Today's Parent | Parenting Resources… Articles, Advice, Help & Tips

In a perfect world, summertime is an idyllic stretch of freedom to enjoy swimming, boating, barbecues, and hanging out with friends. But for many teens, it’s an open invitation to experiment – with danger.

Areas of Concern for Parents of Teenagers to Watch For Depression and confusion may be kept at bay by the daily structure of classes, after-school activities, homework, and for some, daily family activities. During the unstructured time of summer, teenagers may become overwhelmed with feelings of depression and poor self-esteem and confused about where to seek help. Without help, teenagers – more frequently than any other age group – may begin to contemplate suicide as an answer to their problems.

Confidence and body issues can prevent teens from enjoying summer. Many teens will not have the emotional confidence to seek out friends or the body confidence to join others in summer activities such as swimming. Loneliness and a sense of inadequacy may drive teenagers toward destructive behavior.

Drugs and alcohol are substances teens may experiment with to make them feel better. Usage is often a social activity, and it becomes a way for teens to feel like they belong somewhere. The group bonds over the need to feel protected while engaging in an illegal and potentially dangerous activity. Because alcohol or drugs may initially offer an escape from painful feelings, it is easy for teenagers to become dependent.

Boredom can be a motivator for thrill-seeking activities such as reckless driving, dangerous stunts, or even criminal behavior. Teenagers are often impulsive, and they do not consider the consequences of their actions. This greatly increases the possibility of serious accidents and/or legal trouble.

Sexual experimentation is more likely during the unstructured summer. Warm weather offers more outdoor places for teens to get together in privacy – even in city parks. Peer pressure to have sex can begin as early as junior high school, and it often confuses and negatively impacts a teen’s self-image. Either having sex before a teen is ready, or refusing to have sex, can have a negative impact on an already shaky sense of self-worth and confidence. There is also the risk of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. AIDS is the sixth leading cause of death among teenagers ranging from 15 to 24 years of age.

Make a Plan To Help Your Teenager Stay Out of Trouble

Parent should strive to assess the possibility of their teenagers getting into trouble during summer. Help your teenagers become educated about the risks associated with drugs, alcohol, and sexual activity. Seek out the proper resources, and then create a plan that will help teenagers avoid these dangers while at the same time develop their confidence and feelings of self-worth.

Another way to keep your adolescent out of trouble this summer is to enroll them in a structured program, such as summer school or a wilderness program, that can help your child get a jump on the next school year or work through some issues that may be holding them back from enjoying a healthy and productive life. Learn more about summer academic programs and wilderness therapy programs.

Dr. Rick Meeves, Ph.D., LMFT, Director of Clinical Services for Adolescents for CRC Health Group, the nation’s largest provider of behavioral health and addiction treatment services.

Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., CRC Health Group is the most comprehensive network of specialized behavioral healthcare services in the nation. CRC offers the largest array of personalized treatment options, allowing individuals, families and professionals to choose the most appropriate treatment setting for their behavioral, addiction, weight management and therapeutic education needs. CRC is committed to making its services widely and easily available, while maintaining a passion for delivering advanced treatment.  Since 1995, CRC has been helping individuals and families reclaim and enrich their lives.  For more information, visit www.crchealth.com or call (877) 637-6237.

Are you a parent to a child with special needs? Have you been trying to help your child do something he or she can’t do, or corrected them over and over again to end up with little or no progress, both you and your child experiencing ample stress in the process? When that happens your child isn’t learning what you’re trying to teach them and most likely they are learning what you do not want them to learn – the patterns that lead them to failure.

One of the most important discoveries of the past 30 years of my work with children who have special needs—working with everything from autism to genetic disorders—is the amazingly positive results that become possible when we shift our attention from the child’s limitations to the child’s brain and from trying to get the child to do what it can’t do, what it “should” be doing, to helping that child’s brain get the information it requires to be able to do new things. To clarify what I mean by this, think of your brain as the CEO of you. It manages all that you do—physically, emotionally and intellectually. For the healthy child, as well as the child with special challenges, the information his or her “CEO” brain needs in order to learn something new does not come from directly trying to perform and practice what it doesn’t yet have the ability to perform. When I tell that to parents, they often ask me with bewilderment in their voice: “but if I’m not going to put my child sitting, standing, or keep repeating words they’re unable to speak, how are they ever going to learn to do these things”?  My answer to them is that children begin learning to sit, stand, or talk long before they can perform these skills. The necessary information for skills to form comes to the brain from many small and varied movements and experiences that may seem completely unrelated to the final accomplishment. With the healthy child these movements are always within the range of what he or she can already do at the time. The brain of the child with special challenges requires the same process to be able to learn and thrive!

