Why do men seem to get uncorked and do all kinds of strange things at their children’s ballgames?

There is the loud type who feels he has to bark directions at his Little Leaguer as the boy or girl is at the plate.

And there is the even more aggressive type who is compelled to argue with soccer and basketball referees.

Finally, there is the guy that goes completely overboard, picking fights with fellow parents, umpires, and even league officials, when they’re around.

What do these behaviors have in common and why do they come out during athletic competitions and not when their kids are singing in the glee club?

I believe it all boils down to emotion. Men have emotions but are famous for suppressing them.

But we’ve been taught and have observed that it’s okay to show strong emotions in one place: at a sporting venue.

For example, my dad was a mild-mannered gentleman. Universally, people thought he was a nice guy, and I agree with that assessment.

But when he’d hit the ballpark, he morphed like a vampire or the wolf man.

He’d bark out encouragement to me in the strangest, guttural voice. I didn’t have a problem with it, but I did notice something was askew.

I have always speculated that at some level he was imitating either the guy that sold newspapers on the corner, or someone he saw at old Comiskey Park, in Chicago, where the White Sox played.

Normally, a very controlled guy, he let it rip and let his emotions show at the baseball diamond.

And I believe men who go overboard, unlike dad, believe that’s okay because they have no other places where they can permit their aggressions to come out.

By the way, when league officials have cracked down on aggressive cheering and have invoked rules of silence for the sidelines, many men have complained that much of the joy has been removed from kid-sports.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the best-selling author of 12 books, over 600 articles, and the creator of numerous audio and video training programs, including “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant-a favorite among salespeople and entrepreneurs. For information about booking Gary to speak at your next sales, customer service or business meeting, conference or convention, please address your inquiry to: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Is your baby susceptible to bouts of unexplained itchiness that you thought were merely a phase or skin sensitivity? Is her nose sometimes stuffy or runny? Is she cranky for no apparent reason and is she trying to tell you something?

Is emitting large quantities of intestinal gas a regular affair for your infant? Is his tummy a little more bloated than other kids’ and does he struggle to pass even soft stool or diarrhea?

If the answer is ‘”yes” to most of these questions, read on. Your baby might be dealing with a food allergy.

First of all, don’t panic. It’s not as serious as it sounds. Food allergies are a common problem amongst babies and adults alike.

There are many possible reasons for food allergies. Your infant could be allergic to cow’s milk or your child could be having some problems dealing with solids when you’re trying to wean him/her. Here are some possible causes for food allergies:

· Introduction of allergenic solids in baby’s diet before four months of age
· Allergy towards cow’s milk
· Allergy towards other foods like dairy products, fish, nuts, or wheat
· Heredity
· Enzyme deficiency which causes lactose intolerance
· In rare cases, a serious undetected illness or condition

Although food allergies in most cases are merely a nuisance and not life-threatening, parents still need to know the type of food or food group to eliminate from their baby’s diet. By avoiding, rotating the diet and playing food detective, we can minimize the discomfort and symptoms of food allergies as much as possible.

First, try to eliminate the following products from your infant’s diet.
· Dairy products
· Soy
· Egg (or at least white of egg)
· Wheat
· Peanuts
· Tree nuts
· Citrus fruits
· All types of food additives (reduce introduction of canned, packaged or ready-to-eat food)v
· Shellfish

If you’re not sure whether your baby is indeed suffering from a food allergy, observe your baby very closely and monitor his/her diet to see if she is experiencing any of the following allergic reactions:

· Rashes on face or other body parts that are red and scaly
· Hives
· Swollen hands and feet, puffy eyes
· Dark circles under the eyes
· Throat soreness and tongue
· Sneezing, running or stuffy nose
· Wheezing
· Persistent cough
· Ear infection
· Red and scaly rashes around the anus
· Abdominal discomfort
· Diarrhea or soft stool
· Poor weight gain
· Bloating of the stomach
· Gassiness
· Fatigue, headaches
· Irritability, moodiness, hyperactivity
· Sore muscles and joints

If you’ve determined that your infant is, indeed, suffering from a food allergy, try substituting some of the allergenic foods with non-allergenic foods like apples, apricots, barley, beets, grapes, cranberries, mangoes and oats.

Other non-allergenic foods include asparagus, carrots, cauliflower, chicken, broccoli, lettuce, rice, safflower oil, salmon, sweet potatoes, rye and honey.

Food allergies, as mentioned earlier, are quite common among infants and can be dealt with easily. The most important thing is for us to detect them, minimize reaction and symptoms, get advice from a professional and eliminate the allergies’ immediate causes.

When it comes to baby care, one thing you don’t want to be is out of date. Insure yourself against obsolescence: read Magnificent Babies Magazine, edited by Lucky Balaraman, at http://magnificentbabies.com.

A number of resources exist which can help you research your family heritage. If you’re lucky, one of the best resources is close at hand: your own family. Stories passed down from generation to generation contain nuggets of information that can help you begin your search. Names of your parents and grandparents, and their parents, can take you back three or four generations. Don’t ignore spouses of family relatives; not only do their personal stories add to the flavor of family history, sometimes the spouse of a family member - particularly the wife of a male relative - knows more about your family’s history than the relative does.

