Summer is coming which means its time for swimmer’s ear. This is the casual name for an infection called otitis externa, which is an infection of the ear and outer ear canal.

The tell tale signs you kid has it a red or inflamed appearance to the ear. It can also be very itchy and your kid won’t stop scratching it. Moving the head can be difficult. Even just touching the area can cause a kid to yelp. In serious cases there may be pus draining from ear.

This kind of otitisis often caused by infection with a germ called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This germ is everywhere – including ins oil and water. It can only be seen with a microscope. Anyone can get it but kids are more prone to getting it.

Most kids get it by swimming in the contaminated water. However you can also get it by handling a contaminated object. Contaminated object could be absolutely anything and not necessarily anything that was around the pool either. The symptoms usually begin within a few days of contact with the bacteria.

So0me of the more common symptoms of swimmer’sear include diminished hearing, pus draining, fever, pain radiating to the neck face or side of the neck. Your child may also complain that the ear feels block or full and the ear may even appear to be distended from the head. The lymph nodes may also appear to be swollen. An ordinary ear infection is not the same as Swimmer’s Ear. If you can wiggle or press the outer ear without pain or discomfort then it is probably an ordinary infection. If pulling on the ear causes a problem then it is the swimmer’s ear infection.

To prevent it dry your kid’s ears completely after swimming. Applying several drops of an alcohol based ear product can also help. I actually blow dry the insides of my kid’s ears out with a blowdryer.

Another way to prevent them is simply stay out of polluted rivers, ponds or streams and pools that are known for being unsanitary.

It also helps to minimize your use of Q Tips. Putting anything in the ear can make infections worse. Even sterile cotton swabs can scratch the inside of the ear and cause and infection to grow. You can even end up pushing germs deeper inside the ear canal if you are not careful. You should also avoid putting hot olive oil or anything else like that in the child’s ear as this problem is not the same as real block with earwax.

Sometimes you can treat an infection that sets in with antibiotic ear drops or mildly acidic solution such as boric or acetic acid.

The other day I met a baby named Taylor. Do you think it was a boy or a girl? It was a girl.

The trend nowadays is to choose names that leave the sex of the child to be a bit of a mystery. Not to many boys are named Shelagh. However there is a lot of naming girls with the little boys names. There is also a lot nicknaming this way. For instance a little girl named Roberta easily becomes “Bobby.” It is also easy for a James to become a Jamie.

One way to get a truly unisex name is to choose something unique and different for their babies. An older name that is more ambiguous works. A good example would be the name Forrest that is both a male and female name. Some of these names come from the family. For instance a girl named Danny might actually have a grandfather named Daniel. Same thing goes with a girl name Alex or Frankie. Sometimes a little change such as adding an “a” as in Alexa can help.

Some baby boy names or masculine names used these days to name a baby girl are Troy, Tom, Donnie, Gabby, Wilson, Ritchie and Wilson. Some boy or male names can be modified in their spelling and pronunciation so that they sound more girly. Daniel becomes Danielle. Oliver becomes Olivia. Gabriel becomes Gabriella. In fact that is an excellent way of feminizing a male name. A very common examine of that is how Paul becomes Paula. Anton becomes Antonella. Lowell becomes Lowella. Robert becomes Roberta and Albert become Alberta. You see this a lot in fraternal twins. An example would be Ivan and Ivana. When in doubt add an a!

Going to very ancient place names can also be unisex. For instance Paris can either be a male or female name. In fact Paris Hilton went out with a multi-millionaire man also named Paris last year. Michael Jackson also named his daughter Paris. Another good example is Madonna’s kid who is named Lourdes.

Other unisex names are derived from celebrates. For instance a child named Jagger could be either male or female. Famous weird unisex names are the Frank Zappa kid names – such as Moon Unit. Xavier is also a good example of true unisex name.

One of the few examples I can think where a male name is actually quite female sounding is Marion. In fact, John Wayne – the biggest tough guy ever was born as Marion. Also, remember the boy named Sue? It is actually spelled Su.

