By Andrea Kane
CNNhealth.com Producer

Last winter, I was told that my young daughter had walking pneumonia. Walking pneumonia? My mind, fueled by alarm, raced: What is walking pneumonia? (A very mild inflammation of the lungs.) Is it serious? (While it can become serious, it is not usually a problem and often heals on its own.) Is she going to be alright? (Of course.) She had very mild symptoms – a cough, a fever – and she wasn’t all that uncomfortable. Her pediatrician said some people let the walking pneumonia resolve itself (that’s how mild it is!), but that I might want to opt for a course of antibiotics. Not wanting to risk complications, and wanting to ease her symptoms sooner rather than later, I quickly agreed (antibiotic-opposed husband be darned). Thanks to access to medical care, my daughter was well within a couple of days; she and I quickly put the episode behind us.

The story ends differently for the more than 2 million children who die of pneumonia – walking pneumonia’s much more deadly cousin - every year. Save the Children, an international humanitarian organization, reports that pneumonia (which can be cause by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites) kills more children under 5 worldwide than measles, malaria and AIDS combined. Pneumonia accounts for 20 percent of all deaths in this - the youngest and most vulnerable – age group. That’s one child dead from pneumonia every 15 seconds. The vast majority of deaths – 98 percent – occur in South Asia and sub-Sahara Africa.

A great many of these deaths could be prevented with existing inexpensive vaccines or treated with inexpensive antibiotics. But the families of children in the 68 countries most affected by pneumonia either don’t know about available vaccines and antibiotics, don’t have access to them or can’t afford them. And that’s a tragedy.

But the flip side of tragedy is hope. Global health authorities, including WHO and UNICEF, are recognizing November 2 as the first-annual World Pneumonia Day and have outlined a six-year action plan to take the first steps in beating back this beast. The GAPP plan, as it is called, includes education, protection, prevention and treatment efforts, targeting both governments and individuals.

Dr. Bill Frist (the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and a trustee of Save the Children) and Dr. Richard Sezibera (Rwanda’s Minister of Health) write in this week’s edition of The Lancet, “… lives continue to be lost from this preventable and treatable disease, and, until recently, there was little outcry.”

I for one am glad there is new attention being brought to bear on an old adversary. No parent should have to mourn the death of a child from a preventable and treatable illness.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

As a  feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors will answer readers' questions. Here's a question for Dr. Gupta.

From Shannon:

"I have a 4-month-old infant and I recently had myself and my 6-year-old son vaccinated for H1N1. My question is, will my infant also gain my immunity to H1N1 through my breast milk? I hope so." 

Answer:

This is a great question and a huge concern for many parents whose children are less than 6 months old and therefore too young to get the H1N1 vaccine. Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to your question, Shannon, so the best we can do is spell out what we do know.

We know that any time you breastfeed your 4-month-old, you pass on potent antibodies (proteins that your immune system produces to fend off disease in the body) that protect him or her against a whole range of infections.

We also know a bit about other vaccines and breast milk, for example, the pneumococcal vaccine that protects against things like pneumonia and meningitis. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, mothers who received that vaccine produced antibodies that were detectable in their breast milk, and passed them on to their babies. What is not as clear is whether those antibodies actually conferred immunity to their newborns.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance about breast milk and the flu vaccine is a tinge more hopeful, albeit far from conclusive: "By breastfeeding, mothers can pass on to the infant the antibodies that their bodies make in response to the flu shots, which can reduce the infant's chances of getting sick with the flu."

While experts wrestle with this question, you have already taken a positive step – and significantly reduced your baby’s chances of getting the H1N1 virus – by getting yourself vaccinated. The next step is to create a "cocoon of protection" around your baby by making sure that other caregivers in the family also get vaccinated.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Miriam Falco
CNN Medical Managing Editor

For all the (legitimate) talk about the new H1N1 influenza virus, it's worth a reminder that this new flu strain is not all we have to worry about as fall turns into winter (except for Colorado, which evidently has winter now).

