Sunday, August 26, 2012

A very gracious lady took on the challenge to carry the message to 'take action' for healthier children.



She did it for parents lost in a myriad of responsibilities with their children. She did it for the right reasons. She did it so all children would have a chance to be happy and healthy without problems of obesity as an obstacle to success.

The First Lady's National Program is called "Let's Move." (click title to entry - thank you)

Love your children and make a difference, not an indulgence.

Kids Yoga, Raising Healthy Children, kids exercise

What kind of activities should I expect for my child? Easy one. THINK MILESTONES.

Child growth and development has been studied for centuries. The modern day concepts came with its beginning with Freud. But, it was only a beginning.

The National Institutes of Health has The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (click title to entry for their website - thank you)

The point is what to look for in child development is important. As a parent reassured by success in growth and development there is a future guaranteed for the dedication.

Many developments are based in physical activity. Throwing balls, balancing on one foot, skipping rope and doing jumping jacks are all activities of coordination that provides a child with confidence about their body. It is easy to combine healthy diets with healthy activity. Both serve a purpose and they lead to self-assured young adults that find it easy to be an adult.

Below are links to websites that want to help parents achieve their goals.

This is a resource from PBS Parents.


Child Development Tracker (click here)

Use the Child Development Tracker to get insights on the stages of growth.

Palo Alto Medical Foundation has some clues:

Teenage Growth & Development: 11-14 Years (click here)

From education.com:


And from the CDC:

The early years of a child's life (click here) are very important for his or her health and development. Parents, health professionals, educators, and others can work together as partners to help children grow up to reach their full potential. 

Exercise everyday. Make it fun. Parents can participate, too. (click title to entry for American Heart Association Guide for Parents - thank you)

I was my experience when my sons were growing up, that 'gear' was very important. For girls, I imagine 'gear' takes on a little different meaning, but, basically when clothes are special, a yoga mat is special, a CD player with favorite turns with or without friends, it makes an impression on children.

Having a special place in the house or apartment where they can pull out their mats and turn on their music and do an exercise program everyday is status and fulfilling. It is a way Moms and Dads can let their children know their health is important to them and should be to the child. 

A child doesn't have to be doing Yoga to have a yoga mat in their favorite color. But when they take it out it provides special meaning and a time to play, have fun. 


Children should have limits on their activities so they are not pushing themselves to far and parents, in some instances, will have been and longer endurance than their child. It is okay for children to stop if they are winded or tired.

And parents should not believe cost is in the way. Improvise. Children aren't going to judge their parents for loving them so much as enjoying attention to achieving and maintaining wellness.

If the aesthetics of exercise becomes important enough, the children may ask for a special mat or outfit for their exercise. Heck, when Physical Education was still a requirement in school, I always had to have a special uniform for the activity. So, it can be fun and it doesn't have to cost much at all.

Clicking on the title is a resource for parents from The American Heart Association. It is an excellent place to start.

For those interested in understanding BMI (Body Mass Index) I liked this approach. (click title to entry - thank you)

The link at the title is a funny page that allows a parent to put their child's height and weight in with their birth date to find the child's BMI. It sort of explains the concept. But, I thought this approach was less alienating then others.

This picture came from an article I have below, because  for all those that believe this is an urgent need to address in the USA, there are at least that many that oppose it. I think parents should be ready for the negative arguments. It is their children they love, not the neighbor who has ideas that won't work for someone else's family.

But, I find nothing wrong with the idea of children weighing themselves. In the USA families mark a molding for each birthday, so there is already the concept that a child's body grows. For a child to step on the scale once a month or if there is a problem with obesity, once a week, is a healthy habit to develop. But, it needs to be part of thinking healthy about their bodies. Obsession is not where it is at. Being 'in the know' and growing strong and healthy is the idea.


Is our focus on obesity doing kids more harm than good? (click here)



While out shopping over the holiday weekend, I passed a child in a store buggy snacking on a bag of M&M’s. The little candies were strewn all over his lap and his hands were stained with multiple colors. I smiled at the sight of him, figuring his mother had used the sweet treats to appease him as she worked her way through her Christmas list.

A few minutes later, after I had contemplated what I had seen, I turned to my boyfriend and asked him if I was being too judgmental by thinking that M&M’s were an inappropriate snack to give a child of the boy's age, which I guessed was 3.

His answer was no — but then he said I would probably be one of those overbearing, controlling moms who won’t let her kids eat any junk food.

