Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Little Pharma: The Medication of U.S. Children

Little Pharma: The Medication of U.S. Children

This is a wake up call for anyone tending to children. Nutrition, sleep, time with nature, hugs, clean water, and clean air will do much to avoid the need for medications. Let's start there, by educating families. I will soon have a radio show addressing family issues. I believe parents do the right thing when they have accurate information and children respond gladly when their parents are confident about solving problems around health and family life.





Monday, February 21, 2011

More sleep helps prevent child obesity

Here is yet another study showing that getting your child to bed can have long term benefits, including reducing the likehood of overeating and dealing with the health problems that come with obesity. As a child advocate, Randy Rolfe, that's me, wants to have every parent appreciate the simple need of every child for regular adequate sleep. My children regularly slept 10 hours growing up. It's not only good for appetite control but also for better moods and attention!

More Sleep Reduces Child Obesity

19 February 2011, Source: Prensa Latina

Guantanamo (Solvision).- About 10 hours of sleep a day is beneficial to prevent child obesity, concluded scientists in a recent study on food habits in this stage of their lives.
Inadequate rest causes alterations of appetite hormones that leads to overweight, informed the authors of a study of the Biomedic Research Center in Red-Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition in Spain.

Children who sleep well have a lower incidence of obesity and eight hours are not enough in infancy, they explained.

For a good therapy of sleep the specialists recommend an additional hour daily. It is also important, they explained, to avoid televisions in the rooms and viewing of films or programs that stimulate brain activity.

Lack of rest has an influence on several appetite regulating hormones. By increasing greline production, a stimulant of eating, reducing leptine in charge of limiting hunger, the scientists explained.

In this way persons who sleep poorly, eat more, they pointed out.

Previous studies in adults link sleep problems with an excess of weight. About 10 percent of the world population suffers snoring and apnea associated with obesity.


Sleep is listed as a basic need in Randy Rolfe's acclaimed book The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents, which is in the process of being published in a new edition. Staay tuned!

www.randyrolfe.com, www.yearbook.com.

Friday, February 11, 2011

When Grandma Is Gone

Parenting author and family expert Randy Rolfe, that's me, is working on a new book about what happens when a mother loses her mother. Having lost my mother a year or so ago, I discovered that many women around me were going through the same time of life and I wanted to honor our mothers and ourselves by writing about it. Could anything be more profound that the creative force of motherhood passed on from one generation to the next? I am having a wonderful time, though deeply moving and sometimes too emotionally heavy to bear – have to take some time out - talking to these wonderful women. One thing which stands out is the deep love and respect which permeates their stories, along with all the mixed feelings and impressions one might imagine when you have shared half a life-time with a beloved parent. For me, it was my sociologist mother who got me interested in observing and teaching about family in the first place, when she invited me to do a fifth grade project for my American history class not on some battle or some heroine but on the history of the American family! What a project for a ten year old! My life’s goal has always been to facilitate world peace, having grown up during the Cold War, but I soon discovered that world peace begins in the home. Anyhow, here is just one tidbit from the book right now – spend as much time as you can comfortably spend with your parents and your children together. The memories made now will last and last.

Check out Randy’s other books at www.randyrolfe.com.