Interview your family members to see what they know about family history. The older members in particular may have knowledge of your family tree for generations, as well as what these ancestors did for a living, where they lived, when and how they died, and personal stories they’re more than willing to hand down to another generation. If you have birth or death certificates among family records, you’re in luck; birth certificates will contain a birth date, name of parents, and location of birth. The place of birth in particular will give you a clue as to where to look for further information.

Be aware that family recollections can be wrong. A couple personal experiences: My middle name is May, which was given to me in honor of my father’s aunt who raised him. My parents ended up being upset when they found out later that my aunt’s name wasn’t May, it was really Mary. But it doesn’t stop there: while I was researching my aunt’s death I came across her obituary in the local newspaper, and it turns out her name wasn’t May or Mary - it was Ruth!

Meanwhile, on my mother’s side of the family, it was well known that her grandfather’s name was Francis Isaac Barrott, that he had lived and died in Worcester, Massachusetts, and that he had actually worked as a maintenance man at City Hall. I contacted the records department of the city of Worcester looking for any records of Francis Isaac Barrott, and found nothing. Later, I obtained my mother’s father’s death certificate (he had died at the relatively young age of 37) and discovered that his father had signed his own son’s death certificate - as “Frank R. Barrott”.

Once you’ve gleaned as much as you can from living relatives, it’s time to access public records. Birth and death records, deeds, and military records are among those available for research, as are U.S. Census records, from the years 1790 up to 1930 (by law, census records cannot be released to the public for 75 years). When searching census records, start with the latest census and move backward; this way you may be able to track the changes in family circumstances back through the years.

Searching public records has become a lot easier since the introduction of the Internet. A popular software program available online, Ancestry.com, allows you to build your family tree and search U.S. Census databases and other public records.

A lot of books are available to help you on your family search. One of the best is Genealogy 101: How to Trace Your Family’s History and Heritage, by Barbara Renick in association with the National Genealogical Society (Rutledge Hill Press, 2003). Renick offers an organized approach to genealogical research that will save you a lot of false starts.

If you’ve been thinking for a while about beginning a serious search into your family’s background, don’t put it off. Your best resource, your older family members, is a finite resource. Once they pass on, their knowledge is gone forever.

Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire and frequently contributes to Tips and Topics. She has published numerous articles in local and regional publications on a wide range of topics, including business, education, the arts, and local events. Her feature articles include an interview with independent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and a feature on prisoners at the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord. She may be reached at amfredenburg@yahoo.com

When I had my firstborn I thought I new everything there was to know about raising children. I had read all the books, interviewed all my friends, come from a family full of ‘wise’ people… you get my meaning. I soon discovered however that I didn’t know a single thing about raising an infant. Of course, with number two, all that has changed. While I am still learning, there are some things I can definitely say I have mastered. One is the fine art of baby backpacking.

Selecting The Right Carrier: Trial and Error
I literally went through four different infant carriers with my first baby. I never did find the right one until I moved on to a baby backpack. My first daughter was simply very independent, and didn’t enjoy being carried until she could see everything I could while riding on my back. I tried the snugli sling, the BabyBjorn, a natural sling and finally threw my hands up. Everyone had their own opinion about which works best. She likes almost any type of backpack however, go figure.

My second however cherished every moment we had together. I quickly learned that the BabyBjorn infant carrier was my baby’s best friend in those early days. My children are also only 14 months apart, so I didn’t have a choice but carry number two around while chasing after number one. I soon learned however just how important safety is with an infant carrier. On more than one occasion I almost dropped my darling on her little head when I bent over to wipe some spilled stain off the floor. Little did I realize just how important it is to buckle those little ones in!

My youngest daughter also had terrible colic. I spent many nights walking around the block with her in the BabyBjorn. It was the only thing that helped calm her down enough to stop sobbing hysterically. I also lost weight a lot quicker carrying her everywhere I went!

Walking With Backpacks
I often go on walks with the two girls. In fact, we usually cover a good 3 miles or more a day. Now that my first daughter is walking and running, she can’t stand riding in a stroller in any more. For this reason we are in the market for a new backpack, one to suit my very large husband. While number two still enjoys riding around (front ways now) in her Baby Bjorn, she is growing fast and will also soon grow out of her favorite infant carrier. So I guess I am actually in the market for more than one backpack.

We definitely won’t be shopping for a top of the line camping model extraordinary. In fact, when it comes to camping I am a bit of a lightweight, and definitely concerned some big bear will come eat my precious child. For that my husband will have to convince me great lengths until I am willing to go sleep on an air mattress in the middle of no where and get eaten alive by mosquitoes. If one the other hand, we were actually near some water or a beach… well I might adjust my attitude slightly.

After much deliberation we plan to go for Evenflo’s backpack. A less expensive yet durable model, it will serve our walking needs for now. While both my husband and I actually do enjoy some hiking (albeit not as much as I used to) I don’t think we plan to take the girls just yet. Who am I kidding? I’d still rather go to the beach. But, I do have to say, having the convenience of a carrier or sling does make grocery shopping a much more pleasant experience.

