 by Elizabeth Cespedes, MS Children in the United States consume an average of 7 hour/day of screen media. Television is the biggest culprit, but time spent on cellular phones, in front of the computer, on a tablet, or playing video games contribute a good bit of that time too.
Screen media is present throughout children’s lives – at school, in free time and even in bedrooms. But is this constant exposure bad for children’s health? The answer seems to be yes, especially because of the link between excessive screen time and less sleep. Multiple studies have found that more time spent viewing television or other screen media predicts less daily sleep in children, from infancy through adolescence. Having a television or a computer in the bedroom is worse, leading to more total media use, and regardless of this total use, to a later bedtime and fewer hours of sleep.
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 by Chelsea Jenter, MPH New parents are expected to follow an overwhelming number of guidelines, rules, and suggestions to keep their children healthy and safe. When my kids were born a few years ago, I recall trying to research various suggestions: Should we eat only organic food? What about whole grains? Phthalates? BPA? Cleaning agents? Which kind of sunscreen is OK? What about bug spray? All parents want to do what is best for their kids, but navigating the current landscape can be terrifying. So here is a suggestion with a terrific bang for the buck: make sure your kids get enough sleep. Adequate sleep affects many outcomes in positive ways.  by Chrissy Horan, MPH You can probably count on one hand the number of people you know who do not text. And the younger you are, the more common texting is among your peers. Specifically among teenagers, texting is popular with 12-17 year olds sending more than 5 times the number of texts per day as adults. In a prior post, Renata Smith already discussed the rising use of text messaging for weight loss and the state of the literature.
We learned in focus groups with parents that they were more likely to read messages because they were brief, immediate and “hard to ignore”. Just think about how many unread text messages are on your phone versus unread emails in your inbox. In addition to its rising use to encourage weight loss, text messaging has become an important way to share all sorts of health information. Studies have used text messaging to influence smoking cessation, asthma management, sunscreen application, heart failure self-management, prenatal care and medication adherence.  by Stephanie Linakis, MS The Crime Cookies, candy, breakfast cereal, and ice cream may be sweet, but they aren't the largest source of daily calories for adults and kids. That honor goes to sugar-sweetened beverages.
Sugar-sweetened beverages, or SSBs, are at the center of much debate in obesity research these days. More and more studies support an association between SSB consumption and heightened caloric intake, weight gain, obesity and a number of other poor health outcomes among people of all ages. And it’s not just soda. Other carbonated soft drinks, juice, sport and energy drinks, sweetened milk, tea, and coffee, and other beverages where any type of sugar has been added stand colorfully side by side in the suspect lineup.  by Avik Chatterjee, MD Tasha, a fifteen-year old girl I was seeing at our clinic at a family homeless shelter (formerly a motel), stared at the floor as I talked with her about her sore throat and stuffy nose. Toward the end of the conversation, I asked her if anyone had ever talked to her about her weight, which was at the 99th percentile for girls her age.
“Yes. My primary care doctor said I should eat healthier and go to the gym.” I looked around the stuffy, re-purposed motel room, currently being used as a meeting room, clinic, and storage room. The view from the window was of a large parking lot and cars whizzing by on the neighboring I-95. There was not a gym in sight. |
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