Are Your Grandchildren’s Parents Overprotective?
September 24, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Parent's Advice
By Lenore Skenazy
Sept. 24, 2009
A popular columnist and author argues that parents go too far protecting kids from nonexistent dangers
Adapted from Lenore Skenazy’s Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
In case you haven’t been keeping up, let’s take a look at some of the new products the Kiddie-Safety Industrial Complex is marketing to your grandchildren’s parents, starting with baby kneepads.
Yes, kneepads. Exactly what you’d want a 9-month-old to wear, if he were drafted to play pro hockey. Except that these pads — “The cushiest, comfiest kneepads ever,” according to the One Step Ahead catalog — are for crawling. “These medical-grade neoprene knee guards give little crawlers unparalleled protection, while slip-proof ‘traction beads’ guard against skidding.”
Skidding? Like a baby is going to go around the corner so fast, sparks will shoot out her Huggies? What kind of fools do they take parents for? Knees were made for crawling. And yet, look what one mom wrote on the One Step Ahead website, as a baby knee pads “product review”:
“Sometimes my daughter has problems going from carpeting to the wood and marble floors. It helps her with traction to keep from spinning out. Unfortunately, she did not like the feel on her legs and refused to wear them.”
Score one for the baby! But that mama — she really worries about her daughter “spinning out” while crawling. And other parents writing to the site are just as sold.
Extreme Toddling?
Photo courtesy of freerangekids.wordpress.com
Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy
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Another product seen advertised in parenting magazines lately is the Thudguard — a helmet to protect grandchildren engaged in that extreme sport known as toddling.
“It’s about time that someone has addressed the diffuse head injuries that are … on the rise for toddlers learning to walk,” wrote one doctor in an endorsement of the product.
Oh, really? “On the rise”? Are toddlers careening into walls and tables like never before? And are they really in danger of sustaining serious “head trauma,” as claims the ad for this $39 helmet?
Let’s ask the vice chairman of pediatrics at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Dr. F. Sessions Cole. His is one of the five largest children’s hospitals in the country. “We see 65,000 to 70,000 patients a year,” says Dr. Cole. “How many are associated with significant head trauma that resulted from instability as toddlers learned to walk?” he asks.
None.
Keep Your Eyes on the Backseat
At the Babies R Us near me, there’s an entire room devoted to child-safety devices: Legitimate stuff like cabinet locks and electrical outlet covers, but also a whole display of mirrors that allow you to watch your baby in the backseat as you drive. “Why do you need one of these?” I asked a dad reaching for one.
“To see if the baby’s okay,” he shrugged.
I suppose I knew he’d say that. But what we’re talking about here is a parent checking up, while driving, on a child who is already strapped snugly into a federally-approved car seat with a five-point belting system. It’s hard to imagine how the child would not be okay and besides, if he was fussy, you’d hear him. Then, at a stoplight, you could turn your head and look at him.
But now, with about ten different car mirrors to choose from, it starts to make good parents feel as if they should check on their car-seat baby more often while they’re driving — which is dangerous!
A Watched Baby Never Boils
Here’s one last safety product that parents don’t need, one that undermines their own good sense: The heat-sensitive bath mat.
This is a mat you put in the bottom of your tub. Turn the water on and if the words, “TOO HOT!” magically appear in a bubble near a duck’s head, you know that the water is, indeed, TOO HOT! Because who can trust their own senses anymore?
Oh, wait. We all can. Just dip a wrist in the water and you can tell if that water is warm, cold, or boiling hot. (Key word: Yeow!) So why do we have not only this bath mat, but also a competing tub turtle that will indicate, “TOO HOT” too? (Not a real turtle, who would indicate that by turning into soup.)
Why? For the same reason you can buy a blanket with a headboard built into it, in case you want to hold your baby but are worried about hurting his neck. Forget the fact you have an arm built for that job.
For the same reason you can buy a harness to hold up your kid while she learns to walk. Forget the fact you could hold her up yourself, or even let her fall. She’s got a bottom built for that job.
In fact, forget the fact that human children are pretty sturdy and parents are pretty competent. We have entered an era that says parents cannot trust themselves. They have to trust a product instead.
