Pediatricians have for decades advised concerned parents to use screen time wisely, especially for young children.  A comprehensive research review of this dilemma appeared in the July 2020 issue of JAMA Pediatrics.  Researchers from the University of Calgary Alberta, Canada, and Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute analyzed 42 of the best studies totaling nearly 20,000 kids under twelve years of age. Their main conclusions were: 

1. The quality of screen time is more significant than the quantity.
2. “Co-viewing” and “education screen time” is best.  This means when kids interact with parents, teachers, or friends during screen viewing these partnerships were usually associated with better language skills in the screen viewers.  
3. On the contrary, low-quality screen time was associated with lower language skills, especially in younger children.  

These screen time findings were consistent with the current American Academy of Pediatric guidelines of “no screen time under the age of 18 months.”  

Additional Concerns to Consider

Besides the not-surprising results of these studies, here are two screen time recommendations to keep the mind and body healthy.

1. More Screen Time Equals Less Movement. Excessive screen time means excessive sitting time, just the opposite of what growing children need.  Kids are meant to move. Movement increases blood flow to the body and brain when the body and brain are growing the fastest.  Better blood flow, a better body, and brain.  It’s as logical as that!
2. Out of Sight, Out of Mind. In a book I highly advise reading, Brain Spanners, by Dr. Bryce Wylde, my friend adds another caveat about the smart use of cellphones while working or learning.  He cites a study from the University of Texas showing that just having your phone on the desk or within sight while you’re working is a distraction, mainly because you’re subconsciously thinking about things that could be going on in your phone messages rather than focusing on the task you are working on.  The take-home message is: when you’re really trying to learn, especially for school-age children, put their screens in another room and turn them off.

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.

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We all are feeling overloaded with information regarding the coronavirus, some credible and some not so credible, from a multimedia overload. The good news is that the coronavirus, thus far, seems to be at lowest risk in infants and young children. Seniors over the age of 60, especially those with chronic medical conditions, are most at risk. The following are the tips that we give our patients in the Sears Family Pediatric Practice:

Tips to Stay Healthy

1. Don’t worry – and take wise precautions

Excessive worry and prolonged, unresolved stress weaken your natural immune system, just the opposite of what you want to do when protecting your body against a communicable disease, and any illness for that matter. While the coronavirus is a potentially serious threat, you do have control over how you preload your body to protect against this virus.

2. Preload to protect

One of the top illness-preventing concepts we teach our certified health coaches at the Dr. Sears Wellness Institute is what we call “pre-loading” – doing whatever you can always to keep your immune system healthy. When your immune system is preloaded it is as if it is saying to you: “Okay, you have fed and cared for us wisely, so we are armed to fight for you against any germ that may come your way.” A simple way that we teach pre-loading in our medical practice, even to children as young as seven, is by teaching them about their natural germ-fighting army inside. I show them pictures of their natural killer (NK) cells, a Pacman-looking cell with a helmet that says “NK” on it. These trillions of NK cells are constantly on high alert and police your body with search-and-destroy missions for germs (and even cancer cells, by the way) that don’t belong in your body and may threaten its health. Like magnets, they attach themselves to the foreign germs and literally shoot biochemical bullets into them and blow them up. If the general of your NK army could tell you four things to help your army fight better it would be: 1) believe that we will fight for you; 2) feed us healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and seafood; 3) avoid “added sugar” on food labels and curtail sweet treats, especially sugary beverages, which depresses the immune system; and 4) move more, sit less – or, as Dr. Mom wisely advised, “Go outside and play!” It’s interesting that studies have shown that movement mobilizes the immune system and increases the fighting ability of your NK cells. You will find diagrams and more information about pre-loading and caring for your immune system in our two latest books: The Dr. Sears T5 Wellness Plan and, our newest book, The Healthy Brain Book.

3. Avoid spreading germs with your hands

• No handshaking. A bow or fist-bump you see commonly during sports are safer affirmations.
• Because the coronavirus can live on surfaces for up to 1-2 weeks, it makes sense to refrain from touching the most common surfaces that the virus is likely to live on: light switches, doorknobs, toilet flushers, elevator buttons, handles and handrails, gasoline pumps, and other high-touched areas. If you don’t have a wipe, use your knuckles or two hands with knuckles to turn knobs.
• Wipe shopping cart handles with disinfectant wipes if they are available. If not, bring your own (see below for how to make your own hand sanitizer) or else use disposable gloves with this kind of highly touched public surface.

