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It’s scary how much my 12-year-old son resents his younger brother right now, so much that he can’t stop explaining what a horror it is that they have to share a room, a back seat, and 50% of their DNA. “You just don’t understand,” he’ll cry, “how hard it is (pulls hair dramatically) to live with him!” I get it: 9-year-old boys aren’t always particular about where they throw their clothes, their action figures, their boogers. Maybe this experience will at least keep them both from ever joining a fraternity. Think of it: a whole house full of nothing but brothers.
Blurred guidelines
Back in 2006, the American College of Chest Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics both published guidelines on the use of codeine-containing medications in children, essentially three words long: “Don’t do it.” The rationale was pretty simple: Codeine is inferior to ibuprofen for pain, and when used for cough relief, codeine is exactly like placebo, except for the part where codeine sometimes kills children. That’s the difference, the accidental death part.
Dr. Sunitha V. Kaiser of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto just published a study that asked a simple question: If two large organizations published guidelines in the same year that said a certain drug sometimes kills children and doesn’t help them, how long would it take emergency physicians to prescribe less of that drug? A month? A year? You win a free tablet of acetaminophen-with-codeine if you guessed “never.”
Actually, that’s not quite fair. Over the study period (2001-2010), there was a (very) small decline in codeine prescriptions for kids nationwide, especially for children aged 3-7 years. For cough and URI, however, there was no measurable decline. It was akin to how much codeine helps cough and cold symptoms: none.
These study results put a huge kink in my plan for world domination. I figured that if I could just wheedle my way into a position where I authored AAP guidelines, I’d soon hold a dictatorial sway over the practice of medicine, which I could then parlay into unlimited power. Fortunately, I have a plan B: First, I become an elementary school teacher...
Galvanize
Don’t you hate it when a trend disappears just as you find out about it? Just now, for example, I came up with the greatest idea for a Harlem Shake video. So why did it take a proposed FDA ban for me to learn that you could legally get kids to behave by shocking them with electricity? Did you know about this? Is that why your children have such good manners?
Actually, probably not, since these “electrical stimulation devices” are only used in one place, the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Massachusetts. They reportedly use the devices as the behavioral control method of last resort for patients with severe developmental disorders who might otherwise injure themselves. Of course, since FDA investigators were told of victims suffering burns, scars, muscle spasms, and seizures, perhaps they were just trying to save the kids the effort.
The Food and Drug Administration is still deciding whether to ban the devices, but it’s possible that soon no one will be able to use an FDA-approved electrical shock device to control kids’ behavior. I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing: threatening my kids with posting my Harlem Shake video on Instagram...and tagging them.
The kindest cut
You know what I love the most about science? It’s so weird! Who would think to test whether children might behave better during a meal if their food were cut up instead of whole? A behaviorist at Cornell named Brian Wansink, that’s who! And why would he wonder that? I know, you’re thinking what I’m thinking: because he’s on drugs.
But he’s not. He knows that facial expressions and emotions are a two-way street: Not only do our emotions show on our faces, but when we make our faces express emotions, our brains respond in kind. Try it now: Make a really silly face. Now take a selfie and post it on Instagram. Do you feel silly? Wait until you read the comments!
According to Wansink’s study, children who bare their teeth to eat food like corn on the cob, drumsticks, and apples succumbed to the aggression implied by their expressions, behaving like, well, like my boys anytime they’re together. Now I’m inspired: If the brothers don’t lay off each other, they’re never again going to eat anything larger than a pea. If that doesn’t work, there’s still Instagram, and if that fails, well, college is coming sooner than they think.
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.
It’s scary how much my 12-year-old son resents his younger brother right now, so much that he can’t stop explaining what a horror it is that they have to share a room, a back seat, and 50% of their DNA. “You just don’t understand,” he’ll cry, “how hard it is (pulls hair dramatically) to live with him!” I get it: 9-year-old boys aren’t always particular about where they throw their clothes, their action figures, their boogers. Maybe this experience will at least keep them both from ever joining a fraternity. Think of it: a whole house full of nothing but brothers.
Blurred guidelines
Back in 2006, the American College of Chest Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics both published guidelines on the use of codeine-containing medications in children, essentially three words long: “Don’t do it.” The rationale was pretty simple: Codeine is inferior to ibuprofen for pain, and when used for cough relief, codeine is exactly like placebo, except for the part where codeine sometimes kills children. That’s the difference, the accidental death part.
Dr. Sunitha V. Kaiser of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto just published a study that asked a simple question: If two large organizations published guidelines in the same year that said a certain drug sometimes kills children and doesn’t help them, how long would it take emergency physicians to prescribe less of that drug? A month? A year? You win a free tablet of acetaminophen-with-codeine if you guessed “never.”
Actually, that’s not quite fair. Over the study period (2001-2010), there was a (very) small decline in codeine prescriptions for kids nationwide, especially for children aged 3-7 years. For cough and URI, however, there was no measurable decline. It was akin to how much codeine helps cough and cold symptoms: none.
These study results put a huge kink in my plan for world domination. I figured that if I could just wheedle my way into a position where I authored AAP guidelines, I’d soon hold a dictatorial sway over the practice of medicine, which I could then parlay into unlimited power. Fortunately, I have a plan B: First, I become an elementary school teacher...