There's also something called "RSV." As a medical reporter, I've come across this term a few times. As a new mom of a 6-month-old, I've paid a little more attention and did some research. RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, can cause upper- and lower-respiratory infections.
The symptoms include runny nose, dry cough, low-grade fever, sore throat, mild headache and general discomfort. But in severe cases, it can cause bronchiolitis (infection of the tiny airways in the lungs) and pneumonia. According to the Mayo Clinic, severe symptoms include "high fever, severe cough, wheezing - a high-pitched noise that's usually heard on breathing out (exhaling), difficulty breathing, and bluish color of the skin due to lack of oxygen. "

RSV is so common that virtually every child will be infected before his or her second birthday. Fortunately, only a small percentage of infants develop severe illness. Luckily for my little guy, he's apparently no longer in the highest risk group, since most children hospitalized for RSV infection are younger than 6 months of age, according to the CDC. However, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February suggests that among children 5 and younger, RSV infection is responsible for approximately 1of every 334 hospitalizations, 1 of every 38 visits to an emergency department, and 1 of every 13 visits to a primary care office each year in the United States.

Older people and adults with underlying illness can also be affected, but young children are at highest risk. One way to limit the risk to your child is to require folks to wash their hands before picking up your baby. Kissing can also spread RSV.

On August 30, the CDC stopped counting only H1N1 hospitalizations and deaths and started counting all hospitalizations for H1N1 and pneumonia; the new numbers will probably include cases of RSV too.

Consider this your reminder that in addition to H1N1 or swine flu, there are other viruses that lurk around. So if you or your children or parents get sick, it's not automatically always swine flu.

Have you had an experience with RSV that you can share with others?

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Medical Senior Producer

We're still waiting on federal guidelines for how day care centers and preschools should handle the H1N1 flu virus. They were promised last week, but the date has slipped amid behind-the-scenes debate over how far the guidance should go: Should they match the advice for K-12 schools, which say that students who are out sick can come back after just 24 hours without a fever? Or should the day care guidance be more restrictive, since young kids are more prone to complications – and tend to transmit more virus?

In the meantime, I’m watching the debate play out in miniature at the pre-school of my 3-year-old daughter and 15-month-old son. As it happens, my wife helps research flu guidance for the CDC, as do two other parents at the preschool. They helped write a preparedness plan for the school, which goes well beyond the CDC's guidance for K-12 schools – and is stronger than the basic advice the federal government is currently considering for daycares.

My wife and her colleagues recommended that students who are sick with respiratory symptoms stay away for at least seven days. One of them, a senior CDC flu scientist, told me that children with H1N1 typically shed virus – i.e., it's in their mucous and other secretions – for five to 10 days. She said that fits with published research on other flu strains, showing that young children often shed virus for seven days or even longer.

But the head of the school is pushing back. She’s OK with a seven-day restriction for toddlers, but wants it at five days for 3- to 6-year olds, and “24-hours fever-free” – the CDC’s K-12 guideline – for elementary-school-age students. More than that would be too hard on parents, she says. My wife and her friends want to include a warning that the rules are not meant to stop the spread of flu.

In the midst of all this, I talked with Dr. D.A. Henderson of the Center for Biosecurity, who oversaw the CDC's response to the global flu pandemic of 1957. He thinks the guidance to date has been too intrusive – that keeping sick students home longer than usual won't stop the spread of H1N1 and would lead to serious disruptions – including a shortage of health care workers staying home with their kids.

No easy answers, and a lot of disagreement, even among medical professionals. Just one more example: Yesterday, Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited a doctor at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, who reminded us that for most people, even young children, H1N1 is not likely to cause more than passing symptoms. Dr. Jim Fortenberry said that parents should not bring their kids to the ER unless they seem dehydrated, are younger than 12 weeks, have fever for three days or have a fever that returns after being gone for 12-24 hours. That's all well and good, but he didn’t mention CDC guidance – which says that people in high-risk groups (including children younger than 5, as well as pregnant women and people with medical conditions such as asthma) – who have flu-like symptoms (fever higher than 100 PLUS a cough or sore throat) – should take antiviral medication right away, as a precaution. If you’ve got a child with those symptoms, you don’t have to go to the ER, but do call your doctor right away.

