Posts Tagged ‘Nanny Safety’

Feeding Time: What do you think of Alicia Silverstone’s ‘Mommy Bird’ method?

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Actress Alicia Silverstone first got a lot of attention for her unusual taste in baby names.

Best known for her movie roles in “Clueless” (Cher) and “Batman” (Batgirl), actress Alicia Silverstone is now feeding an endless amount of watercooler chatter surrounding her parenting philosophy.

On her blog, “The Kind Life,” the actress recently posted this silent home video of herself feeding her baby son, Bear Blu, by first chewing the food and then regurgitating it into his mouth like a bird.

Writes Silverstone:

“I just had a delicious breakfast of miso soup, collards and radish steamed and drizzled with flax oil, cast iron mochi with nori wrapped outside, and some grated daikon. Yum! I fed Bear the mochi and a tiny bit of veggies from the soup…from my mouth to his. It’s his favorite…and mine. He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if I’m eating. This video was taken about a month or 2 ago when he was a bit wobbly. Now he is grabbing my mouth to get the food!”

The pop culture icon, well known for her public endorsement of the vegan lifestyle, certainly has eclectic tastes.  No Gerber squash or peas for little Baby Bear!

Baby Bear or Baby Bird? (Source: TheKindLife.com)

Pre-masticating or pre-chewing food for babies, also known as “kiss feeding,” is a practice that spans across cultures. One recent study reported that 63 percent of Chinese university students were fed this way when they were infants.

Regardless of how widely accepted the method is, Alicia Silverstone’s video was instantly met with wide ridicule.

The irreverent women’s blog Jezebel chastised the Hollywood star for “making out” with her son.

Comedian and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel suggested parents everywhere get a laugh by pretending to adopt the technique for their older children. His YouTube Challenge is called “Hey Jimmy Kimmel, I Silverstone My Kid.”

What do you think: Can humans learn from the birds?

Here’s how the NY Daily News reported on Kimmel’s offbeat challenge, or should we say, dare:

“You can use any food. And tell your kids a doctor named Alicia Silverstone said it is healthy for parents to chew the food first. And explain this is how eating is going to work in the house from now on,” Kimmel said, while holding a plate of pre-chewed pizza, in a video uploaded to YouTube.

Kimmel tells parents to avoid actually chewing the food in what he calls, “one more step towards a real life hunger games.

“I don’t want you to spit food into your kid’s mouth, even I have limits.”

Kimmel amassed a series of hilarious videos during past challenges including “I told My Kids I ate All Their Halloween Candy” and “Unplug the TV During Super Bowl!”

And comedian Joan Rivers took it one step further by taking a bite out of her sandwich on the TV show “Fashion Police” and passing the food to the lips of her co-host, Kelly Osbourne.

On a more serious note, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention warn that the premastication technique NOT be used by caregivers who have the HIV virus because of potential spread of the disease through saliva.

If that issue is not a concern, then how you feed your baby really comes down to personal preference. There are many different parenting styles out there and the challenge of finding the perfect nanny is matching up with one who naturally shares your childcare philosophy.

At eNannySource.com, we’re proud to have connected more than 450,000 nannies and families over the past decade. Our Safe Nanny Hiring Kits, Nanny Background Checks and Nanny Learning Center make us the logical and affordable alternative to pricey nanny agencies.

Whether you prefer to pulverize solid food in a blender or seek alternative methods for your infant, no one knows your parenting preferences better than you — and you should be at the forefront of choosing your nanny!

That being said, what do YOU think about feeding your child pre-chewed food?

How to avoid hiring the wrong nanny

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

Recently a nanny was caught hitting and kicking a baby. It’s hard to understand how someone could do something like that to a child. Thank goodness the family had a nanny cam and caught it and fired her immediately.

I’m sure that many parents are thinking after reading about this incident, “Here we go again, another nanny hurting an innocent child. We can’t trust a nanny with our children.”  This event is alarming and disturbing to all of us and probably more so to those of us in the online nanny business.

Rather than going into a defense of online nanny services, I want to talk about what could be done to possibly prevent this from happening. I’m not going to address the particular circumstances of this sad event since I don’t know enough about the details to make a comment, and I certainly don’t want to say anything that could imply parents are at fault when something like this occurs, they most definitely were not.

I believe that hiring and vetting a nanny is complex, difficult tasks that whose difficulty is underestimated by many families who believe they can go by their “gut” when hiring a nanny. Of course our gut is the primary line of defense for all of us adults when making important decisions, but gut is built on experience which few families have in this arena. Are we all experts in human nature and do we all have great interviewing skills when hiring a potential caregiver to our child? Do things like time pressure to hire quickly so that mom and dad can get to work and money not impact our judgment? Of course they do. Have you have heard about Malcolm Gladwell’s rule of 10,000 hours to be an expert in an area?

