nature Archives - Happy Healthy Kids

Keep Kids Safe from Ticks

June 3, 2017 by Kelley 1 Comment

You may not have appreciated the harsh winter, but there’s one species that did: ticks. According to scientists, the snow that covered much of the country acted like a cozy blanket for the critters, allowing them to survive and propagate in unusually high numbers. And they’re not just hanging out in the deep woods. “We’re finding plenty of infected ticks in built environments, places like city parks, playgrounds, work campuses, college campuses,” a Binghamton University researcher told CBS Boston last month.

What’s especially worrisome is that ticks’ favorite meal appears to be kids. Children between ages 5 to 14 are the most common carriers of Lyme disease, which can cause a wide range of serious medical problems, from joint pain and fatigue (in the early stages) as well as neurological, behavioral, and emotional disturbances (in more advanced cases). An early CDC study of 64 New Jersey grade schoolers with Lyme found that median duration of their illness was 363 days, and the mean number of school days missed because the child was too ill to attend was 103 days. 78% of the parents stated that their children experienced a fall in grade point average during the time of illness.

According to experts, it’s time that parents start thinking of tick prevention the way we do sun protection or hand washing. For those of us who grew up thinking that the little bugs were nothing more than an icky nuisance, taking daily measures against ticks is a hard new habit to start. But Nevena Zubcevik, D.O., an attending physician at Harvard Medical School and the Co-Director of The Dean Center for Tick Borne Illness at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, has generously shared these easy-to-follow guidelines for keeping kids safe from ticks this summer and beyond.

STARTING IN THE SPRING…make your home and yard an unhappy place for ticks.
Pruning excess bushes and making sure you keep the grass short in your yard is a good practice. So is spraying the yard for ticks—there are lawn-care companies who offer organic options to insecticides. If you have a dog, consider applying anti-tick medication monthly, even in winter months. Dogs and other pets frequently bring ticks into the house.

EVERY MORNING…Spray your kids with a research-proven tick repellent.
“Tick prevention, given the wide area of presence, should be a daily practice,” says Dr. Zubcevik. You don’t have to venture out to the woods to get a tick bite. Recent studies show that urban parks, yards and play areas have ticks that carry these diseases. The reason for the widespread presence of ticks is that they live on small rodents like mice, squirrels and rabbits. They are also found on migratory birds, so ticks carrying illnesses generally found in other parts of the country can now be detected most anywhere.
Long pants and socks are especially helpful for defending kids against ticks, which tend to attach to their hosts’ ankles and legs first. But it can be unreasonable to ask kids to wear long clothes on a hot summer’s day. A recent Consumer Report showed that sprays such as Repel with lemon eucalyptus or Sawyer with 20% picaridin have the capability of keeping mosquitoes and ticks away for up to 8 hours – and outperformed compounds with DEET in their testing. “Those compounds are also safer than DEET for repetitive use in children,” says Dr. Zubcevik.

IN THE EVENING…Check your kids’ bodies for ticks, and wash bodies and clothes.
Ticks mostly live on wood or bushes and tall grass. They’ll attach to your leg and can crawl up and enter the waist or hairline area. Since kids are short, they also often brush by a bush and end up with a tick in or around their earlobe, hair or armpit. A prompt shower with a full body tick check after being outdoors on daily basis can help find ticks that just attached and catch them before they have transmitted disease. Making sure you check between toes, in belly button and earlobes as well as the buttocks, groin and hair is key. Hair-drying in the summer can help kill small ticks that would otherwise be missed with a tick check – though time consuming, such practice can help long term prevention.

IF YOU FIND A TICK…Remove it, freeze it, and talk to a doctor.
If you find a tick you can use thin tweezers to catch the tick at the insert site, closest to the skin and gently jiggle the tick until it detaches. If the tick is embedded deep, then a visit to the doctor would be warranted, says Dr. Zubcevik. (Never burn or squeeze a tick. The tick carries most of the bacteria in the stomach and by squeezing it you run a risk of injecting the contents into the person. You should then keep the tick, and freeze it in a ziplock bag and then send it for testing.) The testing is done at UMass, and in five business days they will let you know whether the tick has any serious illnesses.
If the result is positive for a tick-borne illness, talk to your child’s pediatrician about options. There are some opposing views about prophylactic treatment. Some physicians say that because the diseases the ticks carry can be debilitating and in some cases life-threatening, it’s important to treat if there was evidence of a bite; while others disagree and prefer to wait for symptoms of illness. “The problem is that the longer you wait, the higher the chances the bacteria has had time to spread throughout the body, in which case it might be more difficult to treat,” Dr. Zubcevik says. Current studies at John’s Hopkins University show that up to 35% of people develop chronic symptoms despite treatment for Lyme. “We do not know what the exact reasons of these chronic symptoms are,” notes Dr. Zubcevik. “Scientists have postulated that it could be an autoimmune reaction that is triggered by the infection, chronic inflammation, or continued infection by the bacteria.”

ALWAYS BE ON THE LOOKOUT…for signs and symptoms of Lyme.
Red flags are flu like symptoms, joint pains or swollen joints, sudden change in behavior, sudden development of repetitive movements, lethargy, fatigue, and headaches. A classic “bulls-eye” shaped rash around the bite site may be present, but not always, and therefore should not be required for diagnosis of this illness.
One big reason kids are at high risk is that they generally do not communicate symptoms very well. Parents should know that in case their kids develop any symptoms that are new and concerning, they should be vigilant to find out whether or not their child needs treatment. “Currently we have very poor testing for Lyme disease,” says Dr. Zubcevik. “The current test misses 89% of Lyme disease cases in the first 8 weeks of infection.”
Since testing is so inadequate, Dr. Zubcevik warns, results should not be depended on exclusively for diagnosis. Symptoms and risk factors should also be strongly considered. “The treatment is actually quite benign,” she says. “We use antibiotics such as amoxicillin for children under the age of 8 and doxycycline for older kids. Both of these antibiotics have good safety records and are generally well tolerated. With these facts in mind, both parents and physicians should feel comfortable starting a patient on antibiotics if they clinically present as Lyme.”

