Are Kids Getting Enough Sleep?

Is your little one getting enough shut-eye? According the sleep experts, the answer is probably no.

After reviewing 100+ years of studies about children and sleep -- more than 300 of them -- University of South Australian researchers determined that sleep experts have consistently found that children got less sleep than recommended, Time Magazine reported.

“Over the 112 years the study covered, children lost about 75 minutes of shut-eye,” Time’s Bonnie Rochman wrote of the new study inPediatrics, “in 1897, experts were recommending that kids sleep 1 hr. 15 min. more than was advised in 2009.”

“Another constant,” Rochman added, “societal hand-wringing over children’s lack of sleep and a tendency to blame the hectic pace of modern life.” One of the study’s authors said, “People are always recommending kids sleep more than they do.”

So what's the current recommended amount of sleep time for children?

It varies based on age, but according to the National Sleep Foundation babies between the ages of 3 to 11 months need a total of 14 to 15 hours, while toddlers between 1 to 3 years old should get 12 to 14 hours. Preschoolers need 11 to 13 hours, and elementary schoolers should sleep between 10 to 11 hours. Older children and teens need a minimum of 8½ hours.

How many hours of sleep do your kids normally get?

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Dangerous Food Dyes in Mac and Cheese?

Could the artificial dyes in Kraft Mac and Cheese be bad for you?

Two moms from North Carolina are petitioning Kraft Foods to remove the artificial colors from the cheese mix in its popular macaroni and cheese product.

Vani Hari, of the blog Food Babe, and Lisa Leake from 100 days of Real Food, have taken to Change.org in an effort to convince Kraft's management to stop using Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6.

In the online petition, they maintain that 30 Kraft macaroni and cheese products contain the artificial dyes and that it is "unfair to the children lured by these products (several packages showcase cartoon characters), unfair to the less fortunate who buy these products because they are cheaper, and unfair to the uneducated consumer that is unaware of these harmful ingredients."

Noting that the dyes are not included in Kraft's Mac & Cheese products sold in the United Kingdom, the moms recorded a YouTube video taste test of U.S. and U.K. versions of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (called Cheesey Pasta across the pond) and found "virtually no difference in color or taste."

While the additives are both legal and approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Leake and Hari point to research conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest that says the two food dyes have been associated with hyperactivity in children, allergies, migraine and, because yellow dyes are petroleum-based, perhaps cancer.

To date, their petition has garnered more than 160,000 signatures. 

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Sugary Drinks Linked to 180,000 Deaths Worldwide

Forget fries... would you like a side of death with that soda?

A new study suggests that the consumption of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages may contribute to hundreds of thousands of obesity-related deaths around the world.

The results, which are being presented at  an American Heart Association conference this week, link sugar-sweetened beverage consumption to 180,000 deaths annually, including 25,000 deaths a year in the United States.

"This means about one in every 100 deaths from obesity-related diseases is caused by drinking sugary beverages," says study author Gitanjali Singh, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Of the 15 most populated countries, Mexico had the highest rate of death linked to the beverages at 318 yearly deaths per million adults, and Japan had the lowest at 10 yearly deaths per million adults.

Earlier studies have already shown that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The latest research highlights the dire extent of this problem.

Did you know that the American Heart Association recommends adults consume no more than 450 calories per week from sugar-sweetened beverages? (Based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet.)

To put that in perspective - a single can of Coca Cola contains 240 calories and a 32 oz fountain Pepsi has 350 calories.

How many times a day do you drink a soda or other sugary beverage?

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A “No Gift” Policy Might Be the Best Policy

Oct 18, 2013 by Nicole

This year at my kids’ school we got a new Head of School.  He’s amazing and brilliant and all the other things you would want from a Head of School.  And like any new leader, he has been putting his own stamp on things.  One of the first changes he made was to instill a “No Gift” policy at school.  That went over well with some but not so well with others.  So I thought it’d be a good idea to explore this new trend as we enter the holiday season.

