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Archive for the 'Children's Health' Category
A Safer Way To Clean?
Whether they are safer or not, “green” cleaning products are starting to show up on more and more store shelves. These products are becoming mainstream in supermarkets and chain stores such as Target. This has actually been on my mind lately after seeing some of the questions regarding safe cleaning that our users have posted on MothersClick.
According to this interesting article an increasing number of moms are turning to more natural cleaning products. They are hearing the message that some of the toxic ingredients in the cleaners we’ve all used for years could be harmful to our kids. Obviously we all know how dangerous these can potentially be, as we’d never allow our kids to get near the bottles.
But do they work? The article states that many do work just as well. And it also points out that this trend is forcing the larger manufacturers, such as Johnson Wax who makes Windex, to come up with their own alternative products.
Whether or not these newer, greener, products are actually safer for our families, homes or the environment has yet to be proven. Although it seems many believe it just makes sense to use these over the more traditional cleaners.
Mothers, Kids and Smoking
All of us are have heard about the dangers of smoking while pregnant. Yet, one quarter of all Americans had mothers who smoked during their pregnancy. Hard to believe in this day and age.
According to a new study, smoking while pregnant can be very harmful to your kids as they get older. Not only is there an increased risk to the fetus, but nicotine can affect brain development. These changes can make it very difficult for an adult to quit smoking once they have started.
Doctors recommend kicking the habit as soon as a woman knows she’s pregnant. This can be very difficult indeed. And to make it worse, they should not rely on any type of nicotine products (patch, gum, etc.) to ease the process. These products will have the same affect on their baby as if they were still smoking.
Just another way we can help protect our kids.
The Banning of Tag
Hard to believe growing up without playing tag. Seem to remember spending lots of time running around chasing my friends (and no one ever got hurt). If they keep cutting back on ways to for kids to have fun and get some exercise, the childhood obesity problem may get even worse.
ATTLEBORO, Mass. - Tag, you’re out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they’ll get hurt and hold the school liable.
Recess is “a time when accidents can happen,” said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.
While there is no districtwide ban on contact sports during recess, local rules have been cropping up. Several school administrators around Attleboro, a city of about 45,000 residents, took aim at dodgeball a few years ago, saying it was exclusionary and dangerous.
Baby TV?
Announcements, Children's Health, Parenting • 
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Talk about a really lousy idea. Do parents need more of an excuse to plop their kids in front of the tube?
With obesity rates as high as they are in this country, it seems to me that starting kids (as young as 6 months) on this sedentary habit is not gonig to help any. Kids will most likely grow up and want to watch something on TV, it’s up to us as parents to limit that time. Whatever happened to going outside and running around, of course, now that can be scary in itself! But, getting babies hooked at such a young age sound dangerous too.
Heed the pediatricians (at least when it comes to this)!
TV channel for babies? Pediatricians say turn it off
Janine DeFao, Chronicle Staff WriterMonday, September 11, 2006
In an era of increasing niche programming on TV, women have the Oxygen network, men have Spike TV and some pets are even agog at Animal Planet.
Now, infants can pull up a bouncy chair, grab a bottle and have round-the-clock access to the nation’s first channel for babies, BabyFirstTV, featuring three-minute segments designed for babies as young as 6 months.
Back To School
I found this great article while perusing one of my most favorite things to read, the Chronicle food section this week. Listed here are plenty of great, and healthy, meals to send your kids off to school with. And best of all, they’ve already been kid tested, and approved!
Send students packing with kid-tested meals
Amanda Gold, Chronicle Staff WriterWednesday, August 30, 2006
Their expressions were pensive, focused. They chewed and swallowed meticulously. Between bites, the only sound was the quick scratch of pencil on paper or the squeak of an eraser.
More silence as forks were put down and pencils abandoned.
“Well?” I asked carefully, holding my breath. “What do you think?”
“Good,” giggled 5-year-old Adam Jones, as he slithered off his chair under the conference room table, any remnant of concentration swallowed with his last bite of pita pizza.
