I received my Time magazine in the mail today and started to read it right away. I always find it very helpful in keeping up with world news. To my surprise I came upon an article about how eighth graders are being recruited for colleges. You read right. Eighth graders, who have not taken SATs and don’t even know what they want to study, are being contacted by coaches to let them know they count on them. Of course, that will be four years from now.

Apparently, competition is driving teams to search for young possible prospects. According to Scout.com the number of high school juniors committing early to big-college-football schools is up 430% (61 committed in 2003, 323 this year). Men’s ice hockey coaches have recruited ninth-graders, and women’s volleyball coaches are scouting younger and younger girls. Scout.com provides rankings, videos and history of kids who are prospects for professional sports league.

Even if kids are good there are some people that just want to benefit of the great deals and contracts. There are sites that rank kids as young as in sixth grade! Some coaches want the best for their kids, but others… the best for their pockets.

Kids (as well as adults) have many special talents but I think it is important to give them exposure to different things before making decisions. My son loves to swim and he has his mind set on competing for some college. I think that’s great, but if suddenly his shoulder dislocated he won’t be able to keep swimming. That is why I’m trying to let him know that it is important to have options. A career gives you options and stability. Although I think it is important to motivate a child, it is also important to let them know that not everyone will be able to play and become a great sport star. A touch of reality can do wonders for a child’s developing personality.

I’m my son’s biggest fan and I’ll be there to support his decisions. It is my job to give him exposure to different scenarios and to provide a realistic approach to things. But in the end, all we can give our kids are experiences and memories… they will have to make their own decisions regardless of what we think.

Posted by momcrazyforkids.

Ethan, 2.

(Thanks for letting us post, Alyssa!)

Fish and Pregnancy: The nonprofit group National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition released its recommendation that pregnant women consume at least 12 ounces of fish per week. However, the Food and Drug Administration warns that pregnant women consume no more than 12 ounces per week. A recent study published in the British medical journal The Lancet found that women who consumed more than 12 ounces of fish per week while pregnant produced more intelligent babies. However, mercury fears keep many women from eating any fish at all. One course of action: Eating wild salmon, herring and sardines, which have beneficial fatty oils but are low in mercury. Oceans Alive has a handy chart on the best and worst fish choices.

Kids and Milk: Penn State researchers report that children are not consuming enough milk. Sibylle Kranz notes that the calcium in milk is more “bioavailable” than that in fortified juices, and that it’s important to get calcium in conjunction with vitamin D, as with fortified milk. Furthermore, while the recommendation is that children consume low-fat diary, more are opting for the high fat variety. “A glass of fat-free milk has 80 calories, while whole milk has 150 calories,” says Kranz. “That is a difference per glass of 70 calories or 210 to 280 calories a day for individuals consuming three to four servings of dairy.”

Babies and Pools: German researchers report an association between babies spending time in swimming pools and increased incidences of diarrhea and ear infections. “In this way, the study shows that allowing babies to swim is possibly not as harmless with regard to infections as has been presumed till now…This is a first indication. Nevertheless, it requires other evidence to be able to achieve consequential results whether the water quality in German swimming-pools protects sufficiently against infections in infants, and, in particular, against gastro-intestinal infections.”

If you tuned into Nickelodeon on Saturday, September 29 between the hours of 12 and 3, you may have been surprised by what you saw. It wasn’t Dora, Blue, or even that strange Yo Gabba Gabba….it was a static screen with a Worldwide Day of Play logo. Every few minutes, a ticker would run across the screen urging kids who were “slouching on the couch” to go out and run a race, skip a rope, get up and move.

I had forgotten that Nickelodeon has been doing this. In 2005, they teamed with the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation to create the Let’s Just Play Go Healthy Challenge. Kids are encouraged to track their movement with downloadables and track their eating in order to come up with ways to improve their habits.

