1. Good nutrition makes a healthy child. Be sure your child eats regularly and has a variety of nourishing foods.

2. Everyone should buckle up in the car. If your child needs a car seat, make sure it is a proper size for his or her height and weight and that it is properly installed into the vehicle.

3. Help reduce tobacco use among children and adolescents. If you smoke, quit. If you cannot quit, smoke outdoors to protect your child against second-hand smoke.

4. Lower the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). When infants are put down to sleep, place them on their backs (unless otherwise instructed by a physician).

5. Make sure your children visit the doctor regularly. Children should be immunized on time. It is the best defense against dangerous childhood diseases.

6. Give your home a safety check. Install smoke detectors, store poisonous substances out of your child’s reach and know how to reach emergency services.

7. Prevent violence by setting good examples for your child. Remember words can hurt, too.

8. Read to your child on a daily basis beginning at 6 months of age to enhance his or her early brain development.

9. Monitor what your child sees in the media. Children are affected by what they see and hear. Teach the difference between fantasy and reality.

10. Provide a nurturing environment in which your child feels safe and valued. Tell your child “I love you” every day.

Colleen Schultz is the education manager for Children’s Health Education Center. Learn more at www.BlueKids.org.

 

Happy holidays from all of us at Children's Hospital and Health System!

These days, it seems parents and their children are bombarded with many images pointing to the hottest new toy. Not advertised is the latest toy craze that is inexpensive, fun and good for your child: creativity.

Play for a child should be about the process, not the actual toy. Sometimes, the simpler the toy, the better. Activities that let children explore their creative sides help them learn. For kids, play is work – it’s how they learn who they are, what their roles are, what skills they have and how to get along with others.

Creative activities should be “open-ended.” In other words, let the child decide where the activity should go. A few thoughts to inspire creative play include:

• Tupperware containers or other household items that can teach sorting or grouping.
• Playdough or clay, which is an excellent activity for developing fine motor skills.
• Watercolors, which are easy to clean up.
• Reading, followed by making puppets or pictures to describe the story they just heard or read.
• Exercise is a benefit of participating in outdoor adventures and games.

Another way to spark creativity is to have an area set up in your house just for your child. Keep it stocked with crayons, markers and other materials so that your child feels welcome to explore and play there any time.

Save items around the house such as an old sheet, a cardboard box or even toilet paper rolls. They can come in handy for a variety of activities.

If you have trouble coming up with creative ways to use things around the house for unique activities, there are many resources on the Internet to help you. A few of these include:

• Familyfun.com
• Pbs.org
• Zerotothree.org

Parents shouldn’t feel they have to buy their children the latest and greatest toy on the market. There also is such a thing as too much television or video games. Children’s Health Education Center recommends a maximum of two hours total per day for children to be on the computer, watching television or playing video games. Televisions and computers also should be in areas where the family gathers and where the child can be monitored, not in the child’s room.

Overall, your family should strike a balance in activities to make sure there are enough creative options. Creativity benefits the emotional health of children, encourages them to think on their own and celebrates their uniqueness – plus, it can be fun for the whole family!

Colleen Schultz is the education manager for Children’s Health Education Center. Learn more at www.BlueKids.org.

Looking for some tools to skyrocket your family to better health? Check out Children's Hospital of Wisconsin's 3-2-1-0 Blast Off to a Healthier Family! program that helps families like yours achieve better health. We know obesity continues to be an epidemic problem in both adults and children. And, as the obesity numbers in children rise, so do the number of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Adult diabetes on the rise in kids

Historically, children were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, a condition that usually is due to genetics, in which the body does not produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes, formally known as adult onset diabetes, is more directly the result of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. Usually, this condition would take years to develop, but with today’s access to fast food, sweetened beverages and highly processed foods, in combination with sedentary activities such as video games, cable and cell phones, type 2 diabetes has started to affect people at a younger age. Children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes as young as 6 years old.

3-2-1-0 Blast Off!

Making better meal and snack choices, as well as being physically active, can help prevent obesity and potentially type 2 diabetes. 3-2-1-0 Blast Off to a Healthier Family! Can help launch healthier habits for your family. This program, developed by the NEW (Nutrition, Exercise and Weight Management) Kids Program at Children's Hospital helps families to make healthy choices every day.

