The Internet is a noisy place that offers parents an inconsistent but massive menu of help. Now a mom has entered the blogosphere who is not only a strong writer, but also a doctor, which means she can offer useful advice on ear infections, Tylenol dosages and other questions that keep parents up at night.

Since Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson began writing Seattle Mama Doc last November, she has carved out an important niche as a thoughtful pediatrician and mom, who doesn’t waste too much of her readers’ time staring at her own parenting navel. Instead, the mother of two tackles everything from vaccine safety and food allergies to car seat rules and the daily juggle. She passes my test for blogs by regularly offering something valuable that I can use.

“This blog caters to one principle I’ve learned along the way: parents just want to do what is right. The desperate love we have for our children can shock us into good and sometimes bad decisions,” Swanson writes to explain the point of the Seattle Children’s Hospital blog. “We all want information to facilitate decisions that let us rest easier at night. Having my own two children makes this reach for what is right palpable. I want to help you decipher some of the current medical news I juggle in my life as both a pediatrician and a mother.”

The 36-year-old also writes powerfully about her own balancing act of raising two kids while helping aging parents. It is a juggle many of today’s parents know as the baby boomer generation heads deeper into retirement.

This morning I chatted with Seattle Mama Doc about what makes her write.

Questions:

Why start a blog, aren’t you busy enough?

I learned that anecdote and that storytelling were most effective when I wanted to be persuasive, (when) I wanted to be effective…Empowering families with education and information so they can learn more.

I would be most effective as a communicator on science, health, wellness and morbidity by talking about it as a mom.

This (the blogosphere) is where people are.

What is the number one question you hear from parents with kids age 3 to 5?

Sick visits: Fever. Well visits: Bedwetting, thumb sucking or tantrums.

Picky eating is the other thing.

What is your favorite parenting book?

I am not a big parenting book person.

I have a lot of books. I have not read a lot of them.

I have this book “Instinctive Parenting”…She kind of resonated what I think: You have to trust your instinct.

We had a great chat with Dr. Swanson and we’ll add some of her other thoughts in future stories.

For most families, the birth of a baby means a serious lack of sleep, mounds of dirty diapers and lots and lots of joy. But for at least one in eight new moms, the birth of a child can trigger deep depression during that first year. Postpartum depression is the most common complication of childbirth.

Watch online as Heidi Koss Nobel, executive director of Postpartum Support International of Washington, talks about what postpartum depression is, what to look for, how to get help and what it can mean for baby when mom is depressed during this important period in his growth and development.

Being a parent is hard work. There are no instructions. But there is help if you know where to look.
 
This month's Learning for Life focuses on resources for any and all parents. Included are a look at what local libraries and the state's 13 children's museums offer families, how to find child care in your area and information about the importance of a baby and toddler's oral health. Also featured is the Family Help Line, a statewide hotline for parents.

The series ran all this week. If you missed it, check it out online.

• Monday, Jan. 18: Libraries offer free activities: A lot of new parents think if they sign up for parent-child music classes and group activities they'll give their child a better educational start. But those classes can cost a lot of money. Did you know your child can enjoy a lot of the same types of classes and experiences - for free?
• Tuesday, Jan. 19: What to look for in good child care: The executive director of the Washington Child Care Resource and Referral Network discusses options parents have in choosing child care.
• Wednesday, Jan. 20: Museums can spark children's creativity: Children's Museum of Tacoma Executive Director, Tanya Andrews, talks about how museums can spark your child's creativity.
• Thursday, Jan. 21: Early start essential for healthy teeth and gums: With the help of the Washington Dental Health Foundation, more young children and pediatricians are getting early start building healthy teeth and gums.  
• Friday, Jan. 22: Free parent helpline answering parents' questions: Every parent needs a little help and advice from time to time, but finding someone to listen - and even more so, to give good advice - can be a real challenge at times. KING 5's Deborah Feldman reports about a free parent helpline that's available to help parents with questions big and small.

Learning for Life is a week-long news series on KING 5 TV created in partnership with Thrive by Five Washington. It airs the third week of each month on KING Morning News on KONG 6/16 TV between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m.

Links to all Learning for Life segments can be found on Thrive's Web site.

In the spirit of the holiday and last-minute shopping season, I created a list of my family’s favorite children’s books, which are stories that both my kids and I enjoy reading.

The list is hardly scientific and anything but set because it changes nearly every month. While I can’t say these books will raise fourth grade math test scores or college graduation rates, these stories should help with one of the key aspects of early learning: Parents reading to their children.