4. Cover your mouth

Rather than using your hand to cover your nose and mouth when you cough or sneeze, use a disposable napkin or, as a last resort, cough/sneeze into the inside of your elbow. Remember that coughing onto clothing can harbor the virus for a week or more, so be careful that others don’t touch your sleeve.

5. Wash your hands

Wash your hands thoroughly and often, using soap and water, for 20 seconds. Teach your kids to wash while they sing the Happy Birthday song two times.

6. Make your own hand sanitizer

Since commercial hand sanitizers are likely to be “out of stock” for a while, you can make your own with a combination of 91% alcohol and aloe vera gel. Here is a viable recipe we found online: Stir together well (I used a wire whisk) 2/3 cup 91% alcohol and 1/3 cup aloe vera gel. You can add 8-10 drops of essential oils (such as Tea Tree or Lavender for added benefit) to mask the odor of the alcohol. Pour this into several small bottles and keep one next to your home entrance door, in your car, at work, and any other areas where you’re likely to encounter the most people-touched objects, especially where soap and water is not handy.

7. Don’t touch your face

You may be surprised to learn that most of us habitually rub our eyes, nose and mouth nearly a hundred times a day, which can quickly transmit the virus from face to hand or from hand to face. As far as we know, the COVID-19 virus infects lungs as its main entry point, which brings us to the question of should you wear a mask. Since this virus is spread by droplets (tiny particles of mucus holding the virus) in the air from coughing or sneezing, you might think a mask should protect you from coughing the virus onto someone else and vice versa. Yet, most authorities do not believe that the typical masks sold in stores are that protective. The ones that are protective are so tightly fitting that it’s almost impossible to talk while wearing them. One good thing about wearing a mask, though, is it reminds you not to touch your nose, mouth, or eyes.

8. Follow trusted resources

Follow trusted coronavirus resources, such as found at the CDC website.

9. Preload your immune system with smart foods

These include fruits, vegetables, and seafood. Especially during flu season, our family preloads our bodies with an immune-boosting smoothie in the morning, and a veggie and seafood-rich dinner in the evening. We especially try to eat foods high in zinc, such as eggs, nuts, legumes, and shellfish.

Surviving Through the Coronavirus Scare

In a nutshell, the best ways to thrive and survive through the coronavirus scare is: preload your body; don’t worry, be happy; eat more fruits, vegetables and seafood; go outside and play; wash your hands; and keep coughing, sneezing, and touching to yourself.

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.

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You might think that the school year brings sickness but there are ways to keep children healthy during the school year. Some children might be excited to get back to school but we all know that us parents dislike the germs, sickness and unhealthy school lunches that come with the school year. Use these tips to keep your children healthy when going back to school and throughout the school year.

1. Begin the Day With a Brainy Breakfast

Above all other organs, the brain is most affected – for better or worse – by what you eat. You put junk food into a child’s brain, you get junk behavior and junk learning. Scientific studies show that children who begin the day with a brainy breakfast:

• Made higher grades
• Were more attentive and participated better in class
• Were less likely to be diagnosed with A.D.D. or learning disabilities
• Handled complex learning tasks better
• Missed fewer school days because of illness

The main ingredients of a brainy breakfast are:

• Protein, which perks up the brain
• Fiber-filled carbs, which provide a steady supply of fuel
• Omega-3 fats, which build smart brain cells
• Minerals, such as calcium and iron, which help brain biochemistry work better

Here are some tips for brainy back-to-school breakfasts from the Sears’ family kitchen:

