Because a well-rested child is a happy, healthy child.

A good night’s sleep is crucial for anyone — especially babies, toddlers and preschoolers. If your child sleeps well, he will have better immune function and healthy growth. Did you know that growth hormones are only produced during sleep? That’s what our pediatrician tells us. Sleep affects behavior too. Kids who are sleep-deprived are cranky, impatient, distractible and do poorly in school.

Sticking to a good bedtime routine is key to developing healthy sleep habits. Start them young and be consistent. We’ll tell you how.

Set a bedtime. Wether it’s 7, 8 or 9 PM make sure you stick to it. Children’s body clocks are set by a consistent nightly schedule. Both my children are in bed and sound asleep between 8:30 to 9 PM. We have been on this schedule since they were babies and have made very few exceptions.

It also makes it so much easier for mom and dad in the long run. Since their body clocks are set to this schedule already, they’re automatically on their way to getting their zzz’s at a predictable time. They are also up at a predictable time in the morning — on their own, with no struggle  for us to rouse them up. Definitely helps if you need them on a schedule to get ready for school!

Establish a bedtime ritual. On the run-up to bedtime, a ritual or routine is also key. Children find comfort and security in a pattern of events they’re familiar with — particularly one that sets the tone for a good night’s rest. What elements you put into your family ritual is up to you, just as long as you’re consistent and it’s not too stimulating it will get your kids wired. Daddy, save the rough-housing for earlier! Here are some rituals that help with my kids:

• A Warm Bath — Warming up body temperature slightly is relaxing and great for inducing sleep.
• A Light Snack — For some reason my kids just have to have something to nibble on before their bedtime bath. Apparently, a light snack that has some protein and carbohydrates — for example, a small piece of cheese and one half slice of whole-wheat bread — can induce sleep and helps children stay asleep through the night. The carbohydrates make them sleepy, and the protein keeps blood sugar levels even until breakfast. Be sure to brush their teeth after eating.
• A Good Story — This is a particularly comforting routine for toddlers, especially if it’s a favorite story that’s associated with bedtime, such as Goodnight Moon. As your child grows, he’ll want more stories and more variety.

Don’t forget some bedtime love. Most importantly, kids could use some cuddle-time to end their day. Nothing like the comfort and assurance of mom and dad before going off to dream land. Bedtime bonding is especially important if you’re out the whole day at work. If your child has a lovey or teddy that gives him comfort, let him take it with him to bed. And don’t forget the all-important good night kiss!

Exploit her interests to get her to read.

Not every kid is an eager reader. Some parents worry when their preschooler can barely even sight read three letter words while seeing kids in the same class who can devour an entire picture book all by themselves in kindergarten. Remember, children develop at various paces. If a child reads early it doesn’t mean she’s a sure shot for being a literary genius. Late bloomers can even surpass them eventually in terms of literacy skills. We have some simple suggestions that can help your reluctant reader.

Consider your child’s interests. My son loves comic books like Geronimo Stilton and the Lego Exo Force series… and that gets him reading. For my daughter, it’s picture books about princesses and fairies. Experts say, comics and light picture books should not be discouraged at all. Laura Bailet PhD heads the Division of Neurology at the Florida Nemours Children’s Clinic, according to her we should not worry that comic book or picture book texts are not substantial enough.

Dr. Bailet says, “They can play important roles in helping kids understand some fundamentals, like how events take place in a sequence and stories are laid out. They also help build vocabulary and show that books can be visually appealing. Once your child becomes comfortable with the experience of reading, you can encourage other literature selections with a variety of challenging content.”

Read it again and again… and again. You may notice if your child finally finds a book she likes, she’ll want it read to her over and over again. That’s a good thing. Repetition allows children to master the text and eventually sail through it with ease and confidence. As Dr. Bailet explains it, “Each new reading of the book may also help them understand it just a little better. That positive experience may inspire them to give new books a try.”

Create interesting reading opportunities. Give your child rewarding chances to read every day. Write notes and leave them on a pillow, in a lunchbox, or in a pocket. Ask friends and relatives to send postcards and letters. Leave magnetic letters and words on the refrigerator, and you may find her spontaneously creating words, sentences, and stories. On road trips or errands, play word games that strengthen language skills. My kids like playing “I Spy” (”I spy something that starts with an ‘a’ …”) or games where you pick a category like “food” and then everyone has to name foods that begin with a certain letter.

If you’re worried, seek help. If you’re concerned about your child’s ability or willingness to read, don’t wait. Consult with your child’s doctor or teacher. If they share your concern, they may be able to suggest resources. A friend was worried about her 5-year-old son who refused to read anything. His kindergarten teachers suggested having him assessed by a developmental pediatrician. At first, the doctor suspected visual dyslexia. Before further tests were done, a simple eye test was given. Her son just had very poor vision and needed corrective glasses.

