Kids who suck their thumbs

FROM NBC: Kids who suck their thumbs or use a pacifier for more than three years may end up with speech problems. The new study is based on observations of 128 preschoolers in Chile. researchers there say those who used the paci or sucked their thumbs past their third birthday were three times more likely to have a speech disorder. While the pacifier can be beneficial by reducing the risk for SIDS in young infants, many pediatricians recommend weaning after age one.

I have to say from experience it is not easy to take away a pacifier at one year old. I don't wish that on anyone. My new baby is taking the Binkie sometimes. I am hoping he doesn't get addicted! I try not to give it to him that often.

Here's a story we ran last year about the effects of pacifier sucking! It can be bad!

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.

School Lunch Overhaul

I am hoping school lunches that are not nutritious do get an overhaul. It would be great to be able to send my kids to school without packing a lunch everyday. However, I do worry that if the food is healthy, but doesn't taste good they won't eat all day. Do you pack your kid's lunch? Is the hot lunch at your child's school healthy?

FROM NBC: More on kids and health: The prestigious Institute of Medicine recommended a big overhaul in this country's school lunch programs: way less salt, fat and calories; way more fruits and vegetables. And it doesn't stop there. lunch time in America's schools: with pizza, meatballs and chicken nuggets a regular on many menus, the Institute of Medicine today said it's time for a dietary make-over. (Mary Kay Fox/Institute of Medicine School Lunch Cmte) "Cutting down on sodium, moderating calories, while at the same time, encouraging the foods we're not eating enough of."

While the nation's schools serve lunch to 30-million kids, and breakfast to 10-million, the cafeteria standards haven't been updated in 14-years. The new recommendations call for school lunches to offer -2-and-a-half to 5 fruit servings each week. -up to 2-and-a-half servings of vegetables each week. -9-13 servings of of grain with at least half in whole grains. -skim milk. And in addition to minimum calorie suggestions, for the first time - age specific calorie ceilings too:

(Tom Costello/NBC News/Bethesda, MD) "But implementing all those ideas will likely mean school lunch programs will get more expensive. Since MORE whole grain wheats, more fruits and more vegetables will also mean more money."

The researchers want the USDA, which administers school lunch programs to help pick up the tab. School lunches started as a way to provide good meals for under-nourished children. But today, 17% of school kids are obese. In the Los Angeles unified school district, where the central kitchen prepares 650-thousand meals a day, they cut salt, sodas and switched to more fruits, veggies & whole grains 3 years ago.

(David Binkle/Los Angeles School District Deputy Food Svs Director) "We've really worked to ensure that the adoption of those elements are something that students like. Because if they don't like the food, it doesn't matter how healthy it is." If the USDA accepts the new recommendations, they could take 10 years to roll-out...by which time, most of today's school kids will have left school.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.

Do car seats really work?

Did anyone else see this report today on GMA? There's a new book out called "SuperFreakonomics" that says kids older than 2 are just as safe in a seat belt as they are in a car seat. I understand the crash test "stats," but I think it's really sending the wrong message to parents. Sometimes we just need to have common sense on these matters. There is no way my 2-year-old would sit still in a seat belt-not to mention it would fit across his face!

Here's the story. Let me know your thoughts!

FROM ABC: Child car seats save lives, right? Maybe not, according to the authors of a new book, "SuperFreakonomics," who argue that seat belts work just as well as car seats on children more than 2 years old. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old, and 8 to 14, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration .

The NHTSA says car seats reduce fatalities by 54 percent. But it draws the comparison with children sitting in cars unrestrained and not using a seat belt. A popular argument against using seat belts is that they do not fit kids properly. But "SuperFreakonomics" authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner claim that for children older than 2. there is no significant difference in the fatality rate between car seats and seat belts, 18.2 percent versus 18.1 percent respectively.

Levitt and Dubner commissioned their own crash test and found that for children 3 and 6 years old, seat belts work just as well as car seats. "We're not telling people not to wear them," Levitt told "Good Morning America." Only that car seats are no safer than seat belts, Levitt said. For 2-year-olds and younger, Levitt said definitely "do not throw out the car seats." "The problems are often being addressed by solutions that are often not the best solutions," Dubner said. "If safety is the primary concern, there are better options."

But critics say that Dubner and Levitt's claims are wrong and misleading. "It is simply false to suggest that seat belts are as good as car seats or booster seats at protecting young children in the event of a crash," Dr. Dennis Durbin at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said.

Durbin said that between 2000 and 2008 the number of children using car and booster seats have increased dramatically while the number of children killed in automobile crashes has declined by 45 percent.

Additionally, Kristy Arboghast, the director of engineering at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, said crash tests cannot measure certain injuries. "While crash tests serve a very important role in child restraint design, they only tell part of the story," Arboghast said. "The child crash test dummies don't have a way of presenting injuries to the belly. These are the second most common injury for children in seat belts."

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.

Nudity bad for kids?

My friend and I were talking the other day about when to stop letting our little boys see us naked. I try to avoid it with my oldest (6years.) If he happens to walk in while I am taking a shower, he usually asks me a question and walks back out. He doesn't seem to notice. If he does linger, I tell him I need privacy and he goes in the other room. I hate to lock the door, but I might have to resort to that. When did you stop letting your child see you naked? If your child is the same sex as you, do you still stop?

From MSNBC: MSNBC interviewed two psychologists to find out at what age you should stop letting your kids see you nude-especially kids of the opposite sex. The topic came about after Actress Hilary Swank said she sleeps in the nude and her boyfriend has a 6-year-old little boy. She says he doesn't even notice.

Dr. Laura Berman said, "It's something parents ask me all the time. Each family needs to decide an age that suits them." She says it is usually around 5-6-7 years old when a child starts to be uncomfortable with seeing their parents nude. She says the child may start giggling, acting uncomfortable and maybe even say "Ewe!" She says that's when it's time to make sure the child doesn't see you naked. She says if you let the behavior continue it could be setting a bad example about nudity.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.

Should Obese kids be taken away?

My first reaction is no! How could you take a kid away from his parents just because they taught him bad eating habits? But then again, if a parent is putting the child's life in danger... maybe someone should step in. Should feeding a child fried, fatty, sugary foods be treated the same as not feeding a child? Hmm... It still doesn't seem probable, but I can see both sides. A 555 pound child seems a bit ridiculous.

FROM TIME.COM: The latest case to make headlines concerns a Scottish couple who lost custody of two of their six children on the basis of what was, their lawyer claims, a failure to reduce the kids' weight following warnings from Scottish social services.

The couple lost their Oct. 14 appeal in a case that is far from clear-cut — representatives of Dundee City say they would never remove children "just because of a weight issue." But obesity appears to be the primary reason South Carolina mom Jerri Gray lost custody of her 14-year-old, 555-lb. son in May. She was arrested after missing a court date to examine whether she should retain custody after doctors had expressed concern about her son's weight to social services.

The boy is currently living with his aunt, and his mother is facing criminal child-neglect charges.

Should morbidly obese kids be taken away from their parents?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Are you having an Acne Emergency? Call Soderstrom Skin Institute at 674 – SKIN… we treat acne seriously. With over 35 years of experience, Soderstrom Skin Institute will provide a personalized program to help you get your acne under control. Untreated acne can result in permanent scarring. Don’t suffer any longer! Evening and weekend appointment are available and in most cases you’ll be seen within one week.