How does screen time affect brain development in children?

Let’s dive deeper. We’ll explore the effects of screen time for kids and implications for your baby’s developing brain. When you’re ready for a screen detox, consider these healthy strategies to set screen time limits with your children:

1. Attention Problems

Effect: Is there a difference between reading a story to your child and watching it on a tablet? Yes! Immediate gratification and elicited touch responses lead to addictive dopamine hits of instant pleasure. Additionally, the spoon-fed screen delivery is a cognitive shortcut that children can scroll out of and pause the second that they get bored or distracted. Studies show increased inattentiveness and trouble focusing in school.

Solution: After the age of two, baby brain development is at a safe stage to introduce limited screen exposure. Make baby screen time more meaningful by prioritizing educational media. There is some data to suggest that school programs like ABC Mouse can have a net positive influence.

2. Externalized Behavior

Effect: In many households, screen exposure is being used as a substitute for adult support. Data suggests that screen exposure is related to a rise in aggressiveness, defiance, anger, and stealing as early as age five.

Solution: Prioritize interactive technology, like educational games that you can play with your child. With social collaboration, you can guide your child through moderate, short-lived ‘positive stress experiences’ and practice healthy stress relief with self-soothing.

3. Internalized Emotions

Effect: Rates of internalized anxiety and depression are statistically linked to screen time. This has also resulted in increased depression and higher rates of suicide among teenagers in the US.

Solution: The ability to empathize with others, process non-verbal cues, and decode social interactions starts in early childhood. Support your baby’s frontal lobe development with authentic human interactions.

4. Developmental Delays

Effect: Language development peaks in the first year! If a baby’s first experiments with babbling, hand gestures, and facial expressions are met with a non-responsive screen, those unreliable returns become wired into brain circuitry. Expressive language delays are the most common symptom of screen time, especially when toddlers are slow to develop eye contact and hand movements.

Solution: Stunted development can have a life-long impact on children. Complete the ‘send and return’ cycle of learning by mimicking your baby’s communication and demonstrating authentic language patterns.

5. Sleep Disorders

Effect: Extensive screen time can lead to poor sleeping habits, including a late bedtime and increased tiredness with less time in a deep sleep.

Solution: Make sure to use a timer and screen time tracking apps to limit exposure. We recommend a maximum of 30 minutes each day or up to an hour of screens balanced by three hours of physical play. It’s also important to support your child’s circadian rhythm by avoiding screens before bedtime.

6. Insulin Resistance

Effect: A UK study tracked 4,500 kids and found that 3+ hours of daily screen time was linked to insulin resistance and weight gain, which increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

What is the recommended screen time for kids?

When it comes to screen time for kids, moderation is the key. Parents shouldn’t completely restrict their children from screen time, but there should be a limit of screen time for children. Technology has its pros and cons especially in a generation that thrives off of it. When it comes to the exposure of screen time for infants, they are easily exposed to content that may absorb in their brain resulting in a negative outcome. Screen time for infants is especially important to be watched over as they absorb media like sponges.

Knowing the effects of screen time on children will help toddler brain development. Screen time and brain development go hand in hand and play a huge role in proper brain development. In order to ensure proper kids’ brain development, you should turn off electronics during specific days and or times. All parents should consider something called a “digital detox” to ensure proper brain development in children. Creating time outside of screen time is vital for the health of your baby.

Here are the facts according to the AAP’s guidelines:

• Avoid the use of screen time for infants younger than 18 months. If you choose to have screen time for infants, be sure to provide high-quality screen time.
• Children between the ages of 2 to 5 years should limit their screen time for toddlers to 1 hour per day.
• Kids older than 5 years old should be enforced with screen time limits and schedules that are provided by the parents.

How to monitor your kids and screen time

Now that we have gone over the effects of screen time on children, you should be more aware of kids’ brain development due to excessive screen time. In addition to spending a healthy amount of screen time for kids, you should get your children involved in outside lifestyle activities. Setting proper screen time limits for your children is important in creating a healthy schedule for them. Kids’ brain development can be interrupted by excessive screen time.

Screen time for babies should be avoided as much as possible, starting screen time for infants should be limited if they are 18 months and younger. So if you’re wondering, “Is screen time bad for kids” this is not a black and white answer. Everything should be done within moderation. The World Health Organization recommends at least three hours of physical activity every day, so it’s important to prioritize outdoor activities. Also, supplement healthy eating and exercise with a BabyVites brain health vitamin and multivitamin.