Bottom line…As long as Lyme remains so tricky to diagnose and treat, taking precautions is key. “Parents should be vigilant with prevention,” says Dr. Zubcevik. “It’s what we have most control over.”

The Tick Toolkit
	Repel with lemon eucalyptus or Sawyer with 20% picaridin have been tested to keep mosquitoes and ticks at bay for up to 8 hours.
	Fine tip tweezers like these by TAMSCO will allow you to remove ticks more easily.
	When sprayed on a child's socks or clothes before heading out in grassy, wooded or overgrown areas, Permethrin helps repel ticks.
	Get kids jazzed for a nightly bath or shower with a fun soap, like Method's Mickey Mouse lemonade body and hair wash.

Why (and How) to Plan a National Park Trip Now

April 18, 2017 by Kelley 1 Comment

My husband and I recently became convinced that when it comes to family tourism, nothing beats a visit to one of America’s great national parks. A park trip combines all the things we’d ideally want children to soak up when sight-seeing: nature, adventure, history, and, perhaps best of all with young kids, space to explore without fear of someone getting left behind on the subway platform. And, oh: Compared to a big, bustling city, or, for godsakes, a theme park, the cost tends to be right, too.

Thunder Hole, Acadia National Park

For our first big park trip, we stayed close to home, and went to the first East Coast national park ever created: Acadia National Park in Maine. None of us had been there before, which was ideal: Part of the magic of a great family trip is experiencing something amazing together for the first time—like Thunder Hole, where the Atlantic surf crashes into a cave-like break in the craggy Maine rocks to create a huge wake and roaring sound.

Our appreciation of the awesomeness of our national park system has only grown since finding out that several times a year, park admittance is free. This weekend (April 20-22, 2017), for instance, admission is free at all 412 national park sites. That includes the biggies—the 59 “main” parks (think Acadia, Grand Canyon, and Redwood National Forest) as well as national military and historic parks (like Gettysburg).There’s no doubt a park near you that you’ve been meaning to explore—or didn’t even know about. For help in finding your next destination, go to this easy “Find Your Park” tool on the NPS site.

For bigger trips, consider planning now for a summer 2017 or spring 2018 visit. The best hotels and campsites around popular parks fill up fast. See charts of most popular destinations as well as most underrated (and, score, under-trafficked) spots, below. Get kids involved and excited about planning with a book: Younger ones will like the new Our Great Big Backyard, the surprisingly entertaining read created to commemorate the NPS anniversary by Laura Bush and daughter Jenna. Older elementary- and middle-schoolers can bookmark their bucket-list faves in National Geographic’s National Parks Guide USA.

10 Most Visited National Parks (with links)

Great Smoky Mountains (North Carolina and Tennessee)

Grand Canyon (Arizona)

Rocky Mountains (Colorado)

Yosemite (California)

Yellowstone (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming)

Zion (Utah)

Olympic (Washington)

Grand Teton (Wyoming)

Acadia (Maine)

Glacier (Montana)

Source: National Geographic

10 Most Underrated National Parks (with links)

Biscayne National Park (Florida)

Congaree (South Carolina)

Isle Royale (Michigan)

Black Canyon (Colorado)

Theodore Roosevelt (North Dakota)

Capitol Reef (Utah)

Great Basin (Nevada)

North Cascades (Washington)

Channel Islands (California)

Wrangell-St. Elias (Alaska)

Source: Travel + Leisure

Protecting Kids From Mosquitoes

July 19, 2016 by Kelley 1 Comment

Are you, or anyone in your family, a mosquito magnet like me? In a group of people, I am always the first swatting; and the next day, itching like mad. I’ve twice—once, on my Hawaiian honeymoon—had to go on a crash course of oral steroids to treat dozens of oversized welts caused by a single buggy encounter.

Medical literature suggests that some people are genetically predisposed to attracting these mosquitos—something about the amount of heat and carbon dioxide we produce—and that seems to play out in our family, given that my dad, and now my youngest son, seem predisposed to an inordinate amount of itchy, oversized bites this time of year. But it’s now apparent that, even here in the states, these flies are more than pesky, and we all need to take protection more seriously. While findings of bugs carrying the West Nile virus are on the rise, Zika has officially infiltrated the U.S.: as of mid-July CDC reports that more than 1,300 people have carried the virus into the country. As this fascinating chart by the Bill Gates Foundation illustrates, mosquitos are the deadliest creature on the planet, more dangerous than humans, snakes, and 12 other fearsome creatures combined.

Last summer, I did a round-up of expert tips for steering clear of ticks; as we roll into mosquito high season, I’m sharing takeaways from the most recent research for keeping kids safe from ‘skeeters.

DEET is safe and works—but make sure you choose the right concentration.
While it may feel fishy to spray your child down with a chemical that can (for real) melt plastic, a recent review by British public health researchers echoed many others to show that DEET products are safe for kids when used as directed, and are perhaps the most time-tested way to successfully repel insects. Studies show that a product should contain at least 10% to work much at all, but effectiveness seems to plateau at 50% concentrations. The higher the concentration, the longer it lasts; but as with most chemicals, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends choosing a product that contains the lowest DEET concentration that will be effective for the amount a time a child will be exposed to buggy conditions. For children over 2 months of age only (chemical use on newborns should be avoided), the AAP and CDC recommend choosing a DEET product between 10% and 30%—the former lasting about 2 hours, and the latter for around 5 hours—and reapplying as the product directs or when you feel the bugs starting bite again. Unfortunately, many sprays marketed to “families” have too-low concentrations of the protective chemical. So be sure to check the fine print on the bottom of the front label: Among the four DEET-based bug spray options at my local supermarket yesterday, three were 7% concentration.

