Health
Don't Let Swine Flu Spoil Summer Camp
Don't let swine flu stop you from sending your kids to camp this summer. Image: sxc.hu
"It's important for parents to know it's safe to send their healthy child to camp. Camp is an extraordinary experience, providing friendship, leadership, and enrichment activities," says Peg Smith, chief executive office of the American Camp Association. "ACA-accredited camps have been monitoring the H1N1 situation since mid-April, and they are doing everything they can to provide a safe and healthy environment."
Indeed, camps like the Frost Valley Y.M.C.A camp in Claryville, NY are adding some new chores to their pre-camp checklist, such as wiping down doorknobs with bleach and preparing three negative-pressure isolation rooms to accommodate any campers who may fall ill.
"We think we're ahead of the curve, but who knows?" says Jerry Huncosky, chief executive officer of Frost Valley. "I think it's the 'who knows?' that we're preparing for."
New York City physician Dr. Erika Schwartz is medical director of Cinergy Health, and she says Frost Valley is doing exactly what it should to prepare for the swine flu -- and, she says, it is also what camps already know how to do.
Under-Scheduling Children - How Bad?
I don't know, what do you guys want to do? Photo: stockexpert.com
At the same time, what's a kid (and a kid's mom) to do on these long days? And is it helpful for children to be around other kids in some kind of structured environment or is it totally fine, maybe even better, to skip the structure for the summer? To find out, I called Parental Advisor Robert Schachter, a New York City-based psychologist and faculty member of Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
"It's not so much about about scheduling as it is about how much a kid has to do," he says. "If kids are booked morning to night and can't catch their breath, it's not necessarily the best thing."
Avoid the Emergency Room - Put Safety First on the Fourth
For years I dreaded sunset on the Fourth of July. You see, after a day of fun and good food with family and friends, when our three boys pulled out their arsenal of fireworks they'd purchased at a roadside stand (are all boys pyromaniacs?) my stress level spiked to the red zone.
Bill said I was over-reacting. He reminded me that fireworks must meet consumer safety standards and promised to make sure the boys followed safety precautions. This never relieved my angst. So I did what I always do when a fun activity is also a potentially harmful activity: I take precautionary measures -- and I pray (a lot). Whether your day includes a cookout, camping, a parade or a day at the lake, here are some good things to know and do to avoid the Emergency Room this weekend.
Sam's Club Gives Kids Candy In Pill Bottles
Sam's Club targets children with ill-advised pharmacy promotion. Image: Pam Roth/sxc.hu
If experts are worried about pharmacies handing out prescription drugs like candy, I wonder how they would feel about a pharmacy that hands out candy like prescription drugs. That is exactly what a Sam's Club pharmacy in Salisbury, Maryland was doing last week.
Sams' Club is a membership store and has a checkpoint at the entry where shoppers must show their identification before entering. But at this particular store, employees weren't just checking member cards, they were also promoting the in-store pharmacy by giving children prescription medicine bottles filled with candy.
Parents Keep 2-Year-Old's Gender a Secret
Swedish couple avoid stereotypes by refusing to reveal their child's gender. Photo: Dominik Gwarek/sxc.hu
But even if you can't tell the gender of someone's child just by looking, you can always come out and ask the parents, right? Usually, yes. But in the case of a two-and-a-half-year-old Swedish child, the answer would be "none of your business."
Aside from the parents and few other people, nobody knows if the child they call Pop is a boy or a girl. Pop's parents subscribe to a feminist philosophy in which the idea of gender is an unnecessary and potentially harmful social construction. They believe that by keeping Pop's gender a secret from the world, their child will be allowed to grow up without preconceived notions of how he or she should be treated based on his or her gender.
