OPINION and NEWS: Kids' Lunches Harboring Bacteria--So What?

I was watching CNN this morning when I saw this bit on kids' lunches and how they are too hot and harboring bacteria by lunch time. CNN's chief medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, reported on how the University of Texas in Austin conducted a study and found 98 percent of the lunches tested were too warm by lunch time. The study was done on 700 packed lunches of 3- to 5-year-olds attending day care.

CNN.com in this article quotes Dr. Steve Abrams, member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition as saying, "This is a red flag. This means that the recommendations for food safety are not being followed."

Simple recommendation is to pack more ice-packs into the lunch-bag, and one pack may not be enough.

What the article fails to show, and the blurb on TV for the most part, is to say why should we care if our kids eat a little bacteria? Isn't it good for them to eat a little bacteria now and then to get their bellies used to things not being 100 clean? If my daughter is encouraged to eat dirt once in a while, what's a little warm turkey sandwich going to do? Make her burp a little? Maybe boost her immune system so that if she visits Mexico one day she doesn't automatically have to run to the bathroom after the first piece of unfiltered ice chip slides down her throat?

Aren't we getting a little too sterile and scared of a little not-so-fatal bacteria? Ok, I wouldn't be giving sushi to my kid for lunch without tons of ice-packs being involved in their lunchbox, but I probably wouldn't waste sushi on a child's palette anyway.

In my unmedically sound opinion parents are way too concerned about bacteria and a little dirt: hand sanitizer in every corner of every library, classroom, and playzone and anti-bacterial soap in every bathroom. I know superbugs are not a real concern just yet in this country, but it seems to me they will be one day and we're doing all we can to create them. Let the kids eat some warm sandwiches once in a while, let you kids play on the ground and get a little dirt under their nails, let them eat some bread that fell off their highchair from lunch, their kids they're supposed to be growing an immune system not living in a bubble.

PERSONAL: Daycares, home versus centers

Since we're moving and I'm trying to get back to work part-time, the great daycare debate has taken over in my head as to whether we go with a family-run daycare or a center. Also my daughter is an incredible extrovert (no idea where she got that from), so even if I wasn't working I think she'd still do better going part-time to a daycare.

Since my daughter is so young still, only 14 months, I have repeatedly thought and heard that we really should go with a smaller family-run setting rather than a center, but I do see benefits to both.

Small family-run care benefits: Personalized care and attention, lots of time spent with child one-on-one, in-depth communication with parents, deep connections with children in group, and can be cost-effective.

Center-run benefits: More people working at the center means employees are less likely to stray from a set plan of care, large amount of oversight from parents, corporate HQs of center and other employees, and lots of other children to socialize with.

Some downsides for each

Family-run: Possibly less secure of an environment, can be harder to reach someone if a trip or outing is planned, many of them take vacations or breaks and other care is needed for that time-period.

Centers: Lots of kids means lots more can go wrong including bullying by other kids or impatient employees, can be very costly, usually there are more older children which can be a good or bad thing, needs of children are met at a slower pace and less individualized care is provided.

Like I said, we're leaning more toward a family-run daycare, but are doing extensive research for them because care provided for my daughter not given directly by me or a family member makes me extremely nervous.

Tips? Send them my way!

NEWS: Warning on Geotagging Photos

I always knew you could geotag your photos, which is when the photos on a smartphone like the iPhone are tagged with latitude and longitude coordinates, but I never thought about the dangers of that tool. When you take a photo with your smartphone, then post it publicly online, the location of where those photos were taken is saved in the metadata. I certainly never thought someone could download software to grab the metadata, complete with the exact location, of those photos and then stalk (or worse) those children photographed.

I have to actually thank my mother for this information, which is VERY strange for ME (who used to write about technology) get news from my mother (who still has trouble opening Skype up properly after a year), about technology. Goes to show you, technology and technology news really is everywhere!

If you worry about such things like your children's safety and you post photos publicly online, make sure to turn off the geotagging service on your iPhone or other smartphone. If you have an iPhone you do this by going to the Settings, Location Services and then it has a list of which applications are using the GPS in your phone to geolocate you.

