Month: September 2010

Lifestyle

Cooking Healthy with Your Kids

Easy, fun recipes to make with your children.

By Catherine McCord
catherine I get countless emails every day from parents and readers of my website, weelicious.com, looking for advice because they can’t get their kids to eat anything healthy. As a mother of two kids under four, I understand all too well what a stress it can be trying to prepare three meals (and snacks) for your family 7 days a week.

So, how do we get kids to fall in love with fruits and vegetables and actually WANT to eat them? It’s important to realize that kids are told what to do and when to do it almost all day long, so when they have the ability to control something — like the food that goes in their body — they won’t hesitate to do it. And that can make life tough for concerned parents.
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Health

Dealing with Whooping Cough

By Peter S. Waldstein, M.D., F.A.A.P and Julia A. White, M.D., F.A.A.P
Doctor You may have heard about the recent epidemic of whooping cough in the news, and like most parents probably have many questions. Pertussis (also know as “whooping cough”) is a respiratory illness that is characterized by paroxysms of cough. Vaccinations greatly decrease the incidence of the disease, although we do see some cyclical peaks in activity. Now, pertussis has made a come back with this year being on track to have the most cases in almost 50 years. Infants and young children are the most severely affected, and it can be fatal especially in young infants. All of the fatalities from pertussis this year in California have been in children under the age of 3 months.

Whooping cough is a bacterial infection caused by the bacterium Bordatella pertussis. It may also be caused by Bordatella parapertussis, but less commonly. It is spread by contact with respiratory secretions or droplets of an infected person, and is most infectious during the initial catarrhal phase of the illness. A normal incubation period for the illness is about 7 to 10 days, but may be shorter or longer. After this, the symptoms start to appear.
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Education

Returning to the Routine: A Back to School Quick Study

By Nathalie Kunin
nathlie It’s September, which means that it’s time for you and your children to shake off the lazy days of summer and return to that trusted routine of the school year.

Decluttering the Desk
For the last three months, your child’s workspace has been the docking station for everything other than work, so it’s important to take some time before classes resume to “redefine the desk.” Organize all school materials (pencils, erasers, a dictionary, accordion files, etc.) into a clutter-free work area with plenty of elbowroom.

As you help tidy up, remind your child that music and snacks do not belong in the workspace. Explain why these rules are enforced – snacks are distracting, and music is counterproductive. Promote workspace independence. After all, this is their domain. Suggest hanging a bulletin board and a calendar beside the desk for posting exam reminders, keeping track of extracurricular activities and organizing long term assignments.

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