The Girl Who Doesn't Age
Does Brooke Greenberg hold the key to the fountain of youth? Image: Dez Pain/sxc.hu
Since her birth, Brooke's body and brain have not aged in the conventional sense. She remains the size of an infant and has the mental capacity of a toddler. Her bone age is estimated to be about 10 years old and she has a mouth full of baby teeth. She rides in a stroller and, because her esophagus is so small, must be fed through a tube.
"There've been very minimal changes in Brooke's brain," says Dr. Richard Walker of the University of South Florida College of Medicine. "Various parts of her body, rather than all being at the same stage, seem to be disconnected."
The Stay-at-Stove Dad
Is Dad hopeless in the kitchen? Photo courtesy stockexpert.com
John Donohue, 40, however, is not most dads. A full-time journalist and married father of two, John launched his own blog last year for the purposes of bucking the helpless father trend. The blog, "StayAtStoveDad," documents, as he puts it, "one man's effort to feed himself and his family." The end results are both informative and inspiring. John spoke with ParentDish to explain his mission.
Kids Staying Up Late - How Bad?
Got a couple of night owls at home? Photo: stockxpert.com
Well, just how bad is it to let them stay up as late as they want on summer nights, anyway? It's not like there's school the next day ... Right?
To find out, I called Parental Advisor Robert Schachter, a New York City-based psychologist and faculty member of Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Letting kids stay up late in the summertime is "not the worst thing in the world at all, he said. "However they will get in the habit of staying up late and sleeping in, so when you need to get them reoriented for school or camp you will need to give yourself some lead time, and it will be a bit of a slog to get yourselves back on track." If those late summer night ice creams are worth it to you (as they are to us) here are Schachter's tips for making your way back from no sleep schedule to on-time to-sleep for camp:
How Healthy is Your Salad?
Greens
Popeye and his spinach. George H.W. Bush and his (hatred of) broccoli. Mom leaning over you and admonishing, "Eat your greens!" The leafy green vegetables we're told more and more often to eat by the shovelful evoke strong feelings or memories for many of us. But are all greens as healthy as they've been made out to be? Read on to find out ...
sxc.hu
Spinach
Spinach is loaded with vitamins A, C, E, and K, carotenoids, folic acid, potassium, magnesium, and iron--in short, it's a nutrient-dense food containing many of the phytochemicals that help prevent chronic disease. But like its relatives chard and beet greens, spinach is very high in oxalic acid, which leeches calcium and iron from the body.
Verdict: Consume spinach in moderation--eating a spinach salad every day is not the best idea. While cooking spinach with fat-containing foods like cheese, seeds, eggs, or oil will help counteract the effects of the oxalic acid, it's best to alternate between spinach and some low-oxalate greens, like kale and collards.
sxc.hu
Lettuce
While many types of lettuce are full of vitamins and minerals, the most commonly consumed lettuce in the U.S. is iceberg, which offers little more than water and a small amount of fiber. For comparison, romaine lettuce, the staple of Caesar salads, contains six times more Vitamin C.
Verdict: Eat the darker lettuce varieties. And watch what kind of dressing you put on your salad--creamy dressings are often loaded with fat, sugar, and additives, and will turn your healthy salad into something with the caloric profile of a fast-food meal.
sxc.hu
Cabbage
Cabbage is one of the world's most widely grown vegetables. A member of the cruciferous vegetable family, cabbage contains sulforaphane, which helps guard against the development of cancerous tumors. And when fermented to make sauerkraut, cabbage does everything from helping to foster clear skin to promoting the growth of healthy flora in the digestive tract.
Verdict: An underappreciated nutritional powerhouse. And sauerkraut is truly a health food if bought fresh and unpasteurized (pasteurization kills the beneficial bacterial cultures) or made from scratch.
sxc.hu
Wild Greens
Edible wild greens--including such common weeds as dandelion, lamb's quarters, chickweed, and amaranth--are often more nutritious than the cultivated greens available in your supermarket. If you take a class or go on a nature walk with a knowledgeable guide who can help you ID these plants, you've got yourself a way to add some exotic flavors, for free, into your diet.