Let me start by explaining the gift giving at our school.  My kids go to a private K-12 school in Los Angeles.  There are a number of families at the school that some would describe as having “large pocketbooks”.  So come holiday season, the gifts can get rather extravagant.  We usually give $50 gift certificates to each our kids’ main teachers, so that’s $150 for three gifts, which may sound like a lot to some, reasonable to others, and cheap to a few.  But to put it in context, one family at our kids’ school reportedly bought all of their children’s teachers brand new Ipads.  Last I checked, those will set you back about $500 at the minimum, and close to $1,000 if you get the ones with cellular data.  And it doesn’t stop there.  Gifts have even included tickets to special sold out events and all expense paid trips.

So if a teacher receives $50 bucks from one family and a gift worth $500 bucks from another, does that mean one kid is only getting 1/10th of the attention from the teacher as the other?  Personally, I don’t think so.  I never expected my gift to be something that “buys” the teacher’s attention.  It’s just my way of saying “thank you” for all of the extra time and energy I know teachers give their students.  I also know that teachers work very hard for modest money.  So my hope is that my gift helps make their holiday less hard on their “smaller pocketbooks”.

And do I think that the family that buys a $500 Ipad for a teacher is thinking that their kid will get extra special attention?  I certainly hope not.  At our school it’s possible that the $500 gift just means the same to those people’s pocketbook as the $50 does to mine.

However, where does this leave the teacher?  What if the teacher is feeling that the gift is inappropriately large?  After all, they have a job to do which requires them to stay objective.  Do they feel conflicted?

Clearly the difference between a $50 gift and a $500 gift is dramatic, but consider this scenario.  Supposed we’re talking about kids in 12th grade.  Suppose in addition to it being the holiday season it is also college application season.  Suppose that same teacher who is receiving an Ipad or even just a $50 gift certificate is also being asked to write a letter of recommendation for a someone’s college application.  Could this change their objectivity?

I get the desire to do something nice for your 2nd graders homeroom teacher.  They develop such special bonds with our kids.  But in some way the Middle School teachers really deserve the biggest gift of everyone because, after all,  they have to teach 13 year olds.  But when it comes to high school teachers, these ones have direct effects on where our kids head out into their adult lives.  So gifts really do put them in an odd spot.

Many organizations organize group gifts, where every family in a class is asked to donate $5 to a group gift certificate.  The problem with this is not the pressure it puts on teachers, but pressure it puts on the parents if they don’t want to participate, or can’t.  It’s usually made optional, but it’s not always presented that way.  And someone is still in charge of keeping track of who is paying what, so the pressure is there regardless.  And the person organizing it often becomes resentful of the fact that some don’t participate.  Oh, but I’m sure that mom would NEVER say anything about it to any other mom in the class, right?  Because moms never gossip!

A number of schools around the country already have gift limits.  In Massachusetts, for example, no public employee (that includes teachers) may receive a gift of more than $50 from any one individual.  If parents want to give a larger gift to a class, however, they can do that, provided it is actually used for the class.  Within the Los Angeles school district, the limit is $100 from any one person within a 12 month period.   This would include holiday gifts, end of the year gifts, birthday presents, teacher appreciation, etc. But many parents and teachers don’t abide by this rule.

When the announcement of our school’s new policy was made at our last Parents’ Association meeting, one of the parents stood up and suggested that in lieu of candles, mugs, gift certificates or Ipads, we should ask our kids to write letters to their teachers.  This idea was also mentioned in a great blog post on RantsfromMommyland.com.  They conducted a survey and found that even the teachers would overwhelmingly prefer these over boxes of chocolates or bottles of scented lotion.

Lastly, consider the message it sends our kids if we ask them to write a letter from the heart to show the holiday spirit instead of grabbing one more of those meaningless gift basket.  In the end, that will have much more influence on our kids’ future than any expensive gift we buy for their teacher.  And if that’s not reason enough for you, think of how much more meaningful that teacher’s letter of recommendation will be if they’ve gotten a glimpse inside your child’s heart.

www.mommywarriors.com 

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Would You Wear Breastmilk Jewelry?

