Chilean children are as happy as Swedish children !

It has always thought that living in Europe provides you socio-economic stability and their standard of living is way better than other continents as America or Africa, but having and enjoying all the facilities and amenities does not make you happy, do they?

Children who live in Sweden, the fourth happiest country of the World according to UN, are as happy as Chilean children. The study was headed by Los Andes University, together with Swedish and American researchers who evaluated the level of vital satisfaction among 729 Chilean children between 8 to 14 years old, from private, subsidized, and municipal schools; and the data of 623 Swedish students.

According to Lisa Clefberg, director of department the Psychology from the fore mentioned University, children’s opinions were recollected and evaluated into ten different areas of satisfaction: parents, friends, siblings, health, home, self-respect, school, teachers, cousins, and time of playing.

“The results are very impressive and strong. We thought the results of UN would reply on the Swedish Children too, but we found that they feel very unsatisfied in many aspects in comparison to the Chilean Children” tells Dr. Clefberg. For example, one of the aspects that shocked the psychology community was “siblings”, in which Chilean children obtained higher scores than their European pairs.   

What about you? What’s your opinion regarding this topic? Does the socio-economic stability have to do with the happiness of people? Feel free to comment.

In this link you will find a blog attached from the Austin Psychology and Assesment Center. They expand on the possible reasons in children from Netherlands (another European country) for being happy. 

http://www.apacenter.com/why-dutch-children-are-the-happiest-in-the-world/

Headaches in Children and Visual Problems, related?

It is a common belief that when children suffer from headaches is probably because they have some sort of visual problem, and they should be taken immediately to the ophthalmologist. Well, a study carried out by the ophthalmology clinic of Albany Medical Center in New York where nearly 160 children under 18 were evaluated showed different results.

They found out that 75% of the children had the same results in their vision exams, after suffering from the headaches, so there was no connection between the headaches and a need for glasses, even if the headaches happened after the child was doing some visual task, such as doing homework. Moreover, the ones who got new glasses, their headaches didn’t improve.

The ophthalmologists stated that the purpose of this study is to demonstrate that headaches are not related to visual problems, and that the aches will probably disappear in time. They were also emphatic in recommending that when the young child is taken to their primary care doctor, the child has a visual test there by visual screenings or photo screeners, so if he or she has some sort of problem, it would be better if discovered at an early age.

Children less than age 7 are still neurologically immature and if a condition such as Amblyopia is discover after that age, no much can be done to improve. Amblyopia is a condition in which the brain will stop using or developing one eye if it has a problem, and the after the age of seven is very difficult to treat.

Did you think that headaches were related to visual problems?

If you did, isn’t it better to prevent?

If my children were having headaches, I would just take them to the ophthalmologist just to make sure they don’t have a visual problem, just to clear up my doubts. Would you do the same thing?

Don't yell at me, dad! I may be unhealthy when adult...

Spaking children seems to be a past-century thing ;however, there are parents that still think that the best way to make children behave well and be obedient is through violent punishment – yelling, spaking, slaping,  etc— 

However, the consequences of this sort of violence can be much more serious that thought. A recent study conducted by psychologists from Plymouth University's School of Psychology suggests that the stress caused in childhood by this sort of violence could lead to serious health issues later in life. 

250 healthy adults, 150 adults with asthma, 150 with heart disease, and 150 with cancer,  all of them from Saudi Arabia, were asked questions about their infancy and if they had been victims of physical or verbal abuse.

The results showed that people with heart disease were 20% more likely to have suffered from physical and/or verbal abuse when children, those with asthma were 60% more likely, and the ones with cancer were 70% more likely, compared to the adults who were healthy.

Although the results are quite clear and push us to believe that indeed violence in infancy had a strong influence in these ill people, there are experts such us Dr Andrea Danese, Clinical Lecturer in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, who claim that this study is not 100% trustable since the evidence is based on testimonies of sick grown-ups, who may be more likely to report and unhappy infancy.

Furthermore, Prof David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor Of The Public Understanding Of Risk at the University of Cambridge, said: “I would be very cautious about over-interpreting these results. For example, the healthy group are taken from administrators and nurses at the hospital treating the patients, and so are likely to differ in many ways from the ill people. The controls reported less beating and insulting as children, so maybe not being beaten encourages people to enter a caring profession, rather than protecting them from disease?”