Good DEET spray choice for day trip (for kids over 2 months): Cutter Backwoods Insect Repellent (25%)

Good DEET choice for travel (for kids over 2 months): OFF! Deep Woods Insect Repellent Wipes (25%)

Good (non oily!) DEET spray choice for backyard or playground (for kids over 2 months):

Two lesser known repellents work too, if you can find ’em.
Picaridin is another chemical repellent with a long safety track record, and a 2016 Consumer Reports study found that sprays with 20% concentration of Picaridin were even more widely effective than DEET. The problem is, it’s hard to find products with concentrations this high outside of Europe and the Internet (see below). Another winner: Oil of lemon eucalyptus. Though a more natural choice than DEET and Picaridin, it’s not recommended for use in kids under 3 (it can be a skin irritant).

Good picaridin choice (for kids over 2 months): Sawyer Premium Insect Repellent with Picaridin (20%)

Good Oil of lemon eucalyptus choice (for kids over 3 only): Repel Lemon Eucalyptus (30%)

Skip bands, bracelets, bath oils, and candles.
Those cute little rubber bracelets and pretty citronella lanterns aren’t going to do more than decorate wrists and picnic tables. Consumer Reports found they had little to no effect on shooing away mosquitoes, echoing a 2002 New England Journal of Medicine report that also found that Skin-So-Soft didn’t repel the bugs for longer than about 10 minutes.

Make your home unfriendly to mosquitoes.
While these bugs are wily opponents, there are things you can do to make your property less hospitable to them. Make sure window and door screens are tight fitting and don’t have holes. Eliminate sources of standing rainwater where mosquitoes like to breed (such a empty pots, buckets, and vinyl covers for pool and furniture), and try a product like mosquito dunks if you have a catchment basin (like we do). You can talk to a professional lawn care company about research-proven treatments for your lawn and trees to dissuade mosquitoes, but these tend to be expensive, and, according to the American Mosquito Control Association, widespread pesticide spraying may harm other, beneficial insects.

Be aware of time of day and weather.
Mosquitoes that carry different types of diseases like to emerge at different times of day. In most areas of the U.S., mosquitoes tend to be peskiest in the early evening hours, but if you’re in a place where these bugs tend to cause dengue, yellow fever, or chikungunya, you need to be vigilant about spraying and keeping doors and windows closed during daylight hours, too. Also, be sure to use repellent in humid conditions; think the woods just after a rainstorm. To see what types of mosquitoes are active in your area, check out this map by the CDC. And regardless of time or climate, experts urge us parents to start thinking about bug spray just as we would sunscreen: an essential, daily habit. Unfortunately, scratchy legs aren’t the only things we’re protecting kids against these days.

Photo credit: Quel maringouin! via Photo Pin, cc

5 Common Summer Ailments in Kids

July 16, 2015 by Kelley Leave a Comment

Most of us associate sick days with wintertime. That’s when storefronts and commercials are dominated by cough syrup and Kleenex; not now, when sunscreen and beach balls take center stage. So when our kids spike a fever or complain of a sore throat on vacation, it may take us a bit longer to catch on—and, frankly, accept—that they’re under the weather.

As much of a drag as summer ailments are, it’s important they’re on every parents’ radar. Some health problems that go along with warm weather are as, if not more, serious to kids’ health than the coughs, colds, and flu that circulate during the school year. To get the scoop on what pediatricians are seeing in the office right now, I talked to my friend Laura Scharf, M.D., a pediatrician at Quincy (Ma.) Pediatric Associates who also serves as a physician at Camp Becket in the Berkshires, as well as HHK’s advisors Naline Lai, M.D. and Julie Kardos, M.D. of Two Peds in a Pod. Here, they weigh in on how to recognize and treat some of kids’ most common summer ailments. (In each case, be sure to consult with your child’s own healthcare provider for individualized treatment.)

Coxsackie (Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease)
Common in kids, Coxsackie often spreads around pools, sprinkler parks, public bathrooms, and other “wet” places. Part of the large family of enteroviruses that live in our gut, different Coxsackie strains cause different symptoms, but hallmarks are a high fever and small, sometimes painful blisters around the mouth, hands, feet, and sometimes buttocks. “A new strain we’re seeing can also cause a more extensive rash, often on the lower legs,” says Dr. Scharf. Kids can also get runny noses and pinkeye.
How to treat: Ibuprofen or acetaminophen (administered as directed on the label) can control fever and pain. Soft, cool foods and drinks like yogurt and milkshakes can help soothe blisters in the mouth and throat. Symptoms usually go away in 3-7 days.

Summer Colds
Believe it or not, we’re seeing a lot of colds in the office, says Dr. Lai. Often caused by different enterovirus strains than the ones that cause Coxsackie, these colds may bring on a fever and cough. They circulate where a lot of kids congregate, like camps and daycare. “So it’s not surprising we saw a spike after the July 4th holiday,” Dr. Lai says.
Prevent and treat: Viral colds can’t be eradicated with an antibiotic. Rest and lots of fluids is the best prescription. Your child should feel better within a week; if not, see a doc.

