Vaccines are Likely to Cause Insulin Dependent Diabetes in Over 2% of Children With a Strong Family History of Insulin Dependent Diabetes, New Data Indicates

Newly published data by Dr. J. Barthelow Classen shows that vaccines are particularly likely to cause diabetes in children with a strong family history of insulin dependent diabetes. Previous papers provided proof that vaccines cause diabetes in vaccine recipients at a rate which exceeds their benefit in the general population. New data indicates vaccines are particularly toxic to those with a strong family history of diabetes. For example, the hemophilus vaccine which had been proven to cause diabetes in approximately 1 in every 2,000 immunized children in the general public has now been linked to causing diabetes in 1 in every 50 immunized children (2%) who have a sibling with insulin dependent diabetes. The new data is published in the Open Pediatric Medicine Journal. An accompanying article in the same journal links the hepatitis B vaccine to insulin dependent diabetes.

“The recent data shows that common childhood vaccines are especially dangerous to children with a strong family history of diabetes. Parents of a child with a strong family history of insulin dependent diabetes or other should know that the administration of a full series of vaccines may have a greater than 5% chance of causing their child to develop diabetes.”

Classen’s research has become widely accepted. To view the published papers and to find out the latest information on the effects of vaccines on autoimmune diseases including insulin dependent diabetes visit the Vaccine Safety Web site

Health concerns raised over bisphenol A (BPA) used in baby bottles

The health of young baby is of paramount importance to every new parent, so whenever there’s the potential for that health to be put at risk by a seemingly innocuous product, it’s worth taking notice.

A large number of state and national environmental health organizations in the U.S. and Canada are calling for an immediate moratorium on the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles and other food and beverage containers, based on the results of a new study that demonstrates the toxic chemical BPA leaches from popular plastic baby bottles when heated.

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Girls who eat with their families less likely to do extreme diets

Yet again, more research which shows the benefits of families eating together.

Teens who frequently (five or more times per week) eat together with the rest of their family are less likely to use extreme methods — such as binge eating and self-induced vomiting — to control their weight five years later.

That’s according to research by Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and lead investigator of Project Eating Among Teens (Project EAT) at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

The same doesn’t appear to be true for boys.

“Health care professionals have an important role to play in reinforcing the benefits of family meals, helping families set realistic goals for increasing family meal frequency given schedules of adolescents and their parents; exploring ways to enhance the atmosphere at family meals with adolescents; and discussing strategies for creating healthful and easy-to-prepare family meals,” said Neumark-Sztainer. “Schools and community organizations should also be encouraged to make it easier for families to have shared mealtimes on a regular basis.”

(Via Insight News)

Study suggests educational DVDs and TV may not be so good for baby after all

This article was first published at Tech Digest:

A new study from researchers at the University of Washington suggests that using educational TV and DVD, such as the “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” series, or “Sesame Street”, may not be as beneficial for babies and young children as many hoped.

It’s hardly a crime for parents to let their children watch some TV, and if it’s teaching them something too, so much the better (at least, better than letting them watch Big Brother). Even so, the study suggests that for every hour per day that babies watch these DVDs and videos, they learn six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who hadn’t watched them.

Now, parents being told what’s best for their kids by University boffins often leads to emotions running high. While these studies suggest that children who sit passively in front of TV shows don’t do as well educationally, child-raising is a helluva lot more complicated than that.

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Sticks and stones: Verbal abuse of children can lead to PTSD

Psychiatrists at Harvard University have challenged the old playground rhyme.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” might have served some purpose at some time in the face of a tirade of name-calling, but actually a constant barrage of verbal attacks—yelling, shouting, swearing, insults, demeaning, ridiculing, and casting unfair blame—can in fact be as traumatic for a child as experiencing or witnessing some types of physical or sexual abuse.

Constant and severe verbal abuse can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The Harvard news site reports:

Many studies tie physical and sexual abuse to lasting effects on the brain and behavior, but emotional mistreatment has not received the same focus. “Exposure to verbal aggression has received little attention as a specific form of abuse,” notes Martin Teicher, associate professor of psychiatry at McLean Hospital, a Harvard-affiliated psychiatric facility. “This despite the fact that one national study found that 63 percent of American parents reported one or more instances of verbal aggression, such as swearing at and insulting their child.”

Other researchers have associated childhood verbal abuse with a significantly higher risk of developing unstable, angry personalities, narcissistic behavior, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and paranoia. “Verbal abuse may also have more lasting consequences than other forms of abuse, because it’s often more continuous,” says Teicher. “And in combination with physical abuse and neglect [it] may produce the most dire outcome. However, child protective service agencies, doctors, and lawyers are most concerned about the impact and prevention of physical or sexual abuse.”

The article raises some interesting points, and concludes that the occasional harsh or angry word won’t traumatise a child for life, but frequent verbal bashing “could be as bad as sticks and stones that break their bones.”
Study or no study, I know many people who have rightfully dismissed this unhelpful rhyme.

I personally don’t know where it came from, or why it was used—frequently, from memory—in the playground.

Verbal abuse leaves no visible bruises, cuts, or scars, but the emotional trauma it can cause, both at the time, and years afterwards, can be immense.

More problem kids than 50 years ago, study suggests

The Vanier Institute for the Family has suggested that there are a lot more ‘problem children’ than there were 50 years ago, and the blame goes to… everyone.

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Diets of children could fatten their parents, study suggests

Whilst many studies of obesity in children focus on how their life is influenced by their parents, a new study reverses this thinking and instead looks at what influence kids may have on their parents:

“Parents with children are likely to be susceptible in their food choices to both the marketing of convenience in food choices as well as indirectly to the marketing directed at their children,” wrote the study’s authors, Dr. Helena Laroche of the University of Iowa and Dr. Matthew Davis of the University of Michigan Health System.

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