Care You Can Trust for over 50 Years
Spring in Connecticut brings sunshine, warmth, and a chance to finally enjoy some fresh air.
However, at New Canaan Pediatrics, we know those seasonal changes also change the composition of the air we breathe. As plants bloom into life, the air fills up with allergens like tree and plant pollen and molds. As we open our doors and windows after a long winter, dust and other particles freshly circulate in our environment. Those contaminants cause allergic reactions in more than 25% of children.
Your 3-year-old holds toys or books very close to their face, or scrunches their eyes when looking at things across the room. Perhaps they cover one eye, tilt their head or rub their eyes frequently. While vision problems are relatively rare in children under 5, your child could need glasses.
Parents understand that screens rewire children’s brains, negatively impact their ability to self-soothe, stifle creativity, create isolation and anxiety, deprive kids of sleep, increase depression, deteriorate academic achievement and damage the ability to think critically.
Here at New Canaan Pediatrics, we’ve talked at length about how screens affect our children and what to offer in lieu of screens, but we completely understand it’s difficult to limit or eliminate screens. Thanks to the recent book “10 Rules For Raising In A High-Tech World” by Jean M. Twenge, PhD, we can offer these workable and realistic guidelines. [Read more…] about Can We Get Our Kids Back?
This month is Baby Safety Awareness Month. Whether you have a newborn on the way or a small child already in your home, or just in your life, New Canaan Pediatrics reminds you to reacquaint yourself with some easy steps and up-to-date information to keep children safe.
Babies aren’t born with the intellectual and physical skills to keep them safe, and so the first step in any baby safety preparation is to create a safe home environment for small children. [Read more…] about September is Baby Safety Awareness Month
In the last few weeks, our New Canaan Pediatrics providers have seen several cases of hand-foot-and-mouth (HFM) disease. Our patient families would like to know more – so we’re here to answer the most common questions. [Read more…] about We’re seeing a “rash” of hand-foot-and-mouth disease!
You open your Facebook app and scroll down to your parenting group. At midnight, someone posted a picture of their baby’s thigh, covered with red spots and said, “He’s had a fever of 102 for three days now. Does anyone know what this could be?” You see the comments following, recommending an ice bath, essential oils, baking soda, hydrocortisone ointment and perhaps, chicken soup.
At New Canaan Pediatrics, we understand that making good health choices for your child depends on knowing where to get the most reliable and safest answers in a world that’s constantly learning new things about human health and development. Because old treatments and recommendations get updated or replaced when new evidence backed by solid, verifiable research indicates better solutions, it can be difficult to tell what health advice is best for your child. [Read more…] about Can You Trust Any Internet Advice?
Does your teen dash (or perhaps slouch) out of the door in the morning without eating any breakfast? A recent study shows that nearly 75% of teens do!
At New Canaan Pediatrics, we know that as children grow, they also gain more and more freedom to make their own food choices. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s difficult to tune into what they are actually eating. How can we help our teens make healthier food choices to enhance their wellbeing, help prevent chronic disease and eliminate obesity? [Read more…] about What Should My Teen Be Eating?
It was about 10 years ago that the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidelines for media use and exposure – and a great deal has changed since then. Fortunately, Dr. David Hill of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine noted this huge shift in both the available forms of media and the understanding of media-use on health outcomes and has updated AAP guidelines for today’s media.
New Canaan Pediatrics provides you with a summary of the guidance: [Read more…] about Understanding the Updated AAP Screen and Media Guidelines