Lyme Disease
Prevalent in the northeast, Pacific northwest, and midwest, particularly in woodsy areas (but not always), Lyme disease is the most common illness spread by infected ticks. (Other tick-borne illnesses include babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. For a complete rundown, with geographic trends, check out the CDC’s page, here.) Kids who end up testing positive for Lyme come to the doctor’s office with a nagging fever, aches and pains, and sometimes a bulls-eye-shaped rash. Read more about diagnosing and treating Lyme in this previous HHK post I did with Lyme expert Nevena Zubcevik, D.O.).
Prevent and treat: Apply sprays with 20% picaridin or 30% DEET on your child before he or she goes outside for long periods, especially around wooded or grassy areas. See a doctor right away if he or she has a strange, circular rash or unexplained, recurring fevers or achiness (without other symptoms). Lyme can be diagnosed through blood tests (though false negatives are common, so be sure to follow up if symptoms persist), and treated successfully with antibiotics, especially if caught early.

Rashes
“Summer is rash season,” says Dr. Scharf. Some skin flare-ups are associated with illnesses, such as Coxsackie or Lyme, above. But our peds are also seeing a lot of bumps and welts due to photosensitivity (a reaction to excessive sunlight), contact dermatitis (sensitivity to a material or a product, often a new sunscreen), heat rash (when sweat gets trapped under clogged pores), poison ivy, and bug bites.
Prevent and treat: Limit sun exposure, especially if you have a sun-sensitive kid, and do a patch test to make sure a new sunscreen or product agrees with your child before sending him or her out for the day (sensitive kids often do best with mineral-based sunscreens with titanium dioxide or zinc oxide.) Teach your kids to avoid overgrown wooded areas and keep to paths to avoid poisinous plants. Dressing your child in loose, lightweight clothes can help ward off heat rash. If rashes develop, consult your pediatrician or dermatologist; treatments range from calamine lotion to topical steroids in more extreme cases, to temper welts and stave off itching. It’s important to keep sores clean with soap and water, and to teach kids try to avoid scratching too much, especially with unclean hands. “We see a lot of infected bug bites from this, “says Dr. Lai.

Stomach Bugs
Foodborne illnesses peak in summer months. Bacteria on food grows fastest in warm, moist conditions, and people are often cooking and eating far away from refrigerators and trusted heat sources that can regulate storage and cooking temperatures (think of picnics and beach barbecues). Illnesses usually strike within minutes or hours of eating a contaminated food, and can be mild or severe, causing abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and sometimes fever. Kids can also pick up bugs from swimming in—and often swallowing—contaminated water. Between 1978 and 2010, norovirus was the second-leading cause of illness outbreaks associated with untreated recreational water, such as lakes, according to the CDC.
Prevent and treat: Clean hands frequently when preparing food, and be sure to keep food that’s susceptible to bacteria (like raw meats) packaged tightly and separated from other edibles. Keep raw produce and meats cold with frequently changed ice packs if outdoors, and cook foods to recommended temperatures (145 for beef steaks, 160 for ground meats, and 165 for pork). The USDA recommends bringing a meat thermometer to picnics and cookouts. If a queasy stomach strikes, keep a child hydrated with plenty of non-acidic, non-dairy fluids. When kids are swimming, especially in untreated lakes or ponds, make sure they avoid swallowing water, and wash up afterwards.You can also replenish them gradually with small sips of oral rehydration solutions made with electrolytes.

Photo credit: Dave Jacquin via Flickr, cc license 2.0

How to Take Great Photos Of Your Kids

May 28, 2015 by Kelley Leave a Comment

There’s nothing like a beautiful or funny photo of a child to help remind us of the big-picture joys of raising kids. Even as years and legs stretch on, a photo will capture a stage or moment that may otherwise be stolen by the messiness of day-to-day life.

When it comes to memorializing our kids in 2-D, smartphones are a mixed blessing. The good: We can take tons of pictures, at any given moment. And the bad: We can take tons of pictures, at any given moment. We’ve devolved from point-and-shoot to point-and-tap, and too often, quality gets lost in quantity.

After discovering about three dozen crummy shots of blurry kids with blank expressions on my iPhone the other day, I decided it was time to get some legit advice on taking better pictures, before these irresistibly cute years pass by with few great photos to show for it. So I talked to the three moms I know who take the most unbelievably gorgeous, and seemingly effortless photos. My sister-in-law Susannah and friend Beth are amazing amateurs who are constantly taking and posting enviable shots of their children (they each have three). My high school friend Carolyn is a professional photographer who specializes in children’s and family portraits in Cincinnati (check out her website, Carolyn Bowles Photography, here.) They were kind enough to share their secrets to taking great photos of their kids and others’. Print out these tips and share them before summer vacation rolls around!

Susannah’s Tips

What’s your camera of choice? I always use the Canon EOS Rebel T3.

What settings do you use? I usually shoot in “full auto mode” (it automatically focuses, adjusts brightness, etc.) especially when taking photos of the kids on the move. I use portrait mode for holiday card photos, framed photos, etc. These are definitely my go-to, but in certain environments (beach, whatever), landscape and sports modes are also handy.

What time of day or positioning of sun is best? I always shoot with the sun behind my back so that it provides good, natural lighting. If you shoot with the sun facing the lens, you get hazy photos with lots of glare.

Stolen moments: Susannah took this photo of my oldest son and me in Martha’s Vineyard.

How do you get kids to look like they’re not being tortured in a photo? I generally take candids, which means I try to stay in the background, be as invisible as possible, and capture my kids in motion. I like to use my zoom feature, and take close-up photos of my kids’ faces, even when I’m far away. This allows me to capture really great, genuine moments without the groaning. For “staged” photos, my husband stands behind me and makes the kids laugh (pretending to trip over furniture is a go-to tactic). This helps generate genuine smiles in a staged setting.

