Back To School Tips from Maria Fareri Children's Hospital [VIDEO]

With school a week away, parents and children in the Hudson Valley are preparing for the start of the new year. Amidst the back to school shopping and gathering of school supplies, parents should remember the most important back to school focus – their children’s physical and emotional preparedness for the year ahead, say experts at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital.

Pediatrician Rebekka Levis, MD, and Abraham Bartell, MD, Chief of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry offer safety tips to make the transition from summer to school as smooth as possible.

• Choose the right backpack for your child. Your child’s backpack should weigh no more than 10-20% of the child’s body weight, should have wide padded straps and a padded back and should rest at the child’s waist. Disperse items evenly throughout the different compartments and encourage your child to use both straps.
• Talk to your children about anxiety or angst that they may be experiencing. Getting into a routine and preparing for the transition to school will help address most general anxieties. Talk to your children about concerns they have from last year that may not have been addressed over the summer. If your child was seeing a therapist or counselor, get back into the routine of seeing that professional.
• Make sure your child is up to date on immunizations: Children should visit theirpediatrician for an annual physical and ensure that their immunizations are up to date. InNew York State, this means children entering kindergarten should have two measles,mumps and rubella vaccines, two chicken pox vaccines, and should be up to date withtheir polio and DTaP vaccines. Children entering 7 th grade should have one meningitisvaccine and children entering 12 th grade should have two meningitis vaccines, unless the first was received after their 16th birthday.
• Ease back into a school year routine – including setting an earlier bedtime. Children ages 6-18 should get approximately 10-12 hours of sleep per night. Help your child get back into a regular routine during the summer by waking up earlier and moving bedtime up by 15-30 minutes each night over the last week or two before school starts. Help make falling asleep easier by cutting out screen time for the last hour before bed to avoid overstimulation and avoid meals that are too big or too small.
• Don’t skip breakfast and make sure your kids are getting healthy school lunches. Eating a healthy breakfast and lunch helps children fuel their day appropriately and leads to better focus and academic performance. Pack a healthy lunch for your child that includes fruit, protein and simple carbohydrates. If your child’s lunch is provided at school, check to make sure healthy options are offered.

For more back to school health and safety tips, they recommend a visit to the American Academy of Pediatrics website at www.aap.org.

Watch this video with Dr. Levis: