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  • Fighting a Fever without Fear

    Many parents worry when their child is having a fever. We know that fevers can be scary for parents, especially if it is your child’s first fever. It may be difficult to think clearly and make important decisions when your child feels very warm. Learning what causes a fever and how to take care of your child when it occurs can help relieve some stress and anxiety.

    What is a fever?

    Your child’s normal body temperature with vary based on age, activity, and time of day.  Infants tend to have higher temperatures than older children. Usually, our body’s temperature is the highest in the late afternoon and early evening. Each person has his or her own internal “thermostat” that helps to regulate their own body temperature, and this number is around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, plus or minus one degree. When your body detects an infection or illness in your body, your brain responds by raising its temperature to help fight the condition. Many conditions can be associated with fever, such as ear infections, croup, pneumonia, sore throat, influenza, urinary tract infections, meningitis, and many different viral illnesses.

  • January: National Birth Defects Prevention Month

    January is National Birth Defects Prevention Month. One in every 33 babies is born with a birth defect. If you are thinking about becoming pregnant in the near future, there are a few things that you can do to improve your health and reduce the chance of your baby being born with a birth defect.

    Start taking a prenatal vitamin with folic acid.

    Folic acid is a B vitamin that our body uses to make new cells. This vitamin is important because when you have enough folic acid in your body, that helps reduce the risk of birth defects of the brain and spinal cord in your baby (also known as neural tube defects such as anencephaly and spina bifida). Folic acid works best in preventing neural tube defects if taken before pregnancy and during the first few weeks of pregnancy, before most women even know that they are pregnant.

  • Mom, what's for dinner?

    How often have you heard this phrase?

  • Updated booster seat recommendations for kids

    Does your child use a booster seat in the car? This might be a question to ask yourself if you are a parent of a young child. It has been previously thought that a child could graduate from the booster seat around age 8, but guidelines are now being revised to take into account a child’s height, recognizing that children grow at different rates.

  • Alcohol advertisements affect drinking behaviors in kids

    During the last week’s Super Bowl, how many of you sat down to watch the game, only to be entertained by the infamous commercials? I bet many of you would raise your hand, kids included. Each year, the commercials continue to steal the show and are often talked about in the days after. But have you noticed how popular the commercials featuring alcohol, specifically beer products, are among kids?

  • Could television be a good thing for preschoolers?

    Television is blamed for many problems in children, but could it be part of the solution as well?

  • Sugary drinks linked to weight gain in kids

    Soda, sports drinks, and 100% fruit juice. These drinks-of-choice raise a red flag in the world of nutrition and health. All three beverages are loaded with sugar, and when consumed in an excess amount, are shown to cause an increase in weight gain among kids.

  • Eye screenings recommended for young children

    An eye patch is commonly used for one of two reasons in young kids. One, your child is impersonating Johnny Depp and playing “pirate for the day”. Or two, the patch is being used to treat a condition known as “amblyopia”, also known as “lazy-eye”. Amblyopia is a condition that is easily preventable, which is why pediatricians are now urging eye screening for children as young as 1 year of age.

    What is amblyopia?

    Amblyopia occurs when the brain is not using one eye because it doesn’t see as well as the other eye. This condition only occurs in children and if left untreated, can result in permanent loss of vision. Amblyopia is the most common cause of vision problems in children, affecting 2 – 4% of the US population and is preventable.

    If it's easily preventable, then why is it so common?

    Good question. Currently, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) only recommends testing children for amblyopia between the ages of 3 and 5, stating there is insufficient evidence to recommend testing for younger children. However, a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics shows otherwise.

    The Study

    The goal of this study was to help provide the USPSTF with the evidence needed to include toddlers in their recommendations. Data was collected from a photoscreening program called “Iowa KidSight”, a program that has been offering photoscreening to children as young as 6 months of age since 2000. Over 200,000 screenings of children’s eyes were conducted from May 2000 to April 2011. Of the children screened, the youngest were 6 months old and the oldest were between 7 and 8 years old. Researchers used the data collected by this program (over 11 years worth of data) to compare screening results of young children with that of preschool-aged children.

  • 3 Things to Know About Baby’s Tummy Time

    1. Tummy time is an important playtime for babies!

    Tummy time is playtime for babies when they are awake. When your baby is awake and can be supervised by an adult, they should be placed on their tummy on a firm surface for about 5 minutes to play. This activity can start as soon as you bring your baby home from the hospital, and babies should have tummy time about 2 to 3 times per day. Tummy time helps strengthen a baby's muscles.

  • Is going "gluten-free" just a fad?

    I remember when my great-aunt Sally came to visit, she would often bring her own bread and a tub of margarine or stick of butter. If we went out to eat to a place like Pizza Hut, she would order a salad with no croutons. When the salad arrived with croutons, she would send it back and have them remake it without them. Aunt Sally had celiac disease; a condition that damages the lining of the small intestine, causing malabsorption of nutrients after a protein called “gluten” is consumed. Even the tiniest crumb of a gluten-containing food caused Aunt Sally a lot pain.

    How common is celiac disease?

    An estimated 1% of the population in the United States has celiac disease, and 97% of those affected by celiac disease are undiagnosed. In Florida, that means approximately 195,000 people have celiac disease, but fewer than 6,000 of them know it. In one study looking at the prevalence of celiac disease in the U.S., 29 of the 35 people found with celiac disease did not know they had it prior to the study.