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As a pediatrician, parents are constantly asking me about parenting advice they’ve heard from friends and family members. I got so many questions, in fact, that my colleagues and I came up with a list of myths, including marketing claims, old-wives tales, superstitions and grandmotherly advice, that parents have passed on to us.

Some of these myths were funny, some were dangerous and some were designed with one purpose: to make some manufacturer out there a lot of money. But we wondered if there was any evidence that these myths and stories were true. And how could we debunk the false tips to help parents take better care of their children and stop them from wasting their hard-earned money?

One popular myth pediatricians hear is that teething causes fever, so let’s start there. Teething has a long history in medicine. Fever, diarrhea, infection and death have all been attributed to the first breakthrough of primary teeth in babies.

There was a point in history where lancing the gums was considered a treatment for this so-called ailment. After reviewing a parent’s report of symptoms, measurements of fever and having a pediatric dentist look for signs of tooth eruption, no connection between teething and any of these conditions was discovered. So why do parents continue to believe this myth? I think it is because tooth eruption occurs over the months and years when many other childhood illnesses also occur.

Teething may change an infant’s food preferences for the bottle or solid food. Additionally, putting various objects in the mouth to relieve the teething pain can expose the infant to viruses that may cause a runny nose or diarrhea. That does not mean, however, that tooth eruption itself is responsible for diarrhea or congestion. The only connection that exists is of some children experiencing ear pain when their molars come in. This may be due to swelling in and around the Eustachian tube.

This is just one example of the type of myths we studied and, in this case, debunked. There are hundreds out there, with more being created every day. My colleagues and I have addressed many of the most common ones, and we will continue to find the answers to parent’s most pressing concerns.

World-renowned pediatrician Marc Weissbluth and Daniel Weissbluth are the creators of the Weissbluth Method Parent Myth App currently featuring 33 popular parent myths. It is available for free on the iPhone, iPad and iTouch platforms running iOS 3.0 or later.

We’ve all seen the headlines, “The Cost of College is Increasing at Twice the Rate of Inflation!” There have even been books written on the topic. Headlines decrying massive increases in the cost of college are sensational. They are attention grabbing. They are also unequivocally wrong!

Oh, it’s true that published tuition and fees have been going up significantly faster than inflation. According to The College Board, from 2005-06 to 2010-11 the sticker price at private, non-profit, four-year colleges has gone up 16.4% more than inflation. Over the same five-year period public, four-year schools have seen the sticker price increase 24.3% beyond inflation.

Statistics like these are fodder for the sensational headlines we are used to seeing. However, they are also an oversimplification that obscures the truth. The problem with such headlines is that the vast majority of students don’t pay the sticker price. Instead, they pay an amount that is reduced by grants and scholarships that are awarded by the school (also called institutional aid). The amount of money that schools actually receive from students is called net tuition and fees―the sticker price less institutional aid. Because institutional aid has been growing rapidly, net tuition revenue has not been increasing as much as sticker prices.

In fact, The College Board reports that, adjusted for inflation, net tuition and fees at private, non-profit, four-year colleges have fallen from $13,380 in 2005-06 to $13,120 in 2010-11, a 1.9% reduction. Over the same five-year period public, four-year schools have seen inflation adjusted net tuition and fees fall 6.4%. While real net tuition and fees have been up in some years and down in others, the truth is that the money collected by colleges and universities has grown at about the rate of inflation for many years. Think about it. All else equal, if net tuition and fees had been going up at twice the rate of inflation for decades, professors would be rich and schools would be awash in cash. Trust us, most aren’t.

At the same time, student loan debt has been increasing rapidly. According to The Project on Student Debt, the average debt for graduating seniors with loans in 1996 was $12,750. By 2008 that number swelled to $23,200. That’s an annual increase of just over 5%, or roughly twice the rate of inflation. Further, the percentage of graduating students that have debt is increasing as well, now eclipsing two-thirds of graduates.

If the real cost of college has been roughly flat, how can the average debt that students take on be increasing at twice the rate of inflation? There are a number of contributing factors.

