User login
Think for a moment: what’s the worst thing that can happen at your wedding? Getting stood up? A drunken brawl? An outbreak of Norovirus? You’re not using your imagination. Right: Brad Pitt shows up (unless you’re Angelina Jolie, in which case congratulations and thanks for reading my blog, I’m a huge admirer of your work).
This is precisely the nightmare that confronted groom Daniel Lingwood, 41, who inadvertently booked the same Buckinghamshire hotel as the Sexiest Man Alive for his nuptials to 28-year-old Abi. When Daniel spotted the actor across the lobby, did he react like any sensible Not-Brad-Pitt Brit and create a diversion by chucking a sterling tray of crumpets in front of a pack of foxhounds while singing “God Save the Queen”? No, he did not. He rushed to grab his betrothed and introduced her to Mr. Pitt, posing for a photo that was then digitally shared with the whole world. To do this with, say, Steve Buscemi is one thing, but Brad Pitt? The first rule of Brad Pitt is we do not take photos with Brad Pitt.
Without restraint
We pediatricians know parents lie to us every day, right? No one really smokes outside all the time. Their kids do not take 400 units of vitamin D every day. And that bike helmet? It’s in the garage under a big pile of outlet covers, stair gates, and vitamin bottles. So when we read this week that a new survey from Safe Kids Worldwide finds that 1 in 4 parents think it’s okay to leave their children unrestrained in the car as long as it’s a short trip or they’re driving at night, are you surprised?
Yes, you are! You’re surprised not because many parents who say they properly restrain their children end the sentence with an inaudible asterisk (*just not on short trips or overnight drives, doc). No, you’re surprised because the people who don’t think car seats are a big deal are the same ones who would pay huge premiums to send their kids to an exclusive preschool, assuming they survive to that age. According to the survey, non-bucklers were much more likely to have household incomes over $100,000, to hold graduate degrees, and to way overpay for a tall skinny mocha latte, no whip.
These are, in other words, the same privileged people who delay or forgo their kids’ immunizations. Kate Carr, president and CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide, said, "We haven't done a focus group yet that would ask, Do they think their car is safer? Do they think they're a safer driver?" As far as I can tell, they think that money itself has magical powers to fight disease and protect children in crashes, just as it improves the flavor of coffee (seriously, roll up a $100 bill sometime and use it to stir in your Turbinado sugar - you can taste the difference). I propose a new public service campaign with arty black-and-white posters displayed at yoga studios, wine tastings, and cupcake boutiques all over the country: “Yes, your child, too, can die, so buckle up every time, and hey, while you’re at it, immunize!”
The little things
Psychologists tell us that happy people tend to take pleasure in even the smallest of victories. By that measure, pediatricians should be giddy at the first large-scale study showing that teens in the United States are actually following our advice when it comes to healthy lifestyles. The gains are tiny! Are you smiling yet?
The authors, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, polled tens of thousands of 6th-to-10th-graders around the country in 2002, 2006, and 2010, to see how their obesity-related behaviors were changing. In every behavior they studied, they discovered encouraging trends, presuming these trends continue in a linear fashion for the next 160 years. Kids in the survey improved over the decade in time spent in physical activity, daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, eating breakfast regularly, avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages and snacks, and limiting television and computer use. The authors fail to report whether teens also cleaned up their rooms, helped more old ladies cross the street, and decreased their greenhouse gas emissions.
What did not change appreciably over time was kids’ average body mass index measurements, but even this can be framed as a victory when contrasted with prior trends demonstrating that by 2050 American kids would weigh more than the average rhinoceros. Personally, I’m satisfied enough with these results to move on to more pressing anticipatory guidance. Since helping others also increases happiness, I’m going to ask each teen to find one affluent young parent to lecture about using car seats.
The nuclear option
In a world where it seems like we’re finding something new to fear every day, isn’t it nice to learn that something is safer than we thought? Researchers publishing in the British Journal of Cancer now bring us a study of around 10,000 children followed from 1962 to 2007, finding that their risks of childhood leukemia were in no way related to their home’s proximity to a nuclear reactor. Children with two heads were counted as 1.5 individuals, and kids who glowed were interviewed at a distance of 100 meters, using a megaphone. Children whose genetic mutations gave them an uncanny resemblance to Brad Pitt were interviewed and then reminded never to be photographed at a stranger’s wedding party unless the groom shared the same rare disorder.
David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012). He is also vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, N.C., and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and as an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television, and Internet outlets.
