You can share some great gifts that you have received in past,

may be in past your creative gift made someone very happy or

even share your desired item as holiday gift.

At coolkido.com we want everyone to be happy and

if you want something; why not express it here.

Maybe Mr. Claus is also reading this blog and will fulfill your wish.

So don’t hold back, go for it!

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]]> /blog/2010/10/share-your-best-gift-ideas-here/feed/ 3 /blog/2010/06/are-your-kids-into-tv-all-day/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed /blog/2010/06/are-your-kids-into-tv-all-day/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:39:06 +0000 coolaid /blog/?p=144 Are your kids into TV all day?  Are they ignoring you or pretend as if you are not talking to them while they are watching TV?  Do you know children, less than age of 8 years or younger, including infants and toddlers, watch TV for an average of 2 hours a day.  Kids and teens 8 – 18 yrs of age, average TV time is doubled – 4 hours per day!! In addition to that, they spend average 2 hrs/ per day on computer – outside of school work!

TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, interacting with parents and others which would encourage healthy physical and social development.  Also, watching too much TV can increase chances of being over weight for kids.  Not only that, some TV show characters often depict risky behaviors like smoking, drinking,..etc. which can have bad influence on children’s mind.  Also, sex on TV increases risk of teenage pregnancy.   Kids watching TV all the time, are more likely to develop attention problem as adolescents.

So, how should parents tackle this situation to control TV time?

Traveling by road does provide parents a great flexibility.  They don’t have to follow airline / train’s schedule but they can leave on their own schedule and take breaks on their own (or may be their kids’) schedule.  Another big advantage of traveling by car is there is no extra luggage charge or luggage limit!  You can pack all you want as long as you can fit that in your car’s trunk.  You can also pack healthy snacks for your kids as well as for you to enjoy.  Also, if you leave early morning, while kids are still a sleep, you can cover nice distance in early morning without hitting any traffic.  When kids wake up, take a break for breakfast and hit the road again.

Sometimes it can be a challenging task to provide entertainment to kids while driving.   There is a new product called Car Wraps by Lassig on www.coolkido.com, check that out.

coolkido.com

This car wrap has different pockets to hold kids items.  Before you start your journey, have your kids fill out those pockets with their own items so they know what they will be doing in the car.  No more ‘Are we there yet’ questions for parents because kids will be busy.

We all know that everyone gets hungry while traveling and sometimes kids can be messy while eating in the car.  No more change of clothes needed if you use Bibbitec bibs.  Check them out on www.coolkido.com this item is a heaven sent for parents.

coolkido.com

In a nutshell, if parents plan ahead and they are prepared with useful items, traveling by car can not only be fun but can create memories of a life time!

Happy summer to all!

One of the best approach of food allergies is, train your child who has food allergies so that child will ask each time he/she is given a new item to eat, “does this have any nuts?”  That way, in case if child is with another adult like grandparents, uncle or aunt, child is reminding them to make sure there are no nuts in his/her food.  Even sometimes, parents could be multitasking and accidently gives child food without checking if it has any nuts or not, but if child is trained, then there is always a check point.   This approach will minimize allergy attack.

But what to do if your child is too young to be trained?  Well, in that case, when you drop your child off at a play date or birthday parties, make sure to inform host ahead of time regarding food allergies. Also, don’t be shy asking what is host planning to serve when you call host ahead of time.  That way host will know that he/she is expecting one child with food allergy.  Also, when you drop your child off for birthday party or play date, also drop Epipen & Benadryl along with your cell phone number just in case of emergency.

Bottom line is, if you have a child with food allergies,  you are required to be proactive and prepare all the time to handle allergy issues at anywhere. Unfortunately there is no easy way out.

Kids at this present time, are not into eating a balanced meal.  They always want to eat junk food because they think it’s cool to eat that rather than home cooked meal.  Unfortunately they don’t realize that eating junk food has many side effects. Junk food increases obesity, kids do not get appropriate nutrition they need to grow and it can increase their chances of life threatening disease later in their lives.

So, big question is, how to make kids eat healthy ? 

Well, first thing to do is, do not buy junk food any more.  Buy fresh fruits and vegetables.  Try to get seasonal colorful fruits,  bright color fruits and veggies ignite hunger.  Keep fruits and veggies visible so they would appeal to kids.  Make a weekly dinner menu and have kids get involved while you make that menu.  So that they feel that they have contributed too.  Have whole family eat dinner together at least 3 times a week.  Explain to kids that eating fruits and veggies will not only make them strong but will also prevent them from getting sick.

If you do this for at least 3 weeks, they will start eating home cooked healthy meal.  And they will start loving fruits and veggies. Please feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and healthy recipes for kids.

It’s multiple usability will make it as one of the favorite item of any mother for sure !!