Here’s what we need to realize: for the brain to get all the information it requires to successfully learn how to organize movement, thought, emotions and feelings depends on all of the child’s functions and capabilities working well to begin with. That includes the muscles, the bones, the joints, and of course the brain itself. So, for example, if the arm of an infant is not doing the typical random movements it normally would because of an injury to the nerves of that arm, the brain will not get the information it requires in order to learn to control that arm well, if at all. (You can watch a video of an 8 week old learning to move her paralyzed arm for the first time: http://youtu.be/V7t_DqrsIcE)

What is everyone’s natural and intuitive urge to do at such time? I’m sure you have the answer: to try and “fix” that arm. To try and make it do what it is not doing ¾ stretch, stimulate and exercise that arm with the hope that it will “learn” to do those movements on their own. Will imposing these movements on her arm result in her brain getting the information it requires to move that arm well on her own? Will trying to get her to do what she cannot do provide her brain with the missing information? As counter intuitive as it may appear, the answer in most cases is that it won’t. It is way too limited! The healthy infant does thousands upon thousands of small, highly varied movements that are not the final skill, such as holding a toy in their hands, before they get there. It is this flood of seemingly irrelevant information that the child with special challenges also needs.

The same is true for behavioral and cognitive challenges that often children diagnosed with ADHD or Autism have. Trying to impose the final “correct” behavior will usually deny the brain the rich and varied information it needs in order to evolve the missing skills.

How can we provide the child’s brain with this flood of necessary information? First we need to back off from trying to “fix” the child and instead focus on connecting with him or her. The Anat Baniel Method, which evolved from a lifetime of hands-on work with thousands of children with special needs, provides the tools that help parents and caregivers connect with the child and at the same time wake up the child’s brain and flood it with information it has to have for that child to be able to successfully move from the impossible to the possible. This is not some kind of magic or esoteric system but is founded on scientific principles that have been demonstrated over and over again by leading researchers the world over. Science has shown how the brain possesses a remarkable ability to create alternative solutions to physical and mental disabilities when given the information to work with. Through the spontaneous process of differentiation (discerning increasingly finer differences), the brain creates billions upon billions of new neural connections; these are the very connections that every child’s brain needs to figure out how to stand, walk, talk, think, and do everything he or she will ever learn to do. Read More

A recent rash of news stories highlights the positive in society’s youngest members: “Child Saves Kids from Bus Crash;” “Child Saves His Brother from Possible Abduction;” “Child Saves Family from House Fire.”

But all too often, the news involving children indicates a dangerous lack of morality: 7- and 8-year-olds stealing cars; a 9-year-old’s recent shooting of a school classmate; a 12-year-old charged with armed robbery.

There is something especially senseless in reading about small children committing crimes. We wanted to be part of a ‘positive push’ in the right direction.

The younger the child, the more impressionable they are. We wanted to help busy parents scrambling to make ends meet teach children empathy, compassion, environmental awareness and other values.

I don’t think parents are bad. But with all the economic worries, the job losses and home foreclosures, many are focused on working and worrying. It’s hard to also be thinking, ‘What value will I teach my child today?’

These tips for parents can help positively shape children:

• Promote a love for nature: Are your kids outdoors much? Parents who are busying shuttling their sons and daughters from one building to another may overlook the benefits of the great outdoors. Wilderness, however, has a therapeutic effect on indoor dwellers. Spending time in nature also helps children learn about their place in the world and the value of all the life that shares space with us.

• Show the value of teamwork: Working together toward a common goal doesn’t always come naturally to children – or adults. Many youngsters learn teamwork through sports, which is good but almost always includes a competitive element. It’s important for children to experience the added benefits of creating, problem-solving and getting chores done as a team. Parents should look for opportunities to point out their children’s great teamwork.

• Make sure they appreciate safety: No good parent wants to unnecessarily frighten their children, but carelessness leads to bad habits, injuries and opportunities for others to do them harm. The best medicine for any problem is prevention. Remember: Don’t take for granted that your young child knows what’s safe and what’s not. Some years ago, someone taught you that stoves can burn your hand – even though you can’t remember who or when it was.

