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What we know about car seats and how kids use them

August 21, 2012 By 1 Comment

We have known for a long time that car seats save children’s lives. But even with that knowledge, do parents and caregivers use them appropriately?

A new study by researchers at University of Michigan found that while most people use child restraints properly, many do not. The researchers analyzed data on more than 21,000 children observed in cars at gas stations, fast-food restaurants, recreation centers and child care centers from 2007 to 2009 using guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

They found 21  percent of children ages 4 and younger were not following the recommendations for sitting in car seats. Thirty-three percent of 4- and 5-year olds and 66 percent of 6- and 7-year-olds were not following the recommendations for using car seats or booster seats. And – the most precarious finding – 11 percent of children were not wearing seat belts or sitting in car seats at all. Children were especially likely to be completely unrestrained if they were driving with an adult who wasn’t wearing a seat belt or if there were four or more children in the car.

While the evidence on kids using car seats is not encouraging, there are some intervention programs proven to increase the use of child safety seats. One systematic review found strong evidence that child safety seat laws increase the use of safety seats. Programs that combine education with distribution of car seats, incentives for installing car seats correctly and stepped up enforcement of laws also increase the use of car seats.

The bottom line: Car seats help save kids lives. It’s important to use them as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness, Youth Development Tagged With: , , , ,

To spray or not to spray?

July 3, 2012 By 1 Comment

Lyme disease – an infectious disease spread by ticks that thrive in wooded areas – is on the rise in the Northeast. The disease can be debilitating if undiagnosed, causing chronic fatigue, joint pain andneurological problems.

As a mom, it’s a really worry for me.  My kids are outside every day, often on trails or in wooded areas.  I check them daily for ticks, but one would be easy to miss.

This year, I’ve often debated with other parents the risk and benefits of using bug spray. On one hand, there is clear evidence that the insecticide DEET – or N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide – effectively repels ticks.  But on the other hand, there are cases where it is clear that DEET has led to health problems including skin problems, hallucinations and seizures.

So I went hunting for some more sweeping analyses on what the evidence says about DEET. The Journal of Family Practice provided a good summary of several systematic reviews on the use of DEET in children. Both found the risk of adverse reactions was low – about 0.1 percent of children exposed experiences an adverse reaction – and that there was no clear dose-dependent relationship between exposure and extent of severity of the reaction.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control maintains that DEET doesn’t present health concerns if it’s used according to the instructions, including not applying it to open wounds, under clothing, or near eyes or mouth.

As a mother, though, the narrative reports of small children undergoing hospitalization for seizures and neurological problems – even though it’s a very small number of cases over decades – stick in my mind.  So we use bug spray with DEET sparingly.  If I know the kids will be in the woods or fields where there are higher populations of ticks, I’ll give them a light spray – always with a bath that night to wash off all of the spray.  Even though the evidence shows DEET is safe, I still feel uneasy about this issue.

What about you? Are you comfortable using buy spray on a regular basis?

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Studies on same-sex parenting: The details matter

June 20, 2012 By 1 Comment

Here on EBL, we’ve talked frequently about what makes for quality research. There’s new research out this month on gay parents that illustrates the importance of seeking out high quality research.

A new study by a University of Texas sociologist  surveyed nearly 3,000 Americans ages 18 to 39 to ask about their family structure growing up. Of the participants, 248 grew up in households where one parent  had a same-sex relationship at some point.  The study found that children of these parents were more likely than kids in other family structures to be on public assistance, unemployed or in therapy as adults, among other negative outcomes.

To collect information about same-sex parenting, the study asked: “Did either of your parents ever have a romantic relationship with someone of the same sex?” and then asked whether participants had lived with their parents at the time.

But the question does not collect enough information about these families. Are they parents involved in heterosexual marriages who had an affair, or divorced and then entered into a same-sex relationship?  We just know. The study didn’t ask any questions about whether participants were raised in stable homes with committed parents who were of the same sex.

The study has sparked a flurry of media attention, including the New York Times and Time magazine, among other

s, with plenty of criticism. And the criticism is merited, said Ritch Savin-Williams, Director of the Sex and Gender Lab at the Cornell’s College of Human Ecology.

“The research design of this study is sufficiently flawed (inappropriate comparison group) as to merit disbelief in the findings,” he said. “It is unclear if this major shortcoming was lack of scientific rigor or in some part influenced by the funding sources that have both religious and political agendas.”

There is a systematic review on same-sex parenting that provides more answers. The review looked at 33 studies that lesbian, gay and heterosexual parents. Their analysis found no difference in parenting ability or the children’s psychological and social success between same-sex and heterosexual parent partners.

Clearly, the issue of same-sex parenting is politically-charged for a lot of reasons. The point we’d like to make here on EBL is that it’s important to understand the details of research study, and draw your conclusions with all of the evidence.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, In The Media, Youth Development Tagged With: , , , ,

The evidence on check-ups for kids

May 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With a one- and a three-year-old, I find myself at the pediatrician’s office fairly frequently – and not because my kids are sick. In the first two years of their lives, they visit the pediatrician every 3 months for well visits.

