For many people one of the biggest fear of flying is sitting next to a screaming child, says the New York Times,  “Please Refrain from Tantrums Aboard,” (November 14.) According to the article, some travelers are doing some fussing of their own. They’re calling for airlines to implement child-free flights, designate “family-only” sections, or provide [...]

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Tags: Air Travel, airlines, antihistamines, child-free flights, children, children flying, crying, ear pain, family only flights, flying, flying with kids, infant sleeping patterns, Infants, kids, why infants cry in flight

When your family gathers for Thanksgiving Day, use the opportunity to gather information about the health of all your relatives. Such information may help improve your own health, that of your children, and that of unborn generation. In the U.S, the Surgeon General has declared Thanksgiving Day as National Family Health Day. However, any family [...]

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Tags: biological relatives, cancer, children, cholesterol, Diabetes, family history, genes, genetics, heart disease, hypertension, My Family Health Portrait, national family health day, relatives, Thanksgiving health

A frequent dose of sunshine is the right tonic to keep your kids hale and hearty if you reside where winters are long and the days short. Here is what you should know: 1. Sunlight helps minimize being sad and having SAD.  Sad (small letters) is having the “winter blues.”  SAD (capital letters) stands for [...]

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Tags: antidepressant medication, artificial light, children, counseling, cranky, depression, Dr. Karl Neumann, Forest Hills Pediatrics, Health, kids, Kids Travel Doc, kids travel doctor, mental health, pediatrician, SAD, safety, seasonal affective disorder, sunlight, winter blues

Backpacks here. Backpacks there. Backpacks practically everywhere. Kids of all ages wear them – and, increasingly, so do adults. Toddlers wear them for the sake of wearing them, often empty and sometimes in the shape of cartoon characters. Older kids use them for books and sporting equipment and when hiking and traveling. For high school [...]

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Tags: backpack etiquette, backpack kids, backpacks, body weight, bodyweight, children, heavy backpacks, kids, shoulder straps, sporting equipment, Toddlers, waist strap

Skip your hot tea and coffee when flying with young children – and hope that passengers in adjacent seats do the same. Every year hundreds of passengers, many of them children, are burned by such beverages spilling on them. The combination of hot drinks, crowding, turbulence, and children is a formula for an accident waiting [...]

Posted in Air Travel, Food & Water Precautions, Prevention, Safe & Healthy Travel, Travel No Comments »
Tags: Air Travel, aisle seats, children, coffee burn, coffee spill, hazards, hot beverages, hot coffee, hot tea, injuries, overhead bins, turbulence

To prevent children from being burned at cookouts, establish a “circle of safety” or a “forbidden zone” around cooking grills and campfires. Draw the line in the ground (literally, if possible) or delineate the area in some other way.  Even though such burns are preventable with reasonable precautions, each year more than 3,000 American children [...]

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Tags: barbecues, burns, campfire safety, campfires, campgrounds, children, circle of safety, coals, cooking grills, cookout-related burns, cookouts, grills, kids, kids campfire, Kids Travel Doc, kids travel doctor, marshmellows