To read The Telegraph's piece of news on this study, click here. 

To read the paper "The Impact of Violence on Children" by Dr Joy D. Osofsky, click here. 

Do you support the thesis that violence in early childhood could lead to the diseases mentioned? Or, do you think that the results of the study are being over-interpreted?

   

Parents should worry.

There is a potential danger in eye and nasal drops says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has issued a warning because of recent cases of adverse consequences due to the use of these decongestants .

Provided that, we must wonder if it is advisable the use of certain drug treatments in little children, especially those medicaments that are not conceived as “hard drugs” may present the greater danger for the health of children.

An example of the risk that may come with the use of  decongestants is what has happened in the U.S. with the recent cases of children about five years old who have presented serious consequences after the ingestion of a small amount of these drugs:  less than a tea spoon has been the amount necessary to cause vomiting, hypertension, sedation and even coma.

It may sound unconceivable that such a small doses may cause a tremendously risky condition in little children; therefore, it is imperative for parents to look out what kind of medicine they are giving and to keep drugs away from their reach even those drugs that you thought were harmless.

For more information: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm325729.htm

Facebook: A doubled-edge sword for kids

 Facebook, founded in 2004 by M. Zuckerberg, was initially directed to Harvard’s students only; however, nowadays everyone has access to it. We all know what this website is about, how it works, how to use it and most of us have a Facebook account.

  Facebook states that kids under the age of 13 are not allowed to have an account, but is not so difficult to lie about age on the website. Moreover, parents do not always allow their children to have FB accounts, yet kids can dive into FB on their own.

 The benefits of using the site seem to be not few compared to the adverse consequences of it: it improves children’s social skills by allowing them to have contact with other people, it gives them the chance to express themselves, it provides them online social media skills, it helps them to communicate with their classmates and discuss school work.

 The disadvantages, on the other hand refer to bullying, addiction to the website, an opened door to other websites not appropriate for teens or kids, and fake accounts with pedophiles behind them. Teenagers do not always know to differentiate right from wrong and kids under 13, or even 14, are exposed to great dangers they don’t even imagine. I think it’s not FB the problem, but an “age” one: FB is not necessary a bad thing, but it is when it's used by kids who have no idea what they are doing.

 So, if you had a child under 13, would you let him/her have a FB account?

Let’s switch uteri!

In Sweden two women received new wombs donated by their mothers, something that seemed utopian twenty years ago it is possible today!

The surgery took place on September 15 and 16 from this year, where their mother’s healthy uteri were transplanted into their daughter’s body. The women are in their thirties, one had cervical cancer and had hers removed a few years ago, and the second woman was born without one.

But this is not all; in vitro procedures were performed on these women and until now everything has turned out well. "Both patients that received new uteri are doing fine, but are tired after surgery," Dr. Mats Brannstrom, who led the team of doctors performing the surgery, said in a hospital statement on Tuesday. "The donating mothers are up and walking and will be discharged from the hospital within a few days". More details in this video.

The idea of having uteri removed it’s not new, in 2011 a successful uteri transplant was conducted in Turkey, but the woman hasn’t been able to conceive.

The benefit of this milestone in the history of fertility is amazing: Women who are unable to have children will be able to do it. We can end with infertility. 

This leads to the question, could men also have children? Of course this is a future thing, but could it be possible? Would it be ethical? Would it be “right”?

Children and videogames

It is incredible how much technology and science has made for us. From cures for some diseases to the smallest entertaining devices. It has always called my attention how easily children get attached to video games, and I have always wondered whether it is good for them or not. My experience as a game player is not deep, nor long, but I can tell I had friends in school that were quite into all kinds of video games, whether they were of adventure, role-playing, or strategy, among others. They always said how much these video games had helped them to learn English, and to become better and faster at solving quick problems. From what I have read, playing video games is, actually, a good tool for acquiring skills, and they help avoiding some learning disabilities, such as dyslexia and hyperactivity disorders. The issue states when there is no control over what kind of video games children play, and experts have told that it is parents' responsibility to mentor that their kids play adequate games for their age. In my opinion, we need to keep our children away from violent games, and encourage them to complement this with other activities, such as reading books and playing sports. I would like you to tell me your experience as video games players and to give me your views on whether video games are useful at learning or not. Would you let your children spend hours in front of a television and a console, or a computer?