Shyness is an inherited characteristic. As long as your child warms up to a situation after 10 or 15 minutes of standing back, shyness is normal. The following steps may help your child adjust to this trait: ⢠First, refer to your child as quiet; never label her as shy, since this term has a […]
Attention deficit disorder, also called hyperactivity, is the most common of the learning disabilities. It occurs in 3% or 4% of children, mostly in boys. This characteristic is usually inherited. To help your child compensate, try these approaches: ⢠First, improve his listening skills by reading to him. Reading to your child every day is
There are four steps you can take to prevent 90% of tooth decay. ⢠First, make sure your child drinks fluoridated water. Fluoride builds strong decay-resistent enamel. Your child needs fluoride in the diet from two weeks to 12 years of age. If your water supply doesn’t contain fluoride, ask your doctor for a prescription.
Heredity alone accounts for most mild obesity. Moderate obesity is usually caused by a combination of heredity, overeating, and under exercising. These are the factors you’ll need to deal with. Keep in mind that helping children lose weight between five and 12 years of age is very difficult, because they have access to so many
Why do we dream in the first place? Dreams help the mind process complicated information and events from our daily lives. Nightmares are scary dreams that awaken a child from sleep. Occasional bad dreams are normal at all ages. Since people average four dreams a night, they can’t all be good ones. Nightmares are a
Motion sickness – a common, lifelong problem starting at childhood. If your child gets dizzy and nauseated in the car, he is also likely to become sea sick, train sick, air sick, and have a miserable time at the amusement park. This problem is due to an inherited sensitivity of the equilibrium center. Keep in
If you’re going through a divorce, I’m sure you’re trying to keep your child’s life as constant as possible with his friends, at school, and on teams, and I’m also sure you’re helping him talk about his many hurtful feelings, but are you addressing the issue that will have the greatest impact on his long-term
Halloween is one of the favorite holidays of all children. Help your child enjoy it. First, young children need you to buy or put together their costume. Try to get it ready in advance. If you attend one Halloween party or parade at school you’ll have more costume ideas that you can ever use. Second,
“Growing pains” is a term we use for low grade muscle pains that we can’t otherwise explain. They occur in about 10% of school age children. They occur in the muscles of the thigh or the lower leg, not the joints. They tend to be worse in the evening, but don’t awaken a child from
When young children are angry, they scream or throw a tantrum. As they get older they say hurtful things like “I hate you!”. When they’re mad, they go right for the jugular. How should you respond? First, respect your child’s need to express angry feelings. Don’t take these exaggerated comments personally. You can reply, “Well,
