Paul Scott exposes the child marketing industry’s unethical practices and harmful effects in his outstanding article in Children’s Health.

He warns parents that child marketing is everywhere, not just in the 30 second TV ads that we typically think of as marketing. The child marketing industry seeks to influence your children every chance it gets. The results are a quiet disaster. From the internet to cell phones, corporate brands are using every tool in the book to move your child “from brand awareness to investigation, from investigation to selection, to repeat purchase, to loyalty and ultimately to advocacy.”

If you’ve ever heard your child ask you for a brand, he or she has become that brand’s advocate and is now working for that company as part of its sales force. Seizing children’s brains is like shooting fish in a barrel it turns out.

Research has shown that children younger than 7 or 8 are unable to tell whether something or someone is trying to persuade them to do something. That, coupled with with proven damage that marketing to children causes, is why an organization no less prestigious than the American Psychological Association considers advertising to children under 7 to be unethical. In fact, it is illegal in Norway and Sweden and many other countries severely restrict it like we restrict cigarette and alcohol advertising.

Scott’s article lists the many harmful effects marketing has on children from higher body mass index to lack of creativity, and points out that the increasing sexualization of marketing to girls is particularly harmful. The American Psychological Association found “ample evidence to conclude that sexualization has negative effects on cognitive function, physical and mental health and healthy sexual development.”

These findings would not be so scary if our country’s children ages 8-18 did not spend 44.5 hours a week exposed to media and marketing. What can you do to fight this flood? Scott has some answers in his Princess Diatribes.

He also recommends toys that stimulate a child’s imagination and intellect. Hint: no branded toy can. Try PlanToys, Magna-Tiles, Gustafer Yellowgold, Back to Basics Toys, Thames & Kosmos, and TRUCE Toy Action Guide.

The University of Michigan study found that TV causes an increased likelihood of children don’t pay as much attention in school, perform worse in math, eat more junk food, live a more sedentary life, are bullied more and have more problems adjusting at school.

The study has confirmed what smaller, less stringent studies have hinted at in the past. The most worrisome finding is that the problems caused by TV persisted even after the age of 7 in the children studied.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends less than two hours of TV per day.

One such death was that of 13-month-old Aiden Truett who stopped eating and began vomiting. Doctors attributed the symptoms to a viral upper respiratory infection, but were forced to re-evaluate after treatment only led to worsening symptoms.

X-rays revealed the baby had swallowed a button battery, which was quickly removed surgically. Two days later, however, the baby started coughing blood and soon died.

Before doctors could remove the small battery, it had already burned a hole in the baby’s esophagus and damaged his heart. In the past, such batteries were not strong enough to cause such massive damage, but today’s batteries are supercharged for their small sizes and have caused a sevenfold increase in serious injuries and death since 1985.

Deaths are still very rare, fewer than 10 since 2004, but 3,500 button battery ingestions occur annually and today’s stronger batteries are causing more serious injuries. Every organ that encounters a button battery is a risk.

Vocal chords have been damaged, leaving children suffering from a lifelong whisper. Digestive tract injuries have caused children to undergo multiple surgeries and require feeding tubes. Children are not the only population at risk for these injuries. Our elderly have mistaken the buttons for candy and medication.

The worst offenders are batteries that begin with the number 20. They measure 20 millimeters and are the strongest of today’s tiny power plants. Batteries numbered 2032, 2025, and 2016 cause more than 90 percent of serious injury.

In 60 percent of child injuries, the child has removed the batter from an electronic device, not found it loose. Store your battery powered devices in a safe place.

Read the full article here.

Staying off busy roads is not enough. More than half the 135 children who die in bike-related car accidents are killed on minor roads or in residential areas. They don’t have to – bike helmets reduce the risk of severe brain injury by 88 percent.

Make sure you set a good example for your child. You are a role model whether you like it or not. Your approach cannot be “do as I say, not as I do.” Children are always watching you for what is acceptable behavior.

Use hand signals in traffic and always ride responsibly. Ride on the right side of the road with traffic. Don’t let your child be one of the 75 to 85 percent of children who ride bikes without helmets. Show them that using a helmet is the only way to bicycle.

Even though you may be riding responsibly, sometimes injuries occur due to the fault of others. Helmets significantly reduce your risk of needing a Daytona Beach personal injury lawyer.

Today’s researchers are now finding that many things that we traditionally thought of as innate human traits such as happiness and talent are actually more a result of nurture instead of nature. That means that we have control over how happy or talented we are. It’s a mistaken belief to think that some people are born more talented or happy than others. Studies show that talented and happy are the way they are because of their actions and behaviors, not any innate trait.

