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FYI
New drug in Schools...
Please pass this on even if you do not have kids in school. Parents should
know about this killer drug.
Grandparents, send it to your families and friends.
In a message dated 9/20/2008 2:47:15 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
joan.meade10@verizon.net writes:
This is a new drug known as 'strawberry quick '.
There is a very scary thing going on in the schools right now that we all
need to be aware of.
There is a type of crystal meth going around that looks like strawberry
pop
rocks (the candy that sizzles and 'pops' in your mouth). It also smells
like strawberry and it is being handed out to kids in school yards. They
are calling it strawberry meth or strawberry quick.
Kids are ingesting this thinking that it is candy and being rushedoff to
the hospital in dire condition. It also comes in chocolate, peanut butter,
cola, cherry, grape and orange.
Please instruct your children not to accept candy from strangersand even
not to accept candy that looks like this from a friend (who may have been
given it and believed it is candy) and to take any that they may have to a
teacher, principal, etc.immediately.
Pass this email on to as many people as you can (even if they don't have
kids) so that we canraise awareness and hopefully prevent any tragedies
from occurring.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271215,00.html
BABYSITTER vs. GRANDMA'S HOUSE?
Leaving your child with grandma and grandpa is the safest way to go. That's according to a new study out of Johns Hopkins University that says children left in the care of grandparents cut their risk of injury by half. Researchers found grandma even beat mommy out when it came to safety. The study also shows kids are far more likely to hurt themselves when their is no daddy in the picture.
WHERE'S OUR TAX FREE HOLIDAY?
Unfortunately, the state of Florida will not be offering its usual sales tax free week during 2008. In the past, the sales tax holiday was voted upon in the state legislature, but the measure was not brought up for a vote this year. Fifteen states in the U.S. will offer some form of tax free shopping before summer vacation ends, including Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina.
Study Finds Calorie Wallop In Kiddie Meals
Researchers are pointing to the dangers of fast-food kid meals. The Center for Science in the Public Interest analyzed more than 14-hundred menu combinations from 13 popular restaurants. They found a gut-busting 93-percent packed more calories, salt and fat than kids typically need. Selections from KFC, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell and other fast-food restaurants all routinely blew past the 430 calories kids should consume in a single meal. Nine out of ten hamburger joints offered enough calories in one meal to meet kids' needs for an entire day. Chili's tipped the scale with a whopping one-thousand-20 calories for one of its fried-chicken combinations. The study rated Subway the best, with only one-third of its mini-sub selections going over the 430-calorie mark.
Don't Let Baby Kiss The Dog
In today's parenting corner -- your kids and the family dog. While children will often create a special bond with the pet dog, receiving one of the pooch's sloppy kisses could be bad for their health. According to web.md.com, there are many health benefits that come from canine interaction, including lowering your blood pressure and heart rate. However, veterinarian Lisa Conti says the bugs from a dogs mouth can easily get passed onto your kids when they receive a lick on the cheek. She said, quote, "dogs lick themselves all over, so these germs can be on the dog's nose when it's nuzzling you." She warns that salmonella, diarrhea and stomach flu can all come from your dog's friendly greeting. She recommends thoroughly washing your hands, or whichever part of your body came into contact with the dog's saliva, and teaching your kids to do the same.
Chemicals In Plastic Cups and Bottles May Disrupt Child Development
(Seattle, WA) -- Some parents are thinking twice about feeding their children with sippy cups and water bottles. A recent National Toxicology Program study finds Bisphenol-A [[ bice-FEE-nawl AY ]] may disrupt neural and behavioral development in fetuses, infants and children. But "USA Weekend" reports the Food and Drug Administration says it believes the level of exposure is safe. Also, some parents wonder if switching from plastic to glass containers is worth the effort and risk of injury. While research continues, eco-consultant Sophie Uliano advises parents to avoid plastic utensils and containers marked by a number seven recycling symbol.
Pregnant Mothers Junk Food Habit Could Cause Baby Lifelong Damage
(07/01/08)
In today's parenting corner -- junk food. Food cravings during pregnancy can sometimes be rather obscure, but they can also be harmful to the baby. The BBC reports mothers who eat junk food while carrying a baby can cause long-lasting health problems to the child. Researchers studied the offspring of rats that were fed fatty foods and found the babies to have high levels of fat in their bloodstream and around major organs even as they reached adolescence. The study also found that even after the mother returned to a more normal and healthy diet, the damage had already been done in the offspring. Dr. Stephanie Bayol said, quote, "it seems that a mother's diet while pregnant and breastfeeding is very important for the long-term health of her child."
Family Feuds
How to make "timeouts" less like bar fights.
By Alan E. Kazdin
Posted Friday, June 27, 2008, at 7:24 AM ET
The "timeout" has replaced the swat on the behind as many parents' default punishment for a misbehaving child. It's worth noting, then, that this parenting tool is widely misunderstood and frequently misused.
Most parents already have a rough working notion of how to use timeouts. When a child does something wrong, you send him off to sit somewhere by himself and do nothing for a set amount of time, like a hockey referee putting a player in the penalty box. Two minutes on a bench for hitting at the playground, five minutes on a stool in the corner for talking back, and so on. Because the timeout seems so simple, most people feel comfortable using it intuitively, guided by assumptions that the punishment should fit the crime, that a timeout gives the child an opportunity to reflect and repent, and that it teaches the child who's in control.