It may sound strange coming from the owner of an online nanny service to say this, but the best line of defense for families hiring a nanny is using a full-service nanny agency. They have the skills and discipline to get it right. Nanny agencies have tough standards on experience and references that eliminate most candidates so families aren’t exposed to them. They know how to find phony references and they interview thousands of nannies-and as we know with experience comes expertise.

In the next installment I’ll discuss tools that families can use when hiring on their own without an agency.

Should a family use a nanny cam?

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Most of us by now have read the news about a nanny being charged criminally after being viewed on a nanny cam. First, I feel the concern of families that are scared to death after reading about this. I hope that families find it comforting that this is a very rare occurrence. Most nannies are loving, caring people treating their charges with love and respect and do their jobs well every day.

We feel that by following proper nanny screening steps and really doing your homework in the vetting process that families will find a great nanny. Unfortunately this type of media article creates a lot of understandable anxiety. A nanny cam can help reduce this anxiety and we encourage families to use one whenever they feel the need. Just be sure to follow the appropriate laws of your state.

Is Your Nanny Water Safety Certified?

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

by, Lisa Werth  http://modernizingmarypoppins.com/
Lisa is a nanny with many years of experience

For more articles on nanny safety issues

In July of 2008 and now in June of 2010 two nannies have died in drowning accidents while caring for young charges. That is two nannies too many.

Many years ago, I myself as a nanny on duty at the time had to dive into a deep pool to pull a struggling child out of the water.

When I heard of both tragedies the immediate thought that came to mind was could they swim? Why did they never learn what to do in case of a water emergency?

After the first nanny died a few summers ago, I started to become vocal about the need for families with pools who were hiring caregivers to be responsible and hire only those that can swim. In May of 2009 I was out on a hike with another nanny one weekend near the Potomac River, and she asked if it was possible to swim in it? I looked at her as if she was crazy. Rivers have currents and the Potomac has big rocks.

This got me thinking though about what people do and don’t know about water in general and what precautions do they need to take.

With my charges, I like to get out in nature, whether it’s a trail over a creek or river, near a duck pond at a playground, or on the shoreline of a lake. I’ve done all types of things with them over the years. In hindsight, in most of those jobs my former employers never asked me if I could swim or test me for water safety knowledge.

Yes, I do know what to do; I nearly drowned when I was four. A childhood neighbor friend of mine did drown the summer we were twelve in a diving accident. A few years after that my cousin’s toddler drowned in a bath tub. I am perhaps hyper vigilant when it comes to children and water. I read all the articles and pamphlets that I come across about precautions and procedures to take.

According to the American Red Cross each year, more than 830 children ages 14 and under die as a result of unintentional drowning. On average, an annual 3,600 injuries occur to children due to a near-drowning incident.

I have been on many interviews with families that have pools, or go sailing and boating. Some live or vacation on waterfront properties. Many of my charges have been in swim lessons and then want to go to the pool or the beach, and the parents expected me to take them. Likewise, there are many nannies in our country working in situations where water is a part of the job. One thing I do know, is while life guards are good, it doesn’t mean a nanny should let down her guard.

I am American Red Cross Water Safety Certified. I received this training through a nanny retreat. At the International Nanny Association Conference in the spring of 2010 several others became certified in water safety too. It would be great to see a majority of nannies become trained in this. If there is a

nanny agency, association or organization in your area encourage them to offer a training time on water safety including the ARC certification.

Parents, if you are going to hire and nanny and you have a pool or even think there is the remote possibility of them being near or in any type of water, please insist that your nanny be trained in water safety. And, know water safety yourself; take the course together if you both need it. It is inexpensive and just a few short hours of your time.

After you complete the water safety training have drills with your nanny and children. Create Rules and plans for what to do in an emergency. Post them somewhere near your pool because in a panic situation having those steps there can be a extremely vital to help remind people on what to do.

Periodically look over the guidelines put out by the American Red Cross and other health and safety organizations. Know CPR and First Aid, sometimes the accidently drowning can occur after a slip and head injury. Have pool side medical emergency kits and devices to aid you if needed. Always have a cell phone nearby too. Put the address to your location on the safety rule board you have posted so if visitor needs to call 911 they can direct the dispatcher to where you are.

Please obey city ordinances regarding gates, covers, etc. around pools. Make sure household doors that lead off towards pools and bodies of water are securely locked so that curious little children don’t head out toward the water undetected.

Make sure your friends and neighbors know your expectations too. One time as a nanny, I came home while my employers and charges were away to discover some friends of theirs using the pool. Another time the neighborhood boys came over to apologize for being in it without telling their parents or us.

Here are some additional links for you to have as reference to go over with your family and nanny,

http://www2.redcross.org/services/hss/tips/healthtips/safetywater.html

http://kidshealth.org/kid/watch/out/water.html

http://www.safekids.org/safety-basics/safety-resources-by-risk-area/drowning/open-water-safety-tips.html

PLEASE, help prevent another child and nanny drowning tragedy.