According to PsychCentral.com, the study included questionnaires by nearly 9,000 young adults, who were asked about their childhood experiences- play roles, favorite games, role models and feelings of masculinity and femininity, and were followed by questions about any abuse they may have received because of their choices.

Children who expressed different play patterns, activities, or interests than perceived for their gender were often ostracized or abused by their own family and later, by some of their peers. Rates of PTSD were twice as high in non-conforming children than those who conformed to society’s expected gender roles.

85% of the young adults interviewed identified themselves as heterosexual later in adulthood, which lead researchers to believe that intolerance towards gender nonconformity was targeted towards heterosexuals, because of the perceived threat of homosexuality.

According to MedPageToday, similar studies have shown that while girls did receive disapproval for wearing opposite gender clothes, haircuts, and participating in more male-oriented activites, boys who did not conform to their preceived gender roles were even less socially accepted. There were an increasing number of psychiatric problems and self mutilations by children who reported to being abused.

It is unfortunate that young children are being limited in expressing themselves. There are plenty of examples of kids exhibiting cross-gender behavior that are accepted. In fact, it is encouraged and celebrated in athletics in activities such as powderpuff football, or roles in school plays where putting on a costume makes someone become another character completely.

Simply put, allow your children the freedom to play, and they will be more likely to develop into healthy, happy individuals later in life.

According to MayoClinic.com, colic is defined as sustained crying more than three hours a day, at least three days a week for more than three weeks. Symptoms include predictable crying episodes, intense and high pitched inconsolable crying, and clenched fists or tense muscles.

Originally, colic was thought to be caused by gastrointestinal distress, but with this new study, researchers now believe it has more to do with neurological development.

According to Dr. Marla Shapiro, who described the study on CTV MedNews Express, 154 new mothers and their infants were examined at the childrens’ two-month checkups. 29 percent of infants, whose mothers had migraines, had colic, while only 11 percent of infants whose mothers did not have migraines suffered from colic.

The researchers do not believe that babies are suffering migraines themselves when they have colic episodes, but think that they may be sensitive to stimuli such as sound and light in their environment, just like migraine sufferers are. They plan to carefully track these children into their adult lives to see if they end up suffering from migraines as well.

According to the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, sixty patients undergoing facial procedures were randomly chosen for analysis in the study. The group consisted of 54 women and 6 men ages 45 to 72. A picture was taken both before and after their operation. These photographs were then shown separately, in a random order, to raters who estimated the subjects’ ages. Researchers then found the difference between the subjects’ chronological age and the estimated age. This difference was deemed as the perceived age.

Patients were estimated to be about 1.7 years younger than their chronological age in their before pictures, and 8.9 years younger in their pictures after surgery. When the number of plastic surgeries increased, the difference was even more substantial.

According to Health.com, the study’s findings will be useful in facilitating people’s decisions about plastic surgery. This is the first type of quantitative data to cover surgical outcomes.

Lead study author, Dr. Nitin Chauhan, says these results will help doctors show prospective patients more realistic goals for the outcomes of their surgeries. “Nothing we do is magical,” he says. “We do certainly get 60-year-old patients who want to look 40, and this will help us when we discuss expectations.”

This new safety feature was added because studies had shown that overdosing when using cups or spoons to give medication to children was common.

The Associated Press reported that the feature included a syringe that was connected to a flow-constrictor at the top of the bottle. This was supposed to allow only the recommended dose to fill up the syringe, making it easier for parents to give the right amount of medicine to their baby. They would simply insert the syringe into the flow constrictor, flip the bottle upside down, and fill it to the correct dose using the markings on the syringe. In addition to determining dosage easier, the flow constrictor was supposed to prevent spills.

But according to MedPageToday, McNeil Consumer Healthcare received complaints that the flow constrictor was often pushed into the bottle when consumers tried to use it. The lack of a constrictor defeated the whole purpose of the safety feature.

Luckily, so far, no child has been harmed. While McNeil asserts that infants’ Tylenol is useable as long as the constrictor stays in place, it’s better to not take any chances.

Unfortunately, Tylenol has had a lot of issues with their products this past year, including musty odors, bacterial contamination, and metallic particles. Hopefully they will be able to bounce back quickly from this one as well.

An examination of 300 records of sleep studies dating from 1897 to 2009 found two prominent trends: Children slept about 37 minutes less than recommended and societywas likely to place blame on overly busy lifestyles.

The National Sleep Foundation in Arlington, VA recommends that babies should sleep about 15 hours, toddlers- 14 hours, preschoolers- 13 hours, elementary-age children- 11 hours, and children and adults- 8 1/2 hours. But it is hard to set guidelines because each individual’s schedule is different, and each society treats sleep in a different way. Japan is more lenient with kids falling asleep in class because they have been studying. Australian children have a pattern of sleeping an hour more than their American counterparts, who continue to get the least amount of sleep of all countries studied.