More People are Going to College – According to the US Department of Education in 1972, 49% of high school graduates immediately enrolled in college. By 1997, the number had grown to 67%. The percentage has fluctuated in a tight range since then. The fact is that a lot more people are going to college these days. One of the reasons is that college loans have become much more available. In days gone by, if your family didn’t have the money to send you to school, you went to work. That’s not the case today. Many more people have access to higher education, but that access requires borrowing.

Mom is Already Working – When Doug graduated from high school in 1976, his mother went to work to pay his college expenses. These days most families don’t have that option. Mom is already working and her income is necessary to pay the family’s bills. In 1975, 47% of mothers worked outside of the home. Recently, this number peaked at 73%. Students like Doug are left to borrow. Read More

The thought of a math test can make even the most confident student stressed out, but for some, the feelings associated with math go far beyond garden-variety stress. For these students, a feeling of intense anxiety develops to the point where they are no longer able to think clearly. Are these emotions a real problem or just an excuse to avoid an uncomfortable academic subject?

Dr. Sian Beilock, author of “Choke,” a 2010 book on brain responses, says that, “People are very happy to say that they don’t like math, but no one walks around bragging that they can’t read. It’s perfectly socially acceptable to say you don’t like math.”

The Latest Research

Studies show that when students solve math problems, they first process information through the amygdala, the brain’s emotion center. Within a millisecond, another section of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex, takes over allowing the student to juggle data and think critically. In highly anxious students, the amygdala is far too active, leaving the pre-frontal cortex underutilized.

What Causes Such Stress Over Math?

Is this reaction learned or biological? The answer is two-fold. First, brain scans reveal that young children who are quick and accurate show a very low level of stress. Those who are slow and less accurate demonstrate a high level of stress in the brain. These early difficulties, even when minor in nature, cause frustration and difficulty later on.

It is also true that math anxiety can be a learned behavior. Dr. Beilock found first and second grade female teachers unconsciously passed on their negative attitudes about math to their female students (males did not seem to be affected). This trend doesn’t just exist in classrooms. Parents can also pass down their own negative perceptions to their children, both male and female.

What to Do If Your Child Experiences Math Anxiety

It is important to recognize that the problem will not go away by encouraging your child to “try harder” or “stop worrying”. Instead, use the following strategies:

• Don’t Let It Slide – Math is the sole subject that is nearly 100% cumulative. Students must have a strong foundation or they will fall behind, lose confidence, and grow to dislike the subject. When you see your child struggling, intervene right away by assisting with homework. You may find that the older your child gets, the less willing he is to work with you. Seek after-school help from the teacher or hire a tutor who can patiently break down concepts, fill in any gaps, and instill confidence. Read More

Football injuries can be scary for both players and parents.  So how do you know if an injury is more than just a bump or a bruise?  In today’s world, children as young as four and five years old are playing tackle football, with all the bells and whistles (helmets, refs, scoreboards, stadiums, etc.).  Here are some tips on how to evaluate your child with certain types of injuries.

Injured Arms and Legs:
For the younger kids (under the age of ten), unless you see some obvious deformity in the arms or legs, it will be rare your child has a serious injury, even with lots of crying and thrashing around.  Gently take the child off the field and put ice on the injured area for 15 minutes (always place a cloth between the skin and the ice pack as putting ice directly on the skin can cause injury).  If your child’s injury needs further attention, give a dose of acetaminophen (Tylenol®) and wait at least another hour or two before seeking medical attention.  This approach will save a lot of unnecessary trips to the doctor.

If things are improving, but there is still a sore area, continue ice treatment for 15 minutes every two hours (again, through a cloth so you don’t freeze the skin), acetaminophen as needed, and instruct your child not to use the area until it is pain-free.  Your child should not go back into a game or back to practice until there is no pain or limping without the use of pain medicine.  Some extra padding to the area that was injured (usually bruised) will make things more comfortable for your little player.