• Whole-grain waffles or pancakes topped with blueberries and peanut butter
• Oatmeal with blueberries and yogurt
• Whole-wheat banana nut bread and yogurt
• ½ cup low-fat cottage cheese in a scooped-out cantaloupe half
• Whole-wheat tortilla wrapped around scrambled eggs and diced tomatoes
• Veggie omelet, whole-wheat toast, and fruit
• Peanut butter and banana slices on a whole-wheat English muffin with low-fat milk
• Almond-strawberry yogurt cup. Layer the yogurt and strawberries (or another fruit, such as blueberries or chopped apple, peaches, or pineapple) in a small bowl. Drizzle honey over the top if plain yogurt is used. Sprinkle with almonds and/or flax-seed meal.
• Zucchini pancakes. This is a long-standing Sears’ favorite that even our toddlers enjoyed. Add a cup of shredded zucchini to whole-wheat pancakes.
• A fruit and yogurt smoothie

Besides a brainy breakfast, send your child to school with a healthy snack. Those busy little bodies and brains run out of fuel mid-morning and mid-afternoon, the times when learning and behavioral problems are most likely to appear. Our favorite snack: Go nuts! Nuts are the perfect snack because they provide the perfect balance of healthy fats, healthy carbs, and protein. Make your own trail mix: let your children pick out their favorite nuts and add dried fruit. For school snacks, be safe and avoid peanuts because of possible peanut allergy. A handful of nuts for a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack is just what the school-doctor orders.

2. Keep Hands Clean

Germs are spread through hand-to-hand contact or coughed into the air. Instead of shaking hands, bow or nod. Instruct your children to wash their hands often. Yet, when soap and water are not available, use an antibacterial wipe, like Wet Ones. These are proven to kill 99.99% of germs and they won’t dry out the skin like alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Put Wet Ones in your child’s lunch box or in their little pockets.

3. Feed Your Child Immune-Boosting Foods

Fruits, vegetables, and seafood are your top three immune-boosters. For simplicity, remember the three S’s: salmon, salads, and smoothies. In my medical practice I have noticed that families who feed their children these three top immune-boosting foods are sick less often, especially during those early back-to-school months and the winter flu season. If your children are not fond of seafood, such as wild salmon, give them a daily omega-3 supplement. Studies have shown that school children’s performance improves when they eat adequate omega 3s. Good science and good sense go together, since omega-3 fats are the top structural component of growing brain cells. Once your children join the back-to-school crowd, they are naturally exposed to more germs, so their immune systems need a boost.

Here’s another tip from the Sears’ family kitchen. If your family’s rush-hour is like our family’s in the morning, sleepy kids and hurried parents are not the recipe for a long sit-down breakfast. On most school mornings I would make a fruit and yogurt smoothie, adding some protein powder, organic Greek yogurt, milk or 100 percent juice as a beverage, and slip in some tofu for extra protein and calcium (they didn’t even realize it was in there). I called this smoothie “school-ade.” Our kids loved this quick brainy breakfast!

4. Keep Little Noses and Sinuses Clear

School-passed germs usually settle first in the nose and sinuses. Dr. Bill’s prescription for flushing these germs out of little noses: a “nose hose” and a “steam clean.” A facial steamer and a neti pot are two back-to-school nose-clearers every family should have. At the first sign of a stuffy nose, flush your child’s nose out with a saltwater solution or show your children how to use a neti pot for a real thorough “nose hose.” Also, show them how to carefully use a facial steamer to loosen those snotty nasal secretions.

5. Keep Your Child Active

School children get labeled with a bunch of “Ds”: ADD, ADHD, LD (learning disabilities), etc. Let me add two more “D” – NDD (nutrition deficit disorder) and MDD (movement deficit disorder). Besides preventing NDD by feeding your children immune-boosting foods, get your children moving. In our family we have an MDD-prevention policy: sitting equals moving. Be sure your kids spend at least as much time moving as they do sitting. Studies show that compared with “sitters,” “movers” showed remarkable improvement in their ADD, especially in their ability to sit still and focus, and they required fewer attention-promoting drugs.

Increased movement of the body increases the blood flow to the brain. I call movement “grow food” for the brain. Increased blood flow to the brain increases the release of a substance called nerve growth factor, which helps those little brains grow. Also, movement mellows the mind. Increased blood flow to the brain releases “happy hormones.”

Encourage activity during school-time recess. Schools are beginning to realize that school children need to get out and enjoy the great outdoors, especially during those back-to-school months when they had been used to lots of summer activities. The sights and sounds of nature both relax the mind and invigorate the body. The colors, the movement, the fresh air, and the sun’s energy are just what the “D” doctor ordered. Motivate your school to move your child by encouraging recess.