According to Time, Tim Olds, professor of health sciences at the University of South Australia, takes into consideration the effect of gadgets which keep us awake. “Throughout the 100-year period, we have been blaming whatever the new technology is- radio, TV, the Internet. Information is coming in so fast that we never wind down,” he said.

To help your child fall asleep, try to maintain a routine bedtime, make their room cool, dark and quiet, and limit TV and computer use as well as caffeine.

Sweet dreams!

I know, I know. You know some people who’ve been wildly successful without trying hard at all – luck just seems to favor them all the time while leaving you in the dust right? I know these people as well, but you have to realize that they are a very very small minority and, believe me, they put in a lot of work as well. They might not have taken the initiative per se, but luck favored them because of the dedication they have to their craft.

The downside to taking initiative is that people can and will judge you. Once, I took the initiative and became the president of a club on my campus after the elected president couldn’t uphold his responsibilities due to academic pressure. The club did well under my “presidency” (haha), but there was a particular guy who would criticize everything I did. At first I took his criticisms into account and then started finding that most of his criticisms really had no basis. The last criticism he gave me before I stepped down from my role was that I was not beautiful enough to represent the club.

Read the rest at here

A review of twenty years of research found that children who were spanked, slapped, or yelled at were more likely to mimick these behaviors in their teenage and adult lives.

In the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers Joan Durrant and Ron Ensom, of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, wrote, “virtually without exception, these studies found that physical punishment was associated with higher levels of aggression against parents, siblings, peers and spouses.”

In addition, the studies found that physical punishment could lead to mental health issues or depression later in life.

According to Dailymail.co.uk, in the U.S. (with a few exceptions from state to state) smacking is legal. However, 20 European countries such as  Germany, Spain and the Netherlands have banned it completely. Britain allows for a reasonable amount of physical punishment but it must not leave a mark on the skin.

Durrant and Ensom suggest that parents should practice less violent, more informative ways of teaching their children right from wrong.

Instead of slapping, spanking or yelling, try ignoring the child for a minute and then redirecting their attention to a more positive action. Set out some rules. But most importantly, make sure children realize why they were put in place. Explain to them exactly what they have done wrong, so they mentally understand instead of being physically hurt for it.

Reuters reports that the public’s outrage over the cuts had been fueled by the notion that Komen came under pressure from anti-abortion activists, a claim that the charity says is completely false.

“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” said Komen for the Cure President Nancy Brinker, “We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.”

According to ABCNews, Planned Parenthood harbors no hard feelings and is eager to move forward with Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

“We are now heartened that we can continue to work in partnership toward our shared commitment to breast health for the most underserved women,” said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. “We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria.”

The study included parents and 92 children, who were followed from the time they started preschool into their early teens. In the beginning, MRI’s were taken to record the children’s initial brain measurements. MRI imaging was done a second time when the kids were between the ages of 7 and 13.

Throughout the study, children were observed as they interacted with their parents, most commonly their mothers.

According to CBC News, in a particular experiment called the ‘waiting task’, mothers would have to fill out a survey while their child waited to open a present that was placed right in front of them. Researchers recorded whether the moms were supportive, assuring there were only a few minutes left to wait, or if they were negative or ignored their child.

In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers stated that children who had more caring mothers had a hippocampus 10 percent larger than those whose parents were considered apathetic or unresponsive.

Researchers believe these findings will bring about great change in the manner in which public health issues are handled. “This finding, when replicated, would strongly suggest enhancement of public policies and programs that provide support and parenting education to caregivers early in development,” they said.

So don’t forget to show your children some love. Not only will you make them more at ease… you might even make them smarter!

According to FoxNews, researchers attempted to destroy the earliest stages of sperm devlopment in rats by applying high-frequency ultrasound to their testes in two 15-minute-sessions, two days apart . Upon testing the sperm two weeks later, researchers found that the sperm count was at an index of zero.

Currently, the ultrasound treatment only lasts a few months. This could prove to be great news in the future for men who do not want to rule out the possibility of having kids completely.

In the online journal, Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology, researchers said, “A permanent or reversible method of contraception based on therapeutic ultrasound treatment could encourage more men to share greater responsibility for family planning.”

Research is also being conducted to see if ultrasonic technology can create permanent infertility. If so, veterinarians can provide a noninvasive way to sterilize pets. However, if this is successful, obviously people will be more cautious and skeptical about having this treatment done on themselves.

“Further studies are required to determine how long the contraceptive effect lasts and if it is safe to use multiple times,” said James Tsuruta, study researcher at the University of North Carolina, in a statement.

This form of male birth control is still far from ready for humans.