• Build their confidence with at least one skill: Remember what it’s like to be 4 years old? Very young children come into this world with no previous experience, which means their brains are hungry for know-how. Knowledge and skills to a child are like water for a thirsty man in the desert.

• Kindness counts: It is one thing to teach kids the old idiom that one catches more flies with honey than with vinegar. But children should also know that people who make kindness a habit tend to be happier; there is an inherent joy in helping others.

I understand parents are busy earning a living to support their children. But who you raise in the process makes all the difference to the future world.

Debbie Burns and Patty Cockrell are sisters and best friends. They were determined to instill honest and wholesome values in their children after establishing their families. Deeply affected by the bad news of the world, they decided to promote a better experience for children. “Tukie Tales: A New Beginning for a Better Tomorrow” (www.tukietales.com) is a series of five children’s books designed to help parents teach young children important values. The “Tukie Tales” series is written with compassion and love for all of the world’s children in the hope of making a positive difference.

As the world engages in a global homework debate, there are many parents whose major concern is not public policy, but what will happen at home tonight. They are not Tiger Moms, but ordinary parents who simply want the best for their children. These parents start out with the full intention of supporting the teachers and their children’s schools. Yet, something goes wrong along the way as they and their children fall into a homework trap.

The problem starts in elementary school. The notes come home, and the parents get “the call.”  They meet with the teacher and make plans to make sure everyone is on the same page. Before long, the cast of characters grows. By middle school, there are several teachers, the disciplinarian and the nurse, all fretting over what these children do not do. Their parents feel pressured to oversee their work, as they also feel criticized as if they’ve done something wrong. These parents would do anything to help their children, yet nothing they do reaps results. Soon, they realize that the efforts they are making are actually doing more harm than good.

The key misconception about homework-trapped children is what I call the “myth of motivation.” These children are viewed as lazy and unmotivated, as if they are different from the other children who would rather play than do their homework. There are reasons why these children don’t do their work, and it’s not because they lack motivation. Rather, they have “under the radar” learning problems. Minor differences in learning capabilities can have major implications on the work that’s sent home, much more than it has on the work done in class. The most important issue is the child’s work pace. No one would question that a slow running child truly wants to win the race, yet we somehow believe that homework-trapped children lack the desire to get their work done.

We know that people don’t spend large amounts of time engaging in tasks they don’t do well. Yet, homework-trapped children are made to struggle for hours on end to get everything done.  These children would be far better off if they were asked to work for a fixed amount of time (perhaps ten minutes per night per grade), than to fall into an abyss of working all night to get every worksheet done. The child, who is forced to keep on working without boundaries, will predictably learn how to avoid. Excessive homework pressures teach children to lie, forget, argue, and procrastinate. This eventually brings in the child study team, not to deal with learning problems, but because the child’s behavior has been bad. With that, the child may get sent to a different class or an alternative school where, voila, homework is no longer required. It’s an odd turn of events that these homework-trapped children, who could have succeeded with some homework relief, only get that relief after they’ve acted out.

Because of this, I offer three very simple adjustments that are crucial for homework-trapped children, and which, frankly, I think should be policy for all. They are:

Time bound homework. Just like school starts and stops by the clock, define homework as a fixed period of time. See what the child can do in a reasonable amount of time and work with that child on using the time well.

Reduced penalties. Zeros factored in twenty-five percent of the grade is too harsh of a penalty to alter behavior. Lesser consequences will prove more effective in both mobilizing the child and allowing the parent to approach the issue calmly.

Respect lines of authority. Teachers are in charge of their classrooms. Parents should tread lightly on telling them what to do. Parents are the people in charge of their homes. Teachers should not tell parents how to organize their homes. In the end, when decisions are to be made about behaviors in the home (i.e. homework), the parent needs to be the one with the final say.

I am aware of the controversy abounding around the world regarding how much homework children should get. It’s an important debate but not the one I’m concerned with today. I’ll leave that to teachers, the experts in education, to figure out what makes the most sense. But in developing their models, it is critical for teachers to understand that homework assignments are using borrowed ground. Homework requires the tacit permission of the parents to allow it in their homes. While most parents will support the school in what it asks, they also need the power to withdraw that permission, if needed, without consequence to their child’s education.

Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice. A member of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Goldberg has been a featured expert in top media outlets including The Los Angeles Daily News, LAFamily.com, and The Washington Post. For more information, please visit www.thehomeworktrap.com.

