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Study challenges the ‘baby fat’ myth: Overweight kids stay that way into teens

Posted on November 12, 2014

A new survey suggests that kids who are obese at 11-years old stay that way through age 16 and after.

Researchers tracked close to 4,000 children in three US metro areas for 5 years and discovered that 83% of obese 10th graders were also obese in the 5th grade. A mere 12% were able to “thin out” and “lose their baby weight” as the old wives tail goes, and transitioned to normal weight.

“Parents sometimes think that it’s just baby fat and their kids will outgrow it, but we found a lot more constancy [of extra weight over time] than we anticipated,” study author Dr. Mark Schuster, chief of general pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital said of the findings published in the November 10th edition of journal Pediatrics.

“Certainly, once you’ve gained weight and become obese or overweight, it’s harder to change the habits influencing that,” he added. “But just because kids are gaining weight as they get older doesn’t mean they can’t lose weight — they definitely can.”

The research also suggest that kids of parents who are also overweight or from families with less education are also less likely to lose weight and become normal weight over time.

It also implied that living around, going to school with and being in communities with a good number of substantially overweight people contributes to a social normalization of obesity.

Compared to kids from 40 years ago who didn’t see that many overweight peers and adults, today’s children do and are not so ostracized if they are packing a few extra pounds.

Also, a more sedentary and super-convenient society fed on a steady diet of high-fat, heavy carb processed foods contribute.

“People are less likely to walk places or go to a park,” Schuster said. “There’s also a lot of fast, convenient, high-processed food available that’s higher in calories and less nutritious. A lot of what we’re trying to encourage is to eat a healthier diet and engage in more physical activity — and that’s true whether a child is obese or not.”

Finally, the data also showed that children who were heavy in the 5th grade who spent more time with screens, TV and video games, were less likely to lose the weight than kids who had limited screen time.

The solution seems to be for parents to actively encourage their teens to get involved in organized sports, go out more and regularly and watch their diets so that they do not overindulge in bad foods.

h/t WebMD

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Study: School lunches are healthier than home packed lunches

Posted on November 7, 2014

A new study found that school-provided lunches are more nutritious than those brought from home.

Comparing over 750 school meals with more than 560 packed lunches given to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students in 3 schools over the course of 5 days, Virginia Tech researchers found that the home lunches were less healthy, specifically:

School lunches have on average 512 calories while packed lunches had 608;
School lunches included 26 grams of protein compared to just 18 in packed lunches;
Packed lunches were less likely to have fruits, vegetables, sugar-free juice and milk;
Packed lunches had more snacks such as chips and crackers; and
Packed lunches had more fat, and included more desserts and sugary drinks than the school lunches.

“There was a spectrum,” Alisha Farris, a Ph.D candidate at Virginia Tech and lead researcher said. “There were some really healthy packed lunches. But overall, they were pretty unhealthy.”

The study is published in the November-December issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

Of the 50 million children in US public schools, close to 60% of students eat school lunch while about 40% bring their lunch.

Well…I guess First Lady Michelle Obama could gloat about this one given her platform during her husband’s two terms has been mainly promoting healthier school lunches and she has pushed to make them even more healthier.

photo: Getty

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Study: Babies respond more to moms than dads, but you can fix that dads

Posted on November 3, 2014

New research indicates that babies learn language more from their moms than their dads, and that moms react and respond more to a baby’s cues than dads.

A report in the journal Pediatrics analyzed a group of 33 babies monitored with a small recording device called LENA attached to a vest researchers wore on them just after they were born, while in the hospital and again at 44 weeks and 7-months old. With over 3,000 hours of recordings, the researchers found that “when babies made sounds, moms were more likely to respond to them verbally than fathers were — “Oooo, sweetie pie, you’re talking this morning, ” Time summarized.

The report also discovered that mothers responded 88% to 94% of the time to the babies vocalizations, while dads responded only 27% to 33% of the time.

As a result, and perhaps because the babies were used to hearing their mom talk to them more, both boys and girls were also more likely to respond to their mothers’ or female voices than they were to male voices.

