Is Guinness really ‘good for you’? | CNN

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CNN
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Guinness, like other Irish stouts, enjoys a seasonal popularity every St. Patrick’s Day. It has also been touted as being “good for you,” at least by its own advertising posters decades ago.

But can this creamy, rich and filling beer really be added to a list of healthy beverages? Or is its reputation just good marketing? We researched the beer’s history and talked to brewing experts and break out the good, the not-so-great and the ingenuity of Guinness.

The original Guinness is a type of ale known as stout. It’s made from a grist (grain) that includes a large amount of roasted barley, which gives it its intense burnt flavor and very dark color. And though you wouldn’t rank it as healthful as a vegetable, the stouts in general, as well as other beers, may be justified in at least some of their nutritional bragging rights.

According to Charlie Bamforth, distinguished professor emeritus of brewing sciences at the University of California, Davis, most beers contain significant amounts of antioxidants, B vitamins, the mineral silicon (which may help protect against osteoporosis), soluble fiber and prebiotics, which promote the growth of “good” bacteria in your gut.

And Guinness may have a slight edge compared with other brews, even over other stouts.

“We showed that Guinness contained the most folate of the imported beers we analyzed,” Bamforth said. Folate is a B vitamin that our bodies need to make DNA and other genetic material. It’s also necessary for cells to divide. According to his research, stouts on average contain 12.8 micrograms of folate, or 3.2% of the recommended daily allowance.

Because Guinness contains a lot of unmalted barley, which contains more fiber than malted grain, it is also one of the beers with the highest levels of fiber, according to Bamforth. (Note: Though the US Department of Agriculture lists beer as containing zero grams of fiber, Bamforth said his research shows otherwise.)

Bamforth has researched and coauthored studies published in the Journal of the Institute of Brewing and the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists.

Here’s more potentially good news about Guinness: Despite its rich flavor and creamy consistency, it’s not the highest in calories compared with other beers. A 12-ounce serving of Guinness Draught has 125 calories. By comparison, the same size serving of Budweiser has 145 calories, Heineken has 142 calories, and Samuel Adams Cream Stout has 189 calories. In the United States, Guinness Extra Stout, by the way, has 149 calories.

This makes sense when you consider that alcohol is the main source of calories in beers. Guinness Draught has a lower alcohol content, at 4.2% alcohol by volume, compared with 5% for Budweiser and Heineken, and 4.9% for the Samuel Adams Cream Stout.

In general, moderate alcohol consumption – defined by the USDA’s dietary guidelines for Americans as no more than two drinks per day for men or one drink per day for women – may protect against heart disease. So you can check off another box.

Guinness is still alcohol, and consuming too much can impair judgment and contribute to weight gain. Heavy drinking (considered more than 14 drinks a week for men or more than seven drinks a week for women) and binge drinking (five or more drinks for men, and four or more for women, in about a two-hour period) are also associated with many health problems, including liver disease, pancreatitis and high blood pressure.

According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, “alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the United States: 17.6 million people, or one in every 12 adults, suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence along with several million more who engage in risky, binge drinking patterns that could lead to alcohol problems.”

And while moderate consumption of alcohol may have heart benefits for some, consumption of alcohol can also increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer for each drink consumed daily.

Many decades ago, in Ireland, it would not have been uncommon for a doctor to advise pregnant and nursing women to drink Guinness. But today, experts (particularly in the United States) caution of the dangers associated with consuming any alcohol while pregnant.

“Alcohol is a teratogen, which is something that causes birth defects. It can cause damage to the fetal brain and other organ systems,” said Dr. Erin Tracy, an OB/GYN at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive gynecology. “We don’t know of any safe dose of alcohol in pregnancy. Hence we recommend abstaining entirely during this brief period of time in a woman’s life.”

What about beer for breastfeeding? “In Britain, they have it in the culture that drinking Guinness is good for nursing mothers,” said Karl Siebert, professor emeritus of the food science department and previous director of the brewing program at Cornell University.

Beer in general has been regarded as a galactagogue, or stimulant of lactation, for much of history. In fact, according to irishtimes.com, breastfeeding women in Ireland were once given a bottle of Guinness a day in maternity hospitals.

According to Domhnall Marnell, the Guinness ambassador, Guinness Original (also known as Guinness Extra Stout, depending on where it was sold) debuted in 1821, and for a time, it contained live yeast, which had a high iron content, so it was given to anemic individuals or nursing mothers then, before the effects of alcohol were fully understood.

