A recent article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer indicates just how much of an impact violent portrayal on TV have on children. And it’s not simply truly violent movies, but cartoons which casts physical injury in a humorous light which influences children as well.

For example, toddlers and babies who watched an hour a day of violent TV, on average, would double their risk of developing attention problems five years later, a report from Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute said.

A separate study by the institute linked watching violent programming in preschool years to bullying, cheating, fighting and other aggressive behavior among boys in early grade-school years.Together, the research is a warning about the importance of selecting what young children watch on television, even cartoons.

“You are actually teaching them that violence is funny,” said Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a co-author of both reports, which were released by Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center and the University of Washington.

It is definitely worth the reading time and may shed some light on the content that your kids are readily absorbing.

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Studies lay out violent TV’s risk to tots

According to a seven year long study by University College Dublin,

“The diet of pregnant mothers plays a significant role in the chances of their children developing asthma.”

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Pregnancy diet tied to asthma

That said, the last of the top ten was informative and worth mentioning:

Children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.

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Fatherhood Facts?

Though I have worked hard to lose weight I tend to bounce around which is actually not that good for you. It is that much better to remain a constant weight than to gain weight only to shed it 6 months later.

But a recent article supports that daddies are the most effected when it comes to children.

Parents have long griped that having children sidetracks their best-laid exercise plans. Now they have evidence.

A first-of-its-kind study released in May by the University of Pittsburgh concluded that parenthood demonstrably reduces physical activity, while marriage has only a negligible effect.

Just how big a hit do active parents take?

Roughly 525 participants were tracked for two years, as part of a 17-year study called the University of Pittsburgh Physical Activity Study.

Those who remained childless lost only a half hour of physical activity per week, while those who had children lost about three and a half hours.

Men, in particular, were affected.

Women, who exercised on average four hours before children, lost about 90 minutes a week once they became mothers. New fathers, who used to log just under eight hours of activity weekly, cut back a whopping four and a half hours.

This definitely supports my life style. Though I could probably shove all the kids in a wagon and pull them around all day. Kids get bored after 15 minutes and my 5 month old needs to stop and eat or get a diaper change. In other words, it isn’t as easy as it may sound. Going to bed when the kids do and waking up for a morning run might help. Personally, after losing about 30 pounds, and after my last daughter was born 5 months ago, I just can’t seem to coordinate time to just go for an evening walk.

Less exercise is definitely my largest factor. This means I can’t eat as much or I will balloon right up with excess weight.

Any dads out there who have experienced this first hand?

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Dads Gain Play Time But Lose Exercise Time

Symptoms of postpartum depression are the same as clinical depression such as sadness, fatigue, hopelessness, and drastic changes in mood and appetite. It can be as excessive as preoccupation with a child’s health or as serious as inward thoughts of harming the baby.

The original theory was that postpartum depression was a result in hormone levels in the body. But studies show that there is no definitive hormone cause. They found that it rather stems from a collection of key issues such as history of depression, fatigue, marital discord, social support and financial support. Because of this, fathers have been sitting right beside the moms facing the same issues.

What I found interesting is that in the study, they determined which parents showed symptoms of depression and then probed parent-child interactions, such as reading, telling stories, and singing songs which are all considered critically important for positive child development. They found that depression in either parent was associated with reduced interaction and that fathers with greater levels of depression interacted with their child much less.

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Fathers Suffer From Postpartum Depression Too

DrGreene at drgreene.com answers some questions regarding the issue of thumb sucking.

How old is too old?

According to the American Dental Association, thumb sucking does not cause permanent problems with the teeth or jaw line unless it is continued beyond 4 to 5 years of age. As it turns out, somewhere between 85% and 99% of children have finished thumb sucking spontaneously before this period.

Read the full article to see the answers to:
*Which children keep sucking their thumbs?
*When do children suck their thumbs?
*How do you get children to stop?

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Thumb Sucking, How Old is Too Old?

When parents have a choice whether or not to send their kids off to Day Care or have one parent stay home I definitely think the parent must step up and raise their kid and not ship them off to some facility. But I also believe some school systems right here in America breed the same results. Not everybody can home school, but in an ideal world one parent could stay home and raise the kids and home school while the other heads of to work for the day to bring home the bacon.

I was just reading an article about how they have proven poor behavior is directly linked to the amount of time a child spends in Day Care. Though this may be true it also says that the biggest influences are parents guidance and genetics.

A much-anticipated report from the largest and longest-running study of American child care has found that keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that the child would become disruptive in class — and that the effect persisted through the sixth grade.