Galvanize
Don’t you hate it when a trend disappears just as you find out about it? Just now, for example, I came up with the greatest idea for a Harlem Shake video. So why did it take a proposed FDA ban for me to learn that you could legally get kids to behave by shocking them with electricity? Did you know about this? Is that why your children have such good manners?
Actually, probably not, since these “electrical stimulation devices” are only used in one place, the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Massachusetts. They reportedly use the devices as the behavioral control method of last resort for patients with severe developmental disorders who might otherwise injure themselves. Of course, since FDA investigators were told of victims suffering burns, scars, muscle spasms, and seizures, perhaps they were just trying to save the kids the effort.
The Food and Drug Administration is still deciding whether to ban the devices, but it’s possible that soon no one will be able to use an FDA-approved electrical shock device to control kids’ behavior. I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing: threatening my kids with posting my Harlem Shake video on Instagram...and tagging them.
The kindest cut
You know what I love the most about science? It’s so weird! Who would think to test whether children might behave better during a meal if their food were cut up instead of whole? A behaviorist at Cornell named Brian Wansink, that’s who! And why would he wonder that? I know, you’re thinking what I’m thinking: because he’s on drugs.
But he’s not. He knows that facial expressions and emotions are a two-way street: Not only do our emotions show on our faces, but when we make our faces express emotions, our brains respond in kind. Try it now: Make a really silly face. Now take a selfie and post it on Instagram. Do you feel silly? Wait until you read the comments!
According to Wansink’s study, children who bare their teeth to eat food like corn on the cob, drumsticks, and apples succumbed to the aggression implied by their expressions, behaving like, well, like my boys anytime they’re together. Now I’m inspired: If the brothers don’t lay off each other, they’re never again going to eat anything larger than a pea. If that doesn’t work, there’s still Instagram, and if that fails, well, college is coming sooner than they think.
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.
It’s scary how much my 12-year-old son resents his younger brother right now, so much that he can’t stop explaining what a horror it is that they have to share a room, a back seat, and 50% of their DNA. “You just don’t understand,” he’ll cry, “how hard it is (pulls hair dramatically) to live with him!” I get it: 9-year-old boys aren’t always particular about where they throw their clothes, their action figures, their boogers. Maybe this experience will at least keep them both from ever joining a fraternity. Think of it: a whole house full of nothing but brothers.
Blurred guidelines
Back in 2006, the American College of Chest Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics both published guidelines on the use of codeine-containing medications in children, essentially three words long: “Don’t do it.” The rationale was pretty simple: Codeine is inferior to ibuprofen for pain, and when used for cough relief, codeine is exactly like placebo, except for the part where codeine sometimes kills children. That’s the difference, the accidental death part.
Dr. Sunitha V. Kaiser of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto just published a study that asked a simple question: If two large organizations published guidelines in the same year that said a certain drug sometimes kills children and doesn’t help them, how long would it take emergency physicians to prescribe less of that drug? A month? A year? You win a free tablet of acetaminophen-with-codeine if you guessed “never.”
Actually, that’s not quite fair. Over the study period (2001-2010), there was a (very) small decline in codeine prescriptions for kids nationwide, especially for children aged 3-7 years. For cough and URI, however, there was no measurable decline. It was akin to how much codeine helps cough and cold symptoms: none.
These study results put a huge kink in my plan for world domination. I figured that if I could just wheedle my way into a position where I authored AAP guidelines, I’d soon hold a dictatorial sway over the practice of medicine, which I could then parlay into unlimited power. Fortunately, I have a plan B: First, I become an elementary school teacher...
Galvanize
Don’t you hate it when a trend disappears just as you find out about it? Just now, for example, I came up with the greatest idea for a Harlem Shake video. So why did it take a proposed FDA ban for me to learn that you could legally get kids to behave by shocking them with electricity? Did you know about this? Is that why your children have such good manners?
Actually, probably not, since these “electrical stimulation devices” are only used in one place, the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Massachusetts. They reportedly use the devices as the behavioral control method of last resort for patients with severe developmental disorders who might otherwise injure themselves. Of course, since FDA investigators were told of victims suffering burns, scars, muscle spasms, and seizures, perhaps they were just trying to save the kids the effort.
The Food and Drug Administration is still deciding whether to ban the devices, but it’s possible that soon no one will be able to use an FDA-approved electrical shock device to control kids’ behavior. I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing: threatening my kids with posting my Harlem Shake video on Instagram...and tagging them.
The kindest cut
You know what I love the most about science? It’s so weird! Who would think to test whether children might behave better during a meal if their food were cut up instead of whole? A behaviorist at Cornell named Brian Wansink, that’s who! And why would he wonder that? I know, you’re thinking what I’m thinking: because he’s on drugs.
But he’s not. He knows that facial expressions and emotions are a two-way street: Not only do our emotions show on our faces, but when we make our faces express emotions, our brains respond in kind. Try it now: Make a really silly face. Now take a selfie and post it on Instagram. Do you feel silly? Wait until you read the comments!
According to Wansink’s study, children who bare their teeth to eat food like corn on the cob, drumsticks, and apples succumbed to the aggression implied by their expressions, behaving like, well, like my boys anytime they’re together. Now I’m inspired: If the brothers don’t lay off each other, they’re never again going to eat anything larger than a pea. If that doesn’t work, there’s still Instagram, and if that fails, well, college is coming sooner than they think.
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.