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News About Parenting as of Feb 06, 2012
Mental problems rise with kids' screen time
Tue, 12 Oct 2010 06:48:16 - Pacific Time
More than two hours a day spent watching television or playing computer games could put a child at greater risk for psychological problems, suggests a new study. British researchers found the effect held regardless of how active kids were during the rest of the day. "We know that physical activity is good for both physical and mental health in children and there is some evidence that screen viewing is associated with negative behaviors," lead researcher Dr. Angie Page of the University of Bristol told Reuters Health in an e-mail. "But it wasn't clear whether having high physical activity levels would 'compensate' for high levels of screen viewing in children." Page and her colleagues studied more than 1,000 kids between the ages of 10 and 11. Over seven days, the children filled out a questionnaire reporting how much time they spent daily in front of a television or computer and answering questions describing their mental state -- including emotional, behavioral, and peer-related problems. Meanwhile, an accelerometer measured their physical activity. The odds of significant psychological difficulties were about 60 percent higher for children spending longer than two hours a day in front of either screen compared with kids exposed to less screen time, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics. For children with more than two hours of both types of screen time during the day, the odds more than doubled. Read More...
When moms get flu shots, babies reap benefits
Tue, 5 Oct 2010 19:07:56 - Pacific Time
Newborn babies whose mothers got a flu shot while pregnant are less likely to get the flu or to be admitted to the hospital with a respiratory illness in the first six months of life, U.S. researchers said on Monday. During most flu seasons, babies under six months tend to have fewer cases of flu-like illnesses than those who are 6 to 12 months old, most likely because they are protected by their mothers' natural antibodies. But in severe flu seasons, such as the 2009 swine flu pandemic, these youngest children, who are too young to get flu shots themselves, are more likely to be hospitalized and die from flu than older babies. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has for years recommended that pregnant women be vaccinated against seasonal flu, but the study adds to other research showing that newborn babies benefit, too. Researcher Angelia Eick, formerly of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and now of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, wanted to see if giving pregnant women flu shots could increase protection for babies under 6 months old. Eick and colleagues studied children on Navajo and White Mountain Apache Indian reservations. In these communities, children are more prone to severe respiratory infections than those in the general population. The team studied 1,160 mother-infant pairs over three flu seasons. The mothers and babies gave blood samples before and after the flu season and they were monitored for flu symptoms. In the flu season following the child's birth, babies whose mother had been vaccinated were 41 percent less likely to have a lab-confirmed flu infection and 39 percent less likely to be hospitalized for a flu-like illness. They also found babies whose mothers had been vaccinated had higher levels of flu antibodies at birth and at 2 to 3 months of age compared with babies whose mothers did not get a flu shot. Read More...
When to Buy Your Child a Cellphone
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:52:41 - Pacific Time
At what age should you buy your child a cellphone? And when you do buy that first phone, what kind should it be? About 75 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds in the United States own a mobile phone, up from 45 percent in 2004, according to an April study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, part of the Pew Research Center. And children are getting their phones at earlier ages, industry experts say. The Pew study, for example, found that 58 percent of 12-year-olds now had a cellphone, up from 18 percent in 2004. Parents generally say they buy their child a phone for safety reasons, because they want to be able to reach the child anytime. Cost also matters to parents, cellphone industry experts say; phones and family plans from carriers are both becoming more affordable. Also, as adults swap out their old devices for newer smartphones, it is easier to pass down a used phone.But for children, it is all about social life and wanting to impress peers. The Pew study found that half of 12- to 17-year-olds sent 50 text messages a day and texted their friends more than they talked to them on the phone or even face to face. Experts say the social pressure to text can get acute by the sixth grade, when most children are 11 years old. Just ask Caroline LaGumina, 11, of New Rochelle, N.Y., who got her phone last Christmas. "I wanted to be able to text because my friends all text each other." So when is the right time to buy that first phone? There is no age that suits all children, developmental psychologists and child safety experts say. It depends on the child’s maturity level and need for the phone, and the ability to be responsible for the device - for example, keeping it charged, keeping it on and not losing it. Instead of giving in to the claim that "everyone else has one," parents should ask why the child needs one, how it will be used and how well the child handles distraction and responsibility. "You need to figure out, are your kids capable of following your rules?" about using the phone, said Parry Aftab, executive director of the child advocacy group Wired Safety. Ruth Peters, a child psychologist in Clearwater, Fla., said most children were not ready for their own phones until age 11 to 14, when they were in middle school. Often, that is when they begin traveling alone to and from school, or to after-school activities, and may need to call a parent to change activities at the last minute or coordinate rides. Patricia Greenfield, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who specializes in children’s use of digital media, cautioned that at younger ages, parents might miss out on what was going on with their children because of a cellphone. "Kids want the phone so that they can have private communication with their peers,” she said. “You should wait as long as possible, to maintain parent-child communication." Read More...
