Children's Health Issues

Of all the concerns that parents have contacted my office about over the years, one of the most common ones has been what to do with a child's fever.

In order to know what to do with a fever, it is important to understand that fevers serve to protect your body against infection and trauma in three major ways:

In the spring of 2005, when I was pregnant for the first time, I wrote an article about the potential dangers of leaving a baby to cry. I received much feedback on this topic, some in support of my views, some in complete disagreement of my views, and some merely encouraging an open mind. Three years, two children, and an enormous accumulation of sleep-debt later, do I still believe that it is wrong to leave a baby to cry?

Yes and no.

While I still believe in attachment theory and consider myself to be an attachment parent, through my experiences with our babies I have come to realize that this issue, as with most of life's issues, is not black and white.

According to reports by the Center for Environmental Health, the New York Times, and the Canadian Broadcasting Association, baby bibs imported from China and available for purchase at Toys 'R' Us stores in the United States contain high levels of lead.

According to test results by the Center for Environmental Health, the vinyl bibs in question contain up to three times the amount of lead that is allowed in paint.

Before my wife gave birth to our first child, our primary midwife asked us to think about whether we wanted our child to receive a vitamin K shot after he was born or not.

Vitamin K shots are routinely administered to newborn babies because 1.8 out of every 100,000 babies who do not receive vitamin K injections suffer permanent injury or death due to uncontrolled bleeding in the brain that may be the result of having extremely low levels of vitamin K in their systems.

After reading the responses to the article Should Parents Spank Their Children?, some of which support spanking, it occurred to me that perhaps many parents just don’t know how else to influence their children’s behaviour. Some parents feel that spanking is the best way to teach their children not to misbehave. Some parents feel that everything else has failed and so, having run out of other options, they turn to spanking. If you are a parent, especially one who would like to begin learning about alternatives to spanking, please consider the following points.

Have you ever wondered why you are asked to wait at the hospital or at your doctor's office for fifteen minutes after receiving most vaccinations?

Why can't you just go on home right after receiving your shot?

A newly published study in the The Lancet indicates that living close to freeway traffic can negatively impact lung development in children.

Children's lungs tend to grow rapidly between the ages of 10 and 18, and this most recent study concludes that steady exposure to airborne pollutants during this age range can lead to short and long term respiratory challenges.

This past week, I was surprised to learn that over 90 percent of parents use a form of punishment that involves inflicting physical pain when disciplining their children.

In considering this statistic, the questions that come to mind are:

1. Can spanking our children lead to them having emotional problems in the future?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning not to give over-the-counter cold and cough medicines to children 2 years of age or under without consulting with one's doctor.

This warning is the result of research that was conducted in response to the deaths of three infants in 2005; all of them were found to have dangerous levels of pseudoephedrine, a nasal decongestant, in their systems.

Jealousy. Nowhere is this emotion more evident than in a toddler who suddenly finds a new baby in the house to gobble up mommy's and daddy's attention.

My mother-in-law once told me about walking into a room to see her then-5-year-old son about to smother his infant sister's (my wife) face with a pillow. In the same breath of laughter, she went on to tell of another time when she was nursing her youngest, when suddenly, her baby screamed in pain. My mother-in-law wheeled around to discover that her son had pinched his baby sister on the arm while he was behind his mother's back.