by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on October 25, 2010
Childhood illness can be difficult on the whole family. Shannon Kaiser, a blogger and mother of two chronically ill children, shares how she and her husband deal with the stress created by their children’s medical conditions.
If you drove by my house while the kids were getting ready for school this morning, it would’ve looked like a scene from an old TV show. Lunches were handed out, good-bye hugs given, and in a blur three of my kids are out the door, laughing and running towards the big yellow school bus at the end of the street.
Seems picture perfect, doesn’t it? Full story »
by Claire McCarthy on July 27, 2010
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Boston Children’s Hospital. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
As a pregnant mother, there’s always something to worry about. You worry about the health of the baby. You worry about what you should or shouldn’t do (because you are worried about the health of the baby). You worry about the delivery. You worry about paying for everything a child needs. You worry about finding good childcare. You worry about whether you’ll be a good parent.
Now there’s a study in the journal Pediatrics telling us that pregnant mothers have something else to worry about: the worrying itself. Full story »
by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on April 2, 2010
By Gary Gosselin, MD, Medical Director of Inpatient Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Boston:
Anxiety is the evolutionary survival instinct wired into our brains that allows us to adapt to dangerous situations. In essence, it’s there to help us survive. But it becomes a problem when it no longer allows us to adapt – when it actively interferes with our ability to function.
With baseball season starting this Sunday, the recent case of Texas Rangers’ infielder Khalil Greene is a perfect example. This is a man whose livelihood is completely based around his ability to perform on the baseball diamond, yet Greene recently contacted his team and told them he’d be unable to report for spring training due to his struggles with social anxiety disorder, which is an extreme fear of social situations. He was consequently cut from the team. Without treatment, maladaptive anxiety can have costly outcomes- in this case it may have cost Greene his career.
Full story »
by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on February 12, 2010
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he discussed speech delays.
Here’s this week’s question:
Q: My daughter is in junior high, and I’m noticing signs of anxiety. She has become more needy of me, is more fearful, will no longer go upstairs alone, and just feels “randomly stressed.” She is a strong, organized student, has good friends, exercises, eats healthily, and (until recently) sleeps well. The only lifestyle red flag I see is that all year she has been reading very dark and intense books that include subjects like hooking up, angels, suicide, after-life, car accidents, and murder (The Vampire Diaries, for example). She starts a new one every 2-3 weeks. Could these books be contributing to her stress even though she likes them, or should I just accept this behavior as part of puberty?
Vexed About Vampires in Glencoe, IL
Full story »
by Kristin Cantu on February 8, 2010
That’s what a recent study is claiming. This study found that five times as many high school and college students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues as youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era.
According to Children’s psychiatrist, Stuart Goldman, MD, the interpretation of these findings all depend on how you slice it. Full story »
by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on January 30, 2010
by Melissa Jeltsen on January 20, 2010
by Glenn Saxe, MD, director of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Center for Refugee Trauma
“ Into the bowl in which their wine was mixed, she slipped a drug that had the power of robbing grief and anger of their sting and banishing all painful memories”
-Homer, the Odyssey
Morphine and other opiates have been used by humans since the earliest times. The poppy has been a powerful cultural symbol for hundreds or, even, thousands of years. When a chemical agent has ‘traveled’ with humans for such a long span of time it usually means it has strong evolutionary value. A fascinating study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests morphine has the power to blunt the emotional aftereffects of trauma in people who’ve been severely injured. Full story »
by Claire McCarthy on December 17, 2009
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Boston Children’s Hospital. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
It’s nearly school vacation time—and you’re probably making plans (or will, once your shopping is finished) for things that will keep the kids busy during their time off. Museums, concerts, playdates—whatever fills the days in a useful, educational way. Because you can’t leave the days blank, right?
Actually, you can. And sometimes leaving them blank is exactly what children (and families) need. Full story »
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