Disinformation » Children

NYC Schools Prohibit Sale of Home-Made Food and Allow Junk for Fundraising?!?

phunkychic666 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:37:36 +0000

Regulation A-812 prohibits home-baked foods from being sold at school fundraisers, while permitting Doritos and Pop-Tarts instead! Yes, this regulation mandates that if we want to raise money for our schools, we have to buy and sell junk food to our children!

VOICE YOUR OPPOSITION TO REGULATION A-812!

— Our schools cannot become venues for big food corporations, like Pepsi Cola and Kellogg’s to advertise and sell their processed foods to our children!

— Our children must not receive the message that junk food is healthier for them than foods cooked at home!

— We, as parents, must be allowed to participate in the discussion about our children’s health and nutrition!

Join us at City Hall on Thursday March 18th. We will be setting up one table with the approved DOE items and another table with home-baked goods — with a list of ingredients for everyone to see.

Get More Info at NYC Green Schools

Birth Defects on the Rise in Fallujah

tonyviner — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:40:15 +0000

Via the Daily Mail:

A Fallujah mother holds her little girl, who was born without a left forearm and hand.

A high number of children are being born with birth defects in an Iraqi city where U.S. forces may have used chemical weapons during a fierce battle in 2004.

Children in Fallujah are being born with limb, head, heart and nervous system defects.

There is even a claim that a baby was born with three heads. The number of heart defects among newborn babies is said to be 13 times higher than the rate in Europe.

The city, 40 miles west of Baghdad, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the Iraq war in late 2004. U.S. Marines led Operation Phantom Fury to recapture it from insurgents.

British troops were involved in manning checkpoints on the outskirts of the city as the Americans went in. The U.S. has admitted that it used white phosphorus in the attack, but only as an illumination device.

One Child Dies Every Two Minutes in Afghanistan

phunkychic666 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:57:10 +0000

Tom Parry writes on uruknet.info:

Children in Afghanistan are more likely to die before the age of five than children anywhere else in the world, according to Save the Children.

At the current appalling rate, one child dies every two minutes in the violence-wracked nation. The study shows that last year was also the deadliest for Afghan children since the fall of the Taliban.

More than 1,050 were killed in suicide attacks, air strikes, explosions and crossfire, according to latest figures. Save the Children insists the true scale of the humanitarian crisis facing the country remains hidden because of the focus on the conflict.

It says: “The international community needs to ensure families across the country — not just those living in the conflict zones — are able to access the clean water, nutritious food and healthcare they need to keep their children alive.”

90 Percent of High School Kids Lack Sufficient Intake of Fruits, Veggies

phunkychic666 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:16:30 +0000

From Natural News:

Less than 10 percent of high school students in the United States meet the federally recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“A diet high in fruits and vegetables is important for optimal child growth, maintaining a healthy weight, and prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, ” said William H. Dietz, director of the Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Division of the CDC. “This report will help states determine what is taking place in their communities and schools and come up with ways to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables.”

In 2007, the CDC surveyed both adults and high school students on their daily consumption of fruits or vegetables. Even though they are considered less healthy than whole fruits, fruit juices were counted toward daily fruit intake goals.

Even so, only 32 percent of the 100,000 students surveyed said they ate at least two servings of fruit per day, while only 13 percent consumed at least three daily servings of vegetables. Less than 10 percent ate enough of both.

The numbers among adults were similar for fruit consumption, and only slightly better for vegetables. Thirty-three percent of adults consumed at least two servings of fruits per day, while 27 percent consumed at least three servings of vegetables…

[continues at Natural News]

‘Baby Einstein’ DVDs Do More Harm Than Good

phunkychic666 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:00:36 +0000

Fiona Macrae writes in the Daily Mail:

Parents who buy educational DVDs to give their toddlers a head start may be doing more harm than good. A study of almost 100 boys and girls aged between one and two found that regularly watching a DVD from the Baby Einstein range did nothing to boost their vocabulary.

In fact, the younger the children were when they began to watch the programmes, the worse their word power. Researchers tested the children over six weeks. Half were given a Baby Wordsworth DVD, which their parents were told to play 15 times over six weeks.

The 35-minute disc, costing around £18, is part of the Baby Einstein range – popular with parents keen to boost toddlers’ IQs before starting school. It uses puppets and people to introduce 30 words for rooms and household appliances, including ‘fridge’ and ‘phone’.

