Keeping infants and toddlers warm enough.

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Dress your infant and toddler "one layer warmer." than yourself during cold weather. "Two common mistakes parents often make is to dress young children inadequately or, alternatively, bundle them up too warmly," notes Lee Atkinson, a staff physician at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford (Calif.) University.

Kids have relatively little body fat compared with adults, so they will feel chilled more quickly or at a higher temperature than an adult, she says. "The `one layer warmer' standard will work for most children. For example, if you're wearing a short-sleeved shirt, consider a long-sleeved shirt for a small child. If you're wearing a parka over a long-sleeved shirt on a really cold day, consider adding a sweater between your child's parka and his or her shirt."

In really cold weather, be sure that all exposed skin--face, hands, and neck--are covered warmly, but make sure that any clothing doesn't obstruct breathing. When the temperature drops significantly below freezing--or the chill factor is high because of wind or humidity--try to limit the outdoor exposure for the youngest children, especially newborns.

Don't rely on sweating to tell if you've gone overboard and put more layers than needed on your youngster. "Children don't sweat efficiently, because their perspiration glands aren't fully developed. So we can't...