Stars 4 Kidz

Archive for May, 2010

As a chiropractor for over twenty years, naturally many people have come to me as patients. And, over the course of their treatment, in addition to their sharing general health and fitness concerns with me, my patients often share their personal concerns for family, especially their children. What I’ve heard, of course, from every parent, rich or poor, is their concern about the future of their children and how well they will do in the world. In recent years, with both parents needing to work to make ends meet, those concerns have taken on more intensity because, of necessity, a larger portion of child care is being “outsourced.” The quality of child care has been a primary concern for many reasons. And now, a new study has found that the effects of early child care may be more even more long-lasting than commonly believed.

According to Deborah Lowe Vandell, PhD, the study leader, as well as the professor and chair of education at the University of California, Irvine, at fifteen years of age teens who had high-quality child care in their early years performed better on academic and cognitive tests than did other teens, and they had fewer adolescent behavior problems.

It is apparent that the effects of early child care don’t just “fade away.”  Before you place your child in a day care situation, remember that what your children experience today, e.g., a nurturing, creative environment, will make a difference in their success in life later on, not only as adults, but in their teens years as well.

Technorati Tags: day care study, early childhood education

Most of us, whether we are medical doctors, chiropractors, other health professionals, or laypeople know by now that one in three US children are obese. But, did you also know that studies have found that nearly one in five children becomes overweight or obese by age 6, and that more than half of obese children become overweight before the age of 2? And, if those statistics don’t shock you, try this: Nearly 6 percent of infants younger than six months are overweight today, up from 3.4 percent between 1980 and 2001. The “chubby baby” that, back in the day, epitomized good health (as opposed to malnutrition) is now a dangerous sign that childhood obesity is happening “from the start.”

First lady Michelle Obama, our country’s children’s health advocate, who released 70 goals as part of the government’s campaign against childhood obesity, said that panel found that women could help reduce childhood obesity by 1) maintaining a healthy weight when they become pregnant and 2) by breast-feeding their babies. “For the first time, the nation will have goals, benchmarks and measureable outcomes that will help us tackle the childhood obesity epidemic one child, one family and one community at a time,” Mrs. Obama said.

Obese and overweight children are at higher risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other illnesses, and some public health experts say, if this trend isn’t remedied, children today may live shorter lives than their parents. Mrs. Obama said that the goal is to solve the problem so babies born today will come of age at a healthy weight. Of course, there’s much to be done, but the problem is urgent indeed. And, though over dozen federal agencies, including the Education, Agriculture, Health, Interior and Transportation departments, participated in the Childhood Obesity Task Force, it holds an “advisory only” position.

We can all become children’s health advocates by writing to our government representatives and letting them know that that we want action, in addition to advice, when it comes to the health of our country’s children, such as the proactive step that Congress has taken to begin the process of updating the guidelines for foods served in schools, including what is offered by vending machines.

Technorati Tags: breastfeeding, childhood obesity, Childhood Obesity Task Force, childrens health