As students settle into the new school year, a Palm Beach County pediatrician says parents can help their kids thrive by focusing less on things they can't control — like who the teacher is — and more on the basics of health.
Dr. Celina Moore, a board-certified pediatrician with Moore Healthy Kids and the Palm Beach Health Network, said the start of school brings plenty for kids to worry about: new teachers, new friends, and coursework that might feel too easy or too hard.
"From a health perspective, I think really getting back down to the basics is the right approach for parents," Moore said. "You don't have control of who the teacher is, and you don't know if they're going to struggle academically or not, but you can help them with getting to bed on time to be able to sleep."
Moore said that also means making sure kids eat a good breakfast, whether that's packing a lunch or reviewing the school menu for healthy choices — something she said is easy to overlook in a hectic morning.
Moore said parents shouldn't overlook the commute itself.
"Whether you're walking or riding a bike or skateboard or driving, you want to make sure that pedestrian safety and bike safety and car safety is all being taken care of," Moore said.
With summer's more relaxed schedule behind them, Moore urged families to scale back recreational screen time, especially since so much schoolwork already happens on a screen.
"A lot of schooling is done on screens, which is unfortunate because you're spending a lot of time in front of that light, very close to their faces," Moore said. "So all the recreational screen time should be mitigated."
Moore said flu shots are now available, and while it's not urgent to get one immediately, families shouldn't wait too long either.
"You want to get the flu shot before the flu comes to town," Moore said. "We're seeing little peaks here and there — not big amounts — but we're seeing a little bit of flu, and we're anticipating it to be a lot more."
Moore said pediatricians are seeing anxiety in children at what she described as epidemic levels, driven by both school work and peer pressure.
"We have a lot of really worried kids out there," Moore said. "You want to be able to reassure your children without bulldozing everything in front of them."
She said parents should acknowledge what their kids are feeling without dismissing it or overreacting to it, and pointed back to the same health basics — sleep, nutrition and exercise — along with less screen time, which she said can worsen anxiety.
"It feeds into this cycle of these dopaminergic hits that you just keep on wanting to do — look at the next reel or play the next game or see the next video — and it takes away from any type of coping mechanism that you might be able to learn as a child," Moore said.
She recommended role-playing with children as a way to work through anxiety together, along with teaching kids to recognize the physical signs of stress, such as a racing heart, clenched fists or a stomachache.
"If a child who's worried might not really understand that they're worried, they do understand that they have a little pit in their stomach and their heart's beating a little bit faster," Moore said. Once kids can identify those signs, she said, they can try breathing exercises, humming, singing, or stepping outside.
"As the kids today say, 'don't touch grass' — that is really important, to be grounded with nature outside," Moore said.
Moore said one of the simplest and most effective changes families can make is removing electronics from kids' bedrooms.
"Have them charge their cell phones in the kitchen or somewhere else, so that they don't feel tempted to pick it up in the middle of the night," Moore said. "Going to bed on time, sleeping uninterrupted sleep, can have a great start to the day."