Doctors’ Tips for Keeping Your Kids Healthy

A Few Ear Infections a Year Aren’t a Big Deal

What the doctor wants you to know: “This is quite normal and not a cause for alarm,” says Nina Shapiro, an associate professor of pediatric otolaryngology at the Mattel Children’s Hospital at the University of California at Los Angeles. “A child’s immune system is simply still developing, as is her anatomy. Some parents worry that several infections will be the cause of speech delays, but that’s not a problem. Kids will catch up.”

Where she slacks off: “My kids have eaten food off the floor. Just the other day, my six-year-old son’s toast hit the floor―butter-side down, no less―and I picked it right up and handed it to him.”