Shipping Up to Boston
Submitted by The Boys and Schools Blog
I used to be a waitress. I think there’s some kind of law about having to be a waiter/waitress at some time in your life in order to balance your cosmic karma. Anyway, one of the things that you notice when waiting tables is how much people seem to prefer complaining to praising. In general, people are much more likely to ask to see your manager to complain about how you forgot to bring them extra ice than they are to praise what a great job you did. This is not meant to open a discussion on how huge a crime it is to forgot one’s extra ice or how many jobs there are that are worse than waiting tables, or even how some days the world seems to be full of complaining jerks. My only point is that sometimes we (and I do mean all of us–or at least myself) are too apt to criticize and too slow to praise.
So today I want to praise the vision and ambition of the Carol Johnson, Boston’s new Superintendent of Schools, who recently announced a sweeping series of changes that she hopes will help Boston’s public school students and address achievement gaps. Not only is she proposing initiatives that would allow high school students to take some college classes and allow parents to enroll their children in Montesssori classes, but she acknowledges the need to address achievement gaps, including the gender gap. Heck, I’m just thrilled that she acknowledges the existence of the boys’ achievement gap. The fact that she wants to address it in part by introducing a single-sex program has me over the moon. By and large, she seems to be approaching her job with the kind of flexibility and innovative thinking that we’ve been calling for since the creation of Boys and Schools. Now we just need to clone her.
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Sick, Twisted and Cruel, and Putting Your Kids at Risk–
Submitted by Non-Toxic Kids Blog
Meghan Goss over at the Humane Society of the United States shared with me a horrifying undercover video detailing the outrageously cruel treatment of sick and weak cattle in the Hallmark Meat Packing Plant in Chino, CA. These already sick and dying cattle were forced to stand, so they could be “processed” meaning, slaughtered, by torturing them in myriad ways. According to the video (which I could not bear to watch) and Goss, this included “shocking the cows with electric prods, jabbing them in the eyes, shackling and dragging the cattle, ramming them with blades of a forklift, and spraying high pressure water into the cows’ mouth and nose” to simulate drowning. Now this is shocking, unethical, appalling and must be stopped. Read the full story from the Humane Society of the United States here. But it doesn’t end there–
It turns out that this plant is a major supplier of for the National School Lunch Program. That means the meat in your child’s school, that is supplied by the government (which is most of it) could be from this very plant. Why might this put your child at risk? Downed cattle (cows too sick or weak to stand) are 58 times more likely to carry Mad Cow disease, according to the USDA. Yes, you read that right– 58 times more likely. And, these cows are more likely to carry pathogens such as E.coli and Salmonella, which kill hundreds of Americans each year.
If that wasn’t enough, the meat from this plant is also most likely to reach the most vulnerable among us. The Hallmark Plant supplies meat for other federal programs that benefit the poor and elderly who could be exposed to harmful pathogens and disease from consuming this meat.
After yesterday’s release of this footage, the USDA banned the Westland Meat Co. (who apparently owns and operates this plant) from supplying meat to the National School Lunch Program. The Humane Society encourages the USDA to go farther and shut down the plant until it passes a through inspection for safety (and humanity, I hope–). I couldn’t agree more. Here is the link to that story.
Thankfully, several members of Congress were outraged and calling for action as well. Read some of their thoughts here (many of which I read and gave me information for this post).
What can you do? Visit this link to send a message to the Secretary of Agriculture Edward Schafer to stop the cruelty and to stop allowing downed cattle in our kids’ food supply, and support the Humane Society’s efforts to tighten regulation and enforcement of factory farms.
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New Thimerosal Study Takes The Wind Out Of Eli Stone’s Sail
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In Blog
As a parent, what would you tell your children if they worked endlessly to justify a questionable action to you? You’d likely tell them, give it up. Sometimes we have to admit “we were wrong”. That is what ABC should have done at the very least. And, that’s what they should be doing today.
Their own website article says it all: “Disney’s television group provided copies of more than 230 angry letters from groups such as the American Medical Association to the first lady of Mexico. One family wrote that their child had died of the flu because she wasn’t vaccinated; another mother who had lost a son to meningitis urged ABC to cancel the show.” And still the show goes on.
As if the public and professional outcry was not enough, the AAP decided to release early the results of a study that demonstrate that thimerosal, the mercury preservative in flu shots at the heart of the Eli Stone episode, doesn’t even stay in infants bodies long enough to case any harm. This study is a nice addition to the vaccine safety landscape and directly addresses the heart of the lingering concerns many parents have had over vaccines.
I suppose if we really want to see what the hoopla is about we can watch the episode for ourselves. But, that just flames the fire and puts money into the hands of the people who created this mess to begin with. I feel to watch, is to indulge. Plus, we all have much more important uses for our time such as spending it with our families.
By the way, since I did my post on the Eli Stone controversy yesterday, some interesting new commentary has emerged. Check this out. And, this.
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Tell me Your Stories about Lead in Children’s Products (and I’ll share it with people who can do something about it!)–
Submitted by Non-Toxic Kids Blog
I just got an email this morning from Elliot Burg, Vermont’s assistant Attorney General, about testifying in support of a bill that would prevent lead poisoning of children by exposure to lead in consumer products. It would be the toughest anti-lead bill in the nation, and in the absence of federal legislation limiting lead exposure, the states are left to go it alone to protect their kids. It’s a great bill that would significantly reduce the exposure of kids to lead from consumer products we all know are still out there, on store shelves. I’m thrilled to support it and hope I can help.
