Sports Equipment For Back To School

Autumn means back to school, and the start of a whole new afterschool sports season for the kids.

That means we parents probably need to purchase new sporting equipment for kids, just like all the other back-to-school supplies we've been buying.

ShopWiki, though, could make it easier on you. It advertises itself as similar to Google for online shopping, so that it searches all the best deals on the Internet, not just the stores that pay for placement on the site. That means it's a source for a variety of sports gear, which includes what ShopWiki terms individual sports which covers such diverse activities as dance and inline skating.

The other thing I find really useful about ShopWiki is not only does it offer products, but it provides information on the different categories through its online buying guide.

And, of course, buying over the Web provides the convenience of anytime shopping, and having all of that gear delivered straight to your door.

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Children With Asthma More Vulnerable to H1N1 Virus

Nearly a dozen 7th graders with asthma were welcomed along with other classmates back to school yesterday by a special guest who had a message for them about staying healthy -- Kathleen Sebelius, 21st secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Secretary Sebelius met with students and their parents at Thurgood Marshall Elementary, one of 16 schools in Philadelphia that partners with the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN) program partners to help students better manage their asthma. She talked about the importance of education and creating healthy habits to avoid missing school.

"Nothing is more important than keeping our children healthy, in school and ready to learn as we start the new school year," says Dr. Floyd Malveaux, executive director of MCAN and former dean of the College of Medicine at Howard University. "We applaud Secretary Sebelius for recognizing that staying healthy can be a challenge for students with asthma -- a factor that is even further complicated with the possibility of being exposed to the H1N1 virus, which can increase the severity of asthma symptoms, leading to possible hospitalizations."

During the meeting, Sebelius highlighted the work of the Philadelphia MCAN project as a model for inner-city childhood asthma management. Launched in 2005, the Philadelphia MCAN project has improved asthma outcomes for children and reduced school absenteeism by using a community-based approach that integrates families, community agencies, schools and health care providers to implement scientifically proven asthma interventions.

The Philadelphia program brings hope into communities that shoulder a disproportionate share of the childhood asthma burden. Screening conducted with the Philadelphia MCAN project in partnership with The School District of Philadelphia found that one out of four students in the West, Southwest, Olney, Logan and Germantown communities - target communities for the program -- have been diagnosed with asthma or have been admitted to the hospital for wheezing, compared to one out of ten nationwide.

The Philadelphia program provides children with asthma and their families access to three key services: Community Asthma Prevention Program (CAPP) classes that educate parents, other caretakers and children with asthma; CAPP home visits where community health workers help families eliminate or control allergens and irritants within the home; and Health Promotion Council (HPC) Link Line services that connect families to asthma care coordinators.

"The unique structure of our program allows us to bring multiple stakeholders to the table to create a successful team that can get children to care and services for better long-term and immediate asthma management," says Dr. Michael Rosenthal of Thomas Jefferson University and co-lead investigator of the Philadelphia MCAN program. "By collaborating with specific schools to identify children that have asthma, the Philadelphia MCAN project has armed school nurses with essential information to assist students who are at higher risk for complications with H1N1 and seasonal flu virus, allowing them to be better prepared to manage these children at school."

Nationally, MCAN, a non-profit organization funded by the Merck Company Foundation, provides funding to four other local programs that target low-income, urban populations with high rates of pediatric asthma in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Puerto Rico. The goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs and use the findings to develop model programs that can be replicated and tailored in communities across the country.

"The Philadelphia MCAN program has shown that we can help children manage their asthma and that means improved quality of life, significantly fewer trips to the ER or stays in the hospital, and best of all, more days in school," says Dr. Tyra Bryant-Stephens from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and co-lead investigator of the Philadelphia MCAN project. "Empowering caregivers and children with this knowledge has helped to greatly decrease the school days missed by children in Philadelphia, a segment of the nearly 13 million schools days missed each year by the millions of children nationwide that have been diagnosed with asthma."

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Millions Of US Children Low In Vitamin D

Seven out of 10 U.S. children have low levels of vitamin D, raising their risk of bone and heart disease, according to a study of over 6,000 children by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The striking findings suggest that vitamin D deficiency could place millions of children at risk for high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease. The study is published today in the online version of Pediatrics.