• “The Story of Holly & Ivy” by Rumer Godden and Barbara Cooney.
• “Snowmen at Christmas” by Caralyn BuehnerandMark Buehner.
• “The Penderwick’s: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy” by Jeanne Birdsall. Author website.
• “The Barefoot Book of Fairy Tales” retold by Malachy Doyle. Illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli.
•  “Lost and Found” by Oliver Jeffers.

The Classics:

• “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss. The Lorax website.
• “Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months” by Maurice Sendak.
• “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” “The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck” and “The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher” by Beatrix Potter. The World of Beatrix Potter
• “The Magician’s Nephew” by C.S. Lewis. (The first in “The Chronicles of Narnia” series.
• “The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh” by A. A. Milne, decorations by Ernest H. Shepard.

A couple of other lists:

• “Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2009” by The New York Times.
• “Early literacy starts with wonderful books.” EarlyStories offers a list of good children’s books lists, plus a link to Pre-K Now’s books for adults who care about early learning.

Happy Holidays everyone.

 

Parents have been involved with their children’s schools for generations, but apparently we still are not sure how schools should engage them, particularly among the nation’s poorest families, a new essay says.

The Foundation for Child Development report recounts the modern history of federal parental engagement programs in this country. Sadly, one of its conclusions is we don’t really know what programs help students and narrow the achievement gap.

But what never has been clear, despite 40 years of voluminous research, is whether myriad strategies schools are now using to engage low-income parents have actually been effective in raising their children’s achievement. – “Involving Parents: Has it Helped the Poorest Children,” Foundation for Child Development.

Yet, we know parents are critical to their children’s success at school.

“Research over the past thirty years has consistently shown that greater family involvement in children’s learning is a critical link to achieving a high-quality education and a safe, disciplined learning environment for every student,” asserted a U.S. Department of Education paper on the Goals 2000 legislation.

The report covers a lot of ground, starting with President Lyndon Johnson and ending with President Barack Obama. Over the forty years, however, the report didn’t find too many solutions, and towards the end asks the Obama administration, with its interest in evidence-based solutions for early learning challenges, to find out what works.

On one level the answer is simple.

“You don’t have to give parents a college education,” (Joyce) Epstein, (founder of the Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University) said. “You just have to give them a strategy for having an interesting conversation with their third grader about a book they’re reading even if the parents haven’t read the book.”

Now we need to figure out what strategy works.

Check out the on the Foundation for Child Development’s Web site.

Autism seems to be everywhere today, but a new film suggests not all newly-diagnosed children have the mysterious disorder and that these autistic-like children could help us understand how students learn and improve the first years of education.

“Autistic-Like: Graham’s Story” is about how one family was told their son was autistic, only to learn months later from another doctor that while he had characteristics of the neurological disorder, he was not on the spectrum.

This wasn’t about splitting diagnostic hairs because Graham’s diagnosis would likely shape his education. When teachers hear one of their students carries an autism label, they often brace for a non-communicative student with severe behavioral problems, classic symptoms of autism, Erik Linthorst, Graham’s father and the film’s director, said in an interview.

Graham, however, was sociable and had relatively few outbursts.

“I could just tell by the way she (his teacher) was approaching him. All she did was marvel at how verbal he is,” said Linthorst, whose film shows in Redmond this weekend. “She was prejudging by a label.”

The film’s idea of autistic-like extends far beyond medical and research circles. Linthorst suggests all incoming kindergartners could benefit from a sensory profile test, like the one that found his son was not autistic.

“It is part of this refinement process. We are starting to look at these kids, instead of putting labels on them we are starting to take an individualized approach,” Linthorst, a veteran of the Hollywood movie scene, said. “What is the individual nervous system doing and how can (it) best help them climb up the developmental ladders?”

The test, for example, can help teachers and parents discover if a child is a visual or auditory learner, Linthorst added.

I am not endorsing or rejecting Linthorst’s idea, only suggesting the expanding world of autism – an estimated 1 in 91 children are now diagnosed with the disorder - may increasingly hold lessons for those outside it.

Parents of typically developing children can even learn a few things from autism therapy. As Linthorst was lying on the floor in a therapy session -  where he made big faces and voices with Graham, followed his son’s interests and was basically creative and silly  – he realized a lot of what he was doing was simply good parenting.

“That’s what we’d all love to do with our typical kids, but most parents don’t. We talk down to our kids, try to make every moment a teaching moment (often inappropriate skills like learning colors when we should be encouraging communication and engagement), want them to be interested in what we think they should be interested in, and generally don’t have time to be silly,” Linthorst added in an email.

Seattle-area parents can meet Erik Linthorst and check out his film this Saturday in Redmond.

When: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: Sammamish Forest Manor, Redmond, WA
RSVP: carrie@sensoryplanet.com