No Fats for Children is Dangerous

No Fats for Children is Dangerous - Children need fats in their diet. If you think you can help your little child become a fashion model, that's very risky. A new research showed that parents who eliminate all types of fats from their children's alimentation could cause serious health issues for their kids.

It is well known fact that some amount of 'good' fats, like olive and sunflower oils, is crucial for proper growth and development. But the increasing children obesity level has pushed many families to adopt low-fat diets for their children. The number of overweight children has doubled in ten years, now 25 % of the children aged 11-15 being classified as obese - so fat that their health is threatened.

The new research reveals that children burn more fat than adults do, related to each calorie spent, so that they store fat with more difficulty. This means the parents do not need to go to extremes.

The team led by Dr John Kostyak at the Pennsylvania State University assessed the burning rate of body fat in ten children aged six to ten, and in ten adults. All the subjects were middle weighed relatively to their age and sex. They were given the same common American diet for three days before the tests, even if the adults received larger meals.

The subjects' oxygen consume and carbon dioxide residue, as also heat production, were measured in a calorimeter room and a hood system, for nine hours on three separate days at a low physical activity level (like watching movies or reading).

The researchers also counted the nitrogen levels in the volunteers' urine to see how much fat they burned. The total fat burned level in a day was the same for both children and adults. This meant that children burned much more fat linked to the energy they used, in grams of burned fat per calorie of energy consume, about 50 % more. Women and girls burned more fat than men and boys of similar age did.

Other researches had shown that dietary fats are essential for normal growth, as they contain fat-soluble vitamins (like A and D), vital for the development of eyesight, bones and other organs. "Sufficient fat must be included in the diet for children to support normal growth and development.", said Kostyak.

"Children need the fatty acids and omega 3 found in fat, and fat soluble vitamins A,D and E for growth, development and eyesight. There is a risk parents could think that all fat is bad for their children - some years ago we had a phenomenon known as Muesli Belt syndrome where parents went to extremes with food that didn't contain all the nutrients they need." said Jacqui Lowdon, of the British Dietetic Association.

"35 % of calories from a healthy diet should come from fat, ideally polyunsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats such as olive and sunflower oils. These set up healthy eating patterns for life", she added.


Source: news.softpedia.com

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Working Mothers Have Fatter Children

Working Mothers Have Fatter Children - Their children get bad food habits. This is one of the most unexpected results related to the emancipation of women: kids get increasingly fatter. A novel study made at the University of Bristol and published in Research in Public Policy from the Center for Market and Public Organization revealed that children aged 5 to 7, whose mothers had a full-time job had more chances of being overweight at 16. There was no sudden effect but children turned more obese with the age.

The body mass index (BMI), assessing weight correlated to height, revealed that rates of obesity in British children aged 2 to 10 boosted from 1995 to 2003 from 10 % to 15 % (in boys) and for girls the rate was 10% - 13 %. There was also an upward tendency in the number of employed women aged 16 to 59: from 59 % in 1971 to 74 % in 2007.

Previous American studies had found a correlation between full-time employed mothers and increased childhood obesity. This new study investigates whether a child's age when the mother goes out to work affects the child’s weight later in life. The new research used data coming from two British birth cohorts: the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Survey.

The results revealed that children aged 5 to 7, with full-time employed mothers presented a likelihood increased by 5 - 8 % to be overweight, no matter the gender of the children. While the mother is outside, children’s eating habits are affected.

As mothers have less time for cooking, families increasingly eat out or buy ready-made food, often junk food. The other persons who take care of the children can come up with wrong food choices. Imagine a grandma offering sugar-filled or fatty food items to the children, as these addicting types of food could lead to a bond between her and her grandchildren.

When parents are out, children are more likely to remain indoors watching TV or playing computer games while consuming junk food rather than playing outside wasting calories.

Obesity turns obvious when the child is between 5 and 7 years old because it's when children’s food preferences and habits develop, due to an inner mechanism or because they start going to school.