Elsewhere on grandparents.com, get a reminder of 6 things you got right as a parent, find a surprising take on which baby products will really make your grandchildren brilliant, read columnist Adair Lara’s take on grandparenting then and now, and consider how much you are like your grandparents.
Source: Grandparents
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com
Safe Kids:Prevent Trunk Entrapment
By Safe Kids/PIO
Sept. 24, 2009
Unlocked cars are open invitations for children to explore. To keep kids safer around vehicles, they must learn that cars are not toys and a trunk is never a good place to play.
Children can access trunks in several ways, even without having the vehicle’s keys. Most cars have a lever or button located near the driver’s seat that pops the trunk open, while other cars also have fold-down seats or a “pass through” that enables children to climb into the trunk from the back seat.
| Safety Tips To help prevent children from being trapped inside a car’s trunk, follow these safety tips:
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Q&A of the Week
Q: What is an emergency trunk release and how does it work?
A: Cars manufactured after 2001 must have an emergency trunk release – a glow-in-the-dark handle that will open the trunk from the inside in an emergency. Simply pull the handle and the trunk pops open. Teach your older kids how to use the emergency release once they are strong enough to use it to open the trunk but never allow your child to get into the trunk to test it.
Source: Safe Kids
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com
How to Prevent Trunk Entrapment
Hail Obama! Ode of the Obama Youth!
Kids for Obama! (song)
Obama Youth Revolution – Sing For Socialism
Killer Whale (Orca)
September 24, 2009 by Kim
Filed under Human Interest
By American Cetacean Society
September 23, 2009
CLASS: Mammalia
ORDER: Cetacea
SUBORDER: Odontoceti
FAMILY: Delphinidae
GENUS: Orcinus
SPECIES: Orca
The orca, or killer whale, with its striking black and white coloring, is one of the best known of all the cetaceans. It has been extensively studied in the wild and is often the main attraction at many sea parks and aquaria. An odontocete, or toothed whale, the orca is known for being a carnivorous, fast and skillful hunter, with a complex social structure and a cosmopolitan distribution (orcas are found in all the oceans of the world). Sometimes called “the wolf of the sea”, the orca can be a fierce hunter with well-organized hunting techniques, although there are no documented cases of killer whales attacking a human in the wild.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
The orca is a stout, streamlined animal. It has a round head that is tapered, with an indistinct beak and straight mouthline.
COLOR:
The orca has a striking color pattern made up of well-defined areas of shiny black and cream or white. The dorsal (top) part of its body is black, with a pale white to gray “saddle” behind the dorsal fin. It has an oval, white eyepatch behind and above each eye. The chin, throat, central length of the ventral (underside) area, and undersides of the tail flukes are white. Each whale can be individually identified by its markings and by the shape of its saddle patch and dorsal fin.
FINS AND FLUKE:
Another distinctive feature of the orca is its dorsal fin, which can reach 6 feet (1.8 m) high in males and is shaped like an isosceles triangle. The immature male and the female dorsal fins are also large, reaching 3 feet (.91 m) high, but are falcate (curved). The dorsal fin often has identifying nicks, cuts, scars and indentations. The paddle-shaped pectoral flippers are broad, rounded, and can reach a length of nearly 6 feet (1.8 m) and a width of 3 feet (.91 m).
Length and Weight:
Males can grow as large as 32 feet (9.6 m) long and weigh 8 to 9 tons. Females can reach 23 feet (8.2 m) in length and weigh up to 4 tons.
Feeding:
The mouth of the orca is large and well adapted for hunting. It has 46 to 50 conical shaped teeth that point slightly backwards and inwards. The upper and lower teeth interlock, which aids in gripping large prey and tearing it into smaller pieces for easier swallowing. Depending on the population and geographic area, the diet of orcas varies. Food preference and availability may have led to the distinct population types, such as resident, transients, and offshores that have been observed/identified in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and other areas around the world. Generally speaking, transients will feed on a variety of animals including: sea lions, elephant seals, harbor seals, porpoises, squid, sharks, fish, penguins, smaller whales, such as belugas and narwhals and even large baleen whales, such as gray whales. Resident whales tend to feed primarily on fish species such as salmon or herring. The diet of offshores is still being studied by scientists.