The remaining children’s parents were told to ‘go about life as normal’. Not surprisingly, older children picked up more new words than younger ones, the California University team found. However, those who watched the DVD did no better than the others, and in fact appeared to learn little or nothing, their parents told Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine…

[continues in the Daily Mail]

Childhood Obesity Linked To Heart Disease

majestic — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:28:16 +0000

One more reason not to let your kids eat junk food, drink soda and so forth (see the disinformation® documentary Killer At Large for more on that), reported by the BBC:

Obese children as young as three years old show signs of future heart disease, say US researchers.

A study of 16,000 children and teenagers showed the most obese had signs of an inflammatory marker which can predict future heart disease.

In all, 40% of obese three-to-five-year olds had raised levels of C-reactive protein compared with 17% of healthy weight children, Pediatrics reported. But more work is needed to prove the link with heart disease in later life. The study, carried out by a team at the University of North Carolina (UNC), looked at children aged one to 17.

Overall, nearly 70% were a healthy weight, 15% were overweight, 11% were obese and 3.5% were very obese. In the older age groups, the proportion of those in the very obese category with high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) increased even further.

By age 15-17, 83% of the very obese had increased CRP compared with 18% of the healthy weight children…

[continues at the BBC]

Baby ‘Starved to Death’ Because He Did Not Say Amen

bluemana — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:57:02 +0000

On the AP via the Sydney Morning Herald:

(Left) Ria Ramkissoon and her son Javon Thompson, (top right) Queen Antoinette and (bottom right) Trevia Williams.

For more than a week, Ria Ramkissoon watched passively as her one-year-old son wasted away, denied food and water because the older woman she lived with said it was God’s will. Javon Thompson was possessed by an evil spirit, Ramkissoon was told, because he didn’t say “Amen” during a mealtime prayer. Javon didn’t talk much, given his age, but he had said “Amen” before, Ramkissoon testified in a US court in Baltimore.

On the day Javon died, Ramkissoon was told to “nurture him back to life”. She mashed up some carrots and tried to feed the boy, but he was no longer able to swallow. Ramkissoon put her hands on his chest to confirm that his heart had stopped beating.

Ramkissoon and several other people knelt down and prayed that he would rise from the dead. For weeks afterward, Ramkissoon spent much of her time in a room with her son’s emaciated body — talking to him, dancing, even giving him water. She thought she could bring him back.

Ramkissoon told the tale of her son’s excruciating death from the witness stand on Wednesday, at the trial of the woman she says told her not to feed the boy. Queen Antoinette was the leader of a small religious cult, according to police and prosecutors, and she faces murder charges alongside her daughter, Trevia Williams, and another follower, Marcus A. Cobbs.

Kidnapping and Trading in Iraqi Children

phunkychic666 — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:18:27 +0000

Layla Anwar writes on uruknet.info:

While quite a bit of a fuss was raised regarding the kidnapping, smuggling and trafficking in Haitian children and rightly so, the same can’t be said about the fate of Iraqi children.

I have already written several posts about this new lucrative business in Iraq, that of the kidnapping, trafficking and trading of children, and I am always aghast to see that no media or organization for the protection of children, like the famous UNICEF or Save the Child or OXFAM or anyone else, has given enough attention and dedicated effort to denounce and stop this tragedy…

Of course, before our “liberation” such criminality involving the selling, buying, trading, kidnapping, killing of children was unheard of…am I to deduce that Freedom and Democracy are baby killers? Am afraid so.

Hussein Anwar kindly forwarded this article a couple of months ago and I have been so busy with other things and only found the time today to translate it for you.

FDA Says It’s Unable to Regulate BPA, Considered Hazardous Since the 1930s

phunkychic666 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:27:30 +0000

Meg Kissinger reports in the Journal Sentinel:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say they are powerless to regulate BPA, although they have declared the chemical to be a safety concern for fetuses, babies and young children.

A quirk in the rules allows BPA makers to skirt federal regulation.

“We may have to go after legislation to change it,” Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA’s principal deputy director, told the Journal Sentinel. The newspaper has been investigating the government’s lack of regulation regarding BPA for three years.

FDA officials announced Friday that they had reversed their position that bisphenol A is safe. The chemical, used to line most food and beverage cans, has been found in the urine of 93% of Americans tested.

The agency now considers BPA to be of some concern for effects on the brain, behavior and prostate glands of fetuses and the very young. Scientific studies have raised concerns about the chemical’s link to breast and prostate cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, reproductive failures and behavioral problems.

Detroit Schools Offer Class in How to Work at Wal-Mart

phunkychic666 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:39:25 +0000

Muriel Kane writes on RAW Story:

Wal-Mart has been widely condemned for offering its employees only low-paying, dead end jobs. Even President Obama criticized Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign for having served on Wal-Mart’s board and stated that the firm ought to pay “a living wage.”

