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5 Kid-Friendly Foods With Iron
Tweet Share on Facebook October 6, 2010 Comment (5)Iron deficiency can be a real problem for children. Lack of iron can stunt brain development, permanently lower a child's IQ, and also cause anemia, which saps children's strength.
[Pediatricians Issue New Iron Guidelines]
But efforts to improve children's iron intake by fortifying formula and cereals hasn't wiped out iron deficiency; up to 15 percent of babies and toddlers are still iron deficient. Babies between 6 and 12 months old need 11 milligrams of iron a day, and toddlers ages 1 to 3 need 7 mg of iron. To get there, the American Academy of Pediatrics has released new guidelines that recommend iron supplements for all breast-fed babies starting at four months. Breast milk, wonderful as it is, doesn't contain much iron.
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3 Ways to Help Good Kids Make Tough Choices
Tweet Share on Facebook October 1, 2010 CommentAll parents want their children to grow up to be honest, kind people who do the right thing. But teaching ethical behavior can sound like an overwhelming task when parents are dealing with the challenges of everyday behavior. It doesn't have to be. Teaching children ethics really can be part of everyday life, according to Rush Kidder, author of the new book Good Kids, Tough Choices: How Parents Can Help Their Children Do the Right Thing (Jossey-Bass, $16.95). Kidder, a former journalist, is the president and founder of the Institute for Global Ethics in Rockland, Maine, and usually spends his time running ethics seminars for corporations and government agencies. When participants kept saying, "Wow, this is going to be really helpful at home," Kidder realized it was time for an ethics manual for parents. Here's an edited version of our conversation:
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Children With Autism Improve Key Thinking Skills Over Time
Tweet Share on Facebook September 17, 2010 Comment (8)Children with autism think differently, and that thinking changes over time—for the better. That first statement might not seem like news: Of course their brains are different, they have autism! But children with autism do improve their thinking skills over time, according to new research. That's encouraging, particularly because most research has focused on whether communication skills and behavior can change, rather than on cognitive skills.
[Autism and a Link to Brain Development]
Thinking problems typical of autism include difficulties predicting other people's behavior based on their thoughts and feelings (known as theory of mind), and in problem-solving and planning (executive function). Children with autism also are often better than children without autism at focusing on tiny details, like a pattern in a carpet, or small parts of Legos. Previous research hasn't found much change in these cognitive skills, even though children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) can show big improvements in behavior, especially with intensive behavioral therapies.
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Basketball Injuries: 5 Ways to Keep Kids Safe
Tweet Share on Facebook September 13, 2010 CommentBasketball is America's most popular team sport, but 375,000 children end up in emergency rooms each year after playing hoops, which is no fun at all. The number of traumatic brain injuries suffered by children playing basketball rose 70 percent from 1997 to 2007, according to a new study in Pediatrics, even though the total number of basketball injuries declined over that time.
[Concussions Pose a Long-Term Health Threat to Young Athletes]
Part of the increase in traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, is no doubt due to increased awareness that a concussion, which is a mild traumatic brain injury, can lead to permanent brain damage if an injured child continues to play a contact sport like basketball without having time to heal. But the authors of the new study, conducted at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio, speculate that the increase in concussions and other TBIs may also be due to rougher, more competitive play at ever-younger ages.
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3 Ways to Reduce the Health Risks of Nonstick Chemical PFOA
Tweet Share on Facebook September 7, 2010 Comment (3)Children exposed to a chemical used to make nonstick pans, anti-stain fabric coatings, and microwave popcorn bags have higher levels of bad cholesterol than kids who haven't been exposed, according to new research that casts further suspicion on these common products.
The fluorine-based nonstick chemical PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, was developed by the company DuPont more than 50 years ago and is what makes Teflon and other nonstick pans so slippery. But scientists have since become concerned that PFOA contributes to long-term health problems. A study published today in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found that children and teenagers with PFOA in their blood serum had higher total cholesterol levels and higher levels of LDL, the "bad" cholesterol, than children who were not exposed. (The study wasn't designed to show causation, so it doesn't mean that PFOA is necessarily the culprit.)
[Concerned About Your Cholesterol? 10 Ways to Lower LDL and Raise HDL]
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Children, Sex, and the Media: 3 Ways for Parents to Gain Control
Tweet Share on Facebook September 1, 2010 Comment (2)Kids get more sex education from TV, music videos, and the Internet—let's make that Jersey Shore, 50 Cent, and XXX-rated websites—than they do from their parents and teachers, and that's not a good thing, according to the nation's pediatricians. They're calling on parents to step up and help children learn how to become responsible sexual human beings.
