KEEPING KIDS HEALTHY
Professional Development; 30 minutes each episode.
Web: www.KeepingKidsHealthy.org
The Emmy-winning KEEPING KIDS HEALTHY arms parents and caregivers of children
with the knowledge and support they need to make well-informed decisions about
their child's health. Each episode covers children’s health topics drawn from a
broad range of physical and psycho-social issues. In segments moderated by Dr.
Winnie King, nationally recognized health professionals from leading medical
institutions and organizations address health concerns in a conversational,
comprehensible and down-to-earth manner. Field reports addresses the human side
of each issue by following families into the real world — at home and in school
— where they are dealing with health, safety and child-rearing challenges and
trying to improve the quality of their children’s lives.
701. Teens Behind the Wheel: How Can You Keep Them Safe?!
In this compelling episode of Keeping Kids Healthy, join host Dr. Winnie King
and four families whose lives were forever changed by their teens’ drowsy
driving and drunk driving. Most importantly, learn from them and the experts
what you can do to protect your children.
702. Protecting Your Kids from Meningitis & Whooping Cough
Many people are aware of the dangers of meningitis – but when it comes to
whooping cough, you may have thought it had been eradicated by vaccinations.
Unfortunately, that’s not true. Both whooping cough and meningitis are still “at
large” in the population – two potentially fatal diseases that are particularly
dangerous to young people. Bacterial meningitis can rip through the body at the
blink of an eye, deforming young bodies and disabling its victims; and whooping
cough is a serious respiratory disease that is making a comeback, and that can
actually take the life of a young child.
703. Bipolar Disorder in Children
It’s a condition marked by severe mood changes – soaring “highs” and
bottomless “lows” – that happen for no obvious reason at all, and it’s tough for
a parent to know when it’s time to get professional help. In this episode, host
Dr. Winnie King will introduce you to two adolescents who’ve been diagnosed with
bipolar disease, and they’ll share with you what’s going on inside their heads
as they and their families try to cope with their changing moods. And you’ll
gain from the wisdom of two of the country’s leading experts on bipolar
disorder, who will guide you through the most important tips for evaluating and
treating your own child’s mood swings. Music Therapy for Sick Kids A lot of
medical progress comes from research and scientific progress; but every now and
then we stumble across a kind of therapy that seems to work even though the
scientific reason isn’t clear. Music therapy is one of those oddities. Join us
for this inspirational look at two women who have devoted their lives to making
children better, through song!
704. How to Prevent Lead Poisoning
A million children in the U.S. suffer from lead poisoning. Could your child be
one of them? If your house, or your childcare center, was built before 1978, the
answer could be yes, because lead paint could be exposing your child to this
condition. Lead poisoning is a serious problem that can cause conditions like
hyperactivity and severe brain damage – and the effects are irreversible. And
frighteningly, there’s no way to know whether your child is suffering from lead
poisoning without getting him or her tested. But there are some things you can
do around the house to help prevent lead poisoning from ever being an issue in
your family, and to stop it in its tracks if it has begun to affect your child.
So join our host Dr. Winnie King as she introduces you to the country’s leading
experts on lead poisoning, and come with us on a home inspection to find the
telltale signs of lead in your house. Kids Fighting the Odds Many of our
segments focus on the parent’s role in protecting a child. But there are times,
often in the most serious cases, when a child shows a level of strength and
determination that takes your breath away – or when a parent/child team works
together to beat everything that life can throw at them. Here’s your chance to
be inspired by two of those teams. Jessica was born paralyzed from the waist
down; Ned was born with Down Syndrome. But in each case the child/parent team
triumphed over the odds, and reached levels of happiness and achievement that no
one could have predicted for them.
705. Meet Your Child's Imaginary Friends
Does your kid have an imaginary friend? And if he does, is it a problem? Should
you worry? Well, believe it or not, there’s actually research to give you the
answer – and you’re going to love what you hear. About two thirds of young kids
report having imaginary friends, and in this delightful and memorable episode
you’ll meet the kids and their friends, and learn what you need to know to make
these visitors a productive and welcome part of your family! Recognizing
Asperger Syndrome Remember those kids in school who just couldn't relate to the
other kids? They were always very smart but somehow seemed lacking in social
skills? They usually had trouble making friends? The reason might be a
neurological disorder. Meet a 15-year-old boy who has it, and a specialist who
can explain what the syndrome is and what can be done about it.
706. Preventing Teen Suicide: What Parents Need To Know
What can you do if your teen is thinking about suicide? And equally
importantly, how do you even know? This lifesaving program will teach you the
signs to look for, the techniques for getting your child to “open up” to you
about his feelings, and the steps you can take to prevent him from taking that
drastic step. Life With Hemophilia In this program you’ll learn about new
medical science that’s helping hemophiliac children; and you’ll see how a young
man can begin to “grow up” – despite the challenges of the disease – and live an
independent, happy life.
707. Girls, Sports, and Eating Disorders: What’s The Connection? In today’s
show, you’ll meet two of the country’s leading sports medicine experts, and a
doctor who specializes in eating disorders, who will tell you what you need to
know about preventing, recognizing, and treating any sports or eating excesses
in your child. And you’ll meet three young women – including one who became
anorexic at age 5! – who learned the hard way about the need for balance in
exercise, in their approach to food, and in their image of themselves and their
bodies.