Vitamin D deficiency was thought to be relatively rare in the U.S. However, recent studies have documented this growing problem in adults. With cases of rickets (a bone disease in infants caused by low vitamin D levels) on the rise, it became clear that many children were also not getting enough of this essential vitamin, which is needed for healthy bone growth, among other biological processes.

"Several small studies had found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in specific populations of children, but no one had examined this issue nationwide," says study leader Dr. Michal Melamed, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and of epidemiology & population health at Einstein. Dr. Melamed has published extensively on the importance of vitamin D.

To learn more about the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (defined as less than 15 ng/mL of blood) and vitamin D insufficiency (15 to 29 ng/mL), the researchers analyzed data on more than 6,000 children, ages one to 21, collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001-2004.

The researchers found that 9 percent of the study sample, equivalent to 7.6 million children across the U.S., was vitamin D deficient, while another 61 percent, or 50.8 million, was vitamin D insufficient. Low vitamin D levels were especially common in children who were older, female, African-American, Mexican-American, obese, drank milk less than once a week, or spent more than four hours a day watching TV, playing videogames, or using computers.

The researchers also found that low levels of vitamin D deficiency were associated with higher parathyroid hormone levels, a marker of bone health, higher systolic blood pressure, and lower serum calcium and HDL (good) cholesterol levels, which are key risk factors for heart disease.

"We expected the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency would be high, but the magnitude of the problem nationwide was shocking," says lead author Dr. Juhi Kumar, M.D., a fellow in pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center, The University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Kumar will become an assistant professor of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College in August.

"We know from earlier NHANES data that vitamin D levels have declined over the last 20 years," says Dr. Melamed. "Kids have more sedentary lifestyles today and are not spending as much time outdoors. The widespread use of sunscreens, which block UV-B rays, has only compounded the problem." The body uses UV-B sunlight to convert a form of cholesterol in the skin into vitamin D.

Dr. Melamed recommends that children should consume more foods rich in vitamin D, such as milk and fish. "But it's very hard to get enough vitamin D from dietary sources alone," she says.

Vitamin D supplementation can help. In the study, children who took vitamin D supplements (400 IU/day) were less likely to be deficient in the vitamin. However, only four percent of the study population actually used supplements. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which recently updated its vitamin D guidelines, now recommends that infants, children, and teens should take 400 IU per day in supplement form.

Supplements are especially important for those living in the country's northern regions where the sun may be too weak to maintain healthy vitamin D levels. Supplements are also critical for infants who are breast-fed, say the researchers. Breast milk contains relatively little vitamin D, while formula is fortified with the vitamin.

The authors recommend that pediatricians should routinely screen high-risk children for vitamin D deficiency, and that parents should ensure that their kids get adequate amounts of the vitamin through a combination of diet, supplements, and exposure to sunlight.

"The message for pediatricians is that vitamin D deficiency is a real problem with consequences not only for bone health but also potentially for long-term cardiovascular health. Pediatricians should be screening children for vitamin D levels, especially in the high-risk populations," says Dr. Kumar. A study co-led by Dr. Melamed and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in August 2008 reported that individuals with low levels of vitamin D may have an increased risk of death from all causes.

As for parents, says Dr. Melamed, "It would good for them to turn off the TV and send their kids outside. Just 15 to 20 minutes a day should be enough. And unless they burn easily, don't put sunscreen on them until they've been out in the sun for 10 minutes, so they get the good stuff but not sun damage."

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Study Will Examine How Children with Down Syndrome Learn

Researchers at the University of Denver (DU) Morgridge College of Education are conducting a groundbreaking study that will compare two early literacy intervention approaches to educating young children with Down syndrome. The Rocky Mountain Down Syndrome Educational Fund is funding the study, which hopes to improve teaching methods for children with the condition.

Researchers are seeking children in the Denver area, ages 2 1/2 to 5, to participate in the study, which will involve a two-day training session to be held at DU followed by an at-home intervention program in which parents will implement the program with their child for approximately 15 minutes per day for approximately 10 months. There is no cost to participate. Contact Staci Jordan at (303) 871-3465 for information on how children can be enrolled.

"There has been little to no research on how our children with Down syndrome learn, especially regarding reading and language," says Michelle Sie Whitten, executive director of the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation and Advisory Committee Chair of The Rocky Mountain Down Syndrome Educational Fund. "There have been significant breakthroughs in terms of how children with other developmental disabilities learn, and I strongly believe that our kids deserve the same attention."