In inner-city Detroit, however, where the unemployment rate is estimated at an astonishing 50%, the prospect of a Wal-Mart job may appear far more attractive.

Four inner-city Detroit high schools have decided that employment with Wal-Mart is an opportunity worth training their students to pursue. The schools have teamed up with the giant merchandiser to offer a for-credit class in job-readiness training that also includes entry-level after-school jobs.

Saudi Child Bride Drops Fight to Divorce 80-Year-Old

phunkychic666 — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:18:20 +0000

Via AFP via Google News:

RIYADH — A 12-year-old Saudi girl unexpectedly gave up her petition for divorce from an 80-year-old man her father forced her to marry in exchange for a dowry, Saudi media reported Tuesday.

Despite support from human rights lawyers and child welfare advocates, the girl and her mother, who originally sought the divorce, withdrew the case Monday in a court in Buraidah, in Al-Qasim province, newspapers said.

The girl told the court that her marriage to the man was done with her agreement, according to Okaz newspaper. “I agree to the marriage. I have no objection. This is in filial respect to my father and obedience to his wish,” she said.

Saleh al-Dabibi, a lawyer supplied by a charity group to help the girl, said her mother did not inform him of the change of heart, Okaz said.

An unnamed official of the government’s Human Rights Commission, which was originally asked by the mother to help in getting the marriage annulled, told Arab News they too were surprised by the mother and daughter dropping the case.

Screener At LAX Accused Of Possessing Child Porn Was Also Catholic School Teacher

majestic — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:31:58 +0000

Thanks to Martin for sending us this story from CBS:

They are in charge of checking you and your luggage at the airport; making sure the skies are safe and sometimes coming close to you or your kids in the process.

But now a TSA screener at LAX has been arrested for possessing kiddie porn — pictures of girls as young as six.

Billy Alfaro was caught with more than 1,500 video files seized on his home computer, according to documents obtained by CBS 2 News. Alfaro lived with his parents in South L.A.

On Alfaro’s computer, a task force comprised of secret service agents allegedly found video files, such as one named “toddler girl.” According to a federal complaint, the video showed a young girl under the age of seven performing a sex act.

It goes on to say Alfaro admitted downloading child porn, confessed to looking at pictures of children under the age of six, but claimed he was saving those images to provide to law enforcement.

TSA said Alfaro has been a screener at LAX since January of 2008. He was fired on January 12 of this year when the feds found out about his arrest.

Alfaro wasn’t just a trusted member of the of the security team at the airport, but in the community he was also trusted. At St. Paul’s Parish School in South L.A., Alfaro was a volunteer religious education teacher and a soccer coach…

[continues at CBS]

Famed Medical Journal Retracts ‘Utterly False’ Vaccination-Scare Paper

Ralph Bernardo — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:47:13 +0000

Sarah Boseley writes in the Guardian:

The Lancet today finally retracted the paper that sparked a crisis in MMR vaccination across the UK, following the General Medical Council’s decision that its lead author, Andrew Wakefield, had been dishonest.

The medical journal’s editor, Richard Horton, told the Guardian today that he realised as soon as he read the GMC findings that the paper, published in February 1998, had to be retracted. “It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false,” he said. “I feel I was deceived.”

Many in the scientific and medical community have been pressing for the paper, linking the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) jab to bowel disease and autism, to be quashed. But Horton said he did not have the evidence to do so before the end of the GMC investigation last Thursday.

In 2004, when concerns were first raised about the conduct of the study, the Lancet asked the Royal Free hospital, where Wakefield and his fellow authors worked, to investigate. But Professor Humphrey Hodgson, then vice-dean of the Royal Free and University College school of medicine, wrote to the journal to say it had found no problems. “We are entirely satisfied that the investigations performed on children reported in the Lancet paper had been subjected to appropriate and rigorous ethical scrutiny,” he said at that time.

Scientists Identify The Brain’s Emotional IQ Centers – And Prove It With A Marshmallow

moezilla — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:22:17 +0000

People with high emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in life than those with a lower score – even without a higher IQ! (I love how Stanford proved this – using a marshmallow with children!) And now scientists have also pinpointed the brain locations responsible for two kinds of emotional intelligence: experiential and strategic.

Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda performed studies on 38 injured veterans (along with 29 control subjects).

And yes, this article also includes a link where you can test your own Emotional IQ…

Haiti Earthquake: Orphans For Sale For $50

phunkychic666 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:55:21 +0000

By Nick Allen in Haiti for the Telegraph:

Orphans in Haiti are being offered for sale to foreigners for as little as £30 amid warnings that up to one million children in the country have been left vulnerable to abuse and trafficking in the wake of the earthquake.

