Mom and Dad

As parents we want the best for our children.  But we also have to choose our battles carefully because they have 1000 times the energy we have and everything can’t be top priority.  Like every parent, you know your children need water to keep their minds and bodies going, but it is difficult to get them to want to drink water.  Headaches, lack of concentration, poor memory and tiredness are often symptoms of children’s dehydration.  Luna and Lara were created to help you in that daily struggle to serve your children’s needs.  Everything about the characters, the website, the music band “The Rubyz”, the artwork, the stories, puzzles and games has been designed to make your children see that drinking water from day to night is fun. During term time, our children spend most of their waking hours at school.  It’s impossible for them to “make up” for their fluid intake when they are back in our care.  That’s why we’re going to schools to encourage them to make water available throughout the school day, even during classes.  We’re doing our part to help your child to stay hydrated from day till night by making drinking water fun as well as essential and healthy. Luna and Lara’s message is right, always drink water from day to night.

Our mission is to make your job easier.  Please let us know how we can do a better job. Meanwhile, we will keep doing our best to educate your child on the importance of drinking water from day till night!

On Yer Bike! (How to train your child to ride)

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I remember tearing out my front door on a Saturday morning and throwing my skinny frame onto my yellow banana seat bike.  Michigan blue sky and massive puffy clouds above and the open road ahead, I’ll never forget the feeling of freedom as the wind built up in my face and blew my hair back.  My first bike meant freedom, adventure and an expanded world.  Banana Seat Bliss.

Do you remember your first bike?  Cycling is a fantastic way to get the kids away from the TV and computer screens.  Get your child a bike and give them the gift of the outdoors, exercise, freedom and increased motor skills.

Most children get their first bike between the ages of 3 and 6.  I got mine at five and immediately began testing the laws of physics and gravity.

As a parent and caregiver, it’s a great time to teach and bond with your child.  Not only do you get the opportunity to help your little one to grasp the basics of cycling, you can also help your child learn how to face their fear and to conquer the unknown.

It’s a tossup which is more difficult:  learning to ride or teaching someone to learn to ride.  Your patience will be pushed to the max, but oh what a result when they finally get the hang of it!  Neither of you will forget that moment for the rest of your lives.  Experience always eventually kicks in and the initial roughness and hesitation slowly ebbs away.  Some take to it quickly, some take ages, but in all cases it’s a worthwhile investment of time and energy.

There are a couple of basic ways to teach your child to balance on two wheels:  training wheels, assisted two-wheeling, and un-assisted two wheeling.  Each has its advantages, and best results will often be obtained by a mixed, graduated approach.

You need to adjust to your child’s learning style and aptitude to determine which approach to take.  First thing’s first:  find a safe, spacious learning ground, the place where the indelible memory will happen.  If you go with training wheels, be sure there’s plenty of space to turn around because the training wheels require a larger turning radius.

It’s easy to topple with training wheels if the bike gets going much faster than a walk because the weight is shifted to one of the training wheels if the child leans the bike to one side, which is inevitable.  Toppling is inevitable, so we’ll get to the safety in just a bit.  Stay very nearby until your child gets the hang of turning and braking.  Set up the training wheels so there is a bit of lean on both sides, but not so much that they don’t do their job of keeping your child vertical not horizontal.

Once your child has become accustomed to pedaling, steering and braking, the training wheels should be raised slightly, a bit at a time.  As the child becomes more adept, the bike will spend more and more time with both training wheels off the ground.

The day will come when it is obviously time to take off the training wheels.  This is when the real fun begins.

Running alongside

Now you’ve got your bike and are ready to either take off the training wheels or you want to skip that step altogether, here comes the really fun part. 

Hold onto your child by the shoulders and run along behind.  Don’t hold the handlebars; let them learn the feel of balancing themselves.  Hold onto the saddle or any part of the bike so that your child will not necessarily realize you are holding them. And leaning to one side or the other.  Instead, hold them by the shoulders, so that as they lean to one side or the other they will feel the side pressure, and can learn to reduce it by turning into the lean.

This should be done in a wide-open space such as an empty parking lot or large driveway.  Don’t try to steer, just make let the bike go where it will.  Make sure you don’t bang into the pedals or trip over the wheels (ouch).  Easier said than done!

As in life, falling is absolutely inevitable.  I fell so many times I could not count them.  Even though we never had them, teach your child the importance of wearing ahelmet from the outset.  Gloves and kneepads are also a good idea as they will help keep the scrape factor to a minimum, keeping your child encouraged to keep trying.  Reflective clothing on your child and on the bike are also a good idea, so they look like a meteor to cars in the area, especially when riding at dusk or in the evening.

