Why Praising Kids With Food Doesn't Work

Rewarding children with sweet treats can send the wrong health message, our expert says.By Hansa Bhargava, MD
WebMD the Magazine - Feature

Have you ever been tempted to use food to reward your children? I can tell you honestly I have, even though I'm a pediatrician. Sometimes when my 6-year-old twins refuse to eat their vegetables, the words almost fall out of my mouth: "You'll get dessert if you finish."

So what's the big deal? Here's what tends to happen:

You offer sugar but little or no nutrition. Reward foods aren't broccoli or carrots. They're usually cookies, candy, or similar treats high in sugar and empty calories. For everyone, but especially growing children, too much sugar and too many low-nutrient foods can lead to health problems, including weight gain, cavities, and a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. According to the CDC, a third of children between ages 2 and 19 are overweight or obese and may face adult health problems such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

You enable emotional eating. Food given as a reward can lead to an unhealthy emotional connection between eating certain foods and feeling good. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, kids may use food to avoid feelings or situations that are difficult for them to handle. Eating because they're bored or stressed can cause children to feel guilty or remorseful.

You encourage a desire for sweets and poor eating habits. Giving children food for good behavior teaches them to eat whether or not they are actually hungry, the Connecticut State Department of Education reports. And, by rewarding kids with sweets, you're sending the message that these are more valuable than other foods.

You sabotage your best intentions. If you reward your child with a cupcake, he'll be less keen to eat his peas, not more. "It's like teaching children a lesson on the importance of not smoking and then handing out ashtrays and lighters to the kids who did the best job listening," says Marlene Schwartz, PhD, of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.

Next time, for good behavior, say, "Let's go to the park since you did a good job!"

Worried that you've set your kids in the wrong direction with food? Try these tips for teaching them to eat more healthily.

What's cooking? Get your kids involved in grocery shopping and preparing meals. Encourage them to try different foods.

Involve the family. Establish healthy behaviors for the entire family so children know they are not alone in their goal to be healthier.

Switch it off. Turn off the TV and mobile devices at the table so family members can share what's going on in their lives.

Master moods. Help your child learn that food can't solve problems. Teach him how to deal with his feelings instead.

Get moving. Children need 60 minutes of physical activity each day. Help your children set up an obstacle course. Take a walk or ride bikes together.

Sleep well. Make sure your children get the sleep they need each night. They will be better learners in school and have more energy to run, ride bikes, and play.

Find more articles, browse back issues, and read the current issue of "WebMD the Magazine."  And don't miss our Raising Fit Kids web sites -- they're full of information on diet, exercise, and healthy family living.

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Hate Meat? It May Be in Your Genes

Study Shows Some People Carry Genes That Make the Smell of Meat More Intense and Unpleasant

May 2, 2012 -- Whether we like or loathe the smell of a frying pork chop may depend on our genes, a new study shows.

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is one of the first to show how genes may shape our food choices.

"People who are instinctively vegetarian or vegan or instinctively heavy meat-eaters, it could definitely have some sort of underlying biological component to it," says Kara Hoover, PhD, a biological anthropologist and assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She was not involved in the current research.

"When you consider that our food preferences are driven by flavor, which is the intersection of taste and odor, with a heavier emphasis on odor, clearly genetic variation in humans is going to make a difference in how we prefer food," Hoover tells WebMD.

People detect odors thanks to tiny chemical receptors that sit on nerve cells inside the nose. In total, we have genes for about 400 different smell receptors that help sense about 10,000 different odors.

Some of those receptors detect the steroid androstenone, which is found in high concentrations in male pigs.

Farmers have known for some time that uncastrated male pigs can produce meat with a strong odor, so most commercially raised animals in the U.S. are castrated to get rid of the smell, which is known as boar taint.

Previous research found that people who have two copies of a gene that helps sense androstenone -- scientists think that's about 70% of the population -- are able to smell the chemical. These people can have a mixed reaction to the pork.

