Season greetings! Tis the season to be jolly. However, the very events that make holiday seasons so special for kids – festive atmospheres, gifts, and visiting friends and family – also cause holiday-related illnesses and mishaps. Here are some tips to help you make the holidays healthier and safer. 1. Give your friends and relatives […]
Children/Travel/Immunizations
When planning family vacations, check that everyone is up-to-date on their vaccinations. Adults included. Travel increases the risk of catching a host of preventable diseases: measles, mumps, rubella, meningitis and whooping cough (pertussis), to name just a few. And you need not visit Equatorial Africa to become infected. Anyone not fully vaccinated can become infected […]
Update: Family travel/Overseas/Motor vehicles
Well-planned family trips to other countries are “surprisingly” safe and healthy, say surveys by travel medicine professionals. If problems do occur, they are more likely to be due to accidents rather than illnesses – even though there is far more information available on keeping kids healthy than on preventing accidents. The leading category of accidents […]
Should Children Miss School to Visit Disney World?
Taking children out of school for family vacations is illegal in many (probably most) school districts in the US, Canada, Great Britain and Australia. Most school districts have specific policies regarding absences for reasons other than illness. Some districts allow a limited number of days (usually fewer than four) for such activities – if permission […]
Do infants’ safety seats on airplanes save lives?
The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) strongly recommends that all infants and young children be seated in an appropriate safety seat (also referred to as a child restraint system or CRS) for air travel. But, to the dismay of many safety advocates, the FAA refuses to enact laws to mandate such seats, leaving the decision […]
Infants/Air travel/Excessive crying: An update.
Forget lousy food, airport delays, and turbulence. One of air travelers’ biggest nightmares is sitting near a cute, cuddly little baby that suddenly morphs into a nonstop noise machine emitting high decibel, ear-piercing, headache-producing, sleep-preventing terror. An even worse nightmare: it’s your child. But hold on! There may be a solution to the screaming infant […]
Can I Eat This? app
Another app to keep you family healthy for overseas travel Last month I told you how to download TravWell, a mobile app from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to help you keep your family healthy while visiting over 200 countries. (Yes, 200+) Authoritative, timely, easy to use, fun, free, tailored to your itinerary… This app is almost like having your own travel medicine expert traveling with you. And what […]
Infants/Sleeping away from home
At home, putting infants to sleep is a no-brainer. You place them in their crib – and pray they’ll sleep all night. But when traveling, there are many do’s and don’ts regarding sleep safety and getting infants to sleep in new surroundings, the latter often a real hassle. 1. Never “co-sleep,” even for a night […]