Hopscotching into math
Wed, 17/03/10 – 11:46 | No Comment

It’s a math drill with no flash cards!
It’s exercise without leaving the patio!
And it’s also an idea I blatantly stole from Parents Math Night at Big Guy’s school – but, hey, there’s nothing wrong with …

Read the full story »
Food

Picky eaters and allergy-safe cooking — the two aren’t necessarily unrelated.

Girl Gone Wonk

From policy to politics, this rant’s for you.

News

The day’s events in a family way — unless something else amuses me.

School days

From preschool to kindergarten — so far

Simple Gifts

Inexpensive homemade gifts, creative parties and low-cost projects, for Christmas and beyond. Many are easy enough for children to help.

Home » Archive by Tags

Articles tagged with: children’s health

We are the world; we are the soda companies
Tuesday, 9 Mar, 2010 – 21:41 | No Comment
We are the world; we are the soda companies

It’s not quite the east coast and west coast rappers sitting down over tea and crumpets, but when three manufacturing rivals get together for a joint project, it’s big news.
Except in the case of the …

Confessions of a closet snacker
Wednesday, 3 Mar, 2010 – 18:45 | 2 Comments
Confessions of a closet snacker

Back when my job involved actually leaving my house, there wasn’t a lunchbox in the world big enough for me.
I usually ran out the door without breakfast, triggering the need to pack snack one. The …

The first step to solving a problem is knowing you have it
Monday, 1 Mar, 2010 – 19:15 | No Comment
The first step to solving a problem is knowing you have it

Here’s a tricky one to tackle:
According to an article in March’s edition of Pediatrics, nearly 30 percent of overweight teens don’t know that they’re overweight. And if they don’t know they’re overweight, they’re less likely …

Finally, a nutrition campaign that takes a practical path
Wednesday, 10 Feb, 2010 – 19:50 | No Comment
Finally, a nutrition campaign that takes a practical path

Yes, I eat the occasional burger and fries. Ice cream and cookies, too.
Now that first lady Michelle Obama has stepped into the confessional and admitted as much herself, I feel safe in going public as …

When it comes to media use, I’m going to go down swinging
Wednesday, 20 Jan, 2010 – 19:55 | 2 Comments
When it comes to media use, I’m going to go down swinging

Just when the experts thought kids couldn’t cram a single second more of electronics time into their days comes a study that shows, not only that they can, but that they have.
According to research the …

Good luck to New York in its assault on salt
Monday, 11 Jan, 2010 – 21:38 | Comments Off
Good luck to New York in its assault on salt

From the state that led the battle against transfat comes the latest assault on manufacturer-induced nutrition nightmares: New York City wants companies to cut down on the amount of sodium in food.
Good luck on that …

The $60.42 answer to the question of helping children with asthma
Wednesday, 2 Dec, 2009 – 22:28 | Comments Off
The $60.42 answer to the question of helping children with asthma

With a callous eye toward the bottom line, insurance companies unhesitantly ax coverage for medications asthmatic children need. Don’t deny it. It’s happened to us.
If executives won’t shell out $300 to prevent an emergency room …

Dirt gets its due again
Tuesday, 24 Nov, 2009 – 22:23 | Comments Off
Dirt gets its due again

Bacteria are normal. Bacteria are good. Bacteria can even help the immune system.
So say researchers at the University of California, San Diego.  According to an article in The Guardian, the very same staphylococci that causes …

Food for thought, but not for healthy bodies
Monday, 26 Oct, 2009 – 23:12 | Comments Off
Food for thought, but not for healthy bodies

E tu, Cheerios?
I don’t know why I’m surprised. Everyone’s doing it, because children’s cereal is such a lucrative market. I knew you’d jumped the shark with Honey Nut Cheerios, but at least you were up …

Kids should stay in boosters until 8, study reaffirms
Tuesday, 20 Oct, 2009 – 22:31 | Comments Off
Kids should stay in boosters until 8, study reaffirms

If you have a chance to pass a law that would reduce by almost half the chance that a kid would be injured in a car accident, how quickly would you ask, “where do I …

Food allergies aren’t funny, but here’s a SWAT for a bill that’s a joke
Thursday, 8 Oct, 2009 – 20:13 | Comments Off
Food allergies aren’t funny, but here’s a SWAT for a bill that’s a joke

You have a nasty habit of speeding. You know your break-neck tendencies put others’ lives in danger, but you do it anyway.
But then along comes a proposal that would pay you to not speed. Sounds …

