One of the most important jobs you have as a parent is keeping your children safe when riding in a vehicle. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children between the ages of two and 14. Each year, thousands of young children are killed or injured in car crashes because they weren’t wearing their seat belt or were not positioned properly in a car-safety seat. It’s important to know the correct way to use a car-safety seat in order to keep your children protected.

The type of seat your child needs depends on several things, including your child’s height, weight and the type of vehicle you are driving.

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By Richard Selznick, Ph.D.

Throughout preschool and her early elementary grades, Emma was sunny, confident, and engaged in school. Now 12 and in Grade 6, her teacher’s comments paint a different picture:

Emma enters class pleasantly and she seems to get along nicely with the other kids. During class, however, Emma never participates and it seems that her mind is elsewhere. Emma’s work reflects a general lack of effort. It’s almost as if she doesn’t care.

What happened to the sunny, confident and engaged Emma?

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Is your child a fussy eater who doesn’t usually have an appetite or can’t keep down the food he or she does eat? These could be the signs of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Here are some tips from the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper, where we have pediatric gastroenterologists ready to help children who may have this health issue.

Spit Happens

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is common in infants, and most babies outgrow it by the age of one. GER occurs during or after a meal when stomach contents go back into the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach. GER occurs often in normal infants. Most infants with GER are happy and healthy even though they spit up or vomit. Spitting up tends to peak at four months and most infants stop spitting up by 12 months of age.

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‘Tis the season for New Year’s Resolutions. For adults, weight loss and quitting smoking rank the highest on most lists.  There are even appropriate resolutions for children. This may be a good time to start your child on a resolution or two which can encourage healthy habits that will last them a lifetime.

The Children’s Regional Hospital, with the American Academy of Pediatrics, is happy to provide you with this list that will give you some age-appropriate ideas to discuss your children. Continue Reading

Parents of adolescents have many questions about the best ways to address their children’s health during this particular stage of life.

What steps can parents take to keep their teens and pre-teens healthy?

“The most important steps parents can take are to keep the lines of communication open, and to empower teenagers through responsible decision-making and the establishment of trust,” said pediatric specialist Lori B. Feldman-Winter, M.D., M.P.H., Head of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Cooper University Hospital.

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The H1N1 influenza (also known as Swine Flu) is still affecting many people, especially children, in our region. The Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper urges parents to get your child the H1N1 vaccine.  Our physicians hope that this information prepared by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will help you manage if your child becomes ill with the flu.

Most people with 2009 H1N1 have had mild illness and have not needed medical care and the same is true of seasonal flu. However, the flu can be serious, especially for young children (risk is highest in children younger than 2 years) and children of any age who have certain chronic medical conditions. These conditions include asthma or other lung problems, diabetes, weakened immune systems, kidney disease, heart problems and neurological and neuromuscular disorders. Children with these conditions can have more severe illness from any flu, including from the 2009 H1N1 flu virus.

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