10. Ticks crawl up. Ticks don’t jump, fly, or drop from trees onto your head and back. If you find one attached there, it most likely latched onto your foot or leg and crawled up over your entire body.

9. All ticks (including deer ticks) come in small, medium and large sizes

8. Ticks can be active even in the winter. That’s right! Deer Ticks in particular are not killed by freezing temperatures, and will be active any winter day that the ground is not snow-covered or frozen.

7. Ticks carry disease-causing microbes. Tick-transmitted infections are more common these days than in past decades. With explosive increases in deer populations, extending even into semi-urban areas in the eastern and western U.S., the trend is for increasing abundance and geographic spread of deer ticks and Lone Star ticks; and scientists are finding an ever-increasing list of disease-causing microbes transmitted by these ticks: Lyme disease bacteria, Babesia protozoa, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and other rickettsia, even encephalitis-causing viruses, and possibly Bartonella bacteria. Back in the day, tick bites were more of an annoyance but now a bite is much more likely to make you sick.

6. Only deer ticks transmit Lyme disease bacteria. The only way to get Lyme disease is by being bitten by a deer tick or one of its “cousins” found around the world.

5. For most tick-borne diseases, you have at least 24 hours to find and remove a feeding tick before it transmits an infection. Even a quick daily tick check at bath or shower time can be helpful in finding and removing attached ticks before they can transmit an infection. Lyme disease bacteria take at least 24 hours to invade the tick’s saliva.

4. Deer tick nymphs look like a poppy seed on your skin. And with about 1 out of 4 nymphal deer ticks carrying the Lyme disease spirochete and other nasty germs in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and upper mid-western U.S., it’s important to know what you’re really looking for. They’re easy to miss, their bites are generally painless, and they have a habit of climbing up (under clothing) and biting in hard-to-see places.

3. The easiest and safest way to remove a tick is with a pointy tweezer. Using really pointy tweezers, it’s possible to grab even the poppy-seed sized nymphs right down next to the skin. The next step is to simply pull the tick out like a splinter.

2. Clothing with built-in tick repellent is best for preventing tick bites. An easy way to avoid tick bites and disease is to wear clothing (shoes, socks, shorts or pants, and shirt) with Insect Shield® tick repellent built-in. www.insectshield.com www.insectshield.com/work www.insectshield.com/health

1. Tick bites and tick-borne diseases are completely preventable. There’s really only one way you get a tick-transmitted disease and that’s from a tick bite. Reducing tick abundance in your yard, wearing tick repellent clothing every day, treating pets every month and getting into a habit of doing a quick body scan are all great actions for preventing tick bites.

Courtesy of www.tickencounter.org. Insect Shield’s EPA-registered technology converts clothing and gear into effective and convenient insect protection. The repellency is long-lasting and appropriate for use by the entire family with no restrictions for use. For more information, visit www.insectshield.com

Let’s face it, sometimes fathers feel a bit left out. They may feel a little unsure of their abilities in the parenting department, and women, like many other species, can smell fear.  Not only do we moms want to save a father from feeling bad, we also want to prevent as much fussing as possible, by both the father and the child. So we step in.  The problem is, sometimes we don’t step out again. Having a mom is great, but children need the special perspective that a dad can offer.  As a dad, here are the things that us moms want you to know to feel confident about your parenting abilities:

1. Don’t be afraid to be alone with your child. If your child is in the baby stage, the most important thing to remember is this: babies cry sometimes.  You cannot always prevent it.  So, rather than being intimidated by it, go through a mental checklist:  Is the baby hungry, tired, hot, cold, or in need of a diaper change?  If you’ve tried to fix the above issues and the crying continues, try a change of scenery (and bring the baby with you). If possible, walk outside, several laps around the house, or up and down the street.  If you’re not sure how to work the stroller, don’t use it. You will eventually succeed in calming your baby.  And, in doing so, you will feel an incredible sense of pride in yourself and your “dad instinct.”

2. Children love to cuddle with their dads. You guys have some kind of kid-calming mechanism implanted in you somehow, I am convinced.  You’re warm, you’re calm, you talk in a low-pitched voice, and you can sit for hours, snuggling and watching baseball.  Revel in the fact that you have a talent that mom may not have – the snuggling factor.  Kids often seek mom out for emergencies (no matter how trivial), but if you are open to it, they will seek you out for snuggling, for comfort, for security.  You lucky dog, you.