The head of my preschool wants to finalize and send out guidelines by tomorrow. As of now, she and the parents on the health committee have to make their decision without official CDC guidance.

Are you a parent? Have you received guidance from your child's day care on what to do if your child becomes ill?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caleb Hellerman
CNN Senior Medical Producer

In the midst of covering the big story of Senator Kennedy’s death on Wednesday, I found myself frantically scrambling for childcare arrangements – the preschool teacher for my 15-month-old son had gone home sick with a 102-degree fever, and the classroom assistant was running out to pick up her own son, with similar symptoms. The head of the preschool stepped in for the afternoon, but did I really want to send my son back on Thursday? To a teacher and a bunch of toddlers who might or might not have been exposed to a nasty virus?

A year ago I might not have fretted, but I’ve got swine flu on the brain – maybe from covering the story here at CNN, or maybe it’s just that I keep seeing reports of cases here, cases there, all over the country. Last week CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said we’re in a race to make a vaccine available before the H1N1 virus hits. To my eyes, the race is over. The outbreak has started. It may not be the Black Plague, but especially for vulnerable people – like pregnant women, people with underlying illness, or 15-month-old toddlers – it can be quite serious. And anyone with children in school or daycare (we’ve also got a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old) knows that viruses spread fast.

I always teach handwashing and try to use hand sanitizer, but most years I throw up my hands and just accept that the kids will spend a lot of their school year sick. This year, that doesn’t sound so appealing. Our preschool doesn’t yet have a formal plan to deal with H1N1, and neither do a lot of schools in Atlanta – or around the country. My wife, who fortunately happens to be a physician and public health official working on this very issue, is frantically working on detailed guidance for parents at our own preschool. In the meantime, we kept our son home Thursday and Friday. He’s got a cold. No fever, nothing serious – but we’ll just let him rest and go back Monday.

Are you doing anything differently this year, to keep your kids from getting sick?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Miriam Falco
CNN Medical News Managing Editor

Expectant parents have a lot to think about as the birth of their child approaches. Parenting classes can provide tips on a variety of topics including breathing techniques to help get through labor, breastfeeding and how to place your baby in the bassinet or crib to avoid sudden infant death syndrome. SIDS is the leading cause of death among babies age 1 month to 1 year. According to the National Institutes of Health, most of these unexplained deaths occur between the ages of 2 and 4 months.

The exact cause is not known, but experts believe that the how a baby sleeps can play a big role in preventing a baby from dying. Having the baby sleep on his or her back is the No. 1 recommendation. Keeping the baby's bed free of anything that might suffocate him or her is also very important, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics has the following guideline:

"Keep soft objects and loose bedding out of the crib: Soft objects such as pillows, quilts, comforters, sheepskins, stuffed toys, and other soft objects should be kept out of an infant's sleeping environment." The group also says that if bumper pads are used, they should be “thin, firm, well secured, and not pillow-like.” Further, the academy says, “loose bedding such as blankets and sheets may be hazardous."

Now a new study finds that would-be parents are getting a mixed message, at least from some ads and photos in popular magazines. According to this study, researchers looked at nearly 400 pictures in 28 popular magazines. Among photos that were used in advertising and articles, researchers found only 36 pictures depicting children in a safe sleeping position.

Most of the images pictured infant sleep environments that did not reflect AAP guidelines to prevent SIDS.

It reminded me of some of the images I saw surfing the Web as I was looking to outfit my baby’s nursery and put things on my registry for my shower.

I saw bedding sets with thick bumpers and blankets, which was confusing to me because I thought the only thing that's supposed to be in my baby's bed is the firm mattress, a sheet and him. My confusion seems to mirror what the researchers of this new study found. They found that "messages in the media are inconsistent with health care messages, create confusion and misinformation...and may lead inadvertently to unsafe practices."

Have you seen images of babies wrapped in blankets and/or placed in super-soft bedding? Would images like this influence how you put your baby to sleep?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Read my blog on the AC 360 site about the child slavery trade in Haiti.