Many of the iPhone applications, like Around Me (that finds restaurants, gas stations etc...around you) or Sit or Squat (which shows you bathrooms in the area--very handy when you are pregnant), you might want to keep on, but you can turn it off just for the camera.

Don't be fooled it's not that a ton of stalkers are using this every day. It's not that easy and they'd have to really really want you or your kid to be going through this kind of trouble, but for me it's definitely worth turning off the service for a bit more safety.

More on this

NEWS: 10 Things Worse or New Now For Parents to Worry About

I was in a discussion with a Patch.com mom council about teens and sex and it made me think of sexting and that sparked this idea for a post:

10 things that we, as parents, have to worry about that our parents didn't have to worry about as much: (Feel free to tell me I'm wrong or add your own points)

1) Sexting
2) Facebook and predators online
3) Harassing text messages from bullies
4) Guns in school
5) Cocaine and other hard drugs at especially early ages
6) Pesticides on food
7) Childhood obesity
8) Being inside too much and forgetting how beautiful/fun nature is
9) Watching too much TV and too old-for-them TV
10) Spending too much money on materialistic crap.

PERSONAL: Help The Helpless

In light of the Casey Anthony trial and reading too many disturbing articles this week, please join me in supporting any organization helping to end child abuse. There is a good list here at the Network for Good website.

Some other ways to help is to become a foster parent, adopt a child, donate to an organization helping with children, become a Big Brother or Big Sister, or even the simple act of speaking up when you think a child is being abused--even if that means in a grocery store.

For the motivation to help--if you dare (I literally felt sick to my stomach and cried after reading this), read this article.

NEWS: Best Children's Hospitals 2010-2011

God forbid that any of us ever have to use a children's hospital for such things as cancer or a genetic disorder, but it does happen. And if you find yourselhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giff in need of a good doctor or hospital, then check out U.S. News and World Report's Honor Roll as well as their pediatric care rankings by specialty.

NEWS: Reannouncement of Maclaren Stroller Recall (2009)

Additional fingertip amputations and cuts have caused the Maclaren company to reannounce their stroller recall from November 2009. An additional 112 injury incident reports have been filed since 2009, making the total reported injuries at 137.

About a million strollers are being recalled in total (from before 2009 and now) after a total of 17 fingertip amputations were reported and multiple laceration and finger-entrapment and bruising reports.

The strollers being recalled are the double-wide and single-wide umbrella strollers.

For many women, buying a stroller brand new is not an option. If you buy a used stroller, however, make sure there are no recalls on the item by checking online through the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

PERSONAL: Your Baby Is Not My Baby

One things mothers love to do is talk about their kids, and what they did to raise them, feed them, get them to sleep through the night, play with them, get them to walk etc...but what many mothers don't get is your kid is not my kid and my kid is not your kid. I love my kid just the way she is and I don't want yours, sorry.

Every kid sleeps differently, every kid eats differently, every kid is not the "average kid." There are dream babies out there who sleep through the night at 3 weeks old (though I have to say I almost don't believe the exist) and there are kids wake up every three hours until they're 2 years old. It's possible, because there are all types of people out there and kids are after people too.

Some babies will eat up all the home-made baby food in the world, some will only eat processed baby food and some will shun the food for months and months before finally succumbing to the spoon. You can't force a baby to be "average" just because the books tell you your kid should be one way, nor would you want them to be because average really sucks.

I really can't complain about my child, she's been ahead of the curve on nearly everything. At 11 months she's eating almost anything we give her, she can walk, she babbles and says momma and dadda and even cat sometimes. She loves books, the pool, other kids and people, smiles constantly and laughs uncontrollably at my tickles. The only thing we have some of a time with is her sleeping. We did all the wrong things and all the right things and on a good day she naps for about a combined 1.5 to 2 hours and a good night she sleeps for 12 hours. There are some nights that for no apparent reason, however, she will scream her guts out at different intervals and it's a toss up between going in and picking her up (which sometimes calms her down and she passes right back out and doesn't wake up again) or not going in at all and sometimes she passes out quickly on her own.

Sometimes though, she does not go back to sleep without screaming for a good 30 minutes up to an hour no matter what we do. Why? Who the hell knows, she's a baby. She can't tell me and I'm not a psychic. I know what has worked for other people hasn't worked for us and I know what does works for us might not work for others out there.