The result of this pilot study, Whitten says, could have a profound effect on the academic achievement of children with Down syndrome. An international team of experts has contributed to the study, including Sue Buckley, a chartered psychologist in England with more than 30 years of experience in the field of developmental disabilities.

"What is so exciting and unique about this particular study is that scientifically based research on early learning intervention has been translated into applied research in areas such as autism, but never before in Down syndrome research," says Karen Riley, assistant professor of Child, Family and School Psychology at DU, and the key investigator driving the pilot study. "In addition, we are attracting researchers for this study who have expertise in other developmental disabilities, and we are applying their knowledge to Down syndrome."

This study was initiated by The Rocky Mountain Down Syndrome Educational Fund. It is underwritten by a $130,000 gift from The Rocky Mountain Down Syndrome Educational Fund, $10,000 from the McDonnell Foundation and $10,000 from the University of Denver. The researchers working on this study have been trained by Buckley, who is one of the world's leading researchers in the education and development of children with Down syndrome.

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Consumer Reports: Children Could Be Carrying Too Much Weight in Their Backpacks

When parents are sending their children back to school this fall, they should check their backpacks to ensure they aren't too heavy. Consumer Reports found some sixth graders who carried an average weight of 18.4 pounds in their backpacks -- about 17.2 percent of their body weight. A loaded backpack should weigh no more than 10 to 20 percent of a child's total weight, but Consumer Reports recommends staying closer to 10 percent.

To gauge how much weight children are carrying around, Consumer Reports' technicians visited three elementary schools in Amityville, N.Y., and weighed 56 kids from second, fourth and sixth grades both with their backpacks and without. Not surprisingly, the sixth-graders had the heaviest load at an average backpack weight of 18.4 pounds. Next came the second-graders' backpacks at 5.3 pounds and finally the fourth-graders had the smallest average backpack weight at 4.6 pounds.

To ensure a child's backpack is as safe as possible, Consumer Reports advises that the pack should sit about 2 inches above the waist, and with shoulder straps close to the body. Also, the straps should be shortened (and the excess length fastened securely out of the way) so they can't get stepped on or caught in doors. Below are some of the features Consumer Reports recommends looking for when shopping for a new backpack this fall:

-- Shoulder straps that are contoured and padded to soften the load of the pack on a child's back. -- A waist belt to stabilize the pack and transfer weight to the hips.
-- A padded or quilted back or one with mesh fabric to make the bag less sweaty on steamy days.
-- Compression straps on the sides of the pack to tighten a partially-filled backpack.
-- Reflective trim on the back and sides of the pack to add visibility in the fall and winter months, when kids may travel to and from school in near darkness.

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New Campaign Raises Child Safety Concerns Over Google's 'Street View'

A team of policy experts, law enforcement officers, community leaders, and others called Stop Child Predators have launched a public education campaign called Stop Internet Predators designed to increase awareness of emerging Internet technologies that can endanger children's safety and privacy.

The campaign seeks to educate parents and communities on emerging online threats and empower them with the tools and resources to act to protect their children's safety and privacy.

"By increasing awareness, Stop Internet Predators seeks to limit the potential for child predators to abuse online technologies to prey on children," says Stacie Rumenap, executive director of Stop Child Predators.

A special focus of the campaign is devoted to a particularly alarming technology provided by Google maps, the organization says. As part of the launch, Rumenap is featured in a video, which shows how the Google "Street View" application allows Internet users to view high resolution pictures of homes, schools, and in some cases, children playing outside, simply by typing in a local address.

"This technology shows anyone in the world our communities, and exposes not only the routes from the bus stops to homes, but our children, without ever stepping foot in our neighborhoods," says Rumenap.

This new initiative has already attracted supporting organizations, including Community VOICES, Ryan United, and others, says Stop Child Predators.

"After going on Street View, I saw a picture of my neighbor's child playing basketball in his driveway," says Laurie Myers, Community VOICES president. "As the Internet evolves the way in which predators prey on children evolves with it. We as parents owe it to our children to educate ourselves on the potential dangers by being proactive."

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Women Who Gain Excessive Weight During Pregnancy More Likely to Have Overweight Children

Children of mothers who gain more than the recommended amount of weight during pregnancy are more likely to be overweight at age seven, say researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in a study published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Children of mothers who are obese prior to pregnancy and gain excessive weight are at the greatest risk for overweight.

