what do i do if my 4 year old swallows a marble sized ball?
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THE SOMETHING MANUVER
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Find open-ended toys... typically toys that don't have batteries. Toys that have more than one use. Frankly I'm a bit skeptical about the true value of Leap Frog for a child that young. \n\nWaldorf & Montessori style toys are a good example of open-ended toys that will encourage your child to use his/her imagination and inguinity. Play silks are great as are other simple objects. Kids who have a few toys often exhibit more imagination than those who have piles of them. A friend of mine recently observed this own phenomena when she packed up most of her son's toys in preparing to move. \n\nLess (or no) TV is better ... esp. at that young age. If you are going to let your toddler watch any TV at all it should be something with a redeaming value... like what they have on PBS ... Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, etc. I've heard experts recommend that you limit it to one hour per day or less. \n\nSome good web-sites for Waldorf Toys are:\n\nwww.bellalunatoys.com\nwww.magicgarden.com\nwww.atoygarden.com\nwww.fairycove.com  (beautiful hand-dyed play silks)\nwww.willowtreetoys.com\nwww.islandtreasuretoys.com\n\nKids need to be engaged in the real world in order to stimulate more brain development and encourage real-life, hands-on learning. You can turn every day activities into an opportunity to learn... from a walk in the neighborhood (you can talk about what you see from people, plants, neighborhood animals, insects, the weather, etc.), a trip to the grocery store (talk about what you're buying & what you can do with different foods, talk about why you choose one thing over another, explain why healthy foods are good for his/her body, let him/her help by putting something in the basket or helping you to put produce in a bag), let them help you in the kitchen by "washing" vegetables, stirring, helping to meassure, dumping premeassured ingredients into the bowl or pot, etc. We use a step ladder with our daughter in the kitchen. She loves to watch and "help." Sometimes she will pick up a sponge or rag and try to help me clean. It's so fun to see what they pick up on!  :)\n\nThere's a great show on PBS (KCET in LA) called "A Place of Our Own" that has tons of great ideas. They also have a web-site: \n\nwww.aplaceofourown.org\n\nThey also have a DVD series if you can't get it on your local PBS channel. But, do check out the web-site!!!\n\nPlaydough (you can make it yourself easily & cheaply), paints & paper, a bowl of beans or flour, etc. and something to scoop with, something to make music with ... from pots and pans to bells that they can shake to a drum or kiddie xylophone, or whatever you have laying around the house. You can make noise-makers for your child as well. Sometimes the simplest of objects turn out to be the ones with the most play & educational value.\n\nMusic Together classes are also great for developing music, language & future math proficiency. Other children's music classes may offer a similar benefit. But, MT uses a method that combines fun songs, body movements & music theory through harmonics & simple scales ... for instance they might sing "ba ba ba ba" in a harmonic scale and then ask the kids & parents to repeat it. \n\nIt's great because it works with where the kids are developmetally. It's okay if the child wants to get up and dance or run around when others are sitting and it's okay if the child doesn't want to give the instrument back when they move on to the next one. My dd usually doesn't sing in class & often runs around with the other kids. But, then at home I will hear her sing the songs sometimes when she thinks no one else is listening. :) And I always have so much fun with her whenever I go because it's parent & child participatory. (Her dad usually takes her Sat. mornings.) They also give you a CD (with two copies... one for the car & one for home) that have 25-35 songs on them. They have nine
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Check with the pharmacist.   There are medications that come in "sprinkles" that you could add to his/her favorite food.\n\nIf the child is always congested, have you considered food allergies?
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Give her some bread to eat right away and plenty of water to drink. She will be fine. The biggest worry is that the bone will get stuck in the throat, and that hasn't happened (you'd know if it had from the choking, gasping and turning red, then white as the breathing stopped), so if she appears fine now, I wouldn't be too worried. Bread will cushion the bone, the stomach acids will destroy it and all will be well. Just be really careful in the future.
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Give him his space and don't force him into it. What you can do is put him in a bathingsuit and water wings (if he'll let you put those on) and let him play close to the pool while you swim. He should start approaching the pool little by little. The main thing is that they enjoy it.  \n\nMy son was that way too, he went from loving the pool as a baby to being scared to death of it after at age 2. He wouldn't even let me put on the water wings. So I just let him be and he started by getting in and staying on the first step and then the second, etc. Until one day he got up the courage to go into the pool with some floating toys and loved it. He was 4.