3. Though mom may have it all under control, you need to be “in the loop.” Find out what disciplinary actions have been taken while you were away.  What’s the back story?  It is imperative that you and mom work together to raise your child.  You need to know what has happened in the day, good and bad, so that any transfer of responsibility is seamless. Children know when we are uninformed and they use it to their advantage.  You can count on that.  So, if you are not told what has happened, please ask.  Your competence depends on it.

4. Your words mean more than you will ever know. Dads tend not to understand how important they are. You may not have had quite as much experience with children as mom has, but your words of comfort, support, love, and pride will stay with your child forever.  Choose your words carefully, for they carry with them the self-esteem that your child will draw upon as she grows.  Don’t underestimate the power of your words. What you say does matter.

5. Play. You work a lot, so when you are with your kids, play. Stay vigilant, be safe, choose age appropriate activities, but gosh darn it, play.  It is the best way to bond with children, because it equalizes you, at least for the time that you are playing.  Children “let their guard down” a little when they play, and you may learn how your child is feeling about things as you play.  Dads tend to be pretty good listeners, so as you play, if you notice your child beginning to open up, just listen.  You don’t have to give advice.  In fact, it’s probably better if you don’t. Every now and then, say, “Do you feel like you need any help with that situation?” and take it from there. Playing opens the doors to having fun, but it also shows your child that you are willing to be there for him. Read More

Perhaps more than anything else, parenting is what defines humanity. The appearance of parenting in the world signaled the end of the Age of Reptiles (dinosaurs and their brethren) and heralded the beginning of the Age of Mammals—and parenting is probably the most important activity that humans have ever undertaken.

Reptile mothers reproduce by laying external eggs and hatching offspring capable of immediate independent survival. Reptiles have no apparent concerns for members of their own or any other species, including offspring, and often engage in cannibalism. Humans, thankfully, are different (most of the time). Like all mammals, our pregnant mothers bear young that emerge incapable of surviving without care. So for humans, parenting—protection and nurturance of offspring from birth—is absolutely necessary for the survival of the child and the species.

The root of our amazing brain began to develop in our reptilian ancestors. Initially, its capabilities were focused exclusively on self-interest, the individual’s own survival. Then, in the later years of the reptilian age, another ability began to emerge in that ancestral brain: altruism, the capacity to be concerned about another individual. Modern science has physically located this capacity in the limbic system, part of our brain’s second developmental stage. Altruism is essential to the activities of parenting in mammals. The limbic system also appears to include a key prohibition against cannibalism: thou shalt not eat thine own kind, if you will.

Because brain development has been a process of accretion, with each new ability added to the previously existing ones, the capacities to act out of self-interest or out of altruism are both hard-wired into our heads. Thus, our ultimate actions are a matter of choice, a function of free will; and technically, a function of the neocortex, our brain’s third developmental stage.

That neurological and behavioral lineage strongly suggests that our lives are in our own hands. By extension, how we can best live becomes a matter of education, beginning with our children. Therefore, one of the most important functions of parenting is education, through example and through the provision of schooling. Along with basic and advanced academic skills, parents can enhance their children’s education by encouraging their participation in sports and the arts—especially team sports and performing arts, as these activities both demonstrate and require sharing.

Learning how to share is a critically important lesson of childhood. It is absolutely fundamental to establishing and sustaining the personal relationships that will define a full, healthy human life. Outside of certain inherently imbalanced learning situations with parent/child or teacher/student, any true sharing demands an equality in power between the people involved in the sharing, with each person having the freedom to accept or reject the sharing without penalty.

Sharing’s deep significance derives from its mutuality and the fact that it simultaneously meets the needs of both self-interest and altruism. My mother demonstrated these profundities of sharing with a very simple but powerful example when I was fourteen. After school one day, my older brother and I were squabbling in our kitchen over who’d get the last apple in the fruit bowl. Mom heard us and intervened, taking the apple. She gave my brother a knife, saying, “You cut,” then saying to me, “And you pick first!” Her solution, and our actions, satisfied our self-interests and yet involved a consideration of each other at the same time.

Obviously, that incident made a deep impression on me. I’ve tried to apply its lesson in my adult life. In my book, “To Find The Way Of Love,” I define the way of love for humans as “promoting freedom and equality in all personal relationships.” Voluntary promotion that arises from within is the most desirable, but even an external stimulus can lead to finding the way. And parents are in the best position to provide that stimulus. After all, just being a parent is an act of altruism but parents need to demonstrate equality with their children. As Gibran wrote in “The Prophet” on children, “Try not to make your children like you. Try to be like them.”

