Food with Cartoon Characters

What happens when healthy food is labeled with a cartoon character? Kids seem to like it more! I have seen this to be true with my kids, except when it comes to vegetables. They may be more eager to try raw carrots if Sponge Bob is on the front, but they still say "gross" and spit them out after the first bite. :( It is so aggravating. They do, however, get excited when their food has a cartoon character on it. I think it's a good idea to put them on healthy food.

FROM NBC: The mere image of a favorite cartoon character may make kids' mouths water! A new study from the University of Pennsylvania shows children think food tastes better when the food's label and packaging has a cartoon character on it. Researchers showed 80 kids between the ages of 4 and 6 two different boxes of the same cereal. Kids said they liked the cereal more when the boxes came with cartoon characters. This study is published in the journal "Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine."

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Skin Dimensions SB products, exclusive to Soderstrom Skin Institute, are manufactured with Pharmaceutical-Grade ingredients. In addition to being "Feel Good Products," they contain unique and innovative ingredients in concentrations that can assist you in the achievement of your own personal skin care objectives. This product line contains higher percentages of Glycolic, Vitamin A, C, E, Co-Q10, green tea, than what you can purchase over the counter.

Local Baby Cuddlers

I had quite a few people ask me if we have local(Central Illinois) "baby cuddlers." The volunteers go into the NICU or nursery at the hospital and help hold and swaddle sick babies. Research shows touch increases the chances of a good outcome, but the nurses cannot hold all the babies all the time.

If you are interested in becoming a baby cuddler at Methodist Medical Center call Tammy Speck at (309) 671-8242.

If you are interested in becoming a baby cuddler at OSF St. Francis Medical Center, go to ww.osfsaintfrancis.org and click on Volunteer Services. In order to be considered for this role, you must have volunteered at OSF for a time-per the request of NICU.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Skin Dimensions SB products, exclusive to Soderstrom Skin Institute, are manufactured with Pharmaceutical-Grade ingredients. In addition to being "Feel Good Products," they contain unique and innovative ingredients in concentrations that can assist you in the achievement of your own personal skin care objectives. This product line contains higher percentages of Glycolic, Vitamin A, C, E, Co-Q10, green tea, than what you can purchase over the counter.

Dangers of Fake jewelry

Have you ever seen a girl wearing a necklace lift it up and put it in her mouth? I know I've don it. Well, if the necklace is a cheap one, it might contain harmful chemicals. You might want to limit your little girl's jewelry to just the pieces that are real or make sure they don't contain things like cadmium and lead. It is very common for inexpensive jewelry to be laced with the stuff and if your little girl decides to put it in her mouth, watch out. The side effects are listed below in this ABC article.

FROM ABC: Some of that cheap children's jewelry imported from china may be contaminated with cadmium. It's a soft bluish-white metal that's extremely toxic. If ingested, cadmium can cause kidney, bone, lung and liver disease.

An Ashland University Study measured the amount of cadmium in 69 pieces of inexpensive jewelry--selling for only about 5 dollars each--primarily from China. If placed in the mouth or swallowed, some of them could release up to 100 times the recommended maximum limit for cadmium.

The findings support earlier concerns about the dangers posed by cadmium in children's jewelry, especially those made in China. You can help children be safe while being fashionable by choosing cadmium-free jewelry made in America.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Skin Dimensions SB products, exclusive to Soderstrom Skin Institute, are manufactured with Pharmaceutical-Grade ingredients. In addition to being "Feel Good Products," they contain unique and innovative ingredients in concentrations that can assist you in the achievement of your own personal skin care objectives. This product line contains higher percentages of Glycolic, Vitamin A, C, E, Co-Q10, green tea, than what you can purchase over the counter.

Shopping Cart Germs

Do you grab those antibacterial wipes to clean your shopping cart? I do when I have the baby with me and sometimes when I am there by myself (which isn't often.) I also have one of those shopping cart covers(that I never seem to remember to bring in.)

I just realized something important while reading this story. I wipe off the handle of the cart and around the area where the child sits. I don't think I have ever wiped down the inside of the cart. I bet they have never been cleaned. Yuck! And According to this research, that yuck could make you or your kids really sick. Do you wipe down your cart?

FROM NBC: Watch where you put the fresh produce -- there's a good chance your shopping cart has fecal bacteria on it! Researchers from the University of Arizona swabbed 85 shopping cart handles in four states and analyzed them. Many had e. coli and other bacteria. Disinfecting wipes are now offered at many stores and microbiologists say using them is the best way to sanitize shopping carts.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Skin Dimensions SB products, exclusive to Soderstrom Skin Institute, are manufactured with Pharmaceutical-Grade ingredients. In addition to being "Feel Good Products," they contain unique and innovative ingredients in concentrations that can assist you in the achievement of your own personal skin care objectives. This product line contains higher percentages of Glycolic, Vitamin A, C, E, Co-Q10, green tea, than what you can purchase over the counter.

Balancing Kid's Thumb Time

This is such a battle at our house. I hate trying to pry my kids away from a Wii or computer game. I need to set some serious rules because when I just decide it has been long enough-as most of you know-that causes problems. The kids do much better when I set the timer. I do think it's important for kids to stay very to date with technology. I do not think it should be limited too much. They are learning skills that will benefit them. It's not just a waste of time IMHO. Obviously, they can get too much of it and I think it's really hard to balance that. How do you do it?

FROM NBC: Technology has made life a lot more convenient, but could it be holding back your child's development? Some teachers say when kids spend time on the computer, watching television or playing video games they're not out exploring and socializing activities that build basic skills.