The site also shares tips and movement challenges. Just this weekend, and coincidently it was Saturday, I was bothered to learn that my 12 year old daughter’s friend had joined Weight Watchers with her mother. Knowing a little about how Weight Watchers works, I think it’s a wonderful program. It forces you to really pay attention to the amount and type of food you are putting in your mouth. But just the idea that a 12 year old had to join didn’t sit well with me.

With obesity problems continuing to grow in the US now, I love to see influential companies, like Nick, trying to make a difference. I wish others would join in, though, because how many kids do you think just switched to Disney Channel?

Posted by Mally

“Big Trees” by Owen, 2.

There are many thing that can built long lasting friendships, and one of them is sports. Sometimes a sport seems to define a country: Mexico= soccer, US = football, baseball, China = karate, and my home, Puerto Rico = basketball.

American sports are just as fun as those of any other country, yet they have their own uniqueness. In Culture Shock, Sean Gregory states the following:

Furthermore, American sports both reflect and shape our cultural ideas. They are rarely considered “just a game.” Sports are packed with several meanings: they are displays of patriotism, consumer spectacles and even morality lessons. By observing sports and their impact on American society, we can learn much about consumerism, political developments (both domestic and international), racial relations, social classes, equality for women, and of course, community identity, including the condition of our cities. Since the 1950s, American sports are one of the most important institutions for us to raise and work through questions of race, gender, and class.

Sports can be an instrument to teach our kids how to complement each other’s views and differences. Competition can build relationships or they can tear them apart during the process. They can be a great way to teach our kids that even if you can’t communicate in the same language with your opponent you always have one thing in common: love of sports.

Time Magazine has a great article about the craziness of kids’ sports. Some estimates put the number of American youths participating in various organized sports at 40 million. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, the number of kids playing basketball now tops 12 million. Not to mention the nearly 7 million playing soccer. Or the 5 million playing baseball.

The idea is not to overcrowd your child but to let them experience the joy (and pain) of playing in sports.

And I don’t necessarily mean that all kids have to play sports. My oldest son is a statistics-baseball fan. He know every single average in the league and he built relationships with just sports information. He plays a little but mostly he wants to exchange information with anyone who wants to receive it. Do you want someone to drive you crazy? Talk to my son about baseball.

My boys are very active kids and they play different sports yet they enjoy all the other activities related to it. They love to have after-tournament parties, eat pizza and have a good time with their friends.

Last advice? Do promote physical activity. Show your kids different alternatives so they can experience various sports before deciding what to do. Get involved. Do not pressure on being number one, being part of the team is just as important. Above everything else, go to your kid’s games and cheer him up. The memory will last a lifetime.

Posted by momcrazyforkids.

What’s for dinner tonight around here? Maybe Mediterranean couscous tilapia. Or boursin pasta. Or perhaps a nice London broil.

If you knew me in real life, you’d be scratching your head, because frankly, I’m an indifferent cook (meaning I don’t know how, and I am too old, tired, and lazy to learn). But recently my husband, who has faced one too many meals of chicken dinosaurs and peas, saw a sign at our local market for a new meal prep program and hinted, strongly, that I might enjoy it.

And I do! It’s fantastic. I sign up ahead of time for twelve entrees. When I arrive at the immaculate prep kitchen, I move from station to station putting together my food. All the ingredients are there, from meat cuts to shredded cheeses to obscure spices that I would NEVER purchase for one mere recipe. (OK, fresh ginger is not that obscure, but I’m still not going to buy it.) As I finish one meal, I pop it in a big bucket in the fridge and move on. In the end I have a cooler full of dinners, with cooking instructions attached.

I put three in my refrigerator and the rest in the freezer, and we’re set.

And while the service has been nice for our home life, it’s even better for my own self-confidence. I’ve learned that I can cook up a pan-seared salmon, or crab cakes, or pork roast. I’m not incompetent. I’ll probably never really be in love with cooking (though baking is another story - I have a chocolate cake that could knock your socks off), but this service has absolutely removed the dread.

Oh, and did I mention the best part? They do the clean-up.

Posted by MommaSteph.