Think for a moment: what’s the worst thing that can happen at your wedding? Getting stood up? A drunken brawl? An outbreak of Norovirus? You’re not using your imagination. Right: Brad Pitt shows up (unless you’re Angelina Jolie, in which case congratulations and thanks for reading my blog, I’m a huge admirer of your work).
This is precisely the nightmare that confronted groom Daniel Lingwood, 41, who inadvertently booked the same Buckinghamshire hotel as the Sexiest Man Alive for his nuptials to 28-year-old Abi. When Daniel spotted the actor across the lobby, did he react like any sensible Not-Brad-Pitt Brit and create a diversion by chucking a sterling tray of crumpets in front of a pack of foxhounds while singing “God Save the Queen”? No, he did not. He rushed to grab his betrothed and introduced her to Mr. Pitt, posing for a photo that was then digitally shared with the whole world. To do this with, say, Steve Buscemi is one thing, but Brad Pitt? The first rule of Brad Pitt is we do not take photos with Brad Pitt.
Without restraint
We pediatricians know parents lie to us every day, right? No one really smokes outside all the time. Their kids do not take 400 units of vitamin D every day. And that bike helmet? It’s in the garage under a big pile of outlet covers, stair gates, and vitamin bottles. So when we read this week that a new survey from Safe Kids Worldwide finds that 1 in 4 parents think it’s okay to leave their children unrestrained in the car as long as it’s a short trip or they’re driving at night, are you surprised?
Yes, you are! You’re surprised not because many parents who say they properly restrain their children end the sentence with an inaudible asterisk (*just not on short trips or overnight drives, doc). No, you’re surprised because the people who don’t think car seats are a big deal are the same ones who would pay huge premiums to send their kids to an exclusive preschool, assuming they survive to that age. According to the survey, non-bucklers were much more likely to have household incomes over $100,000, to hold graduate degrees, and to way overpay for a tall skinny mocha latte, no whip.
These are, in other words, the same privileged people who delay or forgo their kids’ immunizations. Kate Carr, president and CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide, said, "We haven't done a focus group yet that would ask, Do they think their car is safer? Do they think they're a safer driver?" As far as I can tell, they think that money itself has magical powers to fight disease and protect children in crashes, just as it improves the flavor of coffee (seriously, roll up a $100 bill sometime and use it to stir in your Turbinado sugar - you can taste the difference). I propose a new public service campaign with arty black-and-white posters displayed at yoga studios, wine tastings, and cupcake boutiques all over the country: “Yes, your child, too, can die, so buckle up every time, and hey, while you’re at it, immunize!”
The little things
Psychologists tell us that happy people tend to take pleasure in even the smallest of victories. By that measure, pediatricians should be giddy at the first large-scale study showing that teens in the United States are actually following our advice when it comes to healthy lifestyles. The gains are tiny! Are you smiling yet?
The authors, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, polled tens of thousands of 6th-to-10th-graders around the country in 2002, 2006, and 2010, to see how their obesity-related behaviors were changing. In every behavior they studied, they discovered encouraging trends, presuming these trends continue in a linear fashion for the next 160 years. Kids in the survey improved over the decade in time spent in physical activity, daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, eating breakfast regularly, avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages and snacks, and limiting television and computer use. The authors fail to report whether teens also cleaned up their rooms, helped more old ladies cross the street, and decreased their greenhouse gas emissions.
What did not change appreciably over time was kids’ average body mass index measurements, but even this can be framed as a victory when contrasted with prior trends demonstrating that by 2050 American kids would weigh more than the average rhinoceros. Personally, I’m satisfied enough with these results to move on to more pressing anticipatory guidance. Since helping others also increases happiness, I’m going to ask each teen to find one affluent young parent to lecture about using car seats.
The nuclear option
In a world where it seems like we’re finding something new to fear every day, isn’t it nice to learn that something is safer than we thought? Researchers publishing in the British Journal of Cancer now bring us a study of around 10,000 children followed from 1962 to 2007, finding that their risks of childhood leukemia were in no way related to their home’s proximity to a nuclear reactor. Children with two heads were counted as 1.5 individuals, and kids who glowed were interviewed at a distance of 100 meters, using a megaphone. Children whose genetic mutations gave them an uncanny resemblance to Brad Pitt were interviewed and then reminded never to be photographed at a stranger’s wedding party unless the groom shared the same rare disorder.
David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012). He is also vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, N.C., and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and as an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television, and Internet outlets.
