On Parenting

Being ambidextrous may not be as neat as it sounds; children who are mixed-handed are more apt to struggle with learning and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a new study in Pediatrics. It found that ambidextrous children were twice as likely to have difficulties with language and school at age 8 as were right-handed or left-handed children. And mixed-handed kids were more likely to have symptoms of ADHD in adolescence, particularly if they had other behavioral problems.

Being mixed-handed doesn't mean a child is destined to have difficulties. But parents of an ambidextrous child might want to be aware that if there's any sign of trouble, child may need evaluation for learning problems or ADHD and extra help along the way in school. The study assessed 7,871 children in Finland at ages 7 to 8 and age 16. A little more than 1 percent of those studied—87 kids—were ambidextrous.

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The children of America spend 7½ hours a day plugged in to their phones and iPods and MP3 players, gaming, or otherwise engaged with electronic media. That astonishing number, up more than an hour from the last time the Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed children's media use five years ago, raises big questions about how our children live and whether that plugged-in life is healthful or wise.

Here are some key findings from the Kaiser survey, which polled 2,002 children ages 8 to 18:

*Mobile media is driving the trend towards increased media use. In five years, the proportion of children with cellphones has risen from 39 percent to 66 percent, and iPod/MP3 player use has risen from 18 percent to 66 percent. Kids now spend more time watching TV, listening to music, and playing games on their phones than they do talking on them. (Texting wasn't included in the survey numbers, oddly enough.)

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Cadmium is an extremely toxic heavy metal. So what the heck is it doing in children's jewelry?

Children's jewelry was supposed to get safer after a federal ban on the use of toxic lead in charms and jewelry went into effect last year. But it's not illegal to make children's products out of cadmium, despite the fact that it's clearly dangerous. And now cadmium has shown up in inexpensive children's jewelry, barely one month after a scare that Zhu Zhu Pets, the "it" toy of the Christmas season, were contaminated with antimony. (The Zhu Zhu Pets turned out to be OK.)

The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission has launched a probe of this new cadmium-tainted bling, and politicians are rushing to extend the federal ban on lead in children's products to include cadmium. But in the meantime, parents are left wondering once again whether common and popular children's products are safe. The tainted pieces in this latest investigation were bought at stores including Walmart, Claire's, and a Dollar N More store. Almost all the charms were imported from China.

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Kitchen spoons are not precision medical devices, and parents who use them to give children their medicine can easily dispense too much or too little medicine, depending on the size of the spoon. The 195 people tested in a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, for example, poured 8 percent too little medicine or 12 percent too much, depending on whether the spoon was medium-sized or big. Other methods may be no better; earlier research found that parents also dose incorrectly when using plastic medicine cups, the kind that come on top of Advil, Motrin, and Tylenol bottles. It's not easy to read those tiny lines at 2 a.m., that's for sure. 

The confusion over portion size based on container extends beyond medicine, according to Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and one of the new study's authors. He's author of the book Mindless Eating, which explains how we tend to eat until the plate is empty, rather than stop when we're full. (See my colleague Katherine Hobson's article on Wansink's clever tips on tricking yourself to eat less.) Even experienced bartenders get confused, Wansink says, and will pour almost one-third more liquor into a short, wide glass than in a tall, skinny one. 

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