Over at Mama Knows Breast, we learn that the Transportation Security Administration has issued new guidelines on carrying pumped breast milk onto flights. The old rules allowed a mother traveling without a baby to carry on no more than three ounces of pumped milk. Any overage had to be checked. (Oddly enough, as Andi notes, moms with babies in tow could bring on more than three ounces…strange, as moms with babies on their laps should have less need to cart around breast milk - unless, of course, they’re exclusively pumping mommas, as I was.)

According to the TSA press release:

TSA is also modifying the procedures associated with carrying breast milk through security checkpoints. Mothers flying with or without their child will be permitted to bring breast milk in quantities greater than three ounces as long as it is declared for inspection at the security checkpoint.

The new rules go into effect on August 4th.

And this, from the TSA’s FAQ:

Q. Why is breast milk not a threat?
A. Breast milk is a medical necessity and it is being classified as such. It must be declared at the checkpoint.

Q. How do you ensure liquid explosives disguised as breast milk or medications are not brought through the checkpoint?
A. Since September 2006, certain liquid medications have been permitted at the checkpoint as long as they are declared to security officers and are subject to additional screening.

Q. Do passengers carrying breast milk need to taste it to prove it is not a liquid explosive?
A. No. We will not ask a traveler to taste breast milk.

All well and good, but if I were pumping and traveling, I think I’d print out that press statement, just for good measure.

Happy trails!

Posted by MommaSteph.

Last week we went to a nearby beach where we celebrated a family member’s birthday. My kids had the best time. There were lots of families and many children were playing in the sand and in the water. The day after our trip my sons woke up vomiting and with diarrhea. The doctor told us that they probably had a virus so he gave us instructions and we had to wait until the virus cleared up.

What do you think was our reaction when we found out in the news that the beach we went to was contaminated? Buyé Beach has always been one of the most beautiful areas around here. Many people go there because it has picnic tables and relaxing areas.

According to the Puerto Rico’s Environmental Quality Board, our beaches are under strict monitoring and they are doing quality test to the water every two weeks. They publish those results and submit their recommendation to local authorities who then put advisories on affected beaches.

Apparently this is not just related to Puerto Rican beaches. The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that 200 beaches in 24 states had beach water samples that exceeded health standards in contaminants at least 25 percent of the time. The biggest source of pollution is storm water runoff. After a heavy rainfall, runoff carries pollutants on the ground’s surface into beach water, making it the most dangerous time to take a swim.

As always, whenever you are taking a vacation you must take the necessary precautions to avoid accidents. This includes sunscreen, appropriate clothes and safety gear. On top of that, you must check out whether the beach your are going complies with established health standards. There is online help for those who want to find this information. Check it out!!

As for my sons I will follow all the doctor’s instructions to help them overcome this infection. And guess what? No more beaches!!! At least for a while.

Posted by Momcrazyforkids.

I recently went to the spa to cash in my birthday present - a manicure, pedicure, facial and full body massage (way to go hubby!). This isn’t something I do often; in fact, I feel rather uncomfortable getting pampered like that, but I figure being a mom of 2 young boys I deserve a little me-time now and then. While I was there I was surprised to see how many teenagers were there getting the royal treatment. Apparently this is a trend seen around the country, and it’s not just teens but preteens and even younger. They’re getting facials, manicures, pedicures, eyebrow waxings, highlights, etc.

What’s the harm, you might ask? Well, according to one expert on children and commercial culture, “…getting kids used to spa treatments is akin to training them to be little Paris Hiltons.” The message being sent to kids is that it takes an external source to achieve happiness, instead of looking internally for real happiness or self-worth. Not only is it expensive to send your kid to the spa, but also it transforms your child into little walking mannequins, obsessed with their looks.

I remember as a kid going to the hair salon to get a haircut was a treat, which probably is the reason that going to the spa as an adult makes me feel like a Queen for a day. If my mother had treated me to the spa as a child (did they even exist back then?), what would I have to look forward to now?

Posted by Pager12.