Dr. Rippe's Blog

It's only eight more days to Halloween eve, as I write this. Most children really enjoy this holiday. Not only is it fun to dress up (even parents like this part), but there are all those yummy treats. As parents, we can keep this holiday fun for our children by making sure that we help them follow some important safety tips.

• Costumes and masks should fit well, with no trailing parts to trip on. Accessories should be soft and flexible. Masks should have eyeholes with adequate visibility. Reflector tape on costumes and treat bags/baskets enhances visibility in addition to other lights children may carry. Wear enclosed shoes with good traction (no sandles or flipflops).
• Stay visible. In addition to reflector strips just mentioned, carrying flashlights, small battery-powered lanterns, or even glow sticks helps children see and be seen.
• Accompany your children. Even if you live in a small town or an enclosed subdivision, the wisest plan is to accompany your children on their rounds. If your presence embarrasses older children, discuss the safety issues with them. Assure them that you can hang back, but you will be there.
• Check treats before eating them. Before you start out, discuss the importance of inspecting treats before consuming them. Of course, kids will want to eat some along the way--help them stick to factory-wrapped treats for this.
• Watch out for traffic. Walk on sidewalks facing oncoming traffic.  Cross at crosswalks, not in the middle of blocks. Look both ways before crossing the street. Keep your lights on to make sure others can see you.

Following these simple tips can keep Halloween a fun holiday for everyone. For more good tips, see these tips from the Center's for Disease Control.

One of the most charming descriptions of the need for space or a place of one's own comes from the diary of 12-year-old Flannery O'Connor, who later became one of American's great writers: "I do not see why a person wants a room if they can't keep all my litter in it . . . ."

Every individual needs some space or time to do something just for oneself. But finding that time can be hard if you are a parent, particularly a parent of young children. In the past, I've looked at some of the ways that parents can make time together to benefit their relationship. But it's also important to have time of one's own. Finding that time has usually been harder for mothers than fathers.

If you're feeling like you don't have a moment to yourself, it's probably time to think of what you would like to do just for yourself and sit down with your spouse/partner and discuss how you both can support the other in freeing up some personal time. Having even a couple of hours to oneself weekly can be a big boost.

As parents, my wife and I know that we want to do whatever we can to make sure that our daughters continue to enjoy balanced nutrition as they move through adolescence and into young adulthood.  If you're a parent of adolescents, you probably share the same concern. During adolescence, our children become more independent. Asserting their food preferences and practices and having more opportunities to put those preferences into practice is typical of adolescents. It's not coincidence, for instance, that as they grow older more and more adolescents skip breakfast on more days. The result, studies show, is that those kids tend to have lower intakes of some essential nutrients, such as calcium, for instance. Studies also show that they don't tend to make up for those nutritional inadequacies during the rest of the day.  And eating patterns that kids adopt during their adolescence tend to follow through into young adulthood.

What can we as parents do? Interestingly, a number of studies show that one of the most important correlates of adolescents following healthy eating patterns, such as regularly eating breakfast, is eating meals together with the family, meals that have at least one parent present.  In families who eat dinner together, for example, more children tend to eat breakfast regularly.  More children also eat breakfast daily if one parent is present. And the healthful eating patterns established in adolescence carry through to healthful eating patterns when those kids are truly out on their own as independent young adults.

When everyone in the family is as busy as most of us are, it can be a challenge to eat together. But it's a goal worth striving for as much as possible.