Local governments are trying a variety of ideas to help families with the cost of child care, including an Oregon tax credit that is showing impressive results.

Seven years ago, Oregon created a tax credit to support two projects with ambitious goals, such as cutting the cost of child care to ten percent of a family’s income and boosting wages for workers in the field.

A review of one of the programs found parents who received subsidies paid nearly $100 a month less for child care, $413 compared to $506 among a control group of families, used more child care and reported a drop in financial stress.

Broader impacts were even more compelling.

…Subsidy parents reported that the subsidy was playing a key role not only in helping them to afford child care, but also in helping them pay for basic living expenses, and allowed them to spend more hours in paid employment. – “Child Care Community Fund: Year 2 Evaluation Report.” 9/09.

The project also improved professional development with wage enhancements. But, it is unclear if the effort improved child care quality.

While child care quality scores increased over time, this increase was evident for both the CCCF and control group. Quality score data highlight several areas in which there is room for improvement, and with concentrated effort in those areas during Year 3, CCCF providers may have the opportunity to improve quality relative to control providers.

Lack of sleep linked to childhood obesity: New research suggests a connection between insufficient sleep among kids and childhood obesity, NPR reports.

(Janice Bell, a researcher at the University of Washington) looked at federal data collected on nearly 2,000 children and compared those who slept 10 hours or more a night with those who slept less. She also looked at how much the children weighed over a five-year period. The most striking findings had to do with infants and toddlers. The study appears in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

A new study found infants living in poverty often have mothers with depression, The Washington Post reported.

Researchers found 11 percent of babies who lived in poverty had a mom dealing with severe depression, according to the study done by the Urban Institute.

In what was described as the first detailed portrait of its kind, researchers reported that one in nine infants in poverty had a mother with severe depression and that such mothers typically breastfed their children for shorter periods than other mothers who were poor.

                …

The study said that even severe depression goes largely untreated among low-income mothers of infants, with just 30 percent speaking to a professional about a mental health problem during the year before the survey was conducted. – “Study links poverty to depression among mothers.” Washington Post, 8/26/10.

Another interesting story on depression in children, “Can Preschoolers be Depressed” ran in The New York Times magazine over the weekend.

In Other News: “No link between vaccines and autism, appeals court rules,” Associated Press, 8/27/10.

In this era of diagnosis, a new study suggests that when a child is born can mean he or she is more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, MSNBC.com reports today.

North Carolina State University researchers found that children born just after the kindergarten eligibility cutoff date were 25 percent less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than children born just before the cutoff date. Children born just after the cutoff date are among the oldest in their class, and those born just before the cutoff date are among the youngest in their class. – LiveScience via MSNBC.com, 8/18/10.

The research and story raise several concerns. For example, are many students receiving an incorrect diagnosis of ADHD only because they are the youngest in a classroom?

It is also only one of the latest developments in the debate over diagnosing mental disorders and mental illnesses in children. A label of youth bipolar or ADHD often comes with a prescription for drugs with side effects, even though there is disagreement about how those disorders are diagnosed.

Toddlers Using Stats: It turns out toddlers use statistics when they play, a new study says.

Researchers found toddlers relied on non-random sampling to decide what toys someone wants, according to work conducted by researchers at Cornell University, University of California, Berkeley and University of Michigan.

They watched the adult choose five toys that were either 18 percent or 82 percent of the toys in a box. The adult played happily with the toy either way, but the toddler only concluded that the adult had a preference if they'd picked the toys from a box in which that toy was scarce. – “Preschoolers Use Statistics to Understand Others.” HealthNewsDigest, 8/17/10.

Key barometers of U.S. children’s well being declined before the economy hit bottom, with the percent of low-birthweight babies and percentage of kids living in poverty both rising in 2008, a new report says.

Plus, more than a quarter of U.S. children lived in homes where no parent had year-round full-time work in 2008, according to this year’s 2010 Kids Count Data Book.

The Annie E. Casey report is the latest to show the extent that children and families struggled as the nation began one of the worst economic downturns in a generation. It found the percentage of children living in poverty rose slightly to 18 percent from 17 percent. This means roughly 1 million kids lived below the federal poverty line - $21,834 a year for a family of two parents and two children. (Check out the great blog EarlyStories for other reports.)

The rate of low-birthweight infants is one of those indicators that are particularly important to early learning advocates, since there is an emphasis on starting quality child care in the womb and infancy and premature babies often struggle early on with health problems.

Overall, progress on children’s well-being stalled even before the economy became really weak, according to the report.

