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According to the American Journal of Infection Control, more than 164 million school days are missed annually in U.S. public schools due to the spread of infectious diseases. An astonishing 3 million of those school days are lost as a result of acute conjunctivitis, also known as “pink eye.”

In recognition of September’s “Children’s Eye Health Month,” the American Academy of Ophthalmology wants to teach parents and educators how to prevent the spread of pink eye in the classroom.

Pink eye is all too common amongst children; it is one of the most common conditions I treat. The only way to really prevent pink eye from spreading is to practice good hygiene.

What is conjunctivitis?

Conjunctivitis is the term used to describe swelling of the conjunctiva — the thin, filmy membrane that covers the inside of your eyelids and the white part of the eye, known as the sclera. There are three forms of conjunctivitis: viral, bacterial and allergic.

Viral conjunctivitis, the most common form of pink eye, is caused by the same virus that causes the common cold. Just as a cold must run its course, so must this form of pink eye. It is also very contagious.

Bacterial conjunctivitis is a highly contagious form of pink eye, caused by bacterial infections. This type of conjunctivitis usually causes a red eye with a lot of pus.

Allergic conjunctivitis is a form of conjunctivitis that is caused by the body’s reaction to an allergen or irritant. It is not contagious.  This type of conjunctivitis is usually associated with redness in the white of the eye or inner eyelid.

How do you get pink eye and how do you prevent it?

Conjunctivitis, whether bacterial or viral, can be quite contagious. Children are usually most susceptible to getting the condition from bacteria or viruses because they are in close contact with so many others in schools or daycare centers. Some of the most common ways to get the contagious form of pink eye: Read More

As adults, we don’t think about it, but much of our exercise regimens revolve around counting. So I began thinking about how much more fun, and healthy, math could be for kids if we combined it with exercise. That was the genesis of my combination of the two disciplines.

This approach actually addresses two of the most pressing problems in the United States today.

Research shows that exercise improves learning and multi-sensory learning techniques improve the recognition and recall of information. One-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese and 61 percent of fourth graders are not proficient in math. That being said, it just makes sense that we start approaching these problems head-on, and we can create an economy of scale in time and resources by doing it at the same time.

Parents should encourage kids to get off the couch and exercise, too! The list of tips below is for parents who want to see their kids exercise as they learn. They include:

Count Along – It’s not just about counting to ten when you touch your toes. There is so much more you can do when your kids are having fun. It can be as simple as having them do the same thing you do – sets of 10 repetitions of any exercise – and then have them add up all those 10s when they are done. It will help them get comfortable tabulating simple equations in their heads.

Shapes Can Be Healthy – When I was a kid in gym class, they made us do arm circles, but there are so many other shapes that can be explored. Triangles, rectangles and even more complex geometric shapes can be combined with exercise in a variety of ways. Be creative and don’t be content with your kids using their arms like windmills. Make it fun for them and it will help to create healthy exercise habits that will last a lifetime.

Scavenger Hunts – Hide and Seek is a time-honored game, and with a little twist, you can use it to make math and healthy eating fun. Hide some healthy foods around the house, and set your kids to the task of finding them, but write down the calories and fat for each healthy food. When they find them, have them match up the foods with the numbers.

It’s all about getting kids to put down the video game controllers and to get off the couch. We owe it to our kids to start them off in life with healthy habits that we never learned as kids. As adults, we had to teach ourselves to work out and eat healthy. It wasn’t something that most of us learned when we were young. With this approach, you can help your kids develop intellectually and physically, as well as help them establish healthy habits that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Carrie Scheiner, creator of Exploracise – an exercise DVD for kids and parents, has a lifelong love of helping others, and is passionate about helping children learn math and healthy lifestyle concepts. She won the award for best student teacher for secondary math while receiving her Bachelors of Arts in Math and Secondary Education at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, where she also earned a Masters of Science in Statistics. She has combined her love of math and her passion for healthy eating and exercise to help the next generation overcome its current educational and health crises. www.exploracise.com.

Kids don’t come with a manual and neither does parenting. For the most part, good communication gets you through the rough times and helps to divert disaster.

One dilemma that tends to stymie most parents centers around the friends your child chooses. Most of the time, kids make great choices, but sometimes the friends that choose your child are not great choices. And, for some unknown reason, your child cannot get away from these types of friends. These friends are what I refer to as “toxic friends.” My two daughters both experienced situations with these types of friends; even though it was brief, it wasn’t as brief as it could have been had I been more aware.