Foot brakes and hand brakes have their strong and weak points.  Foot brakes get in the way at times if your child suddenly puts their feet down to stop.  Kids do this involuntarily when they feel frightened of falling.  They forget to use the pedals.  Hand brakes require a certain amount of strength in the hands.  Little hands may not be able to pull the lever all the way to a stop.  Practice will tell you which one works best.

Before your child ever gets on the bike, teach them the rules of the road, such as:

·      Always ride with a helmet

·      Always ride with your hands on the handlebars

·      Always stop and check for traffic in both directions when leaving the driveway, alley or curb

·      Cross only at intersections

·      Ride on the same side and in the same direction as the cars

·      Never ride against traffic

·      Use bike lanes or designated bike routes whenever possible

·      Don’t ride too close to parked cars as doors can open suddenly

·      When passing other bikers or people on the street, always pass on the left

·      Call out “on your left” when passing

·      Stop at all stop signs and obey traffic lights just as the cars do

·      Ride single file on the street when riding with friends

·      Learn hand signals for turning left, right and stopping

Exercise, freedom and mobility are just a few of the benefits of riding.  It’s also a great family activity.  Every hour spent on the bike is an hour away from the telly or computer screen.  And of course, keep your child hydrated as cycling really burns up the water and calories.  We’re not bothered how you get the water down them, but if you need a suggestion which water to use, we may be able to be of service!  Now on yer bikes and let the good times roll!

Sincerely,
The Pin

New Information: Fat Inflation Rocks Nation

THURSDAY, July 7 -- A new report outlining how obesity threatens America's future reveals that obesity rates climbed over the past year in 16 states, and not a single state reported a decline in the proportion of excessively overweight residents.

The report, released Thursday, also found that more than 30 percent of the people in 12 states are obese. Four years ago, only one state could make that claim.  Twenty years ago, "there wasn't a single state that had an obesity rate above 15 percent, and now every state is above that," said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, which compiled the report.

"We have seen a dramatic shift over a generation," he added. "This isn't just about how much people weigh, but it has to do with serious health problems like diabetes and hypertension. These are the things that are driving health care costs."

With the exception of Michigan, the 10 most obese states are in the South. The Northeast and West reported the lowest obesity rates. In addition, in eight states, more than 10 percent of adults suffer from type 2 diabetes, according to the report.

Mississippi, where 34.4 percent of the people are obese, has the highest obesity rate. Other states with obesity rates above 30 percent include: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Thirty-eight other states have obesity rates above 25 percent.

For the second year in a row, obesity rates rose in Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Rhode Island and Texas.  And, for the third year straight, more residents of Florida, Kansas, Maine, Oklahoma and Vermont tipped the scale toward obesity.
Colorado, with an obesity rate of 19.8 percent, is the only state where the rate is less than 20 percent, the investigators found.

Other highlights of the report include:

• The number of adults who do not exercise rose across 14 states.
• Obesity among men is up in nine states, but dropped for women in Nevada.
• Obesity prevalence varies with education and income. The least educated and the poorest had the highest rates of obesity; college graduates had the lowest.

More than one-third of children and adolescents are obese or overweight, with the highest prevalence in the South. However, the new data indicate that obesity among children and adolescents may have leveled off, except among the heaviest boys.
"This generation of kids could have shorter life spans, because people are getting diabetes and hypertension much earlier," Levi said.

The solution is simple, he added: Eat less, exercise more. "We have reconstructed our lives so that we don't build in physical activity. We have neighborhoods and communities that are food deserts, where the only food you can find is unhealthy fast food," he said.

Samantha Heller, a dietitian in Fairfield, Conn., called childhood obesity "a complex, multi-faceted problem that needs to be tackled from many different angles." She said she wished the report offered ways to educate parents and caregivers about healthy eating for children.
Parents and caregivers make approximately 75 percent of the food decisions for children, Heller said, so it is essential that they learn about healthy, affordable foods and meals for children that make sense to them.

"Overall, I am hopeful that the report will help motivate food companies, local and state governments, schools and communities to generate a good head of steam to help stem the tide of childhood obesity," she added.

Obesity expert Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., called the report "a reminder that obesity ranks among the most urgent public health problems of our time. While efforts to reverse obesity trends are proliferating, the tide has not yet turned, and more needs to be done."

The report makes it clear that interventions need to be tailored to diverse settings, Katz added. "I support the view that the root cause of epidemic obesity is everything about modern living, and that it will take the aggregation of a lot of effective programming to change our course," he said.

Levi noted that the federal government was introducing programs to stem the obesity crisis, but "we need to fund these programs adequately," he said.  "We now know the pieces that need to be put into place [to reduce obesity]," he added. "Some of them are about what we as individuals do, but a lot of it is also about what we as a community come together to do," Levi stated.

