In order to curb the alarming rate at which kids are growing up obese, experts have suggested that young children ought to be encouraged to walk and that parents should learn to ditch using the stroller.

This is what experts in the UK have suggested, according to an article published in the Daily Mail.

According to the report, health officials are worried about the rise of obesity cases with kids. The government and it’s National Health Service agency, in fact, have been spending about $6.7Million a year, just for this.

“By taking steps such as encouraging their children to walk to school, to eat healthily or stop using buggies on short trips at the age of three, they can help ensure their children lead an active life,” this is according to a council cabinet member.

“We have to acknowledge that childhood obesity is a growing problem and while local authorities have a part to play it is ultimately the responsibility of parents and carers to tackle this issue. I get very frustrated when I see children as old as five in a buggy. We should start to stop using the buggy as much as we can from three.”

One in every five children in London is said to be obese. The figures are a lot worse in United States, where childhood obesity is also a big problem.

Young kids, who are supposed to be enjoying themselves, are besieged with diseases like diabetes or heart problems.

As parents, do you think strollers must be ditched?

The American Academy of Pediatric (AAP) is urging parents and crib manufacturers to do away with using bumpers on their baby’s cribs. The organization has just released new guidelines on baby safety, which includes this recommendation as a way to preventing SIDS.

According to the reports, this is the first time the group has openly recognized the dangers of the bumpers, which were first added to the cribs to protect the babies from injury. The AAP says, there is no such evidence to the claim that a bumper-less crib is dangerous. However, the crib bumpers themselves bring about more danger as this can strangle, suffocate and entrap infants, leading to their death. There have been lots of reported cases about this, hence the AAP has already taken a stand.

Their last recommendation, published in 2005, suggested using crib bumpers that are thinner and hardly pillow-like. But recent turn of events have made the AAP change their stand.

According to one of its chairpersons:

“In 2005, when we last published a policy statement and recommendations, we had some concerns about bumper pads, but we didn’t really have a lot of evidence that this was a real problem. Since then, there have been some published studies looking at bumper pads, and we concluded that if there’s no reason for them to be in the crib, it’s better to just have them out of there, particularly in light of the deaths that have been reported, that have been associated with the bumper pads.”

Children that were victims of car crashes and accidents between the periods of 2002 and 2006 had avoided getting injured because they were wearing their seat belts. The research had look into accidents involving chilren, where it was shown that at least 47.5% had been restrained from their car, thus avoiding further injury and death.

The study also revealed that minority families rely on seat belt use less. These are actually Native Americans, Blacks and the Hispanics.

Overall, children’s injury rate was minimal and falling at 6 or 7 percent, while 13 percent of these injuries were sent to emergency surgery procedure.

The study was done by the American Academy of Pediatrics and was presented in its recent national meeting held in Boston. The study was a preliminary research work from which proper data and conclusion are stil ongoing.

According to the study’s lead, Dr. Rebecca Stark —

“After adjusting for the use of restraints, we found no differences in mortality among different ethnic groups. The major determinant of both morbidity and mortality is the severity of the injury as quantified by the initial injury severity score. Because the use of restraints decreases the ISS, we feel our results highlight the need for further education and outreach to the pediatric population about the benefit of seat-belt use.”

Not minding about motor safety is one of the leading causes of death among children in the United States. Parents or adults looking after children could benefit well from heeding to advices on children’s safety, especially with so many distractions on the road these days.

Recession is really hitting every one in the family hard. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, many parents are now opting to do away with disposable diapers. Hence, sales for these have gone down.

The volume of diapers sold in the U.S. slipped 1% in the four weeks ended Sept. 4 from a year earlier, extending a string of similar or steeper declines stretching back to August 2010, according to Consumer Edge Research, whose retail-sales tracking doesn’t include Costco Wholesale Corp. or Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Dollar sales fell nearly 3%, indicating parents are both cutting back and trading down to cheaper private labels.

Dollar sales of diapers in the four weeks fell 4% at Huggies maker Kimberly-Clark Corp. Procter & Gamble, maker of Pampers and Luvs, saw dollar sales drop 2.5%. Even generics were down, with sales of private-label diapers slipping 0.5%.

Disposable diapers, when you really factor in the cost, can be very expensive for a family who barely gets by with minimum wage. As a result, some families are opting to use disposable diapers longer than they should, resulting in the rise in the sales of rash creams.

There may also be other indication as to why this is happening, aside from the recession. Parents may be choosing to use cloth diapers because it’s a lot more practical and healthy for the environment.

Other parents may also be opting to buy in bulk or at discounts, to save on cost.

Are you still using disposable diapers for your baby or have you taken an alternative route?

Although children rarely get any headaches, they do suffer from this just like an adult would. The causes are also similar to what adults encounter. Getting insufficient sleep, a change in the pattern of sleep, a change in environment, skipping meals, hormonal changes, watching or staying in the computer far too long — these can all trigger headaches with children. An environment where there is someone smoking can also do that. An infection will also result to a headache.

Some kids can cope well with medicines but there are others who may need more tender loving care when they get a headache and the condition persists.

Go to the doctor with our child and have her check, to rule out any other form of infection or sickness.

Continue to take the medicines prescribed by the doctor. These are usually acetaminophen or ibuprofen but make sure that your child is not allergic to any of these.

Give food richer in fruits and vegetables.

If your child has migraine, she will generally want to sleep rather than eat. Let the child rest or sleep in a cooler and quieter place so as not to aggravate this. Give her a cold compress as she is resting, allow her to breathe deeply.

If the pain is really persistant, a specialist may be needed to help the child with pain management. Children can also feel stress even at their age and a specialist may be able to help with reducing this.