Whatever is hindering a child’s reading efforts, there is usually a way to deal with it. Observe and act quickly because the sooner a problem is dealt with, the better. Reading is a very important foundation for lifelong learning.

A US Court asserts vaccination does not lead to autism.

A special U.S. “vaccine court” recently ruled that there is no evidence supporting a causal link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. Doctors and researchers have been telling us about this for years, but this ruling makes the no vaccine-and-autism link official according to the American justice system.

The Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986 set up the special court to hear cases and compensate people who suffer adverse reactions to vaccines. 

Special masters appointed to hear three vaccine cases in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied the claims of the parents of children with autism that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines caused their children’s autism.

In one case, special master Patricia Campbell-Smith said the parents of a boy with autism failed to provide “a sound medical theory causally connecting” the child’s condition with vaccination and that the petitioners’ theory of vaccine-related causation is scientifically unsupportable. 
These three cases, along with three cases that failed last year, are being considered by some as test cases for thousands of other pending cases.

The Coalition for SafeMinds, an autism and mercury advocacy organization, said in a statement that it regrets the ruling against three families who argued that vaccines that contained the mercury-based preservative thimerosal contributed to their children’s autism. 

”The denial of reasonable compensation to families was based on inadequate vaccine safety science and poorly designed and highly controversial epidemiology studies supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” the statement said.

Earlier this year, the medical journal The Lancet retracted a 1998 report that suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. A noted Polish study also debunked the autism-MMR vaccine connection, releasing their report last month.

Help! My baby bumped his head!

I cannot forget the first time my first child bumped his head hard. He was about 2 years old, running around the house, when he smacked into the corner of a wall. Within minutes, his forehead had a bump the size of a golf ball. He was hysterical too. I called our pediatrician, sure that my son needed and x-ray. My pediatrician actually just told me to relax… and observe my son before rushing to the emergency room. We have  a simple guide on how you can tell if that bump needs medical attention or just some ice, hugs and kisses.

Bumps on the head, even those the size of a golf ball, do not always warrant a trip to the ER or even a call to your doctor. As our pediatrician explained, the skull acts as a protective helmet for the brain. On top of the skull we have a richly vascularized scalp that can withstand most of the bumps and bruises of childhood. The swelling is actually a good sign, that the brain was protected from the bump.

In case your child bumps his head, do the following:

Don’t panic. A panicky grown up cannot calm down a crying, injured child.

Ice it. When you’ve managed to calm your child, hold an ice pack (a pack of frozen peas can substitute) over the bump. Keep the cold pack as long as you can, about 20 minutes. This can help with the swelling and pain.

Observe, observe, observe. If your child got himself a big bump but remains alert and conscious, all you have to give is a good dose of parental sympathy and that ice pack. However, keep an keen eye on your child’s state. The reason for this is because doctors often rely more on how the child behaves after the injury than what happened at the time of the injury. If the brain has been injured, signs may show immediately, or they may appear slowly during the next twenty-four hours.

Seek medical attention fast if the following happens:

• loss of consciousness
• vomiting
• child does not focus on you, look you in the eyes or respond to your questions or instructions
• loss of balance when walking
• prolonged crying of more than an hour
• child complains of a severe headache
• note the following eye signs: crossed-eyes or rolling eyes, or one eye pupil looking larger than the other one.

Trust your instincts, if something worries you or you have a question about your child’s head injury not covered here… by all means give your doctor a call. He or she will give you advice on what to do, just make sure you can give  him or her good notes from your observations.

Tell me mommy… I need to know!

Oh, precocious kids with their questions. Remember when we first brought up the sex question and the curiosity about death? Well, preschoolers are making more sense of their world and can set you off the loop with even more tricky questions. Don’t get tongue-tied. We have more tough questions from kids and experts tell us how to answer them.

When my son was two, he asked: “Why is the sky so big?” Hmmm… do I reply with science or do I get into my first existential conversation with him? I settled for a bit of both, but it really got me thinking. When my child throws me a tough question, how specific should I get? How honest should I be? What if I confuse him even more? Suddenly I had more questions than my son.

So, I turned to the pros. Here, child experts give advice us on what — and what not — to say in answer to 3 tough questions kids can ask.

Your 4-year-old asks, Why do they say Uncle John is gay?

Deborah Rothman wrote the book Sex and Sensibility: The Thinking Parent’s Guide to Talking About Sex. She suggests you first clarify what a couple is. Give examples like you and your husband, an aunt and uncle your child knows are married. Explain that couples love each other in a special way. They love each other’s company so much that they live together or get married like mom and dad. Then explain how there are cases when couples are made up of two men or two women. Since Uncle John has a boyfriend, not a girlfriend, then he is gay. In case Uncle John is single, say he prefers that his special someone would be a man like himself, not a woman.

Kids will often take this simple, factual answer. Tell your child that they may hear the word “gay” used negatively and that it is nasty to use the word that way. Use this as a teaching moment to explain tolerance and acceptance of different kinds of people.

Your 5-year-old asks, Why is Jason’s house bigger and nicer than ours?

This question reflects an unintended form of peer pressure and a child’s wish to be more like his friend or for you to be more like his parents. Joe Sibayan, curriculum coordinator of Keys Grade School advises against using statements like “they are richer” or “we are poorer” or “because we can’t afford it.” This can make a child feel even more deprived, maybe even skew his sense of values towards materialism or stir up envy.

Assure your child you have enough resources to care for the family, but emphasize that being rich in love and happiness is more important than material wealth. Here’s how teacher Joe would put it:

“Grown-ups decide to do different things with their money. Jason’s parents decided to spend a lot of money on making their house nice and big. We decided to spend it on other things, like that nice trip we took last year and saving money for your school. How did you feel when you saw Sandro’s house was so big and nice? I hope you felt happy for him, because that’s how we should feel when we see other people have nice things.”

Your 3-year-old asks, Why is f@_k! a bad word?

Emphasize to your child that words in themselves are not bad, but the intention behind saying them can be the problem, says teacher Joe. If your child is reprimanded for blurting out an expletive and asks shy those words are bad, here’s how he would explain it:

You know that you can touch in different ways, right? There’s a touch that’s loving, like when you hug or shake hands. There’s a touch that hurts, like when hands are used to hit someone. It’s the same when you talk. You can talk in a loving way by using gentle words. But there are words that can hurt. Those words you just said are words that hurt others, so we choose not to say them.”

Why cuddle time is more important than you realize

Babies learn through their sensory explorations. Daddy’s scratchy beard, mommy’s smooth skin and the voices of new strangers all give him a better understanding of how the world works. It’s all pretty good for his brain development too. We explain how those senses develop as your baby grows.

Touch

Babies need to be cuddled. Touch soothes your baby, and it shows him your love. Scientists have proven it can also boost natural immunity. Research shows that babies who are held often don’t get sick as much and are less fussy. Preemies who are massaged grow and develop faster than babies who aren’t. It’s natural for your newborn to prefer soft touches, like a gentle caress or the feel of soft cotton. You’ll notice that baby bristles at a rough touch or a scratchy, coarse fabric.

Taste

The human palate starts developing in the womb. Your pregnancy diet does influence your baby’s taste for food. Flavors are transmitted to the fetus through amniotic fluid. If you are breast feeding, what you eat also determines the taste of your breast milk. Recent studies show that the foods baby was exposed to during pregnancy or nursing are the ones he tends to like.

Hearing

Baby’s hearing is well developed at birth, but he prefers high-pitched voices because he hears them best. Baby talk is music to his ears which is why we seem to instinctively change our voices into that sing-song delivery. Over the first year your child’s hearing will sharpen and he’ll learn to track sounds. For the first three months, he’ll only turn toward a sound that’s in front of him, but by 6 to 12 months he’ll look toward a noise coming from behind him or from across the room.

Smell

That little nose is already in full working order at birth. He knows your scent well from the time he spent in the womb. Newborns can even tell the difference between their mother’s breast pads and those of another nursing mom by scent. Babies tend to like sweet smells like the fragrance of vanilla or lemon. Newborns naturally dislike foul odors, like the smell of rotten eggs. Just like they’re averse to bitter or sour tastes — probably an instinct to avoid dangerous foods.

Sight

At first, a baby’s eyes don’t work 100 percent. Studies indicate newborns see two of everything. They  focus best on objects 8 to 12 inches in front of them. Images closer or farther away are blurry. 8-12 inches is about the distance to your face when you’re feeding him, so it’s no wonder that he loves looking at you. Newborns prefer the human face in general. They’re especially drawn to the outline of the face or the hairline, which is easy to see because of the contrast. They can distinguish light from dark but can’t quite see color until about 4 months. Try getting baby’s attention with high-contrast patterns (like a checkerboard or stripes) and black-and-white or boldly colored toys. At 4 months he’ll begin to use his eyes to coordinate his hand movements, making reaching and grabbing easier.

Parents can cultivate excellence, no matter what genetic blueprint.

Many parents ask themselves at one point, what can I do for my child to achieve greatness? Author David Shenk dares to answer this loaded question with his new book The Genius in All of Us: Why everything you have been told about genetics, talent and IQ is wrong. Shenk asserts that genius can be ignited. His book discusses how the nature versus nurture debate has been missing the point all these years. His book shows evidence on how human achievements are the outcome of the nuanced interplay between genes and environment.

If anybody can be a genius, why are there so few Mozarts, Eisnteins or Tiger Woods among us? Citing the latest in human development research, Shenk underscores that genius is nothing without extraordinary dedication and persistence. Yes, we all know that. But there still seems to be a strong belief that people either have it or they don’t, and that’s that.

