Evo Terra (Host): This is Children's Health Checkup, where we answer parents' most common questions about raising healthy and happy kids. I'm Evo Terra. Today's topic, Preparing Your Child For a Healthy School Year. As summer winds down and the new school year approaches, many parents are focused on making sure their kids are ready to hit the ground running.

But beyond school supplies and new clothes, how can you ensure your child is physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared for the school year ahead? In this episode, we'll explore strategies to ease the transition back to school, including how to adjust sleep schedules, manage anxiety, establish healthy routines, and promote overall well being for your kids. We'll cover all the bases to help your child succeed both in and out of the classroom. And we'll cover all of that with Dr. Kelley Smith, a Pediatrician at Children's Health. Dr. Smith, welcome.

Kelley Smith, MD: There we go. It's nice to be here.

Host: Now, this topic is of keen interest to me because, as I have mentioned to you in our offline conversation, my granddaughter starts first grade next week. They think something crazy like that, and my son, her father, is kind of freaking out about it, if I'm honest. They are not really prepared in that household for the kindergartner to suddenly be a first grader.

And I think a lot of that has to do with the summer schedule that we are on right now. Like, I had her last night while they were out doing some things, and they came to pick her up at 10:30 at night, and she was still up watching Goonies with me. So, how can they start getting her back into a routine that will make her better to approach school this year?

Kelley Smith, MD: Yes, the summer bedtime creep. It is definitely real and happens with all ages from young elementary kids all the way up to my high school students. So, if you are several weeks out from starting school, you can start this a little bit more gradually. Most of us who do time change don't enjoy springing forward and falling back, so since we all feel that particular hour, I would usually tell folks, you know, if you're a few weeks out, maybe move the bedtime by 15 minutes for a couple of nights, then keep moving it, moving it. Now, if you are much closer to crunch time, one, you may have to go much more drastically. And two, even on the other end of that, go ahead and get your child up. They may be crappy those first few days, but it will make them tired to go actually feel like going to sleep. Also we recommend trying to limit your electronics before bed, because those are things that can keep you awake. However, print material is good for making you feel sleepy.

So practicing their reading and also doing something that will promote them actually falling asleep. If you have a child that really is out of phase and having a lot more trouble falling asleep for a variety of reasons, then I usually recommend, hey, reach out to me, reach out to your fellow pediatrician, and just get some suggestions of some other things that you might do.

Host: Excellent suggestions. While we're on the topic of sleep, I'm always puzzled when these schools have start times as early as 7 or earlier for kids. Because I mean, I can remember when my son was young and I think even when I was young, I didn't want to wake up that early and my body needed a whole lot of sleep. So can you tell me a little bit about, I mean how does sleep impact a child's success in school?

Kelley Smith, MD: You need a basic amount of sleep just to even be functional. Studies show for us adults that sleep deprivation is as harmful to our driving habits as drinking alcohol. So there is a bare minimum for function. For most individuals that's going to be somewhere around six hours. Now that's function. That's not learning, that's not mood, that's not anything else; that's pure function. The way I usually get some of the middle schoolers to recognize the importance of sleep is I will tell them, hey, the one thing you can do to impact your growth, besides eat the vegetables like I told you, is make sure you're getting your sleep, because if you are not getting enough sleep, growth hormone is not releasing, you are not going to be getting taller.

For those of us who are at our final adult height, growth hormone is still even important for us because it helps us with our weight management. So, too little sleep causes you to release the stress hormone cortisol, which causes weight gain and a whole bunch of other stuff that nobody really wants. So, everybody needs to sleep.

Host: Yeah, and I know that just being well rested makes sure that your body can fight off all the things that it's going to be bombarding it with during the day. And now that these kids are going back to school, that means they're also going to be surrounded with 25, 30 or hundreds of other children who bring sniffles and weirdness. So what are we going to do about this, you know, colds and flus during the school year?