If you give a situation time, it will usually work itself out. With toxic friends, however, that is not always true — so an intervention is necessary. Before you can intervene, you need to know what you are looking for. To you as a parent, the toxic friend may appear like the nice kid next door, yet, they say nasty things when no adult is around, and they make your child feel incompetent if they tell their parent.

Here are a few more signs that your child may be involved with a toxic friend:

1. If your child becomes totally obsessed with pleasing this friend, there is a good chance the power balance has shifted and your child is being used.

2. If your child’s friend treats their parent or any adult with disdain, pay attention. This is not a good sign, as they have issues with authority.

3. Your child’s new friend doesn’t abide by your child’s rules. For example, if you tell your child no communicating after 9 p.m. and this friend continually calls or texts, saying rules are stupid or for little kids, this is not a friendship you want to nurture.

4. Your child is teased or belittled in any way by this friend.

5. The friend tries to get your child to act rude or disobedient at school.

6. The friend wants to keep secrets all the time.

7. Your child’s friend is rude in public. All kids make mistakes, but if you notice this kid is a brat in public, can you imagine what is going on in their home?

8. Your child’s friend picks on “lesser people” or has a bully attitude.

9. Your child’s new friend has angry outbursts.

10. Your child begins acting out, swearing, and acting belligerent or indignant (unless someone is modeling that behavior in your home). Read More

This is a question that every parent and childcare worker asks when they notice something odd in the behavior and functioning of a little child. How can one best ascertain if a problem or delay really exists?

There are six important areas of child development to examine in order to determine whether a child is progressing at a normal pace. Below are some examples of age-appropriate skills to look for.

1. Movement (physical development)

• 4 to 5 months old: Does baby do push-ups or bring hands and toys to his or her mouth?

• 9 to 12 months old: Does child sit independently, crawl, creep, or scoot forward?

• 18 to 23 months old: Does child climb into chairs, walk forward, turn pages in a book?

• 3 years old: Does child run easily, falling rarely, or kick a ball forward?

• 4 years old: Does child run easily, or copy a circle and a square?

2. Thinking and Learning (cognitive development)

• 4 to 5 months old: Does baby listen to conversations or follow conversations with eyes?

• 9 to 12 months old: Does child explore with hands and mouth, or find hidden objects?

• 18 to 23 months old: Does child put small toys into a cup, basket or box?

• 3 years old: Can child tell his or her first name (or nickname) and last name?

• 4 years old: Does child know the difference between boys and girls?

3. Communication (receptive and expressive language development)

• 4 to 5 months old: Does baby imitate some sounds you make (like a cough)?

• 9 to 12 months old: Does child respond to own name (for example, look up when called)?

• 18 to 23 months old: Does child point to objects or people to express a need?

• 3 years old: Does child use words that describe things (like “it’s icky,” or “I’m hungry”)?

• 4 years old: Does child refer to self as “me” or “I” in addition to name? Read More

The American Academy of Pediatrics updated their guidelines for child passenger safety in April 2011, recommending children stay in rear-facing car seats until the age of two. But a new report from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health shows that many parents turn their child’s seat to face forward before their second birthday.

In May 2011, the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health asked parents of children 7 to 48 months old about their use of rear-facing car seats. The study found that 73 percent of parents switched their child from a rear-facing car seat to a forward-facing car seat before the age of two. Thirty percent of parents turned their child’s seat to face forward before their child reached one year of age.

“Research has shown that riding in a rear-facing car seat is up to five times safer for toddlers than riding in a forward-facing car seat,” says Michelle Macy, M.D., M.S., a clinical lecturer of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. “Parents want to keep their children safe, but they may not be aware of the safety benefits of keeping their child rear-facing beyond their child’s first birthday.”

Rear-facing car seats can prevent serious injury to children involved in front-end motor vehicle collisions, Macy says.

“When a child is sitting in a rear-facing car seat, the stopping forces are spread out over their entire back. The back of the car seat is a cushion for the child,” Macy says. “However, in the forward-facing position, all of the crash forces are focused on the points of the body that come into contact with the car seat straps. The child’s head and limbs keep moving forward, pulling against the seat.”

The National Poll on Children’s Health also asked parents what sources they look to for information about when to turn their child forward-facing. Most parents (72 percent) refer to the car seat packaging for this information and two-thirds (68 percent) get this information from a doctor or nurse.