Oliver E. Deehan was a Navy fighter pilot, sailor, skier, and executive who built and administered hospitals. For the last twenty years, his concerns have been about human relationships and how the importance given to the individual has superseded the importance of relationships, with self-love trumping our love of others. This resulted in many years of thought and a decade of researching and writing this book. To find the way of love is to explore and reexamine the purpose of our existence. For more information, visit http://tofindthewayoflove.com or http://oliveredeehan.authorsxpress.com.

As schools are hard at work revamping lunch menus in line with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) new school lunch guidelines, chocolate milk has already undergone a makeover that schools, parents and kids can all feel good about.

Dr. Keith Ayoob, RD, a nationally-recognized child nutrition expert, highlights the biggest changes under the new guidelines:

More colorful fruits and vegetables. Both fruits and vegetables must be served every day of the week, and there is now a weekly requirement for specific colors of vegetables. Previously schools only had to offer either fruits or vegetables.

Whole grains will be required. While encouraged in the past, schools now must offer whole-grain rich foods. Schools are really looking at how to ensure foods are nutritious, but also appealing to kids. It’s a challenge, but one that schools across the nation are focused on.

Schools are paying attention to portions. Calorie limits will be enforced based on the age of children being served to ensure proper portion size. New menus will be increasingly focused on reducing saturated fat, trans fats and sodium.

Nutrient-rich milk is emphasized. Along with low-fat and fat free white milk, now all the chocolate milk served for school lunch will be fat free.

While the school lunch menu has only recently changed, school chocolate milk has been undergoing changes for the past five years. The nation’s milk processors have been hard at work to lower the calories and sugar in school flavored milk, while continuing to deliver a nutritious and delicious drink kids love. School flavored milk now has 38 percent less added sugar than just five years ago and on average, just 31 calories more than white milk. The majority have fewer than 150 calories per serving.

Flavored milk is the most popular choice in school lunch rooms, and kids drink less milk and get fewer nutrients when it’s taken away. Whether flavored or white, milk has 9 essential nutrients, including calcium, vitamin D and potassium, which are all “nutrients of concern” that most kids fail to get enough of. Many kids are falling short of the recommended milk each day, and when they skip milk at lunch, they’re not likely to make up for it the rest of their day.

Dr. Ayoob has some tips to help parents and kids make the most of school lunches:

• It’s equally important that school meals are appealing, as they are nutritious. Along with good nutrition, food choices need to be practical, so they don’t end up in the trash. Many children are overfed but undernourished, so focusing on our kids’ nutrient intake is essential now more than ever. Studies show flavored milk contributes just 3 percent of added sugars to kids’ diets, compared to sodas and fruit drinks, which account for close to half of the added sugar and deliver much less, if any, nutritional value.

• Help kids learn healthy choices. Research has found that if you offer kids carrots and celery, they’ll eat more carrots than if you just provide carrots alone. Offering nutritious choices in schools helps kids learn food and nutrition lessons and research suggests the ability to choose between two or more options helps boost kids’ overall intake of nutritious foods.

Learn more at www.milkatschools.com.

Warm weather has finally arrived, and parents everywhere are starting to plan family vacations. But traveling with a little one can be challenging and requires preparation.

Huggies has teamed up with family travel expert Shelly Rivoli, author of “Travels with Baby,” to help moms and dads beat the heat and plan a no-stress summer vacation for their entire family – including the youngest of the bunch.

Rivoli knows all about vacations with little ones as a mother of three, and has even changed diapers on four continents. “When planning a vacation for the entire family, it’s important to plan simply and only bring necessities for trips,” said Rivoli. “With the right products on hand, like Huggies Hawaiian Diapers and Wipes, you might only need a sun hat for your little one.”

Here are more of Rivoli’s tried and true tips and tricks for making the most of this summer’s trip.

Timing Is Everything

If your baby sleeps well in the car, you can look forward to putting on miles during naptime drives. However, if your child has trouble sleeping in the car, consider leaving first thing in the morning or right after naptime. Plan a meaningful pit stop for your family at least every two hours on the road for fresh air and exercise.

