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EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  "OTHER"  JOURNALS  RELATING  TO  CHILDREN,  YOUTH  AND  FAMILIES
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April 2004

Study suggests link between testosterone and autism
Research by scientists at Cambridge University in England suggests a possible link between the male hormone testosterone and autism.
They found that babies who produce high levels of testosterone while in the womb are more likely to show autism-like symptoms, such as having difficulty fitting into new social groups and being less curious than other children, BBC News Online reported.
The study findings suggest that autism may have a genetic basis. That raises the possibility of developing a test to screen fetuses for the disorder.
The Cambridge team studied 70 children whose mothers had an amniocentesis test while they were pregnant. The researchers checked those samples for levels of fetal testosterone.
When the children reached age 4, their parents filled out a checklist designed to reveal signs of behavioral and social problems in the children. The study will be published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
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Before age 8 kids take ads at face value
The typical Saturday morning TV commercial comes on, pushing a toy. Mom is thinking, “What a waste of money. He'd be bored with this in 10 minutes.'' Her 4-year-old is thinking, “What a cool toy! I want it!”
They might as well be on different planets. In some ways, they are. Adults have the mental capacity to recognize and evaluate persuasive intent in commercials. Children under 8 don't. They accept commercials at face value, researchers say.
This difference is at the core of two studies issued in February. One, by the American Psychological Association, recommends prohibiting advertisers from marketing to children 8 or younger, because they lack the ability to apply a filter to marketing aimed at them. The other, by the Kaiser Family Foundation, links an increase in childhood obesity to the amount of junk food advertising aimed at children.
Youths targeted
With an estimated $12 billion worth of advertising a year aimed at youth, most parents struggle at least occasionally to get their children to resist the pull of commercials. “They keep asking, and I just keep saying, ‘No,’'” Susanne Beck says of her three children, 4, 7 and 9.
Jacqueline Pasek-Allen, a seventh grader at the Driscoll School in Brookline, Mass., thinks it's a good idea to ban advertising to children under 8. “When you're little, you believe ads,'” she says. “I used to think ads were just part of life.”
Thanks to the pioneering efforts of two teachers, librarian Amy Neale and art teacher Marianne Taylor, the Driscoll School this year offered a 10-week media literacy program for seventh-graders as part of its English curriculum.
Neale and Taylor, who are parents, say the idea grew out of frustration at how much children are influenced by marketing. “It's hard to think of a place in kids' lives where they are not assaulted by marketing all the time,'” Neale says. “And most of it,”' Taylor adds, “is content they are developmentally unable to process.”
The teachers' goal is to enable students to answer the question “Do the media give you what you want or tell you what to want?”
Some kids get it
Here's a snippet from a recent classroom discussion: “What advertisers do isn't exactly lying, it's more like they stretch the truth,” says Lily Fariborz. “Some of what they advertise doesn't exactly happen the way they say it will. Like I got this hair product once. It says it would make my hair stronger but it didn't work. It was really annoying.”
“Look at this,” says Iris Hicks, holding up a magazine ad for milk that features rap star Nelly. “Why does he need to have his shirt off? It's to show his muscles, to make you think if you drink milk, your body will look like his. Advertisers use stars to attract young kids.”
What the Driscoll students now understand is how commercials tempt people. “They have tricks,'' says Aviva Hamavid. “Like sometimes they use weasel words. Those are words that trick you into thinking something is better than it really is, like glamorous or new and improved.”
These are concepts children typically can't grasp until at least 8, which is why the APA task force picked that age as a cut-off. “Until they can understand that advertising has a bias, that motives and intentions are sometimes hidden and not always consistent with your interests, they can't defend against it,” says psychologist Dale Kunkel, author of the APA report.

He and other researchers link marketing to:

• Obesity. The combination of more than 20,000 ads a year persuading children to eat junk food and children's natural inclination to accept these messages as true has led to an increase in unhealthy eating habits and to childhood obesity, the Kaiser Foundation report says.
• Materialism. “The relentless message children get is that the way to be happy, popular and successful is by buying the right products,” says California child psychologist Alan Kanner.
• Distrust. What begins as disappointment when a toy doesn't perform as advertised builds to frustration as it happens again and again. “Over time, you end up with an 11-year-old who gets angry and (is) less trusting as an individual,” says Kanner.