Some studies have showed evidence that ingredients in beer can increase prolactin, a hormone necessary for milk production; others have showed the opposite. Regardless of the conclusions, the alcohol in beer also appears to counter the benefits associated with increased prolactin secretion.

“The problem is that alcohol temporarily inhibits the milk ejection reflex and overall milk supply, especially when ingested in large amounts, and chronic alcohol use lowers milk supply permanently,” said Diana West, coauthor of “The Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk.”

“Barley can be eaten directly, or even made from commercial barley drinks, which would be less problematic than drinking beer,” West said.

If you’re still not convinced that beer is detrimental to breastfeeding, consider this fact: A nursing mother drinking any type of alcohol puts her baby in potential danger. “The fetal brain is still developing after birth – and since alcohol passes into breast milk, the baby is still at risk,” Tracy said.

“This is something we would not advocate today,” Marnell agreed. “We would not recommend to anyone who is pregnant or breastfeeding to be enjoying our products during this time in their life.”

Regarding the old wives’ tale about beer’s effects on breastfeeding, Marnell added, “It’s not something that Guinness has perpetuated … and if (people are still saying it), I’d like to say once and for all, it’s not something we support or recommend.”

Assuming you are healthy and have the green light to drink beer, you might wonder why Guinness feels like you’ve consumed a meal, despite its lower calorie and alcohol content.

It has to do with the sophistication that goes into producing and pouring Guinness. According to Bamforth, for more than half a century, Guinness has put nitrogen gas into its beer at the packaging stage, which gives smaller, more stable bubbles and delivers a more luscious mouthfeel. It also tempers the harsh burnt character coming from the roasted barley. Guinness cans, containing a widget to control the pour, also have some nitrogen.

Guinness is also dispensed through a special tap that uses a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. “In Ireland, Guinness had a long history of hiring the best and brightest university graduates regardless of what they were trained in,” Siebert said. “And they put them to work on things they needed. One was a special tap for dispensing Guinness, which has 11 different nozzles in it, that helps to form the fine-bubbled foam.”

The foam is remarkably long-lasting. “After you get a freshly poured Guinness, you can make a face in the foam, and by the time you finish drinking it, the face is still there,” Siebert said.

The famous advertising Guinness slogans – including “It’s a good day for a Guinness” – started through word of mouth, said Marnell. “In 1929, when we were about to do our first ad, we asked (ourselves), ‘What stance should we take?’ So we sent around a group of marketers (in Ireland and the UK) to ask Guinness drinkers why they chose Guinness, and nine out of 10 said their belief was that the beer was healthy for them. We already had this reputation in the bars before we uttered a word about the beer.

“That led to the Gilroy ads that were posted,” Marnell explained, referring to the artist John Gilroy, responsible for the Guinness ads from 1928 to the 1960s. “You’ll see the characters representing the Guinness brand – the toucan, the pelican – and slogans like ‘Guinness is good for you’ or ‘Guinness for Strength.’ But those were from the 1920s, ’30s and ‘40s.”

Today, he said, the company would not claim any health benefits for its beer. “If anyone is under the impression that there are health benefits to drinking Guinness, then unfortunately, I’m the bearer of bad news. Guinness is not going to build muscle or cure you of influenza.”

In fact, Guinness’ parent company, Diageo, spends a lot of effort supporting responsible drinking initiatives and educating consumers about alcohol’s effects. Its DrinkIQ page offers information such as calories in alcohol, how your body processes it and when alcohol can be dangerous, including during pregnancy.

“One of the main things we focus on … is that while we would love people to enjoy our beer, we want to make sure they do so as responsibly as possible,” Marnell said. “We would never recommend that anyone drink to excess, and (we want to make people) aware of how alcohol effects the body.”

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  • And again: Most health providers in the US would advise forgoing all alcohol if you are pregnant, nursing or have other health or medical issues where alcohol consumption is not advised.

    So responsibly celebrate St. Patrick this year a little wiser about the health benefits and risks with one of its signature potables.

    This story originally published in 2017.



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    Canadian siblings born four months early set record as the world’s most premature twins | CNN



    CNN
    — 

    For expectant parents Shakina Rajendram and Kevin Nadarajah, the doctor’s words were both definitive and devastating: Their twins were not “viable.”

    “Even in that moment, as I was hearing those words come out of the doctor’s mouth, I could still feel the babies very much alive within me. And so for me, I just wasn’t able to comprehend how babies who felt very much alive within me could not be viable,” Rajendram recalled.