These assumptions lead many parents to use more and longer timeouts to match the frequency and severity of a child's offenses. If a child gets five minutes for, say, hitting a sibling, then a more serious offense, such as biting, should rate 15 or 30 minutes, right? Not necessarily. Using more and longer timeouts might seem proportional, and it might even conceivably teach a lesson about justice, but it won't help change the behavior that's causing you to give timeouts in the first place. And if you don't change the behavior, you're going to be enforcing a lot more timeouts.
Excessive timeouts do more harm than good, making a child irritable and more volatile in his reactions, and more inclined to escape and avoid the adults who punish him. Just as important, parents who punish excessively tend to escalate punishment, increasing the side effects and losing track of the original intent of giving a timeout, which is to improve a child's behavior. The opposite happens, in fact.
A reliable body of scientific research accruing over decades has given us a clear idea of how to use timeout most effectively. The technique's full name, "timeout from reinforcement," provides the key. Timeout has nothing to do with justice, repentance, or authority. Rather, it follows a simple logic: Attention feeds a behavior, and a timeout is nothing more than a brief break from attention in any form—demands, threats, explanations, rewards, hugs ... everything.
So, what does this tell us about the right way to use timeouts? They should be:
used sparingly, because the side effects of excessive punishment are more significant than any benefits the timeouts might have. If you're giving more than one or two per day for the same offense, that's too much.
brief, because the timeout's positive effect on behavior is almost all concentrated in its first minute or two. Some parents feel obliged to add more time to satisfy their sense of justice, but the extra time has no value in terms of changing behavior. If you feel that you must go beyond one or two minutes, treat 10 minutes as the extreme upper limit.
immediate, following as closely as possible upon the behavior that made it necessary. If you can, do it on the spot, not when you get home from the store or playground. Delayed timeouts are ineffective.
done in isolation from others, with the child in a separate room or sitting alone in a chair off to one side. Complete isolation is not needed if you feel it would be good to keep an eye on the child.
administered calmly, not in anger or as an act of vengeance, and without repeated warnings, which lose their effect if they are not regularly followed with consequences. Make clear to the child which behaviors lead to timeout, and then be consistent about declaring one when such behavior occurs. One warning is plenty.
If you're calm, you will also be in the right frame of mind to do something important that's nearly impossible to do when you're angry: Praise compliance with the timeout, such as going to the isolated spot when asked, sitting quietly, and completing the whole timeout. A lot of parents balk at this. "WHAT?! Praise the child when I'm punishing him for misbehaving?" Absolutely. We want to build compliance whenever it occurs, and especially under difficult situations. We want the child to go to timeout when we tell him to, so we reward that behavior with praise. It does not have to be effusive, but, like all effective praise, it should still specify what the child did—It's good that you went straight to timeout when I asked you to, and you sat quietly for the whole time, like a big boy—and combine verbal encouragement with a gentle pat or other contact.
If you have to touch, drag, or restrain the child to make the timeout happen, you're doing it wrong, and the timeout won't work. During punishment, a child will be more oppositional than usual and is likelier to physically resist going into timeout, which may inspire stronger physical control by the parent. Things escalate from there into dragging, pushing, pulling, and perhaps hitting. What's happening is more like a fight in a bar than timeout from reinforcement, and you're reinforcing all the wrong behaviors. The same goes for locking a child in a room to enforce a timeout. Besides being unsafe, locking a child in, like dragging him, is what psychologists call a "setting event" for opposition—an event that makes a behavior more likely. You're saying, in effect, Resist me! I expect it from you, and your child will get the message.
Let's say you declare the timeout and your child says, "No, I'm not going." Instead of using force, give her an extra minute penalty. You can do this twice: Up the timeout from two minutes to three, then to four. Then, if that doesn't work, take away a privilege—something significant but brief, like no TV today. (It helps to decide on this penalty in advance rather than winging it on the spot when everybody's excited and upset. You can also use it if the child comes out of timeout too early; one warning, if you wish, and then invoke the penalty.) Then pivot and walk away. Don't give in if she then says, "OK, OK, OK, I'll do it," because that reinforces an unwanted sequence. Let the consequence do the work, and resist the temptation to add a little zinger like, "You never listen, and now you're paying the price!" Saying such things may release steam, causing your child-induced aneurisms not to burst, but it will increase the side effects of punishment.
Finally, and this is the greater key to success, research shows that the effectiveness of timeout depends on the effectiveness of time in. You must devote your energies to identifying the problem behavior (hitting, for instance), identifying a desirable behavior to replace it (keeping your hands to yourself), and reinforcing that desirable behavior with lots of praise and other rewards. Timeout won't get rid of an unwanted behavior, not on its own. It's a consequence you can use to control that behavior while you work on replacing it with something better.
And consider giving yourself an informal timeout now and again. Everyone will benefit. When your child is singing the "I Hate Mommy" song for the 17th time in a row and you feel yourself about to lose control and run wild up the parental misbehavior scale—nagging, shouting, threatening, overpunishing, all the way up to laying hands on the little miscreant—try turning around and walking out of the room. Go sit somewhere quiet for a couple of minutes and cool off. Sometimes a little timeout from reinforcement is just what you need.
courtesty of http://www.slate.com
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