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.

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Pediatricians have become increasingly concerned about the growing use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant use among pregnant women, especially since animal studies have suggested these medications may increase the incidence of anxiety and depression in their offspring.  Could this association be true for humans?  A lead article in the June 2018 issue of JAMA Pediatrics suggests yes.

Neuroscientists at the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, using MRI scans, studied the centers of newborn brains that most control emotions.  They compared the findings of infants of mothers whose depression was treated with SSRIs during pregnancy with depressed mothers who did not take SSRIs, and pregnant mothers who were neither depressed nor treated with these medications.  The findings revealed that babies whose mothers had taken SSRIs during pregnancy showed changes in the regions of their baby’s brain that were associated with emotional development, namely the amygdala.  Also, The National Registry Study of more than 15,000 prenatally SSRI-exposed offspring found increased rates of depression in adolescents.

A word of caution: even the authors of this study reveal concerns about the conclusions because it is very difficult to do psychological studies where all the variables are controlled.  One possibility is that women who were treated with SSRIs during pregnancy were more severely depressed, and the resultant changes in their baby’s brains were due to the severe depression and not the medication.

Providers Should Be More Selective For Pregnant Women

An important point of this study is it raises awareness that healthcare providers should be more selective in prescribing SSRIs, and pregnant mothers may want to seek safer forms of treatment, such as the self-help skills that we mention in our most recent book, The Dr. Sears T5 Wellness Plan, Makeover Your Mind and Body, Five Changes in Five Weeks.

Many physicians believe that the increase in SSRI prescriptions for depression during pregnancy is due to both the lack of time a healthcare provider has to customize self-help skills for the mother and the general lack of expertise in treating depression during pregnancy.  Studies like this are the reason that our trademark teaching in the Dr. Sears Wellness Institute coaching courses is Make Your Own Medicines®.  The good news is self-made antidepressants are one of the top medicines you make by practicing the four pillars of health we teach in the Dr. Sears Wellness Insitute online Health Coach Certification courses classes: Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitude, and Nutrition (L.E.A.N.).

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.

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Vitamin D During Pregnancy and Baby’s Growth

A lead article in the July issue of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics analyzed the results of 24 studies involving over 5,000 pregnant mothers. The study concluded that those who took supplements of vitamin D during pregnancy (in the range of 1,000 -2,000 IU per day) were associated with a reduced risk of babies growing too slowly. This is also called “small for gestational age babies.” The babies even improved growth during the first year. The authors recommended that women should take supplements of vitamin D during pregnancy using the dosage recommended by their healthcare provider. These supplements should begin at around twenty weeks of gestation. According to the 24 studies, any earlier supplementation of vitamin D during pregnancy did not seem to make any difference in the infant’s weight.

Baby’s Bone Health Due to Vitamin D

Vitamin D improves infant growth through an increase in bone and muscle tissue. Vitamin D is the body’s regulator of bone-building minerals. Taking vitamin D helps to maintain a normal level of calcium-phosphorus in the blood, which further improves bone growth. Vitamin D helps the intestines absorb more calcium and phosphorus if the bones need it. The results also suggested that vitamin D helps build a healthier placenta, which helps grow a healthier baby. It’s studies like this that emphasize the reason that we recommend wild Alaskan salmon (2,000 IU per six ounces) as the richest food source of vitamin D, second to sunshine. So, if you do not choose to take vitamin D supplements during pregnancy, you can also eat fish and go outside for around fifteen minutes a day with bare arms and legs exposed to the sun, weather permitting.

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.

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Over thirty years ago in all of our writings, we strongly cautioned new parents to avoid the “let your baby cry it out” crowd because sleep-training was becoming fashionable and often harmful.  We even added another Baby B to our list of attachment parenting tools – beware of baby-trainers.  We formulated our opinion based upon common sense:  A baby’s cry is a baby’s language.  Babies cry for a reason.

Next, a new mother is hormonally wired to listen and respond from her heart or, in this case, her “mommy brain.”  Yet, letting a baby cry-it-out desensitizes a mother to the attachment-promoting signals of her baby’s cries.  As a result, babies give up and “sleep through the night,” or they cry harder and disrupt the whole household.  Either way, it’s a lose-lose situation.