More information
For more information on obesity, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

American Fast Food (what a stupid way to die)

You can purchase this song "American Fast Food" off the album 'Our Recollections' by Randy Stonehill on iTunes or go to www.randystonehill.com.  All Rights Reserved WMG.

Cover Up!

You aren't the boss of me!

 

Luna and Lara understand the difficulties of raising children in a world where rebellion and unhealthy behaviour is encouraged at every turn.  Picture the children who habitually lose temper, argue with adults, actively defy or refuse adults’ requests and rules, and deliberately do things to annoy other people. Add to it the tendency to blame others for their misbehavior. You know for sure that they aren't popular either with adults or peers.

Children, who defy and do the opposite of what parents tell them, often start exhibiting these behaviors from age 2 or 3. Defiant behavior should be handled promptly and carefully. Do not laugh it off as simply a "cute" behavior. Defiant behavior is a progressive problem and if untreated, gets worse.

Defiant behaviors first show up at home at age 2 or 3. By age 8 or 9, a defiant child is hard to get along at school as well. Research shows that at the playground a defiant child tends to be rejected by his or her peers within the first 20 minutes. Defiant children are often angry and hostile in their interaction with peers. They coerce rather than cooperate with other children. They first start violating the rules of the home, and, if untreated, they start violating the rules of the school. By age 12 or 13, they use tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs, and start breaking the rules of society.

It is much easier to treat defiant behavior between age 2 to 5, then after age 12. In one research, psychological parenting techniques were shown to work in about 75 percent of cases of children under 10, but only in 25% of cases of children over age 12.
Parents of defiant children feel frustrated. Many have used severest consequences for undesirable behaviors, but, "nothing seems to work." Research shows that it is not the severity, but the immediacy of the consequences that matters. Consequences are most effective when delivered within seconds rather than minutes or hours. One research shows that "dysfunctional parents" delivered consequences, on average, between 30 to 60 minutes.

The problem is that many parents unduly delay the consequences for defiant behaviors or they provide consequences inconsistently. An even bigger problem is that some of those parents hardly ever reward compliant behavior.

Some parents ignore or try to tolerate defiant behavior until they can’t take it anymore and than they try to teach the child the "lesson of his (or her) life." That just confuses and enrages a child even more. Angry and irritable parents often have angry and irritable children. Some parents have the attitude, "I will deal with you as I feel at the moment." Their child also deals with them as he or she feels.

Here is some advice for parents of 2 to 10 year olds. Treat the problem early. Early intervention also prevents serious behavioral problems in the future. Deliver a negative consequence for a defiant behavior within 10 seconds. Reward a compliant behavior within 10 seconds.  This system of punishment and reward will quickly train a child and begin to alter his or her behaviour.  When rewarding a child, avoid using sweets as reward.  This puts a harmful premium on the acqusition of unhealthy food, so you are in fact solving one problem and creating another.  Instead use healthy snacks as a reward, or better yet leave food out of the equation altogether.

Psychologist Russel Barkley of international fame has this advice for parents, "Act. Don’t yak." Talking about how bad the behavior was is not helpful. Calm and consistent action is helpful. Calmly handle a defiant behavior by delivering the consequences and don’t spend too much time in talking about your frustrations, such as, how "sick and tired" and "disappointed" you are by your child’s non-compliance. Such expressions make parents appear weak and at a loss, and may be counter productive.

Do you have the attitude, "Why do I need to change, the problem is with my child and not me?" Parents who say "yes" to the question may often be butting heads with their children. You can force your child to submission but you can’t truly change your child without changing yourself. You have to change first before you can change your child.

Ask yourself, "What did my "worst" and the "best" supervisor do? Write down the characteristic behaviors of both. Do not act around your child as your worst supervisor did around you. Act around your child as your best supervisor did around you. When you change as a parent, chances are that your child will change too.

When a child has been misbehaving for sometime, parents naturally want to fix it right away. So they look for more draconian methods to raise the ante for a bad behavior. Perhaps, it works for a little while and then the child raises his or her resistance to match the severity of the punishment. Thus, attempts for disciplining fail, breeding more frustration and anger in the parents.
Positive attention and positive interaction are two major tools to shape a child’s behavior.

Attend to your child’s positive behavior. Don’t assume a nonchalant attitude towards a positive behavior because "that is how children should behave all the time." Your child may sometime be at his best to please you, so be pleased and express your pleasure. Find activities, hobbies, and games in which you and your child can have increasingly positive interaction. Your child may want to please you even more.

Principal writing by child psychologist Vijai P. Sharma, Ph.D
Additional writing by The Pin