All Search Results
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Kids (and Adults)—Wash Your Hands!
From turning door knobs to pushing elevator buttons to sharing toys at a playdate, children are constantly touching items that are covered with germs. And then, when they touch areas like their noses, eyes and mouth, they introduce those germs to their bodies, which can make them sick. Think of your child picking up germs while touching the handle of a grocery cart, then popping their thumb into their mouth or rubbing their eyes.
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Recognizing and Treating Your Child’s Congenital Heart Defect
Learning that your baby has a congenital heart defect can be scary, and while health challenges can exist, the outlook for most children is positive. Although congenital heart defects are serious, most types of the disease can be treated, allowing your child to live a productive and fulfilling life.
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How to Make Sure the Toys You Buy Are Safe
Although the winter holidays are a major time for buying children’s toys, the truth is, we buy toys year round. We buy for birthdays—whether for our own children, relatives or our children’s friends. We buy gifts to celebrate achievements, like preschool graduation, or to encourage a skill or interest. We even stock up on toys based on the season, such as buying beach toys and sidewalk chalk in the spring.
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5 Ways to Keep Your Kids Active in Bad Weather
If you can’t take young children to a park or allow them to run around the neighborhood, consider coordinating with other nearby parents for playtime. Encouraging your children to have friends over can lead to indoor games of tag, hide and seek, and even more unique activities. Just make sure to take any screens away, which can diminish imaginative play.
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4 Common Myths (and the Truth) About Pediatric Palliative Care
In the past, pediatric palliative care has been misunderstood. In fact, although this comprehensive program seeks to improve the quality of life for children with life-threatening conditions — as well as support their families — myths still abound. This is likely due to the program’s multi-faceted approach to care.
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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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Why a gluten-free diet may not be healthy for your kids
When I was a college student I knew a girl who suffered from celiac disease, and each time our group of friends went to eat at a restaurant, she brought a lunchbox from home filled with gluten-free food because she was unable to eat much of the food served in a restaurant. Before that I had never heard of gluten, and I thought it was a terrible curse for my friend to be unable to eat at a restaurant like the rest of us. Although I lost touch with her after college, I am sure my friend’s dining experiences have gotten a lot easier over time.
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How to care for your newborn’s umbilical cord
So you’ve brought your newborn bundle of joy home from the hospital- now what? In your sleep-deprived, brimming with love (and exhaustion) state of mind, you’re probably realizing right about now that you have a lot more questions about how to care for your baby than you realized. You may already have your pediatrician’s phone number on speed dial, and that’s okay! The responsibility of caring for a newborn is challenging for everyone, and it is completely normal to feel a little bit overwhelmed as you’re thrust into this new world of parenthood.
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Should you give your kids dessert before dinner is done? A dietitian’s answer might surprise you.
Like me, many children are fixated on that sweet treat after dinner. It can be that package of fruit snack gummies, chocolate chip cookie or that double fudge caramel brownie, pretty much anything sweet that catches their attention. During dinner, many kids wait impatiently for dessert to be available to the family, even when they feel full from dinner. Many kids have caught on to the idea of skipping dinner just because they know dessert is coming next. This is often when parents start making “dinner deals” with their kids, just so they can eat something on their plate. These deals can range anywhere from “you can have dessert if you eat your vegetables” or “if you do not try every food on your plate, you will not get a cookie”. When these “dinner deals” begin, it often gives kids the wrong impression – dinner is a punishment and dessert is the reward.
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Is your child over-caffeinated?
Caffeine is the world’s most commonly used nervous system stimulant. It can occur naturally in products such as coffee, chocolate, and tea, or it can be artificially added to beverages such as sodas and energy drinks. Caffeine has been known to energize the body and improve concentration, but it should only be consumed in small doses. Even though caffeine is considered a “safe” substance by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in larger doses, it could possibly be dangerous to your child’s health.