Fast-forward to modern research on the topic of letting baby cry-it-out and the issue it brings up.  In their very informative must-read book, Chronotherapy, the authors, a sleep physiologist, and a psychologist, offer their neuroscientific opinion on the “let baby cry it out” advice.  Here are some excerpts of their wise advice:

“In our view, these baby-training approaches are deeply misguided…especially when applied to babies under the age of six months…A baby’s sleep habits should not be seen as a source of bragging rights…Friends exaggerate how their baby slept through the night at three months…Their baby is not your baby.”

“The notion of letting the baby cry-it-out is wrong-headed for a whole range of reasons.  On a hormonal level, extended crying leads to a higher level of stress hormones…which counteract the effects of the sleep-related hormone, melatonin…It increases heart rate and blood pressure…and practically guarantees that normal sleep simply will not happen…Eventually, baby gives up from despair, or what psychologists call ‘learned helplessness’…and that has been linked to depression. “ 

I just love how neuroscientists eventually put their stamp of approval on what wise mothers have long known about following their own neuro-instinct about listening to and responding to their own baby’s cries.

Dr. Bill Sears, MD

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.

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Do you struggle with modeling or helping your kids have a healthy balance with technology use? A study published in June 2018 by researchers at the University of Texas asked subjects to take a series of tests that required full cognitive attention. The researchers found that people who had their smartphones nearby — even though they were on silent — performed significantly worse than those whose phones were in another room. In other words, if your phone is nearby, you can never really stop thinking about it. Does this strike a chord with you?

I felt compelled to write this blog after a chilling interview I heard with an 11-year-old boy saying his attachment to his electronic devices was “all consuming, and negatively affected his quality of life.” The next day I witnessed a difficult exchange between my sister and her 15-year-old daughter involving her phone use during family time. This touches on the deep-rooted challenge every parent faces, how to lovingly express concern over something that seems so “normal” for most kids and adults. For most of us, this may be an ongoing battle in which some days are better than others. We need to keep our boundaries firm and help both kids and adults to have a healthy balance with technology.

“Technology addiction” is a term that has been around since the 80’s; however, the big concern is that those affected seem to be getting younger and younger and they don’t know how to have a healthy balance with technology. As the digital age we live in gets integrated more into everyday life, we see things like streaming your favorite show on Netflix, looking up a recipe on Pinterest, or your child’s homework being assigned through a tablet. While all these advances can serve a helpful purpose, the scary part is that we don’t yet have a clear picture of the long-term effects.

In our new book, The Dr. Sears T5 Wellness Plan, we say that one of the keys to wellness is an awareness of our mental health. Dr. Bill talks about the importance of human connection for naturally increasing the “happy hormones”, and how our brains are wired by the messages we receive during our face-to-face interactions, and during real-life experiences. So, when you are facing the seemingly impossible task of drawing boundaries around your children’s screen time, we urge you to use this question as the gauge: Will this help or hurt my child’s development?

Dr. Bill says, “The best thing you can do to help shape a balanced tech use is to lead by example.” Model for your kids the boundaries that you feel passionate about, for example:

• No screen time an hour before bed
• Turn your phone off during meal times
• When you’re talking with each other be fully present

Problems Associated with Excessive Technology Use

Here is more food for thought from Psychology Today, as you bravely walk through this issue. These are examples of problems associated with excessive technology use:

• Sedentary lifestyle: The more time spent on a screen is associated with less time for physical fitness. Similarly, remaining in a fixed posture could cause musculoskeletal symptoms.
• Vision: The lengthy use of devices could cause visual symptoms (e.g., discomfort, eyestrain, blurred vision, headache)
• Injuries: Devices are often used while carrying out other tasks (i.e., walking, driving) and may cause the user to be more susceptible to accidents.
• Infections: Simply put, devices may have more germs than a toilet seat.
• Social development: More time spent on online engagement over face-to-face interaction may hinder social skill development or cause social withdrawal.
• Sleep deprivation: Devices can cut into one’s sleep cycle. Further, depending on the use, an individual can be wired, alert, and unable to rest.
• Psychological concerns: Excessive use of technology has been associated with several mental health concerns such as poor psychological well-being, poor self‐confidence, anxiety, depression, lower emotional stability, and lower life satisfaction.