Although I’m not a mom yet, I fear there may be some truth to that. 

"My child is not defined by a bunch of lines in a box."

There is some controversy about BMI vs Height and Weight when it comes to children's growth. I am not going to get into that. It is a topic parents need to work out with their pediatrician. What is important is having a relationship with your child(rens) doctor.


Below is an article from WebMD.

More Self-Control as a Child, Lower BMI as Adult?

Are Kids Who Can Resist Temptation Less Likely to Be Overweight Adults? (click title to entry - thank you)


The charts on this page are growth charts, They are very different. The one on top is a girls growth chart with height and weight percentiles. The one at the bottom is a boy's growth chart in BMI (Body Mass Index). Pediatricians use these as a tool. They can check on the growth of the child in relation to NORMALS. When a child strays from normals, it may be an indicator of problems within the child's metabolism or habits that need to be modified to insure a healthy adult emerges from the childhood.




There is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to viewing these charts. When my sons were growing up the pediatrician (a guy pediatrician) regularly discussed their health with me as he saw it. It was a good discussion and I appreciated it. My family is prone to weight problems in generation after generation, so it was important to me that they have a chance to grow with normal weight. And they did. I took recommendations seriously and was a good parent to my sons. I didn't think to load their pictures for tonight, but, I'll keep it in mind for another time. Each of my sons were always the perfect weight for their height and they enjoyed their teen years. They were happy and when they graduated from High School, they were handsome. Very handsome guys, void of a lot of bad habits.



Average weight for age for children. The difference between boys and girls starts about the age of two through adulthood. (click title to entry for chart below - thank you)

Average Height and Weight For Boys
AgeAverage HeightAverage Weight
 in Inchesin Pounds
Newborn7.16
1 Month9.15
2 Months10.91
3 Months12.56
4 Months14
5 Months15.43
6 Months16.53
7 Months17.64
8 Months18.74
9 Months19.62
10 Months20.28
11 Months21.05
1 year28 - 2922
13 Months22.27
14 Months22.82
15 Months23.26
16 Months23.7
17 Months24.14
18 Months24.58
19 Months25.02
20 Months25.35
21 Months25.79
22 Months26.12
23 Months26.57
2 years3128.4
3 years3333
4 years3735 -37
5 years4041.8
6 years4246.2
7 years4450.6
8 years4557.2
9 years4961.6
10 years5170.4
11 years5277
12 - 13 years58 - 6285 - 100
14 - 15 years63 - 66105 - 125
16 - 17 years67 - 70130 - 150
18 - 20 years68 - 70150 - 160
Average Height and Weight For Girls
AgeAverage HeightAverage Weight
in Inchesin Pounds
Neworn7.16
1 Month9.15
2 Months10.91
3 Months12.56
4 Months14
5 Months15.43
6 Months16.53
7 Months17.64
8 Months18.74
9 Months19.62
10 Months20.28
11 Months21.05
1 year28 - 2921.76
13 Months22.27
14 Months22.82
15 Months23.26
16 Months23.7
17 Months24.14
18 Months24.58
19 Months25.02
20 Months25.35
21 Months25.79
22 Months26.12
23 Months26.57
2 year3028.4
3 year3330.8
4 year3735.2
5 year4039.6
6 year4146.2
7 year4350.6
8 year4557.2
9 year4763.8
10 year5170.4
11 year5279.2
12 - 13 years60 - 6395 - 105
14 - 15 years63 - 64105 - 115
16 - 17 years64115 - 120
18 - 20 years64125 - 130

What are the dangers when children eat an unhealthy diet?


Additional Health Risks (click title to entry - thank you)


