Older Dads

NYT: Older Fathers Linked to Lower I.Q. Scores

Regardless of their mothers’ ages, children whose fathers were 50 years old had lower scores on all tests, except those assessing physical coordination, than those whose fathers were 20, the researchers found. And the older the fathers, the more likely the children were to have lower scores, they found.

By contrast, children with older mothers generally performed higher on the cognitive measures, a finding in line with most other studies, suggesting that these children may benefit from the more nurturing home environments associated with the generally higher income and education levels of older mothers, researchers said.

Imagination And Appetite

MSNBC: Making veggies cool for kids - Study: Children ate twice as many veggies if they were given a funny name

Kids Like Structure

One of the things I admire about the Montessori method is that children learn on their own but within a structure that teaches them to complete one task before starting another.

New research points to the advantages of continuing that structure in the home.

See Slate: Messy House, Messy Minds: The connections among kids, reading, and an orderly home.

Breaking News - Watching TV Makes Kids Fat

Yes, there are studies about this. Still. The correlation appears to be one extra kilogram of body weight for each additional hour of television viewing.

See PhysOrg: Children who watch more TV are fatter

Nagging Your Kids About Food: You May Be Able To Affect Quality But Not Quantity

See EconLog: Food and the Family: Weighing the Power of Culinary Nagging

Nature can account for all of the family resembance in the Body Mass Index; nurture doesn't matter at all

Autism And Vaccines Are Not Correlated

MSNBC: Court says vaccine not to blame for autism

TimesOnline: MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism

For The Parents - Kids And Marriage Quality

NYT: Till Children Do Us Part

More than 25 separate studies have established that marital quality drops, often quite steeply, after the transition to parenthood.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus

RSV is quite common in children under two. Know the symptoms and don't let your pediatrician try to talk you into allergy and asthma medications. However, if your child is wheezing get them to a hospital.

See: More children need medical help for RSV than previously known

More than 2 million children with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) are seen in hospitals, emergency rooms and doctors' offices in the United States every year -- many more than doctors know. In fact, only 3 percent of children with RSV in an outpatient setting actually receive a diagnosis of RSV infection.

After a couple of emergency room visits for RSV I developed this strategy to stop wheezing: make sure the child naps every day, even if that means walking for four hours and 20 miles; and lower any fever as soon as possible as I have a hunch the body's fever response is involved in constricting the esophageal lining leading to the wheezing which leads to low oxygen levels in the blood.

Little Things Moms-to-Be Can Do

Visit farms regularly, get plenty of sunlight (or Vitamin D), and have a stimulating environment (seems Lamarckian).

See:
SciDaily: Farm Moms May Help Children Beat Allergies

PhysOrg: Sun In Pregnancy Builds Stronger Bones For Baby

TechReview: A Comeback for Lamarckian Evolution? Two new studies show that the effects of a mother's early environment can be passed on to the next generation.

Don't Prescribe Steroids For Wheezing

Via MSNBC: Steroids do not help wheezing kids, studies say

Revisiting The Hygiene Hypothesis

NYT: Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You

Dr. Ruebush deplores the current fetish for the hundreds of antibacterial products that convey a false sense of security and may actually foster the development of antibiotic-resistant, disease-causing bacteria. Plain soap and water are all that are needed to become clean, she noted.

“I certainly recommend washing your hands after using the bathroom, before eating, after changing a diaper, before and after handling food,” and whenever they’re visibly soiled, she wrote. When no running water is available and cleaning hands is essential, she suggests an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Dr. Weinstock goes even further. “Children should be allowed to go barefoot in the dirt, play in the dirt, and not have to wash their hands when they come in to eat,” he said. He and Dr. Elliott pointed out that children who grow up on farms and are frequently exposed to worms and other organisms from farm animals are much less likely to develop allergies and autoimmune diseases.

Also helpful, he said, is to “let kids have two dogs and a cat,” which will expose them to intestinal worms that can promote a healthy immune system.

First, Do No Harm

Don't let grandma rub Vicks on children under two.

See MSNBC: There’s the rub: Vicks might make kids sicker

College Admissions Confessions

Admissions officers are just as whimsical as anyone else. See the DailyBeast: Dirty Secrets of College Admissions

But in reading it I thought how is it any different in how some students pick a school? I picked my college because I liked their colors.

That Teenage Feeling

USNews: How to Deploy the Amazing Power of the Teen Brain

...experts now are realizing that the popular parental response—to coddle teens in an attempt to shield them from every harm—actually may be counterproductive.

This is why I call my parenting style "boundaries for failure".

Another Reason To Breast Feed

Better lung function later in life.

See MSNBC: Better lungs for kids fed from breast, not bottle

"The physical exercise caused by suckling at the breast — about six times daily on average for more than 4 months — may result in increased lung capacity and increased airflow in breast-fed children compared with bottle-fed children," Dr. Ikechukwu U. Ogbuanu

Pregnancy And Caffeine

Study in mice indicates potential problems with two cups of coffee worth of caffeine.

See: A Low Dose Of Caffeine When Pregnant May Damage The Heart Of Offspring For A Lifetime

Reminds Me Of The Candy Bar In The Pool Scene From Caddyshack

Fear of nuts creating hysteria of epidemic proportions

These extreme measures to reduce exposure to nuts are fuelling anxiety in parents, leading to more sensitisation, and creating the very epidemic they are designed to stop. A recent study has suggested that early exposure to peanuts actually reduces, rather than increases the risk of allergy.

Free Range Kids, Not Open Range

Via NPR: Texas Boy Hits Toy Mother Lode

A 4-year-old boy in Beaumont, Texas, apparently couldn't wait for Christmas. He unlocked a door at his home around 3 a.m. and walked into the street. He reached the the Family Dollar discount store on the other side and started trying doors. The store was closed, but somebody had left one door unlocked — which explains why, when police responded to the silent alarm, they discovered the boy eager to show them all his new toys.

More Boys Born After Wars

Apparently due to a "mystery" gene.

See: Boy Or Girl? It's In The Father's Genes

As the odds were in favour of men with more sons seeing a son return from the war, those sons were more likely to father boys themselves because they inherited that tendency from their fathers. In contrast, men with more daughters may have lost their only sons in the war and those sons would have been more likely to father girls. This would explain why the men that survived the war were more likely to have male children, which resulted in the boy-baby boom.

Preterm Infants And SIDS

A new hypothesis links the two via low blood pressure.

See: SIDS link: Low blood pressure in preterm infants