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  • Why your teenager’s friendships are more important than you realize

    Adolescence is often panned in parenting circles as a season of child-rearing that is fraught with challenges and frustration. Gone is the child you thought you knew, and in his place stands an awkward, often unhappy stranger who understands himself and his own motivations about as well as you do, which is to say hardly at all. 

  • Living with Illness, Giving Back to Others

    Walking the halls of Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, it’s not uncommon to come across the familiar faces of patients who are routinely admitted. Dayna Chavarria is one of those patients.                              

  • The most important thing you probably aren't teaching your child

    One of the many hats that parents, caregivers, coaches, teachers, and child life specialists (like myself) wear is that of a cheerleader. We encourage kids to feel smart, capable, strong, creative, and to be kind to others. But what do we do to teach kids about being kind to themselves?

  • Myles for Brody, Walking for NICU Babies

    On September 17, 2016, Brody Myles Santiago was born after just 23-weeks of gestation. Born at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, weighing 1 lb., 2 oz., and only 12 inches in length, Brody was given a 5 percent chance of survival. He spent 148 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) before graduating and heading home. 

  • Get to know Dr. Patricia Wheeler, pediatric geneticist at Arnold Palmer Hospital

    You could say that a pediatric geneticist is a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, working to solve the mystery of a child’s medical condition. Geneticists work with families to help determine whether a child’s illness could be caused by a change in a child’s DNA, the hereditary material that carries a person’s genetic information. Accompanied by a team of professionals, a geneticist also helps figure out whether this disorder is likely to be passed on to future generations and helps patients and families seek the best care for their condition. Some common inherited disorders that geneticists diagnose include autism, neurofibromatosis, Down syndrome, sickle cell disease and many more.

  • The real problem with hunger all around us

    When we think of the word hunger, we imagine children who are thin and starving or of the feeling in our stomachs right before we have a meal. You might be shocked to learn, however, that one out of every seven Americans suffers from food insecurity. They do not know when they will have their next meal or where it will come from- some may even go to sleep without a warm meal.

  • What to tell your kids about vaping

    One of the most challenging aspects of raising a teen or pre-teen is this: the environment in which they are growing up looks dramatically different than it did when we, their parents, were young.

  • So your child has asthma, now what?

    Asthma is a somewhat common childhood illness that affects nearly 1 in 10 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is a condition that affects the airway of the lungs, making it difficult for your child to breathe when they are having an “attack.” Asthma can look very different from child to child, with some children showing daily symptoms and others only with vigorous exercise. The most important aspect of dealing with your child’s asthma is control and prevention.

  • Is your child with autism spectrum disorder entitled to music therapy services?

    If you have a child with autism, you may find they are especially in tune with certain elements of music like rhythm, harmony, melody, and pitch. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often demonstrate exceptional skills in music. In fact, many musical skills that are rare within the general population are more common in those with ASD. Examples include incredible accuracy in singing or playing musical notes, the ability to recall melodies with great accuracy, and the ability to name musical notes without any reference to a musical instrument.

  • How motility studies offer new hope for kids with gastrointestinal disorders

    When it comes to our bodies, there are a few constant rhythms that must take place in order to maintain life. Our hearts must beat, our lungs must breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, and oxygen-rich blood must be carried to every tissue in the body. There’s another rhythm that must take place, too, for the body to sustain itself- nutrition must be taken in and waste must be expelled. This doesn’t happen every minute of our lives like heartbeats and breathing, but the repeated cycle of taking nutrition into the body and expelling waste is a basic principle that every body must accomplish to stay alive.