Parenting regulations
(08-25) 04:00 PDT Sacramento — Parents will have to strap their kids into backseat car booster seats until they are 8 years old or reach a certain height if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs a bill the Legislature sent to him Thursday.
Another bill that appears headed to the governor’s desk attempts to protect children’s health by making it illegal for adults to smoke in a car with young passengers.
California law now requires children younger than 6 or weighing less than 60 pounds to use booster seats — and sit in the backseat.
“Traffic accidents are the highest cause of fatality for children ages 6 and 7,” said the bill’s author, Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa. “This is a serious, serious issue.
Kids and Their Parents’ Diets
Announcements, Food, Children's Health, Parenting • comment on this post
I will have to admit here that I think this had some effect on me as a kid, well, more like as a teenager. I remember wanting to try all of my moms diets, and even participating sometimes. Needless to say, I was always a pretty scrawny kid, that didn’t last and I think the whole body image thing can start affecting us at a very young age.
Not that I would ever blame my mother, I’m sure she was doing what she thought was best for me at the time, as always.
ALBANY, N.Y. - Mom’s dieting habits can have a bad influence on the children. Some research indicates youngsters learn attitudes about dieting through observation. For some youngsters, that might mean an unhealthy fixation on body image, experts warn.
“It’s like trying on Mom’s high heels. They’re trying on their diets, too,” said Carolyn Costin, spokeswoman for the National Eating Disorder Association.
As obesity rates climb among children, health officials are warning parents about the dangers of junk food and lack of exercise. Yet few speak about parents who meticulously count every calorie that crosses their lips.
You try shopping without putting the kid in the cart
You may have seen this in today’s Chronicle. I personally have never witnessed a child falling out of a shopping cart or tipping one over. Of course I probably didn’t pay too much attention to such things before becoming a parent.
I’m sure it does happen, and kids get hurt, but honestly, the other option is pretty much hiring a sitter while you go grocery shopping!
Janine DeFao, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, August 7, 2006
The nation’s pediatricians are warning parents today against putting children in shopping carts.
“Parents are strongly encouraged to seek alternatives,” says the American Academy of Pediatrics, which reports that shopping carts were involved in injuries to more than 24,000 children last year, mostly when a child fell out or a cart tipped over.
But parents who have tried to pick up a couple things at the store while keeping their children from toppling the displays or playing hide-and-seek in the clothing racks may find the warning hard to accommodate.
Is this for real, responsible TV?
I’m sure there’s got to be a catch somewhere, but what a great idea! The kids station, Nickelodeon is actually incouraging kids to turn off the TV and go outside and play - really.
Now, if we could only get the other hundreds of stations to do the same 
By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer Sun Jul 30, 6:28 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - It’s the heart of the summer, a time when a kid’s thoughts may well turn to watching television — lots of television. But one television network is telling kids to turn off their sets, put aside their remotes and go outside and play.
“Our whole mantra is about a balanced lifestyle,” said Marva Smalls, an executive vice president with the Nickelodeon cable channel, whose summer promotion this year is a series of specials called “Let’s Just Play Go Healthy Challenge.”
“Part of a balanced lifestyle,” Smalls added, “is not to spend all of your waking hours watching TV.”
Car Seat Safety
Who knew there was a whole week dedicated to kids and car safety? Not me, that’s for sure. Of course, it was back in February, but that doesn’t mean the message isn’t still important for all parents. Especially one’s like me, I didn’t even know what a booster seat was!
Car Safety for Kids
Keeping children in booster seats reduces crash injuries.
By Karin Bilich
Feb. 15, 2006 — It’s Child Passenger Safety Week, and Safe Kids Worldwide wants all parents to know that booster seats save lives. They’re essential for positioning seatbelts correctly on a child’s body. Children should sit in a booster seat until they’re about 4 feet, 9 inches tall and 80 to 100 pounds — usually between ages 8 and 12. However, only 73 percent of 4- to 7-year-olds ride in boosters, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
More School Food in the News
This is kind of a follow up to the previous article posted regarding school lunches. This article reports that most states fail at providing healthy food for their students. They did not include the actual meals for the students, but something tells me that wouldn’t have helped at all.
