Back-to-school advice: 5-2-1-0 rule

NEW YORK, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A U.S. doctor urges parents to check their child's immunization and follow the 5-2-1-0 rule -- to eat healthy, exercise and limit screen time.

Dr. Randolph Nunez, a pediatrician at Lincoln Hospital in New York, says children from birth to 15 months receive multiple vaccines to protect them from pneumonia, diarrhea, polio, tetanus, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox.

"At 4 to 6 years old and again at 11, children need booster vaccines against these same diseases. At age 11, we also recommend that children receive the meningitis vaccine and the human papillomavirus vaccine," Nunez says in a statement. "We also recommend the annual flu vaccine for everyone starting with babies at 6 months."

Nunez urges parents to take advantage of the beginning of school year to institute the 5-2-1-0 rule by daily ensuring their children have:

-- Five servings of fruits and vegetables.

-- Two hours or less of non-homework screen time. Kids exposed to many hours of television, video games, cell phones and computers have decreased school performance.

-- One hour of exercise.

-- Zero candy, juice or soda loaded with sugar.