ParentDishhttp://www.parentdish.comParentDishhttp://www.parentdish.com/media/feedlogo.gifParentDishhttp://www.parentdish.comen-usCopyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Children Could Benefit from Medical Research, Study Sayshttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/29/children-could-benefit-from-medical-research-study-says/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/29/children-could-benefit-from-medical-research-study-says/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/29/children-could-benefit-from-medical-research-study-says/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Credit: Getty Images

You read about all these studies and research projects on ParentDish. Have you ever thought to yourself, "Gee, I wish scientists from Pennbrook University would do medical research on my child"?

Most parents overlook the possible benefit of children participating in medical research. How do we know? Guess what? There's been a study.

Researchers from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health surveyed parents earlier this year and found one in nine adults have participated in medical research -- compared with only one in 20 children.

A university press release also reports that 68 percent of adults are aware of medical research opportunities for themselves. However, 84 percent of parents are not aware of medical research opportunities for children.

So, c'mon, kids, who wants to play guinea pig? It's not as bad as it sounds.

"Medical research is the backbone of improving medical care. Without volunteers, medical research cannot move forward," Matthew Davis, an associate professor at the University of Michigan's medical school, says in the release.

Participation in research is essential to continued medical progress, Davis says.

Over the last 100 years, infant mortality in the United States has been reduced by 90 percent. Millions of deaths from diseases such as polio, diphtheria, pneumonia and influenza have been prevented by vaccines.

Children with life-threatening diseases such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and diabetes now survive beyond childhood, into adult years.

All thanks to kids participating in medical research.

"Awareness about research opportunities, which is a necessary step before participation, is reasonably high among adults but strikingly low for children's research," Davis adds. "To improve participation rates among children, researchers and institutions evidently need to do a better job of getting the word out to parents."

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]]>child healthchild researchchild studiesmedical researchTom HendersonFri, 29 Jul 2011 17:00:00 ESTParents' Attitude Affects Kids' Diabeteshttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/28/parents-attitude-affects-kids-diabetes/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/28/parents-attitude-affects-kids-diabetes/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/28/parents-attitude-affects-kids-diabetes/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Credit: Getty Images

Kids with diabetes need to regulate their diets, monitor their blood-sugar levels and take the appropriate amount of insulin.

They also need parents with the right attitude.

Researchers at the Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel find that parenting styles and attitudes play a big role in how well teenagers manage their diabetes.

Internal Medicine News reports lead researcher Maayan Shorer and her colleagues defined three parenting styles:

  • Authoritative. This is characterized by clear limits on the child set by the parents in a caring, noncoercive manner.
  • Permissive. This is characterized by few efforts by the parents to direct and limit the child's behavior.
  • Authoritarian. This is characterized by a coercive, harsh and punitive approach and parental attempts to control the child's behavior.
Researchers looked at 100 adolescents, as well as 79 mothers and 63 fathers, and found an authoritative approach, especially by fathers, resulted in kids doing a better job managing their diabetes. On the flip side, kids did a lot worse when parents were either permissive or authoritarian.

The worst results came when kids picked up on a sense of helplessness, especially among mothers.

There are several morals to the story, researchers tell Internal Medicine News. One of the biggies is that dads need to get more involved.

"Unfortunately, our clinical experience along with the empirical evidence suggests that compared with mothers, fathers tend to take a too-small role in their child's diabetes management and exert fewer efforts at monitoring the child," Shorer says. "We believe fathers should be more engaged in their child's routine diabetes care, and to do so, specifically, by adopting an authoritative stance."

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]]>diabeteshealthkids and diabetesparental attitudesparenting stylesTom HendersonThu, 28 Jul 2011 13:00:00 ESTSneak Veggies Into Your Kids' Mealshttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/27/sneak-veggies-into-your-kids-meals/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/27/sneak-veggies-into-your-kids-meals/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/27/sneak-veggies-into-your-kids-meals/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Credit: AP

Can't get your kids to eat their veggies?

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have a cunning plan. They suggest you discreetly add broccoli, zucchini and all that other green stuff to kids' meals.

Reuters news service reports their research found kids get more vegetables that way. And, while most of us might detect puree of broccoli on our macaroni and cheese, the little rubes don't even seem to notice the difference.

"We think of it as not deception, but recipe improvement," Barbara Rolls, one of the researchers, tells Reuters. "In this group of kids, we got most of them meeting their daily vegetable requirements -- that's pretty amazing."

Although the study was done in day care centers, researcher Maureen Spill tells Reuters parents could easily pull the same stunt at home. All they need is a blender.

Rolls says the technique can even work on older but equally stubborn children ... like husbands.

Adding pureed vegetables into adults' meals meant they ate more veggies and fewer total calories, she adds. Most of them couldn't taste the extra veggies, either.

According to Reuters, researchers fed prepared meals to 40 kids ages 3 to 5 one day a week for three weeks. The meals looked the same each day -- zucchini bread at breakfast, pasta with tomato sauce at lunch and a chicken noodle casserole at dinner.

One day's worth of meals was prepared normally -- with a typical veggie in each entree. On the other two days, researchers added pureed cauliflower, broccoli, squash, zucchini and tomatoes to triple or quadruple every dish's dose of vegetables.

After each meal, researchers weighed the food to determine how much kids ate. The preschoolers were also allowed to eat non-doctored side dishes and snacks during the day -- including fruit, cheese and crackers.

Compared to the day when they ate standard meals, Reuters reports, kids almost doubled their total vegetable intake on the day they ate high-vegetable dishes.

