NEW YORK (WABC) — Doctors have been watching the average weight of children go up dramatically over the years.

Now, for the first time, a new study outlines three household routines that can reduce the risk of obesity in kids.

Experts now say one out of every eight kids under the age of 5 is overweight or obese.

Parents often feel frustrated as they battle their children over food, but now this study gives parents some concrete advice on some home habits than can help keep their children from eating unhealthily.

Read more of Dr. Jay Adlersberg’s findings.

We know that literacy — the ability to read, write and communicate clearly — will define a child’s future success in school and in life. We also know that literacy development, the process that brings children to reading, begins in the first years of life at home. Long before children enter school, early experiences with books build a strong foundation for learning.

Only 39% of parents nationally read to their children on a regular basis. In our own community, it is estimated that an alarming 20 – 25% of children enter a classroom for the first time having had few or no experiences with books at home.

By working together, we can change these facts. We strive to incorporate family reading awareness, encouragement and books into networks and services that already touch the lives of families.

Family Reading Partnership Website

As a reminder, for sun protection we ask parents to apply sunscreen to their child before coming to school. We then reapply each time we go outdoors. We ask that parents provide their child with a bottle of sunscreen along with a hat.

Just a few serious sunburns can increase your child’s risk of skin cancer later in life. Kids don’t have to be at the pool, beach, or on vacation to get too much sun. Their skin needs protection from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays whenever they’re outdoors.

Sun Guide Warning

• Seek shade. UV rays are strongest and most harmful during midday, so it’s best to plan indoor activities then. If this is not possible, seek shade under a tree, an umbrella, or a pop-up tent. Use these options to prevent sunburn, not to seek relief after it’s happened.
• Cover up. Clothing that covers your child’s skin helps protect against UV rays. Although a long-sleeved shirt and long pants with a tight weave are best, they aren’t always practical. A T-shirt, long shorts, or a beach cover-up are good choices, too—but it’s wise to double up on protection by applying sunscreen or keeping your child in the shade when possible.
• Get a hat. Hats that shade the face, scalp, ears, and neck are easy to use and give great protection. Baseball caps are popular among kids, but they don’t protect their ears and neck. If your child chooses a cap, be sure to protect exposed areas with sunscreen.
• Wear sunglasses. They protect your child’s eyes from UV rays, which can lead to cataracts later in life. Look for sunglasses that wrap around and block as close to 100% of both UVA and UVB rays as possible.
• Apply sunscreen. Use sunscreen with at least SPF 15 and UVA and UVB protection every time your child goes outside. For the best protection, apply sunscreen generously 30 minutes before going outdoors. Don’t forget to protect ears, noses, lips, and the tops of feet.

Take sunscreen with you to reapply during the day, especially after your child swims or exercises. This applies to waterproof and water-resistant products as well.

Follow the directions on the package for using a sunscreen product on babies less than 6 months old. All products do not have the same ingredients; if your or your child’s skin reacts badly to one product, try another one or call a doctor. Your baby’s best defense against sunburn is avoiding the sun or staying in the shade.

Keep in mind, sunscreen is not meant to allow kids to spend more time in the sun than they would otherwise. Try combining sunscreen with other options to prevent UV damage.

Too Much Sun Hurts

Warning: Even a few serious sunburns can increase your child’s risk of getting skin cancer.

Turning pink? Unprotected skin can be damaged by the sun’s UV rays in as little as 15 minutes. Yet it can take up to 12 hours for skin to show the full effect of sun exposure. So, if your child’s skin looks “a little pink” today, it may be burned tomorrow morning. To prevent further burning, get your child out of the sun.

Tan? There’s no other way to say it—tanned skin is damaged skin. Any change in the color of your child’s skin after time outside—whether sunburn or suntan—indicates damage from UV rays.

Cool and cloudy? Children still need protection. UV rays, not the temperature, do the damage. Clouds do not block UV rays, they filter them—and sometimes only slightly.

Oops! Kids often get sunburned when they are outdoors unprotected for longer than expected. Remember to plan ahead, and keep sun protection handy—in your car, bag, or child’s backpack.

A 65-year-long study finds that people who took in lots of calcium and dairy products as children tended to avoid stroke and live longer than those who didn’t.

“This study shows a modest protective effect of dietary calcium intake in childhood against stroke risk later in life, and a modest protective effect against mortality from any cause from higher intake of milk in childhood,” said Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. He was not involved in the study, which was published in the July 28 online edition of Heart.

Risk factors for heart disease start in childhood, but there is little evidence of the effect dairy foods have on these risks. Some dairy products, such as whole milk, butter and cheese, have a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol. Studies have also shown that eating these foods in adulthood contributes to heart disease, researchers say.

For the study, a research team led by Jolieke van der Pols from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, collected data on children from 1,343 families in England and Scotland. All of the families took part in a survey of diet and health conducted in Britain from 1937 to 1939.

The researchers were able to track the adult health of 4,374 of the children between 1948 and 2005. By 2005, 1,468 of these individuals had died, including 378 who succumbed to heart disease and 121 who died from stroke.

The researchers looked at two main outcomes: deaths from stroke and cardiovascular disease. They looked at the associations between dairy intake and mortality and the associations between individual dairy foods and mortality.

They found no clear evidence that dairy products were tied to either coronary heart disease or stroke deaths.

However, children in the group with the highest intake of calcium and dairy products had lower overall death rates than those who ate less dairy.

“Children whose family diet in the 1930s was high in calcium were at reduced risk of death from stroke. Furthermore, childhood diets rich in dairy or calcium were associated with lower all-cause mortality in adulthood,” the researchers concluded.

But there is only so much we can learn from this observational study, Katz said.

“Dietary assessments were [done] in Britain before WWII, at which time low-fat and fat-free milk were all but nonexistent,” Katz said “Thus, any benefits of dairy intake were likely mitigated by its high content of saturated fat.”

Furthermore, “dairy intake was higher in households with higher socioeconomic status, which may itself account for a health benefit,” he noted.

Studies using the American Heart Association-recommended DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension) diet suggest there are health benefits from dairy intake, Katz said. But, “there are some concerns as well, such as a potential association [of high dairy intake] with increased risk of prostate cancer. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can find a resolution to the persistent controversies about dairy foods from the current study.”

Another expert, Dr. David J.A. Jenkins, a professor in the department of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto, noted that those who ate the most dairy also ate the most fruit and vegetables, so they had the healthiest diets overall.

“To put it all down to increased dairy products in young life seems to be a marker for those who had a more reasonable diet,” he said. “If you have good nutrition in childhood it is important for longevity, but I would be wary about saying this was due to milk consumption,” he said.

Another expert advocated dairy products for kids, but suggested sticking to low- or non-fat products.

“The saturated fat in dairy food is what we are concerned about, not so much the calories,” said Samantha Heller, a Connecticut-based registered dietitian, clinical nutritionist and exercise physiologist. “A lot of times kids are not getting the calcium they need because they are replacing calcium-rich beverages with sugar-sweetened beverages, which have no nutritional value,” she said.

SOURCES: Samantha Heller, M.S., R.D., registered dietitian, clinical nutritionist, exercise physiologist, Fairfield, Conn.; David J.A. Jenkins, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., department of nutritional sciences, University of Toronto; David L. Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director, Prevention Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.; July 28, 2009, Heart, online

HealthDay