Mating and Breeding:
Little is known about the orca’s breeding habits. Newborn calves have been observed throughout the year suggesting that that mating can occur at any time with no particular breeding season. In the wild, orcas become sexually mature between the ages of 10 and 18 years of age and are thought to be actively reproducing by the time the male reaches about 20 feet (5.1 m) in length and the female reaches about 16 feet (4.1 m). Based on long-term field studies, females are believed to be reproductively active into their early 40’s. The maximum age for males is unknown. Captive females can bear a calf every two years, but a more typical period between calves in the wild is 3 to 5 years. The gestation period is estimated to be between 13 to 17 months. At birth, a calf is generally about 6-7 feet long (1.8-2.1 m) and weighs around 400 pounds. However, calf size and weight does vary slightly between populations/regions.
Distribution and Migration:
The orca is found in all the oceans of the world, though they are more abundant in cooler waters. Unlike some other species of whales, which follow a regular migration route each year, the orca seems to travel according to the availability of food. They are one of the few species of whales that move freely from hemisphere to hemisphere.
Natural History:
Orcas generally live in pods (groups) consisting of several females, calves, one or more males, and/or juveniles. Some pods consist of a mother and her offspring who stay with her for 
life. This type of matrilineal family structure has been observed in the U.S. Pacific Northwest where resident pods have been documented as stable, consistent matriarchal family groups with several generations traveling together. Transient pods appear to be more fluid; individuals come and go, groups often contain unrelated females with offspring, offspring do not stay with their mother and pods may form solely as a temporary foraging pack. The social structure of other populations, including offshore orcas, is being studied to document whether certain family groups always stay together or return to each other after periods of time. Mothers are very protective of their calves, and orcas are known to protect and care for sick and injured companions.
Sparked by the increase in live capture for aquaria and public concern, scientists have been studying resident pods along the northern Pacific coast of the United States and Canada since 1970. By 1973, photographs were being used to identify individuals based on differences in saddle color pattern, dorsal fin shapes and other identifying marks and scars. Identified orcas have all been numbered and careful records are kept of their re-sightings. Recordings of the sounds made by these orcas have revealed that each pod has its own “dialect.” Each pod has some sounds in common with other pods, and other sounds that are unique to its own pod. Through these scientific studies, much has been learned about population, travel patterns, reproduction, behavior and social habits of orcas.
Status:
Although orcas are widely distributed, total world population is still unknown. They have no natural enemies and have not been hunted as much as other whales. Recent studies suggest that a significant threat to orcas, and other marine mammals, may come from man-made chemicals. Yet, toxins are not the only threats facing orcas. Many fish populations around the world are decreasing. This may be having a direct effect on the populations of fish-eating resident whales. Loss of fish may also cause a decline in seals and sea lions, often the primary prey of transient orcas.
- Baird, Robin W. Killer Whales of the World, Natural History and Conservation. Stillwater, MN.: Voyageur Press, 2002.
- Ford, John K.B., Graeme M. Ellis, and Kenneth C. Balcomb. Killer Whales: The Natural History and Genealogy of Orcinus Orca in British Columbia and Washington State. B.C.: University of British Columbia, 2000.
- Ford, John K.B., Graeme M. Ellis. Transients, Mammal-Hunting Killer Whales of British Columbia, Washington and Southeastern Alaska.
- Perrin, W., B. Würsig, and J.G.M. Thewissen, Eds. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. New York, NY: Academic Press, 2002.
Acknowledgements:
- Thank you to Elizabeth Petras of NMFS for her assistance revising this fact sheet.
- Illustrations courtesy Uko Gorter, copyright© 2003, 2004, 2006 all rights reserved.
- Orca vocalizations while feeding courtesy Joe Olson – location Dyes Inlet, Puget Sound, Washington, using a Cetacean Research™ hydrophone, copyright © 1997.
Source American Cetacean Society
Editor’s Note: We want to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com