Verdict: Put away that weed-whacker! If you're up for a little experimentation, wild greens are worth checking out.
sxc.hu
Jennifer Schonborn is a holistic nutrition counselor based in New York.
Breast is Best for College
A dose of good grades? Photo: littleREDelf/Flickr
Beyond nutritional perfection, one new sibling study says breast may be best for higher grades and college. After researching 126 children from 59 families to compare infant siblings who were breast-fed versus bottle-fed, results revealed Mommy's milk is associated with substantial increases in high school grade point average and the probability of attending college.
Oh great. I apologize to my first-born son. But before mommy guilt sets in, remember this: The operative word here is associated -- researchers acknowledge this study has not delivered a definitive causal link. Yet it's hard to ignore sibling data. Babies were raised by the same milk-mom, in likely the same home.
I loved breastfeeding, but admit I was better in the mommy dairy barn the second time around. Yet my youngest, who breast-fed nearly twice as long as the oldest, was a veritable breast-latch-monkey capable of feeding from nearly any angle. She also seemed to crave breastfeeding more intensely. But perhaps I simply let her breastfeed longer because I knew she was likely my last.
Does anyone have a personal testimonial on their children's breast versus bottle academic performance? Do share.
NY Mom Goes to War Against School Junk Food
Will banning foods keep kids healthy? Image: Daino_16/sxc.hu
Her web site urges supporters to "recognize obesity as abuse-abuse of our children, abuse of ourselves-and together take action." But in much the same way that PETA alienates the very people it is trying to reach with aggressive and often hostile tactics, Roth has managed to anger those she claims to be trying to save from the misery of being fat.
Case in point: Last year the 40-year-old was jailed after protesting the free ice cream sundaes at a YMCA event by tossing out the toppings.
Today, she is taking aim at the public school in New York where her two children are in the second and fourth grades. While she is generally okay with the lunch menu at P.S. 9 in Manhattan, she is vehemently opposed to the junk food served on special occasions. In the past, she has lobbied for permission slips for foods not on the official menu and has consistently made a fuss about the unhealthy snack foods she claims are offered to her children on a regular basis.
Kids Eating Out Healthier
Kids are eating healthier -- even in restaurants. Photo: sxc.hu
Here's the skinny on skinnier kid restaurant trends:
- Kid orders of cold-cut sandwich are up 11 percent -- thanks Subway.
- Colas are down 10 percent, chicken nuggets (8 percent), fries (7 percent) and hot dogs (6 percent).
- Follow that good news with this -- soup is up 29 percent, grilled chicken sandwiches (26 percent), yogurt (21 percent), carrots (9 percent) and fruit (6 percent).
ADHD Drugs Linked to Kids' Deaths
That's disheartening news for many kids and their parents.
Healthy or Hurtful?
Can Stimulants Be Deadly?
Is your child taking ADHD medication? A new study has found that kids on stimulants are seven times more likely than their peers to die a sudden, unexplained death. Talk to your physician about risk factors before you hand your kid the pills -- and don't ever let kids take prescription drugs for anything other than a diagnosed condition.
sxc.hu
Crying isn't Necessarily Cathartic
Think a good cry will make it all better? Maybe not, at least not in any measurable physiological way. The value of a crying jag is all in the social response of the people around you. If they're sympathetic, the crying helps. But if they're not, you won't feel any better.
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Long-Term Breastfeeding
We all know that breast is best, but how long would you nurse to give your baby the best start? Six months? A year? How about eight years? Some moms do, but it's a controversial decision, to say the least.
