Want your child to grow up health and happy? Of course you do! Otherwise you would not have invested so many sleepless nights in the hospital trying to secure a healthy future for him/her. Now that your child is out of the hospital and in proper follow care, how can you best help? Let them be kids! Let them play and get sweaty and dirty. Let them be with other kids playing two hand touch in the yard or riding bikes all over the place. Kids who are active tend to grow up and remain active. After my first surgery when I was 4, my father bought me a bike. He actually brought it to the hospital! As soon I was released, I started to train on it. ( I needed training wheels for awhile) I learned to roller skate, I joined a competitive swim team. In 5th grade, I started playing basket ball. When I grew up, I became an athletic trainer, exercise physiologist, a personal trainer and group exercise instructor. When I finally had to have more surgery, both my cardiologist and my surgeon independent of each other and unsolicited told me, “There is no doubt your level of activity has kept you healthy and doing so well for this long.”

So the lesson is, once your doctor has cleared your child, let them be! Send them to camp! I recommend Camp Boggy Creek. The best place ever!