Parenting Tips

Good parenting helps foster empathy, honesty, self-reliance, self-control, kindness, cooperation, and cheerfulness. It also promotes intellectual curiosity, motivation, and desire to achieve. It helps protect children from developing anxiety, depression, eating disorders, anti-social behavior, and alcohol and drug abuse.

A parent's relationship with his or her child will be reflected in the child's actions including child behavior problems. "If you don't have a good relationship with your child, they're not going to listen to you. Think how you relate to other adults. If you have a good relationship with them, you tend to trust them more, listen to their opinions, and agree with them. If it's someone we just don't like, we will ignore their opinion."

When most adults think about exercise, they imagine working out in the gym on a treadmill or lifting weights.

But for kids, exercise means playing and being physically active. Kids exercise when they have gym class at school, during recess, at dance class, while riding bikes, or when playing tag.

In the teen years, kids who used to be bundles of nonstop energy might lose interest in physical activity. Between school, studying, friends, and even part-time jobs, they're juggling a lot of interests and responsibilities.

But kids who started out enjoying sports and exercise tend to stay active throughout their lives. So they might just need a little encouragement to keep it going during the teen years.

It's no surprise that parents might need some help understanding what it means to eat healthy. 

The good news is that you don't need a degree in nutrition to raise healthy kids. Following some basic guidelines can help you encourage your kids to eat right and maintain a healthy weight.

Although they can be scary, nosebleeds are rarely cause for alarm. Common in kids ages 3 to 10 years, nosebleeds often stop on their own and can be treated safely at home.

Putting things in their mouths is one of the ways that babies and small children explore their worlds. Choking is usually caused by food, toys, and other small objects that can easily lodge in a child's small airway — anything that fits can be a danger.

Pay special attention to the following to protect your kids from choking:

When they know they're "going to the doctor," many kids worry a bit about the visit. Whether they're going to see their primary care doctor or a specialist for a routine exam, illness, or special problem, kids are likely to have fears, and some may even feel guilty.

Some fears and guilty feelings surface easily, so that kids can talk about them. Others are kept secret and remain unspoken. Here's how to help your child express these fears and overcome them.