"For those who are very sensitive to it, it's really disgusting. It's a sweaty, urine-like odor," says researcher Hiroaki Matsunami, PhD, an associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University in Durham, N.C. "For others, you can smell it, but it's not as bad. Those people say it smells fragrant, chemical, or sweet."

In contrast, people with only one copy of the gene or who carry another gene variant for the receptor aren't as bothered by the aroma of androstenone. They find the odor to be weak or unnoticeable.

In the new study, researchers wondered whether a simple smell test could predict who carries the single copy of the gene, and whether the gene influences the sniffer's perceptions of cooked meat.

It wasn't an entirely academic question. Europe is considering banning a practice that allows farmers to control the amount of androstenone in pork by castrating male pigs. Farmers are worried that consumers will turn their noses up at meat that contains higher levels of the hormone.

For the study, researchers recruited 23 healthy participants: 13 average eaters and 10 trained "sensory assessors," people with sensitive noses that can reliably pick out certain smells.

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Does Dopamine Explain Why Slackers Slack?

Researchers Find Brains of 'Go-Getters' Handle the Chemical Differently Than Do 'Slackers'

May 1, 2012 -- Don't have any motivation at work today? You may be able to blame your brain and its relationship with the chemical dopamine.

The way your brain handles dopamine may predict whether you are a hard worker or a slacker, new research suggests.

"If you look around at the people you know, yourself included, and think of the people always driven to work hard vs. the people who prefer to take it easy, what this study shows is that the range in motivation is in part due to how the dopamine system functions," says researcher Michael Treadway, PhD, a clinical fellow at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The new research reflects and reinforces some previous research, Treadway says. The findings could have important implications to help treat conditions marked by decreased motivation, such as depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), he tells WebMD.

The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

"Our understanding of dopamine has gone through several reiterations," says Treadway. Decades ago, he says, it was known mainly as the ''pleasure chemical."

Experts know, however, that it also plays a role in behavior, voluntary movement, motivation, and reward, among other activities.

In other studies, experts have found that manipulating dopamine has an effect on decisions about working hard for rewards.

Treadway wanted to focus on how the naturally occurring variation in dopamine in people affects their desire to work hard.

With colleagues from Vanderbilt University, he evaluated 25 healthy men and women ages 19 to 29. They spent about 20 minutes in the lab, completing button-pushing tasks.

Some were difficult tasks. Others were easy. For instance, a hard task required pushing a keyboard button 100 times in 21 seconds with a non-dominant pinky finger.

An easy task would be pushing a keyboard button 30 times in seven seconds, using a dominant index finger, Treadway says.

The rewards varied, from about $1 for easy to over $4 for the hard tasks.

Treadway did brain imaging tests known as positron emission tomography, or PET scans. This allowed him to look at levels of dopamine within different brain areas.

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After Divorce: 8 Tips for Reinventing Yourself

8 ideas to help you shape your post-divorce life.

It's over. You've signed the divorce papers, and the relationship you entered with so much hope is officially dissolved.

Everyone's divorce story is different. Maybe you had been married for decades, maybe just a year or so. Maybe you have children, maybe you don't. Maybe the divorce was your idea and maybe it was your partner's, or maybe you both agreed that separation was best. Maybe you're relieved, maybe you're heartbroken -- or a bit of both.

But however you got here, the question now is where do you go from here? And how do you figure out who you are and what you want as a newly single person? What is your new life going to look like, and how do you start moving in that direction?

Here are eight of the first steps:

Nobody gets married thinking, "I sure hope we can get divorced someday!" Even if, by the time you split, the divorce was something you wanted, a divorce still represents a loss.

"Whatever your marriage and divorce experience has been, there will be emotions that have to do with grief," says psychotherapist Florence Falk, PhD, MSW, author of On My Own: The Art of Being a Woman Alone.

"You may feel remorse for what you did or didn't do, or wonder what you did wrong. Don't dwell on those feelings, but make room for them," Falk says. "Loss is loss. There is an empty space where something once filled it up, even if that something may not have been desirable."

Don't tote that heavy baggage from your previous relationship into your new life. Find a way to work through the lingering emotions from the demise of your marriage, advises psychologist Robert Alberti, PhD, co-author of Rebuilding: When Your Relationship Ends.

