A study authored by Jean Decety, a psychology/psychiatry professor at the University of Chicago, implies that this may be the case.

Using functional MRI scans on normal kids aged 7 to 12, researchers found the parts of the children’s brains that were activated when shown pictures of people in pain, according to findings published in the current issue of Neuropsychologia.

This seems to suggest that children’s capacity for empathy is hard-wired into their brains, rather than being instilled in them purely through nurturing.

When the children viewed the images of people in pain, their brains showed an increase in activity in the same part of the brain that registers pain inflicted on their own bodies.

I could have told you that my three-year-old has pretty much always shown empathy toward other people when they seem sick or sad or hurting. It doesn’t seem to stop her, however, from inflicting pain on her baby brother. I guess empathy only goes so far!

Posted by Sunshine.

I’ve been watching my sodium intake (and thus, my family’s since three of the four of us eat the same foods) because my blood pressure was on the rise. One of the foods we’ve learned to be very careful on is soup. We use soups in various recipes; I’m a soup person in general anyway. But have you SEEN the sodium levels in your soup lately?

If you use 1/2 a cup of Campbell’s condensed beef broth, that’s 860mg of sodium. The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for sodium is 2400mg! There goes more than a third of all the salt you should have in a day!

I don’t feel bad for singling Campbell’s out because I’m about to praise them. Campbell’s does offer low sodium soups and other smarter choices (look for the “Healthy Request” line). And they just announced that they are lowering the sodium levels of soups marketed to kids. It’s the second salt reduction for these soups in just three years, and will allow Campbell’s to legally label them healthy foods.

Cutting salt may also help to keep children slim, because a new study shows that kids who don’t snack on salty foods don’t drink as much soda, which is a huge source of empty calories (and caffeine kids really don’t need).

My daughter is on a raspberry and strawberry kick right now; you’d better believe I’m all over that! Hopefully she won’t notice that a lot of her old favorite snacks, like the chips we both love, are no longer present in our house. Even if she does, I can deal with the whining, knowing that I’m keeping her healthier whether she likes it or not.

Posted by Sunshine.

As my son will turn a year old this weekend, I’ve found myself reflecting back over this past year (what a year it was!). I think I learned at least as much from having two children as I did when I went through my first year with my daughter! So I thought that other moms of two might get a smile from some of the lessons I’ve learned so far, and hopefully they won’t scare any moms expecting their second child soon!

1. The tips and tricks you learned with your first child might not work at all with the second one. With my daughter, all I ever had to do to get her to stop doing something was to look sternly at her. My son has to be bodily removed from the situation. Things like that can be not-so-fun surprises, but it’s ok — you just invent new strategies, and then you have twice as many options for dealing with each kid!

2. Multitasking is your best friend. Don’t refill the sippy cup for one kid and then pop lunch for the second in the microwave. Get the microwave going, then fill the sippy in that 20-30 second window. It sounds stupid, but little timesavers like that can add up (and leave you not feeling quite so stressed by all of the little things that crop up when all you want to do is sit down and eat too).

3. The timing of milestones is just going to be different. There are a lot of factors at work. Boys and girls tend to mature differently and reach certain milestones at different times, for one thing. I also had to keep in mind, as my son did most things noticeably earlier than my daughter, that there was a month’s difference in their gestational ages at birth. He was born stronger.

4. You might have a favorite kid at any given moment — but it changes. I’m sorry to say it, but there are moments when I vastly prefer the company of one of my children over the other. Usually it’s whoever isn’t screaming or whining in my ear! It’s normal and it passes.

5. Yes, you can love each child as much as you loved your first when you only had one kid. And watching them interact (when they’re not trying to kill each other) is more than worth the rough moments.

Posted by Sunshine.

I have red hair and pasty white skin. I can walk to the mail room and back (it’s really not far!) and get sunburned. So when I take my kids out, given my long history of painful experiences, I probably go a little overboard with protection.

Inevitably, though, at some point my daughter will get a mild sunburn this summer as she runs around at the park or at the lake. It just happens anyway sometimes. But what’s the best way to treat a child’s sunburn? I don’t want to hurt her more than it already does, but I have to do something!

