The Baby Analyst by Amazing Jesz

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle." ~ Steve Jobs I am taking a break today from my usual Child Safety to talk a bit about my journey (still in progress) into Education and/or Child Development.  I must confess that this post is long overdue. Please sit back and enjoy reading.  I began year 2019 with a quest to get some knowledge about working with children - be it

"Childhood trauma does not come in one single package" ~ Asa Don Brown When I decided to write on this topic, the first thought that came to my mind was  CONSENT. That word has been thrown around so much, especially with the not-so-recent '#MeToo' movement that trended a couple of years ago on Social Media.  

"You do love them, right? Then ask questions" - The Baby Analyst It's been a really long while people, and I'm glad to be back 😊😊😊. This post is long overdue, so I'll just dive right into it. I had to take my Mum to the hospital a few weeks ago to run some tests. I remember having to sit with her during her consultation and paying just as much attention as she was (or even more) to the doctor. When he recommended a test, I would ask what it was called, what it was meant for, how it would be carried out, any side effects, etc. Same thing went for the pharmacists when she had to get her prescription. I needed to know the name of each drug, what it was for, and any possible side effects. You know how some hospitals in Nigeria just dispense drugs in that little plastic ziploc with no name sometimes...so my questions were very necessary I tell you. Lol.  At that moment, I thought about kids and hospital visits and how parents and caregivers manage. Takin...

"Your first obligation as a parent is to not bring chaos into your kids lives" ~ Anonymous                                                                                   It's that time of the year again! Woo! Hoo!  And I apologise because this post should have gone out a lot earlier than now; but as the saying goes, "better late than never". So read on with me... Christmas season just seems to bring out all the joy in me, right from the very first day in December when I can 'officially' play Christmas Carols without looking over my shoulder and hoping no one's listening. So these days when I have the radio on, I'm listening to Christmas Carols and singing my lungs out in that awesome voice of mine.  

Guard himself as he may, every moment's an ambush ~ Horace Just before the rains started, I made up my mind to go swimming every weekend (or every other weekend) - something I used to really enjoy doing.  I managed to go a few times though. Whenever I go to the pool, I see some kids come in to swim very often  (they take swimming lessons) . I've always had the 'consciousness' of knowing how to swim since I was a kid, so I really don't remember ever learning (I grew up in a riverine area in Nigeria). But these

Guard himself as he may, every moment's an ambush ~ Horace OK...So, I normally have drafts of posts at various levels of completion. When I notice something, or an idea pops into my head, I'd take a few minutes to put it down so I can develop later.  So I looked through my draft stash today and found nothing quite 'meaningful' to complete; it just seemed like there was nothing to write on. But seeing that this is something I love to do so much, it didn't take too long for something to come to mind. (*pats self in admiration*). LOL While in my 'thinking mood', I took one look at my handbag right beside my desk phone and remembered an incident that happened a while ago:  I was rummaging through my handbag absent-mindedly trying to get something out when  I felt a sharp pain on my finger. Yes, there was a pin or some sharp object in my bag that pricked me. I flinched and pulled out my hand immediately and there was a tiny spot of blood on my forefing...

"Guard himself as he may, every moment’s an ambush" ~ Horace I read a post (on Facebook) a couple of months ago about Scott and Jessica Walker's experience with their baby. Scott Walker shared it on his wall, and this is what the post says: *I have permission to share it here* "Had a small scare this afternoon with Ms. Molly (their 19-month old daughter). What happened was new to me, but apparently not totally uncommon, so I figured I'd share with my fellow parents out there. I was with the family over lunch and Molly was cranky and screaming - nothing out of the ordinary. As worked up as she was getting, she started to overheat, which prompted Jess to remove her socks and cool her down.

Think of fire before it starts ~ Unknown I watched this video on fire safety a couple of weeks ago, and I thought to share it here, although not entirely limited to baby/child safety. I've been wanting to write about fire safety for a while now, especially with our peculiar problem of erratic power supply (a major cause of fire outbreaks).  I'm  always very concerned about leaving electrical appliances plugged in when not in use (especially the ones that heat up). I did something very silly the other day. I left an electric kettle plugged in while I went to jog in the morning. There had been no power supply the night before, and when it came

"Safety is more important than convenience" ~ Don Hambidge This is the continuation of " Thinking about daycare? Tips on what to look out for - I" . Safety :   With the spate of kidnappings and abductions we have had in the country in recent times, we can't ignore safety. In the daycare I talked about in Part I

"Safety is more important than convenience" ~ Don Hambidge Preamble When I opened up this post to edit, I saw the 'last saved' date and nearly fell off my chair. I mean I started writing this post over three months ago, and have had it 'nearly completed' for more than a month now.  I cannot even think of where to begin my apologies. I sincerely apologise for the protracted silence. A lot has been happening with me...and this lot is called 'life'. I will try my best not to pull anymore disappearing stunts again.  Now to the The Baby Analyst. I was going to make this a single post, but decided against it because of the length. I'll split it in two  so I don't begin to bore you after my months of hiatus. 

Precaution is better than cure ~ Edward Coke I apologise for being away for so long. I started a new job a couple of weeks ago, and have been swamped. I’m sure I will be able to create more time for this as I settle into the routine of work.   I did a post here once about keeping medicines and chemicals/poisons stored safely from our kids. Since we already talked about that,

"Better a thousand times careful than one dead" ~ Proverb Like the name says, SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is sudden and silent as it is not usually accompanied by known symptoms. According to the NHS , it is the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby.  Although there are no statistics in Nigeria, and may therefore not seem very common, it is the most common cause of death in babies under 1 year in the United States (higher risk between 0-4 months).  I think what is worrying about SIDS (also known as cot death) is that it is unclear what

Danger never takes a vacation [even during the holidays] ~ Author Unknown Apart from ice-cream and maybe a couple more things that I do not yet know about, I wonder what other word elicits so much joy, excitement, or anticipation from kids as TOYS!!!  What better time to talk about toys than in this season of giving, giving, and even more giving. Oh, and receiving and receiving; after all, someone has got to receive all that giving away. The most toy-related deaths in 2013 for kids in the US were due to asphyxiation, while there were 256,700 toy-related injuries. I can't get any statistic for Nigeria, but I can imagine the figures will be

A sense of humour is needed armour... ~ Hugh Sidey A bit of humour today. Are you a 'Safety-chondriac'? No need to grab a dictionary 'cause I just formed that word. I was having a conversation with my roommate/flatmate some nights ago, and she was describing the symptoms of a disease (I can't quite remember the name now). One of the symptoms she mentioned was pain in the hand, and suddenly I started massaging my hand and noticed that I felt a slight pain; then she mentioned another symptom that I could relate with. It appeared that for every symptom she mentioned, I had a corresponding ache or pain in that part of my body. She got irritated at some point and had to stop. LOL. This and

Precaution is better than cure ~ Edward Coke I didn’t want to write about medicines and chemicals/poisons just yet, but my coworker narrated something that happened to her a couple of days ago, so I figured i'd just do it now. I hope you pardon my numerous stories. These are true stories based on my real life experiences or the experiences of people I know. These stories of babies and children safety overtime inspired the creation of this blog, and I hope that we can begin to discuss how we manage these safety issues in our challenging environment.  Now back to my story: My coworker left her kids (a 2-year old girl and 2-month old