"The earliest determinants of obesity may operate during intrauterine life, and gestational weight gain may influence the environment in the womb in ways that can have long-term consequences on the risk of obesity in children," saud study leader Brian Wrotniak, of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. "Adherence to
pregnancy weight gain recommendations may be a new and effective way to prevent childhood obesity, since currently almost half of U.S. women exceed these recommendations."

The researchers reviewed data from a cohort of 10,226 participants enrolled between 1959 and 1965 in the multicenter National Collaborative Perinatal Project. It was initiated to investigate risk factors for cerebral palsy at 12 U.S. sites. This study looked at the children born at
full-term gestation, and researchers evaluated socioeconomic and growth data during gestation, at birth and at age 7. Maternal data were collected at enrollment by using a questionnaire that included maternal pre-pregnancy weight, age and race. Maternal weight and height were measured at the time of delivery to determine gestational weight gain -- the difference between
the measured weight at delivery and the reported pre-pregnancy weight.

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which makes recommendations for weight gain during pregnancy, the amount of weight women should gain during pregnancy depends on the mother's weight status before pregnancy. Women at a healthy pre-pregnancy weight are encouraged to gain 25 to 35 pounds, while women who are overweight should stay between 15
to 25 pounds. Women who are underweight should gain more weight during pregnancy -- between 28 and 40 pounds.

Of the women studied by the researchers, 11 percent gained excessive weight, 24 percent gained adequate weight and 65 percent gained insufficient weight. Today, said the researchers, these proportions would be very different, with almost one in two women gaining more weight than recommended during pregnancy.

The authors say that encouraging pregnant women to adopt healthy eating practices and engage in aerobic physical activity could help them achieve appropriate weight gain and also help prevent obesity in their children. They add that benefits would likewise result from healthy eating and exercise before becoming pregnant, as well as reducing postpartum weight
retention before a subsequent pregnancy.

Using the IOM guidelines, children whose mothers exceeded the recommended weight gain were 48 percent more likely to be overweight than children whose mothers stayed within the recommended weight gain. The risk of overweight was similar for children born of women who gained insufficient weight compared with mothers who gained appropriate weight
during pregnancy.

The researchers add that more research is necessary to clarify whether the association between greater gestational weight gain and increased odds of overweight in offspring is causal, and whether it exists in today's environment of increasing obesity.

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A Question Of Surveillance

Surveillance through a nanny camera in and of itself shouldn't be controversial. With all of the questions of what could happen to a child these days, a nanny camera should be a basic tool for child welfare.

Indeed, a legitimate childcare provider should actually welcome the presence of a nanny camera. With all of the false allegations of child abuse and child sex abuse we hear of in the news these days, the easiest way to refute such a false allegation would be for the accused provider simply to say, "Roll tape."

The questions of ethics revolve more around what would become of the recordings from such a camera, and certainly, there should be regulation where that is concerned. And, clearly, a caregiver should know he or she is being recorded -- although that caregiver should not necessarily know where the camera is placed.

The bottom line is that in this post-9/11 world surveillance is kind of a given at this point. As I said, it becomes a question of how that surveillance is used.

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Study: iPods, Similar Devices Don't Affect Pacemakers

Last May, a widely reported study concluded that errant electronic noise from iPods can cause implantable cardiac pacemakers to malfunction. This just didn't sound right to the cardiac electrophysiologists at Children's Hospital Boston, who've seen hundreds of children, teens and young adults with heart conditions requiring pacemakers.

"Many of our pacemaker patients have iPods and other digital music players, and we've never seen any problem," says Dr. Charles Berul, MD, director of the Pacemaker Service at Children's. "But kids and parents bring up this concern all the time, prompting us to do our own study."

Between September and December, 2007, Gregory Webster, MD, a cardiac fellow in training at Children's, along with the electrophysiology nurses and physicians, ran tests on 51 patients coming in for appointments. Whereas last year's study was done in patients averaging 77 years of age, the average age in the Children's study was 22 (ranging from 6 to 60). All patients had active pacemakers or implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), which were tested against four digital music players -- two kinds of iPods (Apple Nano and Apple Video), SanDisk Sansa and Microsoft Zune. All patients were lying down during the tests (in case an arrhythmia occurred, causing them to faint), and each digital player was placed directly over the pacemaker or ICD.

