2 mins read

Safe Sleeping Medications for Children

For some children, despite their parents’ best efforts, sleep doesn’t come easily. If your child’s attempt to fall into a restful slumber results in a struggle each night, he may suffer from a sleep disorder. While the FDA does not recommend any sleeping medications for children, some doctors opt to use sleep-aid medicine in an “off-label” fashion. When a doctor uses a drug “off-label,” he is using the drug in a way that it wasn’t originally intended. These “off-label” sleep aids likely pose little risk to your child and, with a doctor’s guidance, may prove to be the answer to his struggles.

2 mins read

Is Baby Oragel Safe?

Baby Orajel is a familiar name brand on your drugstore shelves. This topical treatment contains benzocaine, an oral analgesic also used in sore throat sprays and nonprescription topicals for toothache, sore gums and denture pain. The American Academy of Pediatrics, or AAP, cautions you that Baby Orajel and similar products for teething babies may not be as safe as you think.

9 mins read

Boys’ Self-Esteem Problems

Its parent-teacher night at a private middle school in New Jersey. Students have been asked to sit in as teachers inform their parents of their progress. A sixth-grade boy, whose mother asks he be identified as Dan, squirms as his teacher tells his parents hes not trying hard enough in school. He looks away as the teacher directs his parents to a table of projects the class has done on ancient Greek civilization. Some projects are meticulous works of art, with edges burned to resemble old parchment. Dans title page is plain and unillustrated, and hes left an e out of Greek. Youll never get anywhere if you dont try, says Dans father as they leave the classroom. I dont understand, says Dans mother, whose two older daughters got straight As in school without her intervention.