What mistakes did you used to make? As I’ve become more experienced, I’ve really become more conscious of avoiding odd eyesores in the background (lawn furniture, bystanders, etc.)

Last piece of advice? Don’t be afraid to experiment and involve the kids—they love taking a picture or two.

Beth’s Tips

For water shots, Beth uses a Fuji Fine Pix point-and-shoot.

What’s your camera of choice? Sadly, most of my pictures end up being taken with my iPhone 5s, then cropped and edited. But when I’m really out to take pictures, I use a Nikon D40 SLR, most often with a 55-200mm zoom lens. You need to shoot from a distance with this, but that’s exactly why I love it: I can stay far away from the kids and get better candids, and I can really focus on details. I personally would rather capture the spark in one eye when a child is looking at something, than capture the 40 other things that could be going on in a standard frame. I also use a Fuji FinePix point-and-shoot in places where I don’t/can’t use my Nikon or iPhone—usually water-oriented things.

What settings do you use? As much as I can, I avoid using the flash, because I can never get the right tones. But if I have to use flash, then I deflect it/soften it using a bent index card. On my Nikon, I rely heavily on the automatic settings when I want dependable results, liking the portrait and action settings mostly. I also use iPhoto editing tools for adjusting color balance, cropping to get a better shot, etc. Very little that I share has not been at least re-framed.

Don't be afraid to break "the rules" of lighting.

Breaking “the rules” of lighting: Beth’s daughter at the Cape.

What time of day or positioning of sun is best? My favorites are the start and end of the days—it’s just good light. A full shadow is better than dappled shadows, and an overcast day is easier to shoot than a super sunny day (especially on snow and sand.) And some of my favorite shots break all the rules of lighting … I love evening backlighting and getting really dark subjects, especially if the kids are at play. And, when something is close but not quite right, playing with exposure and contrast after the fact can make a huge difference.

How do you get kids to not look like they’re being tortured in a photo? After a few horrific portrait sessions, I decided I’d rather have happy candids than “perfect” portraits. For those family pictures, though, it’s key that kids not be hungry, tired, or forced to sit while other kids are throwing a frisbee or eating ice cream. And not before opening gifts on Christmas morning. The best pictures tend to be taken at places where the kids are authentically happy anyway: with friends, at the beach, during an Easter Egg hunt or a birthday party.

What mistakes did you used to make? High expectations are the seed of disappointment: I no longer tell the kids that this is important to me. That’s the kiss of death. One mistake I have made again and again is waiting until the end of an event to try for a “memory” shot” (“Great Grandma is here, let’s get everyone in a picture..”). But the kids have been excused, Great Grandma is worried about the time, and no one is happy—and no one looks happy—even if you manage to get the shot. Do it at the beginning, or while everyone is sitting and eating. It’s way easier to put a plate down for 30 seconds than to reconvene everyone for a forced photo once the event is waning.

Last piece of advice? You can’t get good pictures if you don’t take pictures: Always have a camera with you, and take a lot of shots. And take a lot of them at once: On the iPhone, use the burst feature. A lot of point-and-shoots and SLRs have a version of it, too. Even if you get no perfect shots, they’ll have been taken so closely together that you have decent odds of photoshopping open eyes into a picture where one kid is caught mid-blink and everything else is great.

Carolyn’s Tips

What’s your camera of choice? I love the Canon 5D and it has been my go-to camera for many years. It’s amazing when paired with a lens like my favorite, the 50mm 1.2. I always tell people a great lens to start learning about photography is the 50mm 1.4, either Canon or Nikon. It’s called a prime lens because it’s at a set focal length. So, you move on your feet to move close to or far away from your subject. It’s an amazing lens and really helps you learn how to shoot in manual mode.

What settings do you use? I always set it on manual and make adjustments between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. The great thing about digital cameras is that you can practice, practice, and practice some more without wasting money on film. Plus, you can get instant feedback by checking the back screen so you can make adjustments and get the exposure right.

Carolyn Bowles Photography

What time of day or positioning of sun is best? My favorite is a few hours before sunset. I love that soft, glowy, even light that you get when the sun starts to go down for the day. Now, while I encourage all my clients to choose this time of day, sometimes it just doesn’t work out and we have to shoot mid-day. In that case, I’ll find nice open shade so I don’t have to worry about the sun. I may need to move around my subject multiple times to find the most pleasing light before I start snapping away. Take your time to get the set up right with the light and you’ll be so happy you did.

How do you get kids to not look like they’re being tortured in a photo? I like to start every session by telling the kids how much fun we’re going to have. This is in big contrast to some parents who want to tell their kids to quickly smile and then they can get a treat. In my experience, that tactic rarely works because the child never fully settles into being photographed. He/she instead does a fake smile super quick just to get to the treat. But if you make the session fun by playing games, blowing bubbles, going on a nature walk,

Carolyn Bowles Photography

swinging with parents, running in circles, having a tea party, or whatever is of interest, that child will have a blast and be engaged and forget that he/she is even being photographed. That’s where the magic starts and you get genuine, documentary style portraits that every parent wants to have of their child. That’s not to say that kids don’t have meltdowns, get upset, or feel tired. In that case, I always encourage parents to have snacks and drinks on hand. Sometimes we even stop a session to read a book and just take a break with no photos. When we have a specific pose in mind or something we want to accomplish, I find that hardly ever goes well. But if we see where the photos lead us and what the kids do, it leads to unique portraits that tell the story of that individual child.

What mistakes did you used to make or do you see other parents make? A mistake I often see parents do is to start to get upset themselves that a photo session may not go as they had planned. Again, it takes much patience, ease, and go-with-the-flow attitude when photographing children.