His email motivated me to do some more research about lead in children’s products to prepare for my testimony. I found some fantastic resources, I wanted to share with you. If you know of any others, please post a comment and link. I will be testifying at the end of next week, and will keep you all posted.
Also, do you have a personal story about lead poisoning from consumer products you could share with me? It would help if I shared some stories from parents who have a personal experience about the problem of lead in toys, bibs, and other items we use with our kids. Sharing a personal story or perspective would make this issue more real and pressing for lawmakers. Please forward this to anyone you know who has had experience with this issue, and I can share their story with the legislature. Thanks in advance!
I found these great resources:
Made in Deadly China This is a website all about our dysfunctional and highly suspect relationship with China and the many problems with the health and safety of consumer products and food.
And an amazing site full of current events relating to toys, the CPSC, and all things related to consumer justice at The Consumerist.
Here is a direct link to a very comprehensive (and infuriating, maddening, exhausting-) list of recalled toys in 2007, over 17 million of them. Check in out in all your spare time by clicking here.
More on this later. I’ve got to get ready!
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No Scents
Submitted by The Boys and Schools Blog
Honestly, sometimes I feel like I could post every day about some ridiculous disciplinary overreaction, and that 90% of the time, the student victim of the zero-tolerance abuse would be a boy. Take for example the case of an unnamed 14 year-old from Lewisville, Texas, who recently had delinquency charges pressed against him–and then dropped–by local prosecutors for sniffing his teacher’s hand sanitizer. That’s right–this poor boy worked his way through school disciplinary action, a police investigation, and nearly to court before prosecutors decided that taking a big ol’ whiff of Purell may not be against the law.
Admit it, you think I’m exaggerating here. No one could possibly find something amiss in a kid’s smelling of hand gel, could they? (Well, I do find something a little amiss, inasmuch as hand sanitizer smells like drunk cartoon flowers, but some people like the smell of Axe Body Spray, so what do I know?) But no, that’s exactly what happened. The boy (whose name was withheld from news reports at his father’s request) used his teacher’s hand sanitizer, took a big sniff of his hands afterwards (because he liked the smell), and was disciplined for trying to “huff” the sanitizer fumes as intoxicant. No, I am not kidding. It was a drug charge. According to the local assistant police chief, all the kids are doing it nowadays, though apparently the National Institute of Drug Abuse in Washington, DC had never heard of abusing hand sanitizer as an inhalant–though there have been reports of people trying to drink it because of its high ethyl alcohol content. (Proving once again that there’s nothing too disgusting and stupid for someone somewhere to try to consume.)
In the interests of blogging integrity, I just took a big sniff of the bottle of Purell in my purse and can report that I now feel slightly nauseated, but am definitely not experiencing anything even close to drug-like exhiliration. Also please note–I am a trained professional at sniffing strange things from my purse, and you should not under any circumstances try this experiment at home.
Anyway, I do feel that while such ludicrous zero-tolerance policies are injurious to all students, they also tend to disproportionately affect boys. Why? Well, I think that the bias and inclination to view boys as troublemakers plays into it–so that some people are ready to interpret a boy’s innocent actions in the worst possible way. (Seriously? Sniffing one’s hands as drug abuse?) Moreover, I think that boys’ natural interests and energy , as well as the way that they tend to favor physical action also play into the problem. (As in the famous case of the boy who was disciplined for drawing a soldier with a gun.) And I definitely think that this undercurrent of suspicion contributes to the creation of the anti-boy school experience. Really, if you were a young boy, how enthusiastic would you be about learning in an environment where they call in the police and accuse you of doing drugs when all you did was indulge your appreciation for artificial scents?
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Autism and Vaccines - Entertainment Is Fueling A Dangerous Fire
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In Blog
By now you’ve all heard about the upcoming “Eli Stone” premier tomorrow on ABC/Disney. At the core of this show are a number of important issues:
1. Responsible journalism
2. Entertainment and ratings
3. Autism
I would think that entertainment and ratings issues aside, ABC would not want to air a show about such an important topic as Autism without fact checking over and over again. This is not a topic where stretching a truth or omitting important scientific evidence is in anyone’s best interest and is certainly not worth the entertainment value. In fact, I would argue, it 100% detracts from that value but going for the cheap, gratuitous, emotional hit.
Why bother pushing ABC to pull the show? Because it impacts the lives of kids directly. That is why the American Academy of Pediatrics , the American Medical Association , the March of Dimes (together with seven former CDC directors) and the Immunization Action Coalition have all sent letters to ABC since last week asking ABC to either pull this episode from the air or add a strong disclaimer with factual information on autism for the families viewing the show.
According to Reuters, ABC has decided to air this episode of Eli Stone “but would run a disclaimer at the opening of the show stating the story is fictional. A message at the end will refer viewers to a CDC Web site for information about autism.”
Reuters further reports that “the show’s two creators, Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, disputed the notion that their show would frighten parents away from vaccines.
“‘We actually share the concern of the American Academy of Pediatrics. We believe that children should be vaccinated,’ Berlanti told Reuters. But he also said, ‘We hope that people do watch the episode and draw their own conclusions.’”
That is where the ABC team is missing the point and refusing to hear the advise of all the countries leading physicians. This is not about “drawing conclusions” because science has already concluded that there is no link between autism and vaccines.
So, if you watch Eli Stone tomorrow night, and I hope you do not, remember that. This show is 100% fiction. ABC would not have agreed to a disclaimer at all if they didn’t realize they dropped a collective ball.
