YouTube – Adding Child Safety to the Menu

With millions of videos on YouTube, keeping your child safe from inappropriate videos has been a major challenge. There’s a significant amount of sexual content and violence…in fact, typing in the word “cartoon” on YouTube leads to over 300,000 hits and on the first page you find a video entitled “very creepy, disturbing children’s cartoon, banned from TV”. And we all know how enticing something that is banned can seem. Scott Rubin, YouTube’s head of child safety, cites that “YouTube was never intended to be used by children under age 13”.  Unfortunately the best of intentions do not always match the end result.  So what is a parent to do??? You could of course choose to block YouTube entirely or keep a constant eye on your child while they scanned through the vast amount of video streams available to them. Finally however, there is another option for parents, one that should make the task of keeping your child safe a little more manageable.

As of last Thursday, YouTube’s parental controls will now be displayed on the bottom of every YouTube screen. You can also create a blocking filter to limit what YouTube will display. According to NY Times reporter Warren Buckleitner, here’s how to turn it on:

1. Scroll to the bottom of any YouTube page.
2. Click on the words “Safety Mode is Off.”
3. Adjust the settings, click Save and start searching. To permanently lock on Safety Mode, you must log on to your YouTube account.

So how does Safety Mode work? CNET Senior Editor Natalie Del Conte describes Safety Mode as accomplishing three things: it “limits content on videos containing nudity, pornography, narcotics, graphic violence, and news events containing graphic violence; collapses all comments on videos automatically (you can choose to view comments, but comments with profanity will be filtered out); locks Safety Mode for all users, even if a user is logged out, so kids can’t turn off Safety Mode if they try to.”

Keep in mind, Safety Mode is both browser specific and account specific, so you must turn it on for every browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc) and every account you want to filter. And make sure private browsing is disengaged since Safety Mode will not function if that is turned on. Still nothing is failsafe, so monitoring your child’s internet use remains the best policy. Knowing however that a child’s search for “naked” brings up a message that says “the word “naked” has been filtered from the search because Safety Mode is enabled” should provide concerned parents the ability to breathe a little easier

The “Big O”

Got your attention. Sorry to disappoint but the ‘Big O’ here is obesity. This past week the Whitehouse and Mrs. Michelle Obama formally announced the ‘War On Childhood Obesity’ when they announced the “Let’s Move” program. According to Mrs. Obama, “These words – ‘overweight’ and ‘obese’ – they don’t tell the full story. This isn’t just about inches and pounds or how our kids look. It’s about how our kids feel, and how they feel about themselves. It’s about the impact we’re seeing on every aspect of their lives.”

One of the impacts of this problem is that for the first time in many generations, children born today may have a shorter life expectancy than their parents and a main reason for this is childhood obesity. Like any other overweight person, an obese child is subject to the same risks for hypertension, diabetes, stroke and heart disease. If you are concerned about your child- don’t know if their weight is appropriate or if your child is at risk- a great place to start is with your pediatrician.

There are many things that may be done to help. Two important ones are knowing what your child eats and movement or exercise. Fast food, processed food and school cafeteria food are known problem areas. So is the X-Box, WII generation who sits in front of a TV or computer or gaming system rather that getting up and moving around. Help your child eat healthy and encourage them to get outside and move, play and enjoy life.

Thank you Mrs. O for your dedication and leadership to our children and our future.

For more information go to www.Whitehouse.gov  or  www.LetsMove.gov

Sippy Straw Cleaner

Have you ever accidently left your child’s sippy cup in the blistering hot car or wonder what that odd smell is coming from under the couch, only to find your child has hidden their thermos there over a week ago? Have you ever gone to pick up your children from daycare only to see some other runny nosed child drinking out of your child’s sippy cup? I am a stay at home mom that has tackled the never ending battle of trying to disinfect and clean out the curdled milk or molded apple juice from my children’s sippy cup and thermos straws. I tried using toothpicks, pipe cleaners, Qtips, even small paintbrushes… always with minimal success. I never felt confident that it was bacteria free and clean enough to have my children drink through it again. After throwing away TONS of expensive sippy cups because of dirty, clogged straws, I came up with the idea for a mini reusable straw brush cleaner…and voila … the idea for THE SIPPY STRAW CLEANER was born.

Surprisingly, it took only four months to go from an idea to an actual marketable product. During these months I spent many sleepless nights scouring the mommy message boards, online boutiques, and major retail chains for any similar products. Everyone had the same home remedies, yet none of them seemed to be a full proof method for cleaning those pesky straws. More importantly, I saw the reoccurring phrase “I just throw them out and buy another one” and it raised a huge red flag as to the amount of PLASTIC sippy cups that were being thrown in the garbage and what that was doing to our environment. In addition, parents were wasting money purchasing new expensive sippy cups, merely because they couldn’t get the straw clean.

