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Migraines

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Health, Kids, myLife

by maria on 24.01.2010 - 14:21  

The bad news is that my daughter has another migraine. The good news is that I think we have discovered a major trigger. It appears she most often gets migraines when she doesn't get enough sleep. I've thought for years that it is very important for children to get plenty of sleep, and certainly this is the case for Tanika.

Here is a great link about children and sleep:

http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/sleep.htm

We have found that we need to put Tanika to bed at 9pm on school nights. She gets up around 6:30, so assuming it takes her 15 min. or so to go to sleep, she sleeps around 9 hours. This seems to be about right for her, as she usually gets up pretty easily on this schedule. I use to think that when she had a big assignment at school that she wasn't going to get finished in time, I should let her stay up to finish it. I'm rethinking this now. Since she is still in Middle school, I think it is probably better that she takes the hit on not having her assignment done, and gets her full sleep instead. And we teach her how to plan out her homework and not wait to the last minute, because school work is important, but school work is going to suffer without sleep, and sleep needs to take top priority, or else she literally suffers. While it is true that the migraines seem to occur when her sleep is seriously deprived (they seem to follow sleepovers most often), I think that even small losses in sleep are bad for her.

Migraines ~ Comments: 2

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eleven

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myLife, Kids

by me again on 16.07.2008 - 01:43  

The year I was eleven was a big year for me and my brother. That was the year my grandmother died. The year we missed a couple of months of school. That was also the year my brother and I lived with friends in Rochester, NY for a month or two while our parents got settled in our new home in Steilacoom, WA. That was the year Mt. St. Helens blew. That was the year we moved across the country. Things were never the same after that year, not even remotely. The next ten years were the most difficult of my life. I had a lot of fun, but it was also the school of very hard knocks. So, now my daughter is eleven. And now I wonder, what should I do? She can't really learn from my mistakes, but maybe she can, a little. What do I tell her, what do I not tell her? Should I try to protect her as much as possible while I can? She has already had more knocks than I, at eleven. When is the best time to first encounter the real hard school of knocks? And how can we be best prepared (or prepare our kids)? a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q, Ahrrr!

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Tanika's poem for Ella

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myLife, Kids

by maria on 07.04.2008 - 16:16  

Alone

I am the hot sun reflecting on a sparkling lake
I am a light bulb in a lone child's mind
I am close, yet so far away
I am the song you're sung to sleep with
I am the child of your dreams and worst nightmares
I am the black cat that loves to play
I am the loneliness of an only child
I am a rainbow, yet I am the moon
I am the money that will come soon
I am the teddy bear you hug so close
I am the traveler, yet I try not to boast
I am the cousin that I loved so dear
I wish
I wish that you were still here
I wish
I wish that you were still near
I hope
I hope you will come back somehow
Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye, just for now


by Tanika Mckinley, 11 years old, dedicated to her cousin, Ella Hinds

Tanika's poem for Ella ~ Comments: 4

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