"I would urge parents to try to get vegetables into their kids' meals wherever they can," Rolls tells Reuters. "This is an additional strategy that you put on top of exposing kids to real vegetables, eating the vegetables with the kids, (and) being persistent in exposing them to vegetables."

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]]>healthy eatinghealthyl lunchesnutritionsneak in vegetablessneak in veggiesvegetablesTom HendersonWed, 27 Jul 2011 15:00:00 ESTStay-at-Home Dads More Likely to Get Divorcedhttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/12/stay-at-home-dads/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/12/stay-at-home-dads/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/12/stay-at-home-dads/#commentsFiled under: , ,

dad and son

Credit: Getty Images

You really need to think twice before you take in an ocelot, chimpanzee, wolf or human male with the thought of domesticating it first.

No matter how well trained and behaved they appear to be, these are essentially wild animals who operate more on instinct than intellect. They can be peaceful one minute and tearing your heart out the next.

And, odds are, one day they will want to return to the wild. On the other hand, odds are just as good you would will want them to go, anyway.

This is especially true of human males. Some women think they can train these creatures to stay home and perform basic domestic tasks, even take care of the children. Let's face it. That's a lot to expect from essentially mindless brutes who have trouble mastering the mechanics of lifting a toilet seat.

Researchers say they are likely to bolt.

A study published in the American Journal of Sociology concludes stay-at-home fathers are more likely to get divorced because, try as they might, they cannot ignore the calling of their Klingon blood. They generally prefer to be out in the world, marauding and competing.

Staying at home -- especially because of unemployment -- drives them to fits of depression.

"It's still unacceptable for men to stay home and take care of the kids," Liana Sayer, an associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University and lead author of the study, tells Time magazine.

Sayer says a woman who is unhappy in her marriage is more likely to consider divorce if she is working rather than unemployed. But unemployed men, she adds, face a double whammy.

They stand a greater chance of dumping their wives or being the dumpee -- even if they are fairly satisfied with their relationship.

It's what Sayer calls an "asymmetrical revolution."

"The role of women has changed a lot, but we have seen far less movement in the roles of men," Sayer tells the magazine. "That men be breadwinners still seems to be very salient for couples. If a man is not bringing in some money, it seems to be unacceptable."

Sayer and her fellow researchers collected data from more than 3,600 couples who participated in the National Survey of Families and Households funded by the National Institutes of Health.

They thought they would find unhappy-but-employed men would be more likely to leave their wives. Not really.

Men's depression -- tied to their job situation -- seemed to be the deciding factor.

"For men, not having a job increases the risk he will initiate leaving the relationship, and it also increases the risk women will leave the relationship," Sayer tells Time. "Men are still held to an older standard than women and penalized by employers and stigmatized if they are doing what's perceived as women's work."

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]]>dadsdivorcemen and depressionstay at home dadsunemploymentTom HendersonTue, 12 Jul 2011 14:30:00 ESTSummer Fun and Games: You Could Be Your Kid's Favorite Toyhttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/12/summer-fun-and-games/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/12/summer-fun-and-games/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/12/summer-fun-and-games/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Your Kid's Favorite Toy

Most children would do anything to have their busy parents get on the floor and play with them, especially in their early years. Credit: Getty Images


Pop quiz: What toy does your child most want to play with this summer?

It's a trick question.

"Believe it or not, you are your child's favorite play toy," family therapist, blogger and mother of two Amy Wickstrom tells ParentDish.

Wickstrom, a contributor to Working Mother, OC Family and more, also writes the blog More Than a Toy. She tells ParentDish it is important for parents to play with their children, especially during the summer when kids have more time and their hands and are crying out for parental interaction.

"Most children would do anything to have their busy parents get on the floor and play with them, especially in their early years," Wickstrom tells ParentDish. "Take 10 or 15 minutes to give them your undivided attention and interact with them and the toys they are playing with."

Need some suggestions?

"Do a family craft," Wickstrom suggests. "Run to your local craft store and pick out a craft to do with your child (such as building a bird house). Build enthusiasm for it by including your child in choosing what the craft will be, picking out the supplies together, learning about it more (for example, if doing a bird house, research different kinds of birds with your child and find out which birds visit your yard, etc.) and determining the time you will do it (simple crafts can be done in one sitting, but other crafts, such as building a model plane, could be done over several weeks during the summer)."

Some of the simplest games create the most lasting memories, she adds, such as hide-and-go-seek.

"One of my favorite memories as a child was playing kick the can and hide-and-go-seek with the other kids on my street," Wickstrom tells ParentDish. "Sadly, our age of technology often squelches a child's natural tendency to be outside and play with other children. Simple, all-time favorite childhood games are disappearing."

You can help combat that trend with a trip to the library, she says.

"Parents can take their kids to the local library to pick out a book and read it together there," she says. "Many libraries have special rooms just for children that are filled with toys and sometimes a stage with props for story time. This helps engage children in their imagination, have quality time with a parent and develop their reading skills. It also keeps them accustomed to old fashioned books instead of eBooks.

Websites such as FrugalDad.com have some other low-cost ways to build lifelong memories. Here are a few:

1. See a $1 movie. Many theaters offer summer movie programs for kids. If you're not so lucky, consider a movie day at home with a rental or streaming online video.

2. Hold Sprinkler Day. Delay your sprinklers for one day so they come on a little later in the morning. Then everyone can get in their bathing suits and jump through the sprinklers on a hot day. This also conserves water and reduces utility costs.

3. Go fly a kite. Check the 10-day forecast and look for a windy day in the coming week. Pick up a cool kite for the kids.

4. Make homemade Play-Doh. It's basically just water and flour. There are all sorts of recipes available online.

5. Build a "fort" in the living room. You remember this from when you were a kid. All it takes are some cushions and a sofa. If you want to get all fancy, you can use some large boxes and (with parental supervision, of course) some box cutters.