As a new mom, the visits provide a welcome opportunity to ask questions and make sure you’re not making any major mistakes. But the second time around, they can seem unnecessary. So I went out hunting for some evidence to determine whether well-visits are good for kids.

It turns out that they are essential.  A systematic review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined the found that primary medical care in the first three years of life promotes optimal development for children.

The review evaluated 47 studies published from 1979 to 1999 that looked at how activities in primary care settings such as counseling about children’s sleep habits, temperament and behavior encourage healthy development.

The review found behavioral counseling for parents with fussy infants and poor sleepers is effective in helping both parents and babies. It also found that soliciting parents’ concerns about their children’s development helped identify problems. And that structured and systematic approaches to asking about parents’ concerns are most effective.

The review did find some areas for improvement. Among them, efforts to identify developmental problems in young children need to be more methodical and identifying psychosocial risk factors can be improved by using questionnaires and parent-child assessments.

All in all, the evidence makes me feel better about our frequent trips to the pediatrician.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness, Youth Development Tagged With: , , ,

How your working environment impacts your health

March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Adopting a healthy lifestyle can be tough these days, especially for parents working hard to make ends meet. Yes, there are gyms and organic grocery stores, on-demand yoga and healthy cooking magazines.  But for working parents, long hours and irregular schedules make can make it difficult to eat healthily and exercise.

A cadre of researchers are Cornell’s College of Human Ecology are working on this problem, conducting the research and pulling together the best evidence to help families exercise more and eat healthier.

Among them is nutritional sciences professor Carole Devine, who has created and evaluated a program that helps change workplace environments to support physical activity and healthy eating.

The program, called Small Steps are Easier Together, is an active collaboration between Cornell faculty, Cooperative Extension educators and worksite leadership teams across New York. Pilot studies have been conducted in 23 sites since 2006. It involves worksites creating wellness leadership teams, who work with Cornell researchers to implement evidence-based strategies – like creating walking groups, posting maps, and offering more fruit and vegetable options in the cafeteria – to increase walking and promote healthier eating.

The most recent analysis of the program included 188  participants in 10 rural worksites. It found the percentage of sedentary women had declined to from 42 percent to 26 percent. A total of 35 percent of the women moved to a higher activity level.

Devine is also pulling together the evidence on how working conditions impact food decisions for families at home and on the job.

Her research has found that the stress of a busy job impacts parents’ ability to serve healthy meals, leading them to serve quicker and less healthy meals, such as fast food. She’s investigated a variety of coping strategies such as negotiating a more flexible work schedule and teaming up with a neighbor to take turns preparing meals.

Devine’s work highlights the connections between work environments and health, and provide some evidence-based strategies to improve public health.

Filed Under: Cornell Cooperative Extension, Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Moms working outside of the home: Good for kids?

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

How to balance work and raising children is a critical question that most mothers face today.

Many women (my own mother fell into this category) do not have the option to stay home to raise their children because their families need their incomes to get by. Other women (myself included) get an education, start a career, and then decide to have children – leaving them with some big choices about if and how much they should work outside of the home.

To be sure, the solution to this conundrum is different for every family. Our family has decided its best for me to work part-time from home – a choice that provides us with some extra spending money and me with some time to interact with adults on an intellectual level.

But no matter what our circumstances and choices, all mothers are concerned with one thing: what is best for their children.

There is an interesting column this week in the L.A. Times this week that addresses this very question, and delves into the evidence about working moms.

It turns out – according to a systematic review by researchers at the University of California-Irvine – that children whose mothers who return to work while they are infants and toddlers fare the same in school and behaviorally compared to children whose mothers stay home. The review looked at 69 studies over a period of 50 years that included data about children’s school performance and behavioral problems.

The only children who struggled more were those whose mothers returned to very intensive full-time employment early on – a finding that makes a case for longer maternity leaves, the researchers said.

Several factors help explain why maternal employment does not have adverse effects on child outcomes, says Sharon Sassler, associate professor of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell.

For starters, the data shows that most women in the United States work, even after having a child (although many work part-time). Also, most children spend considerable amounts of time away from their families in school, Sassler explained, even as young as three and four years old.

But the biggest factor may be a cultural shift in parenting norms, she said.

“Even though more mothers are working, and more married families contain two working parents than in the past, various studies have revealed that children are spending more time with parents – fathers as well as mothers – than they did in the 1960s,” she said.

“The value of spending time with children has clearly increased, even if working mothers – and fathers – must decrease their own personal leisure time, devotion to house cleaning, or sleep to achieve that end.  And one of the more interesting research findings is that fathers – especially men with a college degree – have increased the amount of time spent with children, both when they are married and when they do not live with their children.  Not only does that offset any potential reduction resulting from working mothers time away from home, but it strengthens ties between all family members – husbands and wives or partners, as well as parents and children.”

In fact, Sassler herself is a working mother with a child in elementary school. On a personal note, she’s found that having two working parents has taught her son the value of cooperation. “He realizes that this is a team affair, and that sacrifices are sometimes required of all family members – but that we all benefit as well from the fruits of all of our labor,” she said.

To sum it up, navigating decisions about working outside of the home can certainly be a source of stress. But knowing the evidence shows that children thrive in both cases can help moms to make the decisions that are best for their families.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Youth Development Tagged With: , , ,
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