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  • Amber teething necklaces: what's all the hype about?

    There’s no question about it: teething is a hard time in the life of a little one. Teething is painful and frustrating for both parents and children. And as we watch our children suffer, we parents feel the responsibility to ease their suffering any way we can. Could amber teething necklaces be the answer?

    What are amber teething necklaces?

    Baltic amber teething necklaces are marketed as a ‘natural’ healing remedy for infants as young as 3 months old. Retailers claim that when the necklaces are worn, the amber beads are heated by the child’s body temperature prompting the release of healing oils that penetrate the skin. They claim that these oils then relieve the pain and discomfort associated with teething.

    Should I try them for my child?

    There are two very basic problems with amber teething necklaces:
      They don’t work They aren’t safe
    It’s as simple as that. If you aren’t convinced, I would challenge you to stop and think for a moment about the plausibility of a gemstone emitting invisible oils that seep into one’s skin and target tooth pain. It’s a magical, mystical idea that sounds nice, but just isn’t reality.

  • Easing your child’s anxiety about the new school year

    “Are you excited about going back to school?”

  • Helping Families Thrive Through Challenges: The Healthy Families Orange Program

    “I probably wouldn’t have my kids with me,” Diane Johnson says with tears welling up in her eyes.

  • Who Cares for Your Child in the Pediatric ER?

    High fevers, life-threatening trauma and severe wounds are just a few issues pediatric emergency medicine doctors treat regularly. No matter the ailment, bringing a child to the emergency room (ER) can be a stressful experience. The medical experts and caregivers in the pediatric ER are trained to calm your concerns while providing the best possible treatment for your child. 

  • Red Dye No. 3: Understanding the Danger to Kids

     

  • Choose the Right Summer Camp for Your Kids

    Finding a healthy, safe and memorable summer camp can be stressful for parents and their kids.

  • If your child has had a concussion or brain injury, you may not see the full effects for years to come

    As an occupational therapist, one of the things that I do in my job is assist children who are recovering from a traumatic brain injury. I help them work through the new challenges they face because of their injury in hopes that they can fulfill their full potential. As a medical community, we are still working to fully understand how a brain injury affects a child’s long-term growth and development, but what recent research has shown us is that it may be long after the initial recovery period from a traumatic brain injury (even years later) before we see the full effects the injury will have on their growth and development.

    What parents need to know

    When we talk about brain injuries, it’s important to understand that we aren’t only talking about major injuries; we are also talking about relatively minor brain injuries, such as a concussion. Whether they have had a severe injury or a relatively minor one, children may experience long-lasting effects that can affect their development. A child may sustain a brain injury and experience a significant decrease in social, emotional, behavioral or cognitive abilities at the time of injury. (Cognitive abilities refers to a child’s capacity for learning and understanding, acquiring knowledge). Years later, they may then experience a “stall” where they fail to develop their cognitive, social, emotional or behavioral skills.

                                                     

  • 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?

  • How a donor milk bank helps save the lives of premature babies (and how you can, too)

    Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. No one knows that better than parents whose child has been cared for in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

  • The many ways teens act out to harm themselves- and what you can do about it

    As we discussed in our earlier blog post on this topic, self-harming behaviors are used as a coping mechanism. You might assume that it would be