6. Go bowling. Bowling alleys often have special rates for families and will put out the bumpers so kids don't roll gutter balls.

7. Have a water pistol fight. Water pistols are often no more than $2. Pick up a couple and have a duel. If you want to make it a teachable moment, read up on the history and etiquette of dueling and make that part of the experience.

8. Hold Pajama Day. Stay in your pajamas all day.

9. Spend a day volunteering. There are lots of places you can volunteer and teach kids the importance of helping out. One idea might be the local Humane Society.

10. Have your kids come up with their own shirt designs, then have a custom T-shirt printing service print them up.

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]]>child playsummer activitiestoysYour Kids Favorite Summer ToyYour Kids Favorite ToyTom HendersonTue, 12 Jul 2011 13:30:00 ESTSpeech-Delayed Children Will Catch Up, Study Showshttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/speech-delayed-children/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/speech-delayed-children/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/speech-delayed-children/#commentsFiled under: , ,

einstein

Albert Einstein developed speech later than most kids. Credit: AFP/ Getty Images

Albert Einstein supposedly didn't talk until he was 3 or 4. People later asked him why.

"I didn't have anything to say," he responded.

That story may just be a legend, but it's a good illustration for what Australian researchers are trying to tell parents: Relax.

Speech-delayed kids will catch up eventually, and when they do, they will be no more at risk for behavioral or emotional problems as anyone else.

MSNBC reports parents should take a "wait-and-see" attitude when their speech-delayed toddler is acting up. Human communication can be frustrating -- that's why most animals don't even bother with it.

"When late-talking children catch up to normal language milestones -- which the majority of children do -- the behavioral and emotional problems are no longer apparent," lead researcher Andrew Whitehouse tells MSNBC.

Whitehouse, an associate professor at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia in Perth, says the study involved 1,400 children born between 1989 and 1991 from ages 2 to 17.

While parents don't need to freak out, Whitehouse tells MSNBC they should still take notice of speech delays. Between the ages of 3 to 5 is the best time to get kids help with speech problems, he adds.

But Maxine Orringer, a speech-language pathologist and coordinator of the department of audiology and speech pathology at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, says there may be a slight cause for concern.

She finds the study's don't-worry-be-happy conclusion "worrisome," she tells MSNBC.

"I don't think parents need to be frightened by delays, but the earlier we can get in and identify the problem and resolve it, the better," she says. "The brain is just more malleable when children are young."

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]]>babies talkingspeech delaysSpeech-Delayed Therapy Australia Development Speech LanguageTom HendersonTue, 05 Jul 2011 16:00:00 ESTAutism is Caused by Environmental Factors -- Maybehttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/autism-is-caused-by-environmental-factors/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/autism-is-caused-by-environmental-factors/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/autism-is-caused-by-environmental-factors/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

twin boys

After a study of twins in the 1970s, Autism became regarded as a genetic disorder. Credit: Mario Tama, Getty Images

Your child wasn't born with autism; He got it from eating turkey.

Food allergies, once discredited as a cause of autism, are making a comeback. So is exposure to chemicals, bacterial infections and other environmental factors.

"Genetics don't explain it," researcher Neil Risch, a genetic epidemiologist at UC San Francisco, tells the Los Angeles Times. "They're part of the story, but only part of the story."

Other research has largely ruled out environmental factors, but Risch and his colleagues still think they may be responsible for autism.

"I think they're really on shaky ground to say that," Paul Law, the director of the Interactive Autism Network at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, tells the Los Angeles Times.

"It's a massive claim," echoes Angelica Ronald, a behavior geneticist at Birkbeck University of London. "It flies in the face of the previous data," she tells the Times. "I don't see why the results have come out the way they have."

Risch and his team resurrected environmental causes after studying 192 pairs of identical and fraternal twins with at least one of the twins having autism. The researchers admit their calculations provide a wide margin for error. Still, they insist environmental factors deserve a fresh look.

So what really causes autism? Pick a card, any card.

The Times reports the condition used to be blamed on detached, unemotional "refrigerator mothers." After a study of twins in the 1970s, it became regarded as a genetic disorder. When the number of autism diagnoses began exploding in the '90s, it was blamed on everything from childhood vaccines to over-reactive doctors and parents.

Scientists have all but given up on finding a smoking gun that can explain large numbers of autism cases, the Times reports. Instead, they are looking for multiple risk factors that each have small effects. But the smaller the risk, the paper reports, the more difficult it is to find.

Autism researcher Lisa Croen, an epidemiologist who heads Kaiser's Autism Research Program in Oakland, tells the Times one thing is certain: "We can't determine causation from one study."

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]]>autismautism causesAutism Environment Diet Causes Genticsautism factorswhat causes autismTom HendersonTue, 05 Jul 2011 15:00:00 ESTTeaching Kids How to Read: 'Sound it Out' May Not Be the Best Methodhttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/teaching-kids-how-to-read/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/teaching-kids-how-to-read/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/teaching-kids-how-to-read/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

teaching kids how to read

Researchers finds focus on phonics may not be the best way to teach children to read. Credit: Getty Images

Hooked on phonics?

You might want to consider rehab. Researchers say phonics may not be helpful to you. That stuff can really mess with your mind.

Researchers at Victoria and Otago Universities in New Zealand found that phonics -- the business of "sounding out" words -- doesn't help kids develop reading skill after the first few weeks of school.

The New Zealand website Stuff.Co.NZ reports sounding words works well until you run across a letter behaving unpredictably. Consider all the letters that fall silent in certain words.

