by Jennifer Shakeel

Apple vs Hamburger...Umm... What will your child choose?

Umm... What will your child choose?

When I was younger one of the things you looked forward to when you went to high school was being able to buy your lunch through the "snack line" instead of the hot lunch line. Yes you could get fries, chips, ice cream cookie sandwiches and such. That was high school a number of years ago but to us back then it was a sign of … well maturity, we weren't little kids anymore and the proof was that they were giving us the option of what type of lunch we wanted to buy.

I am sure you are wondering which line was the longest, hot lunch or snack line. In all honesty the hot lunch line was usually longer and the majority of "kids" that went into the snack line went because they were running late or the lunch being offered was disgusting. We all remember the Salisbury steak lunch that we all opted to go hungry over instead. But the majority of students, if they were eating, were eating the healthy hot lunch.

Today there seems to be a huge controversy over the food that is being served in school and how healthy it is. Some communities are going as far as banning vending machines and junk food from schools and quick marts that are close to the school in an effort to put a kabash on kids eating junk. I have yet to figure out why. Not why are people upset over kids consuming too much junk food, I think everyone should be concerned about that especially in our obese nation where childhood obesity is on the rise reaching numbers it has never seen before. READ More on Junk Food and Schools - Who is Responsible for What Kids Are Eating?

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Filed under Food, Health by More4kids

by Stefanie Zucker and Dr Kim

Mom with Her Sick Child

Flu Season has arrived and there is nothing worse than a sick child

Part I: On Tuesday October 6th, the very first doses of swine flu vaccine started to arrive in doctor's offices around the United States. These doses however will arrive in extremely limited quantities and initially are targeted for those considered to be "in high risk". Soon however, as supply becomes more readily available, there will be some very important decisions to be made by every individual - and more important to us here at Pediatric Safety - by every parent. Not surprising, there are some difficult questions that need to be answered for each parent to feel comfortable making these decisions. That's what our goal is…over the course of this post and the one following.  There's an incredible amount of information out there about the swine flu…along with a lot of mixed messages.  What we hope to do is pull together some of the best, most reliable information currently available from some of our best sources and provide you with some "real world" answers to some very important questions.  AND THEN…we will let you make your own decision about what's right for you and your child.  So to start us off…a little background…

What exactly is the "swine flu" and how is it different from the regular or "seasonal" flu?

CDC:  Swine flu is a new influenza virus causing illness in people. This new flu was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009.  It was originally referred to as "swine flu" because laboratory testing showed that many of the genes were very similar to flu viruses that normally occur in pigs in North America (note:  that theory didn't actually pan out - but the name stuck). READ More on Swine Flu for Parents: Real World Answers

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Filed under Health by More4kids