That may mean talking out your feelings with a therapist or focusing your energy in a healthy activity you enjoy. "It's common to sweep these emotions under the table, but you have to work through them or they'll pollute your life going forward," Alberti says.

If you find yourself resisting the idea of therapy, you might want to keep in mind that therapy doesn't mean you have a problem or that you're in crisis. It can be a way to work toward a better life, with someone who has no agenda but YOU.

That may sound cheesy and New Age-y. But the fact is that many people feel a lot of self-rejection after a divorce.

"You might think that there must be something wrong with you if you couldn't make this relationship work," Alberti says. "You have to work on getting confidence and faith in yourself and ability to believe in your own worth."

This is also something you could pursue in therapy, or through Tip No. 4:

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U.S. Ranks 131st in Preterm Births

Each Year, Nearly 500,000 Babies Born Prematurely in U.S.

May 2, 2012 -- Preterm birth rates are higher in the United States than in 130 other countries, including many poorer nations, according to a new report from the March of Dimes Foundation, the World Health Organization, and other leading health agencies.

The report, which provides the first-ever estimates of preterm birth rates by country, ranks the U.S. 131st out of 184 countries -- ranking between the Congo and Nigeria -- with a preterm birth rate of 12.0 per 100 live births. Each year in the U.S., nearly half a million babies are born before 37 weeks' gestation.

The March of Dimes has set a U.S. goal of a 9.6% preterm birth rate by 2020.

Worldwide, more than 1 in 10 -- 15 million -- babies are born prematurely each year, and more than 1 million die from preterm complications.

That makes preterm birth the leading cause of newborn death worldwide, and the second-leading cause of death after pneumonia for children under 5, says Chris Howson, PhD, vice present for global programs at the March of Dimes and an author of the report. Those who do survive often face the risk of lifelong health problems.

Of the 65 countries with reliable trend data, all but three show an increase in preterm birth rates over the past 20 years, the report says. The U.S. rate rose to a peak of 12.8% in 2006, after which it started to drop.

Asked why the U.S. ranked so poorly, Howson cites obesity, which increases the risk of gestational diabetes and high blood pressure; increasing numbers of uninsured women; and the rising rate of elective C-sections, some of which may be scheduled too early.

An increase in the number of older women having babies and increased use of fertility drugs, which increases the chance of multiple births, also play a role, he tells WebMD.

In developing countries, high rates of infections (such as HIV), chronic diseases, and smoking contribute to premature births, Howson says.

The report notes that three-fourths of deaths from preterm births could be avoided if currently available interventions were widely implemented. Most importantly, all women of childbearing age should have access to health care -- before, between, and during pregnancy, Howson says.

Other findings:

More than 60% of preterm births occur in Africa and South Asia.In the poorest countries, 12% of babies are born prematurely, compared with 9% in high-income countries.The report also found a dramatic survival gap for preterm babies depending on where they are born. For example, more than 90% of extremely preterm babies born before 28 weeks in low-income countries die within the first few days of life, compared with less than 10% of their counterparts in high-income countries.

Hyagriv Simhan, MD, chief of maternal-fetal medicine and medical director of obstetrical services at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says the report is "incredibly valuable."

The best way to minimize the risk of preterm birth is to plan pregnancy carefully, Simhan tells WebMD.

"Don't wait until there is a complication to seek care, as then it is too late. Start planning even before conception, and make smart lifestyle choices, such as eating right and quitting smoking," he says.

Also, babies should be spaced at least a year apart, Simhan says.

Preterm births cost the U.S. more than $26 billion annually, according to a 2006 Institute of Medicine report.

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When Should I Take My Child to the Dentist?

The best time for that first visit may be earlier than you think, our expert says.By Eric Yabu, DDS
WebMD the Magazine - Feature

Q. How old should my child be before I make his first dental appointment?

A. You should take him in by the time he celebrates his first birthday.

Flossing Teeth for Dummies: No More Excuses!