As reported in the April 2008 issue of the journal Heart Rhythm, accompanied by an editorial, there was no interference with intrinsic device functioning - patients' EKG (electrocardiographic) recordings showed no change in any of 255 separate tests, and no patients had symptoms. "This provides reassuring evidence that should allay the fears of people using iPods and other digital music players," says Berul, the study's senior investigator.

However, in 41 percent of patients, the music players interfered with telemetry, or communications between the programmer and the pacemaker or ICD itself. (The programmer is a computerized device used by physicians to check and recalibrate the pacemaker/ICD - patients do not carry it.) This interference, picked up in 29 of 204 tests, went away when the digital player was moved six inches or more from the device, and did not compromise device function. The larger digital players (Zune and Apple Video) caused more interference with telemetry than the small players.

Patients should not use digital music players while the doctor is trying to reprogram their device, Webster and the electrophysiology team conclude. "If the iPod is right in the field, the programmer might not be able to communicate with the pacemaker or ICD effectively," Webster says.

The findings of interference with the pacemaker itself, reported last May, are published and updated in the same issue of Heart Rhythm. The editorial discusses possible reasons for the discrepancy between the two studies, which mainly relate to the testing methods and interpretation of the pacemaker recordings. Importantly, the music players did not stop pacemakers from pacing (regulating the heartbeat) in either the Children's study or the previously reported study, though the previous study did find interference with pacemaker sensing.

Berul and colleagues are reassured by their own findings, but acknowledge that their testing was only short-term. "We can't conclude that it's completely safe to have an iPod right on top of the device for hours at a time," Berul says. "That's why we suggest the precaution of keeping it at least six inches away."

The study was supported by the Boston Children's Heart Foundation.

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Public Policy Fails to Address the Effects of Media Violence on Children

Highly publicized events such as school shootings arouse public interest in the effects of media violence exposure on children, yet there is still considerable public debate about whether to take this issue seriously. A recent article in Social Issues and Policy Review summarizes the research on the effects of media violence and convincingly demonstrates the profound influence that media violence is having in society.

The many studies that have been compiled on the effects of viewing media violence show that there are at least 14 scientifically documented effects on children’s physiological and psychological well-being, both in the short and long term. Although many different types of studies have been conducted, they converge on the same conclusion: Violent media exposure increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior. Video games are of special concern because their effects may be particularly pronounced.

Despite the abundant research documenting the harmful effects of media violence, few people seem to get the message. For example, over half of American parents believe that violence makes children more aggressive, yet only a small percentage establish rules regarding content for their households. In addition, little has been done in the public policy arena in the United States. Because of First Amendment concerns, the courts are less concerned tolerant of government restrictions on media violence than on other public health risk factors. Furthermore, some courts have failed to glean the true strength of the scientific evidence from expert testimony by opposing sides.

The authors outline clear policy options. They recommend a moratorium on access-restriction legislation. Instead, they suggest that parents should be more actively involved in their child’s media habits and that creating a universal rating system for all media, in combination with a major education campaign, might be the most effective policy. In addition, they propose that physicians, medical schools, and state and city governments could also undertake policy initiatives that might be effective. Media violence effects “are likely to become greater over time, as different media converge, become more interactive, become more global, and colonize more spaces in our lives,” the authors note.

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Video: Mom Describes Son's Aqua-Dots Poisoning

A Utah mother says she rushed her sick son to the emergency room only to discover he'd been poisoned when he swallowed some Aqua-Dots.

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Video: Considering Kids' Wish Lists

Watch Love & Money columnist Jeff Opdyke and his wife Amy talk about whether it's better to give children presents they've put on their wish list - or surprise them with gifts they never thought of.

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Workshop Calls for Greater Research Focus on Environmental Causes of Autism

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) last Friday released a report from the April 18-19 workshop Autism and the Environment, demonstrating a marked shift in the research agenda from heritability factors to toxic environmental exposures in the development of autism.

The National Autism Association (NAA) and SafeMinds have long called for a paradigm shift from children with autism are genetically defective to children with autism are sick and their illness is treatable. The groups hope that the recognition of environmental factors (including vaccines and heavy metals) in autism will lead to effective treatments for those with autism and prevention for susceptible infants.

