What is the safest sunscreen for my child?

The strong summer sun has arrived. It is that time of year to be even more diligent about slathering sunscreen on our children to protect them from the sun's harmful cancer-causing rays.

Deciding which sunscreen to use is challenging given the many options on the market and discussions about the harmful ingredients that some of them contain.

One extremely useful resource is Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Guide, which has a recently updated section dedicated to sunscreen. Their top-rated products are broad-spectrum, protecting against both UVA and UVB sun radiation (see my post that explains the different types of sun radiation). Additionally, all of the top sunscreens contain the minerals zinc or titanium, which offer the best UVA protection without harmful chemicals considered to be hormone disruptors. Finally, none contain oxybenzone or vitamin A (see my post on Vitamin A in sunscreen).

What is your favorite sunscreen for your child? Did it make EWG's top list?

Are 3D movies safe for children's eyes?

When a reader expressed concern over her children watching 3D movies, I thought for sure I would learn that 3D is harmful to children's eyes. I was shocked to discover that it does not hurt children's eyes and can actually be extremely beneficial in detecting several types of eye disorders and diseases. For example, amblyopia (lazy eye) may be more easily diagnosed and treated if parents seek care for children who have difficulty viewing 3D media.

The American Optometric Association (AOA)--the acknowledged leader and authority on eye and vision care in the world--has partnered with industry experts from the 3D@Home Consortium on an educational website all about 3D eye concerns: http://www.3deyehealth.org/. They explain how 3D media can help alert parents to problems their children have with binocular vision.

Binocular vision is the ability to align and focus both eyes on an object and then combine the images from each eye into one clear three dimensional image. If the eyes are unable to work together or one eye becomes fatigued, an individual will have difficulty seeing in 3D.

Symptoms to watch out for include headaches, blurred vision, nausea, and dizziness. The best way for parents to find out if there is a problem is to ask lots of questions and observe your children's behavior. When you take your children to a 3D movie or they are playing a 3D video game, make sure to ask them if their eyes are bothering them or if they experience any of the other above symptoms.

A key to a identifying binocular vision problem is if children are not experiencing the 3D visual like everyone else because they can only see in 2D. You can test their ability to see the 3D picture by asking questions about what they are watching. Did they see the butterfly pop out of the screen? Do the images look clear or blurry? If anything seems out of the ordinary, contact your pediatrician or schedule an appointment with an eye doctor.

For more information on children's eye health, please see my post from December 2010.

Why is my child no longer napping?

I have a very good reason why you have not heard from me in awhile...not only has my toddler stopped napping, but he is also getting up much earlier in the morning. These changes in his sleeping pattern have completely shifted my daily schedule. I used to have a couple hours of quite time every afternoon to sit down at my computer to write and get other tasks done. I also was able to get up before my son did to get a few things done. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case, and many days I feel like I am living with the Energizer Bunny.

A year ago, I posted an article about the importance of napping and how it can even make your child smarter. Naps are critical for both physical and mental development of a growing child. I am a huge proponent of the nap, which makes it extra difficult for me to accept that my son no longer needs/desires one.

How much sleep do children need? WebMD outlines some helpful guidelines for the amount of sleep a child typically needs based on age. These guidelines indicate that when children turn 3, they tend to lose their nap. However, one sleep expert says that at age 4 more than 50 percent of children still nap and at age 5 about 30 percent of children still nap.

If you are a parent of a child under 3 who has decided to stop napping on a daily basis, you know as well as I that guidelines in this area are not necessarily scientific, and there are many factors at play that affect the child's sleep routine. Each child is an individual with his/her own unique internal clock. As long as a child is getting the total amount of sleep necessary in a given day, there is nothing to be concerned about (except maybe your own sanity and energy level). It just means a major shift in the daily routine. One way to maintain a break in the middle of the day is to institute "quiet time" in which the child plays quitely or relaxes while listening to some music in his/her bedroom.

If you are not ready to let go of the precious nap, you can try the following tips to keep your toddler napping.

I welcome your feedback and advice on this big transition.

Is organic milk healthier?

Many parents have switched to organic milk for their children to avoid the potentially harmful artificial growth hormones in conventional milk. A recent study out of Britain's Newcastle University gives us another reason to make the switch: organic milk contains healthier fats than regular milk.

During the study, twenty-two brands of whole milk bought over a two-year period were tested; roughly half were organic. Researchers concluded that because organic cattle eat a fresh grass diet, the milk they produce contains less saturated fat and more good fatty acids than milk produced at intensive commercial dairy farms.

The organic milk contained 30 to 50 percent less saturated fat and had more healthy fats. Levels of alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fat that helps boost heart health, were 57 percent higher on average. In addition, amounts of conjugated linolenic acid, linked to reducing eczema in children, were a third higher in the organic milk.

Have you switched to organic milk yet? If not, will this new information make you think twice next time you are in the milk aisle?

Should kids drink bottled or tap water?

Drinking water is at the center of an ongoing debate and an important question for parents as consumers have drastically shifted to drinking bottled water. Bottled water sales have more than quadrupled in the last 20 years. According to the International Bottled Water Association, bottled water was the second most popular beverage in the United States in 2005 after soda. Americans consume more than 7.5 million gallons of bottled water, or an average of 26 gallons per person. Just between 2004 and 2009, U.S. consumption of bottled water rose by 24 percent.

The Environmental Working Group just released its 2011 Bottled Water Scorecard, which analyzes the labels and websites of 173 bottled water products to determine if the industry is disclosing enough information about its products to the public. EWG specifically looked at whether a company identified the source, treatment methods, and purity testing of the water. Overall, 18 percent of bottled water products fail to list the source, and 32 percent do not disclose anything about the treatment or purity of the water.

