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Millions of children go to Summer Youth Camps. Yet before you even commit to find that perfect place for your child experts suggest you make sure it is safe.

The new guideline, published in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics, was written by a team led by a University of Michigan Health System physician who specializes in camp health. Edward Walton, M.D., FAAP, FACEP, is lead author of the paper, which is an official policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics and was produced in conjunction with the American Camp Association.

the key to this policy is parents need to thoroughly determine whether a camp is right for their child’. Don’t just assume its great because your childs friends are going. One need to assess if it meets their childs mental, emotional and physical well-being, as well as their interests and skills.

That means, Walton says, that camps should provide parents with a complete picture of what their programs involve, whether it’s strenuous sports, rough wilderness camping, horseback riding — or intense music or computer practice. If an activity raises risk for kids with certain medical conditions, for instance scuba diving and asthma, camps should tell parents about those risks ahead of time.

Homesickness prevention, the authors write, should start weeks before a child goes off to camp, and can be led by parents with the help of the doctor or other health care provider who performs the child’s pre-camp health assessment.

Walton, suggests “Parents should also avoid making pre-arranged plans with their children about picking them up if they get homesick. If parents discuss camp positively, avoid expressing doubts about a child’s ability to avoid homesickness”.

With the new guideline, the AAP also recommends that its members — the pediatricians who treat many of America’s children — get involved with camps in their local area to make sure that health policies and standing orders are up-to-date. They can also act as medical backups to the nurses and paramedic-trained camp health officers on site at camps — instead of the local emergency room or urgent care center, which Walton’s study found was the case 75 percent of the time.

Asthma and allergies also bring new challenges for camps. Parents need to teach their children how to use rescue inhalers or EpiPens (allergy-calming epinephrine injection devices). With or with out the summer camp. Camps need to help children have them nearby at all times.

“The delay that can occur when another camper or counselor has to run to the camp nurse’s office to grab an inhaler for a child who is having an asthma attack or an EpiPen for a child who has been stung by a bee can have real health consequences,” says Walton.

The new guideline does not give detailed recommendations for camps that serve only children with special medical circumstances, such as cancer, physical disabilities, blindness, deafness or diabetes. But it recommends that camps work with local pediatricians and health professionals to assess children’s fitness to take part in such camps, and establish programs specific to them.

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Swift Nature Camp is a Minnesota Summer Camp for boys and girls ages 6-15. Our focus is to blend traditional outdoors summer camp activities with that of a Science At Summer Camps that promotes an appreciation for nature.