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During last July’s 5.8 earthquake, 3-year-old Bronwyn told her 1-year-old sister, “We’re going for a wiggle.” READ MORE
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Family news News, voices, trends. Fast Fact According to a March USA Today/Gallup poll, 43% of Americans identify themselves as baseball fans. That is low by recent standards, as an average of 49% of Americans have said they were fans of the sport since Gallup started tracking this measure in 1993. Financial education Go to 'the mint' to unwrap money tips Orange County children and parents can learn about saving, spending, investing, sharing and protecting money by visiting the newly designed themint.org website. It is presented by the Northwestern Mutual Foundation and the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE). "We hope all families in Orange County will embrace the new themint.org," says Bob Waltos, managing partner of The Waltos Group of the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, the local office located in Newport Beach. "The site can help kids and families learn how to make smart choices with their money, a lesson everyone in the community can benefit from." Waltos says he talks about many of the same concepts when meeting with clients and prospects. Children who visit the site will find familiar sections on earning, saving, spending, and investing, which have been updated since 2002. New to the site is a section on "safeguarding," the concept of insuring your home, apartment, car, or health to protect them. In addition, new stories in the "giving" section illustrate that donating can mean more than dollars; it can mean volunteering time and energy to causes kids believe in. Children will also be able to explore newly designed interactive "Try It" activities where they'll learn how to write a check, use a calculator to compute compound interest, and make smart choices with money. Today, more than ever, parents play a crucial role in the financial development of their children. A 2004 study by the Jump$tart Coalition revealed that 90% of kids learn how to manage money at home. STAY IN SCHOOL When summer's in, fitness is out As summer begins, guess what? The child you assume will be running free, will actually be falling out of shape as summer doldrums replace stepped-up PE activities and a somewhat stricter diet enforced during the school years. At least that's the statistic, with apologies to families that plan to retrace the Lewis & Clark Trail, climb Half Dome, or spend a summer at the beach playing games, swimming and surfing. Sociologists at two universities - Indiana and Ohio State - have determined that young children, already at risk for obesity, accumulate fat during the summer months. "This suggests that instead of thinking of schools as the problem, schools appear to be part of the solution," states Indiana University-Bloomington professor Brian Powell. He co-authored the study with three others, studying the BMI growth rates of 5,380 kindergartners and first-graders nationwide. BMI calculates a person's weight and height and provides an indicator of body fatness. The study determined that the BMIs of children increased, on average, more than twice as much during summer breaks, with Latino and African-American students most at risk. The study appeared in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health (ajph.org.) Child abuse OC medical director looks for telltale signs The medical director of Orange County's Child Abuse Services Team (CAST) asked a breakfast meeting whether his task force - comprised of law enforcement, social workers, child advocates and medical teams - should err on the side of caution in suspected child-abuse cases, or back off. "Which is worse," asked Dr. Frederic Bruhn, "overcalling abuse, or undercalling? "You're damned if you do, both ways." Dr. Bruhn was the guest speaker at an Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center (BrightFutures4Kids.org) breakfast meeting. Quoting national statistics, he said that there are about 3 million alleged abuse cases in the U.S. annually; about 12 in 1,000 are confirmed; and that the breakdown goes like this: neglect (60%); physical (18%); sexual (10%); emotional (7%); and other (15%) such as abandonment and drug-endangerment. "Our job is to diagnose abuse. I can tell the other agencies what I think. A lot of what we see is trauma: Is it accidental or intentional?" There are some factors that play into suspected abuse. For example, statistically, a child who falls less than 4 feet should not sustain a major injury. So, if a parent of an injured child uses as an excuse that the child fell only a few feet, that's a sign, says Dr. Bruhn. Also, was there a delay in seeking care? In what manner was the bone broken? And, a baby who is only old enough to roll back and forth shouldn't end up badly bruised. "Everything isn't abuse," said Dr. Bruhn, a pediatrician for 40 years and part of the CAST team for about one year. "But when you work in my job, some days everything seems (so)." He showed several slides of injured children - most abused, though not all. One image was of a child's seriously bruised buttocks. "If you saw this in an adult, there would be no question, assault. And if you see this in a child, it's no question, it's abuse." |
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