Sun Safety: How to Avoid Sunburn

I have the good fortune of living in a beach town, where our family can jump in the car and head down to the water any time we want, just as soon as all seven of us find and put on our swimsuits and flip-flops, apply sunscreen, load the car with boogie boards, chairs, buckets, nets, towels, balls, drinks, and snacks, drive over the drawbridge, cruise around for a parking space, pay for the little ticket to put on our dashboard, and haul everything out onto the sand. When it comes to sun protection, we don’t just care about it; we are connoisseurs. Continue reading →

Kids’ Colds Versus Allergies

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How do you know if a child has allergies or a cold? This is an issue dear to my heart, in part because my family has contributed more to the financial success of the facial tissue industry than anyone since the inventor of facial tissues, Mr. Puffs Kleenex I think it was. Despite my intimate familiarity with runny noses, even I’m not always sure which is which, but there are some clues that can help.

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How To Detect Kids’ Stomach Flu

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What’s the connection between warm weather, kids, and stomach flu? Children aren’t supposed to be sick during the summer; they’re supposed to be outside getting poison ivy, tick bites, and sprained ankles! But while respiratory infections like colds, sinusitis, and actual influenza occur much less frequently during the warm months, some kinds of intestinal viruses emerge like cicadas, leaving kids sucking on popsicles for all the wrong reasons.

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How To Deal With A Gassy Baby

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Have you ever run out of gas? If so, then one thing is for certain: you are not a baby. I mean aside from the fact that babies can’t legally drive cars, it seems they always have plenty of gas. But how much is too much, and what can you do about it anyway?

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How To Feed Picky Eaters

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It served me right, really. When my daughter was still an infant, I was that dad, the one who could work every conversation around to what a great eater she was: “Did you know that Kevin Bacon was in A Few Good Men with Kevin Pollak? Which reminds me that my daughter just tried palak paneer, and she loves it!” Six months later, it was no longer my favorite topic: “Hey, David, does Abby still like Indian food?”

“Right, so have you seen Hollow Man yet? It looks kinda scary….”

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Potty Training Tips and Tricks

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Next time you’re around other parents and conversation starts to lag, ask them to share their zaniest potty training stories. (Warning: if you are not already a parent yourself, do not do this, or you may never become one.) Mine would probably involve taking my son’s potty with me to the soccer field so he could practice his skills in the back of the minivan while his big sister played. Let’s face it: when the goal is to never change another diaper, almost anything seems reasonable!

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Too Much Technology? How to Unplug Your Child From TV and Other Electronics

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How many of you knew that Monday kicked off this year’s Screen-Free Week, or as my children call it, “But Daddy!”? That’s right, the idea is, if not to completely eliminate screen-based entertainment in our children’s lives for 7 days, then to at least help them engage more in the “real” world. Rather than playing Plants vs. Zombies, for example, they can stagger outside themselves and see some actual flowers.

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How To Develop A Good Sleeping Pattern For Your Child

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How to get an infant to sleep is a question that keeps many parents up at night. Okay, it’s not the question that keeps them up at night, it’s the infant. But while they’re up they’re definitely asking the question! So how can you build healthy sleep habits so that everyone wakes up ready to have a great morning?

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Handling The News: Helping Your Child Cope With Tragedy

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I have an 11-year-old son who is very, very interested in disasters. This last week had him glued to his iPhone, following every wild rumor from Boston, MA to West, TX and sharing them all with his 8-year-old brother. We can hope that as we begin a new week those of us not directly touched by the troubling events of the last several days can relax and resume our lives, but we also know that at some point in the future, hopefully later rather than sooner, we will be struggling to help our children understand yet another inexplicably awful event. What will we do?

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Earaches And Airplanes

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Little is more exciting or nerve wracking than taking your child on her first airplane trip. She’ll finally explore the mysteries of flight: what clouds are really made of, how tiny houses look from way up in the air, how airlines can apparently charge you for everything down to not bruising your shins on the seat in front of you! Naturally, your child will be the one whose wide-eyed wonder charms everyone from the pilot to the grumpy businessman in the next seat. But what if she has a cold? Or an ear infection? Is there anything you can do to keep her from screaming her way across three time zones?

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