ParentWonder

Helping Parents Succeed

Many Parents Avoid Video Games With Kids

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Jesse Lackman says his son spends a dozen hours a week waging medieval combat across the dreary dreamscapes of computer games. Just don't expect to find Lackman sitting beside him battling ogres and dragons.

"It's just such a waste of time," said Lackman, 47, a power plant operator from Center, N.D. "I tell him, "Do something that has some lasting value.'"

Lackman's avoidance of the digital diversions that captivate his 15-year-old son, Tyrus, is shared by many parents. More than four in 10, or 43 percent, of those whose young children play video or computer games never play along with them, according to an Associated Press-AOL Games poll released Monday.

While experts debate whether electronic gaming is bad news or a blessing for children and their families, many parents are voicing their preference by never — or seldom — joining their kids when it's time to slay cyber scoundrels.

Besides those who simply don't play the games with their children, another 30 percent say they spend less than an hour a week doing so. All told, about three in four parents of young gamers never or hardly ever touch the stuff.

Full report: Many Parents Avoid Video Games With Kids

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Shyness in Children: 5 Tips to Build Social Confidence in Children

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Most of us have delighted in the story of The Wizard of Oz. Parents have passed this tale down to their children for ages, but have you ever taken the time to consider its true meaning? If you give some serious thought to the underlying theme, you will find that there is quite a connection between the lion and your shy child – and there is a very important lesson to be learned about how to parent a child who is shy or reserved.

Think about the beloved lion. Throughout the story the lion is searching for courage, something he is sure he does not possess. This supposedly cowardly creature is off to see the wizard, an ordinary man who turns out to be quite brilliant. The wizard informs the beast that he has had the courage all along but needed to believe in himself. With encouragement, the lion comes to see that he was courageous after all.

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Hong Kong Tests Toys for Date Rape Drug

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China-made toys seized in Hong Kong were being tested Thursday after scientists in Australia found that similar ones contained a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape" drug when ingested, officials said.

At least five children – two in the United States and three in Australia – have been hospitalized after swallowing the toy beads, which are used in arts and crafts projects. They can be arranged into designs and fused when sprayed with water.

Australian scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into the so-called "date-rape" drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. When eaten, the compound – made from common and easily available ingredients – can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.

The toys were sent to a laboratory in Hong Kong for tests, a customs official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of policy. If the tests come back positive for the chemical, suppliers of the toy in Hong Kong could face a year in jail and fines of $12,877, she said.

Full report: Hong Kong Tests Toys for Date Rape Drug

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Study links birth control pill to arterial plaque

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A European study released on Tuesday has raised new concerns about the safety of women's long-term use of the birth control pill, suggesting increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

Women who had used oral contraceptives were more likely than those who did not take the pill to have a buildup of plaque in their arteries, the researchers told an American Heart Association meeting.

"The main concern is if you have higher plaque levels that you might develop a clot on one of these plaques and have a stroke or a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or sudden cardiac death," Dr. Ernst Rietzschel of Ghent University in Belgium, who led the research, told reporters.

"That's the main risk with having plaque, with having atherosclerosis."

Rietzschel's team studied 1,301 women ages 35 to 55.

Of them, 81 percent had used the pill, for an average of 13 years. The researchers saw a rise of 20 to 30 percent in arterial plaque in two big arteries — the carotid in the neck and the femoral in the leg — for each decade of use.

The researchers measured plaque levels using a technique called vascular echography.

Full report: Study links birth control pill to arterial plaque

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Lack of Sleep May Lead to Fatter Kids

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Here's another reason to get the kids to bed early: More sleep may lower their risk of becoming obese. Researchers have found that every additional hour per night a third-grader spends sleeping reduces the child's chances of being obese in sixth grade by 40 percent.

The less sleep they got, the more likely the children were to be obese in sixth grade, no matter what the child's weight was in third grade, said Dr. Julie Lumeng of the University of Michigan, who led the research.

If there was a magic number for the third-graders, it was nine hours, 45 minutes of sleep. Sleeping more than that lowered the risk significantly.

The study gives parents one more reason to enforce bedtimes, restrict caffeine and yank the TV from the bedroom. The study appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Lack of sleep plays havoc with two hormones that are the "yin and yang of appetite regulation," said endocrinologist Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the new study.

Full report: Lack of Sleep May Lead to Fatter Kids

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