Associate Professor Claire Fletcher-Flinn of Otago University's College of Education tells the website that phonics threaten to leave a "cognitive footprint" on kids' brains to where they can't learn new words that follow unusual rules.

"We have research evidence to show that explicit phonics -- the sounding out of each letter -- is not useful past the very early period of learning," she says. "Explicit phonics may be useful because children need to learn ... that letters in words have connections to sounds in words, but beyond that, they don't even have to learn all the letter sounds."

Researchers compared children of similar ages in New Zealand and Scotland. Children in Scotland tend to learn to read through phonics. Researchers found that New Zealand children, who learn to read more from books than phonics, learned to read faster and learned more words than their Scottish counterparts.

So is one approach really better than another?

Teacher Susie Sumner tells the New Zealand website that teaching reading is more an art than a science -- and one size does not fit all.

"Kids come in to this class at different times of the year and at different levels," she says. "It would be impossible to use a blanket approach and teach them all the same thing at the same time."

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]]>learning to readphonicsPhonics Reading Instruction New Zealand Books Languageteaching how to readTom HendersonTue, 05 Jul 2011 13:30:00 ESTSoldiers' Children Often Face Long Term Psychological Issues, Study Showshttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/soldiers-children/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/soldiers-children/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/05/soldiers-children/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

children of soldiers

Ongoing wars taken a psychological toll on children. Credit: Majid Saeedi, Getty Images

They used to call it "battle fatigue" -- the psychological toll taken on soldiers in war.

However, soldiers are not the only casualties. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, Reuters news service reports on the grim psychological price paid by the soldiers' children.

Researchers analyzed medical records of 307,520 children of soldiers on active duty and found 17 percent of them had mental health problems. The study is published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

"Children of parents who spent more time deployed between 2003 and 2006 fared worse than children whose parents were deployed for a shorter duration," researchers wrote.

Lead researcher Alyssa Mansfield, who was at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when the study was conducted, tells Reuters children with parents deployed at least once, for an average of 11 months, as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan are especially vulnerable.

They are likely to suffer from adjustment, behavioral, depressive or stress disorders. Mansfield adds boys are more likely to have mental health problems than girls.

"We used to think about deployment as a single experience: I go, I'm away, it's difficult and then I come back. Well, it's a way of life in the military that deployments continue to occur and families have to manage the consequences," Stephen Cozza, a psychiatry professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, tells Reuters.

"These are consequences that aren't necessarily short-term," he adds.

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]]>soldiers childrensoldiers kidswar affects on kidsWar Soldiers Psychological Medical Records Depression Stress AdjTom HendersonTue, 05 Jul 2011 12:30:00 ESTParents Quit Smoking (For Awhile) When Kids Have Surgeryhttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/01/parents-quit-smoking/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/01/parents-quit-smoking/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/01/parents-quit-smoking/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

man smoking

Kicking the habit is hard, even when you're doing it for kids. Credit:Noel Celis, Getty Images

Parents who smoke are more likely to quit if their child goes through surgery, a study shows. They worry about the effect secondhand smoke will have on the child as he or she recovers.

Then they start smoking again.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found a child's surgery may inspire parents to quit smoking, but they have no better chance than anyone else of kicking the habit permanently.

According to US News & World Report, researchers studied 1,112 children who lived with at least one person who smoked. When a child or parent had surgery, the magazine reporters, the smoker was likely to quit. But the attempt was more likely to succeed only if it was the parent having surgery.

About one in seven U.S. children who undergo surgery are chronically exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes, the magazine reports.

Secondhand smoke can increase the risk of respiratory complications associated with anesthesia. In adults, smoking after surgery has been shown to increase the risks of lung and cardiac complications and infections to the wound.

"Our current findings suggest that having a child undergo surgery can serve as a teachable moment for quit attempts," lead researcher David Warner tells the magazine.

"The scheduling of children for surgery may present us with an opportunity to provide tobacco interventions to parents, who are apparently more motivated to at least try to quit -- but who need assistance to succeed."

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]]>secondhand smokeSmoking Surgery Postoperative Recovery Mayo ClinicTom HendersonFri, 01 Jul 2011 16:00:00 ESTFight Fat Even in Toddlers, Report Warnshttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/23/fat-in-toddlers/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/23/fat-in-toddlers/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/23/fat-in-toddlers/#commentsFiled under: , ,

baby fat

Credit: Keith Brofsky, Getty

WASHINGTON (AP) - A food pyramid just for the under-2 set? Contrary to popular belief, children don't usually outgrow their baby fat - and a new report urges steps to help prevent babies, toddlers and preschoolers from getting too pudgy too soon.

That's a growing problem: Already, one in five preschoolers - 2- to 5-year-olds - is overweight or obese.

Topping the list of proposed changes: better guidelines to help parents and caregivers know just how much toddlers should eat as they move from baby food to bigger-kid fare. And making sure preschoolers get at least 15 minutes of physical activity for every hour they spend in child care.

Thursday's recommendations, from the Institute of Medicine, aren't about putting the very young on diets. But those early pounds can lead to lasting bad effects on their health as children grow, says the report.

"It's a huge opportunity to instill good habits at a time when you don't have to change old ones," said Leann Birch, director of Pennsylvania State University's Center for Childhood Obesity Research, who chaired the IOM panel.

Consider: Babies drink milk until they're full and then turn away. But children as young as 2 or 3 are sensitive to portion size, important in not inadvertently training them to overeat.

"If you give them larger portions, they eat more," Birch explained.

Pediatricians generally give pretty explicit directions on how to feed babies. And the nation's dietary guidelines include a special section for preschoolers, including information that a portion size generally is about 1 tablespoon of each food type per year of age.