And, before someone asks, the entire medical community (AMA, AAP, IAC, and March of Dimes) is not banning together for a financial reason or to blindly support vaccination. The only thing any of us have to gain is ensuring the safety of children. It really is that simple. In fact, the only folks with any financial gain here is ABC.
You can learn more about autism - the facts - here.
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Want to avoid an ER visit? Don’t give kids cold medications.
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In Blog
If listening to the evening news and your pediatrician are not enough for you to stop giving your kids over the counter cold and cough medications, how about avoiding an ER visit? Will that do it?
MSNBC reported yesterday that the CDC announced that 7000 kids a year were seen in ERs due to overdoses from over the counter cold and cough medications. The article reported that 2/3 of the cases were from kids getting into the medication unsupervised but the remaining 1/3 were in kids given the medication as directed. The authors of the study, just published online in the journal Pediatrics, concludes better box labeling is clearly needed since parents are determined to give these products despite the warnings.
What alarmed me in the article was this paragraph:
“(The authors) cited a national survey that showed 64 percent of parents consider cough and cold medications to be safe and 20 percent plan to continue to give them to their children under 2 years, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this month “strongly recommended” against it.”
This certainly fits with my recent clinical experience, however, I had no idea the amount of parents believe in these medications was so high. Beyond better labels, more needs to be done with dosing if we are not going to either remove these products or place them behind the pharmacy counter. While the “infant and toddler” products have been pulled, parents are still seeing the same medications on the shelves for their older kids and themselves. I can see where that would not only be confusing, but tempting to use.
I’m not sure I feel better knowing that my observations yesterday were accurate but it gives me something more concrete to work with. Parents are sending a clear message that they want a medications to treat their kids. Is that the path to take? Should we be pushing the pharmaceutical industry in that direction? I’m not convinced that is the road to go down but I am convinced we have to find more ways to “treat” kids with colds that help parents feel more comfortable. At the moment, saline and soup just don’t seem to be cutting it. That, I’m hearing loud and clear.
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Admiring the Boneheaded Mistake
Submitted by The Boys and Schools Blog
I’m sure that my husband is going to be less than thrilled with my sharing this, but once upon a time, he shot a BB pellet into his palm. Those of you who are male or who have known males will not be surprised to hear that the reason that he did this was to show me that my fear of his BB gun and objection to his shooting cardboard boxes in our bathroom was overblown. I believe that he was demonstrating that you can even shoot yourself without any major problems, forgot that he had already pumped up the gun, gave it a few more pumps, and voila–a small metal BB stuck right in the fleshy part of the hand at 1am on a Sunday night. After he dug it out with a butter knife or similar home implement (he used to be in the Army, so he’s weirdly casual about things like this), he asked me for the hydrogen peroxide and band-aids. I told him we didn’t have any. And he said, as best as I can recall, “how can we not have band-aids when you know that I’m like this?”
And then we had two boys. And not long after they were both mobile, I went to the store and got the full First-Aid kit–the one with all of the weird balms and dressings that you think no one could possibly need. I’ve learned that they’re there for a reason. And I’ve learned that there’s really no point in asking a boy–or occasionally a full-grown man with a BB gun–why he does something crazy and injurious because, as often as not, the answer will be something along the lines of, “I just wanted to see what would happen.” (Incidentally–exactly the answer my husband gave when he shot himself in the hand with a plastic blowdart. That one’s kind of a long story.)
So I couldn’t help but smile a little bit in appreciation at the two boys in Indiana who were left with bleeding tongues after attempting to see if it was true that licking a frozen flagpole can get your tongue stuck (as in the movie A Christmas Story). I don’t think I can improve on one of the boys’ explanation:
I decided to try it because I thought all of the TV shows were lies, but turns out I was wrong,” Gavin said.
I know that as a responsible adult, I should be pontificating about foolish behavior and injury and health care or something. But truth be told, I can’t help but love this about boys–the spirit of experimentation and reckless adventure. I can wish that it didn’t have such a high cost in terms of band-aids. (And obviously I never want to see anyone get hurt.) But even when the reasoning is somewhat lacking, I love the spirit of it all.
But you really do have to watch out for those double-dog dares.
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Toxic Fabric Softeners (smells like a fresh chemical mountain stream!)–
Submitted by Non-Toxic Kids Blog
One of my friends alerted me to the fact that those fabric softener sheets some folks use are chock full of nasty chemicals. I’ve never used them myself (what! add another step to laundry? I can barely wash my clothes, and my family’s clothes, let alone remember to add something else when I do–), but I know people who do.
So what is the problem? Check out this article from Grinning Planet (a quirky new eco-site I just found). The chemicals used on are many lists of chemicals to AVOID using (gee, why would these be allowed, then?). This nasty listed of chemicals has been linked to cancer, allergies, nausea, vomiting, irritated respiratory function, and central nervous system disorders, according to the article. Sounds like fun, huh? Two of the chemicals are on the EPA’s hazardous waste list! All for some softness, a “clean” scent, and to avoid some static. The link also has some great alternatives for using fabric softener.
Here is another article on the subject, from World-Wire news, sharing most of the same information as the above article, with a few different alternatives to using fabric softener. This article also points out that the chemicals in these softeners are so strong that manufacturers have to use 50 times the normal amount of fragrance to cover it up! This should set off alarm bells for folks who avoid synthetic perfumes and fragrances (like we do) because of our kids’ sensitive skin and potential for allergic reactions.
