What do you think of only-children? Freak diseases or high achievers?
In a recent article in Newsweek, Kathleen Deveny discusses issues surrounding families with only one child - Why Only-Children Rule.
She says that back in 1896 psychologist G. Stanley Hall claimed that “being an only child is a disease in itself“. A disease?
But recent research by Douglas Downey (Ohio State University) shows that kids from smaller families do “better on standardized tests, earn higher grades and stay in school longer” and that “As the number of siblings increases you see a steady decline in performance for all the children in the family”.
Author and social psychologist Susan Newman wrote a book called “Parenting An Only Child: The Joys and Challenges of Raising Your One and Only“. She says that “the myths of the lonely, spoiled, bossy only child” are just that - myths.
Many people who have only one child feel guilty about it - whether it was by choice or not - and worry that their child won’t have other kids to play with, etc. or that other people will think their child is spoiled or lonely.
Of course people have many personal reasons for the number of children they have or don’t have. Regardless of the reasons - or even if the stereotypes had some truth to them - kids from all family sizes shouldn’t be assumed to be freaks or over achievers. They should be treated an individuals.
What do you think? Do you think the stereotypes of only-children are still out there? How do you think those stereotypes affect only-children?
February 8, 2007
Kids and obesity
A number of studies have came out recently about health issues in overweight kids. One, from the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons points out the risk of foot damage. Kid’s feet don’t become developed completely until they are in their teens - for boys this is from 15 to 17 years old and for girls, 14 or 15. If too much weight and stress is on their feet it can lead to foot structure problems such as arches flattening and the growth plate of the heel becoming inflamed.
According to the Journal of the National Medical Association kids, like adults who are obese, may risk more complications from surgery such as breathing problems, airway obstruction and needing more anti-nausea medication.
Earlier this year the Journal of Pediatrics published a study showing that even girls as young as 9 have sometimes developed problems that put them at higher risk for heart disease. This includes higher blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
A report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine collected data on the eating habits and activity levels of over 800 adolescents. The behaviors they analyzed were 1) amount of physical activity, 2) number of servings of fruits and vegetables, 3) % of calories from fat and 4) time spent watching televsion.
The results were somewhat shocking! Over half didn’t engage in 60 or more minutes of activity each day, only 12% ate 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables, just 32% got less 30% of calories from fat and around 30% watched more than 2 hours of TV a day. Only 2% did all four healthy things. And in addition, there was some evidence the behavior of the kids was related to the behavior of their parents.
I’m not sure if I really meet all those guidelines either - but I’ve been working on it. I don’t quite get an average of 60 minutes of exercise each day, but I’m working on it. I’m a little short on the fruits and vegetables thing too, but most days I watch less than 2 hours of TV - plus when I watch it is usually while I’m exercising.
I will definitely make sure my behavior is better by the time I’m a parent. One of the best ways to get kids to live a healthy lifestyle is to set a good example as parents.
January 25, 2007
Help your kids be healthier!
Is there anything you can do now to help your child be healthier as an adult? Of course, many things - teaching them good eating habits, helping them develop a regular exercise habit, making sure they get all their vaccinations, etc.
Some Canadian researchers may have something new to add to that list - making sure your kids learn another language and become bilingual. Toronto’s York University’s Ellen Bialystok’s group completed a study recently which showed that people who are fully bilingual and speak both languages on a regular basis may be able to delay symptoms of dementia for 4 years - compared to people who only know 1 language.
They looked at close to 200 elderly people - around a half bilingual and a half not - and found that the onset of dementia was about 4 years later for those who were bilingual. The mechanism of how this may work is not known but may involve an increase in the blood supply to the brain.
If you want to help your child be smarter a report a while back in Lancet presented evidence showing that play in young children may be able to boost their intelligence. The study was done in the context of kids in impoverished third world countries where malnutrition is common. Apparently even kids with less than ideal diets can improve their IQ scores if given more mental stimulation from playing with toys. Now, you may not want to let your kids know about this - I’m sure they could come up with a big list of all the toys they want really fast so they can be ’smarter’!
