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Everyone is talking about the Emmys this week: is Modern Family really funnier than 30 Rock? Is Claire Danes really more dramatic than Glenn Close? Is there really an award for “Host For A Reality Or Reality Competition Program”? Really?
As a dad who has spent hours on the couch with his kids and watching Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel, I was most invested in the Outstanding Children’s Program category. Would it be Victorious (Fame meets Welcome Back Kotter) or iCarly (Laverne And Shirley meet an iPhone)? I was shocked when the winner was Wizards of Waverly Place (Harry Potter meets Married With Children)! Honestly, watching any of these shows I’d love to meet just one fresh idea.
Ups And Downs
This week the American Academy of Pediatrics Council On Sports Medicine And Fitness officially went on the record as opposing fun. To be fair, it wasn’t any old sort of fun, just the kind of fun that causes around 100,000 pediatric injuries a year and, occasionally, quadriplegia and death. That’s right, the AAP reiterated its opposition to trampolines, for those of you who weren’t listening in 1977, 1981, and 1999.
What’s different now? For one thing, a flood of inexpensive imports has opened up trampoline ownership to everyone, not just that rich family down the street that also has the swimming pool, the dirt bikes, and the dueling pistols. For another thing, widespread use of padding and protective netting has given parents a false sense of security, leading them to believe there’s no way 12 kids bouncing around and turning flips over each other could possibly hurt themselves.
In an interview, Arch Adams, president of Fun Spot Trampolines in Hartwell, GA, countered, “It’s one of the few forms of exercise kids want to do.” Okay, he’s got us there. He went on to remind parents to always heed the warnings printed on every trampoline: only allow one jumper at a time; absolutely no somersaults, and adult supervision is essential. Now who’s no fun?
Eye Of The Needle
A report in this week’s New England Journal Of Medicine points the way to increasing childhood vaccination rates: make it harder for unvaccinated children to attend school. Researchers compared vaccination rates of children in states with only a religious exemption for required vaccines versus states that also allowed a philosophical exemption. For those confused about the difference, a philosophical exemption is, “I would rather risk my child suffering death or permanent disability than to protect him against preventable diseases.” A religious exemption is, “I would rather risk my child suffering death or permanent disability than to protect him against preventable diseases, amen.”
In states that allowed philosophical exemptions, rates of vaccine refusal were over 2.5 times as high as in the states with only religious exemptions. Vaccine rates also improved when parents had to obtain and fill out a government form to forgo vaccination rather than scrawl out a few hand-written lines on a Post-it note. Based on these results, I propose that future vaccine exemption laws require a notarized statement directly from the parent’s deity of choice, submitted on papyrus, vellum, or a stone tablet. We wouldn’t want to get too picky.
Once More, With Feeling
Have you ever noticed that men are not as emotionally sensitive as women? (If you’re male you probably haven’t, because that would require paying attention to someone else’s feelings for once, wouldn’t it?) It turns out there may be a reason much simpler than a patriarchal society that punishes men for expressing emotional connections, although you can’t write that one off. It may be the binkies.
In three separate studies of pacifiers and emotional sensitivity, researchers publishing in Basic And Applied Social Psychology make a strong case that in boys (but, for some reason, not girls) sucking on a pacifier impairs the reflective changes in facial expression needed to learn how to interpret others’ emotions. Next time some guy gives you a blank stare, just imagine a binkie in his mouth, then look away before you start to snicker and he asks you what’s so funny.
Tons of psychological research shows that when we listen to someone else talk we use our own facial expressions to help us understand how they feel. For example, if a friend tells you her dog is sick, your eyebrows tilt up in the middle, and the corners of your mouth turn down to reflect her sadness. If your brother tells you about his promotion, your eyes open wide and you smile, to better share his joy. If your mom tells you she just finished watching a Hoarders marathon, you squint and look away, hoping she can’t tell you think she’s getting senile. Just like adults who have had Botox injections, male infants seem less able to process emotional input when their mouths are paralyzed by pacifiers. This may have a lifelong effect on their emotional development, causing them to form weaker attachments as adults and, in the case of some Emmy judges, to favor Wizards Of Waverly Place over the vastly superior Degrassi. I mean, really?!