I recently used fabric softener sheets to try and deter mice in our kitchen. I read this tip online and should have thought about it. Ah, if the scent deters mice, why exactly is it okay for my family to inhale it? It’s clearly not okay. One of the chemicals is “harmful if inhaled”, and we inhaled it everyday in our kitchen until the scent ran out. It did seem to work. Turns out the mice were smarter than we were.
For the chemically sensitive, the allergic, and all of us who are trying to limit our children’s exposure to toxic chemicals, clearly, fabric softener sheets are not as fresh as a mountain stream.
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When doctors talk, do parents hear?
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In Blog
At work this past weekend, I saw three families who made me wonder: when we talk, what do parents hear? The same could be asked for when TV reporters talk or when authoritative figures like the FDA or the American Academy of Pediatrics talk. Do parents even listen? And, more importantly, do they listen enough to follow the advice given?
Thankfully, most parents do listen but a number do not and those are the parents I am wondering about today. The three families I saw this weekend all had one very important thing in common: they were all there for colds in a toddler and every family admitted to given their toddler Pediacare, which was recalled the past October.
As you know, for the past year, it’s been impossible to turn on a TV, computer or open anything in print without seeing a story about the dangers of over the counter cold and cough medications in children, particularly kids under 6 years of age. Most recently, the FDA’s Advisory finally stated that these medications simply should not be used in this age group.
Each of these families claimed to have “been unaware” of the dangers of pediacare yet looked uncomfortable by the question. That was all I needed to know. I simply reminded them of the recent news and moved on to my typical spiel of how to treat colds (saline, cool mist, fluids, chicken soup). And, pointed each family to some good online information and suggested they do a google search to read all the interesting news from the past year to get caught up and keep their kids safe.
It always troubles me when an issue arises that is clearly, calmly and plainly discussed yet some parents seem to be unable to hear it and follow the correct advice. I just hope that somewhere along the line these parents realize that all the experts can’t be wrong - at the same time. Why come to use for care and advice if you are not going to take it??
I would love to know what these parents are really thinking to better understand how to get them to really hear us and listen to our advice. Perhaps there is a lesson learned for how we, the health care community, can communicate better. But, that can’t happen if these parents don’t talk to us and express their concerns. Until that happens, the ear block will continue and a child’s health will be at risk.
In the meantime, parents, please, please, please, with a cherry on top…stop using over the counter cold and cough medications in children under 6 years of age. And, even for kids 6 years and older, the honest truth is chicken soup will get your child further on the mend than anything else out there.
By the way, what parents hear and how they listen is a big theme this week in the news so stay tuned. I’ll have much more to say.
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What is the Best (natural, no chemical junk) Cream for Eczema?
Submitted by Non-Toxic Kids Blog
I’m not sure how two kids that came from me have seriously fair, sensitive, and eczema-prone skin. See, I’m olive skinned and have never had a problem with any of this, just the occasional freckle. That darn genetic code from the other half–
My poor 9 month old is covered with half dollar sized patches of dry, scaly skin. My pediatrician says it may be food related, which is fun, seeing as how we already manage the food allergies of my 2 and a half year old. I’ve been trying this food and that, and have found no rhyme or reason to flare ups at all. There seems to be a base level rash I can’t get rid of.
The pediatrician recommended using hydrocortisone cream, but I am hesitant to use it since it contains a steroid, and thins the skin. She also recommended Eucerin, but I wanted something more natural to put on her (it turns out some of the Eucerin creams rate really well on EWG’s Skin Deep database– be sure to look at which one, because not all do). I tried California Baby’s Calendula Cream which is great, but didn’t get rid of it. The Burt’s Bee’s Baby cream I have (yes, I know they are now owned by Clorox
, but I still had some– I’m practical, too!) didn’t touch it.
Some of my friends swear by Eucerin, and if I get the original cream (not lotion, which has a higher chemical rating), it should be fine.
Do any of you highly intelligent and spirited readers know of any other good creams for eczema? Please add a comment, I would love to hear from you!
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Basics and Biases
Submitted by The Boys and Schools Blog
Getting into the “why” of the Boy Crisis is a complicated thing, with so many interwoven cultural changes and influences that it can be hard to separate them out to an actionable solution. And I’ll admit that this is one of the reasons that I don’t use this space to endlessly philosophize about how we’ve gotten to where we are–I’d like to focus on the cure, not the disease. But if we’re going to be serious about addressing the problem, we do need to take a good look at what has brought us to this point, so as to better understand the scope of the issue. So when I see someone with a particularly good or interesting take on the Boy Crisis, I do like to bring attention to it. Marty Nemko’s piece in the New York Post is a good example of an unflinching look at the Boy Crisis in education. For starters, consider his examples of how schools have become more girl-centric and less boy-friendly:
*Competition, a prime motivator for boys, has largely been replaced by “cooperative learning.”
*Readings about adventure and heroism are giving way to tales of relationships and heroines.
*Social studies now stress men’s ill-doings and women’s (and minorities’) contributions.
*Today, 91 percent of elementary-school teachers are women, the highest level on record. The main male role model most boys see in school is the custodian.
I really recommend reading the whole article for its insights on subtle and insidious examples of anti-boy feeling in our culture. I find it very upsetting that the very idea of anti-male bias is sos summarily dismissed by those who can’t imagine that boys or men could be the subject of prejudice or discrimination. Lots of groups like to lay claim to being, “the last acceptible prejudice,” but I think anti-male bias can rightfully claim to being the last popular and fashionable prejudice.