But overall, those national guidelines are aimed at ages 2 and older - though surveys show even very young children eat too few of the fruits and vegetables they need. So the institute called on the government to create consumer-friendly dietary guidelines for birth to age 2.

That would capture the "dramatic dietary transition that occurs, from consuming one single food to, by the time they're 2, ordering up things from McDonald's and, we hope, having also learned to eat a lot of healthy foods," Birch said.

That will be part of the discussion during the next dietary guidelines update in 2015, said Robert Post, deputy director of the Agriculture Department's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which oversees that process. But developing guidelines for these younger children is complex because their nutrition needs are based in part on developmental stage, he cautioned.

Of course, parents have the biggest influence over whether healthy eating and being active become a child's norm.

But the report makes the case that children's habits are influenced by far more than their parents - and thus it's time to expand obesity prevention to more of the other places youngsters spend time. For example, nearly three-fourths of children ages 2 to 5 spend at least part of their day in some form of child care.

Among the recommendations:

-Day care and preschool operators should be trained in proper physical activity for young children, provide at least 15 minutes of it per hour, and avoid withholding physical activity as a punishment.

-Child care regulations should limit how long toddlers and preschoolers sit or stand still to no more than 30 minutes at a time - and limit holding babies in swings, bouncy seats or other equipment while they're awake.

-Day care and preschools should practice what's called responsive feeding: providing age-appropriate portion sizes, teaching children to serve themselves properly, requiring adults to sit with and eat the same foods as the children and following babies' cues as to when they've had enough.

-Breastfed infants are less likely to become obese later in childhood, so doctors and hospitals should encourage breastfeeding and limit formula samples aimed at new moms.

-At checkups, doctors should consider the parents' weight in assessing which children are at risk of later obesity, and then alert parents early that preventive steps are needed. About 10 percent of infants and toddlers already weigh too much for their length.

-To increase healthful eating among the poorest children, the government should take steps to get more families who are eligible for federal nutrition-assistance programs to sign up.


Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. This article was written by Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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]]>baby fatchild obesityAssociated PressThu, 23 Jun 2011 18:00:00 ESTKids Play Within Their Ethnic Groups, but Make Others Welcomehttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/22/kids-ethnic-groups-play/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/22/kids-ethnic-groups-play/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/22/kids-ethnic-groups-play/#commentsFiled under: ,

ethnic group

Children are willing to make accommodations to let insiders into their group. Credit: Getty Images

"A boy like that will give you sorrow. You'll meet another boy tomorrow. One of your own kind. Stick to your own kind." (Anita to Maria in "West Side Story")

There are still more Anitas in the world than Marias. Left on their own, children really do stick to their "own kind."

However, researchers in Canada also found that what could be called the Maria Factor cannot be discounted. Children are willing to make accommodations to let insiders into their group.

The Montreal Gazette reports researchers from Concordia University and the University of Montreal set out to see if kids naturally gravitate toward others from their same ethnic background. Turns out, they do.

Researchers observed French-Canadian and Asian children between the ages of 3 and 5 and the amount of "social" versus "solitary" play they engaged in when they were paired with a partner from either the same ethnic group or a different background. The kids were matched for 20 minutes in each session in a room separate from the main classroom.

The Gazette reports kids tended to play together more with partners from their own ethnic groups.

Nadine Girouard, a research associate with Concordia's psychology department, tells the Gazette such differences between social and solitary were in line with previous research showing children prefer playmates similar to themselves.

However, she adds, the important point to remember from this study is that kids adapted their play to make kids from other ethnic backgrounds more comfortable.

"During the same-ethnic interactions, Asian Canadians speak less during their interactions compared to the French Canadians, who are speaking more," Girouard tells the Gazette. "But during the cross-ethnic interactions, Asian Canadians speak more to French Canadians."

In turn, the Gazette reports, French-Canadian children used more nonverbal communication, such as presenting a toy, when interacting with Asian children. Nonverbal cues were seen more often among Asian children when playing together.

"This is very interesting because it shows that at the preschool age what is most important to the children is to play together," Girouard tells the newspaper. "Even if they may have a preference for same-ethnic interaction, they still want to play together. And to do that, they adapt their behavior."

A lesson there for all of us?

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]]>diversityethnic groupskids and playpreschoolTom HendersonWed, 22 Jun 2011 17:00:00 ESTA Child Dies Every Five Days in Kiddie Pools, Study Showshttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/20/kiddie-pools/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/20/kiddie-pools/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/20/kiddie-pools/#commentsFiled under: ,

kiddie pool

Credit: Getty Images

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The first U.S. study on child drownings in portable pools finds that a child dies every five days in such a pool during warm-weather months, demonstrating a considerable risk and the need for consumer education and affordable protection devices, the study's senior author says.

The research being published Monday in the journal Pediatrics shows 209 deaths and 35 near-drownings of children under 12 from 2001 through 2009. Most of the children, 94 percent, were under 5, and 81 percent of the incidents happened during summer months.

"The anecdotal evidence was suggesting that because portable pools are readily available in many convenience stores and malls, and they're relatively cheap, parents would pick them up, take them home, quickly assemble them, and all this would be done without a lot of forethought about the safety aspects," said senior author, Dr. Gary A. Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

The study focused on portable pools, from small wading pools less than 18 inches deep to inflatable pools and other soft-sided pools that can reach depths of 4 feet. It was conducted by researchers at Nationwide hospital and Independent Safety Consulting in Rockville, Md. They say the findings are comparable to drownings related to in-ground pools.