You may visit the doctor to check out continuing pain sometime within the first 48 hours.  Even if it is determined that there is a broken bone, waiting the extra time to see if the symptoms resolve will not delay healing.

If there is a visibly deformed bone, call 911 so fire rescue can splint the limb and transport your child for medical attention.

Head and Neck Injuries:
Head and neck injuries are treated more cautiously since the potential consequences of an injury can be serious.  The good news is that it is rare to have significant head or neck injuries before 14-15 years old.  The culprit in most of these injuries is head/helmet tackling, so do what you can to make sure your child doesn’t do this and that his coaches don’t teach or encourage it.

If your child is complaining of either head or neck pain, he should stop any further play until cleared by a doctor.  If he is lying on the field complaining of either of these, call 911 so he can be moved in a safe manner.

Head injuries can lead to concussions and brain damage that gets worse with repeated exposure.  If your child is complaining of headaches related to football, he should stop play and see his doctor.

Dr. Ted Kaplan is a board certified pediatrician at After Hours Pediatrics Urgent Care www.afterhourspediatrics.com.

Have your children all flown the coop with nary a look backwards? For some, Thanksgiving is pretty lonely when your own flesh and blood can’t make it home for even a brief visit. On the other hand, you might delight in your freedom from turkey tyranny. Either way, if you’re a Baby Boomer lacking nestlings for the first time, you’ll likely need to adjust holiday plans to better suit your new lifestyle.

After experiencing Thanksgiving without family several years, I came up with several ways to celebrate the holiday without feeling abandoned. Read on for six new Turkey Day traditions that might suit your needs. And Happy Thanksgiving!

1. Host an Orphan’s Dinner
It really helps to remember you’re not alone in this boat. There are plenty of people who’d greatly appreciate an invitation to socialize while enjoying a touch of turkey. I threw such a party last year and asked everyone to bring a dish to pass. The only thing I had to buy and prepare was the turkey, which made it even easier than being a parental unit in this scenario.

2. Retire to a Restaurant
Celebrate kicking the turkey habit by dining out at one of the many eateries that do all the work for you. You’ll enjoy the football games much more if you don’t have to leap up every 15 minutes to baste a bird. And, you can take advantage of cheap gift cards at such sites as GiftCardGranny to reduce your bill up to 30 percent.

3. Shop!
Black Friday has lately seceeded space to Grey Thursday. According to an article on FOXBusiness.com, more stores are offering doorbuster sales on Thanksgiving, so you could get some shopping done without facing the mass stampede to follow. Or you might hit the Internet and do some early cyber shopping. You can run price comparisons with a few mouse clicks and have gifts delivered directly to those ungrateful wretches to whom you gave life.

4. Spend the Day at a Shelter
One of my favorite Thanksgiving activities is cooking dinner at our local homeless shelter. Actually, I don’t cook the turkey dinner itself, as there are plenty of people willing to do that. Instead, I use the leftovers to create future meals for the shelter. It just seems a huge waste to throw away all those bird bones when the makings for broth and casseroles are readily available. Visit HomelessShelterDirectory.org for a list of volunteer opportunities.

5. Brighten Someone Else’s Day
The homeless aren’t the only ones who could use your volunteer services. Many nursing homes and hospitals would greatly appreciate a visitor who will bring some friendship into what they may otherwise find a very lonely day. It’s a win/win situation and you just might make some new friends. Check out this excellent blog post for some do’s and don’ts when visiting hospitals and nursing homes during the holidays.

6. Get Out of Town
A childless couple I know make a point of leaving home for the holidays; usually preferring to spend the long weekend scuba diving. While part of the reason they skip town is to avoid miserable family gatherings, they also miss bad weather and crowds of shoppers. Not all of us can afford a sunny beach vacation, but you might team up with another singleton or couple and rent a cabin, or simply go for a long drive.

Kate Forgach is a Baby Boomer consumer specialist for Kinoli Inc. She has written about senior issues for 11 years as a Cooperative Extension specialist and for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. She has been featured in USA Today, Detroit News, New Orleans Times-Picayune, New Yorker magazine, “ABC World News,” NBC’s “TODAY” show and many other media outlets.