By Barbara F. Meltz
Boston Globe
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Caffeine, sugar, fat, and your child
Does your child want to drink a six-pack of soda every day? Is a french fry the only vegetable your kid allows on the plate? If these preferences sound familiar, your child may be consuming the typical American diet — a diet high in sugar, caffeine, and fat. Today's children are much less physically fit than previous generations, and in the United States, the percentage of obese children has more than doubled since 1976.
There are healthy ways that you can reduce the caffeine, sugar, and fat in your child's diet. Keep reading to find out more.
The Truth About Caffeine, Sugar, and Fat Sometimes it's difficult to determine the truth about food. TV and magazines tantalize consumers with images of tasty, sugary foods. Your child's doctor may tell you that your child's diet is too high in fat. But what's the truth? Caffeine, totally lacking in nutritional value, does not add taste, texture, or color to a soft drink. Caffeine affects children and adults similarly. A stimulant, caffeine can interfere with sleep and may affect children who are sensitive to it. In addition, because caffeine is a diuretic that causes the body to eliminate water, it can contribute to dehydration. Caffeine is an especially poor choice in hot weather, when children need to replace water lost through perspiration. In addition, children who drink lots of caffeinated beverages may miss getting the calcium they need from milk to build strong bones and teeth.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggests a maximum of 6 tablespoons of sugar per day for someone consuming 1,600 calories (an amount typical for children 5 years). One 12-ounce soft drink contains about 3 tablespoons of sugar, so in one drink, your child is getting almost half the day's recommended amount of sugar.
Sugar's effects are sometimes misperceived. Sugar does promote tooth decay, but studies show no link between hyperactivity and sugar. When 5-year-olds are running around at a birthday party after eating cake and ice cream, parents joke that they're "high" from the sugar. The reality is they're just being 5- year-olds, explains pediatrician Keith Ayoob, MD.
Sugar does not cause hyperactivity, but it can contribute to excess weight gain. Foods that are high in sugar also tend to be high in calories and fat and low in other valuable nutrients. As a result, a high-sugar diet is often linked with obesity.
There's an important link between calories, sugar, and fat. A calorie is a unit that measures heat, or energy. So calories describe the amount of energy that different foods supply to people. The amount of heat, measured in calories, is that particular food's caloric content. Before you eat, the energy contained in the food is trapped in the food. The energy is released when your digestive system breaks down the food. Because sugary and fatty foods often are high in calories, it takes the body longer to use up those calories. As a result, excess calories from food equal excess pounds on a person's body.
On the fat front, the American Dietetic Association (ADA) recommends that after age 2, children should consume no more than 30% of daily calories from fat. Infants and toddlers need more fat as they're developing. Excess fat in a child's diet may lead to weight gain. Obese children have a higher incidence of depression and orthopedic problems, reports Jordan Metzl, MD, a pediatrician. Kids who carry excess weight into adulthood have greater risk of heart attacks, high blood pressure, and early death.
Kids who fill up on sugar, fat, and caffeine don't get the nutrients they need from healthy sources, putting them at risk for malnutrition. The average teen consumes about twice as much sugar as the USDA recommends and doesn't get the recommended amounts of fruit and low-fat milk.
Which Foods Contain Caffeine, Sugar, and Fat? Children get most of their caffeine from cola or other sodas, which also deliver sugar and empty calories (calories that don't provide any nutrients). Caffeine is also in coffee, tea, and chocolate. Some parents may give their children iced tea in place of soda, thinking that it is a better alternative. But iced tea packs as much of a sugar and caffeine punch as cola!
Sugar is found in beverages, juices, pastries, cookies, cake, candy, and frozen desserts. Fruit is a natural source of sugar, but fruit also contains fiber and vitamins that balance out the sugar.
Fat gives food flavor and texture, but it's also high in calories and excess amounts of it cause many health risks. For children and adolescents, desserts (including chocolate, cakes, doughnuts, pastries, and cookies) are a significant source of fat. Kids also get fat from whole milk products and high- fat meats, such as bacon, hot dogs, and nonlean red meat. Butter, cheeses, and oils are major fat foods. Fast-food and take-out meals tend to have more fat than home cooking, and in restaurants, fried dishes are the highest in fat content. Fat is often "hiding" in foods in the form of creamy, cheesy, or buttery sauces or dressings.
Jilting Junk Food Can you help your kids jilt the junk food habit? Absolutely! Food preferences are learned, so we can relearn, Dr. Ayoob says. One way to cut out sugar and caffeine from your child's diet is to eliminate soda. Offer water, flavored seltzer, or diluted juice as beverages. You can give your child or teen water in squeeze bottles for added convenience.
