Advocare Delran Pediatrics

01/28/2026

If you have a child with autism (or know someone who does), you may have wondered about "alternative" therapies:

​Studies show that up to 95% of kids with autism spectrum disorder have tried some form of complementary and alternative medicine. This includes therapies that seem to be "natural." Find information to help you navigate these options safely.​

01/25/2026

Topical info for this cold, snowy week in NJ:

❄️ Snow, ice and below freezing temps are headed this way. Parents: Learn the warning signs of frostbite and the do's and don'ts of treatment.

01/19/2026

We all need occasional breaks from activities, from screens and from other stimulations:

We once taught five-year-olds that stopping was part of growing.
In kindergartens across America during the 1950s and 60s, something beautiful happened every afternoon.
After the morning lessons. After the crayons were tucked away. After graham crackers and small cartons of milk.
The teacher would dim the lights.
A record player would begin to spin—soft instrumental music filling the room.
And twenty small children would settle onto their striped mats, pull up blankets that smelled like home, and learn something their bodies already knew but their minds were just discovering:
Stillness has power.
Naptime wasn't a luxury or a break for tired teachers. It was understood as essential—part of the curriculum itself. Educators recognized what science would later confirm: young brains need these pauses to process and cement everything they're learning. Memory consolidation happens during rest.
Some children slept deeply, their breathing soft and rhythmic.
Others simply lay quiet, watching dust particles dance through afternoon sunlight, daydreaming in that unhurried way only children can—their minds weaving stories from ceiling tiles and shadow patterns.
But here's what mattered: even the children who never slept learned something profound.
They learned that you don't always need to be doing something to be worthy.
They learned that their bodies would tell them what they needed.
They learned that grown-ups would protect their right to rest.
Then something shifted.
Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating through the 1990s, American kindergarten transformed. What had been a gentle introduction to school became something more urgent, more academic, more scheduled.
Standards rose. Testing crept into younger grades. The pressure intensified.
The striped mats were rolled up, stored away, eventually discarded.
The record players disappeared, replaced by smartboards and timers.
By the early 2000s, naptime had vanished from most American kindergarten classrooms—especially half-day programs where every minute was now devoted to instruction.
Today's kindergarteners move from reading groups to math centers to literacy stations to screens, often without a single moment to pause and integrate what they're learning. Research shows that instructional time for reading and math has increased dramatically, while time for music, art, play, and child-directed activities has declined by nearly half.
Meanwhile, we wonder why childhood anxiety has soared.
We removed the pause, then asked why children couldn't catch their breath.
Those who lived through the naptime era carry the memory: the weight of that familiar blanket, the security of a darkened room, the radical permission to simply be rather than constantly perform.
We didn't realize we were learning a lesson that would take decades to understand:
Rest isn't the opposite of achievement.
It's what makes achievement sustainable.
The science has caught up to what kindergarten teachers knew instinctively: children need margin. They need processing time. They need permission to integrate learning through stillness before being asked to produce more.
To every parent watching their exhausted kindergartener struggle: they weren't always asked to do this much, this young, this relentlessly.
To every teacher fighting to protect recess, play, and moments of quiet: research has always supported you.
To anyone who feels guilty about needing to pause: we once taught five-year-olds that rest was part of how they grew.
We once dimmed the lights, played soft music, and gave small children permission to stop achieving for thirty minutes.
We understood that in that stillness, something important was happening.
Maybe it's time we remembered.
Maybe it's time we gave ourselves the same grace we once gave them.

01/19/2026

Cold and flu medicines; oh, how we wish they worked, but they don't!
https://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/flu-and-cold-supplements-mostly-they-are-worthless/
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Many flu and cold supplements lack scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness and are generally a waste of money.

01/16/2026

More worrisome information about excessive cellphone use in teens (and adults):

Previous research has linked general screen use around adolescence—but not specifically smartphone use—to impairments in mental health, body weight, and sleep patterns. This study found that among US youths in early adolescence, smartphone ownership and earlier age of smartphone acquisition is associated with higher rates of depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep. Read the full article in Pediatrics: https://bit.ly/4ppMDIh

01/16/2026

This may or may not have been written by AI, but it does represent how phones and social media can change kids:

The day Olivia got a phone was the day everything started to change. At first, her phone was just another gadget. Then it became her whole world, and I wasn’t in it.

I didn’t know you could miss someone who’s sitting right next to you, but that’s how it feels.

Olivia used to be full of life. She laughed loudly, told silly jokes, and was always up for anything. She used to run with me down the hall even though it made her ponytail fall apart.

We spent afternoons making up dumb skits, painting our nails weird colors, and trying to bake something without setting off the smoke alarm. But ever since she got the phone, it’s like she’s been disappearing, even when she’s sitting right next to me.

Now, her eyes are always on the screen, and it’s like I don’t even exist.

On the bus, she sat next to me, eyes down, fingers tapping. I told her about the weird thing Mr. Gomez did in science class, and she didn’t even look up. “Wait, what?” she said, but I knew she hadn’t heard a word.

Soon, she started acting different at school. She started sitting with a new group at lunch, mostly kids with phones, and they’d laugh about things I didn’t understand, maybe something from Instagram or TikTok.

When I walked over one day, hoping to sit next to her like we always used to, she barely glanced up and said, “Oh… we don’t have room.”

There was room. Two empty seats. But none for me, I guess.

She seemed to be in a whole new world full of likes, filters, and inside jokes I didn’t belong to. Meanwhile, I was left behind, invisible even when I was right in front of her.

One day, I asked her if she wanted to hang out after school. We hadn’t done that in weeks. She looked up from her screen and blinked like I’d woken her up. “I can’t,” she said. “I need to finish a photo dump for Insta.” Apparently curating your life was more important than living it.

That night, I sat in my room and looked through our old pictures. I missed her. I missed us.

I don’t think Olivia meant to disappear. It just kind of happened. Little by little, she stopped being the same. I hope someday she looks up and sees that real friends are still here, no filters required.

01/05/2026

Ear wax facts:

12/22/2025

How to reduce holiday stress for kids with ADHD:

12/17/2025

Please warn your teens and pre-teens about Kratom. "Natural" doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy (you wouldn't put essential oils of poison ivy in your moisturizer, would you?)

Kratom: What Parents Need to Know About Risks, Safety​ and Teen Use

12/16/2025

A cold weather reminder:

It’s cold out there. Don’t forget to buckle your children into their car seats with regular clothes on and then use their winter coats as a blanket for warmth. You can even put their arms through the sleeves for added warmth and comfort!

12/14/2025

The Vitamin K injection is extremely important for all newborns to receive in order to prevent a very serious bleeding problem, including bleeding into the brain. Below are series of concerns and answers that address those questions.

12/14/2025

A holiday reminder about dangerous gifts: