Paging the broccoli monster!
One in five American four-year-olds is obese, and the rate of obesity is even worse among black, Hispanic and American Indian preschoolers, according to a new study, reported on by the Associated Press.
The researchers found significant differences by race. 13 percent of Asian children were obese; 16 percent of whites; almost 21 percent of blacks; 22 percent of Hispanics and 31 percent of American Indians.
“The magnitude of these differences was larger than we expected, and it is surprising to see differences by racial groups present so early in childhood,” said Sarah Anderson, the study’s co-author and an Ohio State University public health researcher.
For tips on preventing obesity in your child, click here.
The girl would have received the same two-week punishment if she had brought a gun to school. The Fairfax County, Va., teenager was hauled to the principal’s office after someone saw her taking a prescribed birth control pill during lunchtime.
The girl’s mom knew she was taking birth control pills, but the school didn’t. So school officials consider the pills contraband. Oakton High School, like many others across the country, has a zero-tolerance policy on drugs — no drugs of any kind unless previously approved by the school nurse.
The teen and her mother, whose names were not published by the Washington Post, say the policy is too harsh. “I realize my daughter broke a rule,” the mom told the Post. But “the punishment does not fit the crime.”
School officials say they’re concerned about liability and safety. How can they enforce the rules if some students were allowed to take certain pills, but not others?
The honors student now faces a hearing to determine whether she’ll be expelled. She and her mom say that they’re embarassed that a personal decision to take birth control pills is now known among the girl’s teachers, not to mention other students.
Obesity among kids is notoriously hard to treat.
“The relapse rate is well over 95 percent,” according to Dr. Alvin Eden, a pediatrician who is the author of “Positive Parenting.” But concerned parents can take steps to help prevent their children from getting too fat, and all the health risks that come with those extra pounds.
Here are Dr. Eden’s seven tips for keeping the excess pounds off your kids:
1. Breast feed for at least 3 months if possible.
2. Identify whether or not your family history is “high risk” for obesity.
3. Limit juice to 4 oz. per day, and limit milk to 16 oz. per day.
4. Minimize TV in the first 2 years of a child’s life, and allow only 1 hour per day after 2 years. (Note: the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants and toddlers watch no TV at all before age two.)
5. Encourage your child to exercise each day.
6. Make sure your child drinks at least 8 oz. of water each day.
7. Replace all unhealthy snacks in your house with healthy ones and never use food as a reward.
It’s safe to say that nobody fell asleep during the lesson. A line-up of naked men showed up at a British high school to teach teens about human anatomy and sex.
“It was really interesting and the way they taught us about everything was practical and made it more understandable,” 16-year-old Tom Harvey told the Evening Post.
The Hanham High School’s assistant head teacher said the nude guys helped take some pressure off teachers: “It can be hard for both students and teachers to go from a teacher being your math teacher to being your sex education teacher.” Teens had to get permission from the parents to be in the class.
This isn’t the first time a British school has used unconventional teaching methods. One high school invited a pole dancer to perform to encourage kids to exercise and be healthy.
Don’t supersize that bottle.
If your baby gains a lot of weight during the first six months of her life, she could be obese by the time she’s in preschool, according to a study in the medical journal Pediatrics.
How much weight a kid gains and how suddenly that happens is a bigger factor in determining childhood obesity than how much the baby weighed at birth, the mom’s weight during pregnancy or the weight of the kid’s parents, according to the researchers. The Harvard Medical School study followed 559 mother-child pairs in the Boston area. Researchers found that a baby weighing 18.4 pounds after six months had a 40 percent greater risk of obesity by age 3 than a kid who weighed 16.9 pounds.
Pediatricians interviewed by the Chicago Tribune weren’t so sure that parents should put their fat babies on a diet, though. Dr. Mary Hall said that some kids stabilize in weight between the sixth and ninth months. Still, she said that it’s best that parents not always respond to their babies by offering food. “They may need to hold the baby, change the baby’s diaper, or the baby may be tired,” she said.
Breathe! Push! And have some yogurt, will ya?