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Parents, Check Your Prescriptions!
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In Blog
Do you remember the Star Wars marathon I told you about recently? Well, we did have a teeny mishap that evening. Opening the final movie, Return of the Jedi, we found in its place another copy of A New Hope. Clearly, someone had not done their job at the store. And, admittedly, we didn’t think to check before we left the store. But, who does? We all assume these things are done right. And, no harm done. It was just a movie. The store had another copy of Return of the Jedi and we were able to do an exchange that hour and continue on our marathon.
However, not all mistakes are so easy to write off. A couple days later, filling a prescription, a number of mistakes occurred that could have resulted in harm. Simple issue: a partial prescription. Typically, the pharmacist labels the bag as such and they tell me when to return. Not this time. I actually picked up the script 2 days later than expected so one would assume it would have been completely filled, so, akin to not checking the movie, I didn’t check the script before leaving the store. When I opened the bag at home, a partial bottle awaited me – and no note. To add insult to injury, when I called the pharmacy to inquire about this issue and, more importantly, find out when the remainder of the script would be ready, they left me on hold an interminable amount of time and kept forgetting that I was holding for the pharmacist. Midway through the wait period, I mused “Maybe I’ll just drive down – would likely be quicker than this.” My 10 year old daughter, without missing a beat, responded: “They should treat their customers the way they treat their family –or friends.” Definitely a proud mom moment – which eased my brewing frustration!
My prescription issue and the DVD issue are really one and the same. Both involve people at stores not taking the time to double check their inventory. In the case of the DVD, the result was “just” customer inconvenience and a coupon for a free DVD was sufficient retribution. However, the prescription error is a different story. What if I didn’t know how to read a prescription bottle and didn’t know what 4p/120 meant? What if I didn’t even know there were supposed to be 120 pills in that bottle to begin with? What if I was heading out of town and didn’t catch this until en route?
Prescriptions, unlike DVDs, deal directly with a person’s health and we are owed extra care and attention in making sure that errors are minimized. But, since we know errors do occur, we have to own up and do our part to catch them, too. Here are some tips for what to consider:
(click here to see larger image)
1. Check your prescription bottles and boxes carefully.
2. Speak up! Ask the pharmacist to review the prescription with you.
3. Understand your prescriptions – dose, amount, number of pills of quantity of liquid. Hopefully, your doctor explained what to expect but if not be sure the pharmacist does.
I’ve had enough issues with this pharmacy that short term I’ll be checking everything before I leave the store. Long term, we may be hunting for a new pharmacy.
Here are some links for more information on this topic:
CNN’s Don’t be a victim of pharmacy errors
Rx for Safety’s Tips for Avoiding Medication Errors
Understanding Your Prescription (by Oregon.gov)
Reading Drug Labels (by Medem.com)
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Say I Love You with Fun Gifts for Valentines Day
Submitted by Childn’Parent Blog
“I love you” should be something a child hears everyday. In this world of hustle and bustle, parents often forget how meaningful those three little words are. Valentines Day is a wonderful reminder for parents and children to say I love you again and again. And what better way to start than with a fun homemade Valentine gift that your child can enjoy all the year through.
Valentine Coupon Dates with Mom and Dad
The most important thing to a child is time; your time. Nothing is better than sitting down with Mom or Dad to read a story, play a game, enjoy a movie or have some one on one conversation. Make some Valentine “time” coupons that your child can turn in for a special date with Mom or Dad. Specify on each coupon what fun activity you would like to do with your child and include two or three “Your Choice” coupons so your child can have a turn picking the activity. When things get busy and your child is in need of some loving attention, a turned in coupon can remind parents to slow down and take time for what really matters.
I Love You Valentine Jar
Saying I love you throughout the New Year is easy with the I love You Valentine Jar.
For this gift you will need:
1 glass canning jar
1 canning jar lid with screw band
Small piece of material large enough to cover the top of the lid
One half of 8X11 paper sheet cut into 12 strips
Felt tip marker or penUsing the pen, write one quality that you love about your child on each of the 12 strips of paper. For example: “I love your smiling face.” Fold the strips and put them into the canning jar. Cover the lid with the material and screw on the band over the lid and material. For an extra special touch, decorate the outside of the jar with cute stickers. Let your child know that for each month they can pick out one “I love you strip” and read it. Have your child post the strips somewhere in their room so that they can be reminded of your love throughout the year.By Debby Hoffer
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Climate Counts–
Submitted by Non-Toxic Kids Blog
I hadn’t planned on posting today (I wonder how many posts I end up starting with that phrase..it’s clear I am addicted to this!), but as my toddler and I ate yogurt today, I looked at the lid. On my Stoneyfield Farms yogurt lid was an advertisement for a website called Climatecounts.org.
I was curious, so I checked it out tonight. It has information about what companies are doing to prevent climate change, since they are doing the lion’s share of the polluting that got us into this mess in the first place. The Climatecounts website has a nifty downloadable guide to what companies are “stuck”, “starting” and “striding” in their commitment to tackle global warming. Mostly these are very mainstream mega-companies, but for someone who does shop at a conventional grocery store, or lives in a more urban area (ah, that’s not hard) than I do, where you might visit fast food or chain coffee establishments, this could be a real way to vote with your dollars.
The movie on the site is inspiring. We consumers must band together and make ourselves heard with our money. To many corporations, our money is our voice. Let’s roar.
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End of Life Decisions: why States need to let doctors do their jobs
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In Blog
Although the press is consumed with this story, which is sad with hopefully some lessons learned for our teens, this is the story we should be talking about.
