Many parents struggle with the decision of when it’s safe to leave their children home alone.  In Indiana, there isn’t a specific legal age for this, so it’s up to parents to decide. It would be easy if there were a set age for staying home alone, but not all 12 […]

Stereotypical youth suicides occur in the teenage years, but pre-teens are also vulnerable. In 2018, suicide was the second leading cause of death for children aged 10 to 14 in the United States. It’s important for parents to be prepared to discuss suicidal ideation with preteens as well as older adolescents.   When very young children […]

While bedwetting can be miserably embarrassing for a child at a sleepover, it’s much more common than many people realize. At age 5, up to one in five children is still wetting the bed occasionally. By age 7, this has decreased, but bedwetting still occurs in about one child in […]

When a child gets a sore throat, the first concern for many parents is, “Is it strep throat?”   This is a valid concern, given the serious consequences of leaving strep throat (caused by the streptococcus bacteria) untreated. The good news is that most sore throats in children are caused by viruses, not strep.   A viral sore […]

Teen depression isn’t like cloudy weather, that blows over if you wait long enough. Even when counseling or medication aren’t required, the suffering your teen endures when depressed is very real and needs to be recognized.   Unfortunately, recognizing teen depression isn’t always easy, even for the most caring parents. Some teens aren’t able or willing to talk about depression […]

With one in five children suffering from obesity, it’s important for parents to know how much weight is too much for their teens and children. For those parents who may be overly concerned, it’s also important to know when a teen or child is NOT obese. To help with this, […]

When school starts on August 5, there will be nothing routine about this year’s “back to school” experience. How can parents help their children prepare for what is sure to be a stressful situation? How can parents prepare themselves? Here are a few simple suggestions: Be honest with your child. […]

For many of us, summer is a time for visiting with out of town friends and family. Whether we go to their house, or they come to our house, it’s easy to forget medication safety while on the road. Drugs that might be locked away at home may only be […]