Macy offers these tips for parents about car seats for infants and toddlers:

•  Car seat instructions often say that the seat can be used forward-facing when the child is 20 pounds. However, this does not mean the car seat should be used in the forward-facing position if the child is still under the height and weight limits to continue riding rear-facing.

•  Most children will outgrow a rear-facing infant carrier style seat well before their first birthday, but that doesn’t mean it is time to turn the baby to face forward. The next step is to get a larger convertible car seat that can be used both rear-facing and forward-facing. Read More

In a recent KidsHealth survey, almost 90 percent of students said they felt stress day in and day out.  And when kids are stressed, their parents are as well.  Some of the stress is from school, classes, etc, but just as much pressure can be felt after school.  If your after-school schedule feels more hurried, stressful, and complicated than you would prefer, try the following the solutions to make life a little simpler for you and your child.

· Reassess the After-School Schedule

I’m sure we can all agree that each child is different – some thrive on hectic schedules, whereas others crave downtime.  Listening to our kids is the only way we’ll know how they feel.  Take time to ask your child if his load is too stressful, or just right.  The flip side of this equation is your personal situation.  Perhaps more than children, parents feel overextended and exhausted.  Managing kids, a job, transportation to sports, and of course, homework, is enough to put even the most organized and efficient parent through the wringer.  If this feels too familiar, consider reexamining your children’s schedules.  Can one activity go by the wayside?  Is there a sport or lesson that your child doesn’t truly enjoy, but you insisted upon so that he doesn’t miss out on an opportunity?  These are the activities you might want to reconsider.

· Create a Predictable Schedule

Although each child in your household is likely to have a different schedule, it helps to create a family policy that homework must at least be started before leaving for an after-school activity.  Getting a jump start on homework significantly reduces procrastination and stress later in the evening.

· Use a White Board

It’s easy to keep track of assignments with a white board. Hang a large white board near an area that will be used for homework. When your children return from school each day, insist that they write their assignments on the white board.  By using this tool, you or any other adult in the home will know of the assignments each child has for the day, what has been completed, and what is still left to do. When the homework assignment list is visible, unfi Read More

I have four children and two of them have summer birthdays. They seem to get the short end of the birthday-party stick with very small parties or just celebrating with family. But now we are back to school and the birthday parties are starting up again. So, I started thinking about birthday parties and the economy, and what are some modern day considerations.

In these times of tighter budgets, large lavish birthday parties are a thing of the past. In the last decade, birthday parties had started to make a statement about the family throwing them, and, less and less about a simple childhood celebration. Now it’s back to the birthday child and back to basics. Here are some adjustments we are making:

Keep it simple and age appropriate. My eight-year-old had four friends meet us at the movie theatre to see Spy Kids 4D. I bought them all snacks and let them sit by themselves. Then they came back to our house for some cake and ice cream and played basketball in the driveway. We skipped the decorations, elaborate goody bags, over the top food and bloated invitation list.

Let them have a say in the planning. For my daughter’s twelfth birthday, she wanted to go to the mall and shop with her friends. We agreed she could invite 3 friends and I would give them each $20 to spend, and then take them to an early dinner at a Japanese hibachi restaurant. I was in the mall, but let them go to the stores on their own. They roamed around Claire’s, Forever21 and the Apple store and had a great time.

I try to remember, it’s not about me. Too many times, I used to insist my child invite a friend’s child because I feared it would be awkward if the child was not invited. Now, we’ve adjusted the size down and I just explain, when I feel I need to, that we are skipping the fanfare of a party and just having a few kids over. And I let my child choose.

The younger the kids, the less they care about food. So we no longer spend a lot of money on food. One Costco or Walmart run is enough to get the snacks and other food we need. Bake the cake if you can; otherwise a supermarket cake is plenty. Only get a sheet cake if you plan to eat the majority of it yourself.

Kids love getting birthday party invitations. We use the on-line evite system to create and send the invitation. Your child can help type in the information. Its fun and very inexpensive and they can check the status and comments daily. And, the invited kids enjoy getting the email and reminder.

Sleepover parties are a labor of love and a timeless tradition. I do not know one parent who enjoys hosting a sleepover party and kids often come back tired and cranky. But, kids live for these. Set some ground rules with your child beforehand and give the night a theme. We ask every parent to pick up their child at 10 or before so we know there is an ending.

Keep your causes to yourself. Somewhere along the way, presents became politically INCORRECT and more and more invitations started to state “no gifts please” or bring a book and we will donate it. This is fine for adult birthdays but I say, let the kids get presents. They love them. My favorite birthday gift of the moment is an apple gift card. Every child I know has an iPod, iTouch, iPhone or other device and they use their cards every time.

Some kids want a party at home and others want to go somewhere special… do your best to make it what the child wants, but ensure they understand the budget and adjust the size based on expense.

Bottom line: cake, presents, four friends or less at home or an outing. So maybe the small summer birthdays were fine after all. But I have to admit, my kids said jumpy castles are the bomb. I’ll leave that for parents with an only child.

Eileen Wacker lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, with her husband and four children. She is the author of the new children’s book, Pink Hamster and the Birthday Surprise, the fourth installment of the award winning Fujimini Adventure Series. For additional information on the series, please visit www.oncekids.com.

To most parents “Toddlers & Tiaras” is so offensive that we can hardly watch it, let alone relate to it. After all, this is a show depicting the horrifying phenomenon of children’s beauty pageants. Crazed, crown-obsessed parents dressing up their children like “living dolls” complete with hairpieces, false eyelashes, heavy makeup, spray tanner and hyper-sexualized outfits seem, to most people, like cult members from another planet. In fact, there is much we can learn from “Toddlers & Tiaras” about how to help our girls build high self-esteem.

Under the guise of glitz, fun and even confidence-building, pageant-parents are setting their daughters up for a lifetime of insecurity and low-fat love— pursuits and relationships that will not fill them.

Children’s beauty pageants promote unhealthy competition between girls, the cultivation of negative personality traits (such as acting like a “diva”) and an over-emphasis on appearance and physicality. While this may be obvious to many, what we often fail to see are the grains of these behaviors “normal” parents may engage in.

Here are the top five lessons all parents can take from these pageant-parent-monsters in order to help their daughters build authentic and long-lasting self-esteem.

1. Praise intellectual, creative and athletic accomplishments. First, these accomplishments take hard work and commitment, qualities we want to cultivate in our children. Second, these activities bring endless rewards to our daughters, throughout the life course. By encouraging these pursuits we are setting up our daughters to build fulfilling lives not based on superficial qualities. It is easy to fall into the trap of praising our girls for being pretty or cute or for wearing a trendy outfit. However, as parents it is important to show our daughters the kinds of accomplishments we really value.

2. Praise displays of kind and egalitarian behaviors. Sometimes parents talk about their daughters, especially during the mean tween years, as people who, if they were roommates, would have their lease terminated. In order to raise the kind of young women we would want to befriend, let alone live with, we need show them that we value congenial behaviors. Grace is about equality, not hierarchy.

3. Provide incentives that are based on factors they can control. Instead of bartering with our daughters—I’ll clean your room if you win the crown—offer incentives to good behaviors and accomplishments that they can control. For example, instead of offering a reward for earning a particular grade, offer the reward based on how much time they spend studying. Offering incentives for things dependent on the judgment of others sets your daughter up for a lifetime of seeking external validation. Instead, teach her how to develop her own sense of self-worth not beholden to the judgment of others.

4. Promote positive relationships with other girls. Girls need girlfriends. Healthy relationships with peers can greatly strengthen the quality of our daughter’s life. Girlfriends can offer support, a springboard for self-reflection and companionship. Destructive patterns of communication—such as gossiping, teasing, jealousy and comparison—can be discouraged as we encourage our girls to value and attend to the quality of their friendships.

5. Treat your kids with compassion without projecting your insecurities onto them. More than anything else, I feel badly for the pageant-parents on “Toddlers & Tiaras” because it is so obvious they are trying to live vicariously through their children. Perhaps they were picked on as children, or perhaps their childhood was their happiest time and their adult lives are lacking. In any event, they certainly don’t present themselves as people to emulate. I can’t help but wonder if they are just putting their own insecurities onto their daughters in the hopes of immediate—and glittery—validation. If so, no doubt it is unintentional. They likely even think they are helping their daughters to build confidence and have fun. The audience knows better.

Patricia Leavy, PhD is an acclaimed pop-feminist author and expert commentator as well as a leading qualitative and arts-based researcher with a dozen books to her credit. She is also the author of the new book, “Low-Fat Love.”

Want to know why toddlers reject vegetables? Most parents inadvertently teach them to.

