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By Maggie McCracken
Italian parliamentarian Elvira Savino wants to impose jail time on parents who choose to feed their children a vegan diet. Citing malnutrition, Savino likened veganism to child abuse and expressed concern about recent incidents in Italy in which vegan diets were linked to health problems in children under 16.
Understandably, vegans and non-vegans alike have expressed outrage over the proposal. Should Italy really be making decisions like these for parents under the guise of child welfare? And even if they should, is there really anything particularly unhealthy about a vegan diet?
Veganism and Parenting
Chastising parents for what they choose to feed their children is nothing new. Both meat eaters and vegans often criticize parents on the other side, citing the opposing diet as unhealthy, irresponsible and ill-informed.
Parents Who Feed Children #Vegan Diet Could Be Jailed for Year Under Proposed Italian Law https://t.co/2Jk6wooInz @Food_Tank @nongmoreport— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1470919668.0
For the sake of clarity, some children do suffer from poor nutrition when they're fed a vegan diet—but so do many children of meat-eating parents. In her proposal, Savino cites a recent case in which a Milan one-year-old was hospitalized as a result, doctors determined, of malnutrition due to his vegan diet.
However, it's likely that parents of poorly fed vegan children aren't paying due diligence to the nutritional needs that are inherent with veganism. No one is saying that eating healthy while vegan is easy. It requires a deep understanding of nutrition, particularly when one is dealing with growing children. But with the right research and eye to detail, a healthy vegan diet is certainly doable, as millions of parents have demonstrated by correctly feeding their children a healthy plant-based diet.
Is a Vegan Diet Healthy for Kids?
If done correctly, it's usually possible for a healthy young child to thrive on a vegan diet. Pediatric dietician Helen Wilcock of the British Dietetic Association explained to The Guardian that vegan parents should be sure to give their kids supplements to protect against malnutrition.
"Vegan children can be deficient in vitamin D, calcium, iron and possibly vitamin B12," she explained, "so they need supplements."
Wilcock also recommends adding oil to children's food to provide them with nourishing fats as well as extra calories.
Dr. Hyman: 5 Ways to Raise Healthy Eaters - EcoWatch https://t.co/7KkJ81xfEd @livestrong @nytimeswell— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1471817110.0
And finally, she cautions parents to think about the amino acid profile of their vegan children's diets. In order to get complete amino acids, parents need to pair plant-based foods together that deliver the entire spectrum of the nine essential amino acids for human growth. Most plant foods don't contain a complete amino acid profile, so it's necessary to create combinations that do, such as rice with beans, peanut butter with bread or hummus with pita.
How to Take Action
If you're passionate about parents' right to feed their children a vegan diet, we invite you to sign our petition and make your voice heard. Only by being vocal about these issues can we educate others about nutrition and give parents the tools they need to raise strong and healthy vegan kids.
This article was reposted with permission from our media associate Care2.
A new report released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) largely unchanged from two years ago, at one in 68 children. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health contributed to the study, which showed boys were 4.5 times more likely to be identified with ASD than girls. The rate is one in 42 among boys and one in 189 among girls.
This is the sixth report by the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM), which has used the same surveillance methods for more than a decade, a tracking system that provides estimates of the prevalence and characteristics of autism among 8-year-old children in 11 communities.
Here are the estimated prevalence rates of ASD in the U.S. reported by previous data:
- one in 68 children in the 2014 report that looked at 2010 data
- one in 88 children in the 2012 report that looked at 2008 data
- one in 110 children in the 2009 report that looked at 2006 data
- one in 150 children in the 2007 report that looked at 2000 and 2002 data
According to John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, researchers say it is too early to tell if the overall prevalence rate has stabilized because the numbers vary widely across ADDM communities. The school goes on to say that "the causes of autism are not completely understood; studies show that both environment and genetics may play a role. There is no known cure, and no treatment or intervention has been proven to reduce the prevalence of ASD."
Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation and mother of a daughter with autism, told CNN that this new report is not a sign everything is fine. "It points to the need for more research to understand nuances in data to be able to better serve all children diagnosed with autism," she said. The report suggests there are delays in acting on early concerns, said Rice.
Rice attributed the lack of early identification to a "capacity crisis." "There are not enough quality providers out there to provide those therapy services that are needed," she said. "I think a huge thing we need to do at the early age and across the life span of people with autism is ... identify and support individuals with autism."
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., environmental lawyer and founder of The Mercury Project, finds the leveling off of the prevalence of autism to coincide with the decline of thimerosal in three childhood vaccines.
"Interestingly, this represents the first group of children that were not exposed to thimerosal through the HepB, HiB and DTaP infant vaccines," Kennedy said. "Also, uptake of the maternal flu vaccine was below 50 percent. This is the first time essentially on record that autism rates haven't gone up since 1989."
Brian Hooker, associate professor of biology at Simpson University, agrees. He told EcoWatch:
"I'm not surprised that the autism numbers started to stabilize between birth years 2002 and 2004. By 2004, all of the back stock of thimerosal containing HepB, DTaP and HiB vaccines (which were no longer manufactured after 2001) would have been removed from the shelves and these infants (reflected in the latest CDC numbers) did not receive thimerosal in any of their vaccines, with the exception of the flu shot which was administered maternally and at 6 and 7 months of age. Flu shot uptake maternally and in infants was fairly low at this time but has increased since 2004.