Smoking around kids exacts a high toll
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:42:36 - Pacific Time
American kids can breathe a sigh of relief, according to a study out today in the journal Pediatrics that finds their exposure to second-hand smoke at home has dropped significantly since the mid-1990s. But two other reports in the journal show that early-life exposure could lead to behavioral and health problems later in life. Exposure to second-hand smoke is known to cause lung problems, asthma, ear infections and contribute to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Smoking during pregnancy has also been linked to a host of psychological problems in children, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and antisocial behavior. But scientists have had a hard time teasing out the direct effects of tobacco versus lifestyle factors and mental health in the home. In one of the three studies in the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Marie-Jo Brion of the University of Bristol, U.K., and colleagues tried to disentangle those factors by analyzing two long-term studies from Britain and Brazil. Both studies had started in the early 1990s. Among British mothers, 16 percent reported smoking during pregnancy, compared with 29 percent in Brazil. The researchers initially found that at age four, the kids whose mothers smoked had higher levels of hyperactivity, peer problems and bad behavior, such as bullying, cheating and lying. The kids didn't have more emotional problems, however. After accounting for the parents' psychological health, economic position and whether the father smoked, only the bad behavior remained highly associated with having a mother who smoked, with odds increased up to 82 percent. Brion said her results weren't bulletproof evidence that exposure to tobacco in the womb causes behavior problems directly, but that it was likely to do so. Even if a prospective mother doesn't smoke, being around others who do could still affect her unborn child, according to the second study in Pediatrics.Researchers from the University of Hong Kong studied 6,800 school-aged children whose mothers weren't smokers. If their dads smoked daily, however, they tended to weigh more compared to those kids who weren't exposed to second-hand smoke in the womb or after birth. On average, they packed on an extra pound or so. The third study in Pediatrics shows that fewer kids are being exposed to smoke in the home. Dr. Gopal K. Singh of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Rockville, Maryland, and colleagues report that overall, about 5.5 million American children, or 7.6 percent, were exposed to second-hand smoke in the home in 2007. By contrast, that number was 35 percent in 1994. "That was a fairly dramatic drop," Singh said. "It is a positive message in the sense that exposure rates have declined." However, he and colleagues note that the 7.6 percent figure falls short of the 2010 revised national target for reducing childhood exposure to tobacco smoke at home, which is set at 6 percent. Read More...
Parenting style influences teen drinking patterns, researchers say
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:34:16 - Pacific Time
Some parents assume that teenagers will drink alcohol and there is little they can do to prevent it. Research does indicate that parenting has little effect on whether kids decide to try alcohol. But parenting attitudes and actions can make a big difference in how much and how often a teenager drinks. Researchers at Brigham Young University surveyed 5,000 adolescents about their drinking habits and their relationship with their parents. They found the kids least prone to heavy drinking had parents who scored high on accountability (knowing where their kids were and with whom) and warmth. Having so-called "indulgent" parents, who were low on accountability and high on warmth, nearly tripled the risk of the teen participating in heavy drinking. The study also found that "strict" parents -- high on accountability and low on warmth -- more than doubled their teen's risk of heavy drinking. These results were apparent even when researchers controlled for other influences, such as peer pressure, religious and economic background. "Authoritative parents tend to be highly demanding and highly responsive," the authors wrote. "They monitor their children closely and provide high levels of support and warmth. Our data suggest that peer encouragement to drink might have less impact when parents are both highly supportive and highly attentive." Read More...
