August, 2010

 Reposted from theBeijinger forum:

 In the last month, two cases of Erlichia and one case of Babesia have been diagnosed. These are sub-tropical infections that should not be seen in Beijing. The most likely explanation is that with increased dog mobility, be it within China or from overseas, the parasite has been brought to Beijing's warmer summer climate in the last 2-3 months and is re-cycling through the tick population.

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Back to school.
 
This simple phrase will most likely trigger reactions in your teen. Some may be excited to escape the general sluggish atmosphere of summer break, while others are quite content to be living in the moment. I can say that I know as well as anyone the feeling of going back to school as a teenager. In a week, I’ll be heading back to perhaps the most demanding year of my high school career.

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These days, the Facebook Initiation looms over just about any middle schooler’s head. New students are ‘friended’ by the second day of class, friends met through summer camp are ‘added’ immediately after they return home; and friends introduce other friends to more friends through the far reaching hold of Facebook.

 I was assimilated into the craze back in ’07 when I entered a new middle school. As I neared a couple hundred friends in a few weeks, Facebook’s widespread grasp on my peers (and myself) was apparent. Pictures from “hang outs” and birthday parties were uploaded and ‘tagged’ that night for others to view and comment on. The inside jokes and memorable moments of the day were made personal statuses followed by a chain of other friends’ names who also in on the joke. Forgotten homework assignments were inquired about on other students’ ‘Walls’. Said Walls were seemingly preferred over Instant Messaging as friends chatted and posted messages in one minute intervals on each other’s pages. (I soon came to find out that the more posts on your Wall, the cooler you seemed). After a month of Facebook, I could hardly imagine my thirteen year old "social life" before I got an account.  

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So your child is young? He can’t sit still? Do adults call him immature? Your child might have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Or not.

 Last week, a Los Angeles Times article expressed doubt over the accuracy of diagnosed ADHD cases in young children. Research conducted by Michigan State University suggests that 1 million children in the United States could be misdiagnosed with ADHD. The study shows that a main cause for this is simply because of age. Younger children in the classroom tended to be more frequently labeled with ADHD.

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Last week’s New York Times article (What Is It About 20-Somethings?, Aug 18, 2010) on the alleged phenomenon of young people in the US who are either unwilling or unable o cut the cord and assume full-blown adulthood (i.e. financial and domestic independence) has succeeded in ruffling a few feathers.

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“Nothing is fun. I’m bored.”

“Mickey lies. Dreams don’t come true.”
 
“I can’t do Legos. I will never do Legos. I am not a Legos person. You should take them away.”
 
All of these statements came out of Kiran’s mouth before he was diagnosed with ‘preschool depression’, also called early on-set depression, at age five.
 
To many, depression at age five is shocking, but the concept of childhood depression is gradually becoming more widely accepted. Today, numerous child psychiatrists and developmental psychologists believe early on-set depression can even occur in two and three year olds. Child psychiatrist and epidemiologist Helen Egger of Duke University, child psychiatrist professor Joan Luby of Washington University School of Medicine who diagnosed Kiran, in addition to other researchers say 84,000 of 6 million preschoolers in America could be clinically depressed.

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Harvard Girl: Liu Yiting, Yale Girl and From Andover to Harvard are only a few of the “how I got my child into an Ivy League school” parenting books that have popped up around China in the last decade. In the first widely acclaimed of these guides, Harvard Girl: Liu Yiting, her parents describe that when Liu was a child, they would make her hold an ice cube for as long as she could to build stamina. Liu was also told to practice jumping rope until she won a competition at school as well as complete her elementary school work in the noisiest part of the house to develop concentration abilities. A storm of similar books followed, snatched up by parents who believed parenting techniques that worked for the parents of “successful” students might work for their own children.  
 
The one-sided knowledge of the aforementioned parenting tips (as well as Liu Yiting) has been ubiquitous in China ever since Harvard Girl was published in 2000. Until now.

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China Hearsay has an interesting piece discussing a recent China Daily/Xinhua story on the jurisdiction of divorce settlements between Chinese nationals and foreigners.

According to the China Daily article: "Chinese nationals married to foreigners will have to settle any marital conflicts according to the law of the country where they live most of the time under proposals that went before Chinese lawmakers Monday" -- a motion that clears up (somewhat) a long-standing ambiguity about how divorce settlement laws are applied in these instances. Or, as ChinaHearsay puts it, "The point is that this sort of thing tends to be messy, and judges here do not like dealing with foreign-related family law issues."

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The conclusions of a recent survey conducted by Shanghai Morning Post accounted for 85 percent of 452 people believing breast milk to be the best dairy substitute for infants.