Think for a moment: what’s the worst thing that can happen at your wedding? Getting stood up? A drunken brawl? An outbreak of Norovirus? You’re not using your imagination. Right: Brad Pitt shows up (unless you’re Angelina Jolie, in which case congratulations and thanks for reading my blog, I’m a huge admirer of your work).
This is precisely the nightmare that confronted groom Daniel Lingwood, 41, who inadvertently booked the same Buckinghamshire hotel as the Sexiest Man Alive for his nuptials to 28-year-old Abi. When Daniel spotted the actor across the lobby, did he react like any sensible Not-Brad-Pitt Brit and create a diversion by chucking a sterling tray of crumpets in front of a pack of foxhounds while singing “God Save the Queen”? No, he did not. He rushed to grab his betrothed and introduced her to Mr. Pitt, posing for a photo that was then digitally shared with the whole world. To do this with, say, Steve Buscemi is one thing, but Brad Pitt? The first rule of Brad Pitt is we do not take photos with Brad Pitt.
Without restraint
We pediatricians know parents lie to us every day, right? No one really smokes outside all the time. Their kids do not take 400 units of vitamin D every day. And that bike helmet? It’s in the garage under a big pile of outlet covers, stair gates, and vitamin bottles. So when we read this week that a new survey from Safe Kids Worldwide finds that 1 in 4 parents think it’s okay to leave their children unrestrained in the car as long as it’s a short trip or they’re driving at night, are you surprised?
Yes, you are! You’re surprised not because many parents who say they properly restrain their children end the sentence with an inaudible asterisk (*just not on short trips or overnight drives, doc). No, you’re surprised because the people who don’t think car seats are a big deal are the same ones who would pay huge premiums to send their kids to an exclusive preschool, assuming they survive to that age. According to the survey, non-bucklers were much more likely to have household incomes over $100,000, to hold graduate degrees, and to way overpay for a tall skinny mocha latte, no whip.
These are, in other words, the same privileged people who delay or forgo their kids’ immunizations. Kate Carr, president and CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide, said, "We haven't done a focus group yet that would ask, Do they think their car is safer? Do they think they're a safer driver?" As far as I can tell, they think that money itself has magical powers to fight disease and protect children in crashes, just as it improves the flavor of coffee (seriously, roll up a $100 bill sometime and use it to stir in your Turbinado sugar - you can taste the difference). I propose a new public service campaign with arty black-and-white posters displayed at yoga studios, wine tastings, and cupcake boutiques all over the country: “Yes, your child, too, can die, so buckle up every time, and hey, while you’re at it, immunize!”
The little things
Psychologists tell us that happy people tend to take pleasure in even the smallest of victories. By that measure, pediatricians should be giddy at the first large-scale study showing that teens in the United States are actually following our advice when it comes to healthy lifestyles. The gains are tiny! Are you smiling yet?
The authors, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, polled tens of thousands of 6th-to-10th-graders around the country in 2002, 2006, and 2010, to see how their obesity-related behaviors were changing. In every behavior they studied, they discovered encouraging trends, presuming these trends continue in a linear fashion for the next 160 years. Kids in the survey improved over the decade in time spent in physical activity, daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, eating breakfast regularly, avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages and snacks, and limiting television and computer use. The authors fail to report whether teens also cleaned up their rooms, helped more old ladies cross the street, and decreased their greenhouse gas emissions.
What did not change appreciably over time was kids’ average body mass index measurements, but even this can be framed as a victory when contrasted with prior trends demonstrating that by 2050 American kids would weigh more than the average rhinoceros. Personally, I’m satisfied enough with these results to move on to more pressing anticipatory guidance. Since helping others also increases happiness, I’m going to ask each teen to find one affluent young parent to lecture about using car seats.
The nuclear option
In a world where it seems like we’re finding something new to fear every day, isn’t it nice to learn that something is safer than we thought? Researchers publishing in the British Journal of Cancer now bring us a study of around 10,000 children followed from 1962 to 2007, finding that their risks of childhood leukemia were in no way related to their home’s proximity to a nuclear reactor. Children with two heads were counted as 1.5 individuals, and kids who glowed were interviewed at a distance of 100 meters, using a megaphone. Children whose genetic mutations gave them an uncanny resemblance to Brad Pitt were interviewed and then reminded never to be photographed at a stranger’s wedding party unless the groom shared the same rare disorder.
David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012). He is also vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, N.C., and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and as an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television, and Internet outlets.