In response to a request from the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, the two-day workshop included the nation's leaders in autism research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Autism community advocates from SafeMinds, NAA and Autism Speaks were also invited participants of the workshop, plus scientists from Harvard, the MIND Institute, Columbia University, and more. The experts discussed strategies for developing a broad research agenda focusing on autism and environmental exposures.

Presentations emphasized the urgency to combat the growing national health crisis of autism and focused on the mechanisms by which environmental factors (including vaccines, chemicals, infectious agents, or physiological or psychological stress) can affect children's neurodevelopment. In addition, discussions addressed the infrastructure needs of identified research opportunities -- tools, technologies, and partnerships.

In his introductory remarks, William Raub, science advisor to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, expressed his hopes that the workshop would "prove to be an important milestone in autism research." He states: "The planning committee recognized that vaccine constituents, especially organic chemicals used as preservatives or adjuvants, obviously qualify as environmental agents that warrant attention. . . . . Other aspects of the autism challenge deserve similar attention, especially the paucity of effective treatments."

Autism experts identified a broad range of research priorities, including: biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment of differing subtypes of autism; rigorous analysis of effective treatments; a comparison of the health outcomes of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children, immune system and anti-viral therapies, and the need for more effective chelators.

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Video: Readers Respond on Homework

Watch Love & Money columnist Jeff Opdyke and his wife Amy discuss -- and debate -- some of the readers' solutions to their son's homework-overload problem.

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Video: Teaching Kids to Spend, or Save

Watch Jeff and Amy Opdyke debate whether their son should be allowed to spend his savings on pretty much what he wants.

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Video: Girl, Website Empowers Kids To Improve The World

DarynKagan.com brings you the inspiring story of Talia Leman, a 10-year-old girl who started a national movement of kids improving their world.

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Survey Finds Three-Quarters of Americans Celebrate - and Spend on - Halloween

A new survey released by Visa Inc. shows that seventy three percent of Americans celebrate -- and spend on -- Halloween. According to the survey, among those who celebrate Halloween, the average will spend $40 on candy and decorations. Parents with children under 18 will spend $54 on candy and decorations while those without children under 18 will spend $32. Of mention, Dads tend to go all out, spending $63, while moms are more conservative, spending $46.

"You wouldn't think you'd have to budget for something as 'fun' as Halloween. But I believe all expenditures, large and small, are better planned for in advance," said personal finance expert and best-selling author Jean Chatzky. "Whether you are buying candy or a car, planning a
budget is critical to staying in overall good financial health."

Additional findings in the survey include:

• Men ($46) who celebrate Halloween report spending $12 more than
  women ($34).
• Younger people ($44) say they spend more than those 55 and over
  ($31).
• Those who live in rural areas ($49) spend $10 more on average than
  people living in urban areas ($39) and $13 more than suburbanites ($36).

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St. Jude Psychologist Says Most Children With Cancer Are Well-Adjusted

Children under treatment for cancer are generally emotionally well-adjusted and no more depressed or anxious than other children their age, according to researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In studies of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress and quality of life, children with cancer do as well as, and often better than their healthy peers.

“We see them as a flourishing population that has adapted to the stress of having cancer and undergoing treatment,” says Sean Phipps, a member of the St. Jude Division of Behavioral Medicine. “They become quite resilient to the long-and short-term emotional and physical effects of their disease and the treatments.”

The unexpected finding that children with cancer are emotionally resilient is important because of the dramatic improvement in survival rates of pediatric cancers. “There has been a shift in research toward the concerns of long-term survivors of pediatric cancers,” Phipps says. “The ability of these children to cope with the after-effects of cancer is the major issue now. What we are learning from this population might help us learn how to improve the quality of life of children who are not doing so well.”

Phipps is the author of an article on adaptive styles in children with cancer that appears in the advanced online issue of Journal of Pediatric Psychology. The article, based on research done by his group and other research teams around the country, was presented at the conference “Psychosocial and Neurocognitive Consequences of Childhood Cancer: A Symposium in Tribute to Raymond K. Mulhern,” held at St. Jude in September 2006, in honor of the late Raymond Mulhern, a pioneer in psychological research in pediatric oncology at the hospital. The symposium’s presentations will also appear in a special December issue of the journal.