Less common health conditions associated with increased weight include asthma, hepatic steatosis, sleep apnea and Type 2 diabetes.
  • Asthma is a disease of the lungs in which the airways become blocked or narrowed causing breathing difficulty. Studies have identified an association between childhood overweight and asthma.4, 5
  • Hepatic steatosis is the fatty degeneration of the liver caused by a high concentration of liver enzymes. Weight reduction causes liver enzymes to normalize.2
  • Sleep apnea is a less common complication of overweight for children and adolescents. Sleep apnea is a sleep-associated breathing disorder defined as the cessation of breathing during sleep that lasts for at least 10 seconds. Sleep apnea is characterized by loud snoring and labored breathing. During sleep apnea, oxygen levels in the blood can fall dramatically. One study estimated that sleep apnea occurs in about 7% of overweight children.6
  • Type 2 diabetes is increasingly being reported among children and adolescents who are overweight.7 While diabetes and glucose intolerance, a precursor of diabetes, are common health effects of adult obesity, only in recent years has Type 2 diabetes begun to emerge as a health-related problem among children and adolescents. Onset of diabetes in children and adolescents can result in advanced complications such as CVD and kidney failure.8
In addition, studies have shown that obese children and teens are more likely to become obese as adults.9, 1
Sleep Apnea is more then just snoring.
This test is conducted at the home the patient. This test is specifically designed to assist in the diagnosis of sleep disordered breathing, specifically Sleep Apnea. The test is convenient for the patient and many experts agree that testing the patients sleep in their normal home environment offers many advantages to the laboratory setting that is admittedly uncomfortable for the patient.

So how much food does any child need in one day?


...Here are some good rules of thumb. (click title to entry - thank you) It’s simplified, but it works. The first thing you must do is determine your child’s weight in kilograms, since that is how we do the calculations: 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds. Once you know that, you can calculate the average amount of calories needed to grow this way:
  • Age newborn to 3 months:  100 calories per kilogram per day
  • Age 3 months to 3 years : 90-100 calories per kilogram per day
  • Age 3 years to 8 years: 80-90 calories per kilogram per day
  • Age 8 years to 12 years: 60-80 calories per kilogram per day
  • Age 12 years to 16 years: 45-60 calories per kilogram per day
These calculations assume a normally active child. A significantly more active child needs more. A reasonable rule of thumb for this extra need is for an active child (defined as an hour per day of sustained physical activity) to have about 1.25 times their baseline calories and very active children (defined as more than 90 minutes of sustained physical activity per day) to have 1.5 times their baseline calories....
To interpret the good Doctor's recommendations for the average child with no health issues that add any demand on metabolism:
For a newborn up to three months - 227 calories per five pounds per day body weight per day
For a growing baby of 3 months to a 3 year old child - 227 calories to 204.5 calories per 5 pounds of body weight per day
For children 3 to 8 years old - 204.5 to 182 calories per five pounds of body weight per day
For 8 to 12 years old - 182 to 136 calories per five pounds of body weight per day
For 12 to 16 year old teenagers - 136 to 102 calories per five pounds of body weight per day
Examples are somewhat from the cited text as the title:
A normal 6-year-old in first grade weighs about 45 pounds.45 pounds is 5 X 9. For this six year old a normal daily need is 193.5 calories for every 5 pounds. 5 pounds X 9 = 1741.5 calories per day of nutrition.
What about a 16-year-old girl who is a serious soccer player? The average weight for a girl of that age is 120 pounds, She needs about 3672 calories. Her baseline need is 2448 calories, that amount multiplied by 1.5 for her intense activity.
Finding the exact nutrition is not always a simple exercise and parents and caregivers should not beat themselves up about it, but, they do need to have regular check ups for their children and take the pediatrician's advice seriously.

What is a calorie?

The calories appearing on food labels are different from the "calories" used in chemistry. 

One Calorie with a capital (also called a food calorie or a kilogram calorie) is equal to 1000 calories (gram calorie).



In science, a calorie is the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1 °C

The important word to take away from this definition is ENERGY

Calories are ENERGY that fuel our bodies

It takes an excess of 3500 calories to gain 1 lb. of fat

If you consume one 12 oz Banana Milk Shake everyday, it could add 500 calories to your food consumption per day and in one week you would gain one pound. One day of overindulging does not cause instant weight gain.

While children are growing, rarely is calorie restriction indicated and only under strict medical and nutritional supervision for children with other health related problems. Overweight children are encouraged to meet with a Registered Dietitian to learn how to eat healthier while growing into their weight. As with most things in life, moderation is the key. Moderate caloric intake combined with moderate exercise will help you achieve and maintain your natural, healthy weight, and stay there. So remember: calories are our friends! 

Flavia Herzog, MA, RD is a Registered Dietitian specializing in pediatric weight management and eating disorders as an associate with Nutrition Profiles; as well as coordinating two USDA funded Nutrition Curriculum grants through Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Are we killing our kids with food?

Just because parents have made all the mistakes with their own lives, they can tell there children don't hurt your health, please, I love you too much.