Another interesting phenomenon is people naming their children after objects. For instance the name Diamond could be either male or female. A good example of this is Gwyneth Paltrow’s child, which is named Apple.

It’s been some years since I have done it with my own kids but there is nothing more fun then taking a baby for a swim. I was watching some lessons the other with babies between six and twenty-four months and it was an absolute riot.

For those of you who are scared the baby will drown, don’t be. They are buoyant and naturally enjoy it. Moms and Dads go into the pool with the infants. You always see pictures of mummies and babies but there is no reason why a Dad can’t get right in there with the kid too. You can check at your local Y or community center to see what lessons are available.

The safest classes are the ones with the lower numbers. Be sure a qualified instructor teaches the class just in case there is an emergency. However mainly the lessons are designed to give your child confidence in the water. The best classes are the ones that are kept small. The smaller the class the better it probably is. Eight adults with one kid each in the water sounds right and there should be an instructor plus a lifeguard on duty as well.

If you child is uncomfortable then you can show him or her how easy it is by putting your face in the water. The hardest thing for any kid is to put the face in the water. It is natural for the child to be nervous at first. Be very encouraging and be prepared to be patient. This type of thing does not happen over night.

One way that worked for me was to blow bubbles in the water. Babies love this. It is similar to blowing on their tummy to make noises. You can also encourage the babies to jump into the pool by holding them on the edge. Get the baby used to leaping into your hands and then get then lower them more and more into the water with each leap.

The aim is not really swimming but more about confidence in the water. It would be a mistake to expect too much. You need to hold them up in the water and supervisee them at all times. It is a mistake to think that classes like this removes the risk of an accident.

You don’t have to pay for classes either. You can also practice in a public pool or been in the bathtub. This is of course cheaper. The idea is to get your child to be as confident in the water as possible.

Whenever your child is near or in water simply be as cheery and fun as possible.
Lure your child in with toys and make sure the water is warm enough and your baby will soon lose any fear of water.

There is now a trend to reading your kid’s bedtime stories on iPods. The kingpin of this idea is a guy named Don Katz who has this vision that technology should meet the Brother’s Grimm. In fact I am sure he is right about this theory that more kids would know a little more about culture if only it was a little more high tech in practice. I know this could be true because I have seen how much my own children absolutely adore gadgets – especially their iPods. Of course they are going to want to listen to bed time stories more than they are going to want to read them.

Nearly one third of children who are between six and ten years old regularly take advantage of digital audio plyers. Don Katz has a site called Audible Kids where your kid can easily download their books directly onto digital audio players. It does not seem that this will ever do much for reading. Maybe it will do something for making kids a little more culturally literate.

I have also heard my friends talk about this remarkable phenomenon where you just put headphones on kids, put on the bedtime story and they just fall asleep.

Last year in 2007 Katz says that kid and teen books made up for 13% of all audiobook downloads. He got this figure from the Audio Publishers Association. This is probably a trend that will explode, especially when they find out how easily it can put kids asleep.

On AudibleKids social skills are taught as well. Kids are encouraged to get online and talk about the audio book they just listened with them. There are also teachers and moderators on AudibleKids and sometimes even authors show up on the site.

AudibleKids has a lot of books from the Random House Listening Library. Fisher-Price and Disney are now getting into the game and even manufacture kid-friendly audio players that a kid as young as two years old can manage.

So will a reliance on audio books make a child more reluctant when it comes to learning how to read? Katz says no. He things that starting them off on digital media will encourage a life long love affair with books and prompt them to be more curious about the print form of the story that they listen to digitally.

Movie stars are getting into reading these things in a big way. Tony Shaloub and Gwyneth Paltrow are the voices reading audiobooks right now. Of course they were inspired to do this from reading bedtime stories to their own children.

One thing I am a little wary of is the way that Katz markets these books as being a replacement for the bedtime story that the busy parent would usually read to the child. I don’t think I want to be replaced by an iPod.