It’s not the harried kids. It’s the frazzled parents
Monday, 21 Sep, 2009 – 21:55 | Comments Off
It’s not the harried kids. It’s the frazzled parents

I have to admit that, other than what now appears to be a daily pool commitment, I’ve been living the easy life in the past few months since Big Guy’s busted wrist booted him out …

For those who needed proof, study links obesity and soda
Friday, 18 Sep, 2009 – 22:14 | 2 Comments
For those who needed proof, study links obesity and soda

I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime in the past 20 years soda became the new water.
It wasn’t that way when I was a kid. Growing up, we had soda on special occasions – …

The occasional benefits of frustrating delays
Friday, 28 Aug, 2009 – 15:40 | Comments Off
The occasional benefits of frustrating delays

Once in a while, procrastination is our friend.
Big Guy was due for a checkup on his busted wrist almost two weeks ago. But due to a series of delays, some my fault, he couldn’t get …

Do we have it backward when it comes to flu vaccine?
Sunday, 23 Aug, 2009 – 22:08 | One Comment
Do we have it backward when it comes to flu vaccine?

For years, the Centers for Disease Control recommendations for who should have priority for flu vaccines have been pretty much the same:
Children, pregnant women, the elderly, people with certain chronic diseases and health-care workers. The …

Go ahead, pick on the short kids. They can take it
Wednesday, 19 Aug, 2009 – 21:10 | Comments Off
Go ahead, pick on the short kids. They can take it

Gen.  Bus Stop called a cease fire long enough Friday morning to size up Big Guy.
The general – a second-grader who’s husky, but not quite chubby – clearly was in charge the battalion of stick-gun …

Clinical trials and kids a tough call
Tuesday, 18 Aug, 2009 – 20:00 | Comments Off
Clinical trials and kids a tough call

No how, no way, I thought when I saw the news that the National Institutes of Health was about to begin clinical trials of the swine flu vaccine in children.
Oh, I understand that it’s necessary …

Babies at 50? Well, it’s not for me, but …
Friday, 17 Jul, 2009 – 22:11 | 13 Comments
Babies at 50? Well, it’s not for me, but …

I read about the Spanish woman who gave birth to twins three years ago at age 66, and I cringed.
I cringed again this week when I read that she’d died, leaving behind two toddler boys.
Yet, …

Obesity problems aren’t hidden but they might be unseen
Tuesday, 30 Jun, 2009 – 0:02 | 4 Comments
Obesity problems aren’t hidden but they might be unseen

The eyes and the brain are amazing organs, allowing us to see and interpret the world around us.
Or, in some cases, letting us delude ourselves into believing we’re seeing something different from objective reality.
That’s what …

Keep looking back – at least a little longer in car seats
Monday, 15 Jun, 2009 – 20:00 | 9 Comments
Keep looking back – at least a little longer in car seats

Now I know how one of my sisters-in-law felt when I asked her not to turn baby Big Guy on his belly while he slept.
Her youngest child was only 6, and her pediatrician always had …

Signs of a sane approach to kids’ cold medicine
Friday, 5 Jun, 2009 – 19:55 | Comments Off
Signs of a sane approach to kids’ cold medicine

After two winters of tumult as the Food and Drug Administration danced the children’s cold-medicine hokey-pokey, finally there’s a report with a conclusion other than recall it all.
Researchers in Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin …

Even if children don’t listen, that doesn’t mean we quit talking
Wednesday, 3 Jun, 2009 – 20:03 | Comments Off
Even if children don’t listen, that doesn’t mean we quit talking

Forget the fruits and veggies and go ahead and binge on the burgers. You’ll eventually have to turn your kids loose on the world anyway, where their friends, television and school might be a bigger …

Suck it up, kid. It’s just 400 miles.
Saturday, 9 May, 2009 – 0:58 | One Comment
Suck it up, kid. It’s just 400 miles.

Proof positive health-insurance executives are living on a different planet from the rest of us:
A company that covers federal workers tells a 5-year-old Reno girl with leukemia that she’ll have to have chemotherapy in Oakland. …

Top 5 ways to avoid swine flu
Friday, 1 May, 2009 – 13:09 | Comments Off

1. If you’re having a hot flash, don’t assume it’s because you’re in your 50s. Have your son take you to the emergency room. You might have swine flu.
2. If you sneeze, forget the fact …

Here’s the 411: On swine flu
Thursday, 30 Apr, 2009 – 12:33 | Comments Off

It’s a few years late and a little awkward, but the government is making steady progress on catching up with the rest of teh interwebs in providing timely information.
The latest effort, which involves the Centers …

