Published: July 01, 2009 09:19 am      

Nothing new under the sun

Shirley Caudill

They’ve suddenly found out that children learn better when they have plenty of sleep! So what else is new?

My granny taught me that when I was two.

That is what a young pediatrician decided, according to a television report last week. Each new generation seems to believe they have discovered the answers to life’s problems, and that makes me laugh, at their naiveté’s mostly, because there’s really nothing new under the sun.

Nothing, except a new way to look at it — and that new way is often wrong.

It reminds me of my young son back in the 1960s who called me into the bathroom to see his new discovery. He said, “Hey Mom, come here, I’ve discovered something; if you turn your back to the mirror and hold another mirror in your hand, you can see the back of your head!”

He looked crestfallen when I told him I had been doing that all my life.

That’s the way I feel when I hear these “new” ideas about child-rearing. Of course children need plenty of sleep! At least 8 to 10 hours. Everybody needs plenty of sleep! Otherwise they are cranky and bent out of shape. I learned that with my own six children.

Being the newshound that I am, I stay tuned to a news channel on three TV sets most of the time I’m home. So when I work from room-to-room, I don’t miss anything in the news, no matter how ridiculous or absurd.

And sometimes it really gets to be absurd.

Twisted, slanted and distorted.

My pediatrician told me to always keep my babies on their tummy so they won’t get choked if they spit up. It helps to exercise their necks and makes them strong. They will not smother. They will turn their heads to get air!

Then someone came along and decided it should be the other way around: keep them on their backs at all times. Well, now they can’t figure why babies are flat headed and don’t learn to crawl at an early age.

The other day, somebody on television said children should not have much caffeine. Well, who didn’t know that fact? I believe it’s child abuse to give kids caffeine. My children never even tasted caffeine until they were teenagers.

What are people thinking, giving children the drug, caffeine? It makes them nervous. It keeps them awake at night. How can they get enough sleep if they are wired on a drug like that in the afternoon?

I see people putting Mountain Dew in baby bottles! It’s loaded with caffeine. Some people allow their babies to stay up half the night anyway. How will they ever grow up to be responsible adults? I call that child abuse, too.

But then, few people agree with what I call “child abuse.” You don’t want me to get started on what I think about parents who allow young children to be in the room with loud music. Seriously! Anything above 80 decibels is deafening. That is abuse.

And I have a tall soap box about someone smoking in the room with children... and adults. A baby’s heart rate increases seriously when it is in the room with cigarette smoke.

About the rise in obesity in children, my opinion is there are several reasons for it. With both parents working and so many people going to fast food places where the calorie count is beyond reason, what do we expect? Many children are latchkey children and eat all afternoon until their parents get home, for lack of anything better to do, like I did when I was a latchkey child.

Children and adults eat out of loneliness and frustration sometimes.

But before I drag this chatter on too long, let’s get to some of the scary things that cause obesity. Taking steroids for simple things like poison ivy and other minor irritations, taking cortisone shots for simple things that will go away on their own in a couple of weeks, and taking hormones. Folks, it’s irresponsible on the doctor’s part.

Worse yet is the fact that the cattle, the poultry and the hogs get growth hormones that make them fat and make them grow at a rapid rate. What does it do to the people who eat them? Go figure! It has been going on since the 1970s or earlier. It’s depressing.

Children nowadays are not taught to understand a balanced diet and healthful living. My health teacher impressed upon her students that if you have all the vitamins and minerals you need, you will be a strong, healthy person with few ailments. We don’t hear much about that these days. But I’m not telling you anything new.

Shirley Caudill of London is a former newspaper editor/publisher and longtime freelance columnist. She is a Nashville native who has lived in Kentucky 40 years. She has six children, 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and is married to a retired Army First Sergeant. She can be reached at shirleycaudill@windstream.net