By Andrea Kane
CNNhealth.com Producer

Pssst: Come here… A bit closer. I have a confession to make: One of my daughters has L-I-C-E. And it is driving me crazy, because it just will not go away, no matter how much I cut, comb and nitpick her hair. And I’ve been doing a lot of nitpicking lately – at times, I feel like a mama chimp grooming her child (minus popping the “prize” into my mouth). My daughter gets cranky having to sit there for an hour (especially when I pull an individual hair strand to remove an egg - aka: nit - that is cemented on) and I get cranky, too.

According to the CDC, there are an estimated 6 million to 12 million head lice infestations each year in the U.S. among children 3 to 11 years old. Lice are usually transmitted through direct head-to-head contact. Less commonly, they can be passed on via a hat, comb, pillow or other personal object (contrary to our worst fears, lice don’t dive-bomb from one person’s head to another’s). Cleanliness and socioeconomic status have little to do with getting head lice, although race may have an impact; African-Americans are less likely to get them.

Aside from being icky and itchy, head lice are not known to transmit disease (although hard scratching can cause a secondary infection). That said, you don’t want them hanging around.

Our “ordeal” started in mid-May when I stopped by the school nurse’s office for her to have a look-see because her two best friends had it (that, and she was scratching an awful lot). “You see right there - those are nits,” she said, pointing to what looked like a bitty grain of salt on the hair shaft.

The nurse instructed me to shampoo my daughter’s with an over-the-counter pediculicide (lice-killing) shampoo, then comb out all the nits because OTC shampoos do not kill all the eggs (only the heavy-duty, super-toxic, prescription shampoo does). The third step (after shampooing and nitpicking) is to delouse personal objects.

At the drug store, the choices were many: popular OTC shampoos (with either pyrethrins – derived from chrysanthemums - or their synthetic cousin permethrin), homeopathic treatments (that promise to kill lice without harsh chemicals), gels to help with the nitpicking– even an electric comb that electrocutes the lice.

I ended up buying the store brand, partially because it offered the most shampoo at the cheapest price (the shampoos are expensive and we are - except for my husband - a household of long, curly-haired females, so we needed quantity, especially since we didn’t want to skimp). I slathered it on my daughter’s hair, waited 10 minutes, then rinsed and, with a fine-toothed comb, I combed… and combed… and combed, trying to get all of the nits out. Have I mentioned that she has long curly hair? A lot of it? A thick underbrush of it? Well, it took a long time to through it all. Except that I didn’t get it all: We both grew impatient before I was done.

Then, I threw all of her bedding into the wash, boiled all the combs and hairclips, and quarantined her stuffed animals and brushes. And for good measure, my husband and I shampooed our hair and washed our linens (as luck would have it, there had been a thunderstorm the night before and we played musical beds). I also checked her sister’s hair: Nothing! Mom 1, lice 1.

The next day, the lice were gone. And for a few glorious days, I thought we had dodged a bullet.

With most of the OTC shampoos, you have to retreat between seven and 10 days after the initial treatment, when the eggs that the shampoo failed to kill the first time finally hatch and repopulate the hair - but before the nymphs can grow into adults capable of reproducing. The life cycle of lice is about three weeks.

But before we could get halfway to retreatment time, they were back. So I cut off six inches of my daughter’s hair and we tried another brand of OTC shampoo; this one did not work at all (lice can become resistant to a particular pediculicide). So I went back to the first shampoo and I bought the electric comb (which was pretty cool and did electrocute some lice, but apparently not all). When that failed, I tried the homeopathic shampoo that works by dehydrating the lice and their eggs (this one you have to leave on for at least an hour, instead of 10 minutes). At the time of each treatment, we washed linens, boiled hair accessories all over again. The stuffed animals never made it out of quarantine.

But still the lice returned.

After about a month, at wits end, I called my pediatrician’s office. The nurse on call told me I could try the prescription shampoo (did I detect hesitation in her voice or was that me projecting?) or I could try one more “weird” treatment. Since I wasn’t particularly excited about the prospect of using poison so close to my child’s growing brain, I chose the latter. She recommended “Dippity-do.” Yup: The pink or green hair gel popular in the ’50s and ’60s. (It now comes in other colors too.)