A much less expensive way to help your children is to give infant massages to your babies. The research is far from conclusive but there is some evidence that gentle baby massage may help to relieve colic, fussiness and sleep problems. Its also a great way to promote attachment between parents and children!
(Technorati Tags: kids, children, health, bilingual, dementia, play, massage)
December 21, 2006
Obesity in Children Update
The obesity epidemic in children resulting in type2 diabetes continues to grow and now there is a book about it by pediatrician Francine Kaufman from the Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles called “Diabesity”. The number of people with type2 diabetes worldwide was 150 million in 2000 and is expected to continue to rise dramatically. Children being brought into emergency rooms unconscious with high blood sugar levels, kids with acanthosis nigricans - a type of hyperpigmentation caused by insulin resistance - and even atherosclerosis are becoming more and more common.
In the European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology Dr. Ana R. Damaso of the Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil reports that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (fatty tissue build up in the liver) is also becoming more common in kids. In this study, 73 obese teenagers participated in a 12 week program that including learning about nutrition and exercise. Afterward it was found that the kids lost weight and had less fat around their livers.
Speaking of kids and liver problems - more data supporting the connection between obesity and sugar filled soft drinks is available now too. This time the effects of sugar sweetened water and mice were measured. It was found that the mice given sugary drinks ate less overall, but had a higher level of total calories and gained more weight. They also had more incidence of fatty liver disease. This was especially true when they were fed fructose. Think of all the high fructose corn syrup people have been consuming the last 30 or so years? What were people thinking when they starting selling soda anyway? Will soft drinks become the new cigarettes in our society? Once common, but now seen as a horrible health threat?
Education about nutrition and exercise seem like they might be keys to solving the problem. I don’t have kids, so I don’t know what is going on with schools now - but are they teaching anything about nutrition to kids?
On the other hand - Dr. Reid Ewing of the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth Education and Research recently had a study that shows kids that live in sprawling suburbs were over twice as likely to be overweight as those in urban areas. This study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and used government data from 8,984 kids aged 12 to 17 years. When race, income and education levels were taken into account more ’sprawl’ still lead to a greater chance of being over weight.
And a new study to be published in Pediatrics shows that kids with better motor abilities tend to be more physically active. That’s no surprise - but school programs designed to increase physical activities in kids need to take this into consideration. Putting kids with less motor skills into competitive situations is hardly going to lead a lifetime of increased activity levels.
Another interesting story from Nature is the new theory of how different types of bacteria in different people’s gut may effect whether they are obese or thin. There are two groups of bacteria involved - the Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes. It was found in both mice and people that the obese have less Bacteroidetes than thin individuals. When the obese lose weight - their Bacteroidetes levels rise. Definitely interesting stuff - a lot still to be understood about it.
June 1, 2006
Don’t forget your baby’s health if you smoke!
A new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center found a carcinogen from tobacco in the urine of babies whose parents smoke.
The study collected urine samples from 144 babies less than a year old. They found NNAL - 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol - in 47% of the samples. NNAL is a cancer-causing substance made when the body processes NNK. NNK is a carcinogen found in tobacco.
The babies that had NNAL in their urine had family that smoked around 76 cigarettes a week and resulted in the babies having NNAL levels near those of adults that smoke.
The results of this study can be found in the May issue of the journal ‘Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention’.
(Technorati Tags: cancer, health, tobacco, smoking, children)
May 10, 2006
No more Disney toys from McDonald’s?
Disney is not planning to renew its deal with McDonald’s that allows the fast food restaurant to give away toys with disney characters in its Happy Meals.
For the past 10 years Disney has promoted its movies through McDonald’s with plastic toys for kids. Their contract will
end later this year after the promotions for the movies ‘Cars’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ have finished.