Kelley Smith, MD: We kind of joke in my practice that the first week that the kids are all back in school, it's like a ghost town because everybody's back in school, and then they've been there a week, they've had a chance to circulate those germs, and here comes everything. So, like we all painfully learned in 2020, basics of washing your hands, which some adults are terrible at, so even remind your kids, hey, remember to wash your hands before you go eat lunch. Remember to wash your hands, when you come back from the bathroom. Hey, you've come home from school, let's wash your face and your hands before we play. So just the basics of good hand hygiene, and I usually include the face because I'm in Texas, we have a lot of allergens out there, and just getting that away from the nose helps with a lot of those other sniffle illnesses that are not infectious.

Also when we can encourage kids, you know, hey it is good to share, but not your food and not your drinks. Share other things, share your pencil, share your eraser, try not to share the food and drinks. Or, if you are sharing, break it off so you're not eating after each other, which again, can be a hard thing, especially if you're a kindergartener or a first grader, you want to share with your bestie.

Host: Yeah, keeping kids healthy while they're at school. They're gone for eight hours or so, and you hope you've given them the tools they need to actually stay healthy. Let's transition to talk about this transition that all these kids are about to go through. Kids are suddenly around new students, they've got different teachers, a whole new peer group possibly.

That, I can remember was a little anxious for me. So should we parents or we caregivers or grandparents like ourselves be looking for signs of anxiety in children? Nobody talked about anxiety when I was a kid, by the way, but I know today things are a lot different about that. What should we be looking for and how do we help kids manage the anxiety that we know they're going to feel?

Kelley Smith, MD: When I'm seeing kids for back to school checkups, there's a particular group that I tend to focus on and, oh, you're a rising middle schooler. Okay. So you're moving from elementary to middle school. Are you nervous, excited, or both? And I usually get the answer of both. And then I'll say back to them, Hey, you know what? Anybody else I ask, almost everybody tells me they are both excited and nervous also, so you are not alone in this feeling. And sometimes just let a good kid know that, oh wait, I'm not the only one that's feeling like this? Okay. Now, signs that your child may be struggling with a little bit more anxiety, you may be hearing things like, my stomach hurts, or I'm having headaches, or I don't know if I want to do that.

Just kind of some real hesitation from a kid that may normally just charge full steam ahead. That can be your sign that maybe you need to sit down with your child and say, okay, well, talk to me about what in particular are you worried about, and maybe we can come up with some strategies ahead of time.

Oh, you're worried you can't get into your locker. Okay, well, let's have a plan B for that. You're worried you're going to get lost. Well, you know, you can ask one of your teachers for help or some of your friends might be really good at finding directions. I was the friend who was great at directions. I had a friend that her mom made the comment of, what are you going to do if she's not there?

And my friend answered, Oh, well, she's never sick. So it's fine. I'll get around. No problem.

Host: Yeah, that was great of you. I was not that person.

Kelley Smith, MD: But maybe try to, again, troubleshoot ahead of time, hey, what in particular are you concerned about, and remember, kids think differently than adults, and something that is worrisome to a kid, an adult may be like, that's not a big deal, but it is to the six year old. It is to the 12 year old.

So I always remind parents, hey, don't minimize that. Remember when you were that age, you had stuff that seemed so important then that now you look back with the benefit of another 10, 20, 30 years and you realize, oh, that wasn't really as concerning as I thought it was going to be.

Host: Yeah, that's very true. This conversation is reminding me of something else I talk with some other people with, and that's about this idea building resiliency into people. Now, usually I do that in the concept of business, but I think it's important that we have resilient people. Right? Resilient kids, so they can cope with all of this stuff because the stresses of a six year old, as you have just said, are very different than the stresses of a 12 year old, which are very different than the stresses of a 17 year old going into that.

So, what can we do as parents and caregivers to kind of help build more resilient kids throughout the years?

Kelley Smith, MD: So, first, I borrow from my mom. She was an educational aide for years. She would work with kids that needed extra help with their reading and their math and that sort of thing. And the kids would say things like, this is hard. And she would say, but we can do hard things and just repeat that over and over again.