Bring Liquids Onboard

When you travel with a baby or toddler, airport security will allow you to bring a “reasonable amount” of extra liquids for your child, based on your itinerary. Place any prepared bottles, baby food or boxes of shelf-stable milk in a large, clear zip-top bag to present at airport security.

Beat the Heat

During summer travel, long rides in the car can be even warmer for tots riding snugly within a car seat. To keep your child cool and comfortable, dress him or her down to a vacation-ready diaper. Huggies Hawaiian Diapers are shaped to fit to provide proven leakage protection – with an added tropical twist – perfect for summer.

Simplify Diapering on the Go

Carrying just one or two diapers at a time in your purse with a travel pack of stylish baby wipes will make it much simpler to change baby on the go. Huggies Hawaiian Diapers come with two different styles in a pack – providing two outfits for your little one.

Stick to the Routine

Traveling babies need the stability of their daily routines to stay happy, especially for naptime or bedtime. If you and your baby go through a nightly bedtime ritual at home, stick to it. Even with the change in scenery, you and your little one will enjoy your special routine and ensure a restful slumber.

Fashionable Protection No Matter Beach or Backyard

This summer, dress your little ones to be “Cute for a Cause” and contribute to the fight against diaper need. These vacation-ready Hawaiian Diapers allow mom to stylishly accessorize baby for the hot summer, while also helping a baby in need. For every pack purchased, Huggies Every Little Bottom will help diaper a baby in need for a day.

Upload a photo of your summer-ready little one to the Huggies Facebook page, and create a fun animated dancing Hula Baby video to share with all your friends. Learn more at www.facebook.com/huggies.

Concussion is a hot topic. Almost every state across the nation is implementing some version of a concussion bill and nearly 1200 former NFL players are suing the NFL stating that they weren’t made aware of the danger of playing with repetitive head trauma and that they didn’t receive adequate evaluation and treatment for their concussion symptoms. There are so many controversial issues regarding concussion. It’s important for coaches, athletes, parents and physicians to understand the danger of continuing to play with a probable head/neck trauma.

A concussion is any alteration of brain function following a blow to the head, jaw, or chest.

Signs/Symptoms Include

Headache, dizziness, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, confusion, feeling of being in a mental fog, nausea, vomiting, balance problems, excessive fatigue, difficulty concentrating, forgetful, repeats same questions, irritability, abnormal behavior, excessively sad or aggressive outbursts.

What can be done to prevent a serious injury from head trauma?

1. Do NOT take blood thinners/aspirin while playing any sport. These make the brain bleed easier after taking a hit.

2. Make sure that equipment is properly fitted. No piece of equipment can solely prevent concussion. A proper fit can decrease the risk of injury.

3. Make sure the athlete is taught proper hitting technique.

4. You must know and teach your kid/athlete the signs/symptoms of a concussion and learn about the inherent risks involved with head/neck trauma.

5. Teach your child to tell the trainer, doctor, coach, or you when they have any of these signs/symptoms of a concussion.

6. Get your child/athlete evaluated immediately if they have a suspected concussion or neck problem.

7. Have your child wear a mouth guard in any contact sport, upper and lower and replace it (boil and bite) when it wears down.

8. Closely observe your child/athlete for at least 72 hours after sustaining any head trauma, as signs/symptoms don’t always show up immediately.

9. You need to report any injury/accident that occurs at home to the trainer/team doctor or coach.

10. You need to follow the head injury sheet given to you by your healthcare professional and make sure that your child is physically fit enough to participate in the sport.

Important things to remember regarding concussion:

A normal MRI or CT scan does NOT mean that the child didn’t have a concussion. It only means that there is not a bleed requiring immediate neurosurgery consult.

You DO NOT have to lose consciousness in order to have a concussion. If there are signs/symptoms of a concussion following a blow or jolt to the head then they probably have a concussion.

Blows to the jaw or chest can also cause a concussion, which causes the brain to shift, rebounding back and forth against the skull’s bony structures, causing damage to the brain.

Children suffer 50,000 bicycle related brain injuries in the US each year, and more than 400 die as a result. Wearing a bike helmet can reduce the severity of brain injury by as much as 85%, yet 50% of kids still don’t wear helmets when riding bikes.

Dr. Kelly Roush, Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician, Certified Athletic Trainer and the Director of Sports Medicine Department at a 140 physician multidisciplinary clinic. Dr. Roush is author of “Sports Concussion and Neck Trauma: Preventing Injury for Future Generations”.