While the cold and flu season is right around the corner, don’t be so quick to reach for the medicine cabinet when dealing with your kids. Pediatricians say that young children should not be given cold medicine to treat symptoms of congestion, etc. Instead, parents should rely on home remedies.

The FDA is changing the labeling on many over the counter products to make the risks to children more clear. However, during this transition period, some cold medications still have old labels that merely encourage parents to speak with the family doctor before use.

“More than 800 over-the-counter cough and cold products are sold in the United States, the FDA said. Sales of cold and cough products are estimated at more than $3.7 billion annually,including nearly $300 million in children's cold remedies, according to Nielsen Co.

 Sales have been deteriorating as more science and studies call the products into question, particularly for children,” writes Bruce Japsen in an October 7, 2008 Chicago Tribune article.

You can find the read article here.

Cold medicine is not always bad, but part of the problem is that not enough research has been done on the effects on children to approve its safety. Instead of turning to the medicine cabinet, try a few home remedies. Here are some suggestions: tea with honey, a humidifier, or our personal favorite—homemade chicken noodle soup. We don't believe anything works better on a cold.

Don’t let your kids burnout too soon.  While it is great to encourage your children to get involved in sports, don’t let sports to take over their lives or yours. 

More and more it is common for a young teenager to get burnt out from his/her sport.  This is how it happens—a child falls in love with a sport and wants to be the next phenom.  Actually, it tends to be their parents who push them to be the next A-Rod, Tiger Woods, or Michael Phelps. 

Of course in order to become the best, an athlete must practice, practice, practice.  Practice makes perfect, right?  Wrong.  Practicing too much and playing in competitions too often is the root of the problem.  Although a kid may love a sport, it can become problematic when everything that child does revolves around a single sport. 

We suggest encouraging your child to get involved in a number of sports at a young age.  They shouldn’t limit themselves before they are given a chance to explore all their options.  Sure there is nothing wrong to hope for greatness in your child and push them to a point.  However, when going to that select soccer practice or tennis tournament becomes more of a job than a passion, it may be time to revaluate your goals.

"With more kids than ever in organized sports, an estimated 30 million of them through high school, Metzl and other experts in sports medicine and youth athletics say they are increasingly concerned about the pressures put on some children to excel.  Not only are these youngsters at risk for emotional burnout, they may also develop injuries that plague them for a lifetime," writes Jacqueline Stenson, an MSNBC contributor. 

The rest of the article, titled "Pushing too hard too young" is featured here.  Although the article was published four years ago, the information is just as relevant today.