No one does it deliberately, “Hey, we’ve got to stop this veggie-eating thing. It’s time to make sure Lucy loathes lima beans.”

But most parents don’t actively help their children cultivate a taste for vegetables. In fact, they teach their kids to prefer other kinds of flavors instead.

Here’s some counterintuitive advice: Don’t worry so much about vegetables. Pay attention to all the other foods you regularly feed your kids because therein lies the answer to veggie eating.

Instead of trying to get nutrients into your children, think about shaping their taste buds.

A recent study shows that when children favor foods that are high in sugar, fat, and salt they typically don’t like natural flavored foods. Foods like vegetables.

Sadly, most “Child-Friendly” foods are high in sugar, salt and fat. This is true of sweetened yogurt, apple juice, Goldfish crackers, pizza, cheese and the list goes on.

From a nutrition perspective, these foods barely pass the parental “sniff-test.”

From a habits perspective, they’re a disaster. If you give your children a lot of sweet, salty, and high fat foods throughout the day then these are the flavors their taste buds will come to expect.

When it comes to feeding kids, most parents think of themselves as Nutrient-Providers and Detectives.

And this is how most parents get into trouble. Nutrient-Providers and Detectives look for foods that meet two criteria: they deliver the nutritional goods (at least minimally) and their kids will like them.

This approach ends up restricting rather than expanding, your kids’ palates because it encourages you to feed your children foods that have the same taste and texture.

You need to think of yourself as a taste-bud shaper instead.

Taste-bud shapers recognize that every bite of food influences their children’s taste preferences.

It’s just not the number of times your kids eat peas that determines whether or not they like peas.

What matters is the range of flavors your kids are exposed to throughout the day, and how those flavors compare to peas.

If you don’t consciously shape your kids’ taste buds to like vegetables you’ll end up teaching them to dislike vegetables instead.

Don’t believe me? Chart all the foods your kids eat for a couple of days, noting whether they are sweet, salty or full of fat. Go ahead. I dare you!

Then, start training your kids’ taste buds in the right direction by:

• Gradually wean your kids away from sugar, salt and fat.
• Temporarily add sugar, salt or fat to veggies so they taste more like the other stuff.
• Shift your children’s daily diet towards more fresh, natural foods.
• Use “Child-Friendly” Foods as occasional treats.

Dina R. Rose is the author of the popular blog It’s Not About Nutrition. She has a PhD in sociology from Duke University and more than fifteen years’ experience in teaching and research. After her mother’s premature death from obesity-related illnesses at the age of 65, Dina knew she wanted to give her daughter a better — and happier — food-life. Dina made helping parents solve their kids’ eating problems her life work. Most parents know what their children should eat, but have trouble putting this knowledge into practice. Dina offers parents the relief they need: practical, research-based strategies so they can stop struggling and start succeeding. © 2011 Dina R. Rose author of the popular blog “It’s Not About Nutrition”  For more information please visit It’sNotAboutNutrition.com and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter

Raising a respectful child is one of the three Rs (responsibility, respect, and resiliency) that are part of a parent’s job description.

If we hear a three-year-old say, “No, my do it. Get away!” that is pretty normal. But it is disrespectful for a thirteen-year-old to say, “I don’t have to do that if I don’t want to.”

Helping your child move from one level to another takes focus and constant vigilance.

A child can also disrespect herself. That is what is happening when you hear “I’m so stupid” or “Nobody wants to eat lunch with me at school; I guess I’ll just have to eat by myself.”

Respect (for oneself and others) is a learned behavior, and the learning curve is full of roadblocks. The three most common obstacles to respect are:

1. Looking out for oneself first and ignoring another person’s needs.

2. Encouraging a child’s independence and at the same time helping them understand the importance of looking out for another person’s needs.

3. Experiencing mistakes too harshly and creating disrespect for themselves.

Here are some ways to deal with each of these.

Looking out for oneself first. If you don’t think this is a human tendency, spend an hour with a toddler. If children don’t progress past this attitude, respect for others will not develop. But don’t skip validating your child’s needs and feelings as you teach respect for others. Telling your child he should be disappointed or mad when a teacher has been mean is essential. After that, the second step works better: teaching your child how to deal respectfully with his teacher.

When your thirteen-year-old argues, take the time to hear her point, support parts or all of what she says, and sometimes change your mind–in favor of what your child says. Most parents skip step one (supporting a child’s feelings) and go directly to step two: teaching respectful behavior. Don’t make that mistake. Read More