Just think… all those high achievers we had mentioned, from Mozart to Woods, all had started nurturing their talents young and put in so many hours honing their skills. Einstein has been quoted to say, “It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

Einstein may have been over-dramatic with that statement. Of course he was very smart. His point is, we tend to forget that he had to work very hard for his achievements.

What this tells me is that as parents we should make an extra effort to cultivate persistence — extraordinary persistence. Apparently, years of research can show us how to cultivate persistence and tenacity. I’d like to see what new science has to say about this so I’m going out to get David Shenk’s book. If you have kids or have a baby on your way, the book could be worth checking out.

More scientific research shows the power of a mother’s love.

Cuddling, talking and playing can really do wonders for children, especially for those who grow up to be in the autism spectrum. University of Miami researchers say maternal sensitivity may influence language development among children who go on to develop autism.

Daniel Messinger of the University of Miami, the principal investigator of a larger study of infants at risk for autism that includes this study, says the study examines how early parenting can promote resiliency in this population. 

”Language problems are among the most important areas to address for children with autism, because they represent a significant impairment in daily living and communication,” Messinger said in a statement.

Maternal sensitivity is defined in the study as a combination of warmth, responsiveness to the child’s needs, respect for his or her emerging independence, positive regard for the child, and maternal structuring, or how a mother engages and teaches her child.

For example, if a child is playing with colored rings, the mother might say, “This is the green ring,” thus teaching her child about his environment, Messinger says.

The study, published online ahead of print in the upcoming Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, says maternal sensitivity was more predictive of language growth among toddlers developing autism than among children who did not go on to an autism diagnosis.

I think this study also highlights how involved parenting can benefit all children — with or without autism or special needs. The language learning, the resilience and the communication skills a child gains from an engaged mother is good for any child.

Another study debunks the autism and vaccination link.

So much media hype has been given to the supposed connection between autism and vaccines. Medical experts have already disputed this, but the belief still persists. Just this month, results of another study are out showing no increased risk of autism for children who received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

In this latest study, Polish researchers compared 96 children with autism with 192 children who did not have the disorder, looking for any relationship between measles vaccination and autism. They found no evidence that children who were vaccinated for measles were more likely to develop autism — wether given as a separate shot, or as part of the 3-in-one MMR vaccination.

The Polish researchers said they reached their conclusion after adjusting for autism risk factors, including mother’s age and education, length of gestation, medications during pregnancy and the child’s condition after birth.

In fact, vaccinated children were found to be less likely to develop autism, especially those who’d gotten the MMR vaccine. Researchers did note that this finding could be due to other unmeasured factors affecting the children’s health.

“For example, health-care workers or parents may have noticed signs of developmental delay before the actual autism diagnosis and, for this reason, have avoided vaccination,” wrote the team, led by Dorota Mrozek-Budzyn, of Jagiellonian University Medical College, in Krakow.

The study appears online and will be published in the May print issue of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

Results of this new study came out about a week after The Lancet retracted a 1998 report suggesting that the MMR vaccine contributes to autism risk. At the time, the Lancet study alarmed many parents and led to major declines in measles and MMR vaccination rates in some places.

Oxytocin offers hope for Autism Spectrum Disorders.

You’ve probably heard of oxytocin, a hormone released naturally during orgasm, breast feeding and labor. It’s manufactured versions Pitocin or Syntocinon are used to induce contractions for some women to aid in child birth. Well, the “love hormone” may also treat symptoms of Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

U.S. researchers are now doing a clinical trial on oxytocin to determine exactly how it can help young adults with Autism.
Dr. Eric Hollander, advisory board chairman and chairman of the psychiatry department at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, says giving oxytocin may improve social functioning and repetitive behaviors — regardless of the age of the patient.

“For the first time, certain core systems of autism may respond to treatment,” Hollander said in a statement. 

In the trial, autistic patients aged 18 and older, were given oxytocin nasally for 12 weeks. These autistic patients significantly reduced their repetitive behavior, and were better able to recognize anger or happiness in the tone of a speaker’s voice. Promising results were also provided in a similar age group who took the peptide intravenously, the study said.

Autistic Spectrum Disorders refers to a group of symptoms, like a profound inability to communicate and other developmental disorders — including Asperger’s Syndrome.

Oxytocin is nicknamed the “love hormone” because it is known to promote mother-infant bonds. It is also thought to be involved in the regulation of emotions and other social behaviors. Other research has found that children with autism have lower levels of oxytocin than children without autism.

Researchers say the results suggest further long-term studies are needed to examine the effects of oxytocin on social skills and behaviors in people with high-functioning autism.

As more and more children are exhibiting Autism Spectrum Disorders, this is a major breakthrough. If your child falls under the autism spectrum, this is definitely a story to keep tabs on.