Source: news.softpedia.com

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11 Tips For Avoiding Kids' Accidents

11 Tips For Avoiding Kids' Accidents - And 3 in case of accident
Annually, one in 8 children reach the hospital following an accident, which occurred mainly inside the house. An infant can easy fall from the table where its dippers are changed or choke with food or small objects that got stuck in the throat. Toddlers often fall while climbing over all places or get burned or poisoned while tasting everything they grab. The main cause of death in the case of 3-7 years old age children are circulation accidents and drowning. School age children experience accidents in the street or while playing outside.

A toddler aged 1-3 cannot be taught to retain which are the dangers. That's why the main task belongs to the adults. The drawers and the oven door must be blocked introducing a stick through the handles.

The surfaces of the playgrounds must be covered by sand, so that in case the child falls from the swing, it will land on soft ground. Are there lakes or running waters close to your house? You should know that a 1-2 years old child can drawn even in a water of a few cm deep, because when toddlers fall face down they lose the notion of up-down and they won't be able to get up. A child aged 1-3 years old should never be left alone to play outside.

A pre-school age child understands only clear signs and can focus in just one thing at once. But street circulation means various abstract concepts and ambiguous messages, that's why a pre-school child should never be left alone to cross the street. Till the age of 12, children are not old enough for circulating alone on the bike in an agglomerated traffic.

Children must use a helmet when biking, riding, skating or playing on a toboggan. Head lesions can have severe effects and even can be deadly. The lack of helmet means, in case of bike accidents, head injuries in 60 % of the cases.

In many countries, safety chairs for cars in the case of the children is a must. The models for infants differ from those for toddlers.

Here are some tips for avoiding toddlers' accidents:
1. Drugs. Keep them in locked cupboards. Ask your guests to keep their drugs in safe places, out of the toddler's reach.

2. Home chemicals. They should be kept in locked boards. Put the products at their place even when leaving the room for some moments. Don't leave detergent remains in the dish washing machine.

3. Cooking machine. Turn always the handles of the pots towards the inner part of the machine. Tie the pot to a protection appliance, if existent. Endow the cooking machine with protection against overturn, for the case when the child can climb over the oven's door. If the child can be burned by touching the oven's door, a protection grill must be placed.

4. Dangerous personal objects. Knives, scissors and others must be locked or kept in places inaccessible to children. When using them, put them out of the edge of the table, where they can be reached by the children. Matches and plastic bags are dangerous for children. Plastic bags are less dangerous if they are tied in knot.

5. Stairs. Fix the high balustrades at about 70-75 cm (2.5 ft) at both edges of the stairs.

6. Windows and balcony doors. Endow them with locks, chains and other safety devices, so that the child cannot open them or slip through them when they are opened for airing.

7. Book shelves. They must be fixed to the walls, if the child likes climbing and hanging on the furniture pieces.

8. Power outlets and electric cables must be endowed with breeches, especially if not used. Cables for lamps, pressers and other objects must be fixed on the wall or furniture, so that the child won't pull the cable, being hit by the object. If not really necessary, remove these objects. Do not leave the presser on the ironing table, nor its cable hanging from the table.

9. Hot water. The temperature of the hot water should be regulated to 50o C, so that the child won't get scalded when opening the tap.

10. Toys. Discard toys having sharp edges or corners, which are small or demountable, as they can be swallowed, choking the child. The eyes and the ears of the teddy bears must be well fixed.

11. Sweets and snacks. Don't leave hard candies or peanuts at the reach of the toddlers, they can choke with them.

In case of accident:
1. Poisoning. If the child has ingested a toxic liquid, rinse well its mouth and give it to drink 1-2 cups of water or milk. Call the doctor. If a corrosive chemical reached the eyes, rinse them immediately with a lot of water for 10 minutes.

2. Burning. For minor burnings, apply cold water (but not too cold) on the lesion for about 20 minutes. If the lesion is larger than the child's hand or is on the face, joint, lower abdomen or genitalia, bring the child immediately to a hospital. More profound lesions must always be treated by a doctor.

3. Choking. If something has stopped on the trachea, remove it immediately through the Heimlich method. If you do not know it, call your doctor or participate to special classes teaching it.


Source: news.softpedia.com

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