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
Everyone is talking about the Emmys this week: is Modern Family really funnier than 30 Rock? Is Claire Danes really more dramatic than Glenn Close? Is there really an award for “Host For A Reality Or Reality Competition Program”? Really?
As a dad who has spent hours on the couch with his kids and watching Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel, I was most invested in the Outstanding Children’s Program category. Would it be Victorious (Fame meets Welcome Back Kotter) or iCarly (Laverne And Shirley meet an iPhone)? I was shocked when the winner was Wizards of Waverly Place (Harry Potter meets Married With Children)! Honestly, watching any of these shows I’d love to meet just one fresh idea.
Ups And Downs
This week the American Academy of Pediatrics Council On Sports Medicine And Fitness officially went on the record as opposing fun. To be fair, it wasn’t any old sort of fun, just the kind of fun that causes around 100,000 pediatric injuries a year and, occasionally, quadriplegia and death. That’s right, the AAP reiterated its opposition to trampolines, for those of you who weren’t listening in 1977, 1981, and 1999.
What’s different now? For one thing, a flood of inexpensive imports has opened up trampoline ownership to everyone, not just that rich family down the street that also has the swimming pool, the dirt bikes, and the dueling pistols. For another thing, widespread use of padding and protective netting has given parents a false sense of security, leading them to believe there’s no way 12 kids bouncing around and turning flips over each other could possibly hurt themselves.
In an interview, Arch Adams, president of Fun Spot Trampolines in Hartwell, GA, countered, “It’s one of the few forms of exercise kids want to do.” Okay, he’s got us there. He went on to remind parents to always heed the warnings printed on every trampoline: only allow one jumper at a time; absolutely no somersaults, and adult supervision is essential. Now who’s no fun?
Eye Of The Needle
A report in this week’s New England Journal Of Medicine points the way to increasing childhood vaccination rates: make it harder for unvaccinated children to attend school. Researchers compared vaccination rates of children in states with only a religious exemption for required vaccines versus states that also allowed a philosophical exemption. For those confused about the difference, a philosophical exemption is, “I would rather risk my child suffering death or permanent disability than to protect him against preventable diseases.” A religious exemption is, “I would rather risk my child suffering death or permanent disability than to protect him against preventable diseases, amen.”
In states that allowed philosophical exemptions, rates of vaccine refusal were over 2.5 times as high as in the states with only religious exemptions. Vaccine rates also improved when parents had to obtain and fill out a government form to forgo vaccination rather than scrawl out a few hand-written lines on a Post-it note. Based on these results, I propose that future vaccine exemption laws require a notarized statement directly from the parent’s deity of choice, submitted on papyrus, vellum, or a stone tablet. We wouldn’t want to get too picky.
Once More, With Feeling
Have you ever noticed that men are not as emotionally sensitive as women? (If you’re male you probably haven’t, because that would require paying attention to someone else’s feelings for once, wouldn’t it?) It turns out there may be a reason much simpler than a patriarchal society that punishes men for expressing emotional connections, although you can’t write that one off. It may be the binkies.
In three separate studies of pacifiers and emotional sensitivity, researchers publishing in Basic And Applied Social Psychology make a strong case that in boys (but, for some reason, not girls) sucking on a pacifier impairs the reflective changes in facial expression needed to learn how to interpret others’ emotions. Next time some guy gives you a blank stare, just imagine a binkie in his mouth, then look away before you start to snicker and he asks you what’s so funny.
Tons of psychological research shows that when we listen to someone else talk we use our own facial expressions to help us understand how they feel. For example, if a friend tells you her dog is sick, your eyebrows tilt up in the middle, and the corners of your mouth turn down to reflect her sadness. If your brother tells you about his promotion, your eyes open wide and you smile, to better share his joy. If your mom tells you she just finished watching a Hoarders marathon, you squint and look away, hoping she can’t tell you think she’s getting senile. Just like adults who have had Botox injections, male infants seem less able to process emotional input when their mouths are paralyzed by pacifiers. This may have a lifelong effect on their emotional development, causing them to form weaker attachments as adults and, in the case of some Emmy judges, to favor Wizards Of Waverly Place over the vastly superior Degrassi. I mean, really?!