    Still, she knew that there was no way she would be able to carry to term. She had begun bleeding, and the doctor said she would give birth soon. The parents-to-be were told that they would be able to hold their babies but that they would not be resuscitated, as they were too premature.

    Rajendram, 35, and Nadarajah, 37, had married and settled in Ajax, Ontario, about 35 miles east of Toronto, to start a family. They had conceived once before, but the pregnancy was ectopic – outside the uterus – and ended after a few months.

    As crushing as the doctor’s news was, Nadarajah said, they both refused to believe their babies would not make it. And so they scoured the Internet, finding information that both alarmed and encouraged them. The babies were at just 21 weeks and five days gestation; to have a chance, they would need to stay in the womb a day and a half longer, and Rajendram would have to go to a specialized hospital that could treat “micropreemies.”

    The earlier a baby is born, the higher the risk of death or serious disability, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Babies born preterm, before 37 weeks gestation, can have breathing issues, digestive problems and brain bleeds. Development challenges and delays can also last a lifetime.

    The problems can be especially severe for micropreemies, those born before 26 weeks gestation who weigh less than 26 ounces.

    Research has found that infants born at 22 weeks who get active medical treatment have survival rates of 25% to 50%, according to a 2019 study.

    Adrial was born weighing less than 15 ounces.

    Rajendram and Nadarajah requested a transfer to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, one of a limited number of medical centers in North America that provides resuscitation and active care at 22 weeks gestation.

    Then, they say, they “prayed hard,” with Rajendram determined to keep the babies inside her just a few hours longer.

    Just one hour after midnight on March 4, 2022, at 22 weeks gestation, Adiah Laelynn Nadarajah was born weighing under 12 ounces. Her brother, Adrial Luka Nadarajah, joined her 23 minutes later, weighing not quite 15 ounces.

    According to Guinness World Records, the pair are both the most premature and lightest twins ever born. The previous record holders for premature twins were the Ewoldt twins, born in Iowa at the gestational age of 22 weeks, 1 day.

    It is a record these parents say they want broken as soon as possible so more babies are given the opportunity to survive.

    “They were perfect in every sense to us,” Rajendram said. “They were born smaller than the palm of our hands. People still don’t believe us when we tell them.”

    The babies were born at just the right time to be eligible to receive proactive care, resuscitation, nutrition and vital organ support, according to Mount Sinai Hospital. Even an hour earlier, the care team may not have been able to intervene medically.

    “We just didn’t really understand why that strict cut off at 22, but we know that the hospital had their reasons. They were in uncharted territory, and I know that they had to possibly create some parameters around what they could do,” Rajendram said.

    “They’re definitely miracles,” Nadarajah said as he described seeing the twins in the neonatal intensive care unit for the first time and trying to come to terms with what they would go through in their fight to survive.

    “I had challenging feelings, conflicting feelings, seeing how tiny they were on one hand, feeling the joy of seeing two babies on the second hand. I was thinking, ‘how much pain they are in?’ It was so conflicting. They were so tiny,” he said.

    These risks and setbacks are common in the lives of micropreemies.

    Dr. Prakesh Shah, the pediatrician-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital, said he was straightforward with the couple about the challenges ahead for their twins.

    He warned of a struggle just to keep Adiah and Adrial breathing, let alone feed them.

    The babies weighed little more than a can of soda, with their organs visible through translucent skin. The needle used to give them nutrition was less than 2 millimeters in diameter, about the size of a thin knitting needle.

    “At some stage, many of us would have felt that, ‘is this the right thing to do for these babies?’ These babies were in significant pain, distress, and their skin was peeling off. Even removing surgical tape would mean that their skin would peel off,” Shah told CNN.

    But what their parents saw gave them hope.

    Kevin Nadarajah sings to Adiah.

    “We could see through their skin. We could see their hearts beating,” Rajendram said.

    They had to weigh all the risks of going forward and agreeing to more and more medical intervention. There could be months or even years of painful, difficult treatment ahead, along with the long-term risks of things like muscle development problems, cerebral palsy, language delays, cognitive delays, blindness and deafness.

    Rajendram and Nadarajah did not dare hope for another miracle, but they say they knew their babies were fighters, and they resolved to give them a chance at life.

    “The strength that Kevin and I had as parents, we had to believe that our babies had that same strength, that they have that same resilience. And so yes, they would have to go through pain, and they’re going to continue going through difficult moments, even through their adult life, not only as premature babies. But we believed that they would have a stronger resolve, a resilience that would enable them to get through those painful moments in the NICU,” Rajendram said.