Ask stay-at-home caregivers what the toughest time of the day is and you’ll hear a universal response: dinnertime. This is the hardest segment of the day when moods turn to the dark side and tummies begin to growl. Not only is the food-prepping parent responsible for getting dinner on the table, but must concurrently keep the kiddies relatively calm. And hum a joyous song while doing it, a la Snow White.

Expect that, especially during cooking-heavy holidays, you will orbit the kitchen much of the day with tiny tots and testy teens trailing close behind. Embrace this obvious reality now or prepare to pull out every hair in your swiftly graying head. Get cookin’ with the kids–even the youngest ones! This does not mean you hand the torch to Junior to put the finishing touches on your holiday crème brulee. Is does mean, however, that you plan ahead to integrate the whole family into mealtime preparation.

Toddler Time

Developmentally, toddlers pose the toughest challenge for a cooking parent. Carol Williams, a registered dietician at Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, tells parents that, “Touch is a sense used to help get unfamiliar foods closer to a child’s mouth,” which means that your picky toddler may be more willing to eat your slaved-over meal by cooking with you. Don’t expect to keep a tidy workspace, she explains in an article for Baby Zone, but take advantage of her enthusiasm to help.

• Sanitary Specialist: Wash hands, put on an apron and discuss how to correctly measure ingredients. Continue to remind Junior not to eat the ingredients as you prepare them.

• Super Scooper: For ingredients that don’t need to be measured perfectly, let him scoop the measuring cup and dump the goods into the proper place. A simple green bean casserole is tough to mess up. Avoid doing this with baked goods, which need to be precisely measured.

• Can Opener: Electric, safe-edge can openers make life so much easier, plus you can help your little one learn how to safely open cans with it. Let Junior open the condensed milk and pour into the pumpkin pie puree himself.

• Relish Tray Artist: Letting your little one put carrots, celery and olives onto the relish tray gives him great sorting practice. It’s helpful to have a segmented tray for the task.

Elementary Kids

Older kids have more muscle control and ability in the kitchen–and are still enthusiastic to help! Not only can they learn simple cooking tips, but also reinforce key concepts they’re learning in school. From adding fractions and experimenting with properties of liquids to reading and following directions, cooking is academics in action.

• Meat Monitor: Help your child learn about the meat thermometer–stick it in several foods and liquids of varying temperatures. Then explain how hot it should be inside the turkey so that it’s completely cooked (180° deep in the thigh). Have her check on the turkey as it cooks to watch the temperature rise.

• Cookie Decorator: Elementary-aged kids have a blast icing sugar cookies (plus it takes them a long time so you can make good progress on other dishes). Bake, cut and cook the cookies ahead of time, then help your child learn how to hold the icing bag so it doesn’t squirt out of the end.

• Mix Master: For simple foods like stuffing or mashed sweet potatoes, let your child dig in with their hands to mix the food. Help him use the rubber scraper to incorporate all the ingredients as well.

• Recipe Reader: Give your child free access to gather goods–especially larger items in the pantry. Sharpen their literacy skills with new food terminology and turn ingredient gathering into a scavenger hunt. Read More

For those of us from families built on Debbie Downer DNA, there’s only one direction a mood can go during holiday get-togethers and that’s down.

Sure, the running negative commentary, bubble-bursting barbs and rampant self-pity were funny coming from comedian Rachel Dratch on “Saturday Night Live’s” Debbie Downer sketches. But few of us can foresee our own Negative Nancys giving us a good belly laugh.

Whether you’re the smiley face among frowners, or a bit of a Depressing Dan yourself, there are tricks you can use to keep the table talk from getting lethal.

You can take control simply by thinking about what you choose to say – or not say. If you hear yourself criticizing, judging or complaining, you’re part of the problem. Happy, self-respecting people don’t find it necessary to dump on others to make themselves feel good.

