Children 6 Months And Up Can Get COVID Vaccine

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents check with their pediatrician and community health care providers about how to get their children vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended two COVID-19 vaccines: one for children ages 6 months to 4 years, and one for ages 6 months to 5 years. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports this recommendation and encourage pediatricians to promote vaccination and give COVID-19 vaccines. Authorization of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for children ages 6 months and older … Continue reading →

Mayo Clinic: Vaping Causes Health Risks to Teens

Is your teenager vaping? Many people believed that vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes. Since then, new information has revealed that there are some health risks that come from vaping. The Mayo Clinic points out that vaping can negatively affect health of teens. Part of the reason is because the vaping liquid includes nicotine. According to the Mayo Clinic, nicotine dependence in teens and young adults is particularly concerning because when a person is younger than 25, the brain is still developing. Exposing a developing brain to an addictive drug such as nicotine can potentially lead to permanent alterations in … Continue reading →

Study Finds College Students May Develop PTSD Due to 2016 Election

There’s a chance that your college student has developed PTSD because of the 2016 election. This is according to a study that was led Melissa Hagen, an assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University. The results were published in the Journal of American College Health on October 22, 2018. The title of the study is: “Event-related clinical distress in college students: Responses to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.” The study examined the prevalence and demographic correlations of clinically significant election-related avoidance and intrusion symptoms among college students 2-3 months after the 2016 election. There were 729 participants. The … Continue reading →

Google Surveyed Teens About What’s Cool

What brands does your teenager think are cool? Google surveyed over 1,000 teens that are part of Generation Z in an effort to find out what people of this age group think is cool. They put the results together in a project called “It’s Lit – A Guide to What Teens Think is Cool”. Generation Z includes people who were born between the mid-1990s to early 2000s. However, Google chose to focus their research on 13-17 year olds. The teenagers were asked to rank 122 brands based on how cool each brand is. According to the teens who took part … Continue reading →

Why Regular Exercise is Important for Kids

Many of us realize that it is a good idea to get some exercise. Adults tend to think of exercise as a way to lose weight or tone up muscle. It turns out that getting regular exercise is more beneficial than randomly exercising done every so often. This is true for both adults and children. Are your kids getting the regular exercise? Regular Exercise is Important for Children The Mayo Clinic points out that the health benefits of getting regular exercise and physical activity are “hard to ignore”. Of course, some exercise is better than none at all. However, if … Continue reading →

Why you Should Read to your Baby

Do you read to your baby? The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued new guidelines that recommend that parents read to their newborn infants. Some parents may not be doing that because it never occurred to them that babies benefit from being read to. There are some very good reasons for parents to read to their babies and young children! The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that parents who read to their children nurture not only their children’s literary skills, but also much more. They have put together some easy to read information that points out the benefits that come … Continue reading →

Vermont has the Healthiest Kids

We all want our kids to be healthy! It appears that the state of Vermont is doing very well towards making that hope a reality. Data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control about the Green Mountain State shows that Vermont has the healthiest kids in America. How does what Vermont is doing compare to your state? The Centers for Disease Control’s Data Resource Center released a survey called The National Survey of Children’s Health. It took the results of the survey and presented them in a way that made it more accessible to parents (as well as other researchers … Continue reading →

Playing the Numbers Game

It’s dinnertime and you’re frantically scrambling to get your three kids under six years old fed before you have to get the oldest to his soccer game and the middle one to the barber. You swing into McDonald’s, order, squeeze into a booth, divvy up a 20-piece McNuggets amongst your offspring, and then quickly shove the first meal of your day down your gullet. What’s the last thing you’re thinking about during this manic mealtime? Well, other than wondering if Kate Middleton is breastfeeding Prince George. That’s right; calories. Those numbers, which are now posted on many restaurant menus in … Continue reading →

Crack-a-lackin

Snap! Crackle! Pop! It’s the sound I wake up to every morning and continue to hear throughout the day. And not because I gorge on Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. Nope. The crack-a-lackin is coming from my daughter’s… wait for it… back. Yes, my 8-year-old twists, turns, bends, bangs, and hangs her body in the most frightening ways imaginable to get her cracking fix. She claims her bizarre manipulations ease the tightness she experiences in her lower back. However, my theory is that she is addicted to the sound more than the actual feeling. I recently consulted a pediatrician about my daughter’s … Continue reading →

When a Cold is Not a Cold

Spring fever is spiking in our home. The last few weeks have been beset with sniffles, sneezes, sore throats and some serious sinus issues. For a long time I thought the aforementioned symptoms were related to the common cold, but a recent trip to the doctor proved otherwise. The next time you are tempted to self diagnose your child’s runny nose and congestion, consider the other conditions he could be suffering from: Allergies: Frequent sneezing and itchy, watery eyes, especially during the spring months can be a sign of allergies. March and April are notorious for having high pollen and … Continue reading →