    There were painful setbacks over nearly half a year of treatment in the hospital, especially in the first few weeks.

    “There were several instances in the early days where we were asked about withdrawing care, that’s just a fact, and so those were the moments where we just rallied in prayer, and we saw a turnaround,” Nadarajah said.

    Adiah spent 161 days in the hospital and went home on August 11, six days before her brother, Adrial, joined her there.

    Adrial’s road has been a bit more difficult. He has been hospitalized three more times with various infections, sometimes spending weeks in the hospital.

    Both siblings continue with specialist checkups and various types of therapy several times a month.

    But the new parents are finally more at ease, celebrating their babies’ homecoming and learning all they can about their personalities.

    The twins are now meeting many of the milestones of babies for their “corrected age,” where they would be if they were born at full-term.

    “The one thing that really surprised me, when both of them were ready to go home, both of them went home without oxygen, no feeding tube, nothing, they just went home. They were feeding on their own and maintaining their oxygen,” Shah said.

    Adiah is now very social and has long conversations with everyone she meets. Their parents describe Adrial as wise for his years, curious and intelligent, with a love of music.

    “We feel it’s very important to highlight that contrary to what was expected of them, our babies are happy, healthy, active babies who are breathing and feeding on their own, rolling over, babbling all the time, growing well, playing, and enjoying life as babies,” Rajendram said.

    These parents hope their story will inspire other families and health professionals to reassess the issue of viability before 22 weeks gestation, even when confronted with sobering survival rates and risks of long-term disability.

    “Even five years ago, we would not have gone for it, if it was not for the better help we can now provide,” Shah said, adding that medical teams are using life-sustaining technology in a better way than in previous years. “It’s allowing us to sustain these babies, helping keep oxygen in their bodies, the role of carbon dioxide, without causing lung injury.”

    Adiah and Adrial’s parents say they’re not expecting perfect children with perfect health but are striving to provide the best possible life for them.

    “This journey has empowered us to advocate for the lives of other preterm infants like Adiah and Adrial, who would not be alive today if the boundaries of viability had not been challenged by their health care team,” Rajendram said.

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    3 messages from Daniel Tiger that teens still need | CNN



    CNN
    — 

    While I was playing with my toddler at the park in 2012, another mom told me about a new show that “you have to see”: “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.” Soon, I was hearing the show’s coping strategy jingles everywhere. How many of us used the song, “When you have to go potty, stop and go right away” to toilet train our kids?

    Much of the animated series’ appeal comes from its fidelity to Fred Rogers, who died 20 years ago this week. Rogers’ show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which ran from 1968 to 2001 on PBS, was a transformative force in children’s media — largely because of the way it focused on children’s emotional development.

    While they may no longer have use for Daniel Tiger’s “potty song,” older kids face other challenges. And though the first children who watched the show on PBS are now tweens and teens, the show’s lesson can still help them in the midst of our current mental health crisis.

    I recently spoke to show creator Angela Santomero, who said she took Rogers’ beloved wisdom to heart as she “set out to create ‘Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood’ for preschoolers — and for the teens that our first viewers have grown up to be.”

    Here are three messages from Daniel Tiger and Rogers that not-so-little kids still need to hear.

    Teens need the reminder that simply naming emotions is a powerful mental health strategy. According to research from neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, people who could “distinguish finely among their unpleasant feelings — those ’50 shades of feeling crappy’ — were 30 percent more flexible when regulating their emotions, less likely to drink excessively when stressed, and less likely to retaliate aggressively against someone who has hurt them.”

    “Helping kids of any age to label and express their emotions is one of the key lessons from Fred Rogers,” Santomero said. That’s why so many “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” episodes pair a single emotion with a strategy song – like anger (“When you feel so mad that you want to roar, take a deep breath and count to four.”) or sadness (“It’s OK to feel sad sometimes. Little by little you’ll feel better again.”).

    Finding the right word to express how you are feeling inside isn’t always easy. I spent several years as a middle and high school teacher, and I remember chatting with a teen who said she was “so angry” with her best friend, but she didn’t know why.

    Soon we began to talk about the college process, and she revealed that her friend had outscored her on the SAT. What she was really feeling, she realized, was jealousy, self-doubt and worry about the future. Once she could name that, her anger “evaporated.” When you can identify what you are feeling and why, it’s easier to figure out what to do next.

    “If kids as young as preschoolers can start learning these strategies, our hope is that once they become teens they will have some tools to deal with hard situations that are mentally challenging,” Santomero said.