Any final tips or tricks? One, I would encourage everyone to try moving toward manual mode. Start by setting your camera to AP mode (“aperture-priority”). In this case, you choose the aperture (how much light comes into the camera) and then the camera chooses the shutter speed and ISO. It’s the first step into seeing how these three technical things work together. Once you get the hang of it, you can eventually get into manual mode and see your photography start to take off! Two, get a good photo management system to help you organize your photos and not hog space on your device. After I take my photos, I upload them immediately to Lightroom (an Adobe app), choose my favorites to process and delete the ones I don’t like. Finally, print your portraits! Get them off your hard drive and actually enjoy them. The look of joy when I hand over a wall gallery of prints, a masterpiece canvas, or an album of a session to a family is priceless and always reminds me to print my own photos.

Create a Fairy Garden (or Wizard Garden)

April 24, 2015 by Kelley Leave a Comment

With three boys, I never had much hope for getting my kids interested in dollhouses. But recently, in our favorite local garden center, we came across something better: fairy gardens.

Apparently, these miniature gardens are developing a cult following. While it may seem a bit twee as a grown-up hobby, it’s a terrific activity to do with kids. Like dollhouses, you can create a pretend world, but this is a much more magical, mystical, living world, with growing plants and water and other natural items amid little figurines.

If you have a child who’s firmly against anything to do with sprites in gauzy, pastel dresses, know you need not make “fairy garden”; you can, as we did, make a wizard, elf, or gnome garden, with magical men and spooky little plants, like cactuses and interesting vine-like ground cover.

Fairy or Wizard Garden How-To

1. Find a tray, pot, or a base that is at least four inches deep. If you want to make a larger fairy garden, consider a galvanized tub or even a wheelbarrow.

2. Fill with several inches inches of good potting soil and, if desired, some moss.

3. Decorate your garden with 2-3 small plants per square foot. Make sure the plants have similar sunlight and water needs. Miniature succulents and ground cover plants work well.

4. Use or purchase miniature figurines at a garden store or online. Our local garden center, Volante Farms, sells products made by Georgetown Home and Garden (including the cool wizard, below left). Plow and Hearth, Enchanted Garden, and The Fairy Garden Store also have a great selection. Pet stores also sell little cottages and colorful rocks in their fish section.

5. Use found rocks, chipped pottery, or tiles to make pathways or other designs throughout your garden.

6. Let your child place the tray in his or her windowsill, the kitchen, or in a protected area outside, and set a spray bottle or little watering can nearby as a reminder to keep the soil moist. Make a watering schedule he or she can stick to.

Gardening with Kids: Start Now!

March 24, 2015 by Kelley 1 Comment

Let’s face it: We all like and value spending time with our children, but you can play only so many games of hide-and-seek before wanting to crawl under the bed and never get found. A few years ago, I discovered an activity with children that combines the best of all worlds: fun, education, kid-friendly messiness, and adult-friendly productivity. It’s gardening—and not the plant-some-pansies-in a-sunhat sort. Last year, the boys and I grew enough romaine, baby carrots, and cucumbers to keep these items off the grocery bill for the better part of spring and summer.

Science makes a case for gardening with kids, too. Studies have shown that gardening can boost kids’ self esteem, a sense of ownership and pride, relationships with family members, a taste for fruits and veggies, and even academic performance.

My first year of gardening, I made a lot of mistakes, and almost gave up. Like baking, gardening is a science, and small missteps, not to mention weird weather and days when life gets in the way of watering, can mean curtains for a crop. I overwatered and drowned seedlings; I forgot to regularly pick my basil and it bolted and got tough; I crowded my carrots and they grew skimpy and stringy; and nothing became of the raspberries at all. There’s still a patch in the upper left hand corner of our tiny garden where, mysteriously, nothing but weeds will grow. But I keep at it, because it’s something the kids and I genuinely enjoy doing together three seasons out of the year. Here, on the right, is what our little patch looked like at the end of last summer.

Chioggia, golden, and bulls blood beets, grown by Marion Mass and her kids to sell to Puck Restaurant in Doylestown, PA.

Last week, I had the pleasure of talking to Marion Mass, M.D., a pediatrician at Jellinek Pediatrics in Doylestown, PA and a contributor to Two Peds in a Pod. Dr. Mass is a green thumb and then some: she and her three children have been growing—and growing, and growing—a garden for more than five years now. At first, they planted just four or five veggies in a small patch; now, they have more than 1,500 square feet of plants, including heirloom potatoes, tomatoes, and beets, among other exotic vegetables, to sell to individuals and one local restaurant.

Marion Mass’s daughter and friends, planting potatoes

With Dr. Mass’s help, I’ve made a checklist of all things you should be doing now to get a successful garden going this spring. We know this checklist, below, might sound daunting, but trust me, it’s doable, and worth it. And above all, says Dr. Mass, don’t give up. “Too many people start a garden, fail with one vegetable, and decide they can’t do it,” she says. “But you have to think of each planting as an experiment.” And what better message to send to your child then to try something new, have something fail, learn from it, and try again?