You won't find any computers or television sets in Dana Fanning's pre-K class at St. Michael's school. You will find a lot of activities building motor skills. It started when the children came in and they started not being able to hold their pens or their markers or their pencils correctly. The cause? Fanning says it's too much technology, computers ipods and video games.

Dana Fanning/Teacher: "Our thumbs are very strong because we're using our thumbs a lot to do things and then we have our hand here but it doesn't help us with our fine motor to hold the pencil and to actually write." Four years ago Fanning revamped her entire curriculum to include special "games" building motor skills, threading yarn, balancing on balls and building planes.

Even this chalkboard is part of Fanning's curriculum. She says the friction of the chalk against the board helps build dexterity and muscle memory that will later help them hold pencils and learn to write- something a white board doesn't do." But the problem goes even further: socialization skills and creativity. "They're not out playing with kids in the neighborhood. They're sitting in front of the TV playing games."

Crista Plant at Longfellow Elementary did her graduate studies on children's sleep patterns and says technology is costing kids hours of sleep.

Crista Plant/Teacher: "It's huge it affects the kids all around it affects them academically it affects them socially it affects behaviorally it affects them all over because they're lacking sleep because they're staying up playing video games." And as more kids start schooling without these basic skills... teachers have to dial back their lessons.

"We are needing to address those first before we can push through the academics." "They just don't have the skills that we all took for granted."

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Skin Dimensions SB products, exclusive to Soderstrom Skin Institute, are manufactured with Pharmaceutical-Grade ingredients. In addition to being "Feel Good Products," they contain unique and innovative ingredients in concentrations that can assist you in the achievement of your own personal skin care objectives. This product line contains higher percentages of Glycolic, Vitamin A, C, E, Co-Q10, green tea, than what you can purchase over the counter.

Children with Mental Illness

Maybe I am more aware of kids having mental and physical issues because I meet so many families dealing with these issues, but I hope I wouldn't judge a parent because their child is acting up. I would feel bad for them because I have been there! I can totally relate to being embarrassed and frustrated with my kids. I encourage you not to look down on a parent when a child is acting up. Instead, do what you can to help-even if that just means making sure your kids aren't staring. I feel really sad for the mom in this article.

FROM NBC: We tend to think of mental illness as an adult problem, but the truth is many children are falling victim. About one in five kids suffers from a mental disorder, but the symptoms are often missed or mistaken for something else. The terrible twos took on new meaning for some parents, whose toddler seemed out of control.

Heather Johnson, Mom:"He was the one who would go 4, 5 days no sleep...absolutely none." His older brother and sister, also prone to fits of rage. Eddie Johnson, Father: "A lot worse than a normal child throwing a fit, and it would last for hours and hours and hours." Heather Johnson, Mom: "The 8-year old can go anywhere from punching a hole in the wall, beating up her brothers and sisters." And nothing the parents did, from punishing the kids to rewarding them seemed to help until they turned to this man.

Dr. Mwenda Yasa is a psychiatrist. He diagnosed all three children with bipolar disorder, once thought to affect only adults. Dr. Mwenda Yasa, psychiatrist: "What we're finding now is mental illness can be sporadic. It can happen to anybody, in any of us. It doesn't even have to have the genes for it." It's a growing awareness that even young children can suffer depression, anxiety, even schizophrenia.

Melissa Henry, Mom: "I asked if he could be hospitalized at 3 years old." Melissa Henry has been dealing with her son's mental illness since he was a baby. While other children learned to crawl and explore, Melissa Henry, Mother:" "He wanted to throw things at people, and he wanted to hit them."

As Christopher got bigger, so did his aggression, even hurting family pets. Melissa Henry, Mother: "Yeah, we had a hermit crab, and he pulled it out of the shell and cut it into about 16 pieces." What she suspected was antisocial, doctors and teachers often blamed on bad parenting. Now at the age of 8 and under the care of Dr. Yasa, Christopher has been hospitalized since November for psychotic behavior. Dr. Mwenda Yasa, Psychiatrist: "He had done things like almost run in front of cars, you know verbalizing things about wanting to harm himself, wanted to kill his mom. Things you don't hear from an 8 year old boy."

"Clearly that kind of violent behavior is a warning sign the child needs professional help, but other red flags are easily overlooked, afterall, every kid acts withdrawn from time to time or throws a fit. When is that considered a symptom of mental illness." Experts say look for behavior that's unusually intense or frequent, inappropriate for a child's age, and affecting his school work and friendships. In the case of the Johnsons, all three children were put on daily medication.

That was two years ago. Dr. Mwenda Yasa, Psychiatrist: "The youngest one wasn't even talking. now he's talking and more social. she's doing a lot better in school, able to get good grades." But using drugs on kids is still controversial. for these parents, it was a lifesaver. Heather Johnson, Mom: "We went from not being able to go out in public at whatsoever to being able to go out in public now." Eddie Johnson, Father: "It's not going to get better on its own. they don't outgrow it. it's a lifetime deal." Doctors say the earlier mental illness sets in, the worse its prognosis.

As for Christopher Henry, there's no word when he'll get to come home again.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Skin Dimensions SB products, exclusive to Soderstrom Skin Institute, are manufactured with Pharmaceutical-Grade ingredients. In addition to being "Feel Good Products," they contain unique and innovative ingredients in concentrations that can assist you in the achievement of your own personal skin care objectives. This product line contains higher percentages of Glycolic, Vitamin A, C, E, Co-Q10, green tea, than what you can purchase over the counter.