Our hope is that the more you understand the health and developmental risks, the more your fire will be fueled to stick to those boundaries that can sometimes feel impossible to maintain.

I polled friends and family members to get some helpful tips, and here were my favorites:

1. To lessen the role of the parents being the “bad guys”, try to guide your children towards a self-imposed time limit. Ask them what they think is a fair amount of time, and then set a timer. This also helps them feel responsible and heard. Of course, negotiations may be needed.
2. Here is Dr. Bill’s top tip! The key word is “balance.” Balance screen time with outdoor play time. For the older kids, beware of “text neck”, the humped over effect of constantly looking down at the screen. Balance that by periodically looking up towards the key, to extend the muscles of the back and the neck. He calls it “Saying ‘hi’ to the sky”. Another helpful exercise is doing the breaststroke in the pool.

Stay strong in your convictions but remember to enjoy and love on your kids!

Cheers to health!
Coach Erin and Dr. Bill

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Mothers and babies are the top national treasures in every country. And breastmilk is every country’s top natural resource. Science agrees. The incidence of nearly every serious disease you don’t want your child to get is lower the longer a baby is breastfed. From head-to-toe, a breastfed baby enjoys these health benefits: smarter brains, clearer vision, better dental alignment, healthier hearts, good gut health, fewer cancers, a lower risk of SIDS, and much more. And, besides being healthier for babies, breastfeeding is healthier for mothers: faster postpartum recovery and pregnancy weight loss; promotes mother-infant bonding; reduces the risk of breast, uterine, and ovarian cancers; less osteoporosis; natural child spacing; and reduced cost compared to formula feeding. This is just a partial list!

“I love M.O.M.” is our imaginary statement made by a breastfeeding baby illustrated in the revised edition (due to be published in August 2018) of our book, The Breastfeeding Book. This newest discovery that further supports breastfeeding as the top global preventive medicine, is how breastfed babies enjoy better gut health. It has just been in the past few years that researchers learned why. It is called M.O.M. (Milk -Oriented Microbiota), the technical term for “Mama’s milk makes nutrients for baby’s microbiome”. Mother’s milk plants healthy seeds in her baby’s growing gut garden, the microbiome. A healthier microbiome grows a healthier, stronger immune system. Isn’t that what every parent – and every health agency – desires?

How Breastmilk Prevents Disease in Infants

Mother’s milk is alive! To their credit formula companies are constantly scrambling to copy human milk, but they will never duplicate what Mother Nature had thousands of years to perfect. Breastmilk is living tissue, which is why in some cultures breastmilk is honored as “white blood”. A drop of breast milk contains around one million white blood cells, called macrophages, whose job it is to gobble up germs. Colostrum, produced in the first few days, is rich in IgA, just at the time when a newborn is most susceptible to germs. (Think of it as baby’s first important immunization.) The immune-boosting effects of breast milk are the reason behind the medical truism that doctors make their living on formula-fed infants. Studies comparing exclusively breastfed infants with formula-fed babies have shown that breastfed babies have lower rates of virtually every kind of infectious disease. This is all because of the protective effect of human milk, which cannot be duplicated by factory-made formula. Infant formula, of manufacturing necessity, contains no living maternal nutrients, nor can it ever be custom made for each baby.

Breastfeeding leads to smarter babies and a better economic future

Health is wealth. Government agencies are usually more focused on economic growth than on health. Yet health, especially brain health, is the prime driver of economic health. Science supports that. As already stated, breastfed babies compared to infants who are formula fed tend to grow up smarter and healthier. These children grow up to be economically more productive. What a smart long-term investment for a government to make when it does everything it can to promote breastfeeding at home and around the world.