Many safety methods used for permanent pools, such as fencing, pool alarms, safety covers and removable or lockable ladders, are too expensive or not available for families who purchase portable pools, said Smith, who also is a pediatrics professor at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.

The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals supports "layers of protection," and the study underscores the importance of active, undistracted adult supervision, said Carvin DiGiovanni a senior director at the Alexandria, Va.-based association.

"The primary layer of protection is constant adult supervision supplemented by barriers, alarms and other related devices," he said. "We encourage homeowners to purchase the additional layer of protection that works for them knowing that they would be more likely to use it."

The study shows that children were supervised by adults in fewer than half, 43 percent, of the drownings and near-drownings, and that most, 73 percent, were at home.

Among other data, the report shows CPR was administered before emergency crews arrived in 15 percent of the fatalities and 17 percent of near-drownings, numbers that help show "it's time for us to begin requiring that people learn how to do CPR," perhaps by adding it to high school curricula, said Susan Baker, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research & Policy in Baltimore.

"That to me is a reminder that every one of us ought to be knowledgeable about how to do CPR and willing to jump in and do it immediately," said Baker, who was not involved in the study.

Smith said drownings overall represent the second-leading cause of injury deaths among young children and are different from other childhood accidents because there's no second chance.

"I tell parents that drowning is quick, it's silent and it's final," he said.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. This article was written by Joanne Viviano, Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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]]>kiddie poolsportable poolsAssociated PressMon, 20 Jun 2011 09:30:00 ESTTyping is Fine, but Handwriting Makes its Mark When it Comes to Learninghttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/17/handwriting-and-learning/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/17/handwriting-and-learning/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/17/handwriting-and-learning/#commentsFiled under: , ,

handwriting

Research shows that handwriting increases brain activity. Credit: Getty Images

Sure, typing is a skill kids need to learn earlier and earlier -- what with all the laptops, cell phones and games that require it these days.

But it doesn't make you smarter like handwriting can.

New research shows writing things out by hand not only increases brain activity, but also helps develop fine motor skills and can even predict how well a student will do in school, the Chicago Tribune reports.

"For children, handwriting is extremely important. Not how well they do it, but that they do it and practice it," Karin Harman James, lead researcher and an assistant psychological and brain sciences professor at Indiana University, tells the newspaper. "Typing does not do the same thing."

Researchers at IU studied brain scans of two groups preschoolers -- one practiced printing letters and one practiced saying and recognizing letters, according to the Tribune. After four weeks, those who put pen to paper showed brain activation akin to a grown-up, James tells the Tribune.

It's just the latest study to show the benefits of handwriting. According to the newspaper, other studies that have found the same paper is graded worse if the handwriting is messy, and a University of Washington study found grade schoolers could write essays faster than they could type, and also wrote in more complete sentences when they were using a pen, the newspaper adds.

Seems to us the handwriting is on the wall. Now, where did we put that pen?

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]]>handwritingpreschoolersreadingschool successwritingLesley KennedyFri, 17 Jun 2011 11:30:00 ESTMedicaid Kids are Denied Medical Care, Study Showshttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/16/medicaid-kids/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/16/medicaid-kids/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/16/medicaid-kids/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

dentist

Credit: Getty Images

CHICAGO (AP) - Children on public insurance are being denied treatment by doctors at much higher rates than those with private coverage, according to an undercover study that had researchers pose as parents of sick kids seeking an appointment with a specialist.

Snubbed even by specialists whose offices supposedly accept public insurance patients, these kids also had to wait much longer to see a doctor. Low Medicaid reimbursements are the likely reason, the study authors said.

The study was done in Cook County, Ill., the nation's second-most populous county which includes Chicago, but the researchers and others say the results likely reflect practices around the country.

"People should be very concerned," said Dr. Karin Rhodes, the lead author and an emergency medicine specialist at the University of Pennsylvania.

The study results suggest many of the 40 million publicly insured U.S. children are not getting recommended timely treatment for dangerous conditions including asthma, diabetes and depression, she said.

"I work in an emergency room ... where you see the long-term consequences of people who did not get the care they needed," Rhodes said.

The study appears in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

The study is "simple and elegant" and bolsters previous research while presenting a more accurate real-world picture of disparities facing public aid patients, said Dr. Steve Wegner, former head of the American Academy of Pediatrics' child health financing committee.

To test whether type of insurance influences doctors' willingness to schedule appointments, the researchers posed as parents of fictitious sick children referred to specialists by primary-care doctors or emergency room physicians. Seven scenarios were created, including a 9-month-old with a severe skin rash, a 7-year-old with diabetes, a 12-year-old with a suspected broken arm and a 13-year-old with symptoms of severe depression.

The researchers phoned 273 specialty clinics twice, a month apart, seeking an appointment with doctors including dermatologists, allergists, psychiatrists and bone specialists. In one call, the children were said to have private insurance; in the other, they were insured through Illinois' Medicaid program.

Overall, specialists refused to grant appointments for 66 percent of the Medicaid children, versus only 11 percent of privately insured youngsters.

Among 89 clinics that accepted both insurance types, Medicaid children had to wait an average of 42 days for an appointment, versus 20 days for private coverage.

In about half the calls, clinics asked about insurance before telling callers whether an appointment was available. In other cases, callers volunteered their insurance information - and were often told that Medicaid was the reason the appointment request was denied, the researchers said.

Orthopedic (bone) doctors were among specialists most likely to deny appointments for public kids; psychiatrists were among the least likely. Rhodes said an analysis of the reasons offices gave has not been completed.

In about 20 percent of the denials, callers were told they could seek treatment at the county public hospital or at an emergency room.

Rhodes said information is not available on how many of the doctors involved accept Medicaid patients, but that most specialists are affiliated with hospitals, which generally require them to enroll in Medicaid.

