Parents •

Children with Younger Siblings Are Healthier

March 12, 2016 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

"younger siblings help you not become obese"

Kids with younger siblings are less likely to have weight problems

STATES CHRONICLE – After having one child, some parents are having trouble deciding whether the child should have a sibling or not. According to a new study, it seems that children who have younger brothers or sisters might benefit from this, being less likely to become obese.

However, there is a catch. You should have a sibling by the time you have to go to school. Apparently, after you start first grade, the odds of you having health problems increase even if you get a sibling. The findings of the study suggest that children who start school while still being an only child are three times more likely to experience weight issues.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that being an only child will make you become obese. What the study does suggest is that having a second child in the family makes parents revisit some of their lifestyle choices, which leads to a healthy family overall.

Another thing that happens when a younger child comes into the family is that the elder is going to become more active, and he or she will be less likely to become sedentary. For example, they will play with their sibling instead of watching TV.

Moreover, mealtimes and eating habits might also change. Parents who have only one child tend to over-focus on that child’s diet, and they can either be too restrictive with the kid’s diet or try to pressure them into eating more than they actually need.

Once the second child comes into the family, the parents’ attention gets divided, and they also tend to get more relaxed about the children’s eating habits, without restricting them too much. This will allow the older child to regulate their own eating behavior which should lead to a healthy weight.

The study included 697 American children followed from birth and until the age of 6. The findings showed that, reaching this age, children without siblings were a lot more likely than the others to have a higher weight.

However, the study is quite limited as it did not include data on different life events such as job loss, divorce or move, which are believed to be factors worth taking into consideration when discussing the risk of obesity in a child.

Although there isn’t enough information to understand why children with siblings have lower chances of becoming obese, the study does show some interesting facts and further research should be done to find out more about this phenomenon.

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Special Infant Formulas Have No Effect on Allergies

March 9, 2016 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

Hydrolyzed formulas might not protect against allergies after all

STATES CHRONICLE – Products get verified and have to pass many tests and meet many requirements, but there are still many labels out there that try to trick us. Some of them don’t mention the risks of consuming that said product, and others boast having effects they don’t actually have.

Such products can often be dangerous, and when it comes to the ones directed at children, the problem becomes even more concerning. There are several infant formulas claiming they protect kids from autoimmune disorders such as allergies, asthma or type 1 diabetes.

Learning that these formulas could protect their infant, many parents turn to them as alternatives. However, the latest research shows the “hydrolyzed” formulas don’t really have a protective role.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers at the Imperial College London. Despite the belief that hydrolyzed formula should be consumed by infants with a family history of allergies, the scientists didn’t manage to find the benefits of such formulas.

In other words, although the FDA approves of hydrolyzed formulas, it appears that data supporting these formulas is inconclusive and not compelling. And the FDA is not the only organization supporting these types of formula, but also agencies in Europe and Australia share their view.

In order to see whether hydrolyzed formulas work or not, the researchers put together data from 37 studies which included over 19,000 subjects. The studies were conducted from 1946 to 2015. It turned out that the infants fed with hydrolyzed milk did not show a lower risk of allergies, asthma or type 1 diabetes in comparison with the infants who consumes standard formula or human breast milk.

Since it appears that hydrolyzed cow milk does not fulfill its supposed role of protection against allergies and autoimmune disorders, it is recommended that both scientists and the FDA revisit the guidelines which made them support this type of formula in the past.

However, the formulas showed no side-effects, so they can be safely used in the future, except parents shouldn’t expect their children to be protected from allergies.

All in all, no matter how good formulas can be and how much they can offer, they will never compare to the advantages that breast milk brings. Therefore, mothers should take into consideration breastfeeding and that for as long as possible.

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Parents think before yelling at your kids, caution scientists

September 5, 2013 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

Parents often yell, scold and shout at their children in an apparent attempt to make them learn good habits. But scientists caution against such behavior. A new US study has found that shouting and yelling at teenagers could be actually increasing kids’ risk of depression and troubled behavior.

The study states even if parents enjoyed a close relationship with their son or daughter, harsh verbal discipline adopted by the parents hardly yield any fruit. Such behaviour was found to have a dramatic impact on emotional development of the teenagers.

Such behaviours of the parents land up children making feel humiliated and frustrated.

Study

Scientists examined 976 two-parent families in the US, majority of which were middle-class. They found that many shifted from physical to verbal discipline as their children entered adolescence.

It was discovered that the parents use more severe forms of harsh verbal discipline in most of the houses.

The researchers found if parents use such punishment when their child is 13, the teenager was more likely to have behavioural or emotional problems later.

Children in the age group 13-14 suffered more depressive symptoms than children who were not disciplined in this manner. They were also more likely to have conduct problems such as misbehaving at school, lying, stealing, or fighting, the researchers stressed.
Significantly, the researchers also found that parental warmth, love, emotional support, and affection for their adolescents failed to lessen the effects of the verbal discipline. The sense that parents are scolding their child for their own good does not mitigate the damage inflicted. Neither does the strength of the parent-child bond.

“This is one of the first studies to indicate that parents’ harsh verbal discipline is damaging to the developing adolescent,” said lead researcher Ming-Te Wang, assistant professor of psychology in education at the University of Pittsburgh.

The study was published in the journal Child Development.

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