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Survival Tips For New Parents


It’s about you, your partner and the baby – nobody else! Never mind what in-laws, friends or family have to say, or how they suggest you do things. You and your partner need to determine your own life together as parents, and that decision should be made by you alone. People may want to offer ideas (read: interfere!), but it’s completely acceptable to say no, no matter how pushy they may be.

Be prepared to argue â€“ that’s perfectly normal! Every new parent I know spends more time fighting with his or her spouse after the arrival of baby than ever before. New routines, lack of sleep, and fear of raising your child appropriately – all of these things cause stress. Be prepared for it, and be ready to handle it (not just ignore it); it will make your relationship stronger in the long run.

Relax! Having a new child might be stressful, but if you can’t laugh about being peed on, about the pureed beets all over your crisp white shirt, or the permanent marker on your freshly painted walls, then you’ll lose your mind. Your child will feel your emotion, so laugh it off.

Take some time apart. Some couples seem to spend every waking minute together after baby arrives, but I feel it’s important for both parents to get to know their new little bundle one-on-one. Taking this important time gives your spouse a little break, and it offers essential bonding time between parent and baby.

One at a time. You don’t both need to get up in the night to look after the baby – just one of you can do it! A good friend who had twins last year recently reminded me of this. She couldn’t ascertain why parents of singles both get up in the night to tend to the fussing baby, and she’s totally right! Just take turns; one of you may as well be (somewhat) rested!

Continue to enjoy time together, just the two of you. Whether you and your partner take a weekend away, a night out for dinner or just enjoy each other’s company when the baby’s in bed, be sure to keep connected and tell each other what’s happening and how you’re feeling. It’s easy to be exhausted by the time you have some alone time, but make use of it and keep connected.

Talk about your parenting style before you have the baby, and after the wee one arrives. Take some time to consider the type of parent you want to be, and let your partner know. In many ways your role will evolve organically, but having an idea beforehand can be helpful. Then discussing it as time goes on is important too.

Don’t over-schedule yourselves. People will want to be visiting your new addition all the time, but remember that it’s okay to say no. It’s important for the three (or four, or five…) of you to have time to learn about your new family life. That doesn’t include others; just you!

Lighten up! Parenting is very serious, but it’s also extremely fun. I recall my husband saying, long before our first child arrived, that he thought with my perfectionist personality I wouldn’t let our kids leave the house with their shoes on the wrong feet when the time came. I’ve always remembered that, and now I have to think a little before I let my kids leave the house with the Cinderella dress on, but I’m always glad that I can relax enough to let that happen.

Who does what? Domestic duties become greater the moment the baby enters the house. That few-pound bundle in the blanket may be small, but boy, can they make a mess!! Who will put out the garbage, make dinner, clean the bathrooms, tend the garden? All of these little tasks that seemed easier before become more challenging to get to, and seem like more of a hurdle. Determining ahead of time who will do what takes away the frustration of sitting there just WAITING for your partner to take out the garbage while their perceived lack of motivation drives you crazy!

Keep talking. The moment you stop communicating with one another is the moment you will struggle. Tell your partner what’s frustrating you, what makes you happy, what you’re excited about. Be open and honest about everything so you’re not left guessing at how your spouse is feeling or what they are thinking.

Above all – have fun! Parenting is serious business, but it’s the most fun you’ll ever have.

Source: Skinny Mom

Healthcare spending on kids outpacing general population

Health-care spending on children grew at a much faster pace than the overall U.S. population over a three-year span, driven in part by an increase in hospital admissions for newborn babies, according to a new study.

The wide disparity identified in the Health Care Cost Institute report raises questions about whether that higher spending rate is actually leading to better health outcomes for kids, and to what extent insurance prices will be affected if the trend continues.

"We do know that spending is going up every year, we know that spending on kids is going up faster, and this is particularly true for babies," said Amanda Frost, a senior researcher at HCCI, a nonprofit backed by large health insurers. "We don't know what the impact of this spending is on the population's health, or families or the health-care system."

In its report, HCCI looked at annual insurance claims for more than 10 million children covered by job-based health plans. About half of all children 18 years and younger were covered by such insurance in 2013.

From 2010 to 2013, health-care spending on kids rose by an average annual rate of 5.7 percent, HCCI found.

During the same time frame, spending on health care for all people up to the age of 64 grew at an annual average rate of 3.9 percent.