    Remember all the newness and change your preschoolers faced — and how much they needed your comforting presence? Now think about tweens and teens: Their bodies are changing, their brains go through a second growth spurt, they face social and academic pressures, they are increasingly aware of societal problems, and they are doing the hard work of figuring out their identities and planning for the future.

    If there’s one essential message from Rogers that I carry with me both as a parent and educator, it’s this: Don’t worry alone. As he said, “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting and less scary.”

    Adolescent psychologist Lisa Damour says that for teens, strong emotions are “a feature not a bug.” In her new book “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents,” she writes, “It’s beyond our power to prevent or quickly banish our teens’ psychological pain, nor should that be our goal. We can and should, however, help our teenagers develop ways to regulate their emotions that offer relief and do no harm.” And this starts with listening.

    One of my favorite aspects of Daniel Tiger is the way the adults in his life pause to really listen to his concerns. In the show’s very first episode, Daniel’s mom helps him work through his worries about going to the doctor with the song, “When we do something new, let’s talk about what we’ll do.”

    Really listening to preschoolers or teens is a skill, said Santomero. It takes practice to “lean in, focus, ask relevant questions, and listen with your whole heart.” This kind of attentive listening “shows how empathetic you are to their situation, how much you care about them, and how important they are to you. And that goes a long way in supporting their mental health.”

    One strategy from “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” that can help parents of teens is “thoughtful pausing,” said Santomero, who is also a co-creator of “Blues Clues.”

    Pausing during a conversation or vent session can give teens “time to get their thoughts together and reflect,” Santomero said. “It helps to make sure that it’s a two-way dialogue.” These pauses also open up space for teens to find their own solutions.

    When I watched that first season of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” with my child, I found myself tearing up more than once because the familiar songs and messages brought back how Rogers made me feel as a young child: special.

    We don’t need research to tell us how important unconditional love is for teens — but that data exists, regardless. In a 2014 study in the journal Child Development, researchers found that “parental warmth” amplifies every other effective parenting strategy, from setting boundaries to helping teens “tackle the academic and psychological challenges of secondary school.”

    How did researchers measure parental warmth? With survey questions as simple as, “How often do you let your child know you really care about him/her?”

    That warmth was a gift Rogers offered children every day when he signed off his show with, “You’ve made this day a special day, by just your being you. There’s no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are.” Teens need that message — even (maybe especially) when they are pulling away or pushing all our buttons.

    One of Santomero’s “all-time favorite Mister Rogers’ moments” is a message he recorded for adults in 2002, shortly before he died. It’s a message that is just as applicable 20 years later as we support the next generation:

    “I know how tough it is sometimes to look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead,” he said. “But I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger: I like you just the way you are. And, what’s more, I’m so grateful to you for helping the children in your life to know that you’ll do everything you can to keep them safe, and to help them express their feelings in ways that will bring healing in many different neighborhoods.”

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    Why hard feelings are good for teens | CNN

    Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Stress, But Less newsletter. Our six-part mindfulness guide will inform and inspire you to reduce stress while learning how to harness it.



    CNN
    — 

    For many parents, the “Is it normal?” game begins early on. I’ve sent question after question to family and friends, and of course, all worried parents ask our No. 1 frenemy, Google.

    Is it normal my fetus isn’t moving a lot in the morning? Is it normal my baby doesn’t nap? Is it normal that my 6-year-old can’t read? Is it normal that my 10-year-old has only lost four baby teeth?

    For all the talk of helicopter parents and their snowflake children, most parents I know are more concerned with whether their child’s development would be considered normal by experts than whether they are raising a prodigy.

    When the teen years arrive, the “Is it normal?” instinct can go into overdrive. Adolescence is marked by many changes, including ones that manifest physically and, their more challenging counterpart, ones that manifest emotionally. The moods and deep feelings are intense, and — for parents worried about teen mental health following the pandemic — cause for panic amid reports of heightened depression and anxiety among adolescents.

    But difficult feelings are often not a cause for concern, according to psychologist Lisa Damour in her new book, “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents.” Not only are sadness and worrying healthy and natural parts of being a teenager, but the ability to experience these feelings (without a parent panicking) and to learn how to cope with them is developmentally necessary.

    CNN spoke to Damour about why we’ve become less tolerant of big feelings, how to handle them when they arise, and the ways parents can, and can’t, help.

    This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

    CNN: You want to help parents distinguish between a teen in a mental health crisis, which is more common now, and a teen who is sad and moody but not in crisis. Why is this important?