3 - Eat three meals a day. Many families today are busy and look for quick and convenient ways to provide meals. This often means stopping at fast food restaurants or buying prepared, processed foods. These meals tend to provide inadequate fiber and are higher in fat, sodium and calories.

2 - Allow less than two hours of sedentary activity per day. Limit the amount of time children are involved in screen time activities. This includes watching television, playing video games, using the computer and talking or texting on the phone.

1 - Aim for at least one hour of physical activity each day. Encourage your children to participate in activities they enjoy. This can include riding a bike, playing tag, jumping rope, running, family walks and basketball. Make this a family event!

0 - Eliminate sweetened beverages. Choose beverages that have less than three grams of sugar per serving. Sweetened beverages can provide empty calories that add up very quickly.

Family Meals. Try to have as many meals as possible together as a family. This provides a great opportunity to learn about the events of the day and make you more conscious of how quickly and how much you are eating.



A new section of Children's Health Education Center's Bluekids.org Web site offers interactive games for kids, meal and activity tracking sheets, parenting information and more at www.bluekids.org. Introduce your kids to characters like "Skipper" (skips meals), "Hypnotica" (encourages kids to watch TV and play video games) and "Buzz" (cons kids into drinking sweetened juices and sodas). Fun, interactive activities teach kids how to battle these "aliens" to good health.

Fast Fact: About 151,000 people below the age of 20 have diabetes in North America.

Brian Fidlin, PsyD is the program director of the NEW (Nutrition, Exercise and Weight Management) Kids Program at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Heather Fortin, RD, CD, CSCS, CLC is a registered dietitian with the NEW Kids Program at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

Children in homes without working smoke detectors are at a greater risk for fire-related injury and death. Take these simple steps to prevent fires, prepare your home for a fire and teach your child fire safety. They could save your child’s life.

Preventing fires
To help keep a fire from starting, closely inspect your home to eliminate potential hazards.
• Keep matches, lighters, candles and other heat sources locked and out of children’s reach.
• Keep children away from cooking and heating appliances.
• Never smoke in bed.
• Extinguish all candles and cigarettes before leaving home or going to bed.
• Avoid plugging several appliance cords into the same electrical socket.
• Replace old or frayed electrical wires and appliance cords, and keep all cords on top of rugs.
• Store all flammable liquids, such as gasoline, outside of the home and locked out of children’s reach.

Preparing your home
• Install smoke alarms in every sleeping area and on every level of your home.
• Test and clean smoke alarms monthly. 
• Maintain alarms by replacing batteries at least twice a year – when you change your clocks, change your batteries (unless it is a newer smoke alarm that uses 10-year lithium batteries).
• Replace smoke alarms every 10 years.
• Plan and practice two escape routes out of the house and each room.
• Designate one outside meeting place to make sure all family members are accounted for quickly.
• Sleep with bedroom doors closed. This prevents smoke, gas and heat from entering.
• Keep furniture and other heavy objects out of the way of doors and windows so they won’t block an escape.
• Place space heaters at least three feet from curtains, papers, furniture and other flammable materials. Make sure heaters are stable, and use protective coverings.

Teaching safety
Children need to be taught what to expect in a fire so they can act quickly. Teach children:
• Leave the house immediately if they hear the smoke alarm, smell smoke or see flames. Stay low and crawl – the best air is by the floor.
• Always feel doors before opening them. If hot, do not open and find another way out.
• Never go back into a burning building. Children should be reminded not to stop or return for toys, pets or to call 9-1-1 from inside the burning building.
• Call the fire department from a neighbor’s house or cell phone outside the home.
• Do not hide in closets, under beds, in bath tubs or in other areas of the home.
• When firefighters arrive, immediately tell them if someone is inside or missing.

FAST FACT: Playing with matches and lighters is a leading cause of fire deaths for children ages 5 and younger.

Lisa Klindt Simpson is coordinator of Safe Kids Southeast Wisconsin Coalition, a member of Safe Kids Worldwide. Safe Kids Southeast Wisconsin works to prevent accidental injuries, the leading cause of death among children 14 years of age and younger. Children’s Health Education Center is its lead agency.
 