My goal for the Sippy Straw Cleaner was three-fold:

• Save parents money by not having to purchase new sippy cups on a regular basis.
• Better for the environment due to less plastic toss out.
• Healthier for kids by cutting down on straw bacteria build up.

Over the last two years, the media has spent quite a bit of time talking about the dangers of Bisphenol-A (BPA) and how scientists have linked very low doses of BPA exposure to cancers, impaired immune function, early onset of puberty, obesity, diabetes, hyperactivity, as well as neural and behavior problems among children.  Being a mother, I only wanted to develop a product that was safe for both me and my children. The Sippy Straw Cleaner underwent weeks of laboratory testing in New Jersey for verification of its compound makeup. I am happy to report that the Sippy Straw Cleaner is not only FDA approved, but BPA FREE and meets all the requirements of the US Consumer Product Safety Regulations.  The brush has a nylon bristle tip, stainless steel rust free wire stem, and a polypropelene handle to allow for easier holding and scrubbing motion. The design and size of the brush allow for it to universally fit all major brands of sippy, thermos, accordion, and sports bottle straws. It also works fabulously on medicine droppers, jewelry, and keyboards.

The Sippy Straw Cleaner has been on the market for a mere 2 months now…and based on the feedback we’ve received, I’m proud to say we’re meeting our goals. Healthier kids…healthier environment…one sip at a time

HEALTHFUL HINTS:

What are the benefits for your child by drinking from a straw?

1. Drinking from a straw cup helps oral motor strengthening and speech development.
2. Straw usage helps to improve lip closure, strength, and control.
3. Using a Sippy Cup with a straw allows a child to hold their cup easier and doesn’t require tilting.
4. When purchasing bottles and/or Sippy Cups always look on the label to verify that the product is BPA free.

To help ensure your child’s sippy cups and thermos’s are BPA free, there are many websites that are full of “green” recommendations with reviews on products available on the market today.

1. The Soft Landing : Store and blog offering over 45 brands of 100% BPA, PVC, and Phthalate free baby and toddler products. 
2. Safe Mama: BPA free bottle and sippy cup cheat sheet
3. Z-Recommends: Searchable database providing information about potentially harmful chemicals in a wide range of baby products based on company reporting.

Finally – A Clue to Understanding SIDS

SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or “the death of an infant before his or her first birthday that cannot be explained after a complete autopsy, an investigation of the scene and circumstances of the death, and a review of the medical history of the infant and of his or her family” is every parent’s worst nightmare. Finally, according to a new study whose findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this week, a new discovery may help identify babies at risk for SIDS, which each year kills more than 2,300 babies before their first birthday.

Taking the next step in more than 20 years of research, Dr. Hannah Kinney of Harvard Medical School and researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have linked sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) with low production of serotonin in the brainstem. In the brainstem, serotonin helps regulate some of the body’s involuntary actions, such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure during sleep. The findings suggest that some babies have an underlying vulnerability to SIDS, which can become fatal when combined with an external stress such as sleeping face down, especially when it occurs within the first year of life.

“Our research suggests that sleep unmasks the brain defect,” Kinney said in a statement. “When the infant is breathing in the face-down position, he or she may not get enough oxygen. In a normal baby rebreathing carbon dioxide, serotonin pathways in the brainstem would stir the baby awake long enough to turn its head, allowing it to breathe fresh air…a baby with low serotonin levels in the brainstem may never stir.”

The team hopes the study will lead to a test that measures a baby’s serotonin levels, making it possible to identify children at highest risk for SIDS….and possibly develop treatments to correct the serotonin deficiency.

Amazing how one small discovery can make such a tremendous impact.

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REFERENCES:

• U.S. researchers find new clue to infant deaths: Reuters, Feb 2, 2010
• SIDS linked to low levels of serotonin: Armenian Medical Network, Feb 2, 2010
• SIDS may be Caused by Low Production of Serotonin in Brainstem, Disabled world, Feb 3, 2010

My Child Had A Stroke

If you think, as most of us do, that strokes only occur in adults, read on. As reported on the “‘Today Show” and in the New York Times, Jared Dienst was in every way a typical seven year old. One day while playing in the park he began to complain of a headache and his speech became slurred. He could no longer walk in a straight line and his mouth drooped to one side. His mother carried him the three blocks to the emergency room.

Often emergency room doctors don’t think stroke either. Some of the initial questions by the ER staff concerned seizure history or the possibility of ingesting poisons.

While not common, strokes in children, according to some experts is the sixth leading cause of death in infants and children. Strokes in children often have the same signs and symptoms as in adults. Should a child display stroke symptoms health care providers should think stroke until another cause may be found.

To see the entire New York Times article click here.

For more information about strokes please visit the National Stroke Association