Outdoor Fun Related Articles & Blog Posts

We all have heard the phrase, beauty begins on the inside.  But did you know you can actually decrease the risk of sunburn by loading up on fruits and veggies and other nutrient rich foods?  Its true!

Today we’re going to define some terms and talk about some of the ugly truths about the sunscreen industry.  Some of it may seem familiar, but read carefully – those labels can be pretty tricky.  Here’s a primer on what to look for which choosing safe, effective products for your little ones.

Parents today are floating amidst a sea of controversy and confusion about proper sun protection for children. Frequent questions range from:  “How much sun protection do children really need?” to “What on earth is a nano-particle anyway?” Many parents know that most sun damage occurs before the age of 18 and that preventing sunburn is [...]

When your little one falls from his bed, crashes his bike or simply runs into the wall during a game of chase, you experience his pain as well as that heart-racing panic feeling that you try to suppress. You rush to pick him up and hold him close as you wait for the first shriek [...]

We all know about the importance of fitting exercise into our daily lives. However, millions of Americans still do not get exercise regularly. With the obesity epidemic all around us, it is time for every parent to take healthy steps to get or keep their kids eating healthy and moving their bodies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently doubled their recommended daily amount of vitamin D for our kids – and many kids weren’t getting enough even before this change. The more closely we look at vitamin D, the more we learn about how important this sunshine vitamin is to both short and long-term health for children. [...]

Today at our annual meeting in Boston, the American Academy of Pediatrics doubled the recommended amount of vitamin D that children get each day to 400 IU, in response to mounting evidence of the life-long health benefits of getting plenty of the sunshine vitamin.

Some Seek Guidelines to Reflect Vitamin D’s Benefits – washingtonpost.com This was an interesting article in the Washington Post (link above). It discusses both reasons for excitement and reasons for caution about vitamin D and sunshine.

A fun, practical, affordable way to help overweight kids? My friend and colleague, Dana Weintraub, MD, from the Division of General Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, led a team that studied the effect of an after school soccer team on weight. The results of SPORT (the Stanford [...]

More infants and children are bitten by mosquitoes than by any other insect. But parents often don’t notice the bites on babies and young children because they don’t look like they do on teens and adults.