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Mother love keeps anger in
check
Good parenting may be enough to counteract
the effects of a ‘bad’ gene linked to
aggression. In a new study that adds to the
nature versus nurture debate, scientists have
found that upbringing had a big moderating
influence on the behaviour of monkeys that
were genetically predisposed to violence.
An American team led by Stephen Suomi
of the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development (US) split a sample
of rhesus monkeys into two groups.
One group was deprived of their mothers
at birth and left with their siblings to fend
for themselves for the first six months of
life. The rest were reared naturally. The
Turn off the television!!
The nation’s pediatricians have spelled it
out: keep toddlers away from television and
strictly limit the amount of time their older
siblings spend in front of the box or playing
computer and video games. In its first formal
policy statement on children and the media,
the peak pediatricians’ group has fired a
broadside at exploitative marketing that its
author said ‘directly and intentionally violated’
children too young to withstand it.
‘The amount of money spent by large
commercial organisations on understanding
children’s development for the purpose of
exploiting them is now more than universities
spend on child development studies,’ said the
Preservatives, colourings and
behaviour
Artificial colourings and preservatives in
food and drink boost levels of hyperactivity
in pre-school children and urgent consideration
should be given to removing them,
claim doctors.
The additives have a ‘significant’ impact
on the behaviour of ordinary children and
their elimination would be in the long-term
interests of public health, researchers from
the University of Southampton say. The
proportion of children with high levels of
hyperactivity was halved when the additives
were removed, the researchers found. The
additives in the test were:
Colourings:
Tartrazine (E102): A synthetic yellow azo
dye found in fruit squash, fizzy drinks, custard
powder, ice cream, sweets, chewing
gum, jam and yoghurt.
Banned in Norway and Austria.
Sunset yellow (E110): Also a synthetic yel-
childnews
team also tested for a gene linked to
aggressive behaviour, called 5HTT, which
influences how the brain deals with the
‘feelgood’ chemical, serotonin.
Monkeys with a ‘bad’ version of the
gene that leads to low levels of serotonin
and aggressive behaviour were
found to become extremely violent if
they were separated from their mothers.
But this genetic variation had no effect
on monkeys who had been raised by their
mothers.
Monkeys with a version of the gene
that leads to high serotonin levels were
placid, irrespective of their upbringing.
Sydney Morning Herald
statement’s author, Michael McDowell, head
of the pediatric policy committee of the
Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
The advice comes in response to accumulating
evidence that media exposure can
alter the development of children’s brains.
McDowell said the evidence that watching
violent or other inappropriate material
could damage children’s development by
desensitising their responses to real-life situations
was now too strong to be ignored. He
said governments had failed to act to protect
children from excesses of advertising, or to
acknowledge ‘the exquisite vulnerability of
children vis-a-vis marketing’.
Sydney Morning Herald
low azo dye which must be heat treated.
Found in orange jelly and squash, Swiss
roll, apricot jam, hot chocolate mix, packet
soups, canned fish.
Banned in Norway and Finland.
Carmoisine (E122): A synthetic red azo dye
which must be heat treated. Used in blancmange,
marzipan, jams, sweets, brown sauce,
yoghurts, jellies and cheesecake mixes.
Banned in Japan, Norway, Sweden and the US.
Ponceau 4R (E124): Also known as
Cochineal Red, a synthetic red azo dye used
in dessert toppings, jelly, salami, seafood
dressings, tinned strawberries and fruit pie
fillings. Banned in Norway and the US.
Preservatives:
Sodium Benzoate (E211): The sodium salt
of benzoic acid used as a food preservative
and antiseptic. Found in margarine, pineapple
juice, prawns, milk products, baked
goods, lollipops and soft drinks.
news.independent.co.uk
Toddlers too sedentary
New research suggests even 3-year-olds
aren’t getting enough exercise, raising concerns
over their weight, future disease risk,
psychological wellbeing, behaviour and learning
ability.
In the first study to rigorously track
the movements of preschoolers, scientists
found that the average 3-year-old is physically
active for just 20 minutes a day, well
short of the recommended hour a day for
that age. ‘A 3-year-old 25 years ago was eating
25% more than a 3-year-old today,’ said
the study’s leader, John Reilly, a physiologist
at the University of Glasgow. ‘But physical
activity levels have dropped quite dramatically
over the last 15 or 20 years.’
In the study, the children were spending
between nine and 10 hours of their waking
day hardly moving at all. The dangers of
a sedentary childhood go beyond obesity,
experts said. More active children tend to be
better behaved and scientists suspect that
more active children learn more effectively,
perhaps because physical activity is a stimulus
to brain development.
Associated Press
Television watching may hasten
puberty
Children who watch a lot of television,
new research suggests, produce less
melatonin, the ‘sleep hormone’, which
has been linked to timing of puberty.
Scientists at the University of Florence
in Italy found that when youngsters were
deprived of their TV sets, computers and
video games, their melatonin production
increased by an average 30%.
‘Girls are reaching puberty much earlier
than in the 1950s. One reason is due
to their average increase in weight; but
another may be due to reduced levels of
melatonin,’ suggests Roberto Salti, who
led the study. ‘Animal studies have shown
that low melatonin levels have an important
role in promoting an early onset of
puberty.’
Other studies have shown that children
who spend a lot of time watching
television or playing video games
weigh more than other children, which
might also exacerbate the early onset of
puberty.
New Scientist
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