Health App for Kids

Health and Wellness Answers You Can Trust

• What: Swedish Kids
• When: Birth to age 18
• Why: Trusted source for health info
• Where: Amazon or App store

I hate to clutter up my smart phone with unnecessary apps, so I don’t recommend very many. But the ones I use, like Healthy Living and Duck Duck Moose, I find extremely handy. My number one recommendation for new parents, though, is to get the app from your healthcare provider.

Our regional hospital provides a kid specific app. I use it constantly. Instead of pestering Dr. Google or trying to call the doctor during office hours with my many miscellaneous questions (How long until a cough should go away? When should I worry about this symptom? Is that color of poop really ok?), I can use the app any time of day or night, and even on weekends and in the middle of the night.

Because it comes directly from my trusted medical provider, I have confidence in the answers I get. My particular app has symptoms divided into three sections to make it easy to find answers quick: an alphabetical index, a body area index, and a keyword search. Under the medications tab, it keeps track of my kids’ medications and allergies, as well as giving up to date dosage information on common over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

Another tab lets me check my kids’ records securely from my phone, find an office or pediatric specialist, read the hospital’s blog for kids healthcare, and sign up for a newsletter. The final tab offers parent advice for behavior, eating, and general wellness questions, and provides the same three options for searching topics as it does in the symptom section. This section saves me oodles of time finding a book and author I trust, and gets me straight to the issue I need to solve by offering practical advice approved by pediatricians.

Here are just a few of the topics in the parent advice section: sibling who argue, screaming, saying no to kids, swearing, and snacks. And those aren’t even all the options under the letter S.

If I need help from a qualified profession, it offers to call emergency services for me, locate the nearest emergency room, locate the nearest emergency department affiliated with my child’s doctor, find an urgent care clinic, and find the nearest doctor’s office.

I love having all this information at my fingertips. Since I’m never far from my phone, but somehow my kids rarely injure themselves or get sick during business hours on weekdays, this app has saved my sanity and sleep, not to mention several potential ER visits, multiple times over. (Sadly, this app is no longer available.)