Helping Kids Eat Smart

    Encourage your children's teachers to teach the class at least a little about good nutrition at the beginning of each year. If eating well is confirmed by this outside authority and is tied in with su…

    Teen and school age siblings baking. Peer pressure nutrition
    Healthy Eating, Part IV – Motivators for school age children and adolescents

    During school years, the phenomenon of peer pressure begins to become a very powerful force. Children see what's packed in each other's lunches. And, yes, it's not unusual for your darling to trade th…

    Two African American children eating. One school age, one preschool healthy foods.
    Healthy Eating, Part III – The five greatest motivators for preschool children to eat healthy foods

    Let's get practical with my five greatest motivators for preschool children to eat healthy foods. (more…)…

    Healthy Eating, Part II - What foods do children need?
    Healthy Eating, Part II – What foods do children need? What foods should be avoided?

    When my son Kevin was about 3 years old, he spied a green pea. He picked it up between his fingers and rolled it over. It looked good! He then pushed the pea up his nose. Interesting. Vegetables are f…

    Good nutrition is vital to health. Image of bowls of fresh whole foods and a pot of tea.
    Healthy Eating, Part I – How important is good nutrition?

    With all that we know about tobacco, how can people still smoke? Easy. They're enticed by big business; they enjoy it; it's cool; and it's very, very habit forming. Now for the truth--poor nutritional…

    Ownership and Sharing Rules
    Ownership and Sharing Rules

    For my children, we have three sharing rules to help teach respect: (more…)…

    Guidelines for Antibiotic Use
    Guidelines for Antibiotic Use

    Recognizing the urgent problem of antibiotic overuse, in 1998 the Centers for Disease Control and the Academy of Pediatrics have issued guidelines for when to use (and when not to use) antibiotics for…

    Cold Or Flu? How To Tell The Difference
    Cold Or Flu? How To Tell The Difference

    Dr. Greene's take on how to distinguish: cold or flu? The symptoms we get during a viral illness are often the body's attempt to get rid of the virus and to minimize damage. Sneezing ejects the virus …

    Safe Bedding to Help Prevent SIDS
    Safe Bedding to Help Prevent SIDS

    The following are the safe bedding recommendations put out by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the National Institute of Child Health and Huma…

    Knowing When a Child Should be Picked up from Day Care
    Knowing When a Child Should be Picked up from Day Care

    As a parent, when you get a call saying that you need to leave work to pick up a sick child, you are put in a tough spot. You don't want to use your vacation to stay home with a miserable child (that'…

    Colds, Allergies and Sinus Infections
    Colds, Allergies and Sinus Infections

    Parents often ask me whether their children's constantly runny noses are the result of allergies, sinus infections, or of one cold after another. (more…)…

    Hyperactivity and Inattention
    Hyperactivity and Inattention

    We hear about the medical condition called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD or ADHD), and wonder if our children might be hyperactive. By age 4, about 40 percent of children act in a way …

    Guidelines for Easing the Transition from Crib to Bed
    Guidelines for Easing the Transition from Crib to Bed

    She learns to pull herself to standing. Soon she is cruising 'round and 'round the crib, instead of going down for a nap. Then she begins to bounce up and down. Before long, she catapults over the top…

    Guidelines For Enjoying The Holidays with Kids

    Here are some things we've found to make it all work: No matter how much you plan, things will go wrong. So be ready to let things go -- especially the things that are near the bottom of your holiday …

    Helping to Ease Baby Blues
    Helping to Ease Baby Blues

    Dr. Greene's tips for how to ease baby blues: Every new beginning is also an ending of what was before. Every ending is a beginning. Whenever a baby is born, the world will never be the same. This is …

    Guidelines for Bathing your Newborn
    Guidelines for Bathing your Newborn

    Dr. Greene's advice on bathing your newborn... Most of us have some sort of a picture collection from our childhood. There's the wonderful shot of those tenuous first steps; the picture of a grinning …

    Girl falling asleep while studying. Does sleep deprivation cause ADHD like symptoms?
    Sleep Deprivation and ADHD

    As if it shouldn't have been obvious, research has shown that the sleep deprivation associated with medical residents' on-call schedules brings about significant "impairment of physician mood" as the …

    A Parent’s Guide to Praise
    A Parent’s Guide to Praise

    Taking pride in our own accomplishments or those of our children is a healthy thing. Requiring ourselves or our children to continually accomplish things is not healthy. As parents, we need to express…

    Its a New Year
    It’s a New Year!

    It is always difficult for me to get used to writing a new year's date. I get so comfortable with the old year's date that I sometimes write it automatically. But writing a new date reminds me that th…

    The Children’s Immunization Schedule
    The Children’s Immunization Schedule

    Guidelines have been set for many health issues, and childhood vaccines are not different. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has established a recommended children?s immunization…