Children’s speech development varies widely, but generally speaking, 18-month-olds know about 20 words, and 2-year-olds know about 50. If you feel your child is significantly behind, talk to your pediatrician about it at your child’s routine checkup.
It’s generally recommended that your first visit to your pediatrician should occur within 2 to 3 days after bringing the baby home from the hospital. Follow-up visits for the first year should occur at 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, and a year.
Need help packing a healthy lunch? Here’s a tip: Incorporate a food from each of the five groups. Make sure your child’s lunch has a fruit, vegetable, whole grain, protein, and dairy item.
The American Academy of Pediatricians has issued recommendations for the use of infant seats. Toddlers should ride in rear-facing seats until they are two years old and then move to seats that face forward and are equipped with harnesses until they reach height or weight guidelines.
Kids love having a pool at home. Take the necessary precautions to ensure that it can be used with confidence. Install a fence at least 4 feet high around all four sides of the pool, and make sure there are no openings or protrusions that a young child could use to over, under or through.
Unfortunately, television and video games can make it attractive to stay indoors for play time. In order to help your children develop healthy habits they’ll carry through the rest of their lives, remember to encourage no less than an hour of active play time each day.
A pediatrician should be the person who you can go to for all of those childhood concerns- accidents, immunizations, and those inevitable colds and flus. They also need a staff that can support you and your child through those issues.
Did you know that what your infant eats now could impact his or her health and immune system for the rest of his or her life? Let’s discuss which foods will set your child up for the best start possible.
A pediatrician is there to help keep your child healthy, but that’s not his or her only role. He or she will also be your child’s primary health advocate, provide guidance to you and your family, and be the primary point of contact if your child needs attention from other specialists.
Your child’s health is not something to be taken for granted. Preventative medicine such as vitamins and minerals, a healthy well balanced diet and an active lifestyle are all ways to keep your child in the best shape possible.
If you want your child to have a positive relationship with his or her pediatrician, don’t express your own anxiety during doctor visits. If you greet the doctor warmly and act happy to be there, your child will pick up on your enthusiasm and the visit will be more enjoyable for you both.
Many children suffer from ADHD, or attention deficit disorder. Visiting your pediatric doctor can help you find the answers to many questions, as well as receiving helpful dietary recommendations, empowering coping mechanisms and local support groups.
When your child needs care quickly, you need a pediatrician with a schedule that can fit your own. A great pediatric practice can offer you just that, and the caring staff to take care of all those day to day needs.
It’s important to remember that a child’s immune system can take quite a while to fully develop. The best way to protect them against serious illness is to ensure their vaccinations are current.
Does your child get motion sickness? This may happen on anything from the car, to a train, or a plane. When venturing out, you should be prepared to handle a bout of motion sickness. There are many solutions, both medical and non-medical, to motion sickness.
Especially early on in a young child’s life, in well-child visits special attention is paid to whether the child is meeting normal developmental milestones. Also, the child’s height, weight, and head circumference are recorded on a growth chart.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease is a common childhood illness. This ailment is characterized by a fever with blisters or sores inside the child’s mouth and on the palms and the soles of the feet.
While coughing in children can simply be a symptom of a cold, this can also be an indication that asthma is present. If the coughing increases at night or with exercise, it’s best to see your pediatrician as soon as possible to have your child assessed.
Tonsillitis and adenoid infections are a fairly common ailment that affects children of all ages. Acute or chronic tonsillitis occurs when one of several different types of bacteria or viruses causes an infection or, in some cases, tonsil stone formation. Symptoms can include bad breath, a sore throat, and swollen glands.
Sometimes pediatricians recommend that parents bringing their kids in for a routine vaccination can help them by giving them Tylenol or Advil half an hour or so before a shot. This can help subdue the pain for sensitive children.
So what can parents expect at a well-child visit? Your child’s pediatrician will review your child’s developmental milestones, give needed immunizations, perform screening tests, and make referrals to specialists if needed.
Choosing a pediatrician is one of the most important choices you make as a parent. They should be trustworthy in every way, and prepared to handle all of those childhood issues that arise. Not only that, but the best pediatrician comes with an equally wonderful staff.
Not sure if your child has an allergy or simply a cold? One indication that allergies might be present includes repeated or chronic cold-like symptoms that last more than a week or two and/or develop around the same time every year.
At a routine health exam for your child, the doctor will check the immunization records and make sure that all the booster shots are up to date. Scheduling an appointment during the summer months will prepare your child for the start of school.
It’s important to remember that not all symptoms your child displays will still be present when you bring him or her in. If there’s a rash you’re concerned about, you may want to snap a picture of it before it can change.
Most pediatricians advise that you don’t use sunscreen on infants ages 6 months or younger. Parents should keep babies covered up with lightweight, long-sleeve clothing and hats. Children older than 6 months should use sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15.