All appointments made were canceled at the end of the call. Many specialists told about the study afterward said they wanted to see any kids "who need to see me" but that they worked within health systems or hospitals that for financial reasons discouraged them from treating too many patients on public aid, Rhodes said.

In Illinois, Medicaid pays doctors about $100 for office visits like those sought in the study, versus an average of $160 from private insurers, the researchers said.

Other factors against Medicaid patients include "delays in payment and hassles of payment procedures," the researchers said.

Wegner, a Medicaid consultant and chairman of Community Care of North Carolina, a managed care group that includes most primary care doctors in his state, said accountable care organizations to be set up starting next year would help address the disparities. The groups were part of President Barack Obama's health care law.

These networks of hospitals, doctors and other health care providers would include organizations focused on the pediatric Medicaid population, he said. The idea is for providers to work together to streamline care, prevent medical errors, and focus on keeping patients healthier and out of the emergency room.

In a study published last month in Pediatrics, the same researchers used similar undercover methods to examine access to emergency dental care for children on Medicaid in Cook County - and found similar disparities.

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services paid for both studies as part of a 2005 consent decree stemming from a class-action lawsuit alleging Medicaid children in Cook County weren't getting equal access to primary care.

Department spokesman Mike Claffey said both studies "provide data that highlights an issue that has been and continues to be an area of focus" for his agency and Medicaid programs in all states.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. This article was written by Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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]]>dental careMedicaidAssociated PressThu, 16 Jun 2011 17:00:00 ESTA Little Time Apart Can Shield Toddlers from Mom's Depressionhttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/15/mom-depression/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/15/mom-depression/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/15/mom-depression/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

child care

Credit: Getty Images

If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Fortunately, research has discovered a way to keep toddler's from getting caught in the fallout of their mother's depression: Stay the bleep out of her way.

It's true. WebMD reports just a few hours of child care can shield toddlers from the psychological radiation of an exploding mommy.

Mommies often lose their tempers because small children can drive them feather-plucking insane. Just a few hours apart acts as a pressure valve for both mother and child, lead researcher Lynne Giles of the University of Adelaide in South Australia tells WebMD.

"Modest amounts of formal child care in toddlerhood for the children of mothers with recurrent depressive symptoms can have enduring benefits for the emotional and behavioral state of the child around the time they transition to school," says Giles.

By "formal child care," Giles means day-care centers or paid caregivers such as a nannies. Informal child care, by contrast, is leaving with the kids with Grandma. No offense to Grandma, but the formal child care showed a more beneficial effect in the study.

Of the 438 moms in the study, 69 percent showed no signs of depression, 20 percent reported some depression and 11 were seriously bummed out. Formal day care seemed to help mostly moms with chronic depression.

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]]>BabysitterChild CaredaycareToddlers Child Care Maternal Depression Respite Behavior AustralTom HendersonWed, 15 Jun 2011 14:30:00 ESTNew Sticker Price on Raising a Child: $226,920http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/10/price-on-raising-a-child/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/10/price-on-raising-a-child/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/10/price-on-raising-a-child/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

dollar bills

Credit: Paul J. Richards, AFP/Getty Images

Do you really want to have a baby? Take another look at the sticker price.

You could buy a top-of-the-line Mercedes Benz SLS for the same amount of money -- and have a few bucks left over gas. You could also buy a near-mint condition copy of Superman No. 1. Or how about a two-bedroom, 580-square foot condo in Boston?

But if you still want a baby, go ahead. It's your $226,920.

That's how much the United States Department of Agriculture says having a kid cost these days. Of course, the cost is spread out over 18 years. Sometimes much longer.

USDA officials release figures on how much it costs to raise a child every year as part of a federal program. We think it's just to seriously depress parents.

And wait. It gets more depressing. Bloomberg News reports the price has shot up 2.1 percent in just one year. That includes the price of child care, education, transportation and health services.

The typical two-parent family spent from $11,880 to $13,830 on each child in 2010, according to the USDA -- give or take. A family earning less than $57,600 a year was likely to spend $163,440 in 2010 dollars to rear a child, the USDA reports, while parents earning more than $99,730 may spend $377,040.

"Child-rearing expenses vary considerably by household income level," according to the report. "Annual expenses generally increased with a child's age, a circumstance true in both two-parent and single-parent families."

If the study itself is insufficient depressing, the report includes an online calculator so parents can calculate their own costs and bum themselves out for an entire weekend. Try not to think of that Mercedes.

You'll really start moping if you live in the urban Northeast. Parents raising children in the West and Midwest might be slightly less traumatized. The least expensive places to raise a child, by the way, are the urban South and rural areas.

Housing accounts for the biggest portion of expenses, averaging 31 percent over 17 years, the USDA reports. Child care and education average 17 percent, with food costs at 16 percent. The estimates don't include college expenses.

The USDA has been bumming parents with these numbers every year since 1960. Your parents probably thought they had it rough, too. Tell them to stop their whining.

If you're 50 years old, health care was only 4 percent of the cost of raising a child -- half of what it is now. Education and child care accounted for 2 percent.

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]]>920 Annual ReportCost of raising childcost of raising kidsUSDA Cost Child 223Tom HendersonFri, 10 Jun 2011 15:00:00 ESTDeaths of Children Left in Hot Cars Hit Grim Recordhttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/09/children-left-in-hot-cars/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/09/children-left-in-hot-cars/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/06/09/children-left-in-hot-cars/#commentsFiled under: ,

rear facing car seat

Credit: AJ Mast, AP Images

Rear-facing child safety seats are a problem. With children out of sight, they are sometimes out of mind; parents forget there's a baby on board.