 
Working Shanghai mothers devoted themselves to breastfeeding as well, buying breast pumps to use at work and then bringing the breast milk home after work. Online shops reported a rise in sales of equipment used to preserve pumped breast milk.
 

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Editor’s Note: Lauren McCarthy, our intrepid writer, went to check out the “Happy Magic Water Cube Waterpark” yesterday. Here is her take on the experience.

Earlier this month we blogged about the opening of the Magic Happy Water Cube Waterpark and we recently had a chance to check it out (and see if it’s worth the RMB 200 admission).

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Ever wonder how your infant or toddler sees the world and everything around them?
 
New York Times recently reported that researchers are getting a clue as to how babies and children older than 5 months react to their surroundings. Strapped to the young “test subject’s” heads are lightweight cameras that record videos marked with crosshairs to show where the children are looking. Researchers then examine the data to determine the reason why young kids look (or don’t look) where they do.

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The Global Times and other Chinese media outlets have announced free measles (ma(2) zhen(3), 痲疹) shots for kids from September 11-20 for "children from 8 months old to 14 years old at 535 vaccination sites and 178 hospitals" due to an anticipated outbreak this fall.

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Boston.com lately reported that as many as one in five teenagers are suffering hearing loss characteristic of a 50 of 60 year old.
 
After testing teenagers on ability to hear a range of quiet whispers, researchers found the resulting ratio to be a third more in comparison to teens in the early 1990s. Though the hearing loss observed relatively slight in contrast to hearing in our everyday lives, Director of Diagnostic Audiology of Children’s Hospital Boston Brian Fligor says that their hearing will only steadily worsen. By the time the teenagers tested are in their 40s, their hearing may have progressed to causing troubles listening in conference calls, he says.

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After reading numerous articles about the over-the-top kitsch, long lines, overpriced food and generally poor organization of the Shanghai Expo, my wife and I have spent the majority of this summer resisting the idea of going. And were it not for my insistent in-laws (who really, really wanted to go), we very well would have not. But in the spirit of filial piety we finally succumbed this past weekend and went along with our daughter to witness “Le Grand Spectacle.”

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You can tell a lot about a person by how they eat an Oreo cookie.

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The issue of juggling work and children for women in burgeoning careers is only becoming increasingly apparent as more and more women are assuming top career positions. 

 
InterExec, a British recruitment agency that seeks senior business executives, conducted a survey with top job recruiters in the UK and found that 53% believed women vying for a job position paying over 150,000 pounds (233,130 USD) should not undergo career hiatus of any kind. CEO of InterExec, Kit Scott-Brown, said that this result is not to say that those surveyed believe women should not take their place in executive positions, but that women taking time out of their careers to take care of newborns and children would irrevocably hurt their progress to the top.

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Looking for an abundance of English books for your child to read? Look no further than Haidian Children’s Palace Library!

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Exercise doesn’t just keep you in shape or help you shed those extra pounds. A multitude of other benefits that can motivate you to keep up a regular exercise regime remain under the radar.
 
Studies have repeatedly shown exercise as a key to strengthening immune systems and even fighting off viruses and bacteria. Now, it has been proven to lower the risk of stroke by 27% and reduce the occurrence of diabetes and high blood pressure by 50% and 40% respectively. The risk of recurrent breast cancer is reduced by 50%, and the risk of colon cancer is slashed by over 60%. Exercise also cuts the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by 40%. In addition, it has been shown to be just as effective as Prozac or behavioral therapy in decreasing depression.

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Always trying to find an activity that combines the perfect mix of fun and education for your child? Now you have with simple step-by-step science experiments that can be completed in the vicinity of your kitchen!  

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A recent study by researchers of the University of Hong Kong suggests that the effects of secondhand smoke on children living in a household with smokers could affect their academic performance.

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These days there is an overabundance of sunscreens on the market: Creams, sprays with or without retinol, with SPF30, 50, 100! How do you choose one that is safe and effective for you and your loved ones? Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
 
A good sunscreen should block out both UVA and UVB light, in other words it should be labeled as broad-spectrum. Most sunscreens do a good job of blocking UVB, but aren’t so great when it comes to UVA.

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“三岁看大，七岁看老” (san sui kan da, qi sui kan lao).
This old Chinese proverb roughly translates to “at three years of age, you will see what a child will be like as they grow older; at seven years, you will see what they will be like as an adult.” A recent study conducted by UC Riverside and Oregon researchers shows that this old Chinese proverb may not just be a saying.

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Are your kids bored while waiting for school to start up again?

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Do you hand your daughter an unpeeled apple as an afterschool snack, or cut up carrot sticks to pack in a lunch for your son under the premise that the fruits and vegetables you buy are organic?

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