I recently read a fascinating review by Nancy Shute of USNews.com of the latest book to show us that there are many steps we can take to make ourselves happier parents. The book, Raising Happiness, was written by Christine Carter, a sociologist who studies happiness and also a mother.

Carter’s advice to parents is founded on solid science and provides often simple solutions such as why praise is a much more powerful tool to promote good behavior than punishment or nagging.

The book review mentions two simple steps to more familial happiness. You determine when you are happiest with your kids and what part of your normal day with your family routinely causes suffering. Step two is to structure your day so that you routinely get those happiest moments every day and so that you eliminate those routine pain points.

The review gives the example of bed-time reading being the favorite time of day for the author, but she couldn’t always be home at that time so she switched the bed-time reading to after-school reading so she could be sure she would have that time.

Another thing the author did at that bed-time reading session was to talk with her children about three good things that happened that day. This is another simple but powerful technique that research has shown makes significant improvements in happiness and self-confidence.

The review said that Raising Happiness is full of simple, powerful steps you can take to increase your happiness as a parent and the happiness of your children. It comes well-recommended.

In essence, toddler’s brains are only about as developed as the brains of our ancestors the cavemen were. When adults throw tantrums, we refer to it as “going ape” for similar reasons. When adults lose our temper, the left side of our brains literally shut down and we revert to emotional and not logical beings.

However, toddlers are constantly going prehistoric on us as parents and we would be better off communicating with them in a way they can recognize and respond to. So instead of using a soothing voice to tell a toddler to calm down, researchers suggest we communicate to their right brains, their emotional caveman brains.

The way we do that is to repeat short phrases while slightly mirroring their emotional state. Now this gets really interesting because research and experience shows that adults instinctively do this already when children are happy.

For example, if a child is happy about learning a new word or doing something else good, adults often say something like, “Yes, yes, yes, wow, great job, great job,” in an excited tone of voice that mirrors the child’s mood. However, we usually do the opposite when children misbehave. We use soothing tones and give them reasons why they shouldn’t behave that way.

Researchers suggest we would receive much better outcomes if we communicated to children’s right brains when they’re misbehaving.

Researchers also point out that adults do this with other adults sometimes which makes sense because we too become cavemen when we’re angry because our left brain shuts down. If you’ve ever found yourself using a charged tone of voice to say something like, “sorry, sorry, sorry, I can explain myself, but I’m sorry,” that is effective communication with the right brain. It’s mirroring the other’s emotional state while repeating short phrases.

Try it sometime with your toddler and see if they don’t respond better.

When using and sharing our roadways, whether it be by school bus, car, bicycle, foot, or whether it be in Orlando, Daytona Beach or Jacksonville, a few simple precautions will go a long way toward making this school year a safe one.

By Bus
Research shows that school bus travel is significantly safer than traveling by car or motorcycle. In fact, it is 16 times safer. Although school buses are quite a bit safer than autos, accidents do happen. More often than not, school bus related child injuries occur outside the bus, not while riding in the bus.

Parents and children should be more concerned with behaving safely when boarding or leaving the bus than with the possibility of a bus crash. At the time children are entering and exiting the bus, they can be hit by the bus itself or other vehicles.

Ideally parents should supervise their children as they send them off to school. If that is not possible for you, teach your kids just a few simple precautions:

• Look to the left, then to the right, and then to the left once more if you have to cross the street.
• Never stick your arms or head out of the window.
• Do not get off the bus before it stops moving completely
• When exiting the bus: take two large steps away from it. Then, if you have to walk in front of it, walk ahead at least three meters (10 giant steps). The driver must be able to see you.
• If you drop something that rolls near or under the bus, never attempt to retrieve it without the driver’s permission.

By Car
Rules for dropping off and picking up your children at school exist for safety and orderliness. While traffic congestion may be frustrating, do not get “creative” in the school zone. Respect speed limits, and drop-off and pick-up areas.

By Bicycle
Don’t ride your bike to school until you’re at least 9 years old and have enough experience to be able to look ahead and behind you without swerving.

• Note that when you look behind you while riding a bike, you will likely swerve to the direction in which you turned your head. Learn how to compensate for this tendency in places where there is no traffic before riding in traffic.
• Signal when you intend to turn by pointing to the direction you intend to turn.
• Always wear a helmet.

By Foot
If you’re walking to school, walk with a parent or friend.

• Never accept rides from strangers.
• Be aware of your surroundings. If you’re talking to a friend or parent on the way, look around occasionally to see what’s going on around you. At the least, it will keep you from walking into a pole, bumping your head and looking silly.
• Use sidewalks when available and cross with the light at crosswalks. Remember to look to the left, the right and then left again before crossing the street.
• Make sure drivers see you before you cross.

