Perspectives in Parenting

Protecting your child's teeth from cavities can be as easy as following a few simple recommendations.  If we're successful at instilling good behavior early in life, those habits will provide them with a healthy mouth that will keep them smiling indefinitely. Dental caries (cavities) is a chronic, infectious, transmissible disease resulting from tooth-adherent specific bacteria, primarily Mutans Streptococci (MS), that metabolizes sugars to produce acid which demineralizes tooth structure over time. The disease of Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is the presence of one or more decayed, missing, or filled tooth surface in any primary (baby) tooth in a child under the age of 6. According to the CDC, this is the most common chronic childhood disease. It’s 5 times more...

  If stories of adoption and fostering in Baton Rouge are of specific interest, there are many great pieces on the website including stories of adoption (here and here), advice on what not to ask an adoptee, and real life insight into what it is like to foster children in Louisiana.  Loving a Child I Have to Share It's midnight. I am sitting on the floor next to the bed of a child who is terrified. We got a call that this child needs a place to stay while her family gets some help, so she's living with us for a while... or forever... or maybe just another night. This child has done nothing wrong, yet her world was flipped upside down. I can not even begin to...

Do you know how to perform CPR on your infant or child? You should! If something goes wrong, the time between when you dialed 911 and when EMS arrives is a critical window. Those three to five minutes can be the difference between life and death. Bystander CPR can double and even triple someone’s chance for survival. That is why Red Stick Moms Blog, The American Heart Association, and Baton Rouge General Medical Center are ready to help you learn those lifesaving skills at “Mom School”. This FREE “mom friendly” event will teach you how to perform infant and child CPR. We know moms are busy, so as a special treat we have something just for you. Baton Rouge General...

I love to sit in restaurants and make up stories about the people who are sitting around me- the young, nervous teenagers on their first date, or the older couple out celebrating the birth of their eighth grandbaby- all based on their body language and demeanor. My husband and I will play this game over a cup of coffee and will laugh at the ridiculous stories that we make up about these people based on pretty much nothing. I wish that this was the only time that I ever made judgments about people- when they were harmless and lighthearted, and when I wasn't acting upon said judgments. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Sometimes I judge people's parenting. Sometimes I judge marriages. Sometimes...

“Mama? What’s college?” she asked a few months ago as we passed LSU on the interstate after I pointed out where I went to college. I explained in seven-year-old terms that college is where people go to learn how to do their jobs. I went to learn to be a teacher, and her daddy learned to be a nurse. That satisfied her, and I quickly forgot the exchange. Simple things haven’t always come easy to my girl. She hit most major milestones on the late end of the normal range. Her speech wasn’t clear to most people until well into her third year of life. When we expressed concern, it was dismissed time and again, because she sat on the...