Try to limit sugary beverages to moderate or occasional use. You may encounter in-school resistance - not from students, but from administrators. Kids drink more soda than ever and purchase much of it in schools, where they fed $750 million into soda and candy vending machines in 1997. Some schools count on revenue from soft drink sales to bolster their budgets.
KidsHealth.org
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Study links TV, children's attention deficit
Very young children who watch television face an increased risk of attention deficit problems by school age, a study has found, suggesting that television might overstimulate and permanently "rewire" the developing brain.
For every hour of television watched daily, two groups of children — ages 1 and 3 — faced a 10 percent increased risk of having attention problems at age 7.
The findings bolster previous research showing that television can shorten attention spans, and they support American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations that youngsters under age 2 not watch television.
"The truth is there are lots of reasons for children not to watch television. Other studies have shown it to be associated with obesity and aggressiveness," said lead author Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a researcher at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.
The study, appearing in this month's issue of Pediatrics, involved 1,345 children who participated in government-sponsored national health surveys. Their parents were questioned about their children's TV viewing habits and rated their behavior at age 7 on a scale similar to measures used in diagnosing attention deficit disorders.
The researchers lacked data on whether the youngsters were diagnosed with attention deficit disorders, but the number of children whose parents rated them as having attention problems — 10 percent — is similar to the prevalence in the general population, Christakis said. Problems included difficulty concentrating, restlessness, acting impulsively, and being easily confused.
About 36 percent of the 1-year-olds watched no television, while 37 percent watched one to two hours daily and had a 10 percent- to 20 percent-increased risk of attention problems. Fourteen percent watched three to four hours daily and had a 30 percent- to 40 percent-increased risk compared with children who watched no television. The remainder watched at least five hours daily.
Among 3-year-olds, only 7 percent watched no television, 44 percent watched one to two hours daily, 27 percent watched three to four hours daily, almost 11 percent watched five to six hours daily, and about 10 percent watched seven or more hours daily.
In a Pediatrics editorial, educational psychologist Jane Healy said the study "is important and long overdue" but needs to be followed up to confirm and better explain the mechanisms that may be involved.
The researchers did not know what shows the children watched, but Christakis said content is probably not the culprit. Instead, he said, unrealistically fast-paced visual images typical of most TV programming may alter normal brain development.
"The newborn brain develops very rapidly during the first two to three years of life. It's really being wired" during that time, Christakis said.
"We know from studies of newborn rats that if you expose them to different levels of visual stimuli . . . the architecture of the brain looks very different" depending on the amount of stimulation, he said.
Overstimulation during this critical period "can create habits of the mind that are ultimately deleterious," Christakis said. If this theory holds true, the brain changes probably are permanent, but children with attention problems can be taught to compensate, he said.
The researchers considered factors other than television that might have made some children prone to attention problems, including their home environment and mothers' mental states.
The American Academy of Pediatrics said in 1999 that children under the age of 2 should not watch television because of concerns it affects early brain growth and the development of social, emotional, and cognitive skills.
Jennifer Kotler, assistant director for research at Sesame Workshop, which produces educational children's television programs including "Sesame Street," questioned whether the results published this month would apply to educational programming.
"There's a lot of research . . . that supports the positive benefits of educational programming," she said.
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Teen smokers fall down on other health habits
They're likelier to have poor diet and get too little exercise. Cigarettes aren't the only health threat facing young people who smoke.
A Virginia Commonwealth University study found that youths who smoke — particularly girl smokers in high school — are less likely to eat vegetables and dairy products, and are also less likely to exercise than their nonsmoking peers.
The study of 8,022 middle school students and 2,613 high school students enrolled in tobacco prevention programs found that high school smokers were much less likely to eat at least one serving per day of dairy products, and to exercise three or more times per week, than were nonsmokers.
Middle and high school girls who smoked were much less likely to eat one or more vegetables a day compared to nonsmokers. Middle school students who smoked were much less likely to exercise three or more times a week than nonsmokers.
The study was presented at the recent annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.
"The combination of smoking and poor diet/less exercise together may place teens at higher risk for developing chronic diseases later in life than either behavior alone," study author Diane Baer Wilson, an associate professor of internal medicine, says in a prepared statement.
She notes that 23 percent of American high school students smoke and many teenagers don't eat enough healthy, nutrient-dense food.
"This study provides strong evidence for addressing multiple risk behaviors simultaneously, such as smoking prevention and healthy eating/exercise, in adolescent interventions and introducing this model in middle school years," she says.
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