Posted March 18th, 2010
As I posted a couple weeks ago, First Lady Michelle Obama has announced an ambitious national goal to reduce the rate of childhood obesity within a generation. Her initiative, Let’s Move, is a National Campaign designed to specifically to address this issue. I am personally very excited because “yours truly” has been invited to share my experience and expertise towards this endeavor. Stay tuned!! I’ll be providing updates within the next few days!
Posted March 3rd, 2010
Join First Lady Michelle Obama as she leads the way in reducing childhood obesity. The Let’s Move Campaign has an awesome web site www.letsmove.gov designed to help families get moving toward a healthier future! Check it out and start moving!
Posted January 26th, 2010
Chatting With Kids About Being Online has some great information and gives adults practical tips on how to talk to pre-teens, tweens, and teenagers about navigating the internet in a safe and responsible manner. Kids and parents have many ways of socializing and communicating online, but they come with certain risks (like “sexting & cyberbullying”). This guide encourages parents to reduce the risks by talking to kids about how they communicate – online and off – and helping kids engage in conduct they can be proud of. This guide covers what parents need to know, where to go for more information, and issues to raise with kids about living their lives online.
If you go to the FTC website at, http://bulkorder.ftc.gov/, you can order one or multiple copies of this guide (in English or Spanish) and have it shipped to you all free of charge. This document is public information and can also be downloaded and distributed anywhere. I would encourage parents to utilize this guide and share it with their friends.
**This information has been shared with you by Barb Flis, mother of two and creator of Parent Action for Healthy Kids.
AttachmentSize Chatting_with_Kids_about_being_online.pdf506.48 KB
Sidney Bloom, an online-magazine journalist, returns to her hometown to investigate the sudden spike in teenage pregnancies at her old high school. Almost immediately, she comes up against Lorraine Dougan (Nancy Travis), the head of the local conservative values group and mother of Sara, a newly pregnant 15-year-old. Meanwhile, the school nurse tries to convince the school to provide contraception to students to address the pregnancy epidemic but is met with great opposition from the school and community. As the number of pregnant girls climbs to 18, a media firestorm erupts when Time magazine reports that the rise in the number of pregnancies at the school is the result of a “pregnancy pact.” As the mystery unfolds about whether or not “the pact” is real, Sidney soon realizes that all of the attention is disguising the much larger issues that are at the core of the story.
**This information has been shared with you by Barb Flis, mother of two and creator of Parent Action for Healthy Kids.
Posted January 18th, 2010
According to a Reuters report from May 2009, a new analysis of data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth for 1992, 1997, and 2002 finds a “dramatic” drop in the percentage of US teens having sex between 1992 and 2002, concurrent with a noticeable rise in contraceptive use by those who were sexually active. But very recent increases in teen pregnancy, after more than a decade-long decline, indicate that improving teens’ reproductive health remains a challenge.
“We need to continue to focus on this issue into the future to help reduce high rates of teen childbirth in the US, especially since things are trending in the opposite direction right now,” said study author Dr. Jennifer Manlove of Washington, D.C.-based Child Trends.
The aim of the study was to investigate the role of family environment, individual characteristics, and relationship types in teen sexual behavior.
According to the researchers, the positive trends – the proportion of sexually experienced 15- to 19-year-olds dropped from 56 percent of girls and 61 percent of boys in 1992, to 47 percent of girls and 46 percent of boys in 2002 – were directly linked to increasing levels of education among parents and a decline in the percentage of teens who had been born to teen mothers.
Other positive trends the analysis showed were an increase in reported contraceptive use at first sex, up from 62 percent of girls and 65 percent of boys in 1992 to 72 percent of girls and 78 percent of boys in 2002. In addition, the data indicated an increasing age at first sex.
The study found no evidence to validate media stories of teens “hooking up” more. “Based on these data we did not see any increases in casual sex,” said Manlove.
The analysis points to what parents can do to help delay teen sex and stop teen pregnancy, the researchers said. While “the sex talk” is important, overall good parent-teen communication is essential, said Manlove. Parents should be clear about their expectations for their teens and encourage them to have goals and aspirations for the future, she said. “I think there’s a lot parents can do,” she said.
The study, “Trends in Sexual Experience, Contraceptive Use, and Teenage Childbearing: 1992-2002,” was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health (2009;44(5):413-423).
**This information has been shared with you by Barb Flis, mother of two and creator of Parent Action for Healthy Kids.
An article in the December 2009 issue of the Health Education and Behavior, indicates that removing low nutrition items from schools decreased students’ consumption with no compensatory increase at home and no differences in students’ reported weight concerns. Removing low nutrition snacks from schools is controversial. Although the objective is to decrease the consumption of these foods at school, some critics argue that children will compensate by eating more of these foods at home. Others worry that school-based obesity prevention programs will increase student preoccupation with weight. The present study examines these concerns. Three middle schools replaced snacks and beverages that did not meet nutrition guidelines, whereas three comparison schools made no systematic changes. Students were surveyed about dietary intake and weight concerns before and after implementation of the intervention. Findings indicate that removing low nutrition items from schools decreased students’ consumption with no compensatory increase at home. Furthermore, there were no differences in students’ reported weight concerns. These results support the value of strengthening school nutrition standards to improve student nutrition and provide evidence dispelling concerns that such efforts will have unintended negative consequences.
**This information has been shared with you by Barb Flis, mother of two and creator of Parent Action for Healthy Kids.
Posted January 12th, 2010
The website http://www.checkyourdrinking.net is a great online tool to evaluate your relationship with alcohol in a realistic and straightforward manner. The website collects self-reported data on drinking habits and provides users with a report comparing their drinking to national averages, information on drinking risks, an estimation of their annual spending on alcohol, a calculation of how much time the user spends intoxicated each year, and safe-drinking guidelines. By evaluating our own behaviors as parents, it may open our eyes to the example we are setting for our children.
**This information has been shared with you by Barb Flis, mother of two and creator of Parent Action for Healthy Kids.
Posted January 6th, 2010
Last month, MTV launched a new campaign called, A Thin Line (www.athinline.org) to address the emerging issues teens face now that the web and cell phones have forever changed how we interact with each other.
If you watch MTV you may have seen the commercials promoting A Thin Line Campaign and website. The website is a great resource for teens (and parents) to gain information on how to deal with issues they may be facing on a daily basis. Topics such as sexting, constant messaging, spying, digital disrespect and cruelty are discussed, and solutions of how to “draw your line” are given. There is also a Facebook fan page for A Thin Line, where they post updates and host discussions on the topic. A recent post on the Facebook Fan Page is about John Mayer doing a “Digital Cleanse” where he abstains from reading or posting Tweets, or using Facebook, email and other social networking mediums until January 8th. If you have pre-teens, teenagers or young adults, I would encourage you to check out www.athinline.org and share it with your loved ones!
**This information has been shared with you by Barb Flis, mother of two and creator of Parent Action for Healthy Kids.
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