Rice cereal has been the first solid food fed to babies for 50 years and it may be one of the first worries for parents. Alan Greene, a Stanford University pediatrician/nutrition researcher, recommends pureed fruits and vegetables mixed with whole grains instead. According to Greene, white rice is 94% starch. Brown rice is 25% protein, essential fats and minerals. Because white rice cereal is high in calories and made of processed white flour, he thinks it’s like feeding babies a spoonful of sugar and predisposes them to childhood obesity. However, Gerber, the biggest seller of white rice cereal in the U.S., disagrees. To Gerber this is a “white lie”.
Children not getting enough sleep is something else for parents to worry about. In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers monitored the sleep of 308 children ages 4-10. They found children who slept the least had 4 times the risk of being obese and having blood markers indicating the beginning of conditions like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. However, sleep-deprived children who caught up on their sleep on weekends had only 3 times the risk. Sleep recommendations are 10-12 hours for preschoolers and 9+ for school-age children – sleep most parents only dream about.
Children who have tonsillectomies tend to gain weight after the surgery and are likelier to become overweight compared to children who don’t have their tonsils removed. In research published in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, scientists analyzed data from 9 studies spanning 40 years. They looked at the weight of 795 children ages 0-18 before tonsillectomy and up to 8 years after. In an analysis of 249 children 50%-75% gained weight after surgery. Because tonsillectomy is the most common, major operation in childhood – 500,000 yearly in the U.S. – tonsillectomy is another worry for 1,000,000 U.S. parents yearly.
However, there seems to be one thing parents don’t have to worry about. Texting abbreviations won’t ruin their children’s spelling. Studies done at the University of Alberta in Canada and at Coventry University in the United Kingdom found texting didn’t interfere with language development. In fact, a study published in the British Journal of Psychology showed texting contributed to spelling ability. It seems new forms of communication have always been criticized. When postcards were new in the early 1900’s, critics thought letter writing was doomed. The critics didn’t know they’d have e-mail to worry about in the early 1980’s.
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