    Lisa Damour

    Lisa Damour: We certainly have a teen mental health crisis, and part of what contributes to the crisis isn’t just that teenagers suffered in the pandemic but also that we don’t have a clinical workforce to provide as much care as they deserve.

    But not all kids who are in psychological distress are having a mental health concern. Psychologists see those as two different things, and though it is uncomfortable for all involved, typical adolescent development comes with plenty of psychological distress. My aim in writing this book was to support parents in knowing the difference between distress that is natural to being a teenager and when a teenager may be facing a mental health concern.

    CNN: How do you know the difference?

    Damour: Psychologists fully expect to see distress in humans, and especially in teenage humans. When we become disturbed is by how that distress is managed. We want to see that teens can manage distress in a way that does no harm to themselves or others. This might include talking about feelings with people who care for them, finding healthy outlets for the distress and seeking habits that help them find relief.

    What we don’t want to see is for them to find relief through something that comes with a price tag, things like using a substance or harming others.

    The other time we become concerned is when one emotion is calling all the shots, like when they are so anxious that their anxiety is governing all their decisions, or so sad that depression is getting in the way of their typically forward development.

    CNN: Why is it so hard for parents to see hard feelings, including sadness and anxiety, as part of a healthy adolescence?

    Damour: There is a lot of commercial marketing around wellness that can give people the impression that they are only mentally healthy or their kids are mentally healthy if they are feeling good, calm or relaxed. This is not an accurate definition of mental health.

    Since the pandemic, parents are more anxious than ever about teens suffering emotional distress.

    Also, in the wake of the pandemic, what I am observing is that parents saw their kids go through an extremely hard time and are now surrounded by headlines about the ways in which teenagers especially suffered. It makes sense that parents are feeling more anxious than ever about their teenagers experiencing emotional distress.

    In light of what we have all been through, and what our kids have been through, it can be very hard to get used to the idea that distress can be a sign of a teenager’s mental health. If a boy gets his heart broken and is very sad and he is in a lot of pain, it is proof that he is working just as he should. If a kid is unprepared for a test and it’s coming fast, and she feels anxious — that’s uncomfortable but appropriate.

    One of the aims of this book is to prove that mental distress is not only inevitable — it is part of mental health and experiencing it is part of how kids grow and mature.

    CNN: Many of us feel permanently short on time. How does that impact how we tend to our teens’ emotional distress?

    Damour: As much as we can appreciate theoretically that teenagers are going to get upset and have bad days, that doesn’t mean that this is easy to deal with at night when the parent is tired, and the teenager is having a meltdown. In that moment, the very expectable and well-meaning response is for the parent to want to make the stress go away and jump into advice giving and problem-solving so that the teenager doesn’t feel that way anymore. But parents discover that this doesn’t work as well as they hope it will.

    CNN: You point to deep listening as a better approach, which is often not as easy as it may sound. What is it?

    Damour: The metaphor I find that helps us listen is to imagine that you are an editor and your teenager is your reporter. They are reading you an article, and when they come to the end of it, it is your job to produce the headline.

    This exercise helps us tune in to what a teenager is saying and hear and distill what it is they are communicating. It also keeps us from doing what we so often do, which is have an idea and wait for the kids to pause so we can share it.

    Parents may worry, but experiencing mental distress is part of how teens grow and mature.

    If you come up with a good headline, teenagers often feel completely heard and get all the support they need. And even if you don’t, teenagers know us well and know when we are listening and giving them support without an agenda and trying to understand what they are really saying.

    What helps with anyone experiencing difficulty, but especially teenagers, is to experience compassion. It is such a generous gesture to just hear someone out.

    CNN: Does all emotional processing need to be verbal?

    Damour: There are many other healthy ways kids regulate emotions besides talking. Listening to mood-matching music is a very adaptive way to regulate as the experience of listening to the music catalyzes the emotion out of them. Teenagers also discharge emotions physically — by going through a run, jumping on a trampoline or banging on drums. Sometimes they will discharge them through creative channels like drawing or making music.

    As adults, we should not diminish the value of emotional expression that brings relief, even if it doesn’t come in the verbal form to which we are most accustomed.

    CNN: Should parents ask to join in? To listen to the music with them or go on the run?

    Damour: No, because what we ultimately want is for our teens to become autonomous in dealing with their hard feelings.

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    A childbirth myth is spreading on TikTok. Doctors say the truth is different | CNN



    CNN
    — 

    Ashley Martinez has four sons and is pregnant with the daughter she’s wanted for years.

