed at night and the happiness that they bring into your life on a daily basis. Now, imagine giving that same feeling and security to a little boy or girl that has been deprive of such a blessing.
Color A Life Campaign is a great initiative to help people in Kuwait embrace the idea of adopting a child. It is amazing to be able to open up your heart and home to a child that deserve nothing more than the feeling of security and love.
You can visit their website for more information.
Filed under Adoption, Around Kuwait, Awareness, Campaigns, Kuwait
Food revolution day
A great initiative that will hopefully take over Kuwait. Can’t wait to learn more about it!
Filed under Around Kuwait, Awareness, Family, Food
What are you feeding your kids?!
A friend of mine who is a dietitian decided one day to buy a meal from McDonalds and leave it to see what happens to it after a couple of weeks. He posts pictures every once in a while to show us the progress and how the meal changes throughout time. After looking at the pictures you truly wonder what do they put in our food??! I’m going to share with you a few of his pictures. This is the meal after 2 months. He says that the meal still looks edible, it has hardened but no mold has appeared.
Is this what we want to feed our kids? Remember this the next time your decide to treat your kids to junk food!
Photo credits to Sami AlBader. Follow him on twitter @Ilbader
World Autism Day
Autism is a developmental disability that remains with a person for his or her whole life. This condition affects the brain’s functions. The first signs usually appear before a child is three years old. Experts estimate that six children out of every 1,000 will have Autism and males are four times more likely to have Autism than females.
How is autism diagnosed?
Autism varies widely in severity and symptoms and may go unrecognized, especially in mildly affected children or when it is masked by more debilitating handicaps. Very early indicators that require evaluation by an expert include:
- no babbling or pointing by age 1
- no single words by 16 months or two-word phrases by age 2
- no response to name
- loss of language or social skills
- poor eye contact
- excessive lining up of toys or objects
- no smiling or social responsiveness.
Later indicators include:
- impaired ability to make friends with peers
- impaired ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
- absence or impairment of imaginative and social play
- stereotyped, repetitive, or unusual use of language
- restricted patterns of interest that are abnormal in intensity or focus
- preoccupation with certain objects or subjects
- inflexible adherence to specific routines or rituals.
Filed under Around the web, Awareness
Tips for keeping your baby safe in the sun
Summer is just around the corner and we know how hot and strong our sun is. Here are 3 main tips to going out during the hot summer days with your baby:
Seek the shade: To protect your baby’s skin, keep her out of the sun between 11am and 3pm. Until her second year, she hasn’t got much melanin – the hormone associated with protecting skin in the sun. If you do go out at that time, make sure your baby’s head is covered with a hat and a sun shade.
Slip on a hat & sunglasses: Dark colors like black and navy absorb the sun, so get your baby wearing lighter shades to keep her cool. Protect her eyes and head with sun glasses and a hat too.
Fill up on fluids: Keeping your baby hydrated will help her regulate her body temperature. So make sure she get lots of fluids in her throughout the day.
Slather on the sunscreen: Choose a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15. Look for the words “broad spectrum” on the label. “Broad spectrum” means the product protects against both UVA and UVB rays.
Apply sunscreen 15 to 30 minutes before heading outdoors, and reapply it every two hours. Make sure you cover all exposed areas of your baby’s skin, including the tips of the ears, the back of the neck, and the tops of the feet.
*Toddlers & kids should also wear sunscreen specially if they go to school or summer camps.
Filed under Around The World, Awareness, Babies
No TV or video for two years?
The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a stern warning to parents: TV is bad for kids under 2. And not just some TV shows, all moving screens with pictures from the football game playing in the living room to the Youtube clip buffering on your iPad.
A statement on the AAP website stops short of calling the glowing moving images on your iPhone that transfix your baby what it sometimes appears to be: kid-crack.
“The Academy is concerned about the impact of television programming intended for children younger than age two and how it could affect your child’s development,” says a statement on the AAP website. “Pediatricians strongly oppose targeted programming, especially when it’s used to market toys, games, dolls, unhealthy food and other products to toddlers. Any positive effect of television on infants and toddlers is still open to question, but the benefits of parent-child interactions are proven.
The AAP suggests that parents limit their kids’ media intake, not just with television programming but with apps and websites, at least for the first two years. But they don’t give official guidelines as to where the tipping point lies: is three hours a week of three hours a day of Dora the Explorer going to hold up your child from learning the alphabet?
All of it is a crime according to the APP. Time in front of the tube is time wasted, according to the report. For every hour in front of the TV, a child loses 50 minutes communicating with a parent. The figures and facts may be accurate, but how realistic is living in screen-less world in 2011?
How much TV does you child watch ? Do you limit their TV time ?
Source: Yahoo shine
Your words have power use them wisely
Never underestimate the power of words. Think before you speak.
Filed under Awareness
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