1. Infants don’t have to know how to swim to go swimming. Blame the English language for the confusion. “Swimming” also means “bathing in a body of water.” Do place infants in water soon after birth, if you wish, to acquaint them with it and help them to overcome fears, if any. Start with sprinkling […]
Corona virus #4
March 17, 2020 by
Your child has symptoms compatible with early coronavirus disease: mild cough, a runny nose, and a borderline fever. What do you do? 1. Stay calm. As more and more cases of Coronavirus (COVID-9) disease occur around the world, children continue to be infected far less frequently than adults, and when infected, the vast majority show […]
Coronavirus disease and children: PART II
January 28, 2020 by
January 28, 2020. When reading this and similar articles, mentally jot down the date they were written. Very likely, some of today’s recommendations will be updated tomorrow. (PART I, written on January 24 (four days ago) is available at: http://kidstraveldoc.com/are-your-children-at-risk-for-coronavirus-disease/) 1. The latest advice from the CDC. Unless you have been in China in the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Car Seats / Safety / Kids
April 30, 2019 by
Installing children’s safety seats into cars is not child’s play. More than ninety percent of first-time parents make at least a minor error in installing seats, in positioning infants in seats, or in transitioning children to advanced seats as the children grow. An appropriate seat – optimally installed and correctly used – reduces the risk […]
Home Alone
June 28, 2018 by
Is it reasonable for parents of young children to go on a seven-day vacation if they leave their child(ren) with a competent caretaker? Lots has been written on the subject. Google has 5,520,000 entries! No, I did not read them all. However, I did look at several dozen and read those who had thoughtful opinions. […]
Protecting infants and young children from the sun
June 14, 2018 by
Parents! Take this quiz: In which month is sun protection for infants and young children especially important? a) June b) July c) August d) September 1. The (maybe surprising) answer: a) June. Many adults erroneously associate sun problems with hot weather and believe that serious sun protection is not necessary until the hot summer months […]
“Flying” through the airport with young children: An update
May 22, 2018 by
If a car seat containing an infant is placed “just for a moment” on a non-moving conveyor belt at an airport security machine, the infant may pass through the machine. It has happened. How? Parent places car seat on the belt. Parent turns around to take off his/her shoes or to tend to another child. […]