McDonald’s will still sell its food in the Disney theme parks however, and may still have some promotions with McDonald’s.
McDonald’s will also now be able to promote the movies of other studios in its restaurants too.
Disney’s decision is believed by many to be due to its concern about damaging its image of being family friendly. In recent years more and more reports keep being published about how children are becoming obese. Other reports however claim that it was a mutual decision.
So what do you think? Good for kids or not? I say it is, but I have to admit I like all those little plastic toys! But non-disney toys would be fine with me too! Its best for the kids though - they don’t need any more encouragement to eat junk food!
March 13, 2006
Don’t believe everything you hear on TV (as if you didn’t know that already!)
Lynn at The New Homemaker brings up a good point today about how the media tends to exaggerate how often kids are kidnapped.
She points out that according to the Justice Department there are only around 115 kids kidnapped each by someone who intends to hurt them in some way.
We don’t have any kids yet but are in the process of adopting - and I know it will be something I will worry about once I am a parent, but at least I know now that the reality is that it really isn’t that common.
You just can’t trust the media - they are more interested in their ratings and in being entertaining than in reporting facts.
Thanks Lynn!
February 11, 2006
What’s the scariest thing about being a parent?
At Blogging Baby there is an interesting discussion about what is the ‘most challenging thing about being a parent?’
Now, I don’t have kids yet but we are in the middle of paperwork for adopting and I often wonder about these kinds of questions myself.
The author of the post, Sarah Gilbert, says that for her it is ‘between the ages of 18 months and 5 years’ and she may very well be right.
But the thing that scares me the most about being a parent is what meg says: ‘the expected loss of self’.
My mother, who was/is a great mom didn’t have many interests or hobbies - she was first and foremost a mom and wife. I appreciate all the sacrifices she made for me. But - I feel bad for her. She never had a chance at having a life of her own - to develop a sense of self or the challenge of goals to achieve outside of parenthood.
I’m not sure if I can live my life like that - without being miserable. And yet I don’t know how to avoid it and still be a good parent.
I guess my challenge over the many months of waiting will be to figure out how I can arrange some ‘me time’ to develop who I am outside of a parent.
In the end though, if I can manage it, I think my child might be better because it - to see her mother be a good mother - yet have outside interests and goal along with that.
For the mothers out there - what do you think is the scariest part? And for those not-yet-moms - what scares you the most?
February 6, 2006
Flushable diapers?
Over at The New Homemaker, Jilsyt reports that an Austrailian company is now making a diaper with a liner that is flushable, but the rest of it is reusable. Kind of like a cross between a disposable and cloth diaper.
I don’t know what they look like, but they sound kind of like pad for babies to me!
There is no way we could flush something like that down our toilets though. We have major sewer problems - its backed up in our basement a few times lately, and the county is going to have to come and dig up the line and fix it.
But, even if you don’t flush them, that’s still less material to throw away and end up in a land fill. So it might still be a good idea.
Jilsytis looking for opinions from anyone who has use them.
February 3, 2006
It all starts at home!
Once again I feel compelled to write about the problem of obesity and a generally poor diet in kids.
I want to focus this time on how parents must set a good example. If the parents don’t 1) eat healthy nutritious foods themselves, in front of their kids and don’t 2) prepare healthy nutritious meals for their children - what do you expect?
Cutting out the junk food in schools alone won’t solve the problem - kids might just end up skipping school meals entirely or bring junk food on their own to school.
While reducing or eliminating the amount of junk food commercials that appear during children’s TV shows would also help a lot - again, without parents setting a good example its not enough.
I don’t have any kids now, but we are starting the process to adopt and I want to make sure my child will see good eating habits coming from her parents. I’ll admit, I sometimes cheat and eat a little more junk than I should - but I’ll have to stop that once we are parents.
For those who are parents already - do you have any tips to share on how to make sure you do the right thing and eat healthy foods around your kids and how to get them to eat right too?
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