Dr. Yalda Momen Hazrat

The amount of sleep kids get directly impacts their attention, learning, memory, emotional stability and physical health. Recent research shows lack of adequate sleep leads to irritability, poor acedemic performance, depression, difficulty focusing and obesity.

This is a simple chart by AAP with recommended sleep hours based on age.

Is your child getting enough sleep? Consistency is key when adjusting there sleep schedule, even on weekends 😊

Remember kids thrive on structure.

Wonderful talk by a seven year old emphasizing the importance of playing with children in the first 5 years of life
Let’s change the future with one game at a time 😊

How every child can thrive by five "What if I was to tell you that a game of peek-a-boo could change the world?" asks seven-year-old Molly Wright, one of the youngest-ever TED speakers. Breaking down the research-backed ways parents and caregivers can support children's healthy brain development, Wright highlights the benefits of pla...

Association of media with child development and parent-child interaction. Two hundred and ninety-six healthy 2–5-year-old preschoolers and 224 mothers were analyzed.

Excessive media usage in children (>1h/day) is related to poorer cognition, language, and social-emotional skills. What is surprising is that a child's media usage is directly related to high screen times in mothers (>5h/day).

How do we fix this: More parent-child interactions. By continuously seeking opportunities to interact with your child, you are helping them learn social-emotional skills, improving their language and enhancing their cognition.

Here is a link to the full study and findings. Highly recommend for any mother who has a cutie between age 2-5 to read this :)

Associations of media use and early childhood development: cross-sectional findings from the LIFE Child study Excessive media usage affects children’s health. This study investigated associations between children’s and mother’s media use, parent–child interactions, and early-childhood development outcomes. Two hundred and ninety-six healthy 2–5-year-old preschoolers (52.4% male, mean age = 3.5...

For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years the prevalence of obesity this past year according to CDC was 18.5%. It is the highest it has ever been. Eighty percent of children obese at 10 to 14 years of age will be obese as an adult. The numbers are basically telling us that it is really hard to let go of bad eating habits.

Obesity leads to diabetes, hypertension, joint pain, depression, sleep problems and ultimately heart disease which is the leading cause of death (23% of total deaths every year).

As parents we owe it to the future of our kids to prevent this obesity pandemic from being on continuous rise. Big part of prevention is simply knowing where we stand. Here is a link to to calculate your child's BMI, which is a quick estimate of your child's body fat.

Body-Mass Index (BMI) in Children Weight gain that is greater than expected for a child's age and height can lead to serious health problems. Body Mass Index (BMI) can serve as a quick estimate of body fat and weight categories. Learn how pediatricians calculate BMI for children.​

The rate of anxiety, depression, behavioral problems have increased in recent years in children aged 3-17. One pattern that I often see in children with various mental health struggles is inability to display emotional and mental resilience in face of hardship.

As parents we can get them ready for reality of the world early on by talking about their emotions, talking about our emotions, never expecting perfection, allowing them to be uncomfortable and fail.

Here is a great article by Tracy Hutchinson, a therapist with over 18 years of clinical experience who has outlined seven mistakes that prevent mental resilience.

1. Minimizing feelings
2. Protecting from failure
3. Overindulging
4. Expecting perfection
5. Preventing uncomfortable situation
6. Not setting boundaries
7. Not taking care of self

A therapist shares the 7 biggest parenting mistakes that destroy kids' mental strength We live in an increasingly stressful world, which is why it's important to help cultivate emotional and mental resiliency in our children. It won't be easy for parents, but avoiding these common mistakes can help.

There is a free course titled 'The Science of Parenting" offered by Harvard University online. This course starts this week and it covers some really important topics:

Week 1: The Nature vs. Nurture Debate; Adoption and Behavior Genetics
Week 2: Learning Language; Screen time; Preschool; Music
Week 3: Morality; Self Control; Family Structure
Week 4: Autism and Vaccination; Sleep; Diet & Breastfeeding
Week 5: Learning and School: The Achievement Gap; Learning Styles; Acceleration; Homeschooling

I highly recommend it for any parent who has 3-5 hours weekly to commit to taking this course.

The Science of Parenting Move beyond the chatter and opinion surrounding parenting and learn about the scientific findings and data that can help you make sensible, informed parenting decisions.

Experts have found that giving kids positive rather than negative attention is much more effective in changing behavior. The idea is to give kids positive attention when a good behavior is observed and ignore the not-so-good behavior. By giving kids positive attention you will be preventing them from seeking it another way.

The Power of Positive Attention | Child Mind Institute Studies show that praise for behavior you want to encourage gets more results than calling out behavior you want to stop. How to use positive attention.

Parents, teachers, and others need to learn how to boost confidence and foster one lifelong trait that will allow kids to tackle various stresses of life. Resilience.

Resilience is act of bouncing back up after a perceived failure/hardship. In this book Dr. Ginsburg outlines 7 crucial concepts that parents can teach kids so that they can develop this trait.

(Competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control)

All children are at risk for tooth decay. Tooth decay occurs when bacteria and food are left in the mouth. The more sugary, starchy food consumed the more bacteria build up. Eventually, this softens the teeth, causing cavities, or holes.

Prevention is the best way to fight future cavities. You should seek regular dental care from 6 months of age for your child. Here is a diagram of prevention in different stages.

This talk provides some great inspiration on how we can actively teach good mental health to children.

Why we all need to practice emotional first aid We'll go to the doctor when we feel flu-ish or a nagging pain. So why don't we see a health professional when we feel emotional pain: guilt, loss, loneliness? Too many of us deal with common psychological-health issues on our own, says Guy Winch. But we don't have to. He makes a compelling case to p...