Eating with an anorexic child: A controversial treatment
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 07:46:28 - Pacific Time
The little-known Maudsley Approach, is a grueling but evidence-based treatment for adolescents suffering from the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. The approach, also called "family-based therapy," flips conventional treatment on its head. Often parents are advised to put their starving child in therapy or residential treatment, distance themselves to preserve the teen's independence and wait for the day the child decides to resume eating. But under Maudsley, parents immediately start the daunting task of "re-feeding" their malnourished child. Once weight is restored — and, theoretically, rational thinking returns because the brain has some nourishment — parents step back, and control over eating is gradually returned to the child. The final phase of treatment is the initial step in traditional therapy; it addresses the underlying psychological issues that may have caused the disorder. Critics of the approach say forcing adolescents to relinquish their power over food can exacerbate underlying control issues. They question whether Maudsley teaches children how to eat intuitively. And they wonder whether parents are equipped for the harrowing and relentless task of getting a child to finally eat. But Maudsley has something other remedies for anorexia do not: A modest body of clinical evidence suggesting that most adolescent patients respond favorably after relatively few treatment sessions. For parents, it's a glimmer of hope for a serious illness still lacking a gold-standard treatment. "If you just Google 'eating disorder' and 'anorexia,' you feel like you've been handed a death sentence," said Ranalli, whose already slender daughter (whom they didn't want named) lost 16 pounds in six weeks. "You cry a lot. Maudsley reassures you that it's not your fault and empowered us; we were part of the solution." Read More...
Burger diet linked to higher childhood asthma risk
Thu, 3 Jun 2010 06:50:03 - Pacific Time
Children who eat three or more burgers a week may be at a higher risk of asthma and wheezing, but a healthy diet rich in fruit and fish seems to stave off the risk, according to a large international study. Researchers from Germany, Spain and Britain who studied data on 50,000 children across the world found the link between burgers and asthma was strongest in rich nations where diets with high levels of junk food are more common. A meat-heavy diet itself has no bearing on the prevalence of asthma, according to the scientists who conducted the study. Yet, frequent burger eating could be a signal for other lifestyle factors which raise asthma risk. "This is a sign that the link is not strongly related to the food itself, but that burgers are a proxy for other lifestyle and environmental factors like obesity and lack of exercise," said Gabriele Nagel of the Institute of Epidemiology at Ulm University, Germany, who led the study. She added, however, that there were "biologically plausible" links for the positive effects of a healthier diet, which could be down to the antioxidants found in fruit and vegetables, and the omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish, which have anti-inflammatory properties. "Fruit and vegetables contain antioxidants and other biologically active factors which may contribute to the favorable effect...in asthma," Nagel said. In particular, she added, foods rich in vitamin C have been linked to better lung function and fewer asthma symptoms. Around 1.1 million children currently receive treatment for asthma in Britain, while in the United States it is the most common chronic childhood disease, with around 10 million children diagnosed with it. Read More...
Storm over J and J's child drug recall only grows
Fri, 28 May 2010 04:11:48 - Pacific Time
Late last month, J and J recalled 40 widely used nonprescription products for children and infants, such as Tylenol and Motrin, after Food and Drug Administration inspectors found filthy equipment and contaminated ingredients at a Pennsylvania factory. "This is an issue of trust," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns told a hearing held to investigate the recall. "When parents and grandparents give these medicines to their children, they want to be confident that they are not harmful." A J&J executive told the panel that the company had not lived up to its reputation and apologized for the concern and inconvenience created by the recall. The FDA says there have been hundreds of complaints but no children have been known to be harmed. Investors, previously confident the problems were a minor financial concern for the diversified maker of medical and consumer products, are beginning to be cautious. JP Morgan analysts said on Tuesday that the recall could shave J&J's sales by $300 million this year to nearly $62.3 billion. It is also likely to dent earnings by 3 cents per share or more depending on how much it costs to fix the problems, they said. Shares of J&J closed down 0.2 percent at $59.03 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, underperforming the S&P Pharmaceuticals Sub-Industry Index which rose 1.3 percent on a day of broad stock gains. "I think it's beginning to be" an issue, Noble Financial Group analyst Jan Wald said of the recall. "The more serious the government is going to take it, the more serious investors are going to take it." Lawmaker said the episode highlighted the need to give FDA more power over drugmakers. Towns said he would introduce legislation to expand FDA's ability to order a drug recall, something that now requires a lengthy legal process and court orders if a drugmaker refuses to voluntarily issue a recall. Since the nationwide recall was announced last month, 136 million bottles of medicine have been recalled in the fourth company recall in the last 12 months. Read More...