If someone else is the problem, simply don’t give him or her the ammunition they need. Instead try these tactics:

Do not say anything negative. Period. And no one-downing! One-downing is the opposite of one-upping. It’s the art of coming up with something worse when someone else talks about their problem. No matter what negative thing anyone says, or how much you agree with it or don’t, resist the urge to respond with a negative. Instead ….

Dodge, distract and detour. Turn things around with a question — a positive one. If you need to, make a “happy list” of questions before you go, so you’ll have some at the ready. And remember, there’s no law that says you have to answer a question just because someone asked it. With negative people, it’s best if you …

Do not talk about yourself. The only reason negative people care about what you’re up to is because they want something to ridicule, brag or gossip about to make themselves look or feel good. Don’t go there. Whether you just filed bankruptcy or won a Nobel Prize, keep it to yourself. No good can come of it. None. And why do you need to chatter like a chipmunk about yourself anyway? Might want to think on that one, too. Better to find some praise for someone else than to expect someone to praise you. Read More

1. Crying Changes: While it may be hard to tell if your baby is crying from colic, a baby who has changed from his/her normal behavior and is inconsolable despite usual attempts to soothe, may be sick.

2. Color Changes: Changes in your baby’s skin color can be a sign that something is not quite right. Specific changes to be wary of include: • Turning blue, especially around the lips or face. • Yellow, pale or mottled skin (or any other changes from your baby’s normal skin tone), • Rapidly spreading rash.

3. Tone Changes: Infants are not known for their superior muscle tone. But you know how your baby normally feels, the strength of their grip, and how they support themselves. Be aware if this changes. You should be concerned if your baby feels unusually limp or weak, different than “normal”.

4. Sleeping Pattern Changes: Changes that might indicate a problem with your newborn include: • Sleeping much more than usual, • Acting less alert, • Having difficulty waking your baby (baby is not arousable).

5. Breathing Changes: Changes in breathing patterns, including the following, are especially concerning. • Slow or rapid breathing, • Irregular breathing pattern (different from normal pattern), • Nostrils flaring, • Belly or ribs moving unusually with breathing – breathing seems labored. • Not breathing.

The preceding information is intended to empower and inform parents’ decisions. Its development was funded as part of a generous grant from R Baby Foundation. The R Baby Foundation seeks to save the lives of newborn babies by educating parents, supporting research, and providing emergency room equipment and training to medical professionals.

The R Baby Foundation® is the first and only not-for-profit foundation uniquely focused on saving babies lives through improving pediatric emergency care. R Baby Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that babies, including those in the first month of life suffering from viral infections and other infectious diseases, receive the highest quality of care and service through supporting life-saving pediatric training, education, research, treatment and equipment.

With flu shots already available from doctors and local drugstores, illness prevention is on the minds of consumers and healthcare professionals alike—and it’s not just limited to the flu. In corporate America, having any illness progress to the point of needing to take a sick day can have a detrimental effect—not only on worker productivity due to lost time, but also on those employees who literally can’t afford to be sick because they may not be eligible for sick time pay.

Sick time is not just a problem for adults. Each year, more than 164 million school days are lost due to illness according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many of these illnesses are caused by exposure to viruses and bacteria that are not only passed from person to person but also live on surfaces through our homes as well as at school and the office. Surprisingly the answer to help allay the problem is actually relatively simple and quite obvious: proper handwashing. Although a variety of antibacterial hand sanitizers and wipes are available at stores, handwashing continues to remain one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread many types of infection and illness. But to be effective, it needs to be done properly.

Now is a great time for both teachers and parents to emphasize the importance of proper handwashing. And the earlier that we teach the importance of good hand hygiene practices to our kids, the better the chance it will become a habit throughout their life.

Remember handwashing is designed to eliminate dirt as well as the germs that can make us sick, including bacteria and viruses. A recent germ study by NSF International, an organization committed to protecting public health, cited bathroom and kitchen faucets as some of the “germiest” places in the house as measured by the level of yeast, mold, Staph and coliform (a family of bacteria that includes Salmonella and E. Coli) detected. Some other germy household items included the kitchen sponge, toothbrush holder, pet bowl and kitchen sink.