Swine flu – um, I guess I should be worried
Tuesday, 28 Apr, 2009 – 9:55 | Comments Off
Swine flu – um, I guess I should be worried

If the reporter had had a camera and not just a micrcophone, he might have been taking his life into his hands by cornering a mom traveling alone with two rambunctious guys.
As it were, we’d …

Mom’s having a crappy day, kids. Here, have some Oreos
Wednesday, 8 Apr, 2009 – 0:51 | 4 Comments
Mom’s having a crappy day, kids. Here, have some Oreos

Frustrated with the world? Stressed by the times we live in? Fine, but don’t take it out on your kids by feeding them junk.
According to the latest research from the It’s All Mom’s Fault Department, …

Epiblogue: The curious case of the generic drug that’s not
Wednesday, 1 Apr, 2009 – 12:38 | One Comment
Epiblogue: The curious case of the generic drug that’s not

When we last left Pulmicort, the asthma medicine popular for children was about to become a generic after Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals got permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to produce it. British …

Add an inhaler to that TIVO package
Wednesday, 11 Mar, 2009 – 23:04 | Comments Off
Add an inhaler to that TIVO package

Funny how a study that tells us what we largely already know – sitting around can hurt your health – can trigger such skepticism.
That’s how some have reacted to a British Medical Association journal article …

Turn down that noise! Huh?
Monday, 23 Feb, 2009 – 0:12 | 2 Comments
Turn down that noise! Huh?

The only surprising thing about a new University of Colorado, Boulder study is that who ever wrote the press release thought it was surprising.
“New iPod Listening Study Shows Surprising Behavior of Teens,” the headline reads.
The …

Crossing my fingers for Nadya Suleman
Saturday, 14 Feb, 2009 – 23:42 | One Comment
Crossing my fingers for Nadya Suleman

I have never rooted so hard for anyone to win the lottery – or to get a $2 million interview deal – as I am for Nadya Suleman.
Face it, this struggling mother of 14 is …

A marketing ploy that’s partly true: Eat our pizza, but less of it
Saturday, 7 Feb, 2009 – 10:51 | Comments Off
A marketing ploy that’s partly true: Eat our pizza, but less of it

Here’s strange advice from an executive with a fast-food chain: Don’t pig out on our food.
That’s in essences what  Papa John’s founder John Schnatter said in an interview this week.
“Pizza’s actually healthy for you if …

And baby makes 14 – I don’t get it
Friday, 30 Jan, 2009 – 23:03 | 4 Comments
And baby makes 14 – I don’t get it

I understand having one baby and stopping right there.
We almost did just that because of my age – 39 – when Big Guy was born. There were many who questioned our decision, in fact, when …

Everything I need to know about SCHIP I learned from a mechanic
Thursday, 15 Jan, 2009 – 0:36 | Comments Off
Everything I need to know about SCHIP I learned from a mechanic

I don’t know which scared me more the day I swerved my Ford Escort off the freeway just in time to see the engine ignite: The flames shooting from the hood or my stepdad’s predictable …

Fudge a factor in the obesity epidemic – and not just the kind on ice cream
Sunday, 4 Jan, 2009 – 23:44 | 4 Comments
Fudge a factor in the obesity epidemic – and not just the kind on ice cream

How to kid yourself about the obesity epidemic without even trying:

Say “it’s just baby fat” as the baby approaches kindergarten.
Pretend that Pull-Ups made for kids up to 125 pounds are for potty-training teens.
Believe a pediatrician …

Looking for unhealthy teens? Follow the fast-food chain
Friday, 26 Dec, 2008 – 0:54 | Comments Off
Looking for unhealthy teens? Follow the fast-food chain

Other than what people who are so Pepsi-addicted they feed it to babies in bottles sneak to them behind my back and a shared diet Sierra Mist once a week with popcorn, the guys don’t …

When faced with competition, suddenly drug makers can produce generics
Wednesday, 19 Nov, 2008 – 14:02 | 2 Comments
When faced with competition, suddenly drug makers can produce generics

Once in a while, I’ll run across something so confusing I’m not sure who the good guys are.
Like this morning when I saw that the Food and Drug Administration has approved a generic version of …

$218B costs doesn’t include human toll of diabetes
Tuesday, 18 Nov, 2008 – 13:44 | Comments Off
$218B costs doesn’t include human toll of diabetes

Insulin and pills, amputations and hospitalizations, lost productivity, disability and early retirement: It all adds up to a $218 billion annual cost of diabetes in the United States, according to a study …