We've heard of pregnant women making molds of their bellies or saving parts of their placentas... but would you ever wear jewelry made from breastmilk?

Apparently, this is a thing.

Basically, new moms can send away a sample of their breastmilk in order to have it turned into a priceless memento.

"This will be a keepsake to remind you of the breastfeeding bond between you and your child for a lifetime," writes Allicia Mogavero on her Mommy Milk Creations Etsy site.

"A handmade pendant or keepsake made from your own milk to last forever."

Mogavero uses a special process to preserve a heart or star shaped drop of “plasticized” milk in a bead, which can then be worn on a chain as a necklace.

Worried about mailing your baby juice? You can also make your own, with the DIY kit we found on Etsy.

"The kit comes complete with ingredients for preservation, detailed instructions, and a locket with a chain (as shown) so your finished piece will be ready to wear."

Interesting concept.

We wanted to see what the moms in our office thought of these unique fashion accessories, so we took a quick straw poll.

"Why would you put that in there? That's not jewelry - that's goo!" said one co-worker. "I don't know, I think it's kind of nice," said another.

What do you think? 

View the original article here

Why are More Teens Abusing ADHD Drugs?

According to the New York Times, pressure over grades and college admission has escalated to the point that many students are using prescription stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin to help them study.

Around 40 students, school officials and parents agreed to be interviewed for an article about the abuse of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medications to help them concentrate and fare better on tests and gain entrance to top colleges.

[Read "Stress Doesn't Mean Success: Are Kids Overloading On AP Classes?"]

The medicine - which has been described as " a staple in some college and graduate school circles" - is now apparently "routine in many academically competitive high schools, where teenagers say they get them from friends, buy them from student dealers or fake symptoms to their parents and doctors to get prescriptions."

But the stimulants can be addictive and can have harmful side effects ranging from depression, mood swings, heart irregularities and acute exhaustion to psychosis during withdrawal.

[Read "The Truth About Medications for ADHD Children"]

A Manhattan therapist warned: “Children have prefrontal cortexes that are not fully developed, and we’re changing the chemistry of the brain . . . It’s one thing if you have a real deficiency - the medicine is really important to those people - but not if your deficiency is not getting into Brown."

Do you know any teenagers who have taken prescription drugs to concentrate?

View the original article here

School bans most balls during recess: Smart move or going too far?

Oct 9, 2013 by Alyssa

I saw this on the news this morning and I already saw the video posted by a friend on Facebook.  It’s a topic that I wrote about a few years ago in my post, Recess Is So Boring Anymore:(

My feeling on this is that kids need to be kids, yes, they will get hurt sometimes, it’s inevitable, but for the love of the guy above, banning all sport balls???

Watch the video below that aired on CNN this morning and see what you think.

Do I think this is going to far?  YES

Do I think it’s ridiculous?  YES

Have my kids gotten hurt at recess?  YES

Did I sue the school and the family down the street because my kid was pushed by his friend and twisted his ankle?  NO

Do I protect my kids from every little thing that MIGHT happen?  NO

My goodness, schools around the country are following suit with their recess rules and it’s driving me bananas.  They are ruining the one thing that the kids actually look forward to everyday.

I used to run out of school after lunch to be the first one on the monkey bars.  Today, the kids have to walk slowly to the texting table to have a little fun.

This mom refuses to raise her kids in a bubble and have them grow up to be a bunch of pansies.  For goodness sake, have families sign waivers that states, “what happens at recess, stays at recess” to cover your a**.

Instead of banning balls, these schools need to grow some!

I am one irritated MommyWarrior today, can you tell?

MommyWarriors.com

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Our Almost Shared Birthday

Oct 2, 2013 by Nicole

For those of you who don’t know, my longtime blogging partner, Alyssa’s, birthday was yesterday, October 1, and mine is tomorrow, October 3, so I always like to think of October 2nd as our almost shared birthday.  If her mom hadn’t been on her feet all day and if my mom hadn’t had her feet up all day we just might have ended up with the same birthday.  But, alas, we didn’t.  So instead we can just celebrate our almost same birthday.