Many vaccines at once OK for kids' brains: study
Tue, 25 May 2010 05:57:13 - Pacific Time
Parents can rest assured that getting kids their vaccine shots on time will not hurt their mental skills later on, doctors said on Monday. "A lot of parents are concerned that children receive too many vaccines too soon," said Dr. Michael J. Smith, of the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky. Some parents skip recommended vaccines out of fear of autism, for instance, and some choose to space out shots. Although there is no evidence that would be safer, Smith said, he wanted to study the issue to address parents' concerns. So he and a colleague tapped into data from more than 1,000 preteen kids who had undergone extensive psychological tests of IQ, memory, attention, and language. Then they divided the kids into those who had received all their shots on time in their first year of life and those who got them late, or only got some. "Those children who were late, they never did better in any analysis," said Smith, whose study is published in the journal Pediatrics. In fact, when comparing kids who had received the largest number of vaccines as toddlers against those who had received the smallest, the first group scored higher on 15 out of 42 tests. But when the researchers took factors such as parents' education level into account, that difference disappeared for all but two tests. And for those, the difference was minimal, Smith said. Earlier studies based on the same data had shown that the mercury compound thimerosal, which was used as a preservative in vaccines until recently, had no impact on kids' mental skills. But until now, nobody had studied whether getting several vaccinations in a short time could have negative consequences, for instance by overloading the immune system, as many parents believe, according to Smith. He found that receiving as many as 10 different shots -- including flu and whooping cough -- had no impact. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researcher said the new findings send an important public health message. "Parents that are considering delaying vaccination should realize that there aren't any specific benefits, and that they are putting their child at risk, and not only their child but also the community," said Dr. David Sugerman, of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service in Atlanta. Read More...
News Archive
Smoking While Pregnant May Raise Psychiatric Risks in Kids: Wed, 5 May 2010 07:41:02 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Vaccine may trigger early start of infant epilepsy: Wed, 5 May 2010 07:04:08 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Supreme Court agrees to hear violent video game case: Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:07:46 - Pacific Time: Read More...
'The Vaccine Wars' on PBS: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:54:17 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Parents' obesity, especially mom's, tied to kids' risk: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:13:29 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Older Parents, Greater Risk: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:46:56 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Spanking your kid could hatch a bully: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:54:21 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Exploration in Toddlers Activated by Fathers: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 06:57:54 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Your son's nanny may lead to the Other Woman in his life: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:40:39 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Brain Abnormalities Identified That Result from Prenatal Methamphetamine Exposure: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:44:34 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Kids Taught Self-Control Behave Better at School: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:49:16 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Obamas take on problem of obese children: Tue, 9 Feb 2010 08:05:43 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Study Shows Effectiveness of Abstinence Education: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 07:09:31 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Does a Parent's Gender Impact a Child's Success?: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:29:49 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Experts urge screening for obesity in kids: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:01:49 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Movies for kids still depict unsafe behaviors: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:28:43 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Breast feeding for over six months could aid mental health: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:40:55 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Home alone You can teach kids independence, but it'll take a while: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 06:43:00 - Pacific Time: Read More...
New Year Resolutions for Better Parenting: Sat, 2 Jan 2010 09:09:50 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Parents Gone Wild? Study Suggests Link Between Working Memory and Reactive Parenting: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 08:11:02 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Drug-using Teens Fond of Related Songs: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:44:47 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Prenatal baby aspirin not harmful to infants: study: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:03:16 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Heavy teens at risk for sleep apnea: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:03:09 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Dirt can be good for children, say scientists: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:19:01 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Sugar 'high' a myth, studies show: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:14:39 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Gender roles still loom large in modern parenting: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:08:32 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Lack of pediatricians hurting Canadian children: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 06:54:10 - Pacific Time: Read More...
News coverage of antidepressants for kids uneven: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 07:05:35 - Pacific Time: Read More...
A little Mozart might benefit preemies' growth: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 06:42:21 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Half of teen girls have STIs by 2 years of first sex: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 06:37:50 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Boys Miss Out on Sex Education Talks With Parents: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 16:28:43 - Pacific Time: Read More...
'Study drugs' unhealthy option for students: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 19:58:09 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Disciplining your child: answers from an expert: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 04:28:09 - Pacific Time: Read More...
The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 06:18:50 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Kids should get moving to avoid obesity: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:49:55 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Dripping Water: Gentle Parenting: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:30:33 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Educational engagement: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:27:52 - Pacific Time: Read More...
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