    Last month, she posted a video online imploring doctors to prioritize her life, not the life of her unborn baby, if complications arise when she is in labor and it comes down to that choice.

    The San Antonio, Texas, resident is due in May and is one of a number of pregnant people who have recently posted “living will” videos on TikTok.

    Martinez had an emergency C-section during her last pregnancy after her umbilical cord came out before her baby, a rare but dangerous condition known as an umbilical cord prolapse that can deprive a baby of vital blood flow and oxygen.

    Martinez described her last delivery as terrifying. Eight months after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, ending a constitutional right to abortion, she said she worries about what would happen if she faced similar challenges again.

    Since the ruling in June, a number of US states have criminalized abortions, leading to some fears that doctors would prioritize the life of the unborn child during a medical emergency.

    Martinez lost her mother to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at a young age, and the thought of her children going through a similar tragedy terrifies her.

    “Having to go into another delivery where I’m going to have a C-section, it’s scary for me,” said the 29-year-old. “My fourth pregnancy was my only C-section. I’ve always thought about not being here for my kids just because of what I went through growing up without my mom.”

    More than a dozen US states have banned or severely restricted access to abortions following the Supreme Court’s decision eight months ago. The abortion bans have led to legal chaos as advocates take the fight to courtrooms.

    Even so, several ob/gyns told CNN that a hard choice between saving a mother and baby’s lives at childbirth, like the one outlined in the TikTok videos, is highly unlikely.

    This trend on TikTok has sparked a flurry of dueling videos among pregnant women and other people. Some have posted videos telling doctors in such situations to prioritize their unborn babies first, and criticizing those who expressed a different view.

    Martinez concedes that her mother, who died at 25, would likely have chosen to save her child first if she could.

    “My mother, she didn’t have a choice, you know?” Martinez said. “The message that I want to send is just basically nobody is wrong or right in this situation. In both situations, it is a hard decision to pick your children over your unborn baby.”

    In Texas, where Martinez lives, abortions are banned at all stages of pregnancy – unless there’s a life-threatening medical emergency.

    Dr. Franziska Haydanek, an ob/gyn in Rochester, New York, who shares medical advice on TikTok, said she’s noticed many “living will” videos in recent months.

    In most of the videos, a woman appears alongside a written message saying something like, “If there are complications during childbirth, save me before the baby.” Some people, including Martinez, reference their children in their decision and even show them in the video.

    One was posted by Tuscany Gunter, 22, a woman whose baby is due in April. Abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy is illegal in her home state of North Carolina, and Gunter told CNN she filmed her message in solidarity with others who said they would choose themselves first.

    “I wanted to make it known where I stand and to stand up with other women who are getting bashed online for saying they would rather be saved first over their baby,” said Gunter, who lives in Fayetteville.

    “As a mother to three young children, I cannot dump the emotional trauma of losing their mother on them as children and expect them to cope. While I would be crushed to lose a baby, I need to think of my other living children as well … And I know the baby that passed would be safe without ever having to experience any pain or sadness.”

    Another woman, Leslie Tovar of Portland, Oregon, said that even though her state has no legal restrictions on abortion, she posted her video because she feared doctors would prioritize saving her unborn child to avoid legal ramifications in the post-Roe v. Wade era.

    “I have two other kids at home who need mom. I can’t bear the thought of my two young boys ages 6 and 4 without their mom,” she said.

    All three women said they’ve had these conversations with their partners, who agreed they should be saved first.

    Of her husband, Tovar said, “His exact words were, ‘We could always have another baby later in life but there is never replacing the mother of my boys, I couldn’t do this without you.’”

    It’s true that complications occasionally come up during a pregnancy that lead doctors to recommend delivery to save the mother’s life, medical experts said.

    If this is done before a fetus is viable – under 24 weeks – the chances of the baby’s survival are low, said Dr. Elizabeth Langen, a maternal-fetal medicine physician at the University of Michigan Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital.

    Roe v. Wade’s reversal did make terminating such pregnancies more complicated, Langen and Haydanek say.

    In cases involving a baby that’s not viable, it could mean that even when the baby is unlikely to survive and the mom’s health is at risk, the priority will be on saving the baby due to fear of legal ramifications, Langen said.

    But both doctors say these scenarios don’t occur during the birth of a viable baby. In that instance, Roe v. Wade is “less involved,” Haydanek said.

    “We do everything in our efforts to save both (mother and baby),” she said. “I can’t think of a time where the medical team has had to make a decision about who to save in a viable laboring patient. It’s just not a real scenario in modern medicine – just one we are seeing played out on TV.”