I learned after one or two trips trying to put both kids in the grocery cart how easy it is for a toddler to hurl herself over the edge of a shopping cart, or better yet grab everything imaginable off the shelves and hurl them to the floor. That problem will no doubt resolve itself just as soon as I buy our latest backpack. Trust me, it’s much easier carrying them than trying to haul a double stroller through the isles of a crowded grocery store. I’ve borrowed a backpack or two in my time when I found myself lacking. I simply can’t say enough for their convenience or efficiency. Whether you have one kid or many, I highly recommend carrying them wherever you need to be, whenever you need to be there!

Ant Arthur is a successful freelance writer with 10 years of professional experience providing consumers with informative articles on such topics as Baby Carriers, Baby Slings and Baby Car Seats

This is a true story.

Yesterday, I picked up a new antibiotic prescription for my daughter from my local pharmacy.

(We recently adopted my daughter from India where she had recurrent ear infections resulting in severe hearing loss. And, she is about to undergo the second of several planned surgeries in order to try to repair the damage.)

Before putting her to sleep, I got the new medication out of the bag, glanced at the instructions, and prepared to give her the drug according to the instructions on the label.

Just before doing so, I had a quick double-take.

Something seemed to be wrong. I looked at the instructions again, and thought to myself slowly, *What*s going on…this doesn*t seem right.* Then, it hit me that the dose seemed awfully high for her.

It took me a minute or two to put the pieces together (it had been an unusually tough fight getting her ready for bed, I was tired, I was confident in my daughter*s physician, and I was thinking perhaps less critically that I should have). And then I noticed it. The label had a stranger*s name on it.

After another moment or two, I saw what had really happened.

The medication came in a box. Each side of the box had a different label…one label was for my daughter and one label was for a stranger. And, the stranger*s dose was more than double what my daughter*s surgeon had recommended.

(This error didn*t happen in a mom-and-pop pharmacy. It happened in a modern new chain pharmacy whose name you would recognize from advertisements on TV.)

I*m not a surgeon…and I*m not a pediatrician…but I am a physician trained in internal medicine and I have spent most of the last twelve years writing about, speaking about, and developing systems to reduce the frequency of medication error and improve the safety of pharmacy practice.

This pharmacy error brought the topic of drug safety home to me…literally.

What I can tell you is that this sort of error occurs all too often in the United States (and around the world). And, that it can have devastating consequences for the people involved.

A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated that 25% of patients who take one or more prescription medications will experience an adverse drug event within three months-and 39% of these are preventable or avoidable.

The Harvard Medical Practice Study found reported in JAMA in 2001 that 30% of patients with drug-related injuries died or were disabled for more than 6 months.

And, what almost everyone who studies this problem agrees is that current systems for selecting drugs, dosing them, communicating a prescription to a pharmacy, dispensing drugs, and instructing patients on their safe use are woefully inadequate.

In this series, we are going to take a close look at the processes that cause medication errors (some things that your physician and pharmacist may not even want you to know) and what steps you can specifically take to make sure that you and your love ones are protected from this hazard.

Ten years ago, your ability to get current, objective, reliable information on your medications in a quick and easy way was practically non-existent. It probably would have involved a trip to the library and required considerable knowledge about pharmacology to get the answers.

Today, that*s not the case. There is a host of on-line tools, databases, and resources that allow you to learn information about medications that even your physician and pharmacist may not know.

We*re going to talk about them, show you were to go, tell you the key things you need to know about medications, expose some myths, and let you know the questions you should be asking. It*s not as hard as it may seem.

In fact, you need to become the final line of defense in the battle against medication errors.

Throughout, we are going to give you some key rules that should guide your defense.

So, Rule Number 1. Trust, but verify. Never assume that the medication you have received is the right medication for you or that it is dosed correctly for you. Specifically, you should check:

• the name of the patient on the bottle;
  Hot Tip! A family dentist plays a significant role in detecting orthodontic requirements in children. It is estimated that about 45% to 75% of American population could benefit from orthodontic treatment.

• the name of the doctor on the bottle;

• the name of the medication (and cross check it to be sure that it treats a disease or problem you actually have… there are lots of look-alike/sound-alike drug names out there);

• the dose (from an independent source…to make sure that it is a plausible dose for you);

• the *route* (to make sure, for example, that eye drops are being prescribed for the eye, and not the mouth, or the ear…amazingly injuries from drug misplacement occur all the time);

• the expiration date.

We*ll talk about some specific resources that will help with each of these throughout this series.

The result, we hope, will be the piece of mind to know that you and your family are getting your 7 rights:

• right drug;

• right patient;

• right dose;

• right time;

• right route;

• right reason;

• right documentation.

Right on!

© 2004 Timothy McNamara, MD, MPH

About The Author

Timothy McNamara, MD, MPH is a nationally prominent expert in medication safety and healthcare technology. For additional practical steps you can take to improve medication safety and a personalized report of your medication profile, go to: http://www.medicationadvisor.com/art1.asp