The effect was slight, and well within the normal range for healthy children, the researchers found. And as expected, parents’ guidance and their genes had by far the strongest influence on how children behaved.

But the finding held up regardless of the child’s sex or family income, and regardless of the quality of the day care center. With more than two million American preschoolers attending day care, the increased disruptiveness very likely contributes to the load on teachers who must manage large classrooms, the authors argue.

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Does Day Care Produce Bad Acting Kids?

Not surprising we find that those who spend more time relaxing in a nice hot jacuzzi had a lower level of sperm. But as they spent more time out of it their sperm count began to climb. So it is not a permanent condition and can be reversed by taking less jacuzzi dips.

After 3 to 6 months, five of the men had an average increase in total motile sperm counts of 491 percent. “A large chunk of men who regularly take hot baths, sit in hot tubs or Jacuzzi’s can improve their semen quality and possibly their fertility potential by simply discontinuing this activity,” Turek said.

Five of the six men who did not see an increase in sperm count or quality were chronic cigarette smokers with a significant smoking history, whereas three of the men who had a good response were only occasional smokers.

“The message for men trying to conceive,” Turek concluded, “is to take great care of yourself and treat your body like a temple, as sperm production in particular is very sensitive to overall male health. It makes sense, given that a normal healthy man makes 1,200 sperm per heartbeat. This is a fast running engine that needs a healthy body to keep up that pace.”

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Hot Tubs Reduce Fertility in Men

The biggest factor for parents is after a baby is born. There is a huge drop in sexual activity and sexual behavour.

Studies have found that there’s a 40% drop in sexual activity within the first year after a child is born, while around 70% of new parents report a change in their sexual behaviour. But it appears the biggest problem for stressed-out, exhausted parents is getting back into the swing of things after a baby comes along.

So if you just had a new baby and are experiencing “lack of” sex, you are not alone. But the studies to me are not very shocking. Not to get into my personal life… but after having 5 children there are things that influence and interfere with sexual activity whether it is internal or external. I think it is natural, but the real key is how long does it last, and can you spring back several weeks from having a baby?

If you are having some marital problems I would assume it would be a tad more difficult to snap back to normal.

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Did You Know Parents Have Less Sex?

What I really dislike is when people blame their childhood on everything. I mean there are people that come from terrible backgrounds and come out just fine down the road. But, according to recent research it says that the connection between father and child can really impact interrelationships in adulthood.

The research, which was supervised by Prof. Yossi Guttman and Dr. Amnon Lazar of the University of Haifa, evaluated 231 women and men between the ages of 22 and 32. The orphans surveyed in the study lost their fathers between the ages of 6 and 12 and the participants of divorced parents, experienced the absent of their father during the same period of childhood. The research used various parameters to measure both the participants’ father-child relationship and their capacity for intimacy as reflected in closeness, sexuality and commitment with their adult partners.

The findings noted barriers that limited the ability to develop intimate relationships with their partners among those whose thoughts of an absent father caused a marked rise in negative emotions and distancing. The results also noted a correlation between a balanced father-child relationship (in terms of closeness and distance) and the ability to form and sustain intimate relationships in adulthood. “The results showed that orphans and children of divorced parents experienced different emotional connections with their fathers. The orphans tended to idolize their fathers, while children of divorced parents tended to feel frustration and anger towards their fathers,” explained Dr. Nahmani.

The study also noted that a greater feeling of loss towards one’s father meant a smaller chance of establishing an intimate relationship in adulthood. “A feeling of loss is connected to the ability or lack of ability in the long term, to adjust to the loss of a father and to experience a change in the relationship with him. 41% of the participants whose father was permanently or partially absent reported a feeling of loss, often accompanied by a fear of being abandoned a second time and reported not being involved in a relationship,” she continued.

Another finding in the study is a connection between the emotional relationship with one’s father and the capacity for experienced intimacy in desire, participants who reported being emotionally distant from their fathers reported difficulty in entering into intimate physical relationships with their partners. However, the study revealed a higher level of closeness and commitment in orphans and children of divorced parents when in an intimate relationship. According to Dr. Nahmani, this finding shows that the potential for developing intimate relationships exists even when a father was absent during childhood. Those who overcame their difficulties as they matured made it possible to establish quality intimate relationships.

“The research found a definitive connection between the quality of the father-child relationship and interpersonal relationships later in life. It is vital that we continue to research the long-term effects of losing a father in order to answer the needs of these children over time,” noted Dr. Nahmani.

(Thanks hlei)

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Relationships Early On Effect Relationships Later