Dang dads, even strange random women beat your voice!

But you dads can change all that, the study suggest, by simply talking to your babies more and perhaps doing so in a higher pitched sing song-y way that moms do and pairing your talking with eye contacts as moms tend to do.

Give it a try and report back, kay?

Good luck!

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Study: Mommy Brain is a big, fat, MYTH!

Posted on November 1, 2014

So just when we thought recent studies have verified that “pregnancy brain” and “mommy brain” are real things, new reports indicate otherwise.

A recent piece by New York Magazine‘s “Science of Us” blog cites scientists that surmise:

“[T]he idea that it’s a purely negative effect is a myth that’s in the process of being debunked. Any pregnancy-related impairments are likely a side effect of what ultimately is a maternal neuro-upgrade that boosts women’s ability to care for their vulnerable offspring. Many will welcome the demise of the baby-brain myth, because it’s a simplistic, one-sided concept that almost certainly encourages prejudice against women.”

Hmmm.

Study: Eating fried chicken daily increases gestational diabetes risk

Posted on October 11, 2014

Women who eat fried food every day are nearly twice as likely to develop diabetes during pregnancy, according to a major study.

Those who regularly enjoy chips, an omelette or fried chicken are at much higher risk of gestational diabetes – a temporary condition that affects up to one in 20 expectant mothers.

Researchers at Harvard University in the US believe that frying releases harmful chemicals into food which affect how the body controls blood sugar.

Gestational diabetes occurs when pregnant women fail to produce enough insulin causing their blood sugar to become abnormally high.

If not detected and treated, it can lead to a premature birth, the baby being very large or at worst dying shortly after labour.

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Study: Low iron intake in pregnancy linked to autism

Posted on September 22, 2014

A new study by UC-Davis researchers found a five-fold increase in autism spectrum disorder in children born to mothers with low iron intake and some metabolic conditions.

“Iron deficiency and its resultant anemia is the most common nutrient deficiency … affecting 40 to 50% of women and their infants,” said Rebecca Schmidt, assistant professor at the UC-Davis Department of Public Health Sciences and a MIND Institute researcher, in a written statement.

“Iron is crucial to early brain development, contributing to neurotransmitter production, myelination and immune function,” Schmidt said. “All three of these pathways have been associated with autism.”

Research has been conducted previously on the link between autism and mother’s intake of folic acid, but this research is the first to look at iron intake as a possible contributor, Schmidt said. UC-Davis’ MIND Institute — Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders — is a collaborative international research center examining causes and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders.

The study is expected to be published online this week by the American Journal of Epidemiology.

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Study: Toddlers learn words differently as they age

Posted on September 20, 2014

A new study found that toddlers learn words differently as they age, and can only learn but so many new ones each day.

This new University of Missouri research provides insight as to how children process information to learn new words as they move through the preschool years, according to a press release about the findings.

“We found that babies’ abilities to accurately guess the meaning of new words increases between 18 and 30 months of age, and by 24 to 36 months, toddlers are able to accurately guess the meanings of new words at a significantly higher level,” Judith Goodman, an associate professor in the MU School of Health Professions and chair of the Department of Communication Science and Disorders said. “Interestingly, we observed that even from the time children mature from 18 to 30 months of age, the cues toddlers use to learn new words change.”

Researchers taught children, who ranged in age from 18 to 36 months, six new words using three types of cues, taking note of children’s ability to accurately guess what the words meant.

“When children were presented with a new word and asked to choose between an item for which they already had a name and an unfamiliar object, they appropriately assigned the new word to the unfamiliar object, and this ability improved as children aged,” Goodman said. “The toddlers’ ability to infer a word’s meaning from linguistic context, such as figuring out that a ‘kiwi’ must be a food item when they hear, ‘Sammy eats the kiwi,’ also improved as the children aged. However, using social cues, such as eye gaze, became less effective as the children matured. By 36 months of age, children were less likely to assume a word referred to the particular object a speaker was looking at – looking at a kiwi when teaching the child the word ‘kiwi’ – than younger children were.”