So for the elementary kids, just that basic, simple statement, we can do hard things might be a good place to start. Well, we're getting a little older, this mantra may not work as well, so then you may look at the, okay, well, yes, that is something that you have to work at. You picked up all these other skills easily, and there's some kids in your class that you can think of that struggled with this.

So, just like they had to kind of work and practice, you might have to work and practice in this. And especially the ones, we're big into sports here in Texas, so I'll say, you know, hey, when you first started playing soccer, you weren't scoring a goal every time. You're probably still not scoring a goal every time, but you practiced so you can be in the right position, so you can do it, because you worked at it.

Same thing may need to happen with your reading. Same thing may need to happen with your math. Yes, you're having a little trouble now, but if you keep working at it, you can get better. And again, that kind of resilient mindset, as opposed to the more fixed one of, I'm terrible at this and I will never get any better; that's when we start down the path of, okay, this is gonna be a rough school year.

Host: Yes, yes it is. I'm thinking the concept of motivating kids that go to school, not to just have the problems, oh, this is going to be hard, but keeping them motivated and active, you know, my grandparents paid us for A's. That was the thing. Grandma loved to give me a $20 bill if I had straight A's on my report card.

I think I got three $20 bills, during my tenure because 20 bucks was cool, but it wasn't that much of a motivator. What are we doing today to help kids have I think, realistic goals and expectations. Look, not everybody needs to be a straight A student. How do we motivate them? How do we keep them so they succeed academically and also socially?

Kelley Smith, MD: Now, it may depend on the kid that you've got, because some may actually be motivated by money, or motivated by, hey, if you do this, we can go do this activity later. When I'm talking to any of the students that I have, I will usually emphasize, okay, did you do your best work? Not what was the grade in particular, although sometimes that is a monitor of how are things going.

I will usually ask, well, was that your best work? If the answer is, it was your best work, hey, that B in algebra, that is fantastic. I am so happy for you. You should be proud of yourself. If they give me an answer of, yeah, I could have tried harder, that sort of thing, then I'll say, okay, well, what was it that held you back?

Because, I've got some kids that will do the work because they're like, it's the work. I'm supposed to be doing it. I'm a rule following oldest kid, so there I am. And then I've got some that really need to understand, when am I ever going to use this? Why is this important? And sometimes the answer with the high schoolers is, it's important because you need your diploma.

You are not going to be able to do anything without that high school diploma. Now, once you got that diploma, if college is not your thing, there's trade school, there's the military, there's other options, but, the ultimate why is we gotta get that diploma.

Host: Exactly. I think that will help lot of parents that are struggling with how do I keep that kid engaged all the way through. Speaking of these tips, we've covered a lot of ground and I think we had a great conversation. Any other tips we didn't cover on how parents can help prepare their kids for a happy and healthy school year ahead?

Kelley Smith, MD: I guess the only other thing I'd add is I usually talk to everybody, hey, kids need some playtime, kids need some outdoor time. Now, we start off Texas like you start off in Arizona, it's super hot. Super hot, so that can get real hard, but any chance you have to, you know, hey, we even went for a walk, we did something outside as a family on the weekend, any chance you got to get some exercise, and if you have a chance to do anything before school, that does kind of get your mind all set to actually go sit in that desk for a while, so, I'm gonna put a plug in for exercise.

Host: That's a great thing because we need more of that. So you're authorizing two a days for No, I'm kidding.

Kelley Smith, MD: No, let's not go that far. I said walk around the block.

Host: Different thing. Well, Dr. Smith, this has been a fascinating conversation. Thank you very much for all of the information.

Kelley Smith, MD: Thank you so much for having me.

Host: Once again, that was Dr. Kelley Smith, a Pediatrician at Children's Health. For more back to school tips, visit childrens.com/backtoschool, all one word. Thank you for listening to Children's Health Checkup. If you found this podcast episode helpful, please rate and review or share the episode, and please follow Children's Health on your social channels.

Thanks for listening.