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• Summertime Treats for the Entire Family

  As the summer heat continues to scorch, kids are always looking for ways to stay cool. Even though the school year is just around the corner, cooler weather unfortunately isn’t coming for a while. As your family enjoys the last picnics, get-togethers and pool parties before heading back to school, you’ll want some sweet treats to help you cool off. Usually these activities involve eating less nutritious foods such as hot dogs, ice cream, pizza, candy and potato chips. With these tempting foods readily available, it can be difficult to lure kids over to the fruit table for a healthier and more refreshing snack. By making fruit more appealing to kids, we might be able to change their views on this delicious treat. 

• OCSC Player Shane O’Neill: From Good Mornings to Game-Winning Goals

  Professional athletes know pregame preparation starts well before they step onto the field. From a healthy diet and sleep regimen to a balanced morning ritual, Orlando City Soccer Club player Shane O’Neill has developed some great strategies for game day. It isn’t all about hard work and self-discipline, though. For kids looking to increase their success in sports, O’Neill’s message is a simple one: Relax and enjoy the game.

• Send Your Kids to Summer Camp. It’s Good for Them!

  Summer camp is, for many of us, what our magical memories of childhood are made of. Those occasions where we said goodbye to our parents in anticipation of spending the week without them and were simultaneously bursting with excitement and overwhelmed with anxiety – those were our very own coming-of-age moments. Our experiences at summer camp taught us a lot about ourselves and about others, and they changed us in small but mighty ways. And now, it’s our turn to entrust our children into the hands of others for a week or two (maybe more) and give our kids the chance to make their own magical memories.

• Emerging from the darkness of her son's devastating illness: One Mother's story

  By Donna Jones

• How to help your child achieve their New Years goal for good health

  This is a perfect time to evaluate your previous New Year’s health goals and make sure you and your family stay on track. Many families have goals such as eating dinner together, grocery shopping as a family, focusing on eating more vegetables, or going for nightly walks after dinner. Surprisingly, many kids also have their own goals they would like to accomplish. Supporting and encouraging your child while they tackle their goal is a great way to make sure they succeed. 

• Is your preschool or daycare doing enough to protect your child from the flu?

  Each year around this time we start talking about the flu, and we keep talking about it. Why, you ask? Because the flu is a real and serious threat for small children. Each year millions of children get sick with the seasonal flu virus, thousands of children are hospitalized and some of those unfortunately will die from complications of the flu.

• The benefits of finding a good support group

  As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at The Hewell Kids’ Kidney Center at Arnold Palmer Hospital, I have many teenage patients express to me that they feel lonely, isolated, and different. They feel that that no one understands what they are going through, and sometimes, they don’t even know what they are going through, or what to expect in the future. They express feelings of grief from losing some of the freedom they once enjoyed and the carefree attitude they once had. Many of these young patients show symptoms of depression and anxiety, too.

• Could your child benefit from the use of a wheelchair?

  Will using a wheelchair discourage your child from walking? Find out what a pediatric occupational therapist has to say.

• Keeping Your Kids Safe From Fireworks Injuries

  Kids and fireworks have long been a dangerous combination, but now parents have even more reason to be concerned. Studies show a dramatic increase in the number of children seriously injured by these holiday pyrotechnics.

• From skin to seeds: the healthy benefits of pumpkin

  Here in Florida, it has yet to feel like fall. With the temperatures still high and humidity still lingering, kids are more likely to be breaking a sweat, than breaking in their festive fall sweaters. So how do we convince ourselves that fall has arrived, amidst the heat? With all things pumpkin, of course! Whether it be a pumpkin-inspired meal, or a much anticipated trip to the local pumpkin patch, our families can enjoy a little taste of fall too.