The study found that child athletes from 9-16 failed to drink enough water to stay hydrated during athletic activity. That problem is exacerbated by the fact that they routinely fail to drink enough and arrived at summer sports camps dehydrated to begin with.

Because many arrived at camp already dehydrated and then practiced an average of three times a day, between 50 and 75 percent of children at the various camps ended up “significantly” dehydrated and 25 to 30 percent of them became “seriously” dehydrated.

Acute dehydration can cause kidney failure and death, not to mention that just a 1 to 2 percent reduction in body mass from sweating causes reduced aerobic performance in young athletes. Children also become dehydrated faster than adults causing their core temperature to also rise faster.

Additional studies indicate that children just don’t drink water even if it is available. The ironic thing is that the same children think they are doing a good job of staying hydrated during their activities.

The solution is much easier than preaching the importance of hydration and praying they’ll listen. Here’s one of those “they really needed a study to figure that out” moments – children will drink a lot more liquids when they taste good.

Children voluntarily drank 44.5 percent more when exercising if the available hydration was grape flavored water than if the available hydration was pure water. When carbohydrate (sugar) was added like in today’s sports drinks, children voluntarily drank 91 percent more than when only water was available.

There is a caveat – sports drinks are not appropriate for children of all ages and activities. Sports drinks are only appropriate for older children engaged in intense physical activity for an hour or more continuously or if they engage in multiple practices per day.

Most children younger than 10 or 12 don’t exercise intensely enough to require carbohydrate and electrolyte replenishment. If a child is not burning enough calories to require a sports drink, the drinks can be counterproductive, having been linked to obesity and tooth decay.

In today’s economy, sports drinks can also be expensive. Try this do-it-yourself recipe from Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook”

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup hot water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 1/2 cups cold water

In a quart pitcher, dissolve the sugar and salt in the hot water. Add the remaining ingredients and the cold water. The drink contains about 50 calories and 110 mg of sodium per 8 ounces, approximately the same as for most sports drinks.

Meynhart doctored his financial records and never gave the boy the money he was awarded in a 2006 lawsuit. Authorities do not know where the money is at this time.

The Florida Bar revoked Meynhart’s license to practice law in March. He is currently in jail with a $15,000 bail.

For the most part, lawyers are ethical, honest and trustworthy. However, there are always the rotten few who behave outrageously and attract a lot of media attention. There are ways to protect yourself from being the victim of an unethical lawyer. Doing just a little bit of lawyer shopping before you consult with an attorney can go a long way.

The Florida Child Injury Lawyer and personal injury law firm Zimmet & Quarles are sick of hearing about unethical lawyers just as much as you are so we’ve authored two books to help you navigate the unfamiliar world of lawsuits and lawyers.

As I wrote, most lawyers are ethical, honest and trustworthy and most will tell you that in their advertisements. However, that’s all they’ll tell you. None of the lawyer advertising I’ve seen gives any helpful information about how to decide which lawyer is the one best suited for your case.

If you or a loved one have been injured, do yourself a favor. Before you sign any forms, before you talk to an adjuster, before you hire a lawyer, get our free books that reveal how to decide which lawyer is right for you. Get them free at zqlawyers.com. we’re confident you won’t be disapointed.

Every year in places like Daytona Beach, Orlando and Jacksonville, the number of drownings increases during the summer. Drowning is one of the most common causes of death among children so following a few simple safety precautions can go a long way in keeping your summer an enjoyable one.

Follow these safety tips to keep our children safe:

• Respect the water. The ocean, lakes and pools can be dangerous places. Treat them as such
• Most child drownings happen when an adult is not present. Always supervise your children around water of any kind. It is possible to drown in just a few inches of water.
• To ensure you can always be present when your children are near your pool, keep a phone near you at your poolside so phone calls don’t take you away from supervising your children and so, if an emergency does arise, you can call 911 immediately.
• Even strong swimmers drown. Do not assume that your child is immune from drowning because he or she has taken swim lessons. In addition, flotation devices can fail or may be discarded, don’t let them lull you into a false sense of security.
• If you have a pool at home, use a device to alert you when doors to your pool area are opened. That way you’ll never be caught off guard and you’ll always know if your children are near your pool and require your supervision.
• Long hair can get sucked into pool drains and vacuum hoses. If your child has long hair, secure it to the head, braid it, or stuff it into a hat.
• Get swim lessons and CPR lessons for everyone in your family, especially if you own a pool. Make sure everyone knows what to do if they see someone in trouble in the water.
• Install pool fencing.
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