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Tanning beds
Summer's coming and your tween wants a nice glow for the pool. But a tanning bed isn't the way to get it -- tanning beds are a fast track to skin cancer. Hand her some self-tanner instead, preferably one with an SPF of 15 or higher, just to be on the safe side.
dolar on sxc
Lice
Once upon a time, that kid in kindergarten with the lice had to stay home until he (or she) was nit-free. Not any more. Some schools are letting nit-infested students back into the classroom. Makes you itchy just thinking about it, doesn't it?
anissat on sxc
Autism and Vaccines
After a decade of worry, it turns out that the doctor who linked autism and the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine faked his data. This is a double whammy. We're no closer to knowing what causes autism, but some parts of the world, like Great Britain, are seeing reductions in vaccination rates and an increase in childhood illnesses.
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Probiotics
Trying to keep your kids healthy? Take a look at their diet -- and their prescriptions. One mom cured her son's gastrointestinal issues by introducing a milk-like drink containing probiotics into his diet.
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Stress Makes Kids Fat
We blame junk food and television for kids' weight problems, but a new study has found that a stressful home life can double a child's chances of being fat. Kids whose families are going through stressful life events -- an illness or death, a divorce, or a financial crisis -- are at higher risk for obesity and it's related health concerns.
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Eating Disorders - Not Just a Girl Thing
Parents of girls know to be on the lookout for signs of an eating disorder, but boys are also at risk for disordered eating and distorted body image, and it's just as dangerous for them as for their female peers.
matchstick on sxc
A Big Butt is a Sign of Good Health
Here's a common post-baby complaint: "My butt is huge now!" Stop complaining -- that extra padding in the back may actually be protecting your health. Adults with pear-shaped bodies -- carrying their weight in their hips and thighs -- are less prone to Type 2 diabetes. Embrace your butt!
lunita on flickr
An estimated 2.5 million American children take ADHD medication; in the early 1990s there were several cases of sudden unexplained deaths of children taking these meds. But because the cases were so rare, scientists were unable to gather a large enough sample to draw any real conclusions.
This new study compares 564 cases of sudden death in children ages 7 to 19 which occured between 1985 and 1996. Those cases were compared with an equal number of deaths of children who died in car accidents. The scientists sifted through data to weed out any complications that might have caused the unexplained deaths, including asthma and heart problems. Once they did that, they were left with ten unexplained deaths. Those ten cases were compared to cases of kids the same ages who had died in car crashes; the children on the stimulant medication were found to be 7.4 percent more likely to die suddenly.
Girl Allergic to 21st Century
Doctors are stumped by girl's severe allergies. Image: sanja gjenero/sxc.hu
Everyday items from cleaning products and soap to plastic and magnets cause Molly's immune system to react, leaving rashes and blisters on her skin. She can't wear normal shoes, socks or clothes or come into contact with carpet. She wears special cotton gloves at all times to minimize her exposure and bathes in a solution that leaves a protective coating on her sensitive skin. She does attend school, but must eat a specially packaged lunch under adult supervision.
The first signs of Molly's sensitivities appeared when she was just a few days old. Doctors diagnosed a milk allergy but were baffled when the blisters and rashes continued. Since that time, Molly has been in and out of the hospital and doctors have been unable to successfully treat her condition.
Depression Linked to Bedtimes
Does your teen have a bedtime? Photo: husin.sani/Flickr
Not only is the idea that older kids need less sleep erroneous, a new study by Columbia University Medical Center finds that teens who don't get enough sleep may be risking their mental health. This first-of-its-kind study examined the effects of bedtimes on the mental health of children and found that teens who stay up after midnight during the week are 42% more likely to become depressed and 30% more likely to have suicidal thoughts than their peers who go to bed by 10 pm or earlier.
"We feel like we can just eat into our sleep time, but we pay for it in many different ways," says James Gangwisch, lead researcher of the study.
The data used in this study comes from National Institutes of Health surveys from 1994 to 1996. But considering the distractions teens face today -- texting, social networking and gaming -- chances are that many teens are even more sleep-deprived than ever.
Research has shown that although teens need as much as nine hours of sleep per night, they generally get only about 7½. How many hours does your teen get?
