I cover women's health, pediatrics, mental health, and general health and wellness. I'm a lactation consultant (IBCLC), and the author of two books of poems.
How to Help Kids Adjust to a New Sleep Space
Adjusting to a new sleep space can be difficult for anyone, but unfamiliar settings can be especially disorienting for children. Whether it’s staying at a hotel over vacation, going to a sleepover at grandma’s, or moving to a new home, children can have trouble adapting to new routines and settings, which impacts their ability to relax into sleep.
This can be exhausting for everyone involved, and though this phenomenon is normal, it’s helpful to find ways to ease the transition. We reached ou...
What to Know About Covidsomnia
If you’ve had trouble getting a good night’s sleep over the past two years, you are far from alone. The pandemic has affected us all in one way or another — whether because of isolation-related stress, the fear of getting sick, or managing a COVID-19 illness and its aftermath.
Across the board, this pandemic has been a lot, and it’s no wonder our sleep has suffered accordingly. Sleep problems have become so prevalent during the pandemic that experts have come up with a blanket word for them: ...
Why Does A Massage Make You Sleepy?
Have you ever had the experience of drifting off to dreamland while getting a professional massage? Maybe you’ve found that having your shoulders kneaded or your feet rubbed before bed makes you heavy-lidded and drowsy. You are not alone: Many of us find that massage helps us feel relaxed and sleepy.
There is a reason behind this — your muscles are being coaxed into a looser state — but if you’re in a darkened, quiet room, with your eyes closed, your brain is also experiencing the spa-like br...
Can a Good Night's Sleep Make Us More Productive?
Have a long to-do list? It can be tempting to cut short your sleep to try to get it all done. But before compromising your recommended seven to nine hours, it’s worth looking into how a lack of sleep can impact our ability to be productive at work, at school or even around the house. After all, it can be extremely challenging to focus and prepare a detailed expense report or give an energetic presentation when you are not getting adequate quality sleep.
According to the CDC, one in three Amer...
Does Lack of Sleep Really Give You Dark Circles Under Your Eyes?
It’s no fun at all to look in the mirror after a night of Junk Sleep and notice that you’ve got company: dark circles under your eyes. The good news is that dark circles under the eyes are rarely a cause of concern — they are usually just an aesthetic issue. Still, if you’re noticing them on a daily basis, they can become a source of frustration or even embarrassment.
Dark under-eye circles are typically cited as a sign of Junk Sleep. But you may be wondering what is causing the circles to fo...
Got Morning Breath? Here's How to Fix It
If you wake up and immediately want to gargle with mouthwash, you are far from alone. It’s estimated that about 30% of people experience bad breath (officially known as halitosis), and first thing in the morning is when it’s most likely to strike.
Morning breath can feel gross, it can be embarrassing, and if it’s something that’s been difficult for you to manage, you may be wondering what causes morning breath and what you can do to fix it. We reached out to medical experts to help us underst...
New Study Shows How Screen Time Affects Kids’ Sleep
Parents know that bedtime can be a struggle — often an epic battle. All we want at the end of our long days is to relax with a favorite book or TV show, but sometimes our little munchkins decide that 7 p.m. is the perfect time to start bouncing off the walls.
We’ve all been there, and that’s why we try our best to ensure that nothing interferes with bedtime. According to a new study, though, there might be something that’s having a bigger impact on our kids’ sleep than we might realize: light...
Everything You Need to Know About Sleep Talking
Being woken up by someone talking, mumbling, or just generally blabbering away in their sleep can be a bizarre, unnerving experience. You may also be wondering how it works. Answer: Your brain doesn’t fully shut off when you’re sleeping. In fact, a small part of your brain is still awake, making sleep talking in full, coherent sentences possible.
Sleep talking is a kind of parasomnia, or an atypical sleep behavior. Although parasomnias are not considered “normal,” sleep talking is actually fa...
What causes painful letdown and how to get relief
You’re nursing your sweet baby and soon after the milk begins to let down and start flowing, you feel a rush of shooting, burning pain in your breasts. It makes you hold your breath for a second. But within a minute or so, the sensation passes. You wonder: Is this normal? Is letdown during breastfeeding supposed to hurt this much? Is there anything I can do to fix this?
It can be difficult to determine how common painful letdown is among breastfeeding moms, says Ginny Bowers, CNM, IBCLC, a bo...
Container baby syndrome: What it is and how to prevent it
Container baby syndrome can affect a baby’s movement and heighten their risk for delayed milestones.
Devices like infant swings, bouncy seats, strollers and baby activity centers can be lifesavers for parents and caregivers. But organizations like the Academy of American Pediatrics (AAP) are warning that keeping your baby in one of these devices for long periods of time can be detrimental to their physical development.
Container baby syndrome inhibits a baby’s movement and puts them at greate...
5 ways breastfeeding parents and caregivers can work together for baby
If you’re a breastfeeding parent heading back to work or on an extended trip, you likely have one big concern: How will my baby transition from breast to bottle?
It’s totally natural for nursing parents and their infant’s caregivers to have jitters going into a caregiving situation where the caregiver will have to take over feeding. Parents may be concerned their baby won’t take a bottle or that the caretaker may misunderstand the baby’s cues. Caregivers may worry about knowing how much to fe...
Car seats: How long your child needs one, and more car safety guidelines
Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among kids in the U.S., according to the CDC. While this is an alarming fact, the good news is that child restraints can reduce injuries and fatalities by more than 70 percent, says the Academy of American Pediatrics (AAP).
So what type of car seat should you use, and for how long? Unfortunately there’s no single answer: Car seat laws vary by state and often change. The best thing to do is to start by checking the Governor’s Highway Safety...
What the RSV Surge Means for Doctors and Patients
Oct. 25, 2022 -- In early October, respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, tore through Victoria Thiele's Indiana home. Her three older children had manageable symptoms. But her 8-week-old newborn ended up developing a severe case.
Thiele, whose family lives in Fort Wayne, said the baby experienced chest retractions while breathing and was taken to the emergency room at a local hospital, where she was diagnosed with RSV and bacterial pneumonia.
An Unprecedented Surge in RSV
Thiel's experience mi...
5 Reasons for Why Your Child Hates Writing Assignments — and How to Solve Them
As a former college English instructor and a writing tutor, I’ve seen it all in terms reluctant writers. From “my mom thought it was junk mail and put my essay in the paper shredder,” to the student who rips up an almost finished essay and throws it across the room, I know that even the mere thought of a writing assignment can cause kids to freeze up, stress out, and come up with a million excuses.
Writing, like anything else, is a muscle that needs to be worked—and with a little commitment, ...
Baby colic: The signs, causes and remedies
Kate Dimpfl, a mom from Ithaca, New York, still remembers those four excruciating months when her first son, Oscar — who was diagnosed with colic at 2 months — cried nightly from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Part of the stress stemmed from how helpless she felt.
“I never really found a pattern that impacted the crying,” she says. “It was isolating.”
Colic is characterized by repeated and extended bouts of crying. Caring for a newborn can be exhausting enough, but if your baby develops colic, you may fee...