But, she warned, I’d have to wrap my daughter’s hair in plastic wrap and a shower cap and leave it on for 12 hours. Similar to other home remedies - like mayonnaise and olive oil - the idea is to smother the lice in a thick coat of glop. The advantage of Dippity-do over the oily foodstuff is that it is much easier to wash out of hair (and doesn’t stink like unrefrigerated mayonnaise).

If this doesn’t work, I’ll be tempted to pull out the big guns: No, not the prescription shampoo but the electric razor – and give my daughter a buzz cut.

Have you or a family member had lice? How did you finally defeat it? Did using harsh chemicals on a small child worry you?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

As a new feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors will answer readers' questions. This week, Dr. Gupta answers multiple questions about bipolar disorder.

The Food and Drug Administration spent two days this week weighing whether three powerful drugs that treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia should be prescribed for children. The drugs are called atypical antipsychotics. The panel specifically was looking at the risk, benefit ratio of Zyprexa, Seroquel and Geodon. These three drugs come fraught with controversy because the list of risks associated with them. Common side effects include weight gain, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and in some situations, sudden cardiac death. The weight gain is not small – in some cases, a teen can put on 40 pounds in a few months after starting the medications. They seem to interfere with part of the brain that corresponds to our ability to feel full.

Most doctors agree that the risks and side effects need to be weighed by doctor, patient and parent. Many experts CNN spoke to who see children with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia believe these drugs are safe and should be widely available for use when a child has a severe mental health problem.

I received hundreds of questions by e-mail and on twitter. Here are answers to a few of the most common ones.

From @cognimmune via Twitter.com:

"At what age can a child be diagnosed with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia?"

Answer:
That is a really great question and one that experts don’t really have an exact answer to. According an expert in child psychiatrist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Dr. Christopher Varley, diagnosing a child less than 10 years old is very unusual and difficult to do. Most diagnoses are made in the early teen years.

From @shampm via Twitter.com:

"My daughter is adopted and we are having a hard time getting diagnosed [with bipolar disorder]. What can we do?"

Answer:
Diagnosing bipolar disorder can be tricky because many children, and adults, display different sets of symptoms. For instance, not everyone with bipolar disorder will have instant changes to mood or outbursts of anger. Although the main characteristic is a drastic change in mood/personality, one person with bipolar may experience manic depression for a long time, and others may have only short episodes. A person with bipolar disorder may also display changes in his or her sleep patterns, energy level and have difficulty making decisions.

From Tori in Florida:

"I suspect my 16-year-old daughter may suffer from bipolar disorder. How does one know whether to seek a psychologist or psychiatrist for treatment?"

Answer:
This is a an important one, Tori. The biggest difference between the two professions is that psychiatrists prescribe medications and psychologists do not. Psychiatrists are medical doctors and widely viewed as the best people to treat bipolar disorder because most patients with bipolar disorder do require medication. Psychiatrists are well qualified to identify which drugs might work best for a specific patient. But a major part of any therapy for this disorder is considered psychotherapy. And that can be provided by psychologists and other mental health professionals as well. Talk therapy can help you develop coping mechanisms and may help you keep you on your medications. Bottom line? After diagnosis, you may find a combination of treatment from both beneficial.

From Jackie in Massachusetts:

"I heard many of antipsychotic drugs are being prescribed to kids for who aren’t even diagnosed with bipolar disorder? Is that true?"

Answer:
Jackie, this is a question a lot of people have. What exactly are these drugs being prescribed for? A recent study published in the Ambulatory Pediatrics Journal looked at the trends in prescribing atypical antipsychotic medications. It found these drugs are prescribed only 37 percent of the time to treat bipolar and schizophrenia. What makes some critics cringe is that these powerful antipsychotics are being used almost one-third of the time to treat ADHD - which can often be treated with a less-potent drugs or behavioral therapy.

Here is the breakdown of how atypical antipsychotic drugs are prescribed:
- 37.1 percent bipolar disorder & schizophrenia
- 29 percent ADHD
- 13.8 percent nonpsychiatric diagnosis
- 7.5 percent autism
- 5 percent Tourette's syndrome
Source: Ambulatory Pediatrics Journal

From John in West Virginia:

“I’m having trouble researching ADHD and bipolar disorder. The two seem similar. What is the difference and is it possible to have both?"