In short, a teen in a vegetative state in New York is on life support. Her parents are estranged and her mother has been awarded guardianship. While the teen can breathe on her own, all her other body systems are artificially supported and her mother would like her removed from life support but her father disagrees. And, the law in New York makes it difficult to remove anyone from life support unless an advanced directive existed ahead of time. How did this sad case come about? Something went very wrong three months ago during an operation described as “routine”.
What troubles me about this case is the battle between the legal system and the medical system. Caught in the middle are the rights of a child - a child who can not speak for herself and whose parents are handcuffed by laws that, frankly, don’t make sense to me as a physician. This teen, Javona, has no quality of life. And, should she wake up, will still have no quality of life that is going to be worthwhile for her. Sure, she’ll be alive and her family can celebrate that simple fact. But, the quality of her existence will not be good and she’ll drive up health expenses and become a burden to her family and society. Those are the points that her father and New York State are missing. Hospitals have ethics boards and lawyers to help doctors with these decisions do it is not as though a doctor can act in a bubble.
Taking a patient off life support does become an institutional decision and I don’t think people always remember that. Doctors are not acting alone. A great deal of thought and discussion go into the decision well before the family is approached. Many states acknowledge this by giving doctors and hospitals the freedom to act more in patient’s best interests, but not so in New York State. According to ABC News:
“…New York is one of the few states that requires a written directive explicitly stating the person’s desire in a situation where they’re on life support. In addition, the state makes it almost impossible for parents to pull the plug on a child.
“In almost every other state, parents can make decisions regarding health treatment, including removal of life support,” Leven said. “In New York, they have not allowed those decisions to be made.”"
So, while you are reading all the celebrity news, pause and wonder what good could be done if those media venues spent just an iota of energy more on cases like this. Perhaps changes in laws could be made. Perhaps a key could be found for those medical handcuffs and future families could be spared this pain.
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Boy Scouts Take On Bullying
Submitted by Boys and Schools Blog
There is a tendency in some circles to dismiss the recent efforts to deal with school bullying as unrealistic or “feel-good” nonsense. In part, I think that the situation may be exacerbated by stories about fringe programs that characterize boys as natural bullies or by remembrances of the important life lessons inherent in learning to stand up to bullies. However, I think that it’s a mistake to be dismissive of the bullying problem or of efforts to address it. Consider the fact that the majority of those students who report being bullied are boys, and that boys are much more likely to be the victims of physical bullying. Consider also the fact that bullying is extremely detrimental to the school experience–how can a student who spends his school day full of fear and worry be expected to devote the necessary time and attention to his studies. When a child is afraid to go to school, we’ve passed the learning experience stage and entered the immensely harmful stage.
What’s more, many of the anti-bullying programs stress exactly those lessons you’d want your son to absorb. Consider the recent additions to the Boy Scout Handbook on how to deal with bullies:
Ignore the taunts.
Tell an adult.
Agree with the bully to take the wind out of his sails.
I especially like the third recommendation, as it has a certain amount of style to it.
As for the stereotype of the boy bully, I’ll be happy to see that image put to rest. Certainly, boys can be bullies, but finally more attention is being paid to the methods and frequency of the girl bullies, who tend to use language and social exclusion to devestating effect–as witnessed in the recent boom in cyber-bullying.
Honestly, I can’t really see any downside to boys learning more about how to deal with all kinds of bullies in a mature and responsible manner.
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Wednesday Wellness: Pass the salt spray and coffee, please.
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In Blog
The moral of today’s post is things are not always as they appear but that doesn’t make them bad.
The Common Cold: saline as a cure??
MomLogic called me yesterday about whether salt water can cure the common cold. No different than other doctors, I’m a big fan of saline nose spray and it helps considerably to alleviate the symptoms of a cold. And, that’s what I told my friends at MomLogic yesterday.
Whether saline can cure a cold has yet to be determined. ABC News did report on a study by Czech researchers who claim it can. But, in this study, the participants had to perform actual saline washes of their nostrils 6 times a day. This is much more involved than a simple over the counter saline spray we are all familiar with. Here’s a description of basic saline washes. Do you think you could get your child to cooperate with this 6 times a day for 2-3 weeks??
The silver lining of this study is that the kids in the study felt better using the saline. And, compared to common over the counter cold products (still used overseas although not here in the USA), saline won.
So, “cure”…perhaps not. But, treatment…definitely.
Coffee: good or bad for women?
It is hard enough being a woman today without being bombarded by conflicting headlines within the same week! And, given most of us are busy moms who find that one of life’s rare joys is that morning cup o’jo before the day’s chaos begins, having our favorite morning beverage come under fire really seems unfair!
In one week, we heard two conflicting studies about caffeine. First, we are told it might increase a woman’s risk of miscarriage. Then, we are told it may be protective against ovarian cancer. Confusing? Not really when you consider that the former only applies to pregnant women and those trying to conceive. And, even in that group, very small amounts of caffeine, under 2 cups of coffee daily, were found to be ok.
What separates these studies for me is that while we can’t really know for sure if drinking caffeine will protect us against ovarian cancer, the miscarriage study was more clear. That study did seem to prove a dose-response and that is rare in medicine and give women something they can actually control themselves.
So, while on face-value some anchors made put these headlines at odds, they really are not. It just goes to show that everything in moderation is likely ok for us (such as with the ovarian cancer study) while in very special circumstance (like when we are pregnant) “moderation” takes on new meaning. But, we knew that already…the news outlets just tried to confuse us a bit!