[Teens and Sex: How to Help Your Kids Dodge Pregnancy and STDs]
Clearly we parents aren't doing a very good job of that now. The United States boasts the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the developed world, and 25 percent of American teenagers have a sexually transmitted disease (STD). But we parents could really use some help. Many moms and dads shy away from talking about sex with their children. So instead, teenagers learn about sex from TV, where 70 percent of teen shows contain sexual content, and less than 10 percent of those shows give examples of responsible sexual behavior, such as delaying sexual activity or reducing the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, according to a new report on teens, sex, and the media from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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How to Reduce the Risks of Sports Concussions in Young Athletes
Tweet Share on Facebook August 31, 2010 Comment (6)Student athletes risk concussion in many sports, and it's tempting for coaches and players to ignore the fact that concussions are traumatic brain injuries that can lead to permanent disability or death. Fortunately, attitudes are changing, thanks to publicity on the devastating brain injuries suffered by some pro football players, as well as a push by doctors to be more proactive in treating concussions.
That may be why a new report in Pediatrics found that from 1997 to 2007, the number of emergency room visits for concussions in 8- to 13-year-olds doubled, and more than doubled in 14- to 19-year-olds. Parents may be more aware that head injuries need medical attention, leading to more ER visits. Or it could be that young athletes are playing harder and getting hurt more often.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Help With ADHD
Tweet Share on Facebook August 24, 2010 Comment (2)Adults who struggle with being disorganized, late, and distracted as a result of having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy that teaches them how to solve problems, use calendars and lists effectively, and write down distractions instead of being distracted by them, according to new research in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But CBT not only helps the 4 percent of adults with ADHD; it also helps children who struggle with schoolwork and friendships because of the disorder.
[Struggling at Work? If It's ADHD, There's Help]
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a technique that teaches skills for handling life challenges or overcoming negative thoughts. CBT for children with ADHD is aimed largely at improving their behavior through praise and rewards that motivate them to calm down enough to cope with school or other challenges. Parents or teachers would be trained to reward a child with praise or small treats for paying attention and responding to requests, for example. That's different than CBT for adults, which teaches thinking and self-management skills. Although CBT doesn't cure ADHD, it does make it easier for children to get along in a world that's often intolerant of typical ADHD behavior, explains Richard Gallagher, an associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine. Gallagher is working on a randomized, controlled study that is trying to see if CBT can help children with thinking skills like managing time, keeping track of homework assignments, and planning ahead.
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Pesticide Exposure in the Womb Increases ADHD Risk
Tweet Share on Facebook August 20, 2010 Comment (5)Exposure to pesticides while in the womb may increase the odds that a child will have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to researchers at the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health. Combine that with research published in May in Pediatrics finding that children exposed to pesticides were more likely to have ADHD, and it's enough to make parents wonder how to reduce their family's exposure to pesticides.
[Why Parents Who Smoke Put Their Kids at Risk]
The California researchers are studying the impact of environmental exposures on the health of women and children who live in the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region with heavy pesticide use. They tested the urine of pregnant women for pesticide residue, and then tested the behavior of their children at ages 3½ and 5. The 5-year-olds who had been exposed to organophosphate pesticides while in the womb had more problems with attention and behavior than did children who were not exposed. What's more, the heavier the pesticide exposure, the more likely that the child would have symptoms of ADHD . The results were published online in Environmental Health Perspectives.
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3 Ways to Protect Your Teen from Hearing Loss
Tweet Share on Facebook August 17, 2010 Comment (3)Teenagers are losing their hearing in greater numbers: One in five now has some hearing loss, a 31 percent rise from a decade ago, according to a new study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That means 6.5 million teens now have hearing loss. Much of that hearing loss was slight, but the trend is troubling. Though researchers don't know the cause, it's easy to conclude that the popularity of MP3 players and other personal music players might be a major contributing factor.
[It's Not Too Late to Guard Against Hearing Loss]
We tend to think of hearing loss as an old person's problem, but hearing loss due to exposure to loud sounds is different than age-related loss and affects all age groups. Many teens, even some adults, don't realize that hearing loss from excessive volumes—be it from street noise, live music or earbuds—is permanent. "Noise is pollution," says Pam Mason, a certified audiologist at the American Speech Language Hearing Association who works with rock musicians to protect their hearing. "Children don't often think that by putting themselves in a noisy environment, they're putting their hearing in danger."
[Start Early to Protect Children’s Ears From That MP3 Player]
On Parenting
Parenting may be an art, but there's a lot of science behind raising healthy, thriving children. Contributing Editor Nancy Shute explores the latest discoveries and developments affecting children's health and parenting. Send her your comments and questions at onparenting@usnews.com.
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