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If your child is less than 5 years old, distract your child or ignore the thumbsucking. \nThumbsucking should be considered normal before the age of 4 years and usually ignored, especially when your child is tired, sick, or stressed. Help your child overcome any stressful situations. However, if the thumbsucking occurs when your child is bored and he is over 1 year old, try to distract him. Give him something to do with his hands without mentioning your concern about the thumbsucking. Occasionally praise your child for not thumbsucking. Until your child is old enough for you to reason with, any pressure you apply to stop thumbsucking will only lead to resistance and lack of cooperation.
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Use a tennis ball and bounce it.  treat it as it were a basketball if this is too hard try using one of the little mini balls.  This will make a real size basketball be much easier to control.
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This might sound really cruel but if it were me.  I'd let him go hungry to a ceirtain extent.  I have a 10 yr old who would did not start eating regularly until after 2 yrs old and for years he didn't want to eat a lot of things.  My strategy was and still is 1) Honey I won't make you eat anything I wouldn't eat myself.  2)I wouldn't make you eat something I don't think tastes good. 3)Please have only a couple of bites to make me happy and if you still don't like it you don't have to have anymore.  This was a very, very successful method for me.  My son eats almost anything today after refusing almost everything at first.  When all else fails tell him that this is what we have today, you don't have to eat it now but there is nothing else so when you are ready you can eat it then.  Don't force him.  Try rewards though, "please eat this", and when he's finished with that give him something he really enjoys but not until he has eaten what you want him to eat,  at first try at least three bites and increase the portions as you go.  Balance it out and be firm.  He may be a picky eater nonetheless, but you still have to teach him to eat well until he moves out.  Good luck
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Never take cheese off of one of those.  I learned that the hard way!  You can stick a stuffed toy or something in there to get the metal part to come down.  And then you can get the cheese free of pain.  Those humans who live in your house will be so dumbfounded!  Be sure to watch from around the corner when they come and find that you've outsmarted them.  It is so funny!!!!!!
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Treat the children as equals, provided they are not your children.  Even if they are yours,  do not talk down to them, and don't be hypocritical.  Play the game as they play it.\nRemember how much fun it was to just let your imagination go and play, play, play.
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only give her water in the bottle and anything esle will have to go in the sippy cup dont force her to eat kids will eat when they are hungry if you are still worried see a doctor
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Don't force a kid to eat.  Instead do the following:\n\n--Give him vitamins.\n--Make sure he only has access to healthy foods.\n\nThink about quality, not quantity of food.  Otherwise, you'll set your child up for a lifetime of eating disorders and weight problems.  \n\nOnly provide healthy foods.  Just let the kid eat as much or as little as he wants.  He won't starve himself to death.\n\nPlus, it sounds like he needs his tonsils out.  A good diet can't improve bad tonsils.  Ask your doctor about a tonsilectomy.
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try offering food in fun shapes.  I used to use cookie cutter to shape sandwiches into stars, bear, etc to get one of my boys to eat.\n\nanother idea is to make it a game.  I had the boys pretend to be dinosaurs and then we had to eat the tree tops (broccoli) and berries.
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If you swallow chewing gum, it gets tangled up with your intestines and kills you. Age 4, I swallowed some chewing gum on the way home from school, got home and sat down, patiently waiting to die. Soon got bored with it tho. Went outside and pretended to be Spiderman instead.
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The spoon trick works, but really hurts....\nCheck wiki-how... they have quite a few suggestions:)
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get a new coach. Your son is probably learning how to play the game, tell the coach to lighten up and keep the FUN in the game and to not take it OUT of it
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Put him some water in anything small you can find like a 20oz soda cap lid or a small jar lid so he has water, Give him something to eat like a cracker or some nuts...really anything will hold him over for a few days until you can get what he needs. If you have him in some kind of container give him some toilet paper, or paper towel..newspaper also works great so he can tear it up and make a bed out of it. Empty toilet paper rolls also work great for the mice to chew on and play in. They aren't very hard to take care of, but do need a few things.