Dr. Greene speaking about getting your child to sleep in their own room
    The “Free Pass”: Getting your child to sleep in their own room

    At 3am a triangle of light slices the darkness in two, and a child's tired, raspy voice whispers "Mom? Moooooom?" It's now that you realize, this will not be the night of restful sleep you've been fan…

    Alan Greene as a boy in kentucy with father and grandfather
    Father: Past, Present, and Future

    Even before our babies are born, we are teaching them about the world around us. We communicate our choices, our values, even without thinking about it. They hear our voices, smell our aromas, and the…

    Pediatricians’ Trick-or-Treat Bags

    Each year thousands of pediatricians gather for a national conference to catch up on the latest science and with each other. There's also a huge exhibit hall, as in so many professional and trade conf…

    Young Girl Playing in Outdoors Water
    Skin Damage Starts with Your Child’s First Sun Over-exposure

    It's taken a long time for science to quantify what mothers have always known: the skin of babies and toddlers is very different from the skin of older children and adults. Babies' skin is softer beca…

    Kids and Smoking: Start the Conversations Early
    Kids and Smoking: Start the Conversations Early

    Each day 3,000 kids start smoking. One third of them will die from their addiction. Most preschool children today view smoking as an unhealthy, negative behavior. Somewhere around the time of kinderga…

    Every Parent Should Learn about Food Imprinting
    Every Parent Should Learn about Food Imprinting

    Dr. Greene's take on food imprinting... What and how our kids eat is central to their health both now and in the long run. Your early food decisions can help your child learn good food in much the sam…

    Learning Foods is Like Learning a Language

    I received a great question from @ChowMamaStacie on Twitter (which was posed by @amanda by way of @kidappeal), "What do you say or do when kids make funny faces as they taste food?" I suggest a low-ke…

    Pomegranate Juice Prevents Early Puberty?
    Pomegranate Juice Prevents Early Puberty?

    Recent headlines have trumpeted an exciting study about how pomegranate juice may prove very useful at preventing and even treating breast cancer. In test tubes, it's proven quite effective against br…

    Sick little girl taking medicine from a medicine cup. Dosing Spoon Surprise!
    Dosing Spoon Surprise

    Once again, my take is different than that of most. About 70 percent of Americans measure their liquid medicines in kitchen spoons. But when smart college students were asked to pour a real teaspoon o…

    Falling Down: Older Children
    Falling Down: Older Children

    For the population as a whole, falls are the most common cause of unintentional injuries requiring medical care, the leading cause of hospital admissions for trauma, and the second leading cause (afte…

    Choosing the Right Vitamin Supplement for Your Children
    Choosing the Right Vitamin Supplement for Your Children

    If the world were a perfect place, we wouldn't have to worry about giving supplements to our families. Children are miraculously designed to thrive on a balanced variety of whole foods: fruits, veggie…

    Cold Medicine for Your Kids
    Cold Medicine for Your Kids

    Last year an advisory panel of independent experts convened by the FDA recommended that the FDA ban popular over-the-counter oral decongestants, antihistamines and cough suppressants for children unde…

    Vigorous Active Play Creates Strong Bones
    Vigorous Active Play Creates Strong Bones

    Helping our children to build stronger bones is a gift we can give now that can keep protecting them long after we are gone. What, exactly, does it take to make a difference? Fragile bones are somethi…

    Cholesterol, Drugs, and Kids
    Cholesterol, Drugs, and Kids

    Controversial new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics call for more children to get their cholesterol checked, starting as young as age 2, and for some kids to be started on statin drug…

    Eating Fruit at School
    Eating Fruit at School

    You can send healthy snacks like fruit with kids to school, but how do you get them to actually eat it? I can remember trading away healthy lunch fare as a child, or just bringing home an uneaten oran…

    Play is Good for the Heart
    Play is Good for the Heart

    Dr. Greene on how play is good for the heart... Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill evaluated nearly 400 seven- to ten- year-old elementary school children to find out how muc…

    Burning Fat
    Burning Fat

    What kind of exercise is most effective for burning fat in children? A new study delivers an objective answer. It's no secret that childhood obesity has become a major problem, nor that physical activ…

    The Big Talk
    Sexuality: The Big Talk

    We know that parents communicating with kids about sexuality can have powerful effects: on average it delays the age of first intercourse, increases the chance of contraception if they do have interco…

    Superbugs at School (and Preschool)
    Superbugs at School (and Preschool)

    MRSA infections now kill more Americans than does HIV/AIDS, according to a CDC report in the October 17, 2007 Journal of the American Medical Association. Most of these infections are in adults over a…

    The Bedtime Pass Program
    The Bedtime Pass Program

    For almost ten years now I've suggested using a simple, easy "Get Out of Bed Free Card" for those who want to help preschool and school-age children learn to happily stay in their own rooms at night. …