Well, according to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, I have several options for her:

* Put a cool compress on the sunburned area.
* Give her a cool bath.
* Apply hydrocortisone cream, a moisturizer, or aloe product. (I’m a huge fan of the green Aloe Vera gel! It’s the only thing I’d ever let my mom use on me when I was sunburned badly as a kid.) Stay away from products with Benadryl/benzocaine, as these are more likely to cause reactions.

If she’s in a lot of pain, I can also give her Tylenol or Motrin to ease her discomfort (particularly handy before bed, when I need for her to feel alright so she — and therefore I — can get some sleep!). If the sunburn blisters, I should leave them alone, and I should keep her out of the sun as much as possible until her sunburn gets better.

The best thing, of course, would be to not let it happen in the first place. Sunscreen designed for kids comes in sprays and all kinds of impressively high-looking SPFs. I’ve started keeping a bottle of it in my diaper bag, for those impromptu park runs after errands and those other times when I might forget to pack sunscreen and need it (oh, and moms? We shouldn’t forget ourselves with the sun protection, either!).

Posted by Sunshine.

My daughter was a decent teether. She was a little cranky when new teeth were coming in, but it wasn’t too hard to handle. A bit of Baby Orajel on her gums, and she’d be a happy camper again. My son, on the other hand, is a little monster when he’s teething. He’s not nearly so easy to soothe.

So what’s a mom to do? If you don’t like the idea of topical teething gels or medicine, like Tylenol, Miss Poppy offers these natural alternatives:

For a do-it-yourself ointment for sore gums, try the old-fashioned remedy of a spot of clove oil diluted down with safflower oil. Rub it on their swollen gums for slight relief. (Slight relief? That doesn’t sound too encouraging…not to mention I don’t keep either of those oils around that I’m aware of.)

Other natural teething aids:

* Ice-cold carrot and celery sticks
* A whole, chilled peeled apple (lots of fun to hold and drop on the floor)
* A gel teething toy, frozen first in the fridge
* A clean, cold, damp face cloth straight from the fridge (This has proved to be my son’s best option during the day - I hide an ice cube in the cloth for further relief)
* Hard teething biscuits
* Crusts of bread, served chilled
* Your finger, served chilled (Okay, I know what she means, but that sounded like something you’d find in a horror flick)
* A cold drink of water or diluted fruit juice
* A cold yogurt or chilled puree of fruit

As always, you’ll want to supervise your child with any of the foods mentioned above.

Have other tips for frazzled moms like me? Squawk back and share your best stuff!

Posted by Sunshine.

An interesting new study suggests that both a child’s temperament and the relative strength of the mother-child bond can affect the quality of conflicts (level of aggravation, for example) between moms and their two-year-olds, but had nothing to do with how often conflict arose.

Interactions between 60 mothers and their children were observed during two sessions — a 50-minute lab visit when the children were 30 months old, and a 90-minute home visit when the children were 36 months old. The Lehigh and University of California, Davis, researchers recorded details of all episodes of conflict, including whether mothers and children displayed compromise, justification or aggravation (simple insistence without explanation or threats), and whether there was a resolution.

In both sessions, mother-child conflict occurred an average of 20 times an hour, with a large degree of variation in frequency of conflict (from five to 55 times an hour) and the quality of conflict.

(Fifty-five times an hour?? And I thought my kid went on a button-pushing rampage some days!)

Researchers found that more active children who were less able to control their behavior had more instances of conflict than less active/more self-controlled kids. (Um, yeah…I have yet to meet a two-year-old with much self control.) Children who felt more secure in their relationship with Mom (mother’s availability and responsiveness, etc.) and their mothers were more likely to experience conflicts with adequate resolutions, not just “No, you can’t do that, end of story” and a subsequent fit. (Or is it that children whose mothers helped them find a compromise or helped them understand the reasons for a “no” feel more secure in their relationships with their mothers? Hmm…)

Posted by Sunshine.

Say what?

A new study shows that kids who were given proper nutrition during the first two years of life out-earned their nutritionally-deprived peers by 50 percent as adults. That’s surprising, even though earlier studies reported that kids who ate better early on were more productive in adulthood.

This is the first direct evidence that eating well as an infant and toddler translates into greater earning potential as an adult, according to the study, published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Iron and iodine deficiencies, for example, can lead to stunted growth, poor cognitive development and energy-sapping anaemia. Such handicaps prevents children from realising their full potential.

