What activities do your kids spend time doing? (Owen Franken for The New York Times)

How much time does your child spend watching television? Doing chores? Listening to music? Hanging out with you?

To compare your child’s exercise and leisure time to national averages, take the Well Child Activity Quiz.

And to learn more ways to keep kids active, read “Help for Budding Couch Potatoes.”

Dr. T. Berry Brazelton has long been helping children and parents navigate the early years.

Pediatrician Dr. T. Berry Brazelton and his “Touchpoints” book series have guided many mothers and fathers through their first days, months and years of parenting. Today Dr. Brazelton and his co-author Dr. Joshua Sparrow share their insights with Well readers, as part of The New York Times’s Well report on childhood health.

In today’s post, Dr. Brazelton and Dr. Sparrow answer readers’ questions about building a child’s self esteem and attitudes about discipline. Dr. Brazelton also responds to parents who expressed their gratitude for his books and advice over the years. Later this week, we’ll feature answers to readers’ questions about sleep, potty-training and nutrition. Read more…

Dr. T. Berry Brazelton has long been helping children and parents navigate the early years.

For years, pediatrician Dr. T. Berry Brazelton has calmed nervous parents by sharing his insights and wisdom in a series of best-selling books about childhood health.

Now, Dr. Brazelton and his colleague Dr. Joshua Sparrow are making themselves available to answer questions directly from Well blog readers. Whether your question is about sleep problems, discipline or healthful eating habits, the authors of the “Touchpoints” series of books and other excellent guides for children’s health are ready to provide you answers. Read more…

Television may interfere with playtime. (Michael Temchine for The New York Times)

Many parents watch the news or other shows as children play nearby. But new research shows that even when the television is just background noise, it may be disruptive to a child’s normal development. Read more…

Children playing in New York City. (Credit: Christian Hansen for The New York Times)

Anyone who has been around young children knows they often are bundles of energy. But new research shows that all the energy starts to disappear as kids age. Even the most active children experience dramatic declines in physical activity as they hit the teen years.

The data are from a fascinating new study published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Kids in the study wore accelerometers, devices that monitor movement. Nine-year-olds moved a lot — the devices recorded about three hours a day of moderate to vigorous activity. But things changed dramatically when kids hit the teen years. By age 15, teens were only moving an average of 49 minutes daily and 35 minutes on weekends.

To learn more, click here to read my story on the recent findings.

And what about your kids? Have you noticed big changes in your child’s activity levels? Post your comments below.

Earlier this week, the nation’s leading pediatric group issued guidelines suggesting that some high-risk children be given cholesterol-lowering statin drugs that are typically prescribed for middle-aged men. The news shocked many pediatricians, who predicted a backlash from the public and doctors.

I spoke with Dr. Darshak Sanghavi, a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, about the move to put children on adult drugs.

“Children’s bodies are very different in how they metabolize or handle drugs,” he said. “Their livers are different, their kidneys are different. In many cases it’s about the same if they’re taking Tylenol or asthma medication. But for other drugs like statins that might have some impact on their endocrine system, we just really don’t know. I, for one, feel unsafe simply saying children are little adults in this case.”

To read the original story about the new guidelines, click here. Dr. Sanghavi also answered readers’ questions about the issue here.

And to listen to the rest of my conversation with Dr. Sanghavi about kids, drugs and cholesterol, listen to the podcast below.

Listen to the Podcast (mp3)

Summer fun. (David Gonzalez/The New York Times)

Why is childhood nutrition tougher in the summertime than during the rest of the year?

That’s the question I explored in my Well column this week. Although schools often are blamed for contributing to childhood nutrition problems, some data suggest kids actually gain more excess weight during the summer. Researchers speculate that unstructured play, hot weather and camp junk food all may play a role.

What happens to your child’s eating and activity habits during the summer? Read the full Well column here and post your comments below.

A 5-year-old leaving an exercise program for overweight children. A new study suggests that the epidemic of childhood obesity finally may be leveling off. (Matt Slocum/Associated Press)

The above photo appeared with a recent post I wrote about childhood obesity. Readers were critical of me not only for showing the picture, but for my later comment that I found the picture to be “sad.” I see a child who likely is teased by peers and is at risk for a lifetime of health problems. But readers disagreed.

“It’s also very unfortunate, TPP, that you felt the need to say a photo of a little girl having her hands held lovingly by two adults is ’sad,’” wrote reader Cathy W. “Yes, her weight is unfortunate and unhealthy, but you don’t know anything else about this little girl, so please refrain from judgments. I know it’s shocking to believe, but an overweight child can still be happy and loved!”

“I was an overweight child 40 years ago,” wrote reader Janet V. “But I was never sad, so I really am offended by your characterization of the child’s picture as such.”

I asked Dr. David Ludwig, director of the childhood obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston, to talk about overweight kids and the controversial picture. To hear our conversation, click the link below. To read the original post and comments, click here.

Listen to the Podcast (mp3)

A new study suggests that the epidemic of childhood obesity finally may be leveling off. (Matt Slocum/Associated Press)

A glimmer of hope has emerged in the battle against childhood obesity. As I wrote about in today’s Times, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that childhood obesity rates appear to have hit a plateau.

Nobody is celebrating just yet. Now health officials and families need to focus on helping the one out of three children in the United States who are already overweight or obese. Fortunately, the problem is potentially easier to battle in children than adults.

