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It's holiday time and with it comes parties, festivities, and happy moments shared with friends and family.
At the Montreal Children's Hospital, many of our devoted health professionals do their best to bring a
little holiday cheer to patients even though they are stuck in the hospital.
The "Where kids come first" team also offers you safety tips to make sure your holidays are spent
having fun and not spent in our ER.
We also want to highlight the courage and inspiring attitudes of Toni, Marc and Sarah, as well as all
the other patients to whom we wish, above all, a healthy new year!
Christmas at the MCH : a lesson of courage and strength
Toni has been at the hospital since October and is undergoing another surgery on December 16.
She'll be among the children spending the Holidays at the hospital this year. Read more about this courageous girl. [+]
Why does the Holiday Season have such an impact on people I thought. I am not religious.
And I am not into the materialistic things in life, so the whole present giving thing does
not mean much. But there I was, glowing in the warmth—tears trickling down my face and the
most wonderful feeling rushing through my body, when it hit me: this is a ritual. A tradition
passed down from generation to generation.
[+]
OUR OLYMPIC TORCH BEARERS
MCH patients Sarah Cook and Marc Normandeau were chosen to carry the Olympic torch when it passed through Montreal.
[+]
KEEP MUSICAL HOLIDAY CARDS POWERED BY BATTERIES OUT OF REACH
Button batteries found in musical cards are tiny, round, and shiny which makes them very attractive
to children. They often eagerly play with the batteries and inadvertently stick them in their
ears or nose or even swallow them. This is not a trivial issue; these batteries can cause
significant damage in very little time.
[+]
HOW TO AVOID A TRIP TO THE TRAUMA CENTRE
Last year during the two week holiday period, many children were treated for injuries in the
MCH ER. More than half of these injuries occurred at home and were preventable. Injuries such
as head
traumas and broken bones from falls, choking on small toys, hot liquid burns and
poisonings can be avoided with a little extra supervision and planning. MCH Trauma specialists
have a few important holiday safety tips to share with parents, children and teens.
[+]
Do you have a question of a general nature that you'd like to ask our specialist?
If your question is selected, the answer will be published in the next edition of the newsletter.
My 29-month-old son has recently become afraid of the moon. It probably started because of a scary scene he saw in a kids' movie that had a bright light in it that he called the moon. Now he is scared to look outside the windows at night or walk outside in the dark if he sees the moon in the sky. What is the best way to help him deal with this fear? Should we simply console him and wait for him to outgrow it? Anita - Mom
R :I would not make too much of this
"phobia" as it will undoubtedly pass. One way of desensitizing your son would be to buy a children's
book, e.g. nursery rhymes, featuring colourful pictures of a happy, anthropomorphic moon and reading
to him pointing out the benign nature of the moon. Another suggestion would be to use a colourful
yellow ball and call it the moon and play with him using the "moon". If he does act fearfully when
he sees the moon outside, console him and reassure him that the moon is a friendly "person".[+]
The best response will be published in the next issue!
How do you choose a babysitter?
R :If your children go to daycare or school,
get in touch with other parents and see who they use. Then check up on anyone they recommend: get references and
interview them. Many teenagers take babysitting courses so choose someone who has already done the course.
For more helpful tips, read the article on the MCH website.[+] Ingrid, mom of 2
Spinach is high in iron
False: The myth of spinach
having lots of iron comes from someone other than Popeye. It was a mistake made by a certain Dr. Von Wolf who,
in 1870, put the decimal in the wrong place, in effect multiplying the content of iron by 10. Even though it was
corrected 60 years later, we still believe it's true. So even though spinach has a good amount of iron, we assimilate
only 5% of it because of the oxalic acid that it contains. Spinach does contain folic acid, manganese, vitamins A
and K, B2 and B6…so it is still good for your little one's health![+]
