Q)
Dear Dr. Gwenn:

My daughter is 3 ½ years old. I just spent the last year raising her alone while my husband was in Korea. Since we are a military family, our lives change every so often when it has to. Lately our daughter takes up to 3 hours to go to sleep, we have left her by herself and we have to take her back into her room at least 6 times. We’ve tried reading stories in her bed and staying in her room until she falls asleep. On occasion, she has lain in our bed for hours before falling asleep.

During the evening struggles, she often throws fits and kicks and screams. I need help!!! This is affecting my marriage and now I have become one of those mothers that I didn’t want to become with a spoiled child. Please help!!!

Thank you,
Rebecca

Continue Reading

Safety proofing. One of those necessary evils of parenting we love and hate all at once. We love the fact that we are protecting out infants and very young children, yet if only it were easier to accomplish at times…and if our tots had a bit less Houdini in them. Still, safety proofing measures do minimize injury and provide us with peace of mind during a very chaotic time in our kids’ lives.

Continue Reading

We have a special tradition this time of year our entire extended family has come to value. We call it “the Charity Pie” tradition.

Each year we make a small cash donation to a charity in the area who organizes meals for the homeless during the holidays. The charity works with a bakery and each donation is met with a pie as a way of saying “thank you for making someone else’s holiday a bit sweeter”. Continue Reading

Attending conferences and events, I’m always amazed by the new parenting devices and  gadgets that appear on the market. What’s timeless, however, are the questions parents have about the health of their young families.

Here’s a sampling of those common parents of new babies or of young children typically ask:

Continue Reading

The last decade has produced some amazing changes in child health. Recently, I consulted some of the top pediatricians in the country to figure out where we’ve come from and where we are going next.  Some of these changes may surprise you, so hold on to your seat!

Continue Reading

Happy New Year! The arrival of a new year grants us another opportunity to tackle those issues we love to jot in our minds as important but somehow never quite accomplish as we had hoped. That’s the problem with most resolutions. They seem so daunting we basically freeze.

What does work is making small changes in our lives that carry a punch for a long term health impact. Small change, Big Results is a philosophy I’ve been advocating for a while now, and works! It works because it gives you a realistic place to start, builds a solid foundation to grow from, and helps you start on solid ground before building momentum in the cause you are trying to tackle.

Continue Reading

There’s nothing in the world like child’s play. During child’s play, carefree is the number one rule and everything is guided by imagination and impulse. Nothing is impossible in child’s play because nothing in the world seems out of reach!

As life’s issues pile up, we slowly start to forget how to be that carefree and have fun as we did as kids.  I’ll let you in on a little secret: you can still have fun like a child and be an adult. In fact, it’s a necessity to be a healthy adult, and a great parent. All it takes is recognizing the inner child within you again.

Continue Reading

After Michael Jackson died, I couldn’t help but gravitate to the radio station in our area that was playing 24/7 Michael Jackson tunes.  I had forgotten how fun his music was – and how clean. There wasn’t a song played that I didn’t feel was inappropriate for my middle school daughters, which was a good thing because they were in the care listening with me. That is a rarity in today’s music, even on the radio during the day.

Continue Reading

The start of a new school year is always exciting with new challenges and new expectations.   Everything that occurs during the school year from September through June will impact our children’s health – mostly in positive ways but there are always a few speed bumps along the way at unexpected times.  Here’s a snapshot of the most important issues nuts and bolts to consider as you march through a new school year with your kids.

The Annual Well Child Examination
When a Child Is Sick
Common School Year Illnesses
Medication Use In School
Immunizations
Special Vaccines
Unexpected Problems

Continue Reading

Dear Dr. Gwenn,

I am having a 2 nd child after an 11 year gap.  Most of my baby gear is in great shape and I’d like to re-use as much as possible.  The car seat people say I shouldn’t use a seat over 10 years old – but my infant seat was hardly used.  Is there really that big a difference in technology or are they simply assuming that a 10 year old car seat has seen more than the limited use that mine had? Also, what is your favorite source for side by side comparison of gear?

Jennifer, “Older 2 nd time mom – with STUFF”, Wellesley , MA
(PS Thank you for being such a GREAT resource!)

Continue Reading