“Childhood is the ideal time to address this problem for a lot of reasons,” said Dr. David Ludwig, director of the child obesity program at Children’s Hospital in Boston. “The lifestyle habits that cause the problem haven’t been entrenched as long with children as they have with adults. And all but the most heavy children can basically outgrow their problem by holding their weight constant as their height increases or at least slow their rate of weight gain.”

Because kids are constantly growing, it can be tough to figure out how much your child should be eating. They key is to provide a ready supply of healthful foods and limit so-called “energy dense” foods — things like fried chicken nuggets or pastries that pack a lot of calories in each bite.

A number of Web-based tools can also help. The Children’s Nutrition Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine provides an energy calculator that can help you determine how many calories your child should be eating each day. To use the calculator, click here.

To find out whether your child is at a healthy weight or at risk of being overweight, you should use a childhood body mass index calculator. The C.D.C. provides one here. And click here to learn more from the C.D.C. about using B.M.I. calculations in childhood health.

Child care has been the hottest topic on the Well blog this week after readers responded to a post about new research into outdoor play among young children.

Researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center held focus groups with child-care workers about outdoor play and the reasons they sometimes keep kids indoors. I asked pediatrician Kristen Copeland, the study’s lead author, to tell us more. To hear our conversation, click on the link below.

Listen to the Podcast (mp3)

More weight, fewer cavities? (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)

Overweight children have healthier teeth than normal weight kids, a new study shows.

The surprising finding, published this month in the journal Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, comes from researchers at the Eastman Dental Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center. They analyzed data from nearly 18,000 children who participated in two separate major surveys that were part of the large and ongoing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Among youngsters ages 2 to 5, there were no differences in rates of tooth decay. However, among children ages 6 to 18, those who were overweight or at risk for becoming overweight had fewer cavities than kids of normal weight. Read more…

Marlene Zuk is a professor of biology at the University of California at Riverside and an expert in germs and bug sex, among other specialties. At a time when hospital infections are at an all-time high and a new resistant strain called MRSA is making headlines, I asked Dr. Zuk to tell us more about how we kill the germs in our lives. Dead is dead, right? Here’s what she had to say. — Tara Parker-Pope

By Marlene Zuk

People can be forgiven for wondering what difference it makes how we kill microorganisms. After all, soap or bleach kills bacteria, and so does penicillin. So why does it matter exactly how you kill them?

Biologist Marlene Zuk and friend. (Walter Urie)

It does matter, and the reason for the consequences of killing bacteria with penicillin or killing them with Ivory has to do with evolution. Furthermore, I suspect that part of the confusion in the mind of the public lies in the use of euphemisms like “develop” and “change through time,” rather than what we really mean, which is evolve. Read more…

I recently had the chance to shadow New York pediatrician Dr. Barney Softness as he cared for young patients and talked with parents. I asked Dr. Softness (yes, that’s his real name) to share his thoughts about the mistakes parents make when they visit. — Tara Parker-Pope

By Barney Softness, M.D.

Dr. Barney Softness.

Recently, a mother and her nervous toddler were waiting for me in my office. To reassure the child, the mother promised her there wouldn’t be any needles used during the visit. “Right, Dr. Barney? No needles?”

At that point, I hadn’t even examined the child. I didn’t know what was wrong with her and had no way of knowing if she might need a blood test. “That all depends on what is wrong with her,” I told the mother, who quickly scowled her disapproval, and the child erupted in protests.

Parents are an essential part of their children’s health care. Even though pediatricians are trained to treat children, we rely on parents’ instincts about their child’s health and their ability to comfort a child during an exam. Knowing what to say and what not to say can make the experience better for everyone, especially the child.

Yet well-meaning parents, who are really trying to make things as comfortable as possible for their child, can sometimes end up doing the exact opposite. Here are some examples. Read more…

When a child has an earache, parents often ask the pediatrician for an antibiotic prescription. I asked Dr. Alan Greene of the popular Web site www.drgreene.com to explain more about why antibiotics often are not the right treatment for kids with ear pain. — Tara Parker-Pope

By Alan Greene, M.D.

Dr. Alan Greene. (Tami DeSellier)

The old medical approach has been to routinely give antibiotics for acute ear infections. Ear infections are the top reason that antibiotics are given to children and the top reason that children get general anesthesia for surgery. It’s quick, easy and convenient for doctors to write an antibiotic prescription for ear infections, and parents want quick relief for their kids.

Simply giving antibiotics for ear infections doesn’t take into account where ear infections and ear pain come from. Nor does it take into account the consequences of these antibiotics — for us or the environment.

When antibiotics are given, kids are a bit more likely to get another ear infection sooner. And each time a child takes a course of antibiotics, future infections become harder to treat. Read more…

Okay readers, how about a little praise for my last post on praise? Don’t I get a little credit? A medal? Something to make me feel good about myself?

The trend toward constant praise and rewards for everyday work was the most-talked-about subject on the Well blog last week, following my post “Are Kids Getting Too Much Praise?” Readers shared several examples of over-praising and under-criticizing in schools.

We actually had a local school system consider not recognizing a valedictorian at graduation, for fear of damaging the self-esteem of the rest of the class by singling one student out.
— Posted by ag

Read more…