…Overall improvements in child well-being that began in the late 1990s stalled in the years just before the current economic downturn…        Experts project that more up-to-date Census data will show the child poverty climbing to above 20 percent. – 2010 Kids Count research summary, 7/27/10.

There is good news. Washington State ranked 11th among U.S. states, territories and the District of Columbia. (You can read Washington’s profile here.)

Washington families are also reading to their kids. Only seven percent of the children are read to less than three times a week by their families, well below the national average of 16 percent.

The report is full of good news – the teen birth rate fell – and bad news. Check it out.

Sugar. In some form or another, it's in almost everything we eat. And most of us can't get enough of it.
 
But, for many young children, those regular handfuls of animal cookies, after-dinner scoops of ice cream and sippy-cups full of juice are starting to add up. Diets full of sugar lead to a rollercoaster of wide of energy and moods; contribute to weight gain; and contribute to insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes, which is affecting more and more children.
 
Wach as we talk with Cynthia Lair, local nutrition educator and author of Feeding the Whole Family and the online cooking show www.cookusinterruptus.com, about sugar and what all parents can do to lessen the amount of sugar in their children's diets ... starting in infancy.

The United States stacks up poorly with many developed nations on key measurements of childhood well-being, such as poverty and birth weight, and should invest more in programs that help kids age zero to six, a report found.

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development study found the U.S. has the fourth worst infant mortality rate among its member countries, the sixth worst rates of low birth weight and a teen birth rate three times the average among its members, in a summary of U.S. findings. In addition, U.S. child poverty rates are double the average of its members, 21.6 percent compared to 12.4 percent.

The United States should spend more on young children and disadvantaged teenagers to improve poor child health, poor basic education and high rates of child poverty, according to the OECD’s first report on child well-being. "Despite the United States' strong research and policy tradition in the area of child well-being, too many American children are still left behind", according to co-author of the OECD report, Mr Simon Chapple. – “Doing Better for Children,” 1/09.

(Thanks to CLASP for highlighting this report in an excellent summary.)

The poor U.S. scores also are found in a country where spending on children and family income are among the highest in all OECD states, the report says.

Good beginnings are crucial. But in spite of having above average overall child spending, the United States spends one third less than the OECD average on young children….  

Check out both the report and the broader CLASP story, which includes other coverage and useful links.

The Internet is a noisy place that offers parents an inconsistent but massive menu of help. Now a mom has entered the blogosphere who is not only a strong writer, but also a doctor, which means she can offer useful advice on ear infections, Tylenol dosages and other questions that keep parents up at night.

Since Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson began writing Seattle Mama Doc last November, she has carved out an important niche as a thoughtful pediatrician and mom, who doesn’t waste too much of her readers’ time staring at her own parenting navel. Instead, the mother of two tackles everything from vaccine safety and food allergies to car seat rules and the daily juggle. She passes my test for blogs by regularly offering something valuable that I can use.

“This blog caters to one principle I’ve learned along the way: parents just want to do what is right. The desperate love we have for our children can shock us into good and sometimes bad decisions,” Swanson writes to explain the point of the Seattle Children’s Hospital blog. “We all want information to facilitate decisions that let us rest easier at night. Having my own two children makes this reach for what is right palpable. I want to help you decipher some of the current medical news I juggle in my life as both a pediatrician and a mother.”

The 36-year-old also writes powerfully about her own balancing act of raising two kids while helping aging parents. It is a juggle many of today’s parents know as the baby boomer generation heads deeper into retirement.

This morning I chatted with Seattle Mama Doc about what makes her write.

Questions:

Why start a blog, aren’t you busy enough?

I learned that anecdote and that storytelling were most effective when I wanted to be persuasive, (when) I wanted to be effective…Empowering families with education and information so they can learn more.

I would be most effective as a communicator on science, health, wellness and morbidity by talking about it as a mom.

This (the blogosphere) is where people are.

What is the number one question you hear from parents with kids age 3 to 5?

Sick visits: Fever. Well visits: Bedwetting, thumb sucking or tantrums.

Picky eating is the other thing.

What is your favorite parenting book?

I am not a big parenting book person.

I have a lot of books. I have not read a lot of them.

I have this book “Instinctive Parenting”…She kind of resonated what I think: You have to trust your instinct.

We had a great chat with Dr. Swanson and we’ll add some of her other thoughts in future stories.

Shrek, Dora the Explorer and other licensed cartoon heroes help sell kids gummy fruit, graham crackers and other snacks and that’s not good news since the majority of popular animated bears, birds and explorers push food of poor nutritional value, a new study suggests.

The study published by Pediatrics today found a group of kids age 4 to 6 preferred foods that were labeled with popular cartoon characters, Shrek, Dora and Saturday morning veteran Scooby Doo.