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Safest (and cheapest!) Way to Wash Veggies–
Submitted by Non-Toxic Kids Blog
According to Newsweek magazine (who, by the way, has been increasing their reporting on some environmental health issues, including a mention of BPA free bottles and sippy cups– am I sensing a revolution? an American wake up call?), the safest way to remove surface wax, pesticides and bacteria is to spray vegetables with a 3 part tap water one part distilled vinegar solution.
So, those expensive “natural” washes at the grocery store? Not so much. Just mix up your own in spray bottle and be on your merry way. Keeping in mind, of course, that this cheap, healthy little spray will not remove all the pesticides on conventional vegetables, but it is a good start if that is all you have. It would also be very good to use on your organic vegetables to remove bacteria.
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Boys on the Radio
Submitted by Boys and Schools Blog
Just wanted to let y’all know that Michael Baisden is scheduled to cover the Boy Crisis on today’s radio show. (Check the website to see which stations carry the show.) He’ll not only be discussing the crisis in general, but also as it affects black boys. (A lot of critics like to claim that there is no Boy Crisis–that the achievement gaps are only about race and socio-economic conditions. But when you look at the data, you find that the problem truly does transcend racial boundaries–though the gaps can also increase based on factors like race, parental education, etc.)
At any rate, it’s great to see people starting to give the issue the attention that it deserves.
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Need more family time? Bake cookies - from scratch!
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In Blog
During the Nor’Easter last week, school was cancelled and we found ourselves in an interesting predicament: we wanted to make a fire, yet ran out of Duraflame logs. We wanted to bake cookies yet had no “ready to go” dough. The only path to take on both fronts was the “old fashioned” one: wood logs for a fire and a recipe and ingredients from the cupboard for cookies.
At first, it felt like we had been tossed back in time. Then, one by one, we all started to settle into our “new” habitat. The fire was gigantic and actually warmed the room – not just in terms of temperature but with a rustic and amazing aroma. And, in the kitchen, the kids were busy following a recipe and wondering if their homemade Toll House cookies would come any where near their familiar “ready to go” ones. There wasn’t even a contest! The homemade ones so trumped the “ready to goes”!
While sampling the first batch of their creations, my 13 year old turned to me and said: “You know, some kids will go through their entire lives and never have a home baked cookie.” A wise observation for a young teen. We have, indeed, become a society of convenience and often overlook the times we do have to slow down and rekindle slower and more intimate ways. It’s no wonder many families feel displaced from one another and why many experts keep touting the benefits of a family meal.
But, I’d go a step further and argue that beyond the daily family meals, families need these unplugged family days routinely. Snow days are unpredictable but we do have times built right into our lives the we often toss away on things like errands. Those days are Monday holidays such as yesterday’s Martin Luther King holiday.
With my back situation tweaking the zone of improvement, I almost succumbed the old thinking of “day of errands” before I caught myself and recalled last Monday’s snow day. It didn’t hurt that my kids already had their minds set on a day of cooking baked goods and a movie marathon of Star Wars. (How could I resist that!) The had a blast last Monday and wanted to repeat the fun. That alone spoke volumes to me. It’s easy to think that these extra holiday times are a great opportunity to get ahead of errands but I’m starting to realize they have been missed opportunities for family time.
We’ve all be toying with the Dark Side for far too long. If I knew that all it took to restore balance to the “force” in my family was a batch of cookies, I would have tossed the “ready to go dough” and pulled out the real recipe a long time ago. May the force be with you on your quest!
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Allergen Cross Contamination Labeling Voluntary for Foods (huh?)–
Submitted by Non-Toxic Kids Blog
Here is a comment that for some reason mistakenly got listed under the “Do You Eat Fish” post. It shares important information about cross contamination and food allergies, so I thought I would post it here. Lynda, I hope you don’t mind! And, being inspried after reading this, I added some more thoughts and information below the comment.
“Hello,
I agree with you that items in store bakeries of any kind can be risky due to cross contamination issues. One important point I want to make for you and any of your readers is that the US FDA labeling laws do not require stores or manufacturers to label for cross contamination. Any cross contamination labeling is strictly voluntary on the part of a store or manufacturer. It is truly a buyer beware situation that we, as parent of food allergic kids, need to be vigilant about.
There are also other exemptions to the FALCPA FDA labeling law; you can read more about FALCPA FAQs on our Web site, www.kidswithfoodallergies.org.
Best wishes!
Lynda Mitchell
Kids With Food Allergies”
Thanks for the information, Lynda. I had no idea that the “facility” or “may contain” part of the labeling is voluntary. That is scary!
Here is another article from MSN about the confusing labels that say, “may contain peanuts” or “made in a facility that uses peanuts,”. No wonder there is so much confusion! Since it is voluntary to even label this, manufacturers can say whatever they want. This doesn’t make any sense. I hope this is under FDA review, as it mentions in the article.
In a new study sited in the article, it says that no matter how the cross contamination is labeled, 7 percent of the researcher’s small sample of foods had serious amounts of peanuts, enough for a reaction. This was eye opening for me. My daughter has had a few exposures to ” peanut facility” foods with no problem, and my sense of security grew a bit. Not after reading this.
The other take home message I got from the article was to keep reading labels ( I know, this is hard when you have a screaming toddler, but apparently very necessary), because new items are listed every week as containing peanuts, according to the Food Allergy Network. Even odd foods such as canned vegetables (um, why??).
