Safety Dance
This week’s Needles asks, “How far would you go to protect your child?” Would you, like actor Brad Pitt, sustain a torn anterior cruciate ligament to keep your daughter from hitting the floor? Would you emulate rapper Jay-Z and pop superstar Beyonce by paying $1.3 million to ensure a little security around the newborn nursery? Or would you do what I do: peek outside at least once an afternoon to make sure your kids still have all their limbs?
This question becomes relevant for parents (like me) who have a child with ADHD. A new literature review in Pediatrics takes the confusing question of how dietary modifications might improve ADHD symptoms and makes it ... just as confusing. After I read the report a couple of times one thing was clear: I would need to read it again. What I take away is this: if you’re willing to put your child on a diet of lamb, barley, and pears, eliminate additives, and swear off all food dyes, it might help your kid’s ADHD symptoms, but probably it won’t, and really who can do that anyway?
Among the clearer conclusions, however, were that mega-doses of vitamins are more likely to cause mega-liver disease than to get your child into the Mega Society. The authors also point out that while 99.99% of parents and teachers still believe that eating sweets acutely worsens ADHD symptoms, the smug 0.01% of us who know better retain the right to laugh at those people, at least until they bring up the one study where sugar intake did contribute to inattention some. But still, we’re mainly right. The authors do support feeding kids a “healthy” diet as opposed to a “Western” diet. But I have to stop and ask where we in the West went so wrong that the opposite of “healthy” is now “Western.” Then I dip another piece of Blooming Onion in Buffalo sauce and forget about it.
Whether you’re worried about attention problems or about obesity stemming from the Western diet, you may want to reduce your child’s screen time. A new literature review in the journal Obesity identified 29 interventions likely to succeed, ranging from clinic-based counseling to the installation of monitoring devices in patients’ homes. Among the best interventions was a stationary bicycle kids have to ride in order to watch television. I love the bike idea, but I’m thinking, “Why stop there?” I’m working right now to patent a device that makes kids’ screen time dependent on washing the dishes, folding the laundry, and walking the dog. No wash, no watch.
A stationary bike appears to be the safest place, however, to wear the Little Tricky bicycle helmet, recently recalled after failing Consumer Product Safety Commission tests for impact resistance. I gotta say, when you’re naming a new product, shouldn’t you take a just a moment to ask yourself, “How’s this name going to sound if this thing proves dangerous?”
Finally, while we all want to protect our kids from colds, a just-published Israeli study suggests this is yet another thing montelukast does not do. I have to applaud the authors for going ahead and publishing this null result despite receiving substantial support from the manufacturer. Hopefully they will put aside their disappointment and go on to find that leukotriene inhibitors make whites whiter, colors brighter, and banish unsightly hairs. As for me, it’s been hours since I’ve checked on my kids. For all I know, at this very moment they’re watching TV and consuming a Western diet.