So in honor of our Almost Shared Birthday, I thought I’d put together a “Guess the Celebrity Baby” slide show. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday, Blog Partner!

www.mommywarriors.com

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How to Tell if Your Kid is Lying

Sep 30, 2013 by Nicole

Last night my family and I watched Brain Games on the National Geographic Channel.  It’s one of our favorite shows.  In it they walk the viewers through all kinds of mental experiments demonstrating the odd ways in which our brains function and process.  Last night’s episode was all about lying.

At first we worried about allowing our kids to watch a show that seemed to glorify lying.  They gave statistics on how many adults lie, and it is even greater than children.  WHAT?  Kids, don’t listen to that!  It’s not true.  We adults always tell the truth. But then they started showing how easy it is to tell if someone IS lying.  First and most importantly, lack of eye contact is not a giveaway, as much as we all think it is.  However, some sort of unintentional physical movement can give you away.  The piercing of the lips, the extra use of hands, the nodding of the head can all be involuntary reflexes when you’re lying.

So now I want to figure out what physical reaction, or “tell” as they call it on the show, my kids have when they lie.  The way to do it?  Ask your kids to intentionally answer a few questions wrong.  They can be anything, the color of their shirt, their favorite game, their name.  You don’t have to tell them you’re trying to see if they’re lying.  It can just be a game.  Now, watch to see if they do some sort of repetitive physical thing each time.  If you can hone in on something, you may have your secret weapon.

My youngest can’t help but raise his shoulders and smirk slightly when he lies.  My other two, however, are a little harder to read.  They two of them work very hard NOT to look like they’re lying.  That sort of makes them look as if their gestures are forced thereby giving them away.

But try the lying experiment at home and see if you can figure out your child’s “tell”.  We apparently all have them because of the way our brain works.  When we have to tell a lie our brain kicks into overdrive because we have to not only avoid saying the truth, we also have to think of a lie.  This more complex thinking causes us to alter our physical reflexes.

The scary thing is that my kids ARE really good liars.  Either that, or I’m too gullible. Regardless, Brain Games did give me some solace.  They claim that children who lie a lot are actually showing signs of a type of cognitive development.  They are learning how to manipulate the world around them to attain a desired effect.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  They said the children who lie a lot don’t necessarily turn into dishonest people.  Phew!  We can all exhale now.  It also said the best person to lie to sometimes is yourself because it often means we have an inflated view of ourselves and hence have a greater expectation for outcome.  So kids, lie to yourself all you want.  Just don’t lie to MOM!

You know I love feedback, so try it at home and let me know if you figure out your kids’ “tells”.

www.mommywarriors.com

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Less Stressful Doctor Visits?

Any parent who has held their screaming child down to get a shot or during a check-up knows how nerve-wracking a visit to the doctor can be.

It's agonizing to watch your baby feel pain - even when it's for their own good.  But what if there was a simple way to ease that pain?

Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have found that listening to music effectively reduces the amount of pain children perceive when they're in the emergency room.

The team analyzed clinical trials with 42 children between the ages of three and 11 who came to the pediatric emergency department at the Stollery Children’s Hospital and needed IVs.

Some listened to music while receiving the IV and others did not. Researchers then noted the amount of stress each child expressed, their perceived level of pain, and their heart rate.

"We did find a difference in the children’s reported pain - the children in the music group had less pain immediately after the procedure,” said lead researcher Dr. Lisa Hartling.

“The finding is clinically important and it’s a simple intervention that can make a big difference. Playing music for kids during painful medical procedures would be an inexpensive and easy-to-use intervention in clinical settings.”

The conclusions make sense. We know that music affects mood, which is why many pregnant women make special soothing playlists for labor and delivery.

What do you think? Would you bring your iPod and speakers to your child's next doctor appointment?

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Speed Cubing: The Next Olympic Sport?