Cutting carbs is a traditional way to shed extra fat. Why? Although they are an essential nutrient, most of us eat way too many carbs or at least more than we need for our typical exercise levels.

But is keto for kids? How far is too far when cutting carbs for pre-adolescent children? Here’s what you need to know.

Is Keto for Kids? Probably Not

The defining feature of the keto diet is that it’s a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. While on the keto diet, you can eat a maximum of 20-30 grams of carbs each day.

By limiting your carbs, your body enters ketosis, a metabolic state of intense fat burning.

The problem with limiting carbs in kids is that adults need to get 45-65% of their daily calories from these energy-rich nutrients – and children need more. Children need 130 grams of carbs every day to play, grow, and generally function. Therefore the keto diet for kids is probably not the best and or safest idea.

Additionally, by cutting carbs, you are also cutting out major food groups that provide essential micronutrients that are not only essential for pediatric development but also prevent chronic disease. Kids are in need of these nutrients during as they are developing which is why we would strictly say to avoid the keto diet for kids. Kids on keto diets are more than likely not getting their daily nutrients leaving them with nutrient deficiency.

By this premise alone, the traditional keto diet – the one used by adults – doesn’t cater to kids because it lacks the necessary nutrients for growth and development. So if you’re wondering is keto for kids, the straightforward answer is no.

The Keto Diet For Kids is Too Restrictive

Is keto safe for kids? As we’ve mentioned, no. Another big issue with keto for kids is that it teaches a restriction mindset at a young age.

Pediatricians teach families and kids to stick to the five-a-day rule (two fruits, three veggies). Keto eliminates this healthy habit because it cuts out all fruit as well as the fiber found in high-carb vegetables.

Although diet culture is everywhere, encouraging kids to go on keto – which can be restrictive – introduces children to it directly. There are keto meals for kids, but that involves taking out important fruits and fiber that is necessary.

Plus, keto is difficult to follow for kids. They can eat keto meals with you at breakfast and dinner, and you can pack them lunches. But how do you control what they eat with other family members, at birthday parties, or by themselves? If you put kids on keto, it will be hard to truly monitor every occasion.

Following the plan rigorously either sets them up for failure or leaves them feeling deprived and isolated from their peers. What’s more, there’s limited research on its effectiveness and it deprives them of nutrients. Keto meals for kids are not safe and or recommended.

Choosing strict keto for kids can be a lose-lose situation for everyone involved therefore you should not put kids on keto.

Should Kids Do The Keto Diet? If Not, What Next?

Most kids can benefit from reducing their carbs because like adults, most eat more carbs than they need.

However, there’s a difference between carb reduction and “no carb” diets like the keto diet. Putting kids on keto means completely restricting them from carbohydrates which is unhealthy.

If you’re worried about your child’s weight, diet, or development, speak to a pediatrician to learn more about how to provide your children with the food they need to grow up happy and healthy.

Don’t feed them candy for breakfast, but don’t focus on the number on the scale either. Help them find healthy hobbies that will keep them fit naturally. Be honest and explain to your child that it’s most important to eat the right foods to support healthy growth and maintain energy throughout the day.

But most importantly, let kids be kids.

Are you worried about helping your kids get all the nutrients they need to grow up healthy? Check out our post on supplements for kids!

SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is a traumatic experience that can affect any parent, and it has extremely tragic consequences. As a parent of a little one, there are some important SIDS risk factors that you should be aware of to keep your baby healthy. Read on to learn more about these risk factors as explained by Dr. Dafna Ahdoot and what you can do to minimize reduce risk of SIDS.

What is SIDS?

SIDS is short for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and is the leading cause of death in infants that are one month to one year old. SIDS falls under umbrella teen SUID- Sudden Unexpected Infant Death and divided into 2 categories SIDS and other true causes of death like suffocation, asphyxia, entrapment, infection, ingestion, metabolic diseases, arrhythmia, and sure trauma (non-accidental and accidental.)

SIDS deaths are usually unexplainable, but they’re most often associated with sleep, and the parents don’t know anything is wrong until it’s too late. While there is no known “cure” for SIDS, there are some ways that parents can minimize the risks to ensure that your baby stays happy and healthy. Unfortunately, there may not be any obvious SIDS symptoms that can warn parents of the issue in advance. However, knowing the risk factors for SIDS can help parents be more aware and proactive throughout their child’s infancy stages.

SIDS Risk Factors

While SIDS is not preventable, there are many risk factors that you should know about to help you reduce the chances of SIDS.