Gardening with Kids: Late March-Early April Must-Dos

	Select a spot for your garden. For your first year, 16-24 square feet (4x4, 2x8, 3x7, etc.) is plenty big enough. It should be in a place that gets about six hours of sun per day, has good drainage, and is close enough to a water source that a long hose can reach it.
	Decide what you want to grow and eat, and when. The Farmer's Almanac has a great site that allows you to plug in your zip code and see what you can successfully grow at different times of the year. They even have kid-friendly vegetable graphics on the chart that will help kids follow along. Don't be overly ambitious: Start with 1-3 veggies and maybe some herbs in the early spring and again in late spring. For an easy-to-grow first year, Dr. Mass recommends planning for lettuce and radishes in the early spring and tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans in the late spring/early summer.
	Purchase seeds. Home Depot and Loews carry a big selection. You can also find relatively affordable organic seeds at Burpee, Peaceful Farm and Garden Supply, Seeds of Change, and even Amazon.
	If you want to get a jump start on growing and get kids excited, start seeds indoors. This is best for plants with a long growing season, like tomatoes. It requires a sunny windowsill, some small starter pots or trays, and a seedling starter mix. Follow seed packet instructions and have kids help you mist with a spray bottle to keep moist (but not soggy) once or twice a day. Don't sweat it if seedlings fail; you can start seeds directly in ground according to planting guide above, or later in the spring, purchase seedlings from your local gardening center.
	Buy supplies, if needed, to prepare your garden plot. I used empty space in a mulch bed on the side of the house, and edged the space with these surprisingly real-looking, easy-to-install polyethylene "rock" strips from Home Depot. If you don't have that, you can dig up grass in your chosen plot (good instructions here), or opt for an easy raised bed, which sits right on top of the grass. Home Depot carries easy-assembly raised bed kits like this 4x4 plot by Greene's Fence. No yard? Put a tiny elevated bed on a sunny deck or patio space and plan for 1-2 vegetables and 1-2 herbs.
	Buy tools. Keep it simple: a trowel for working the soil, a hand rake, and a spade (for everyone in the family) works. Try this ergonomic four-piece kit for you and older children and this kid-friendly set for little ones. Soft, not-too-thick gloves are a must. Add a long hose if yours won't reach your spot, and a Dramm Wand in your kids' fave color to attach to your hose for easy, gentle watering children can manage.

This week, we planted seeds for baby romaine lettuce, nasturtium flowers, and our kids’ very favorite thing to grow and pick, Danvers 126 6-inch “half carrots” (named after the Massachusetts town where the market gardeners who developed them lived), in pots on the windowsill. There’s still snow on the ground, but as soon as it melts, we’ll clean out the garden, work in some fresh compost, and plant lettuce. What are you planning on growing? Send me your pics and tips—I’ll be doing gardening posts every month or so from now through the start of the next school year.

Top photo credit: Shutterstock

When to Talk About the Birds and Bees

March 21, 2015 by Kelley Leave a Comment

My friend Beth recently sent me an email with an idea for a post. With her oldest son turning 9, she wondered if it was time to talk with him about the birds and bees.

Whaaat? I thought. My oldest is turning 9 soon, too, and I hadn’t thought that we were anywhere near “the talk.” I quickly started researching the topic, and it appeared that Beth was on the right track. Clearly, I was clueless, so I reached out to clinical psychologist Ellen Braaten, Ph.D. Dr. Braaten is the associate director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds and the director of the Learning and Emotional Assessment Program (LEAP), both based at Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as a mom. Here’s what I learned.

There shouldn’t be one big sex talk, but an evolving conversation—starting very early.

Once a child gets to be verbal, you can do a few things to set the stage for later talks about how babies are made. Dr. Braaten advises always using the correct names for body parts, and also demonstrating and talking about loving, gentle relationships, generally. You can also talk about what it means to be a family, making sure to point out that there are different types of families.

There’s a good chance that your preschooler or early elementary schooler will take note that other grown-ups—maybe you or your partner—are expecting and having babies, and they might start asking more, shall we say, technical questions. “You can and should answer all questions that come up, and be truthful, without adding unnecessary details that might confuse or upset them,” says Dr. Braaten. If you and your partner conceived in the traditional way, she suggests saying something like, “Mommy and Daddy love each other, and Daddy shared a small part of himself with a small part of Mommy, and those parts started to grow into a baby.” If you have a curious child who presses for more details—but how did Daddy’s part get inside Mommy?—Dr. Braaten likes the idea of talking about parents sharing a very special hug, and leaving it at that for the time being. (If your child is adopted or is conceived via a donor or surrogate, you’ll obviously have a different type of conversation. For guidance, Dr. Braaten advises talking to friends in similar situations who have older children. “Other parents are always your best guides when it comes to this subject, in particular,” she says.)

Between 8 and 10 is a good time to talk to kids about puberty and the basics of sex.

“Kids should know when and how bodies change before they hit puberty,” says Dr. Braaten. “When you do this, the conversation will be less personal and therefore less embarrassing for them, making them far more inclined to listen and ask the important questions.” Talking about what happens during puberty to both sexes is also important to demystify the changes that they might notice in their peers. Dr. Braaten also recommends having both you and your spouse or partner present during the conversation so your child knows that either of you can field questions or concerns later.

After you’ve given them the basics, leave them with a good book about puberty so they can refer to it later. For girls, Dr. Braaten recommends The Care and Keeping of You, by the makers of the American Girl doll series. For boys, The Boys Body Book, published in 2013, is well reviewed. Let them know you’re available to talk about any questions they might have.

A conversation about puberty allows you to segue naturally into the basics of sex. You can explain that girls’ and boys’ bodies change in preparation for creating babies later in life, after they develop a very close and loving relationship with someone. You then have to judge for yourself if this or another time is best to explain, frankly, how sex occurs. For many kids, these details might be best addressed in a separate conversation a year or two later. Other children will ask a lot of questions during a discussion about puberty, in which case you should be honest and to-the-point. “At this stage, keep the explanation brief and biologically based,” Dr. Braaten. To limit the chance that your child might share his new knowledge with a not-yet-informed classmate, make it clear that these conversations—just like sex itself—are very private and personal, and shouldn’t be discussed at school.

After the basic pre-teen sex talk, regularly take advantage of opportunities to talk about tougher topics.