In dollars terms, per capita spending for children increased by $391 since 2010, landing at $2,574 in 2013. That compares to the $4,864 per capita spending on health care for the general population.

Spending on boys up to the age of 18 was higher than girls—$2,716 per capita for boys compared with $2,426 for girls. But the reverse was true when HCCI looked at just teens: Health spending on teen girls was higher than on boys of that age group.

The higher-than-average spike in spending for children compared with the general population came despite the fact that both prescription drug use and visits to the emergency room dropped in 2013. Price savings also came from a dramatic shift toward the use of less expensive generic drugs.

The overall increase in spending was fueled by higher numbers of inpatient admissions to hospitals by children and increased prices for such admissions, HCCI's report said.

"The largest dollar increase in the average price per service was in inpatient admissions," the report noted. In 2013 alone, "the average price per admit increased by $744," hitting $14,685 per admission.

And the biggest driver of the rise in such admissions were newborn babies, between 0 and 18 days old, who were admitted separately from their mothers.

"We are seeing higher average prices for baby boy admissions than for baby girl admissions," Frost said. "We're not really sure why, yet ... the claims data is not very good at telling us why that is true."

Babies overall — newborns to 3-year-olds — had the highest level of spending by far of any age group for juveniles, $4,813 per capita. In a distant second place was spending on teenagers age 14 to 18 years old, at $2,746 per capita, HCCI's report found. Babies also had the fastest average annual growth of health spending of any other group of kids, at 6 percent.

Per capita spending on babies was even higher than one group of adults, those between the ages of 26 and 44, whose per capita spending was $4,258 a year.

Source: NBC News

Children with psychiatric issues are more likely to have serious problems as adults

Children with even mild or passing bouts of depression, anxiety and/or behavioral issues were more inclined to have serious problems that complicated their ability to lead successful lives as adults, according to research from Duke Medicine.

Reporting in the July 15 issue of JAMA Psychiatry, the Duke researchers found that children who had either a diagnosed psychiatric condition or a milder form that didn't meet the full diagnostic criteria were six times more likely than those who had no psychiatric issues to have difficulties in adulthood, including criminal charges, addictions, early pregnancies, education failures, residential instability and problems getting or keeping a job.

"When it comes to key psychiatric problems -- depression, anxiety, behavior disorders -- there are successful interventions and prevention programs," said lead author William Copeland, Ph.D., assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke. "So we do have the tools to address these, but they aren't implemented widely. The burden is then later seen in adulthood, when these problems become costly public health and social issues."

Copeland and colleagues analyzed data from the Great Smoky Mountains Study, which began nearly two decades ago and includes 1,420 participants from 11 North Carolina counties. The study is ongoing and has followed the participants from childhood through adulthood -- most are now in their 30s.

Among the study group, 26.2 percent met the criteria for depression, anxiety or a behavioral disorder in childhood; 31 percent had milder forms that were below the full threshold of a diagnosis; and 42.7 percent had no identified problems.

The researchers found that as these children grew into adults, even some of those who had no psychiatric diagnosis as children -- nearly one in five -- stumbled in adulthood, suggesting that difficulties were not limited to those with psychiatric diagnoses.

But having a psychiatric diagnosis or a close call dramatically raised the odds that adulthood would have rough patches. This was the case even if they did not continue to have psychiatric problems in adulthood.

Of those with the milder psychiatric indicators as kids, 41.9 percent had at least one of the problems in adulthood that complicates success, and 23.2 percent had more than one such issue. For those who met the full psychiatric diagnosis criteria, 59.5 percent had a serious challenge as adults, and 34.2 percent had multiple problems.

Copeland said specific psychiatric disorders were associated with specific adult problems, but the best predictor of having adult issues was having multiple psychiatric problems as kids.

"When we went into this, it was an open question: Are these psychiatric diagnoses in childhood impairing in the moment, but something people recover from and go on?" Copeland said. "We weren't expecting to find these protracted difficulties into adulthood."

Copeland said the findings reinforce the need to attack problems early with effective therapies. He said only about 40 percent of children get the treatment they need for psychiatric disorders, and even fewer who have borderline problems are treated.

"A big problem with mental health in the United States is that most children don't get treatment and those who do don't get what we would consider optimal care," Copeland said. "So the problems go on much longer than they need to and cost much more than they should in both money and damaged lives."

Source: News-medicine