Goodman also found that a limit exists as to how many words toddlers can retain. A day after the children learned the six words, the researchers tested whether the children remembered the words. The children better remembered the first three words they had learned the first day, Goodman said.

Children who are struggling with learning language may benefit from being presented with specific cues, Goodman said. Additionally, the research reinforces the importance of providing children with rich word-learning environments, in which toddlers are exposed to many words and are provided with a variety of cues to help them learn and remember those words and what they represent, Goodman said.

“When you’re working with young children who are learning language, it’s important to talk to them all the time and label everything in their environments,” Goodman said. “At home, parents can name household items or foods the children are eating. If out on an excursion, such as a trip to the zoo, parents can label the animals they see.”

The study, “The Type, but Not the Amount, of Information Available Influences Toddlers’ Fast Mapping and Retention of New Words,” was published in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Kathryn Brady, an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, was the first author on the paper, which was based on her dissertation research completed at MU. The research was supported in part by the Student Research Grant in Early Childhood Language Acquisition from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation.

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Study: Babies with stressed moms cry more

Posted on September 8, 2014

Anxious mothers are more likely to have babies who cry for longer, according to latest research.

Women who experience stress, worry or panic attacks before becoming pregnant are more than twice as likely to report that their child cried ‘excessively’.

It is not known why this link exists, but researchers said mothers suffering from anxiety may have a more ‘intrusive’ parenting style that could cause babies to cry more

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First ever Research on Celebrity “Bump watch”: It damages mom-baby connection

Posted on August 17, 2014

New research finds that “bump watch” may be contributing to pregnancy anorexia in average pregnant women, and interfering with pregnant women’s bond with the babies they are carrying.

In a study published in the journal Psychology & Marketing, researchers discovered that pregnant women who follow celebrity pregnancies a little too closely and who already had a high concern about their body were likely to stress about weight gain during pregnancy.

The study found that such obsession over weight may lead to pregnant women connecting less with the baby they are carrying.

It’s the first time a study focused on celebrity pregnancy’s impact on women’s body image, Jayne Krisjanous, a marketing professor at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand told Science of Us.

However, it is important to note that the 400 women studied were already more inclined to have negative body images in the first place, so that the fact the would be further negatively impacted by seemingly “perfect” and skinny pregnant celebrities should come as no surprise.

I launched Bellyitch in 2007 when I was pregnant with my last child as a way to document my pregnancy. I started monitoring and featuring pregnant celebrities who were also expecting when I was on this blog, yet never felt inclined to match their weight gain or pregnancy growth.

Thus, it truly is about each woman and those already confident in their body image, may not necessarily have the same reaction to following a “bump watch.”

What do you think?

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Study: Your smart phone may be a danger to your fetus

Posted on August 16, 2014

Getty

Radiation from wireless devices pose risk to children and fetuses, a recent report in the Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure states.

Children and fetuses are most susceptible to neurological and biological damage that result from microwave radiation emitting from wireless devices, the report says.

The paper, titled “Why children absorb more microwave radiation than adults: The consequences,” discusses how microwave radiation can cause degeneration of the protective myelin sheath that surrounds brain neurons in fetuses, in particular.

The authors suggest parents ban wireless toys from children to minimize potential risk, noting also that prolonged exposure may be linked to brain tumor exposure.

Extensive research document the non-thermal biological effects from long-term exposures, and while worldwide, governments have been issued warnings, the public is largely unaware.

“Pregnant women deserve to know that wireless radiation can have an impact on the developing brain,”

Pediatric neurologist Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein stated while launching the Baby Safe Project in New York this June.. “We’re seeing alarming increases in the number of children diagnosed with neurological disorders over the past decade, and anything we can do that might help reduce that rate should be taken very seriously.”

This study conflicts with prior research claiming that pregnant women should not need to worry about exposing their baby’s to cell phone radiation.

Smartphones, cell phones, tablets and laptops have recommendations warning users to keep the away from their body. The conclusions seem extreme. The authors, doctors from a multinational Environmental Health Trust, recommend children not play with wireless toys at all, and warn teen girls from storing their smart phones in their bras or hijabs.

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