Healthy Teeth
- Help your child brush his teeth twice a day.
- After breakfast
- Before bed
- Use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste with fluoride.
- Help your child floss her teeth once a day.
- Your child should visit the dentist at least twice a year.
Ready for School
- Take your child to see the school and meet the teacher.
- Read books with your child about starting school.
- Talk to your child about school.
- Make sure your child is in a safe place after school with an adult.
- Talk with your child every day about things he liked, any worries, and if anyone is being mean to him.
- Talk to us about your concerns.
Your Child and Family
- Give your child chores to do and expect them to be done.
- Have family routines.
- Hug and praise your child.
- Teach your child what is right and what is wrong.
- Help your child to do things for herself.
- Children learn better from discipline than they do from punishment.
- Help your child deal with anger.
- Teach your child to walk away when angry or go somewhere else to play.
Staying Healthy
- Eat breakfast.
- Buy fat-free milk and low-fat dairy foods, and encourage 3 servings each day.
- Limit candy, soft drinks, and high-fat foods.
- Offer 5 servings of vegetables and fruits at meals and for snacks every day.
- Limit TV time to 2 hours a day.
- Do not have a TV in your child’s bedroom.
- Make sure your child is active for 1 hour or more daily.
Safety
- Your child should always ride in the back seat and use a car safety seat or booster seat.
- Teach your child to swim.
- Watch your child around water.
- Use sunscreen when outside.
- Provide a good-fitting helmet and safety gear for biking, skating, in-line skating, skiing, snowboarding, and horseback riding.
- Have a working smoke alarm on each floor of your house and a fire escape plan.
- Install a carbon monoxide detector in a hallway near every sleeping area.
- Never have a gun in the home. If you must have a gun, store it unloaded and locked with the ammunition locked separately from the gun.
- Ask if there are guns in homes where your child plays. If so, make sure they are stored safely.
- Teach your child how to cross the street safely. Children are not ready to cross the street alone until age 10 or older.
- Teach your child about bus safety.
- Teach your child about how to be safe with other adults.
- No one should ask for a secret to be kept from parents.
- No one should ask to see private parts.
- No adult should ask for help with his private parts.