At some point, parents are going to have to play a more active role in what their kids are eating at school.
Believe it or not, Kentucky leads the nation with the healthiest vending machines! We should all take note.
By BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Nearly half of all states received a failing grade in a school foods report card issued Tuesday by a nonprofit group that evaluated school nutrition policies.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, based in Washington, D.C., gave an F to 23 states and a D to eight others after evaluating school policies regarding foods and beverages sold in campus vending machines, school stores and school fundraisers.
The evaluation excluded school meal programs.
The nation’s highest grade, an A-, was awarded to Kentucky, where school vending machines are filled with bottled water and dried fruit instead of soda and snack cakes.
The Joys of 10-12 Months
Since we are just entering this age range, I thought it might be fun to share what the “experts” have to say about babies between 10-12 months. It is a really fun time, although it probably also marks the end of an immobile child.
There are also some good tips on how to help your baby’s development along. Of course, they all do things at different times. Sometimes it’s hard not to compete with the other babies, but I’ve realized, they all get there eventually.
Infant development: What happens from 10 to 12 months?
Provided by: MayoClinic.com
Your baby continually scrambles out of your range of vision. Nothing makes him or her happier than dropping a spoon from the highchair over and over again. As for you — if you aren’t stifling the urge to say “No!” chances are you’ve already said it for the 10th time in the last hour. Welcome to life with a 10- to 12-month-old!
Healthy Food In Schools?
Am I reading this correctly, kids are chosing a salad bar over pizza?? Kids have never had much of a choice when it comes to school lunches. Fried, processed, sugary foods without much nutritional value are the staples in most schools. But not in Berkeley. The Chronicle ran this story today in the Food Section (my favorite!).
School lunch lightens up
Chef is changing the way Berkeley students eat, one salad bar at a time
Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer
It’s 7:30 a.m. in the Berkeley High School kitchen, and Ann Cooper is jumping up and down, shrieking like a kid on a sugar high — all because of four day-old pizzas.
“When I came seven months ago, we were making 40 pizzas a day. Yesterday, we made 28 — and four are left over!” Cooper just about yells, happy that kids are steering themselves away from the refined-flour-and-fat slices. “And there’s a line at the salad bar!”
Making Your Own Baby Food
The first 4 or 5 months are simple, babies only need formula or breastmilk and they’re as happy as can be. Then it’s time to introduce solid foods. It can be a big decision. Is it hard to make baby food? How bad is the jar food? Will my baby develop bad habits depending on what he eats (or doesn’t eat) first?
Although it sometimes seems like there’s never enough time to do anything these days, the article below explains how important early nutrition is, and also how making healthy food for your baby is not all that hard or time consuming. Of course, I always keep a couple of jars on hand, just in case.
A Fresh Start to Healthy Eating
Introducing solid foods is a very important step in your baby’s development and well-being. In fact, studies show that babies who are fed nutritious, healthy diets grow into stronger kids and better-adjusted eaters than those who are fed poor diets.
Many parents don’t realize that making baby food at home is a simple and economical plan to provide your baby with the best in quality, nutrition and taste. It makes it easy for you to ensure your child gets the best start possible. Making baby food using fresh, all-natural ingredients has many benefits, including:
* Increased nutritional value
* Elimination of additives
* Improved freshness
* Added variety
* Enhanced control
* Lower costs
A Mother’s Touch
With Mother’s Day just passed, we find an interesting story that’s still timely.
Be grateful to your mom. Not only did she carry you around for nine months, but now new research suggests that her mothering style may have triggered genes that help determine your parenting style.
Like Mother, Like Daughter
New research reveals that a mother’s touch early in life could trigger a child’s future mothering skills. Columbia University neurobiologist Frances Champagne says that previous research across species showed that maternal behaviors are passed down from mother to daughter.
ScienCentral News has the story.