EWG recommends that the public drink filtered tap water to ensure the safest water possible. In addition, this will save consumers money and reduce plastic waste.

Part of the problem is that the federal government does not mandate that bottled water be safer than tap water. While tap water suppliers are required to publish their water quality tests, bottled water companies are not, leaving the public in the dark. There is also a difference in how EPA regulates tap water and FDA regulates bottled water. According to the Sierra Club, EPA inspects municipal water plants 100 or more times per month, while FDA performs inspections of bottled water companies as few as four times a month.

Erik Olson, director of advocacy for the National Resources Defense Council, explained in a medicinenet.com article that most municipal water tends to be quite similar to bottled water in terms of contaminants and other health and safety issues.

The main message here is that parents are able to learn more about the quality of their tap water than bottled water. Therefore, it makes more sense to choose the water that you have more information about and control over.

In order to provide the safest drinking water to your children, you can:

• Read your annual tap water quality report. Look up your city’s water in EWG’s National Tap Water Atlas.
• Use filtered tap water. If your water is not fluoridated, you can use a carbon filter. If it is, use a reverse osmosis filter to remove the fluoride because fluoridated water can damage a child’s developing teeth by creating fluorosis, or white spots.
• Fill your filtered tap water in safe containers to avoid leaching of harmful chemicals from plastics including bisphenol-A (BPA). Carry stainless steel or other BPA-free containers. You will also be reducing the amount of plastic waste that ends up in our landfills.
• Review EWG’s Bottled Water Scorecard so you know which brands of bottled water are safe to drink in case you are unable to use your filtered tap water.

Is the age difference between siblings linked to autism?

A study released today in the journal Pediatrics presents some surprising evidence that a small spacing between siblings--less than two years apart--may increase the chance that the second child will develop autism.

With women getting married and having their first child later, there has been a rise in the number of closely spaced births. In 1995, 11 percent of births were less than two years apart. By 2002, the number jumped to 18 percent.

Study Approach

The researchers looked at more than half a million births in California from 1992 to 2002. They analyzed data on second-born children whose older sibling did not have autism. Of the 662,730 second-born children reviewed, 3,137 were diagnosed with autism. Of the 156,034 children conceived less than a year after the birth of their older siblings, 1,188 had an autism diagnosis--a higher rate.

Key Findings

Children conceived before their older sibling's first birthday were three times more likely to have autism than children spaced at least three years apart. In addition, the sooner the second child was conceived, the greater the likelihood of that child being diagnosed with autism. The pattern was found for parents of all ages. The researchers also took into account other risk factors for autism and still saw the effect of birth spacing.

For researchers, a major breakthrough with this study is that it confirms that prenatal environmental factors--not just genetics--play a role in the development of autism.

Possible Reasons for the Link

Scientists are not yet sure what is causing the birth spacing link, but some theories have been presented:

• There may be a biological reason. Pregnancy depletes nutrients in a woman's body, including folate and vitamin B, which are important for the development of a healthy fetus. If a woman quickly has another baby, her body might not have time to restore the necessary nutrients.
• Parents may be more likely to notice developmental problems when siblings are so close in age since they can easily compare the children.
• There could be a combination of factors at play.

Next Steps

It is critical that the research community duplicate the results of this study to ensure its validity. They will need to review data from more states and expand the total number of children they analyze. If additional research confirms the consistency of this link, women may be recommended to have children over two years apart to reduce the risk of autism.

Stay tuned for more information. Remember, if you have concerns about your child's development, speak to your pediatrician as soon as possible. Early intervention of autism has proven effective in many cases. Visit the following websites to learn more about autism: http://www.autismtoday.com/, http://www.autismspeaks.org/, and http://www.autism-society.org/.

Should children have caffeine?

I was shocked to find out from a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics that about 75 percent of children are consuming caffeine daily. When I grew up, soda and coffee were off limits for my brother and me. These days, children are loading up on soft drinks and other caffeinated products to the point that it is ruining their chances of a good night's sleep.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center surveyed parents of more than 200 children between the ages of 5 and 12. The parents were asked about the types and amounts of snacks that their children ate on a daily basis. Children between the ages of 8 and 12 took in an average of 109 milligrams of caffeine per day--the equivalent of three 12-ounce cans of soda. Younger children consumed less caffeine, but some as young as 5 years old had the equivalent of one can of soda a day. The study showed that the more caffeine a child consumed, the less they slept.

Caffeine is a stimulant--and known to be the most popular and easily accessible drug in the world. Although it is safe to consume in moderation, it is addictive and has no nutritional value. It enters the bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine, causing a stimulating effect as soon as 15 minutes after it is consumed. Once in the body, caffeine can last for several hours. It takes about 6 hours for just half of the caffeine to be eliminated.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, caffeine is not recommended for children. It impacts a child's sleep and may negatively affect a child's nutrition by replacing nutrient-rich foods such as milk. A child may also eat less because caffeine suppresses one's appetite.

Caffeine can also act as a poison. A recent article in Parents Magazine pointed out that the American Association of Poison Control Centers receives about 4,000 calls each year about exposure to caffeine in children. Around 1,200 of those are for children aged 6 and under. The main complaints are headaches, irritability, nausea and sleep issues.

What Can You Do?

• Avoid serving your children caffeinated beverages--soda, coffee, tea, energy drinks, and caffeinated water.
• Watch out for chocolate. Cookies, candy, ice cream and other desserts with chocolate contain caffeine that can affect your child.
• If your child does consume some caffeine, make sure it is earlier in the day and not near bedtime.
• Carefully read labels since some products surprisingly contain caffeine.
• Contact your pediatrician or the poison control hotline if your child exhibits worrisome symptoms such as nervousness, irritability, dizziness, rapid heartbeat or insomia after consuming caffeine.