708. Teen Boys and Sports: Life-Threatening Dangers
Everyone thinks that sports and exercise are terrific for their children,
but what most parents don’t realize is that taken to the extreme; the idea of
winning at any cost can actually cost your child his life! In boys, the drive to
be strong leads many young men to steroid addiction, with disastrous side
effects ranging from personality disorders to liver and kidney failure. And the
emphasis on winning – particularly in activities like wrestling, where young men
are asked to drop pounds of weight in the space of days – can create health
risks that can actually kill. But could you tell if your son is secretly using
steroids? And if his coach were to push him beyond the limits of health and
safety, would you recognize it, and could you take the steps necessary to stop
it? Today, you’ll meet two young men who learned these lessons the hard way, and
a mother and father whose son lost his life for his sport – and you’ll find out
from one of the country’s leading sports medicine experts what dangers you need
to look out for, and the steps you can take, to keep your child safe from these
hidden dangers. Protecting Your Child From Lyme Disease Lyme disease is
spreading – but it’s still terribly difficult to diagnose, often equally hard to
cure, and it can have a profoundly damaging impact on your life. Recognizing the
symptoms and getting treatment right away can mean the difference between
licking the disease or possibly suffering though a lifetime of disabling
symptoms – but it’s not easy to recognize, and even the experts disagree on the
way treatment should proceed. So what can you do to keep your children safe from
this tick-borne infection? Keep them off of the lawn in the summer? Forbid them
to walk in the woods? How do you even find the tiny ticks that carry the
disease? In this episode, Keeping Kids Healthy host Dr. Winnie King will show
you the protective steps you should take, the signs of illness to look for, and
the range of approaches you need to discuss with your doctor, to diagnose and
treat the disease. And you’ll meet the teens and families who have been living
with lyme disease, and learn from their experiences the most important things
you need to do to protect your child.
709. Battling Depression: How Parents Can Fight Back
More than three million teens in this country suffer from depression, and it
can lead many of them to intentionally injure themselves, or even take their own
lives. Depressed children need your help! But how can parents tell the
difference between normal teenage mood swings and clinical depression? Dr.
Winnie King and two mental health experts tell you what to look for, and what
treatments are most effective if your child is diagnosed with depression. You’ll
also learn about the use of antidepressant medication in teens, and the
importance of monitoring your child to avoid potentially damaging side effects.
And you’ll hear from four courageous young women who will share stories of their
battles with depression, and the steps they’ve taken to overcome it.
710. College Kids: Home for the Holidays
Freshman year at college; students living away from home; parents with an
empty bedroom. It’s a pretty major challenge for parents to let their son or
daughter go off on their own – but it can become even trickier when the student
comes back for the holidays with a tattoo or a nose ring – or just with a whole
new attitude about how independent he should be! Host Dr. Winnie King joins one
family and a family counselor to examine the feelings, adjustments, and
accommodations everyone has to make to survive the turmoil. Raising a Gay Teen:
The Teen Perspective Your teenage son has just told you that he’s gay – now what
you do? What if it’s your daughter who makes the announcement – what does it
mean for her, and how should you react? Experts say up to 10% of all teens are
gay, so any parent may have to face these questions, whether about your own
child or the child of a friend. On this program you’ll get answers from two
kinds of experts: the professionals who work with gay kids and their parents,
and the families who have lived through it all. Find out what it means to be
gay, young, and a minority in New York – or a 12-year-old Caucasian boy who’s
now labeled “the gay kid” – or a high school girl who comes from a Baptist and
Hispanic environment, and “comes out” as gay to her friends. Hear the stories
from the kids themselves, and learn what parents need to do, to help gay teens
through the daunting social, cultural and personal challenges gay young people
face in a predominantly straight society.
711. Raising a Gay Teen: The Parent's Perspective
On this episode, we focus on the impact of a child’s homosexuality on the
parents. How does a mother deal with her own feelings, while still helping her
child? What if you’re uncomfortable about telling your friends that your child
is gay? What if your religion says homosexuality is wrong? Meet a Baptist
minister from Virginia who had to answer that question; and travel to Muskogee,
Oklahoma, where a mother and father who were pillars of their community became
outcasts when their son “came out.” Find out what parents can do to effectively
negotiate the minefields of what can be a very challenging situation. AIDS in
Adolescents: Keeping All Our Kids Safe If you think that AIDS only affects
straight teens, you’re wrong! Young people aged 13 to 24 account for half of all
new AIDS infections each year, and many of those kids are straight young people
engaging in the most traditional kinds of sexual interaction. And one reason why
AIDS is so widespread is that we’ve dropped the ball on teaching our children
the most important message: PREVENTION. Meet a mother who lost her daughter to
AIDS, and let her, along with a renowned AIDS expert and a teenaged peer
educator, teach you how to prevent your child from becoming an AIDS statistic.
712. Foster Adoption: The View from Both Sides
Right now, there are half a million kids in foster care – kids for whom the
idea of a real family is just a dream. Some of them will spend their whole
childhood in foster care, and will be turned out into the world at age 18 – on
their own. Others will be adopted. Thousands more will spend years waiting to
see which group they belong to. Have you ever thought about what it would be one
of them? To move from home to home, hoping for a family that will take you in
and make you a permanent part of their lives? And what would it be like to adopt
a foster child – what is the impact on the family? This show answers the
questions from both sides. You’ll meet children who were adopted, children who
“aged out” without ever joining a loving family, and parents who invited foster
children into their lives, and learned to accept and conquer the challenges that
foster parents face.
713. Through The Eyes Of A Child: Living With Diabetes, Lupus, and Cystic
Fibrosis
Some of the most touching and memorable stories we’ve ever told on Keeping Kids
Healthy have been told through the eyes of the young people who are living with
serious chronic illness on a daily basis – stories shot primarily by the
families themselves, that unfold as we follow them through a day in each of
their lives. These are stories and people you’ll never forget. Join them and
learn just a little more about the lives of people around you who are showing
tremendous strength in the face of life’s greatest challenges.