Oct 17, 2013 by Nicole

About 5 years ago, when my oldest son was 10, he received his first Rubik’s Cube.  It was a stocking stuffer and fit perfectly into the toe of the giant red felt sock that hung above the fireplace.  He fiddled with it for about 2 years, until he finally learned to solve it.  Then this past February, inspired by a YouTube video of the world’s fastest solve and the complete set of cubes at his school library, my son took up the sport of Speed Cubing.  Why do I call it a sport?  Because it requires the same muscle memory, agility, and focus of most Olympic sports.  Okay, so unlike most sports, you can do this sitting down, but all I have to say is “LUGE”!

For the past 9 months my son has practiced and practiced and practiced.  An hour doesn’t go by without a cube in his hand.  And he has all different types and sizes.  He has the standard 3×3, of course, in all different colors and brands. Apparently Rubik’s patent expired so now anyone can manufacture them.  But he also has the 2×2, the 4×4, the 5×5, the 7×7 and the freakiest looking of all, the 11×11.  But on top of this, he also has the Pyraminx, which looks like a Rubix Cube only it’s in the shape of a pyramid.  And he has the Megaminx, an alien looking 12 sided puzzle that makes you dizzy just looking at it.  My son, however, can solve them all.  It’s a feat that amazes my husband and me to the point that we’re considering having a DNA test done.  How is it possible that our two brains combined were able to make a brain that could do that?  The math doesn’t add up.

This past Saturday our son finally decided to enter his first Speed Cubing competition.  It was a regional competition held in the lovely town of Palmdale, California, a sub-suburb of Los Angeles.  Palmdale, it should be noted, gained national notoriety because of the severity of damage the recession did to it’s then booming housing business.  Nowadays, it is a bit of a ghost town with empty shops and foreclosed homes everywhere. However, it did draw quite a large group of mathematically inclined teenage boys.  From 8am until 5pm this past Saturday the town was over run with Speed Cubing brainiacs from as far as China and Mexico.

As I walked into the event I turned to my son and said, “Oh my God!  It’s a room full of YOU!”  All around me were kids with their heads bent down spinning their various types of cubes at blurring speeds.  It was a little surreal, I must admit, but it was also a little reassuring.   My son is not the only kid obsessed with his algorithms and learning his PLL and OLL, whatever those are.  (If you have a Speed Cubing kid you know exactly what I’m talking about.)

I did my usual play-by-play posts on Facebook throughout the day.  I was sure my friends back in town were on pins and needles waiting for the latest updates.  What was his 5×5 solve time?  Did his cube pop?  Was he going to compete in the “feet” category? (By the way, that’s where they solve it with their feet. No joke!)  in the end he placed in about in the middle of the pack.  His 3×3 solve was a fraction of a second over 20 seconds.  He was thrilled with his time, however he needed a 14 second solve to get into the finals.

If you’ve never seen a Speed Cuber solve the puzzle, then enjoy some of the videos we’ve included.  It really is amazing to watch.  The fastest time we saw at the event was 7.89 seconds to solve the 3×3.  But the most amazing category is the 3×3 blindfolded solve.  The competitors study the cube for about a minute, memorizing the location of every piece, before covering their eyes and solving the cube.   You have to see it to believe it.

The Current World Record Holder for the 3×3 – Mats Valk

The Current World Record Holder for the 3×3 Blindfolded – Marcin Zalewski

We overheard one of the kids at the competition say to his mom, “Finally, a place where I don’t have to be athletic to win.”  These kids are not the star athletes, they are not the fastest or the strongest.  But they are no less amazing.  It’s too bad we don’t celebrate these types of gifts the way we celebrate  athleticism.  After all, it’s definitely our brain power not our speed that will lead us more quickly into the future.

For more information on Speed Cubing, visit the World Cube Association or Cubing USA.

www.mommywarriors.com

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Yuck! Would You Let Your Kids Eat This?

Oct 18, 2013 by Nicole

The following video, courtesy of BuzzFeed, might change what you feed your kids!

Still hungry?

http://www.mommywarriors.com/

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