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A most effective wake up call: Mom's voice
A randomized trial found that a mother's recorded voice will wake a child and get him out of the room much faster than a standard smoke alarm.
The researchers recruited 176 young people aged 5 to 12 to test the alarms. They taught the children a simulated evacuation procedure: get out of bed at the alarm, go to the door and leave the room.
They watched the children with EEG electrodes until they entered a deep sleep phase. Then, they trigger either a standard tone alarm, or one of three versions of the recorded mother's voice instructions and the child's name.
The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, revealed that the audible alarm woke children about 50% of the time and that they needed an average of nearly five minutes to get out of the room. With the mother's voice, nearly 90% of children woke up and walked out of the room in less than 30 seconds on average.
Lead author Gary A. Smith, director of the Center for Injury and Policy Research at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, wondered if this was the voice of the mother or a human voice that would work too.
"What we really want," he said, "is an optimized alarm for kids that will work for all age groups."
– Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times
Stop spanking, says the group of pediatricians
Parents should not spank their children, said the American Academy of Pediatrics in its strongest policy statement, warning against the harmful effects of corporal punishment in the home.
The group, which represents about 67,000 doctors, also recommended to pediatricians to advise parents against the use of spanking, which he defines as "a non-offensive and open strike in order to alter the behavior of A child, "and avoid resorting to a humiliating, non-physical punishment. scary or threatening.
"One of the most important relationships we all have is the relationship between us and our parents. So it makes sense to eliminate or limit the fear and violence in this romantic relationship, "said Dr. Robert D. Sege, a pediatrician at Tufts Medical Center. and an author of the statement.
The Academy's new policy, which will be published in the journal Pediatrics, updates the 20-year discipline guidelines that recommended parents to be "encouraged" not to spank.
Recent studies have shown that corporal punishment is associated with increased aggression and increases the risk of mistrust of children in the future. Spanking alone is associated with results similar to those of physically abused children, says the new statement from the academy.
HealthyChildren.org, the parenting website of the Academy, offers tips for disciplining children.
– Christina Caron, The New York Times
Nursing benefits babies and mothers
Most women know that breastfeeding is good for their baby's health. But doctors and midwives rarely tell expectant moms that it's also good for breastfeeding mothers.
Nursing mothers reduce their relative risk of breast cancer by 4.3% over 12 months of breastfeeding, in addition to a relative decrease of 7% at each birth. Breastfeeding is especially protective against some of the most aggressive tumors, known as hormone-negative or triple-negative receptor-negative tumors, which are more common in African-American women, according to studies.
Breastfeeding women are also less likely to develop ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis and may have improved cardiovascular health.
Yet only 16% – or less than 1 in 5 women surveyed – said their doctors had told them that breastfeeding was beneficial for both mother and baby, according to a new study published in Breastfeeding Medicine.
"We have an ounce of prevention that could save lives," said Dr. Bhuvaneswari Ramaswamy, senior author of the journal and associate professor of medical oncology at Ohio State University in Columbus. "But do we fully educate mothers when they make this difficult choice? Because it's not an easy choice. "
– Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times
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