Events to honor children will be taking place in hundreds of communities across Canada. To celebrate the children of CK, the Best Start partners are pleased to announce that they will be providing numerous FREE and exciting activities for children from Nov 14 to 20. baby blankets that will be given to newborn babies dancing craft making reading swimming skating … Read More
What’s in your medicine cabinet?
DON’T Flush It! DON’T Trash It! DON’T Share It! It’s time to clean out your medicine cabinet and return unused medicine to your local pharmacy for safe, FREE disposal! Why should I bother? 18% of Ontario youth reported non-medical use of a prescription opioid pain reliever. 75% of these youth get the medication from home. Certain medications can increase your risk … Read More
What’s in your medicine cabinet?
DON’T Flush It! DON’T Trash It! DON’T Share It! It’s time to clean out your medicine cabinet and return unused medicine to your local pharmacy for safe, FREE disposal! Why should I bother? 18% of Ontario youth reported non-medical use of a prescription opioid pain reliever. 75% of these youth get the medication from home. Certain medications can increase your risk … Read More
Pap Screening Saves Lives!
National Cervical Cancer Awareness Week, October 23-29th Cervical cancer is almost entirely preventable with immunization and regular screening. This year Chatham-Kent Public Health has teamed up with Cancer Care Ontario and The Federation of Medical Women of Canada to bring awareness to Cervical Cancer and urge women to get their Pap test! According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, … Read More
Preventing pregnancy after sex
Missed pills? Broken condom? No protection? When accidents happen you’ve got a back-up plan! It’s called emergency contraception (EC), also known as the “morning after pill” or Plan B. You risk an accidental pregnancy when condoms break, when birth control is taken incorrectly, or if you were unprepared for sex. Unprotected sex, even if it’s just once, can lead to … Read More
Parenting Toddlers
What’s Positive About Discipline? A toddler’s job is to get to know the world by seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling everything. They move very quickly, touch everything, put everything in their mouth, do not understand “breakable” and are prone to injuries. Toddlers are very busy exploring their world but cannot understand the risks. A parent’s job is to provide … Read More
Alcohol and Pregnancy
Give your baby the best start possible! Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause birth defects and life-long brain damage to your baby. There is no safe time to drink alcohol during pregnancy. Your baby’s brain is developing throughout pregnancy. The safest choice in pregnancy is no alcohol at all. In fact, it is best to stop drinking before you get pregnant. … Read More
Booster Seats
Make Every Ride a Safe Ride! Booster Seats: Unsure of when your child can switch from a forward facing car seat to a booster seat? To a regular seat belt? A booster seat raises a child so the adult seat belt is properly positioned over the child’s body. To use a booster seat, a child must be over 40 lbs … Read More
Forward Facing Car Seats
Make Every Ride a Safe Ride! Forward Facing Car Seats: Unsure of when your infant can switch from a rear facing to a forward facing car seat? Having trouble installing your car seat? To turn forward facing, infants need to be: 1 year of age AND 22 lbs (10 kg) AND walking independently Even if your child meets these criteria, … Read More
Rear Facing Car Seats
Make Every Ride a Safe Ride! Rear Facing Car Seats: Make sure your baby is safe on the ride home from the hospital and every ride in a vehicle. Babies don’t have the back and neck strength to support themselves facing forward in a car seat. The rear facing position is safer because in a crash the force will be spread across … Read More
Tummy Time
Why is it important? Supervised tummy time is an important activity that needs to be part of a baby’s daily routine. It helps prevent baby flathead and tight neck muscles. It is also important in promoting your baby’s development. There has been an increase in the number of babies developing baby flathead (positional plagiocephaly), as well as tight neck muscles (torticollis). Babies’ … Read More
New Dad
What’s a Dad to do with a Baby? Sometimes new fathers feel a little unsure of what to do with a new baby. It can be scary holding your baby for the first time, let alone providing care. Parenting is a learning experience. New dads often think that moms know exactly how to care for a new baby, but they … Read More