We wonder, how could they forget something like that?

But, it happens. The Detroit Free Press reports that 49 children in the United States died of heatstroke last year after being left in hot cars. That's a new -- if grim -- record.

Child-welfare advocates tell the Free Press that some of those deaths are the result of parents forgetting that they have a baby in a rear-facing safety seat -- not that rear-facing safety seats are a bad idea, they say. It's just that they require parents to be more aware.

More than half of the parents of the some 500 children who have died in hot cars between 1998 and 2010 admit later that they forgot their children were there, according to the Free Press. Five children have died so far this year, the paper reports, including three in May in southern states.

"They think of the people this happened to as monsters, and they don't put in place the safeguards you should," Janette Fennell of Kids and Cars tells the Free Press. "If you have the ability to forget your cell phone, you can forget your child."

Kids and Cars, a Kansas-based nonprofit organization has become a national leader in child car safety. The group is printing "Look Before You Lock" warning tags that will go into take-home kits that hospitals give new mothers.

In addition, Safe Kids USA just launched a "Never Leave Your Child Alone in a Car" campaign.

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]]>car safetycar seatFatalities Forgotten Kids Hot Cars Heat Safety SeatsKids and Carsrear facing car seatsafe kids usaTom HendersonThu, 09 Jun 2011 12:40:00 ESTEven a Little Lead Exposure Not a Good Thing for Kids' Test Scoreshttp://www.parentdish.com/2011/05/19/lead-exposure-poor-test-scores/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/05/19/lead-exposure-poor-test-scores/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/05/19/lead-exposure-poor-test-scores/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Lead Exposure

kids who ingest even small amounts of lead do worse later on in school tests than kids who stick to a strict lead-free diet. Credit: Getty Images

Let this be lesson to you, kids. Stop eating all those lead-based snacks.

The cultural messages are everywhere -- especially in movies about the old West: "Eat lead." But even though the first thing you want to do after a long day of school is grab yourself a nice big bowl of lead, resist the temptation.

That stuff can really lower your test scores.

The Boston Herald reports kids who ingest even small amounts of lead do worse on school tests later on than kids who stick to a strictly lead-free diet.

Lead is a major ingredient in paint residue, dust, Chinese-made toys and other items that end up in the mouths of babes -- especially poor babes.

The Herald reports Duke University researchers found poor children are more likely to have lead in their systems than their more affluent classmates, adding that educators call the Duke study a reminder that even very low levels of lead exposure can hurt children.

"It's compelling evidence," Francesca Provenzano, health program supervisor for the Connecticut Department of Public Health, tells the newspaper. "I think it provides even greater awareness to parents, medical providers and advocates that lead poisoning is a serious issue and prevention is key."

Researchers studied 35,000 Connecticut children exposed to lead before age 7. Then they looked at the kids' scores on the 2008 and 2009 standardized Connecticut Mastery Tests.

The greater the lead exposure, in turns out, the lower the test scores.

Researchers for the Children's Environmental Health Initiative at Duke came to the same conclusion after studying North Carolina students in 2009, the Herald reports.

Lead was banned in house paint, cookware and products marketed to children in the United States in 1978. But it still shows up, particularly in poor homes, and kids (being kids) will suck on toys with lead-based paints.

While adults need to keep lead away from kids, kids need to keep lead away from themselves. So when your teacher says "get the lead out," she means it.

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]]>leadLead Exposurelead ingestionlead paintTom HendersonThu, 19 May 2011 13:00:00 ESTTonsils Connected to Bedwetting?http://www.parentdish.com/2011/05/17/tonsils-connected-to-bedwetting/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/05/17/tonsils-connected-to-bedwetting/http://www.parentdish.com/2011/05/17/tonsils-connected-to-bedwetting/#commentsFiled under: ,

tonsil bedwetting

If you remove a kid's tonsils and adenoids, he is less likely to wet the bed. Credit: Getty Images

OK, this gets kind of technical, but researchers have found a direct connection between tonsils and wee-wee.

Not poo-poo, mind you. Just wee-wee. Poo-poo remains one of life's great mysteries.

Researchers in Michigan have found if you remove a kid's tonsils and adenoids, he is less likely to wet the bed. No T&A jokes, please.

According to US News & World Report, kids with enlarged tonsils and adenoids are more likely to have sleep apnea (interruptions in breathing while sleeping), and kids with sleep apnea are more likely to bed their beds.

So, take away the tonsils and adenoids, and voila! You take away the bedwetting.

Exactly why kids with sleep apnea are more prone to wet the bed is unknown. Researchers expected hormones to be involved, but man was never meant to understand all the mysteries of wee-wee at once.

"If they haven't seen an ear, nose and throat specialist, see one to see if the child who wets the bed has OSA [obstructive sleep apena] that can be cured by tonsil or adenoid removal," study author Yegappan Lakshmanan, chief of pediatric urology at Children's Hospital of Michigan, tells US News & World Report.

Not all bedwetting is caused by sleep apnea, though, he adds.

"About 5 to 7 million children are bedwetters, and the causes fall into three main groups: bladder issues, sleep-related problems and the kidneys," he tells the magazine. "The children in this study wet the bed due to sleep-related problems."

Lakshmanan dreams of a world of dry sheets.

"Bedwetting is multifactorial even within these groups, and eventually we should be able to pinpoint the cause for every single child," he tells the magazine.

Maybe wee-wee will one day reveal all of its secrets after all.

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]]>bedroombedwettingSleep Apnea Tonsils Adenoids Bedwettingtonsilstonsils bedwettingTom HendersonTue, 17 May 2011 16:00:00 EST