Christine McCrea Richmond Public Library

Parenting help online

The Internet can provide some answers and can assist parents in finding the help they need.

Health care is always a big concern for parents. Developed by the Canadian Pediatric Society, the Caring for Kids site at www.caringforkids.cps.ca/ is an excellent resource. It provides a wealth of information on common infections and illnesses, behaviour and development, and recalls and health warnings affecting children. The Healthy Eating section informs parents about vitamin supplements, food allergies and even fussy eaters. Click on Find a Doctor to go to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. website at www.cpsbc.bc.ca/patient/accepting/AcceptIndex.htm. Here, parents can browse through a list of physicians, categorized by postal code area, who are currently accepting new patients.

Heath concerns such as childhood immunizations, preventing childhood injury and more are also addressed on the Health Canada website at www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/for_you/parents.html.

Those in need of family counselling or just some practical tips on parenting can turn to Family Services of Greater Vancouver. FSGV offers a diverse range of support services to parents including assistance to families raising foster children and mediation between parents and teens. It also provides parenting courses addressing everything from discipline and setting limits to the challenges of raising siblings vs. only children. Courses in Cantonese are also available. See their website at www.fsgv.ca for further information.

The Child & Family Canada website combines the resources of 50 Canadian non-profit societies to provide much-needed information on raising children.

Go to www.cfc-efc.ca/menu/parenting_en.htm to see a list of documents dealing with parenting.

Topics range from managing television time to understanding learning styles.

Other sites take a "lighter" approach and are designed to be both informative and fun.

Parent Soup (http://www.parentsoup.com) offers topical message boards where parents can discuss a variety of issues, as well as articles on everything from time-outs to birthday parties.

For more parenting tips go to the Richmond Public Library website's Community section at www.yourlibrary.ca/community.cfm and click on Parents and Parenting Links.

This column and its links can be accessed from the Internet version of the Richmond Review, found on the Richmond Public Library's website at www.yourlibrary.ca.