Do you floss? Or, like many people, do you always seem to find a reason not to? A 2008 survey found that only 49% of Americans floss daily, and 10% never floss. That’s most unfortunate, dentists say, because flossing is even more important than brushing when it comes to preventing periodontal (gum) disease and tooth loss.  "If you were stuck on a desert island and a boat could bring only one thing, you’d want it to bring floss,” says Samuel B. Low, DDS, professor of periodontology at the University...

Read the Flossing Teeth for Dummies: No More Excuses! article > >

First visits are mostly about getting kids used to the dentist's chair and educating parents about how to care for baby's teeth. If your child has transitioned from the bottle to cup and doesn't snack or drink in the middle of the night, you get a one-year pass, until age 2. That's when the standard every-six-month dental visit recommendation kicks into gear. When your child is between ages 4 and 6, expect your dentist to take a first set of X-rays to check for cavities lurking between the teeth.

Prevention is the name of the game between ages 6 and 12, when baby teeth give way to permanent teeth. Your child's dentist will probably suggest a sealant, a plastic resin that bonds to teeth's chewing surfaces, between ages 7 and 9. Cavity-prone molars are the most likely site for treatment. The resin keeps cavity-causing bacteria from getting into the grooves and valleys of teeth.

Also, when your child is around age 7, his dentist will likely suggest an orthodontic evaluation. Most kids will wait until their early teens for braces, but orthodontics is about modifying jaw growth, so identifying skeletal causes of crooked teeth early helps ensure a beautiful smile later on.

In the end, it's the basics -- brushing twice a day, flossing daily, and getting regular dental checkups -- that have the most impact on a kid's smile.

Find more articles, browse back issues, and read the current issue of WebMD the Magazine.

SOURCE:

Eric Yabu, DDS, WebMD oral health expert.

© 2012 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Summer Safety for You and Your Kids

By Joanne Barker
WebMD Feature

When the last school bell of the school year rings, children race outside and parents reach for the first aid kit. Summer activities often bring scrapes and bruises -- or worse. Here are simple things you can do to ensure that your children's summer fun involves minimal risk.

Head to the Helmet

Accidental falls are the number one cause of childhood injury, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Usually it's just a scraped leg or arm, but when kids fall off bikes, they can hit their heads. You can reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85% by equipping your child with a well-fitting helmet. Any time your child rides her bike, scooter, or roller blades, she should wear a helmet.

Take a close look at last year's helmet to see if you should get a new one. Helmets break down with age and use. "Pay attention to how many crashes a helmet takes," says Beth Johns-Thomas, director of summer programs at the Fenn School, Concord, Mass. After a number of small crashes or one large one, replace your child’s helmet with a new one.

Run a Sports Equipment Safety Check

Helmets aren’t the only thing. All sports equipment should be well maintained and the right size for your child. "Kids grow from one year to the next," says Johns-Thomas. This may sound like a no-brainer but your child's growth can be hard to keep up with. Run a size check on all of your child’s equipment. Does his bike still fit? Has he outgrown his athletic padding?

If your child is headed to summer camp, or attending day camp in town, check out the camp's equipment as well. Is the equipment covered in cracks and dents? "It’s perfectly reasonable to call a camp director and ask when the camp’s equipment was last inspected," says Johns-Thomas.

Prevent Heat Stress and Dehydration

It seems so simple, and it’s so easy to forget. Children need to stay hydrated. Playing in the hot sun without water breaks can lead to heat exhaustion or heat stroke, which can be life threatening.

"We recommend that kids hydrate before any athletic endeavor," says Wayne Moss, senior director of sports, fitness, and recreation at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in Atlanta. Moss advises children to drink 2 to 3 cups of water about 2 hours before a game. The nonprofit group Safe Kids USA suggests 12 ounces half an hour before a game. Even with pre-hydration, children should take a break every 20 minutes or so during the game to drink some water or a sports drink.

Lock Away Chemicals and Medications

When children hang around the house, they have time to get into things. Household products as mundane as laundry detergent or oven cleaner can be poisonous for curious kids at home.

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