Media

The Nebraska Safe Haven law was a very badly written law and the results were predictable. The law was very open ended and allowed parents to surrender children up to the age of 18. Then intent was to allow birth mothers the opportunity to relinquish a child they could not care for and prevent them from making other deadly decisions. Legislators could not agree on an upper age limit so they left it open to say “a child” and now teenagers are being surrendered. There is a bright spot to this very bad law. USA Today ran an article on this law pointing out something we are all too well are of. The lack of mental health services for families who… [more]

There is a great piece of legislation that is being debated right now, and is long overdue for our kids. The House and Senate both agree that the legislation is needed, they just differ on whether it stands on its own, or gets grouped together with some other things. What is this great piece of legislation? It allows for mental health issues to be treated the same as medical issues. This means not limiting the number of treatments or sessions per year and allowing the same deductible as regular health insurance. Interestingly, the proponents for this particular piece of legislation are one Republican and one Democrat, but both have battled alcohol addiction. Representative Patrick Kennedy and Representative Jim Ramstad co-sponsored the bill. As with… [more]

According to a new government report, the number of teens giving birth has risen for the first time in 15 years. For every one thousand young women, between the ages of 15 and 17, twenty-two will give birth. This may contribute to another unhealthy trend. The number of low birth weight newborns continues to increase. We know from statistics that youth in foster care are more likely to engage in risky behaviors than other teens are. Therefore, when you see an increase in the general population of teens, you can be sure the increase among foster youth is much higher. In fact, most children who were traumatized by early abuse, neglect, or drugs tend to engage in more risky behaviors. If you have adopted one of… [more]

The Sensory Processing Disorder Answer Book gives practical answers to the top 250 questions parents ask. Written by Tara Delaney, MS, OTR/L and published by Sourcebooks, Incorporated of Naperville, Illinois. Tara is a pediatric occupational therapist specializing in helping children with sensory processing disorder (SPD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). She also adopted a child internationally from China who came home with sensory processing issues. True the covers says, “answers to the top 250 questions parents ask,” but I was a little surprised when I opened to the first page of the first chapter and it was a question. The book is organized in a question and answer format with the questions in bold, clearly marked. The thorough and easily understood responses are directly… [more]

If you read one book about parenting special needs children this year...this one is IT! The Elephant in the Playroom is a compilation of essays written by parents of children with special needs, and eloquently compiled by Denise Brodey, editor in chief of Fitness magazine, and mom to a son with sensory integration dysfunction. Ms Brodey has captured the very essence of life as the parent of a “special” kid. I found myself laughing, crying and furiously nodding in agreement with most of the articles, regardless of the actual disability the child had. And that’s one of the beauties of this book. Before you’re even halfway through, you realize that not only are we not alone in our experiences, we are more… [more]

Malaria can be deadly. Biting mosquitoes spread it and more than 1 million people, mostly children, die from Malaria each year. Malaria is preventable and it is treatable. Unfortunately, many areas that are affected by Malaria are impoverished. Therefore, the people do not have access to the medicines or tools to keep themselves and their families safe. Malaria is endemic in more than 100 countries and territories. World Malaria Day, April 25, hopes to build awareness to help put a stop to malaria deaths around the world by ensuring universal coverage by the end of 2010. They intend to stop malaria deaths by offering indoor residual spraying, and bed nets treated with long lasting insecticide to all at risk people.The United States is spending tens… [more]

We have all heard about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving a car. Some metropolitan areas have made it illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving because of the many related accidents. Last week I wrote a blog on the dangers of brain tumors associated with cell phone use. Researchers are concerned about the long-term effects on developing children’s brains if adults are showing tumors within 10 years of cell phone use. Now we have another warning for our children regarding cell phone usage. Researchers have found that children may not be able to cross the street safely while talking on a cell phone. Those of us parents who have witnessed our teenagers immersed in what appears to be the latest… [more]

Today’s children who are becoming teenagers are using inhalants more often than marijuana or prescription drugs. A new government report shows that inhaling common household products is the preferred way to get high for those becoming teenagers. According to health officials, household products like shoe polish, glue, aerosol air fresheners, hair sprays, nail polish, paint solvents, degreasers, gasoline, and lighter fluid are all possibilities for getting high. The results of the study were presented on Thursday at the National Press club in Washington, D.C. The National Inhalant Prevention Coalition conducted studies, with sponsorship from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse, said their data indicates that 1.1 million 12-to-17-year-olds admitted to… [more]

National Public Radio (NPR) did two segments on the importance of play recently. And I think they bear watching. In Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills, it is pointed out that back before the mid-1950s play was not so much associated with toys as it was with unstructured free time. But the advent of television advertising and marketing to children has changed that. Combine that with the push by parents to have children involved in organized activities and the lack of recess during school hours, and let us know forget the amount of time spent in front of TV and video games, and most children today have very little unstructured play time. Researchers believe that this has a direct negative impact on the child’s… [more]

I ran across two articles today, both addressing some “alternative” approaches to autism. The first article, Diet change gives hyperactive kids new taste for life in Norway, is specifically about children diagnosed with ADHD. But the diet is the casein-free, gluten-free diet used by many families of children with autism. The article describes research following 23 children for the last decade who had been diagnosed with ADHD and had started casein-free, and in some cases, gluten-free diets. All 23 of the children that were the part of this study were found to have abnormal levels of peptides in their urine. The theory is that these peptides are in the children’s bodies, but do not show up in their urine, instead accumulating in organs, like the brain… [more]