The low level of depression among children with cancer does not reflect a state of “illusory mental health,” Phipps says. That is, these children are not simply clinging to an illusion of mental health by denying distress. Rather, many of them simply have a reduced awareness of emotional distress, and they think of themselves as being well-adjusted and content, a response called a “repressive adaptive style.”

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Child Deaths Fall Below 10 Million For First Time

Global child deaths have reached a record low, falling below 10 million per year to 9.7 million, down from almost 13 million in 1990, according to UNICEF.

"This is an historic moment," says UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman. "Now we must build on this public health success to push for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals."

Among these goals, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, is a commitment to a two-thirds reduction in child mortality between 1990 and 2015, a result which would save an additional 5.4 million children by 2015.

However, Veneman points out that there is no room for complacency. "The loss of 9.7 million young lives each year is unacceptable. Most of these deaths are preventable and, as recent progress shows, the solutions are tried and tested. We know that lives can be saved when children have access to integrated, community-based health services."

Twenty-five years ago, UNICEF envisioned and launched its "Child Survival and Development Revolution" aimed at sharply reducing childhood death, disease and disability in the developing world. UNICEF insisted that simple, low cost interventions such as immunization, exclusive breastfeeding and growth monitoring, when taken to mass scale, could yield dramatic gains for child survival.

This first-of-its-kind effort was highly controversial within and outside of the organization. Critics argued it was naive, impossible and too simplistic. UNICEF pushed ahead, enlisting the support of hundreds of NGOs, individuals, governments and others in the "revolution." As a result of these partnerships and years of quiet effort, children today are more than twice as likely to survive past the age of five than they were 40 years ago.

"Thanks in large part to many outstanding partnerships and the extraordinary compassion and support of the American public, more children are surviving today than ever before," says U.S. Fund for UNICEF President and CEO Caryl Stern. "UNICEF's relentless focus on saving children's lives will continue until we reach the day when no mother has to grieve the loss of her baby to malaria, diarrhea, measles, or pneumonia."

The new figures are drawn from a range of national data sources, including two sets of household surveys, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and the Demographic Household Surveys (DHS). The current round of MICS surveys was conducted in over 50 countries in 2005-06 and, together with the USAID- supported Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), are the largest single source of information of the Millennium Development Goals and form the basis of the assessment of progress in child survival.

Their findings reinforce reports of progress released earlier this year on measles mortality, with a 60 per cent fall in measles deaths since 1999, and a 75 per cent reduction in sub-Saharan Africa.

Rapid declines in under-five mortality have been seen in Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) and East Asia and the Pacific.

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Girls Who Begin Dieting Twice as Likely to Start Smoking

Starting to diet seems to double the odds a teenage girl will begin smoking, a University of Florida study has found.

UF researchers, who analyzed the dieting and smoking practices of 8,000 adolescents, did not find the same link in boys, who were also less likely than girls to diet, according to findings released Friday in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

“Dieting was a significant predictor of initiation of regular smoking among females,” says Mildred Maldonado-Molina, a UF assistant professor of epidemiology and health policy research and lead author of the study. “We were expecting that this relationship was going to be stronger among females. That has been well-documented, especially because (nicotine) can suppress your appetite.

“In boys we found something we don’t understand yet,” she says. “We found that those who were inactive dieters, those who first started dieting and then stopped, were more likely to engage in smoking behaviors.”

The researchers derived their findings from the answers of 7,795 adolescents who were surveyed during the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, completed in 1994 and 1996. The teens were in seventh, eighth and ninth grade when surveyed.
UF researchers included the answers of adolescents who said they were trying to lose weight and divided the group into four units: non-dieters, new dieters, former dieters and consistent dieters, who said they were dieting both times they were surveyed. They excluded teens who were already smokers and those who admitted to taking diet pills, vomiting and using other unhealthy weight-loss tactics.

“That group (of teens who were beginning to diet) was the one we were most interested in, seeing how the start of one behavior related to initiation of smoking,” Maldonado-Molina says.
Researchers also found that girls who consistently dieted were more likely to smoke.

Still, the number of children smoking in the United States has dropped in the 10 years since the first two waves of the survey were completed. In 1995, about 35 percent of high school students smoked regularly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now about 23 percent of high-school age children reportedly smoke and 8 percent of middle school students do. The percentage of girls who smoke is slightly higher in both age groups, according to a 2006 CDC report on tobacco use among youth.

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