Before parents and teachers dismiss the study as confirming the obvious, they should know it’s important because there hasn’t been a study about causal links between children’s food preferences and licensed characters on food packages, researchers wrote in the story released today.

Why is it important to understand the marketing power of Shrek? Companies spend $1.6 billion on marketing food to children, the report said, and the growth of that effort occurred during the rise of one of the biggest health problems among today’s children.

The sharp increase in obesity prevalence has coincided with rapid growth in the food industry’s budget for childhood marketing…”— Influence of Licensed Characters on Children's Taste and Snack Preferences.” Pediatrics, 6/21/10.

These licensed characters work both sides of the issue. For example, Shrek has lent his green image to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services campaigns, but has also slapped his happy face on M&Ms, McDonalds and Kellogg’s.

Researchers took their findings one step further, suggesting it is time to regulate how licensed characters are used to sell food to kids.

More than advocatingthe use of licensed charactersfor healthy foods, our findingspoint to the need to regulate and curtail the use of this marketing approach for high-energy, low-nutrient products. – Pediatrics.

Characters, however, also can get kids to eat healthy food, researchers wrote.

In the no-sticker condition (food without an Elmo sticker), 78% of participants chose a chocolate bar over broccoli. When Elmo was added to the broccoli package, however, one-half of the children chose the vegetable over the candy, although the authors did not measure taste perception in that study. – Pediatrics.

Summer vacation is starting for many students and that means many parents are reviewing their television-watching rules.

It turns out their rules matter, a new study says. Children with parents who set consistent rules about watching the tube were less likely to stare at it for more than the one to two hours a day recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Unfortunately, only roughly half of parents, 49 percent, said they often or very often put limits on how much time their kids spend watching TV, according to the study published online today by Pediatrics,  the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. More than a quarter of kids in the study, 27 percent, watched more television than the AAP recommends.

Now the study focused on kids aged 9 to 15 years, but there are lessons for parents who have preschoolers.  (The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for kids age two and under.) Perhaps the best lesson from this study is that parents’ rules work.

Our study results suggest that programs that focus on the development of parental limits and that promote physical activity may lead to decreased screen time among youth aged 9 to 15 years. Programs to reduce screen time must address the roles of parents and parental rules, target age, and socioeconomic characteristics of families. Programs might best be focused on educating parents about recommended limits and the importance of consistent rules. – “Influence of Limit-Setting and Participation in Physical Activity on Youth Screen Time.”

The study also said kids who were physically active on sports teams and in other activities were less likely to watch more than the recommended amount of TV.

Poverty Rising: We wrote about the 2010 Child and Youth Well-Being Index report last week, but Early Ed Watch highlighted another key and depressing finding:

“The percentage of children living in “extreme poverty” (50 percent below the poverty line) is projected to climb to 10.1 percent (7.41 million kids) in 2010.” – How the Great Recession is Affecting Kids. 6/14/10.

The Great Recession will wipe out nearly all of the gains in children’s economic well-being made over the last 35 years, and a decline in pre-kindergarten enrollment could help drag down this generation in the coming years, a new report says.

Overall, the 2010 Child and Youth Well-Being Index laid out a bleak present and immediate future for today’s children because of the historic economic downtown. For example, the poverty rate among children will hit its highest rate in 20 years, nearly 22 percent, this year, and the obesity rate is expected to keep rising, the Foundation for Child Development stated in its annual report.

The index includes 28 well-being indicators in seven groups:  economic wellbeing,
safe/risky behavior, social relationships, emotional/spiritual well-being, community engagement, educational attainment, and health.

“… By 2010, the recession will wipe out virtually all progress made for children in the Family Economic Well-being Domain since 1975,” New Report: Impact of Recession on Children to Reach New Lows in 2010, 6/8/10.

The report also noted a drop in pre-k attendance as a major worry, since it could affect children’s performance for years, lowering math and reading scores in third and fourth grade, and potentially leading to higher high school dropout rates 

The broader spike in children living in poverty also will create problems in the future, according to Foundation for Child Development president Ruby Takanishi.

“Research shows that children who slip into poverty, even for a short time, suffer long-term setbacks even when their families regain their economic footing,” Takanishi said in a statement released yesterday. “This is especially true for children during their first decade of life. This means that, even if the recession subsides soon, the effects on these children will not. Unfortunately, we fear the worst is yet to come.”

Further Reading:

• 2010 Child and Youth Well-Being Index (CWI), Full report.
• Press release
• More than 1 in 5 kids live in poverty, USA Today, 6/8/10.
• Graphics from the report.