All Search Results
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Distraction can be a useful tool in helping your child cope with a difficult situation
As a Child Life Specialist, I often joke about the proverbial “toolkit” that I seem to have invisibly available when I work with children. In it are a variety of ideas, books, toys, and other items that I have used in the past that can benefit children as they go through painful procedures or times in the hospital that are particularly stressful. One of my best “tools” in this kit of mine is distraction.
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Why you (and your kids) shouldn't use antibacterial soap anymore
No more antibacterial soap. Not at home. Not at school. Not at all for healthy people.
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Tips to make your kid's sport season a safer one
Kids are back in school and back in sports. When I was younger, that always meant balancing the less-than-happy feelings of returning to a sleep schedule with my excitement over returning to organized sports. Sports were always a fun way for me to stay active, learn to work within a team and to build friendships.
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How do you teach a child to be kind, caring and compassionate?
Working as a child life specialist has granted me a front row seat to some of life's most challenging, defining, and intimate moments for the kids I serve. In partnering with children and families, we work to empower and encourage positive coping skills and help them make meaning from the obstacles they have been presented. And through this, I am always left with a chance for meaning-making of my own. Lately, I have been reflecting on the concept of empathy and its importance not only within the lives of those affected by medical challenges, but as a basic skill needed between all people.
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My baby is spitting up: is this normal?
As a pediatric resident I get to see many newborn babies, and I often continue to care for them in our outpatient clinic as they grow. In my experience, spitting up is among the top concerns for mothers within the first few months of their babies’ lives. And why shouldn’t it be? More than half of all infants spit up daily. Well, before I give you some tips to help you manage this at home, I’d love to review some information that we as pediatricians keep in mind when we hear the words “spit up.”
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Do You Know What to do if Your Child is Choking?
It is the nightmare scenario that can send any parent into a cold sweat: what if my child is choking and I don’t know how to help him?
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More Than Her Illness: Faith Finds Hope in the Teen Leadership Council
Faith was in dire need of help when she arrived at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children at the age of 14. She had been to other hospitals and seen other specialists, but none were equipped to deal with her severe gastrointestinal conditions. That changed once she got to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer and its expert team of pediatric gastroenterologists and GI surgeons.
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Should I Start Giving My Child Vitamins?
If you have a toddler who has a meltdown at the thought of eating more than two bites of something green, you know that getting children to eat a well-balanced diet isn’t easy. Whether to start giving their child vitamins is a question many parents have, as well as at what age they should start. However, for most healthy children, vitamins are unnecessary.
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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.
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Is My Child Just a Picky Eater or Is It More Serious?
Children with feeding disorders aren’t just picky eaters. These disorders can signal the presence of underlying medical and developmental issues.