It may seem like teething and diaper rash go hand-in-hand, but this is not always the case. While the two do coincide, pediatricians agree that this is more of a coincidence than anything else and one does not cause the other.
Children with allergies to pollen and other airborne irritants often exhibit certain symptoms. These include an itchy, runny nose, as well as nasal stuffiness, sneezing, a constant need to clear the throat, and itchy, watery eyes.
We recognize that some children can heal much more quickly than other children. If you’re concerned that the injury or sore will be mainly healed by the time you get to your appointment, snapping a quick picture of the issue can ensure you have something to show us.
It’s important to remember that there’s really no one universal sign that your child is sick since all children behave a little differently. Rather than looking for cookie cutter symptoms, instead consider scheduling an appointment when your child’s behavior is out of character.
If your children are athletes, it’s important to keep their “fuel tanks” full. In addition to healthy meals, provide healthy snacks before and after exercise. Pack high-carb, moderate protein, and low-fat snacks for them, such as granola bars, energy bars, pretzels, trail mix, and peanut butter and crackers.
Head injuries are a common concern for many parents of infants and young children. After your doctor visit, keep an eye on your child for a few days and look for any unusual behavior.
For most of history, pediatrics and adult medicine weren’t separated, but that changed in the 1600s. The Enfants-Trouvés (Hospice for Foundlings) was founded in 1674, and gradually, locations were founded specifically for sick children that were separate from adult patients.
Do you ever worry that all the sunscreen you’re putting on your child could actually be denying their body the Vitamin D it needs to thrive? Let’s talk about how much unprotected sun exposure your child needs in order produce adequate amounts of Vitamin D.
After practicing surgery during the American Civil War, Dr. Francis Henry Brown studied pediatric medicine in Europe. He went on to found the Boston Children's Hospital in 1869. The hospital was instrumental in developing pediatric surgery of congenital defects in the 1920s and 30s.
While being around other children their age can help your child develop social skills, it can also expose them to more germs. If your child doesn’t already, teach them the importance of frequent hand washing, especially before they eat.
We realize that ear pain can be particularly difficult for young children to handle because they lack the vocabulary necessary to express what’s wrong. If your child is more irritable than usual or constantly tugging on their earlobe, they may have an ear infection.
Many times babies who are held in the neonatal intensive care unit are healthy, but doctors would like them to be monitored until they are big enough and strong enough to home with their parents.
When out in the sun, a general rule of thumb is to apply one ounce of sunscreen for each young adult. Sunscreen should be reapplied every two hours, or immediately after swimming or sweating.
Did you know that, every year, more than 2 million Americans younger than age 14 are bitten by dogs? Parents can help prevent this type of injury by teaching children to ask the owner before petting a dog and avoiding making unexpected movements.
About 13 percent of all babies in the U.S. are born prematurely, according to the Hastings Center. That adds up to about 520,000 babies born before a full 37-week gestation period in 2007.
Did you know your cell phone can be a powerful tool to have during pediatric visits? Instead of trying to explain a cry or behavior, you can show us the video you took of it.
Many people don’t realize that, just like adults, children can have anxiety disorder. In children, anxiety can be experience in many different ways: physically, emotionally, and in the way the child comes to view the world around them.
Do you have questions about vaccinations? Many parents today do. A great pediatrician can help you work through those concerns, answering any questions and providing the facts behind much of the hype. If you decide that a change to the typical plans is needed, they can even help work out that plan.
In 1910, the American Medical Association described its vision for its new pediatric journal with these words: “[T]he American Journal of Diseases of Children will be … equal, if not superior, to any other scientific periodical in this or in any other country.”
Children under the age of two are susceptible to the viral infection roseola. Symptoms are usually mild and include a fever followed by a rash around the chest. Other coloquial names for the disease are sixth disease, baby measles and three-day fever.
Babies who are born premature commonly require hospitalization because their bodies are not yet fully developed. Common problem areas include the lungs, the immune system and the stomach and intestines, which are not immediately able to digest breast milk.
Since babies can’t use words to tell you that they aren’t feeling well, you may have to do a bit of sleuthing to determine whether they need a doctor. Generally, fever, poor feeding and trouble breathing are good indications that something may be wrong.
Children with a stiff neck or extreme lethargy that lasts for more than five days should see a pediatrician as soon as possible. These symptoms may be a sign of illness or infection that requires immediate treatment.
Remember that your children, even tiny babies, tend to pick up on the emotional state of their parents. If you’re calm about a visit to the doctor, your child will be more at ease.
Even if your children eat regular meals during the day, there will still be times in between that they feel hungry, especially if they have been very physically active. Snacks can fill the gap, but should not be eaten in place of meals.
Did you know that infant reflexes are responses that are normal in babies but abnormal in other age groups? These include the moro reflex, sucking reflex, startle reflex (pulling arms and legs in after hearing a loud noise), and step reflex.