Every Mom Worries ~ But do you obsess about your child’s affinity for sweets or worry that he’s not as smart as
kid next door? If so, read this to determine if you’re being silly or sensible. Cold Cop: A one-woman germ patrol, this mom is always on lookout for telltale signs of germs that can cause colds. When you’re around her, you’re forever fearing that your child may -- horrors! -- sniffle or cough, resulting in one of Mrs. Germophobe’s nervous “you’re-putting-my-children-at-risk” looks.
Reality check: The fact is that kids get an average of six colds a year, says Eric Neibart, M.D., an instructor of infectious disease and internal medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City. Thus, at any given time, a good 10 to 15 percent of your child’s peers are contagious. And culprits are impossible to detect, since colds are contagious a few days before symptoms appear and from two to ten days after. “Even a doctor can’t tell you exactly when a cold is no longer transmittable,” Dr. Neibart says. So unless you care to raise your child in a bubble, he’s going to catch colds -- lots of colds. And that’s okay. For most part, colds are more of a nuisance for kids than a serious health problem. As for proper cold etiquette? Keep your child home until any fever or lethargy has subsided. Then, once he’s feeling better, let him go about life as usual.
Mommy Einstein: She plays Mozart CDs for her infant, uses flash cards on her toddler, and spends her week chauffeuring her children to and from karate, art, soccer, piano, ballet, and more. After an hour with one of her French-speaking, tennis-acing prodigies, you ditch your secret hope of an Ivy League education for your preschooler (whose extracurricular activities include playing “Princess Barbie Gets Married” and painting her shoes with nail polish).
Reality check: “There’s simply no evidence that overexposing young children to flash cards, Mozart, or early-reading programs leads to higher intelligence or even better SAT scores,” says child and adolescent psychiatrist Alvin Rosenfeld, M.D., coauthor of The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding Hyper- Parenting Trap. Yet our culture pressures concerned parents to begin early if they want their child to be academically competitive. “That attitude is doing much more harm than good,” Dr. Rosenfeld says.