Yes, it's that time again. After a long summer of sleeping late, playing outside and flexible schedules, children and parents can be overwhelmed adjusting to busy back-to-school routines. But every morning does not have to turn into madness. The tricks to a stress-free morning are planning ahead and sticking to schedules.

Keep these tips in mind as you get your kids ready for school:

• To avoid last minute scrambling in the morning, keep book bags, stocked with completed homework assignments and other school necessities, near the door along with coats and shoes.
• Give your child a bath and choose his or her outfit the night before. Have the clothing pressed and ready to go.
• Decide on breakfast and lunch foods ahead of time, and have those foods easily accessible for cooking or packing in a lunch box. You may even want to make your child’s lunch the night before and refrigerate.
• Avoid distractions such as TV or video games. They only will captivate your child’s attention and cause him or her to rush later.
• Build cushions into your family’s schedule so you don’t feel frazzled.
• Keep your child from being rushed by providing gentle reminders. For example, “The school bus will be here in 10 minutes, so you’ll need to put your shoes on.”
• Avoid unnecessary morning chores like emptying the dishwasher.
• Hang the family calendar in a place where everyone can see it. Older children can be proactive and place their musical instrument or uniform next to the door.
• When you feel stressed, your family can sense it. Wake up 15 minutes earlier so you can have some alone time to wake up and feel energized before the rush.
  

Taking these tips into consideration can make your mornings run more smoothly. Here's to a great school year!

FAST FACT: 55 million students across the nation are enrolled in grades K-12 this fall. They will be taught by 6.8 million teachers.

Colleen Schultz is the education manager at Children’s Health Education Center. She is a certified health education specialist with a bachelor’s degree in community health. She also has a master’s degree in education. For more information on parenting tips, or for information about community education classes, call Children’s Health Education Center, a member of Children’s Hospital and Health System, at (414) 765-9355.

Is there a topic you'd like us to talk about? If so, please let us know by posting a comment. We would love to hear from you.

A toaster for $2! A set of encyclopedias for $10! The bargains we find at local rummage sales and resale shops can be too good to believe … and sometimes they are. Many people purchase or sell what might be dangerous or recalled items without even knowing it.

A recent survey conducted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission showed nearly 70 percent of all resale shops visited had at least one dangerous or recalled product for sale. The next time you go bargain hunting, be sure to watch for recalled items or items that do not meet current safety standards. Be especially aware of these potential dangers:

Cribs. Older cribs can entrap, strangle or even suffocate children. Cribs with more than 2 3/8” between crib slats or cut-outs on the headboard or footboard may suffocate or strangle a child. Cribs with missing or broken parts or corner posts higher than 1/16” also present a risk of death.

Car seats. Car seats can be dangerous when the seat crash history is unknown. It also can be difficult to determine if all parts are present and in good working condition. It is recommended that seats not be used any longer than six years from the date of manufacture.

Clothing. Clothing with drawstrings around the neck on children’s jackets and sweatshirts can catch and strangle children.  Drawstrings can be pulled out or cut on children’s jackets and sweatshirts.

Toys. Toys need to be inspected for loose or missing pieces that could be dangerous, especially for a young child.

Before hosting your next garage sale or heading out for a little bargain hunting, visit www.recalls.gov. This Web site provides easy access to recall and safety information designed to help you become an educated consumer. You also may contact Safe Kids Southeast Wisconsin at (414) 390-2178 for more detailed information.

Bridget Clementi is director of Children’s Health Education Center. CHEC is the lead agency of Safe Kids Wisconsin and Safe Kids Southeast Wisconsin coalitions. Each offer resources and programs for children, parents, teachers and caregivers to help keep children healthy and safe. Safe Kids Wisconsin and Southeast Wisconsin specifically work to prevent childhood accidental injuries, the leading cause of death among children ages 14 and younger.

 
FAST FACT: In Wisconsin we call them rummage sales, but in other parts of the country these type of events are more commonly referred to as garage or yard sales. In the United Kindom they hold "jumble sales."