In a remote area north of Port-au-Prince, a man was reported to have offered to sell a young boy to a Canadian man for just $50.

The first confirmed case of a child being offered for sale since Haiti was devastated by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan 12 took place near Gonaives, 150km north of Port-au-Prince.

It was reported by Noel Ismonin, a Canadian pastor who rescues orphans in the area. A man offered to sell him the boy but the pastor refused.

Meanwhile, in camps around the capital there were several reports of men being lynched after being accused by earthquake victims of trying to steal infants from tents.

The incident near Gonaives raised fears that child trafficking gangs could move into desperately poor rural areas that have yet to be properly reached by aid agencies. The gangs are also be less likely to be picked up by authorities there.

Abduction of children by child traffickers was already a chronic problem in pre-earthquake Haiti, where thousands were handed by their families into lives of domestic servitude.

“There are an estimated one million unaccompanied or orphaned children, or children who lost one parent,” said Kate Conradt, a spokesman for Save the Children. “They are extremely vulnerable.”

[continues in the Telegraph]

Florida Residents Near Super Bowl Stadium Told to Watch Out for The Who’s Pete Townshend

Ralph Bernardo — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:44:32 +0000

Jose Lambiet writes in the Palm Beach Post:

The homes and schools close to Dolphins Stadium are receiving “sex offender advisory” postcards this week warning residents to watch out for The Who’s Pete Townshend, who’ll be performing at halftime of Super Bowl XLIV.

By next week, 1,500 homes will have received the postcard, sent by the Brevard County-based Protect Our Children. The non-profit acts as a community watchdog when it comes to sex offenders and sends similar cards to Melbourne residents where known pedophiles live.

Townshend, 63, was arrested in England in a 2003 roundup of alleged pedophiles accused of cruising online sites for photos of child sex. Townshend said he was just doing research for a book at the time. He wasn’t convicted of anything but was placed on that country’s list of sexual offenders for five years.

Mom Defends Soldier Accused of Having Child Porn

demineus — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:13:04 +0000

Via Chicago Breaking News Center:

An Illinois National Guard soldier in Afghanistan has been charged by the U.S. Army with possessing child pornography over pictures of a young relative his mother says she sent him.

Terri Miller of Galesburg says she sent her son, Specialist Billy Miller, pictures of the little girl to help him get over his homesickness.

The pictures show the child in a swimsuit playing a wading pool and sitting on a truck. In one, the girl is wearing a swim suit and part of her buttocks are exposed.

The Army says Miller will stay in Afghanistan until his court martial. His unit came home last August. Miller faces jail time, if convicted.

Terri Miller says the pictures are innocent.

Children Need More Dirt to be Healthy

phunkychic666 — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:28:56 +0000

E. Huff for Natural News:

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have found that children who are too clean are at a higher risk of developing inflammation and disease. Normal skin bacteria that act to balance immune response protect the body from overreacting to cuts and other injuries. Excessive cleanliness is actually impairing children’s natural healing function and putting them at an increased risk for disease.

Published in the online edition of Nature Medicine, findings are confirming that germ exposure is beneficial to young children who need it in order to build immunity and prevent the onset of allergies. Being too clean is now implicated in causing increased allergies in developed countries around the world.

Staphylococci, the bacterial species studied by researchers, was found to play a vital role in blocking inflammation. It creates a molecule called lipoteichoic acid (LTA) that keeps skin keratinocytes balanced and prevents them from creating too much inflammation. As a result, a simple cut or scrape will not get overly swollen in the presence of staphylococci.

Overuse of skin soaps, body washes, and hand sanitizers is eliminating this important bacteria, leading many researchers to question hygiene methods that have become commonplace. Children are being restricted from “dirty” outdoor activities in the name of keeping them safe from germs, when in fact these restrictions are causing them more harm than good.

Backlash Over UK Plan to Extend TV Advertising

tonyviner — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:03:10 +0000

Denis Campbell and Polly Curtis write in the Guardian:

Ministers are facing fierce opposition from medical groups, teaching unions and children’s charities over plans to allow products to be used in television programmes for marketing purposes for the first time.

Critics claim the move, which broadcasters say will give them up to £140m a year in extra revenue, will fuel childhood obesity, exacerbate the problems caused by alcohol and gambling, and distort storylines by rewarding programme makers for deliberately giving certain items high visibility.

The British Medical Association has written to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) strongly opposing the plan. “The BMA is deeply concerned about the decision to allow any form of product placement in relation to alcohol, gambling and foods high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) as this will reduce the protection of young people from harmful marketing influences and adversely impact on public health,” says its submission to a DCMS consultation in the issue, which closes on Friday.

