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Home › Articles › Toddler Health › Waiting Room Woes

Waiting Room Woes

Keeping Your Toddler Healthy and Entertained at the Doctor's Office

By Renee Roberson

Pages:  1  2  3  

As cold and flu season approaches, it's inevitable that parents will find themselves with a child (or two) in a waiting room filled with other coughing, sick children. If that's not bad enough, keeping a sick toddler from picking up even more germs is not an easy task, as the toys located in the waiting room can often prove too tempting – and wait times can sometimes be too long for a fidgety toddler to tolerate.

So what's the best way to prepare for that next trip to the pediatrician's office? Parents who have braved many waiting rooms with their children over the years and sympathetic pediatricians offer their advice on how to survive wait times – and keep your children from picking up viruses if they are receiving a "well visit."

How to Keep Well Visits Well

Many doctor's offices now have separate waiting rooms for both well and sick patients, but that doesn't always help prevent the spread of viruses.

"As far as how to keep your children from getting sick while in the waiting room, the easiest answer is to keep them close to you, and not let them wander around playing with other children and the office toys, which may well have been recently coughed on," says Dr. Charlotte Cowan, a Concord, Mass., pediatrician and founder of The Hippocratic Press, where she writes and publishes children's books about common illnesses most children face.

"If they do get down and play with others, it is smart to wash their hands and faces when you get home," says Dr. Cowan, who is also a mother of three.

But toddlers are naturally curious, especially around new and different toys, which can prevent challenges to parents waiting with them. To help keep germs at bay and your toddler entertained, Dr. Cowan recommends actions that have helped with her own children in the past, such as preparing for a doctor's office visit as if you were packing a bag for a road trip or airplane ride. "I would pack a little bag of toys, such as favorite books from home, stickers or markers and paper, favorite small dolls or trucks, as well as a snack," she says.


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