This study was conducted in Guatemala, and the results only seemed to apply for men - but consider that there aren’t as many economic opportunities for women in that area. Also, the men with better nutrition as young children didn’t outscore their peers academically as adults, so nutrition didn’t seem to play as large a role in actual cognitive ability. I just thought this study was interesting, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

Posted by Sunshine.

We know that safety gates (”baby gates” to many of us) are a good way to keep small children confined to safe areas. They prevent kids from falling down stairs, having access to fireplaces, etc. - but how do you pick the best possible gate?

HealthDay passes along these tips from the Nemours Foundation:

* Choose a gate that is securely mounted to the door frame with hardware, and that doesn’t leave any openings to pinch little fingers.
* Be careful with gates that use pressure or tension to keep them secured in a doorway. Never place this type of gate in front of stairs, as it may be more easily removed by children. (We ended up throwing away a gate of this type because my two-year-old could ram it hard enough to dislodge it, despite our best efforts to make it super-tight. And if they warp at all, forget it - they’ll never fit right again.)
* Make sure that the bar on pressure gates is on the side away from the child’s access.
* Leave no more than 2 inches at the bottom of the gate to prevent a child from trying to slide underneath. (They will try if they think they can fit, which can result in wedged limbs.)
* Choose a gate that is difficult to climb on or over. (Think of little kids as monkeys - they are always capable of more than we give them credit for!)
* Only use gates that are safety approved and certified, and have no sharp or dangerous parts that could hurt a child.

It doesn’t take much extra time to select a gate that will do the job right. I would never have forgiven myself if we’d had a stairway and had used the pressure-mounted gate my daughter ended up barreling through. Can you imagine? As it was, she only crashed into the kitchen. Whew!

Posted by Sunshine.

It only takes a moment for winter fun to turn into a trip to the ER. Cold weather dangers abound, but that doesn’t mean we should spend the season indoors. It’s important to stay active year-round, so here are some tips for a safer winter play season, from HealthDay:

• Children should wear a helmet when they’re snowboarding, sledding, snowmobiling and skiing.
• Dress to keep warm and safe. Wear layers of clothing and top it off with coats that are wind- and water-resistant. When snowmobiling, make sure that scarves and any loose fabrics are tucked in.
• Parents should always supervise young children and keep them in sight. Older children should always have at least one companion.
• Don’t play on ice, which poses a serious fall risk. When skating, use ice only in areas designated for skating, and check for cracks and debris on the ice.
• When skiing, snowboarding or sledding, always make sure the path is clear of people and other obstacles.
• Only take part in winter sports in areas well-lit by sunlight or artificial light.
• No matter what the winter activity, always think about safety. For example, never pull your child in a sled behind a snowmobile or other motorized vehicle.

Posted by Sunshine.

What a year it has been!

We had some sad times - including the Utah mine disaster, the California fires, and the Virginia Tech shootings.

We also said goodbye to Harry Potter and the Sopranos.

It was not all bad though… 2007 did bring us the iPhone!

We were informed again and again that obesity is ever increasing and it is a serious threat to our future health and our medical system.

And we learned that many toys aren’t safe and it is perhaps time to make a stand to ensure the safety of our children.

Women’s health has made many advances this past year, and I wish all of us wonderful women good health!

On the entertainment side, we bid a sad farewell to Anna Nicole Smith, and we watched with our boxes of popcorn in hand how Lindsay Lohan is seemingly crawling out of her dependency hole, while Britney Spears is diving deeper down.

For sports, we saw Tom Brady pull a nice one out of somewhere to lead the Patriots to a perfect season (that’s for you Supa!), and college football was a rollercoaster ride that has sparked many passionate debates about the BCS system. But many of our favorite athletes fell to scandals - Michael Vick, Floyd Landis, Marion Jones, and a whole lotta baseball players… leaving a lot of wide-eyed kids disappointed by their heroes.

We also watched our politicians gear up for the presidential race that has us wondering if we will see the first female President next year. (BTW - this is not an endorsement!)

Over on the boards, we celebrated the births of many future squawkers, we watched our precious ones grow a year older, we supported each other through the sleepless nights, potty training, magic marker mishaps and terrible two’s. And we marvel at the strength of our guy, Mikey. We shared the good times and the bad, laughed and cried and we can’t wait to do more in 2008!

Love to you all and all the best for 2008!

Posted by Meganlux