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
Everyone is talking about the Emmys this week: is Modern Family really funnier than 30 Rock? Is Claire Danes really more dramatic than Glenn Close? Is there really an award for “Host For A Reality Or Reality Competition Program”? Really?
As a dad who has spent hours on the couch with his kids and watching Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel, I was most invested in the Outstanding Children’s Program category. Would it be Victorious (Fame meets Welcome Back Kotter) or iCarly (Laverne And Shirley meet an iPhone)? I was shocked when the winner was Wizards of Waverly Place (Harry Potter meets Married With Children)! Honestly, watching any of these shows I’d love to meet just one fresh idea.
Ups And Downs
This week the American Academy of Pediatrics Council On Sports Medicine And Fitness officially went on the record as opposing fun. To be fair, it wasn’t any old sort of fun, just the kind of fun that causes around 100,000 pediatric injuries a year and, occasionally, quadriplegia and death. That’s right, the AAP reiterated its opposition to trampolines, for those of you who weren’t listening in 1977, 1981, and 1999.
What’s different now? For one thing, a flood of inexpensive imports has opened up trampoline ownership to everyone, not just that rich family down the street that also has the swimming pool, the dirt bikes, and the dueling pistols. For another thing, widespread use of padding and protective netting has given parents a false sense of security, leading them to believe there’s no way 12 kids bouncing around and turning flips over each other could possibly hurt themselves.
In an interview, Arch Adams, president of Fun Spot Trampolines in Hartwell, GA, countered, “It’s one of the few forms of exercise kids want to do.” Okay, he’s got us there. He went on to remind parents to always heed the warnings printed on every trampoline: only allow one jumper at a time; absolutely no somersaults, and adult supervision is essential. Now who’s no fun?
Eye Of The Needle
A report in this week’s New England Journal Of Medicine points the way to increasing childhood vaccination rates: make it harder for unvaccinated children to attend school. Researchers compared vaccination rates of children in states with only a religious exemption for required vaccines versus states that also allowed a philosophical exemption. For those confused about the difference, a philosophical exemption is, “I would rather risk my child suffering death or permanent disability than to protect him against preventable diseases.” A religious exemption is, “I would rather risk my child suffering death or permanent disability than to protect him against preventable diseases, amen.”
In states that allowed philosophical exemptions, rates of vaccine refusal were over 2.5 times as high as in the states with only religious exemptions. Vaccine rates also improved when parents had to obtain and fill out a government form to forgo vaccination rather than scrawl out a few hand-written lines on a Post-it note. Based on these results, I propose that future vaccine exemption laws require a notarized statement directly from the parent’s deity of choice, submitted on papyrus, vellum, or a stone tablet. We wouldn’t want to get too picky.
Once More, With Feeling
Have you ever noticed that men are not as emotionally sensitive as women? (If you’re male you probably haven’t, because that would require paying attention to someone else’s feelings for once, wouldn’t it?) It turns out there may be a reason much simpler than a patriarchal society that punishes men for expressing emotional connections, although you can’t write that one off. It may be the binkies.
In three separate studies of pacifiers and emotional sensitivity, researchers publishing in Basic And Applied Social Psychology make a strong case that in boys (but, for some reason, not girls) sucking on a pacifier impairs the reflective changes in facial expression needed to learn how to interpret others’ emotions. Next time some guy gives you a blank stare, just imagine a binkie in his mouth, then look away before you start to snicker and he asks you what’s so funny.
Tons of psychological research shows that when we listen to someone else talk we use our own facial expressions to help us understand how they feel. For example, if a friend tells you her dog is sick, your eyebrows tilt up in the middle, and the corners of your mouth turn down to reflect her sadness. If your brother tells you about his promotion, your eyes open wide and you smile, to better share his joy. If your mom tells you she just finished watching a Hoarders marathon, you squint and look away, hoping she can’t tell you think she’s getting senile. Just like adults who have had Botox injections, male infants seem less able to process emotional input when their mouths are paralyzed by pacifiers. This may have a lifelong effect on their emotional development, causing them to form weaker attachments as adults and, in the case of some Emmy judges, to favor Wizards Of Waverly Place over the vastly superior Degrassi. I mean, really?!
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).