January 24, 2020. Unless you have been in China in the past few weeks or are presently in contact with someone who recently visited China, the risk of your family becoming infected with coronavirus illness are presently extremely remote, says the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). However, stay tuned. This current outbreak is a […]
Help! Will somebody hush that crying baby on this plane?!
January 5, 2020 by
(This is an update of an article I wrote some years ago. It also appeared in the New York Times.) When traveling by air, a lasting nightmare is sitting near a cuddly little baby that suddenly morphs into a nonstop noise machine, emitting high decibel, ear-piercing, headache-producing, sleep-preventing discomfort. An even worse nightmare: it’s your […]
Should infants sit in safety seats for air travel?
December 8, 2019 by
1. The facts: Infants are the only items on an aircraft that need not be battened down (secured) for takeoff, turbulence and landing. In case of severe turbulence and survivable crashes, an unrestrained 20-pound (9 kilos) infant sitting on your lap instantaneously becomes a 300-pound weight (136 kilos) that you cannot restrain. Infants have hit […]
Seasonal Affective Disorder in Children
November 18, 2019 by
A larger dose of sunlight is the antidote for kids who become especially ornery as winter approaches and the hours of daylight dwindle down to a meager few. 1. Sunlight helps minimize being sad and having SAD. Sad (small letters) is having the “winter blues.” SAD (capital letters) stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder, a more […]
Why Travel With Your Children?
October 31, 2019 by
Traveling and vacationing with your children are prudent investments into their developing self-assurance. To write this article, I went to Google (where else?) and typed in “Benefits of family travel.” Within .57 seconds I had a whopping 680,000,000 results. (Full disclosure: not surprisingly, I did not read all the results!) I did scan well over […]
Kids and the Great Outdoors
October 10, 2019 by
Hey, parents! It is time to pry your kids away from their TVs, video games, computers and smart phones – forcefully, if necessary. Ignore their yelling and sarcasm. Then kick them out the front door – literally, if need be. If older kids threaten to report you to child welfare, call their bluff: according to […]
Is global warming harming our children?
September 21, 2019 by
Children are in the crosshairs for climate change, says the American Academy of Pediatrics. They are especially susceptible to toxins in the environment and to many of the infectious diseases that spread more readily as the weather becomes warmer. 1. Rising global temperatures decrease air quality. Children spend more time outdoors than adults, breathe in more […]
Why Do Parents Forget Their Infants in Cars?
July 30, 2019 by
New York. July 31, 2019. It happened again. A father, a social worker, was charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for leaving his one-year old twins strapped into the backseat of his car on a hot July day while he worked his eight-hour shift at a VA hospital. He forgot to drop them off […]
Treating diarrhea in young children away from home: A primer
July 13, 2019 by
When packing for family trips, for overnight or overseas, include a pen, a paper pad and a cellphone. These come in handy if your child experiences diarrhea, a common health issue for young children away from home. The pad and pencil is to record symptoms. The cell phone is to call your pediatrician if symptoms […]
An Rx for swimming is what doctors order to keep young children active
May 19, 2019 by
True or false? Newborns are natural born swimmers. 1. Alas, false. Young infants do make hand and feet movements that resemble swimming when placed in water. And they do hold their breath and open their eyes when their heads accidentally slip underwater. However, infants’ heads are heavy for the size and weight of their bodies. […]
