What's in your daughter's glass? If it's not a calcium-rich beverage like milk, fortified orange juice or soymilk, she may not be building the strong bones she'll ne... Read more
Win the Junk Food War
Only 18 percent of children are eating the recommended three or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day, according to a Produce for Kids study released by the... Read more
By Karen Nielsen, MSOM, L.Ac.
In these turbulent times one thing we can count on is the arrival of the cold and flu season! Some pediatricians have ... Read more
It's cold and flu season, which means plenty of moms are facing that age-old parenting dilemma: Do I send my coughing, sniffly child to school? And if I make the wrong choice, will the school nurse call a few hours later asking me to take him back home?
Figuring out when to keep your child home from school and when he's well enough to go back isn't always easy, says Dr. Loraine Stern, associate clinical professor of pediatrics at UCLA School of Medicine in California.
"The truth is, you can't always tell how sick a child really is," says Stern. For instance, some kids may seem totally fine at breakf
... Continue reading When to Keep a Sick Child Home.
The Worst (and Best) Sweets for Your Teeth
By Dr. Carolyn Taggart-Burns
When trick-or-treaters ring my doorbell on Halloween, I toss a toothbrush in their bag. But make no mistake -- our neighborhood might as well be Candy Land. My kids got a scary amount of sweets last year, and they only went to a couple of houses. And because they were both too young to eat much of their loot, guess who was tempted by it? Yep, hubby (who has a major sweet tooth) and me, the dentist. Jump to full text of this article here
With so much media attention and information flying around, it's hard to find one coherent source for H1N1 flu information. The Children's Physician Network has put together a comprehensive guide to H1N1 influenza including information on prevention, the vaccine, symptoms and much more. You can find A Parent's Guide to H1N1 Influenza on the CPN website.
The rate of cavities in baby teeth is on the rise, according to the most recent report on the topic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, a whopping 28 percent of children 2 to 5 years old have cavities.
Dentists point to several factors contributing to the rise, including increased consumption of juices and soda.
And while baby teeth will eventually wind up with the Tooth Fairy, it's still important to care for them as though they are permanent teeth, with one major difference.
"Parents of young children should steer clear of fluoride toothpastes for their kids unti
... Continue reading Protecting Baby Teeth.
"The Best Health Advice I Ever Got"
by Stacey Colino
It's that time of year again when many of us take stock of our lives and try to make things better. Fresh out of ideas? If anyone knows the best ways to get healthy and stay that way, it's the country's top doctors. To get the 411 on what they do to stay healthy, we asked four leading physicians to share the best health advice they ever received. Here's what they told us:
1. Carry your own pen wherever you go.
Where it came from "I actually got the idea from my father, who was an old-fashioned family doctor in the South Bronx in the 1940s," sa
... Continue reading "The Best Health Advice I Ever Got".
Feed the Immune System for the Cold and Flu Season
Our immune systems are smart. The immune system, when exposed to new flu and cold viruses, learns to recognized and react to seasonal strains of the invaders. The system also remembers bugs it has seen before. But we're a mobile society -- each year, world travel brings new strains of germs and virus home, forcing the immune system to deal with new invaders it has never seen. This is why the Center for Disease Control makes yearly changes to the flu vaccine, hoping to predict which bugs will arrive in the U.S. on a seasonal basis.
Is your son or daughter still sucking his or her thumb at age 3, 4 or even 5? Studies have shown that chronic thumb sucking can alter the development of a child's teeth and jaws and parents should aim to stop this habit by age two. What can parents do? Some orthodontic offices have motivational programs where kids keep charts and win prizes if they can achieve their goal. Habits like thumb sucking, nail biting, and tongue thrusting can lead to crooked teeth. Also, crooked and crowded teeth are hard to clean and maintain. A bad bite can also cause abnormal wear of tooth surfaces, di
... Continue reading What Every Mom Should Know About Orthodontics.