Doctors have long told women not to eat while in labor, but a new study now says that some light snacking doesn’t harm mom or baby. Previouly there was fear eating could lead to breathing food in the lungs in case of an emergency C-section.
Researchers compared two groups of moms — one was only allowed to drink water and the other could have bread, fruits, yogurt and fruit juice during delivery, AFP News reported. The study of 2,426 moms found that there was no difference between the two groups in terms of duration of labor, percentage of C-sections or even rate of vomiting. The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, suggested that fasting while in labor could even be more harmful since who wants to work on an empty stomach?
Two new studies suggest that such a treatment could help children increase their tolerance for nuts.
Researchers gave allergic kids doses that began as small as one-thousandth of a peanut and gradually upped their intake to about 15 peanuts a day. Many of the kids in the studies were able to tolerate the treatment, but four kids dropped out because they had allergic reactions. The research at Duke University and Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock involved a small sampling, just 33 kids in one study and 18 in another.
Researchers, who presented the results at a conference on Sunday, said the the results were promising and could eventually lead to some sort of treatment for peanut allergies, the New York Times reported. For now, parents are advised not to try such treatments as home. About 2.2 million American children suffer from food allergies, and exposure can lead to severe reactions and even death.
If your kids love blue Kool-Aid, make sure that they’re not reaching for windshield wiper fluid. Ten children in Arkansas are hospitalized after being served wiper fluid instead of the sweet drink at a home-based daycare, according to USA Today.
The children, ages 2 to 7, each drank about an ounce of the fluid before realizing it was not the tasty thirst-quencher that they’d hoped for. Apparently, an employee misplaced the blue wiper fluid in the refrigerator, and then accidentally served it to the kids.
The children are doing well, but remain hospitalized for observation. Their blood showed measurable levels of methanol, a toxic chemical that can induce comas and cause blindness, according to KATV.
On Friday, the home-based daycare in Scott closed, after relinquishing its license.
The decision of the six largest manufacturers of baby bottles comes after intense pressure from consumers and attorneys generals in several states. The companies said they would stop selling bottles in the United States that contain bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical that mimics the human hormone and is linked to breast cancer, obesity and other disorders.
Last fall, the attorneys general of Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware sent letters to companies, asking them to stop using the chemical, which is found in many plastic products. The Food and Drug Administration has said that BPA is safe, but was criticized last fall by a panel of scientists. The agency is now reviewing studies on BPA.
One New York county decided not to wait for the FDA. On Wednesday, Suffolk County became the first in the country to ban baby bottles and toddler sippy cups made with the chemical. Some scientists say that young children are the most vulnerable because their bodies are not fully developed.
Many retailers, including Babies R Us, have said they would no longer carry BPA-made baby bottles and instead tout BPA-free products. More than anything, this may have prompted the change of heart by Philips Avent, Disney First Years, Gerber, Dr. Brown, Playtex and Evenflow.
Shannon Jenest, a spokeswoman for Philips Avent told the Washington Post that “we felt we we had hit a tipping point with our consumers and with our retailers. Babies R Us was banning it, Target was going to, CVS was going to, and so the distribution channels were lessening and lessening.” Jenest said that the company stopped selling baby products with BPA on Dec. 31 in North America. However, BPA products are still marketed overseas. Or at least until the parents in other countries demand better?
McDonald’s is loving it. One quarter of an average child’s vegetable intake consists of French fries, according to a new study.
As for fruit, kids are getting 40 percent of their intake through juices, which often contain high amounts of sugar. The study, conducted by Ohio State researchers, examined government data on 6,500 kids ages two through 18.
Barbara Lorson, an Ohio State dietitian, told USA Today of one suggestion for parents: offer your child fresh produce when he’s especially hungry.
Another new study offers a less cruel way to entice kids — rename the vegetables. Four-year-olds ate twice as many carrots when they were told that the veggie were “X-ray vision carrots.” Other ”cool” food names suggested by Cornell University researchers: power peas and dinosaur broccoli trees.
Photo by Scott Abelman