• Babies should always sleep on their backs until their first birthday as sleeping on the tummy can increase chances. Don’t allow your baby to sleep in your bed with you, in their car seat, in a swing, or any other area unless it is their crib, playpen, or bassinet so they can lay down on their back. Pacifier use can reduce the risk of SIDS.
• Use a tight-fitting sheet and make sure the baby’s mattress is firm. Keep items like pillows, stuffed animals, and other soft objects like bumper pads out of the crib.
• Do not smoke or drink while pregnant, and avoid breathing secondhand smoke whenever possible. Never smoke around your baby, and never smoke at all if you’re breastfeeding.
• Make sure you’re getting quality prenatal care so you can discuss any concerns with your doctor. They can also monitor your baby’s development and make sure there are no other signs of any health issues.
• Proper nutrition is important, and you can help this with a quality baby supplement.
• Make sure your baby is getting all of the recommended vaccinations and immunizations as recommended by your pediatrician. Studies have shown that babies who receive their vaccines on the proper recommended schedule have a 50 percent lower risk of SIDS.

Below, Dr. Dafna Ahdoot discusses SIDS risk factors on the Dr. Phil show:

You can argue if you want, but the truth has been proven. In case you didn’t know, e-cigs can come loaded with or without nicotine and/or marijuana oil. We know that nicotine is addictive and causes lung cancer, but what we are seeing is the onset of a new kind of pneumonia with the accumulation of fat globules in the lungs. In an investigation by the State Department of Health, patients tested in the state of New York showed a compound called Vitamin E to be found in “very high levels” in their lungs, thus causing vaping-related illnesses.

FACT: The number of high school students who vape has doubled since 2017.

I know this is disturbing. The scariest part is, over 25% of high school students used e-cigarettes in the last month.

As of September 12th, the Trump administration is putting together a plan to ban flavored e-cigs due to the multiple recent deaths associated with smoking them. “We have a problem in our country, it’s a new problem, and it’s called vaping, especially vaping as it pertains to innocent children,” Trump discussed with reporters in the White House. Furthermore, the Food and Drug Administration is finalizing its “guidance document” that would eliminate all e-cigarette flavors available on the market, aside from tobacco flavoring.

What exactly is inside those e-cigs that kids are vaping into their lungs?

• Propylene Glycol: stabilizer. This substance is used as a fog simulate in theater productions. E-cigarette liquids contain PG because it mixes well with flavoring ingredients, and when heated, produces a smoke-like vapor. Because it is a slight irritant, it also mimics the sensation of inhaling cigarette smoke. PG is generally recognized as safe and noncarcinogenic.
• Vegetable Glycerin: generally considered safe. However, there is a possibility of allergic reactions, headaches, nausea, thirst and upset stomach in some people.
• Flavorings: The main culprit causing lung damage and respiratory failure.
• Optional: nicotine or marijuana, which are associated with many dangers including cancer and addiction.

What does the flavoring actually do to the lungs you ask? Ok, here you go:

1. Cinnamon flavor was listed in a study published in the journal Frontiers in Physiology as one of the most toxic vaping flavors. It impairs the ability of the lungs to get rid of mucus. As a result, a lot of gunk builds up in the lungs setting the stage for pneumonia and respiratory failure. It also destroys white blood cells, the front line in protecting our body from infection.
2. Vanilla, with the toxic chemical vanillin, causes impaired blood vessel function, which is an early sign of heart damage. Higher levels of the inflammatory marker interleukin-6 and lower levels of nitric oxidecan certainly can be detrimental to heart health over time.
3. Flavorings can also cause heart cell death, epithelial cell death, and when used at the highest levels, bronchial (lung) cell death.

These flavorings become even more dangerous when mixing multiple flavoring chemicals together and thus creating far more cell destruction than inhaling single flavor e-liquids.

What are the signs of vaping-related illness?

• Shortness of breath
• Difficulty breathing
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Chest Pain
• Fever
• Fatigue

If your child is displaying any of these symptoms and you suspect your teen is vaping, seek medical attention right away. Even if they are not displaying signs of vaping-related illness, the consequences of e-cigarette use and will last the rest of their lives. Vaping is extremely detrimental to brain and lung development and your child’s overall health.

Teen Vaping is Deadly

If you use e-cigarettes, please, do yourself a favor and STOP! If you are a child, teenager, young adult, or whatever age, please STOP using e-cigarettes immediately.