Once your children are teens, you’ll want to talk to them about birth control and safe sex. Take every opportunity to discuss these subjects when they arise organically: like when the topic is discussed in a movie you’re watching together, or when your child talks about something that’s happening to a friend.

Every so often, a kid will ask a difficult question totally out of the blue, or in an inopportune place. If you’re not ready to address it thoughtfully, says Dr. Braaten, you can always say, ‘That’s a really good question but I’m not sure how to answer it right now. I’m going to think about it and get back to you—promise.’ And be sure to follow up within a day or two.

Finally, try to be non-judgmental whenever possible, and make sure you allow everything to be on the table. That way, your child will be more apt to come to you when they’re having a problem. “Parents tend to be naïve about their kids sexuality—it’s jarring to find out that a 13-year-old girl knows about or is even doing a lot of things that seem very ‘adult,’” says Dr. Braaten. “But kids today are exposed to more sexual conversation and images than ever before, from the Internet to everyday commercials. It can be shocking and confusing to them. As hard or uncomfortable as it may be, stay ahead of the curve. You want to be the person they go to with the tough questions.”

Photo credit: photo credit: Bees on a Bluebell via Photo Pin, cc

Spring Craft: Nest Helpers

March 12, 2015 by Kelley Leave a Comment

Just when you think winter will never end, you wake up one morning to the tweeting of birds. The sound always makes me happy: I was raised in a family that was big on birds. We had multiple feeders outside our kitchen window, and my mom always made note, over her cup of coffee, about which birds were enjoying breakfast at the same time we were.

Now, I keep a Droll Yankee feeder—the easiest to refill and hang—in a sugar maple tree off the family room, and the boys and I always look for the neighborhood blue jay to make his rounds. Keeping a feeder filled has always seemed to me to be a great way to teach kids a number of lessons at once: selflessness, appreciation of the natural world, and the value of quiet observation, to name a few.

Yesterday morning, we visited the incredible deCordova Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA, where curators were celebrating Henry David Thoreau’s Walden through artwork and interactive exhibits. In the kids’ activity room, museum staffers introduced the boys and me to a project I had never heard about before but immediately fell in love with: nest helpers. Basically, you gather a variety of natural and synthetic filler materials—from yarn to netting to sticks and leaves—and bind it together with pipe cleaners or yarn to hang or suspend in a tree. Especially in the still-barren days of early spring, birds will pull from these little bundles to build their nests.

The results are a little messy looking, which is really the beauty of this craft. It’s great for little hands and short attention spans. Here are some good materials to start with. Anything soft and strong works; biodegradable is best.

-Pipe cleaners, wire, or a berry basket from the supermarket

-Different color yarn, snipped into 1- or 2-foot strands

-Twigs and leaves

-Raffia or ribbon

-Spare fabric or rags, cut into small pieces

Start with a little holder for your materials: Bend two or three pieces of pipe cleaner or multiple strands of wire around one another to make a spherical shape, twisting closed at the top until an open ball is formed. (A berry basket is ready to go.) Stuff the ball or basket with your soft materials and hang the nest helper from a tree where birds frequent. Watch throughout the spring to see if your materials disappear, and keep an eye out for nests that have been made with colorful pieces from your helper ball or basket.

Environmental Health Doctor’s Wish List

January 28, 2015 by Kelley Leave a Comment

This post is part of a “Wish List” series in which I ask experts in different kid-related fields—medicine, education, etc.—what they really want parents to know and do better. Interested in hearing from a certain type of expert? Please make a suggestion here.

For this installment of the expert “Wish List” series, we’re honored to share the wisdom of Jerome Paulson, M.D., a professor of pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and chair of the executive committee of the Council of Environmental Health for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Here, he tells us the five things he wishes every parent knew or did to help all kids—your own and future generations’ —consume healthier air, water, and food.

1. Consuming a variety of fresh, whole foods is more important than eating organic. We know that produce is full of antioxidants and other nutrients that help protect kids from all sorts of problems. But many people will be surprised to learn there’s actually no documented long-term health benefit of eating organic foods. Eat organic if you want to, but don’t limit your child’s intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, calcium-containing foods, and whole grains if buying organic makes these choices too expensive. If you want to be choosy about organic purchases, look at the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15, here. They have an app that will allow for quick reference at the grocery store.

2. Take steps to be more energy conscious. Climate change is one of the major health problems facing the globe. Any parent concerned about the future of their children and the planet should make an effort to use public transportation and carpools whenever possible, buy the most fuel efficient vehicle consistent with safety and their budget they can find; conserve energy at home; and encourage their elected officials to change local, state, and national policy so the U.S. can contribute to climate change mitigation where possible and adapt to climate change where it must.

3. Avoid toiletries and cosmetics that include endocrine disrupting chemicals. Certain chemicals common in household products are thought to possibly interfere with many chemical processes in growing bodies and are known to have adverse health effects in animals. Err on the side of caution and avoid buying soaps, lotions, and makeup for your kids that contain triclosan, phthalates, parabens and certain other ingredients (for a full and helpful list, check out the EWG’s Skin Deep page, here).

4. Keep indoor air free of pollutants. Polluted indoor air is a big asthma risk. Don’t allow people to smoke in your home—ever—and work with your local school district to take steps to keep the school’s indoor air clean by avoiding air fresheners and keeping humidity down to inhibit mold growth. Moms Clean Air Force and the American Lung Association have great tips on their websites.

5. Take your shoes off when you enter the house. You’d be amazed by how much bad stuff is tracked in on the soles of shoes—pesticides and harmful chemicals, just to name a couple. Make a designated spot by the door where everyone in the family can stow their boots and sneakers, and get everyone into the habit of removing their shoes when they come into the house.

Photo credit: Odin Thomas via Photo Pin, cc