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Classroom Prejudices
Submitted by Boys and Schools Blog
If you were the tiniest bit aware of the great Girl Resurgence of the 1990s (my nickname for the new feminist wave that combined girl power feminism with a huge helping of “studies” about the different ways that girls are disadvantaged in modern Western culture), you probably heard all about how teachers favor boys by calling on them more often in class. Now, I admit that I love to criticize social science studies–especially their conclusions and methodologies–but of all the flawed findings put to poor purpose, that one may take the cake. On the mere evidence that teachers tend to call on boys more often, we are supposed to make the leap that girls have been tremendously damaged, without consideration of girls’ advantage in test scores and grades. We don’t even pause to wonder why the boys are getting more attention, to distinguish between good and bad attention, or even to find out if it matters. No one questions any of it because the finding fits into our erroneous assumption about boys and girls in school–despite all of the evidence that girls are doing better than boys, there are still far too many people who believe the opposite.
So, it gives me no end of pleasure to point out that a recent study in Britain found that boys who are perceived to be “bad” are less likely to be praised or picked to answer a question as a girls–even when they raise their hands just as often. It seems that teachers’ perceptions about how troublesome boys can be–based at least partially on the fact that boys tend to be more active and noisier when behaving badly–may also result in unfair prejudices about boys’ behavior in general:
Swinson followed behaviour in classes at two primary schools in Liverpool, and found that there was a “common belief” that boys were more easily distracted and prone to misbehave, but it was not borne out by the research.
He said that girls were just as likely to step out of line, although he acknowledged that their pattern of misbehaviour meant they were less likely to be spotted.
The study found that boys tended to “shout across the classroom”, while girls broke the rules by reading under the desk or passing notes between friends.
When girls become bored in lessons, they are also more likely to “switch off”, while boys make noise as their attention wanders.
Of course, I doubt that we’re going to see a Ms. Foundation event revolving around the notion that girls get away with more classroom misbehavior. No need to take the equality thing too far.
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Cell Phones and Your Child’s Health
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In Blog
It should be a shocker that doctors and scientists want to further explore whether cell phone use is safe for kids. Cell phones are being used in record numbers by kids and at younger and younger ages. Keep in mind that what separates kids from adults is the fact that their bodies are growing and developing. So, the impact of those radio waves on their bodies, particularly their brains, could be significant.
Brain tumors are the medical consequence often hunted for with cell phone use and so far have been reassuringly ruled out. However, as a pediatrician interested in the social and behavioral aspects of kids and life, I’m curious how the years of radio waves bombarding our impressionable young children’s synapses impacts those areas of life, if at all.
Behind whether or not those radio waves actually damages our children’s minds, cell phone use clear may. The behaviors cell phone use creates needs to be explored independent of radio waves. Kids today seem ruder to me. They seem less able to make eye contact with adults and hold a simple conversation. I’ve talked before about the need for less technology in all our lives but for our growing kids we have to acknowledge that some learned behaviors are developing because of prolonged cell phone use starting at young ages - and because of the adult role models around then.
I’d love to see a study comparing the social behaviors of kids who use cell phones young with those who do not. In the mean time, let’s all try and be good role models. For starters, here are some thoughts:
1. Don’t use cell phones in at any store.
2. Don’t use cell phones in any waiting room.
3. Don’t use cell phones when driving - especially with your kids.
4. Don’t use cell phones at your child’s school for any reason other than to call 911.
I think you get the point!
For more ideas on cell phone use, check out these links:
Technology and Kids
Mom, can I have a cell phone?
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Got a Kid with a Food Allergy? Avoid Bakery Items at the Grocery Store–
Submitted by Non-Toxic Kids Blog
A few months ago I went to a party with my two girls. There was all sorts of yummy food there for everyone (and I was thrilled to not have to cook). I found some dark chocolaty brownies in the kitchen and kept sneaking back there to have a bite (or two or three–). Finally, my two year old daughter followed me there and asked for some. It was only a matter of time!
I flipped over the package, and found no offending ingredients or nut warnings(for my girl has a severe nut allergy). They were from Wegman’s, a grocery store that has the finest prepared food one could ever hope for (and lots of great organic and natural foods). I often have grocery store envy when my mom shares with me what she bought at Wegman’s, because there is not one where I live. So, I gave her a small piece of the brownie, and we went on our merry way.
Later, I told my mom about this. Being her investigative and inquisitive self, she went to the bakery counter at Wegman’s and asked if the brownies (and their other baked goods that weren’t labeled with any nut warnings) were indeed nut free, and made in nut free facility, or at least a nut controlled environment.
The kind bakery manager declared that no, the brownies were made with the same equipment and kitchen as the batches made with nuts, and that they were only as nut free as the baker’s ability to clean and use different utensils for each batch. In other words, there was no way to guarantee there were no nut residues in any of the bakery products. My mom explained our situation, and that labeling should catch up with the packaging. If some poor child was to have a reaction, the store would have a major liability problem on their hands. He assured her that they would change the labeling, and he communicated this (supposedly)to his supervisors.
Its been months since then and of course the labeling hasn’t changed. Thankfully my daughter did not have a reaction, but she could have. I worry about all the kids who are more allergic than she is, and even when their parents are dutifully checking the labels, one of them could have a serious reaction.
So, the take home message, sadly, is to avoid the bakery items at the grocery store unless they have a clear label that they are nut free (or whatever the allergen is–). I guess I will have to learn to be more sneaky with my chocolate intake!
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