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  • Are you concerned about bedwetting?

    It makes me sad as a pediatrician to see families who stress over children who wet the bed. This is usually a normal, natural issue that goes away in time, yet it can really hurt children who are treated like it is their fault.

  • Emotional Eating: Parenting and its effect on our children’s eating behaviors

    I was asked to speak on TV recently about an article entitled “Eating Your Feelings? Your Mom Might Be to Blame.” Of course, for TV, the story had to sound catchy, so the TV host really played up the blaming mother and grandmother aspect. That made me sad; parenting is really a hard job and it is rough to be blamed for errors we make while doing our best. The data, though, really does suggest that how we were parented may affect eating behaviors and those of our children. The issue is important, since at least a quarter of preschool children in the United States are overweight. Obesity at the age of five is a very strong predictor of whether or not someone will be obese as an adult. So how we feed our young children and how we teach them to eat really matters for their whole lives. My take is that this information is not an opportunity to point fingers, but an opportunity to learn and to do better as parents.

    What the study has to say

    The article was based on a study done by researchers at the University of Illinois and published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. It showed that primary caregivers (usually moms) who had an insecure attachment to their own mothers are more likely to have young children with unhealthy eating habits who are overweight or obese. “Insecure attachment” is a term from psychology that has to do with how we feel about parents who don’t respond consistently to our needs. Parents who grew up insecure tend to have more trouble dealing with their own children’s needs, especially when it has to do with negative things like distress, anger, or sadness. That in turn is connected with some unhealthy behaviors surrounding food and eating.

    Real life examples

    The study clearly showed that homes where children’s sadness or anger are dismissed are also homes where there are fewer family mealtimes, more television viewing time, and more “comfort feeding.” These behaviors are known to lead to obesity in even the youngest of children. For example, an overwhelmed mother might respond to a temper tantrum by feeding her toddler snacks to make him stop crying instead of using appropriate parenting techniques to deal with the tantrum. Another example might be the parent who puts her four-year-old in front of the TV to eat dinner instead of having a family mealtime, since the TV keeps the child quiet and makes her sit still longer than sitting at the table for dinner. Sadly, this also leads to overeating in the whole family.

    So, what do we do with this?

    Well, if you have a two-year-old who is already overweight, maybe there is room to work with your parenting behaviors around food. Look at how you respond to your child’s negative behaviors. Do you tell your child, “that’s nothing to be angry about?” Or do you find yourself saying, “don’t be sad?” Instead you could say, “I hear that you are angry” or “you seem to be sad.” It’s hard to do. If you need to, ask your pediatrician for suggestions to deal with (and to help your child to deal with) those negative feelings. Could you tolerate a little tantrum or some tears instead of abandoning the family table for a meal in front of the TV (we call it the brain sucker in my house)? Could you give up feeding your child snack foods or treats to console them when they are angry or sad? Could you let go of the expectation that your small child will sit still to eat and will clean her plate? Could you serve a healthy, well-balanced meal and deal with it if your “picky” toddler gives you a hard time about it or refuses to eat?

  • Follow up on Emma: A few years later

    You might remember Emma from a few years ago when we of courageously battling congenital heart disease from the moment she was born. Yet, despite the many challenges that Emma’s family had faced in her early childhood years, they remained strong, and a true inspiration to the many other families in similar situations. Their goal was to touch as many families as they could, and to give back to Arnold Palmer Hospital, largely through their involvement with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. These are both goals that they continue to exceed, even now as Emma is a thriving and healthy young lady.

  • Savoring the little (and oftentimes unglamorous) moments with my kids

    It’s been a rough couple of weeks at our house. First, it was a round of colds for everyone. The snotty noses and coughs still haven’t ended. Then, it was the stomach virus. I’ll spare you the details, but I’ll just say that it wasn’t pretty. And anyone with kids knows that sleepless nights come with the territory when they’re sick.

  • Toddlers are taking selfies?!

    The Oxford English Dictionary actually declared “selfie” the “word of the year” in 2013! That is hard to imagine for parents like me; my first cell phone weighed three pounds! Now smart phones are everywhere and our children are connected to the rest of the world with the tap of a screen.

  • What do you do when your child hurts your feelings?

    One of my favorite times with my daughter is the car ride home from school. It’s one of the rare moments that she and I have that’s just the two of us, now that she has a little brother at home, too. One day last week, I was particularly excited to pick her up from preschool. I couldn’t wait to hear what letter she’d learned, what art projects she had made and who she played with on the playground. Usually she tells funny anecdotes from her day, and it makes me smile.

  • What is Vitamin K, and why is it important for my newborn baby?

    Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin that our body needs to help make proteins that are needed for blood coagulation. In other words, it’s one of the ways our body works to stop bleeding. We can find vitamin K in green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, broccoli, and collard greens. Bacteria in our intestine also produce vitamin K. If we do not have enough vitamin K, we may experience prolonged bleeding from small cuts or big bruises from relatively small injuries.

  • How to have a safe and spooktastic Halloween

    Halloween may not be the most anticipated time of year among adults, but for kids, it’s a different story. The anticipation of dressing up in their favorite costume and collecting candy until their trick-or-treat bucket is too heavy to carry can be overwhelming. For some kids, it seems almost torturous to make them wait until it’s time to go trick-or-treating to show off their costumes to their friends and family. Dressing up in a favorite costume, going door-to-door screaming “trick-or-treat!”, and coming home to a pile of candy is the highlight of the fall season for many kids.

  • One mom’s advice to other NICU families

    Written by Heather Shields

  • How to talk to your children about Ebola

    Ebola is a scary topic; there’s no doubt about that. With the onslaught of media coverage that has no end in sight, it’s likely that older children have already heard of the Ebola outbreak or will hear about it in the near future. The question is, what can we do to help our kids work through the confusing and frightening messages they see on television?