Why Breastfeeding Needs Government Support

Here is a rather long excerpt from the first edition of The Breastfeeding Book, published in 2000, pages 9-10. I use it here to underline why the US delegation is backing the wrong horse:

“Derrick and Patrice Jelliffe, pioneers in breastfeeding research, stated that breastfed infants are ‘biochemically different.’ This difference in body chemistry may be the reason they are healthier. There is evidence that breastfeeding protects babies against a great variety of illnesses, and in some cases, this protection extends even beyond the time babies are nursing. While babies are breastfeeding, they have fewer and less serious respiratory infections, less diarrhea, and less vomiting. When breastfed babies do become ill, they are less likely to become dehydrated and less likely to need hospitalization. They enjoy protection from rotavirus (a type of respiratory infection), meningitis, infant botulism, and urinary tract infections. In developing countries, where there may not be safe water or good medical care, the protection that breastfeeding offers against cholera, various kinds of parasites, and other serious infections, helps babies born in poverty to stay healthy. Researchers have also found that as children grow, having been breastfed as an infant is associated with a reduced risk of juvenile diabetes, childhood cancers, and digestive disorders, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.”

This excerpt becomes significant in the current scandal of US delegates working behind the scenes to oppose the promotion of breastfeeding throughout the world and to instead promote the formula industry. According to Wikipedia, the Jelliffes were experts in tropical pediatrics and infant nutrition. Their classic book, Human Milk and the Modern World, was published by Oxford University Press in 1978. They lived and worked in England, Africa, India, the Caribbean and settled in Los Angeles where he held the Chair in Public Health and Pediatrics at the University of California from 1972-1990. He testified to a subcommittee of the US Senate in 1978, coining the phrase “commerciogenic malnutrition” to refer to infant starvation caused by inappropriate promotion and use of infant formula in areas with low income and poor water supplies.

The US delegates to the World Health Assembly need to back down on this position while there is still time. I urge them to apologize to all mothers and babies, both in developing countries and in our own country, for their poor judgment. My wish is that the delegates, in response to the worldwide outcry from mothers, correct their “misunderstanding.” As a result, all the babies of the world will get a smarter start in life.

William Sears, M.D., F.R.C.P.
Pediatrician and co-author of The Baby Book and The Breastfeeding Book

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.

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A recent article released by NPR was titled “Is Sleeping with Your Baby as Dangerous as Doctors Say?” and has brought a lot of attention to the topic of co-sleeping, also called bed-sharing or sleep-sharing.

We love articles that show that mother’s and father’s intuition trump pseudoscience.  In my fifty years as a pediatrician, I’ve learned when science and mother’s intuition disagree, suspect faulty science.  This article, and its author, Michaeleen Doucleff, expose how shaky “science” has caused confusion about one of the oldest and warmest worldwide parenting practices – sleeping with your baby.

Early on in my parenting and pediatric career, we used our growing family and our pediatric practice as sort of a laboratory to study what parents do to influence how well their children turn out.  Our first conclusion: mothers and infants who share sleep seem more attached, and these children are more likely to grow up with, in my opinion, the number one tool for success you want to plant into your child’s growing brain garden – empathy and compassion.

Sleep-sharing mothers seem to grow their “mommy brain,” a live area in their brain that new science reveals really exists.  This cerebral GPS, like two other “baby B’s” – breastfeeding and babywearing – actually grows when mothers and babies are securely attached.

The Sears Family Experience with Bed-sharing

When our eighth child came into our family “sleep laboratory” by adoption, technology was available to measure what we instinctively felt – something healthful happens to babies when they share sleep with their parents, especially the mother.  We wired Lauren with electronic gadgets while sleeping next to Martha and then while sleeping in a separate bed but in our bedroom.  When sleep-sharing, also now called “bed-sharing” or “co-sleeping,” Lauren’s physiology was more in balance: her blood oxygen was more stable, as was her breathing and her heart rates.  We published these not-so-surprising discoveries in many of our books.

Coincidentally at this time, I met noted anthropologist Dr. James McKenna who was just beginning a scientific evaluation of sleep-sharing.  “Jim,” I said, “I’m looking forward to you scientifically proving what parents and many pediatricians instinctively believe – safe sleep-sharing is healthful for mother and baby.”  As this article so wisely reveals, Dr. McKenna, now Director of the Mother-Baby Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, has done fascinating research on the physiologic benefits of sleeping with your baby.  Dr. Mom was smarter than the pseudoscientists after all!