Answer:
John, to answer to the second part of your question, yes, it is possible to have both. But it can be really confusing. It's a clinical diagnosis, and sometimes some of the symptoms sort of overlap, things like inattention, hyperactivity, impulse disorder, those are all things that are associated with ADHD. But specifically with bipolar, you tend to get what are pretty dramatic mood swings so you can have intense euphoria sort of followed by manic depression. That's one of the big differences. What's particularly difficult to distinguish in kids is that sometimes a treatment can be very similar as well, so that may be some of the trouble, there. I’d say if you are looking for a cardinal symptom of bipolar, extreme mood swings would be the main difference.

By Shahreen Abedin
CNN Medical Senior Producer

Leading up to Mother’s Day this year, I suspected my husband was planning something, but I had no idea it would be by far, one of the biggest parenting challenges I would face to date.

On Tuesday the weekend before, Daddy came home and announced he and I were going on a special night on the town on Friday, complete with fancy dinner, Star Trek movie (I don’t mind admitting I’m a fan), and … an overnight hotel stay in the city, sans the munchkin.

It was to be our first time leaving him alone the entire night, and while I appreciated the thoughtfulness of my hubby’s planning, I was immediately gripped by the anxiety of letting go. We had just gotten the hang of leaving our 18-month old son with a sitter on weekend nights, but never for the whole night. I told my husband that I needed a couple of days to think about it.

The plan was that our nanny, whom we all completely love and trust, would take the little man to her home in the afternoon, and he’d stay there overnight. On paper, it was a great arrangement. She has a dog which I knew he’d love, an amazing park in her neighborhood, and although she’s not family, she loves him to pieces and we had no doubt in our minds that he would be well-cared for and have a fun time.

However, my biggest fear had not yet been addressed: He’s never been to his nanny’s house before, and he was going to wake up in a room where he’s never awoken and wonder if his parents have given him up for good. He’s not really talking yet – just a smattering of words and phrases – so how will they know if he’s anxious or scared out of his mind and just can’t say so?

I knew that sooner or later, this day would come. We would need to let the baby stay elsewhere overnight so we could have some much-needed parental down-time. Focus on our relationship as husband and wife, and put the mommy-daddy show on the backburner. I went to my trusty “What to Expect the Toddler Years” book, and felt better when I read that waiting till he was older would not necessarily guarantee it’d be easier (and in fact could be worse), and that toddlers can only learn to be ok with separation when they experience it firsthand. Cognitively, I knew that it would ultimately be good for him because the time away would be good for me, and that usually it’s the parent who has more of a problem with separation than the child.

I knew all this, and I knew that we had even done all the right things leading up to this point: we started out only leaving him at home for a short while with a sitter, then we’d be gone for longer periods at home, and now we can even take him over to someone else’s house for an evening and he has still been just fine, no meltdowns. Timing-wise, he wasn’t going through any dramatic processes like potty-training or weaning from the bottle, so we were good on that front too.

Armed with all this knowledge, I finally agreed to the arrangement. I was proud of myself for getting to this point mentally and emotionally, and I was finally starting to get really excited about the fun night out with my man, just like old times before this life of sleep deprivation, sticky hands, and crayon on the carpet.

As my son waved happily at me, blowing his sweet little good-bye kisses my way, I did cry, as hard as I tried to hold it. When the door shut, I totally bawled for a good two minutes. These were tears partly from the of fear I felt welling up again inside me, but also tears of sadness from knowing that parenting - although joy-filled for most of the ride - is also a life-long process of grieving over letting go of your child, step by step.

Our toddler ended up having a great time, by the way. And so did we, I’m proud to say. Now we’re preparing to take longer trips away from him. So I’m looking for some advice on what’s helped you get through this whole ‘letting them go overnight’ thing – any tricks that helped ease the process, any traditions that have made the experience fun and relatively painless for you and your child? I need all the help – and reassurance! – I can get.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.