I'm ok with the fact that sometimes my sleep is just gonna get totally messed up, because guess what? That doesn't change. I know that kids mess with your sleep from zygote onward if they are the type to do so. I am 6 weeks pregnant and this morning I essentially woke up at 2am. (I can tell this next one will be a fun one too.) If the kid is a sleeper, those babies are giving their mothers hell in some other way, trust me. No one is getting out of this without some scars (even if some of them are pretty well hidden).

So the next time a mom gives you unsolicited advice that makes you want to rip her hair out, you can tell her bugger (or whatever) off or you can tell her that you're pretty sure your kids aren't twins so what worked for her might not be the answer for you.

Review: The Discovery Children's Museum of Acton

Driving to the "museum," 36 minutes away from my home, I flew right by it and had to turn around. It's nothing like you would expect a museum to look like and at first I thought, "Oh! This is going to be chintzy," but I was definitely mistaken.
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The "museum" is more of a play zone really. There are very few what I would consider educational properties or toys in the place (and certainly no artifacts), but it was a blast for my little one.

The outside looks like an old New England house except for a small sign out front that directs people into the driveway for the Discovery Museums--there is a science one as well for older children behind the one we went to. (I must have missed the tell-tale dinosaur in the lawn because of the rain.)

Inside there are a number of staircases and rooms that each have a different theme. There was the kitchen where little tykes were serving their grandparents, nannies and parents some tasty looking plastic food and an infant corner with appropriate toys.

Another room was the safari room with giant stuffed animals like lions, gorillas etc...There was also an ocean room, which seemed to be a favorite for many of the kids, mostly because there was a black-light-lit box with blue sand on top of it and combs to "comb the sand." My infant tried to climb into it more than a few times.

There was also a bubble room which was honestly a bit lame. There were no bubble machines or bubble wands but just a big vat of soapy water with toys in them and a pulley that created bubble walls around you but the walls didn't float away or anything.

The most loved room was the ball room which was set up with all kinds of different paths for balls to travel and ring bells and circle down transparent tubes--this was probably the most educational room as well.

Overall, even if it wasn't a museum or terribly educational, it was definitely worth the trip and packed full of smiles, loud shrieks of delight and wide-eyes for my baby girl (and me).

NEWS: Brains of Autistic Children Bigger

I am not up on my autism news, hopefully I will never have to be, but I found it pretty amazing that this research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Medical School is finding children with autism have larger brains even up to the age of 5.

These researchers apparently already knew that children with autism had larger-sized brains at the age of 2, but this new paper they published reads this enlargement continues on for more years to come. Their research, albeit not with a large group (only 59 kids), shows that the brains of these children started growing extra "matter" as (possibly) early as before the babies turned one.

So whereas people who feel their doctor(s) may be over-diagnosing and perhaps their child is not autistic can now have one test done to rule it out or prove the doctor correct.

The CDC's site reads that one in every 10 children is born with the disorder now, hopefully places like the University of North Carolina can continue their research with larger groups and find undeniable indicators at an early stage to help treat, and ultimately find a prevention or cure for, autism.

NEWS: Federal Guidelines Released on Kid Food Ads

I'm not sure we can exactly take stock that companies who market their food to children are going to do the right thing, because it's really their bottom line they're worried about not the kids, but it is disheartening. This blogger for the Houston Chronicle, a former advertising lawyer from NYC, outlines a good argument about food advertising to children and some of the stealthy ways these companies are doing it (deplorable yes).
Worth a good read and thought.

Ultimately, however, IMO it is the parent(s) who are responsible for making sure their children are eating healthy 90 percent of the time. If a kid has some extra change and buys the junk food on their own time, it's not going to be enough of the time to really make it an issue. And trust me, kids can eat crap once in a while and not get fat if they are exercising enough. I'm prime example, I ate PopTarts every morning for YEARS (blueberry or strawberry frosted only) and was still able to run around and burn those nasty calories off. How? Because my mom regulated the TV and indoor time like a jailhouse guard. Yes, I don't come from a big breed of Italians and I'm not saying everyone is blessed enough to be able to have PopTarts every morning and not get chubby, but it's all in moderation is what I'm saying and the parents should be the moderators, not the kids.