To help prevent the spread of germs when handling these items, handwashing is key. Unfortunately while many children and adults think they know how to properly wash their hands, arguably most probably haven’t been taught the best method. In fact, during a demonstration at NSF International’s laboratories in Michigan children were asked to apply a special glowing lotion to their hands before washing their hands. Once the children washed up, they placed their hands under a blacklight, and “problem spots” glowed, showing them what areas were missed while washing. The culprits: under the nails, between the fingers, and wrists.

To make sure these locations are not missed when you or your kids wash their hands, follow these simple steps: Wet your hands with warm water; lather your hands with soap; rub your hands together vigorously for 20 seconds, paying special attention to the nails, between the fingers, and wrists; rinse your hands with clean water; and dry your hands thoroughly with a hand dryer or paper towel.

Here are some ways to help make the process of handwashing fun for children:

· Consider creating a handwashing chart at home that tracks each time your child washes his or her hands. Offer them a prize or reward at the end of clean hands week after a designated certain time frame of good handwashing practices.

· Take pictures of places germs live in your child’s environment, such as on the dog (or its toy or dish) or doorknobs, and post them near sinks, on the refrigerator, or near your child’s handwashing chart. This will help remind them of when they need to wash their hands.

· Have young children count to 10 twice while washing their hands to better understand the required 20 seconds.

· Cook with your child, emphasizing the importance of washing your hands both before and after handling food.

· Check out online sites like scrubclub.org for additional fun handwashing ideas.

Handwashing is important for food safety, disease prevention and personal health.

Cheryl Luptowski, Consumer Affairs Officer, NSF International

Of all the influences on children, language experiences are the ones that are most correlated with academic achievement. High quality language just about equates to school success. Excellent information. Now, what to do?

Read, sing, and talk to your child as much as you can. It’s as easy as RST! Before life got so complicated with every different kind of schedule to honor and every different kind of distraction to take place all day long and every day, parents, grandparents, and other loving extended members of the family were always available to do with children what came naturally–read, sing, and talk to them. That was it, nothing more magical or mysterious than sharing a day with children filled with loving play, happy times, and a world of creativity.

While the world of yesteryear is gone, the incredible world of today is here. We have the excitement and challenge of figuring out how to provide the old kind of child input in our new and modern way. Awesome! Enjoy! Here are some fun ideas. You probably have you favorites.

* When you are reading to your child, point to words as you read them. In that way you are helping your child connect the spoken word with its written form.

* When your child is reading to you, share the activity. Children love it when you say something like “I’ll read the left-hand pages; you read the right.”

* Have fun with traffic signs like STOP and ONE WAY and even harder ones like when your child is ready. Before long your child will be pointing out STOP, ONE WAY, and other signs to you.

* Make a name puzzle for your child out of index cards, one letter per card. Mix up the cards and have fun with your child putting the letters back in order. Older children will love it when you add middle and last names too.

* Once your child can easily lay out the letters in his or her own name, you can use those same letter cards to make up all kinds of different games. Picking one letter at a time, you can take turns thinking up words that begin with that letter. You can match them to items in the room that start with the letter. You can make a complete second set of letters for your child’s name and then have fun playing the age-old game of “Concentration.”

* Look for your favorite version of an alphabet chart. When your child sings the alphabet song, suggest pointing to each letter that he or she sings. After you warm up with that song, take turns singing other childhood songs. Performing for each other in this simple way is great for singing practice, self-esteem, and memory. You can write out the words to any song for extra reading, speaking, and singing practice.

Sally Goldberg, Ph.D. was the first parenting expert on “Parent to Parent,” a FOX TV Channel 7 weekly news segment. A professor of education, parenting book author, and prolific magazine writer, Dr. Sally has been published often in a multitude of magazines that include Parent’s Magazine, American Baby, and Consumer Reports. Having had regular columns in Florida Wise, Florida Baby, Today’s Parent, and Viewpointe, she is now turning her time and attention to Parenting Tips with Dr. Sally.