“By its nature product placement allows marketing to be integrated into programmes, blurring the distinction between advertising and editorial, and is not always recognisable. Studies show that children are particularly susceptible to embedded brand messages and these operate at a subconscious level.”

Children Under 7 Scour The Web For Porn

majestic — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:40:21 +0000

From CNN:

Yikes. According to Symantec, the fourth most popular search term for children 7 and under is “porn” – just ahead of kids’ networking site Club Penguin.

Symantec recently released the anonymous results of 14.7 million searches run by users of its OnlineFamily.Norton service in 2009. The service allows parents to monitor web activities and supposedly blocks questionable sites, so let’s hope the toddlers searching for “porn” were unsuccessful.

It’s understandable that “sex” is one of the top searches for teens, but I was surprised to see that children as young as 7 were familiar with “porn.” While services like OnlineFamily.Norton may filter most inappropriate content, they are not perfect – and are no substitute for parental supervision…

[continues at CNN]

TV Viewing Among Kids at an Eight-Year High

majestic — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:18:05 +0000

They should know: Nielsen, the TV ratings company, has just released a new report:

American children aged 2-11 are watching more and more television than they have in years. New findings from The Nielsen Company show kids aged 2-5 now spend more than 32 hours a week on average in front of a TV screen. The older segment of that group (ages 6-11) spend a little less time, about 28 hours per week watching TV, due in part that they are more likely to be attending school for longer hours.

Average Weekly TV And Peripheral Consumption

Among All Kids 2-5

Total TV DVR DVD VCR Game Console

Over 32 hrs 24hrs 51mins 1hr 29mins 4hrs 33mins 45mins 1hr 12mins

Among All Kids 6-11

Total TV DVR DVD VCR Game Console

Over 28 hrs 22hrs 9mins 59mins 2hrs 28mins 18mins 2hrs 23mins

This trend of increased viewing among children mirrors the overall increase in media consumption we’ve been tracking over the last two years across TV, Internet, Games and Mobile phones. And much like their older family members, the majority of viewing for these kids is still done watching live TV.

Very Early Adopters

While 97% of kids’ viewing is through live TV, younger kids spend more time than the older group viewing via DVR, DVD and, to a lesser extent, VCR. Four percent of kids aged 2-5 watch via those devices on average across total day compared to 2.3% for those aged 6-11. Their considerable use of these devices at a young age points to them being able to adopt new devices comfortably as they grow up.

One more thing younger kids do more than those age 6-11 is watch more commercials. Young kids also watch commercials in playback mode more than older kids and adults, as well as watch their favorite shows over and over and over on DVD, VOD and DVR.

Older kids may not use the DVR, DVD and VCR as much as the very young, but they spend twice as much time playing video games — 2 hours 23 minutes a week compared to 1 hour 12 minutes for those 2-5. Internet usage among older kids is also significantly higher as nearly half of kids 6-11 spent time on the Internet in August versus 20% of kids 2-5.

Average Weekly TV And Peripheral Consumption
Among All Kids 2-5
Total	TV	DVR	DVD	VCR	Game Console
Over 32 hrs	24hrs 51mins	1hr 29mins	4hrs 33mins	45mins	1hr 12mins
Among All Kids 6-11
Total	TV	DVR	DVD	VCR	Game Console
Over 28 hrs	22hrs 9mins	59mins	2hrs 28mins	18mins	2hrs 23mins

One More Reason Not To Give Kids Psychotropic Drugs: It Makes Them Fat

majestic — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:38:10 +0000

Nathan Seppa reports for US News & World Report:

Many young children and adolescents taking drugs for severe psychiatric problems gain substantial weight and, in some cases, show increased levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in their blood, researchers report in the Oct. 28 Journal of the American Medical Association.

Although the data from this study need to be replicated over a longer time frame, the findings nonetheless raise worrisome questions about anti-psychotic drugs that often benefit children who have schizophrenia, autism, tics, severe bipolar disorder or aggressive behavior.

“We are between a rock and a hard place here,” says study coauthor Christoph Correll, a psychiatrist at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y. These mental disorders are severe and can lead to suicide or to educational problems and emotional scars, he says. On the other hand, weight gain during youth predisposes an individual to chronic health problems later in life, he says.

Weight gain has been noticed before in children and adolescents taking commonly prescribed drugs for severe psychiatric problems. But studies seeking to link that weight gain to the medications were often muddied because patients had taken one of the drugs beforehand at some point — and may have already put on weight from it or reset their body metabolism to adjust to the drug somehow…