As parents, you must be vigilant, especially if you suspect your child is vaping. Is your child unusually irritable? Have they become more secretive? Does their bedroom actually smell good for a change? Do something about it, find and get rid of their e-cig ASAP. Ink pens and USB drives, e-cigs can be disguised as everyday items, don’t be fooled. Talk to them, explain to them the dangers. No child wants to go off to college with an oxygen tank or worse yet, not be alive to go off to college at all. There have been one too many deaths and this needs to stop NOW!

source: American Academy of Pediatrics

I’m one of those parents.

My oldest has been in gymnastics and my youngest in dance. For my oldest, we’ve tried everything to get her to like something; piano, soccer, ballet, tap, swim, but none of these were a hit with her until a friend recommended rhythmic gymnastics. Think of it as the kind of gymnastics with the long-legged, lean girls who do flips in the air, adorning hula hoops and lovely ribbons. A beautiful sport indeed, but requiring time and patience on both the parent and the child. We’ve been doing this for about half a year and I swear, the first few minutes of each class is like pulling teeth, “mommy, I don’t want to,” “mommy, I gotta pee,” “mommy, I’m tired,” “mommy, I don’t feel like it.” Each time, after coaxing and sometimes bribing, she finally attends the class, successfully I might add, with smiles and shiny stickers to show for it.

The bribes aren’t working anymore.

Lately, however, these bribes have not been working and she has been screaming bloody murder before gymnastics, so much so that at one point we just sat it out looking at the other girls stretching and learning the routines.

From then on, every time I even mentioned the “G” word (gymnastics), my daughter would say “no means no” and “I’m not going.” I finally decided to have a serious talk with her about it. First, I acknowledged her worries of not wanting to go to the class. Next, I said that I see her having such a great time doing it and lastly, I said that both mommy and daddy know what is best for you and therefore you will continue the class and we will be watching you through it. I even added a sticker chart for good measure.

And voila, like magic, IT WORKED!

Yes, there was crying. Yes, there was “I don’t want to go”, but you know… she did it and loved it. The show must go on!

Here are my tips for helping your kids find a hobby:

1. Have your child pick the hobby – yes, I know you know what’s best for him/her, but kids usually pick things that are FUN for them. Fun means play and enjoyment, not work, practice, routines etc. Go with their decision so they feel empowered and that their choice matters – this, by the way, harbors confidence and sense of identity.
2. Persistence is key. Go to every class – whenever possible. Even when you are tired or they are tired, etc. Ignore every excuse in the book, just go. You will not regret it.
3. Don’t give up – your child will not be the world’s next famous singer/pianist immediately, or maybe ever, but they might! It takes time – did I mention patience? Check yourself first as a parent – If you think learning new things as an adult is a challenge, know that it’s just as challenging for your child.
4. If the child really doesn’t seem to enjoy the class, if they are crying or complaining each time, not happy, not wanting to participate then take a break and revisit it later. If your kiddo is still not into the class, it’s time to discuss it; maybe he/she is too young for this hobby or maybe we need to try something else?
5. Please, no bribing. Bribing may work the first few times, but, the more you do it, the bigger and more expensive it gets. You have then reached the point where it no longer works. Besides, what are we teaching our kids with bribes? Are we teaching them that if they study well for an exam, mommy will buy them a LOL toy? Not a good idea. Our happiness and sense of accomplishment comes from how we perform in the hobby/sport, not a toy we get.
6. Team sports are wonderful to boost confidence, improve social skills, learn how to speak up and helps our kids be prepared for the real world. However, team sports are NOT for everyone. If you are wanting to instill confidence and a sense of responsibility without the team experience, try dance, gymnastics or maybe even ice-skating!
7. Check in with your kiddo, talk to him/her, ask questions, what does he/she like and dislike about the hobby/sport, does he/she want to try something different, does he/she feel overwhelmed? (Keep in mind, she won’t come and tell you “I’m overwhelmed,” it’s up to you to see it in their behavior.) Are they too tired? grumpy? moody? After all, kids need to be kids. If we overwhelm our 4 year-old with so many extracurricular activities, he/she will end up being burnt out and that’s counterproductive – stick to one or two things – and please have some down-time.
8. Last, but not least – don’t compare your child to others. DON’T COMPARE, YOU WILL DESPAIR. It’s a disease we also have as adults, better known as “comparitis.” It is a self-inflicted illness. Do yourself a favor and focus on yourself, your child’s strengths and not others.

Let’s here your story!

What are some of your extracurricular tips for other parents? What hobbies has your child tried? Any rewarding stories? I’m all ears!

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