Today, October 5, 2009, National Child Health Day in the United States.

This year’s topic is Medical Home, providing all children with a medical home. What is a medical home? It is a continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective way of providing medical care.
OK, that’s fine, but what does that mean to you as a parent, as a caregiver, or as a child? The American Academy of Pediatrics has made available PDF documents for you to learn more about medical homes. In the documents, you learn about what to expect from a pediatric team, how to make medical home …read more

RSV, as it is commonly known, is a highly contagious virus which is prevalent in infants mainly during the winter months. It is transmitted primarily hand-to- nose, hand-to-mouth, and hand-to-eye contact.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the RSV season is in full swing right now. The RSV levels have reached the 30% level- meaning that one-third of all infants tested for the virus are testing positive. The CDC considers this to be an epidemic.
Now, because this is such a serious illness, and because this is so prevelent, RSV is considered to be one of the most important childhood illnesses. …read more

Bottom Line: Not if they eat right.
One third of kids in the U.S. take vitamins and most take a vitamin that contains vitamin C, calcium or iron but most take a multivitamin. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend a daily multivitamin for children.
There is currently no research that shows that vitamins make you healthier or live longer.
CNN

The latest news on Vitamin D is that kids need more. The previous recommendation (from 2003) from the American Academy of Pediatrics was 200 IU of vitamin D daily. Now they are saying that kids need 400 IU’s.
Dr. Frank Greer states that this could have life-long benefits.
Vitamin D helps build strong bones and prevents rickets (a common disease in developing countries and in institutionalized children like my son who was very borderline). Although rickets is uncommon in the US a recent study estimated that 40% of US infants and toddlers are deficient in Vitamin D.
The recommendation is for infants to …read more