YOUNG VICTIM Tessa Cesario, 11, developed a kidney stone in February. She has since cut back on salt and is drinking more water.


A Rise in Kidney Stones Is Seen in U.S. Children (click title to entry - thank you)

By Laurie Tarkan
Published: October 27, 2008

To the great surprise of parents, kidney stones, once considered a disorder of middle age, are now showing up in children as young as 5 or 6....

...“The older doctors would say in the ’70s and ’80s, they’d see a kid with a stone once every few months,” said Dr. Caleb P. Nelson, a urology instructor at Harvard Medical School who is co-director of the new kidney stone center at Children’s Hospital Boston. “Now we see kids once a week or less.”...

...Dr. John C. Pope IV, an associate professor of urologic surgery and pediatrics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, said, “When we tell parents, most say they’ve never heard of a kid with a kidney stone and think something is terribly wrong with their child.”...

...The increase in the United States is attributed to a host of factors, including a food additive that is both legal and ubiquitous: salt....

...Forty to 65 percent of kidney stones are formed when oxalate, a byproduct of certain foods, binds to calcium in the urine. (Other common types include calcium phosphate stones and uric acid stones.) And the two biggest risk factors for this binding process are not drinking enough fluids and eating too much salt; both increase the amount of calcium and oxalate in the urine....

It's Sunday Night


"The Death Song" (live) - Marilyn Manson (click title to entry for website - thank you)




we're on a bullet
and we're headed straight into god
even he'd like to end it too
we take a pill, get a face
buy our ticket
and we hope that heaven's true
I saw a cop beat a priest on the TV
and they know they killed our heroes too

We sing the death song kids
because we've got no future
and we want to be just like you
and we want to be just like you

Let's sing the death song kids 


we light a candle on an earth
we made into hell
and pretend that we're in heaven
each time we do we get
the blind man's ticket
and we know that nothing's true
I saw priest kill a cop on the TV
and I know now they're our heroes too

We sing the death song kids
because we've got no future
and we want to be just like you
and we want to be just like you

we write our prayers on a little bomb
kiss it on the face and send it to god

We were the world
but we've got no future
and we want to be just like you
we want to be just like you.

Japan Earthquake - Liquefaction in Makuhari





April 7, 2011
The earthquake that struck Japan on March 11 (click here) will be remembered primarily for the devastating tsunami it created. The quake itself did remarkably little damage to buildings in most areas, thanks to strict construction codes. But in a few places, particularly around Tokyo, buildings didn't fare as well.
These are places built on land reclaimed from the sea. When the earthquake struck, the soil in these areas acted like a liquid, a phenomenon known as liquefaction....

Southern California received more jolts to the reality that has been shaking them, when a 5.4, not 4.5, but 5.4 earthquake broke loose.


Event Time (click here)

  1. 2012-08-26 19:31:23 UTC
  2. 2012-08-26 12:31:23 UTC-07:00 at epicenter
  3. 2012-08-26 15:31:23 UTC-04:00 system time

Nearby Cities

  1. 5km (3mi) NW of Brawley,
  2. California
  3. 18km (11mi) N of Imperial, California
  4. 24km (15mi) N of El Centro, California
  5. 37km (23mi) N of Calexico, California
  6. 328km (204mi) W of Phoenix, Arizona


The repeated effects of seismic activity is called liquefication. It happened in Japan after the tsunami quake and it happened in Christchurch, New Zealand.


California border hit by earthquake swarm (click title to entry - thank you)


August 26, 2012 

12:57 pm 


Imperial County was hit by more than a dozen small earthquakes Sunday, including a 5.4 quake near the Mexican border.


The first quake -- a magnitude 3.9 temblor -- occurred at 10:02 a.m. northwest of Brawley and was followed by a series of other quakes in the same general area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries, authorities said.


The quakes could be felt in the press box at the Del Mar Race Track in neighboring San Diego County, where the $1-million Pacific Classic is scheduled later Sunday.


Between 10 a.m. and 12:50 p.m., the same general area was shaken by quakes ranging in magnitude from 2.0 to 5.4, the USGS reported.


The burst of quakes took place roughly 16 miles from El Centro and 92 miles from Tijuana. In the last 10 days, there have been six earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby....


11 April 2011

The soil sank (click here) nearly 3 feet at this water purification plant that serves 19,000 people, breaking pipes and flooding underground structures.
CREDIT: Oregon State University.