Healthy eating on the go

Sports and other extra curricular activities are revving up leading to busier schedules.  Temperatures are rising leading to hot practices and games.  How do you make sure that your kids are getting good nutrition and staying well hydrated?  Here is a link from the American Academy of Pediatrics parent's website www.healthychildren.org giving some advice.

Sports nutrition for busy families

Sleep can save your mind

During a well check, I ask some basic questions about several different areas of life to try and figure out where we need to focus our time:
- Is your kid doing ok in school?
- Are they brushing their teeth?
- Do they have friends (Are they developing socially?)
- Do they eat at least some vegetables?
- Do they sleep ok at night?

I feel like over just my short 5 years of practice, the question regarding sleep has become more and more of a problem.  There have always been a few people that have pathologic sleep problems that need professional help.  But now "basic" sleep hygeine does not seem to be basic anymore.

Here is a great article from healthchildren.org with a great reminder of the little things you can do to help improve your child (or your own) sleep.

Sleep and Mental Health 

Miralax

Is miralax really just anti-freeze causing my child to go crazy?
Read Doc Smitty's answer:
Is Miralax safe?
followed by
7 questions answered about miralax

a "croupy" cough

Happy New Year to everyone!

Every area of knowledge comes with its own vocabulary, including the field of medicine.  Unfortunately, I think patients have learned to use certain words with a newer broad definition without realizing that it has a very specific meaning.  Some examples would be "wheezing" "croupy" and "lethargic". 

Doc Smitty at Cook Children's Hospital has a great post about what a "croupy" cough really means and what to do about it.

"croupy" cough

Things you always knew that are not quite true

There are several tidbits of wisdom that have been handed down from grandmothers and grandfathers alike that are not backed up by science. 

Read Dr. Smitty's blog post to see if you have been guilty of saying any of them:
Winter Old Wives' Tales

New Screen Time Guidelines have been released

In the ever changing world of electronics, it is hard for research to keep up and thus hard for groups that make recommendations to keep up.  However the American Academy of Pediatrics is doing their best and have updated their recommendations. 

Doc Smitty from Cook Children's has summarized them into 11 useful facts to guide us.

11 facts about screen time rules

Time to get rid of your anti-bacterial soaps!

There has been an underlying focus on eliminating unnecessary antibiotics from our environment to prevent the development of "superbugs".  Most of the attention has been towards careful prescribing of antibiotics only when needed.  However, recently the FDA has taken steps towards eliminating antibiotics in household ingredients including soap. 

what to know about antibacterial soap