Association Between Bed-sharing and Sudden Infant Death Syndromne (SIDS)

Also, as the article points out, the “studies” looking at the association between bed-sharing and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) are shaky at best.  When I first read them, my pulse went up.  How dare a bunch of number-crunchers looking back at hospital emergency room records (called “retrospective studies,” the least credible of all) confuse and scare parents out of what just comes naturally.  Many times mothers have told me: “It just feels right…” and “I carried my baby for nine months in my womb, now it just feels right to sleep close to my baby for the next nine months, or more!”

Speaking of SIDS, I remember a sleep-sharing mother telling me this almost tragic story, but one that had a happy ending.  She slept with her baby each night.  When baby was around four months of age she was at a dinner party. Baby fell asleep early so she put baby to sleep in another room while she quickly finished her dinner.  Halfway through her meal an alarm went off in her “mommy brain” – something didn’t feel right.  She ran to the room where her baby was to find he was not breathing and was slightly cool and blue.  She quickly held her baby close, stimulating the breathing and baby was just fine.  Many such stories convince me that sleep-sharing creates an amazing bond between mother and child that we may never fully understand.

Sears Recommendation on Bed-sharing

The “science” that started this confusion was done by statisticians and researchers looking at a pile of hospital charts.  Dr. McKenna’s research was done with actual mother-infant pairs while bed-sharing.  Which research would you most trust?  As this article hinted, trust the conclusions of the university mother-baby sleep laboratory.  I do!

As we describe in our books and on our website, for parents who wish to sleep close to their babies yet not in the same bed, a safe alternative sleeping arrangement is to use a bedside cosleeper ­ – a bassinette that attaches safely and securely to the side of parent’s bed.  Mother and baby sleep on separate surfaces, but mother is within arm’s reach of baby for easy feeding and comforting.

Instead of a blanket “never sleep in the same bed with your baby,” in the age of personalized medicine healthcare providers should personalize their bedsharing advice to fit each unique family situation.  One sleeping arrangement does not fit all families.

For more information about the health benefits of sleeping wisely and safely with your baby, see AskDrSears.com.

Dr. William Sears, pediatrician of fifty years, father of eight, and Martha Sears, co-authors of The Baby Sleep Book and The Baby Book

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.

The post Is Bed-sharing with Baby Dangerous? appeared first on Ask Dr Sears.

In preparation for a major topic in our next book on brain health, I ran across a fascinating article in The New York Times (NYTimes.com/2014/09/11) with the title “Steve Jobs was a Low-tech Parent.”  When Steve Jobs was running Apple, you would have thought that his home would have been littered with screens. On the contrary, when The New York Times interviewed Mr. Jobs he started with, “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.” Surprised? If the experts realize the importance of balancing tech time, shouldn’t all of us follow their lead?

He went on to reveal that he often bans all gadgets on school nights and puts time limits on weekends and holidays. Apparently, when The New York Times interviewed several other CEOs of tech companies, they had the same surprising reply. They also said their kids accused them of being overly restrictive about tech stuff, but these technology experts stood their ground. Their main concern was their children’s exposure to harmful content, like pornography, bullying from other kids, and eventually becoming addicted to their devices. A top restriction that every tech-savvy parent and expert seems to agree on: “There are no screens in the bedroom, ever!”

Steve Jobs ended his interview with, “No one ever pulled out an iPad or computer at our dinner table. The kids did not seem addicted at all to devices.”

Again, it’s a question of balance.

Dr. Bill Sears

Dr. Sears, or Dr. Bill as his “little patients” call him, has been advising busy parents on how to raise healthier families for over 40 years. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the world’s largest children’s hospital, where he was associate ward chief of the newborn intensive care unit before serving as the chief of pediatrics at Toronto Western Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. He has served as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and University of California: Irvine. As a father of 8 children, he coached Little League sports for 20 years, and together with his wife Martha has written more than 40 best-selling books and countless articles on nutrition, parenting, and healthy aging. He serves as a health consultant for magazines, TV, radio and other media, and his AskDrSears.com website is one of the most popular health and parenting sites. Dr. Sears has appeared on over 100 television programs, including 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, Today, The View, and Dr. Phil, and was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in May 2012. He is noted for his science-made-simple-and-fun approach to family health.

The post Being a Low-tech Parent appeared first on Ask Dr Sears.