My Connections To Play

Play today is not that much different from when I was a child. In my past I have observed may childlcare centers and the games I have observed the children being engaged in has not changed at all. I feel that when it comes to early childhood it appear that each child is still in that enjoying play mentality and not trying to grow up so fast and into having fun, but to me it seems once they reach that age range of 7-9yrs age range they mature out of no where. I guess that comes from some parents trying to make their child grow  up to fast and not allowing them to enjoy their childhood and responsbilities on them before its even time. I hope whenever I become a parent or enter my career field I will allow my children to stay in a child minds frame and enjoy their childhood as long as possible.

I can say that my childhood and adulthood when it comes to play is not different at all because even as an adult I am a big kid at heart, except now I may play for the exercise and the enjoyment of friends compared to as a child I was just doing it to have fun.

 

                                                                           

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning....They have to play with
what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they
learn in new forms of play.

--Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

                                                           

“When kids play, they remember. They may not be aware they are learning, but they sure
are aware they are having fun. When you have a good belly laugh with your siblings or
parents or friends, that stays with you. And the great thing is that is comes so naturally…
if we only let it.”

 

--Rebecca Krook, play facilitator for kids with

disabilities

 

 

Due to the fact I was the only child growing up, play came every easy for me because I played very well by myself as well as had a great imagination. Whether I played with the neighborhood kids or by myself my parents always supported me in my chlildhood. It would be times my dad would come out and  play outside with me if he saw me outside and my mom would play Barbie dolls with me on the inside. One thing I had a bad habit of was making my boy cousins always dress up but I would always agree to go out and play football or soccer so you can say it was an even trade. I can honestly say because of them I have that rough and tumble play naturally because of them and it is more dominant then my drama and pretend play......

 

                                                                                        

 

 

 

 

 

Child Development and Public Health

Breastfeeding
      Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. A lack of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life contributes to over a million avoidable child deaths each year. Globally less than 40% of infants under six months of age are exclusively breastfed. Adequate breastfeeding support for mothers and families could save many young lives.
WHO actively promotes breastfeeding as the best source of nourishment for infants and young children. This fact file explores the many benefits of the practice, and how robust help for mothers can increase breastfeeding worldwide.
         The reason I chose breastfeeding because I know that one it is the most effective way of bonding with the child, two it can be a healthy way to ensure that the child is receiving nutrition, but the downfall to breastfeeding is that it is an effective way to pass diseases to your child. The feel that with this particular topic this is information that will continue to change as years pass. There will always be way to were doctors try to keep breast-feeding as a number one source of nutrition for the child and it will allow people like myself that doesnt have kids yet to gain more knowledge of the topic and how it can effect the child. 
  However babies who are exclusively breast-fed are less likely to get sick, because breast milk provides them with antibodies against any disease that the mother is immune. Breast- feeding also decrease the risk of many diseases that appear in childhood and adulthood, among them asthma, obesity, and heart disease.
          Breastfeeding in other countries
The world's oldest and still most widely practiced form of birth regulation is breastfeeding. That statement draws much skepticism among ordinary people in Western culture, but it is recognized as still true by professionals in the fields of international demography and infant nutrition because they know how breastfeeding affects both health and birth intervals in primitive cultures around the world. A professor of pediatrics put it this way: "Demographic data recorded prior to the 20th century from birth records all over the world indicate that the average spacing of children was about two years when mother's milk supplied the major source of calories for infants during the first year to 1.5 years of life."
In the West African country of Rwanda, a culture in which there were no contraceptives or taboos against intercourse after birth at the time, there were no differences in the birth intervals of bottle feeding mothers in the city compared to those in the rural areas. On the other hand, among breastfeeding mothers, there were significant differences. Among the city mothers who were already developing patterns of separation from their babies, 75% conceived between 6 and 15 months postpartum. However, in the rural areas, mothers had their babies with them all of the time, and 75% of the rural breastfeeding mothers conceived between 24 and 29 months postpartum. An even more dramatic example of the effects of very frequent suckling is provided by the Kung tribe. (The exclamation point represents a clicking sound.) Anthropologists watched these people with stopwatches and found that the babies and toddlers were nursing an average of two minutes every 15 minutes, and the mothers were conceiving at about 35 months. Such extended periods of breastfeeding infertility are rarely seen in Western culture. First of all, only a few Western mothers nurse that long although their number seems to be increasing. Secondly, there is some speculation that the richer diet of Western women may contribute to an earlier return of fertility.