"In Denmark, when thimerosal was phased out of infant vaccines in 1992, rates of autism spectrum disorder prevalence slowly dropped over 33 percent over the next 10 years. Unfortunately, because of the thimerosal-containing maternal flu shot, I don't think we'll see this profound of a drop in the U.S."
Regardless of the reason why the results of the new CDC study show the rate of autism unchanged, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all kids are screened for autism at ages 18 and 24 months.
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We love our children. We protect them. At home we put up safety gates near the stairs and take sharp objects out of their reach. When we are in the car, we strap them into a child safety seat. But does your child safety seat pose a risk to their health. It just may, and a new study from the Ecology Center tested some popular seats for their chemical content. Some were rated safer than others.
To be clear, you must use a child safety seat. It protects your kids in the event of a collision. But what if you could shop for one that didn’t contain as many chemicals that have been linked to fertility problems, learning impairments, liver toxicity and cancer? The Ecology Center’s new product tests may just help you do that.
Consumer Report’s reviewed the Ecology Center’s study, and here’s the problem as they see it:
The concerns stem from the detection of chemicals like bromine and chlorine, which are used in some flame retardants. Such halogenated flame retardants have been linked to a variety of health issues. In addition, many are considered persistent (they don’t break down to something safer over time) and bioaccumulative (they build up in your system).
One such chemical, a carcinogen known as chlorinated tris, was found in two seats. It was removed from children’s pajamas many years ago. Though it is prohibited in many states, it is still in use elsewhere. This and other flame retardants can be released from the foams and fabrics of products through regular use. They settle into the air and, in particular, the dust in the vehicle.
Cars can be Cocoons for Unsafe Chemicals
Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of child safety seats tested contained hazardous halogenated flame retardants and over half contained non-halogenated organophosphate flame retardants, some of which are hazardous as well. These chemicals simply aren’t necessary, and top rated companies in the study, Britax and Clek, have been proactively implementing policies to reduce hazards in their products while still meeting all safety standards. Some are not, as was the case for the poorest performing company: Graco, which unfortunately is one of the largest in manufacturers in the country.
There have been several iterations of this report over the last several years, and there’s some good news. There’s a general trend toward safer chemicals in child seats. But we are by no means “there.” Fifteen 2014-model car seats were tested for specific flame retardant chemicals by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The seats were also tested for bromine (associated with brominated flame retardants), chlorine (indicating the presence of chlorinated flame retardants when detected in a certain range of concentration), lead and other heavy metals. These substances have been linked to thyroid problems, learning and memory impairment, decreased fertility, behavioral changes and cancer.
Heat and UV-ray exposure in cars can accelerate the release of these chemicals from products into the vehicle environment. Many children spend hours in a car every week, or even every day, potentially exposing them to harmful flame retardants. Babies are the most vulnerable population in terms of exposure, since their bodily systems are still developing and they spend many hours in their car seats. Infants, toddlers and children can be exposed through inhalation, ingestion and dermal (skin) absorption of these chemicals.
The Best and the Worst
Car seats were evaluated using a comparative ranking method which evaluated a range of chemical hazards in the products. Complete product rankings and the ranking methodology are available at HealthyStuff.org. Here’s how things came out:
- Best 2014-15 Car Seats: Britax Frontier and Marathon (Convertible); Clek Foonf (Convertible)
- Worst 2014-15 Car Seats: Graco, My Size 65 (Convertible); Baby Trend, Hybrid 3-in-1 (Convertible)
Take Action
Visit HealthyStuff.org and check out the car seat rankings. When you choose a safer seat, you not only make a safer environment for your child, you vote with your dollar. You can also check out their other consumer tips, like for example limiting the amount of time your child spends in a car, and dusting and vacuuming the car often to help remove contaminants.
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When you picture a middle schooler, or tween, what do you see? A lanky kid with braces on an iPad? Awkward middle school years? What if you pictured a kid dirty with mud and emerging from the forest instead?
Research tells us that kids who spend time in nature suffer less anxiety, have better health, longer attention spans and the ability to cope with the challenges of the middle school years. Yet, we often associate the early adolescence with decreases in time outside and less interaction with nature.
In my new book for middle school readers, The Order of the Trees, the characters discover their friendship and the power of the forest in their lives. The book will be published on May 15 (preorders are available now) by Green Writers Press, this book is one way to excite and inspire middle school students to think about their local natural areas and how they can experience them with friends.
The main character, Cedar, was found as a baby deep in the Vermont woods. We flash forward to her sixth grade year and she couldn’t be more different than the other kids. She finds her first true friend and shares her forest home with him. He quickly discovers her secret and has to race to find a plan to save their sacred woods.
It is my hope that middle school students and their parents will find this book inspiring to use their passions, interests and creativity to seek out and preserve the magic found in our local woodlands, ponds, streams and habitats. Tweens can be and do so much more than the stereotype allows. Put down that iPad, smart phone or tablet and head into the woods or your neighborhood park. You never know what you might find there.
Do you have a child in grades 4-8 in your life? The Order of the Trees was written just for this age group. Starting on May 1 and running through May 7, I’m giving away three copies of the book on Goodreads, so be sure to enter to win a copy. The Vermont-based publisher, Green Writers Press, focuses on giving voice to writers who want to make the world a better place. Ask for it at your local, independent bookstore or you can find it on Amazon.
Katy Farber is a teacher, author and founder of the blog, Non-Toxic Kids. She is also the author of two other books about education: Why Great Teachers Quit and How We Might Stop the Exodus and Change the World with Service Learning.
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