    Hospitals have enough resources – obstetrics and neonatal intensive care unit teams, for example – to meet the needs of both the mother and the baby, Haydanek and Langen said.

    “We’re usually doing our best to take care of both the mom and the baby. And there’s very rarely a circumstance where we will do something to harm the mom in order to have the benefit of the baby,” added Langen.

    “If mom’s health is deteriorating, ultimately, she’s not going to be able to support baby’s wellbeing,” Langen said. “And so generally, what we encourage folks to do is really support mom’s health, because that’s in the best interest of both mother and baby.”

    Abortion rights demonstrators hold signs outside the US Supreme Court in Washington after the court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

    Both doctors said it’s important for patients to talk to their health care providers about their medical concerns and share their “living will” wishes with loved ones in case there are complications during labor that require partners to make medical decisions.

    However, those decisions will not involve doctors asking your partner whose life should come first, they said.

    “Before getting in a fight with your partner about who they choose to save, know that there isn’t a situation where we will ask them that,” said Haydanek, who has called the TikTok trend “horribly anxiety inducing.”

    She said it’s come up so many times in recent months that she made her own TikTok video to reassure expectant parents.

    “Please don’t feel like you have to make this choice,” she says in the video. “I know firsthand how much anxiety there can be in pregnancy … but it’s just not a situation that you’re gonna find yourself in.”

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    Bullying doesn’t look like it used to. Experts share how to fix it | CNN

    Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 (or 800-273-8255) to connect with a trained counselor or visit the NSPL site.



    CNN
    — 

    Every generation has tales of bullying, but perhaps today’s adults are not as familiar with what it means now for a kid to be bullied.

    Physical bullying — like confrontations involving hitting or shoving — actually showed very little association with a risk for mental distress, according to a new study.

    “For adults doing this research, you kind of assume that bullying consists of being stuffed in a locker and beaten up on the playground,” said lead study author John Rovers, professor and John R. Ellis Distinguished Chair in Pharmacy Practice at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. “We found out that that really has remarkably little effect.”

    Researchers took data from the 2018 Iowa Youth Survey of sixth, eighth and 11th graders to see whether there was an association between bullying and mental health and suicidal ideation, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.

    The results showed different forms of bullying did have an impact on feelings of sadness or hopelessness or thoughts of suicide — but that they did not impact students equally.

    Identity bullying, which includes bullying based on sexual orientation or gender identity as well as sexual jokes, was correlated with significant feelings of distress or suicide attempts, the study said.

    Cyberbullying and social bullying — leaving someone out or turning peers against them — followed identity bullying on degree of impact.

    The study is limited in that the sample did not include a high level of racial and religious diversity, but it does show “a theme very consistent with recent surveys as well as what I’m seeing in my clinical practice,” said child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Neha Chaudhary, chief medical officer at BeMe Health who is in the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Chaudhary was not involved in the research.

    The teachers and school administrators surveyed were worried most about physical bullying, however, according to the study.

    “This is a good learning for schools and families as they think about anti-bullying initiatives and how to talk to young people about the effects of bullying,” Chaudhary said.

    It makes sense that identity would be a particularly painful form of bullying.

    “Identity is so incredibly important for kids and teens as they develop, and not being able to be themselves without fear of judgement or bullying from others is not only isolating, it can significantly alter their confidence, peace of mind, and ability to see a future for themselves that’s free of pain,” Chaudhary said in an email. “People just want to be themselves, and be loved for who they are.”

    The survey data reviewed by the study team revealed a troubling statistic when it came to the state of adolescent mental health.

    “About 70,000 students responded to this survey. Five percent of them had attempted suicide in the last year,” Rovers said. “That’s 3,500 kids.”

    And this week’s results of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s biannual Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed mental distress among teens is getting worse.

    In rates that “increased dramatically” over the past decade, most high school girls (57%) felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, double the rate for teen boys (29%), according to the CDC. Nearly 1 in 3 teen girls seriously considered attempting suicide.

    Most LGBTQ students (52%) have also recently experienced poor mental health, and more than 1 in 5 attempted suicide in the past year, the CDC survey showed.

    Solutions that address adolescent mental health may come from families and schools working together — not in focusing on what the kids themselves can change, Rovers said.

    “Blaming this on some 9-year-old kid is not right,” he added.

    When it comes to bullying, there are three types of players: the bully, the victim and the child that is both being bullied and bullying others, Rovers said.

    All three need support, said Dr. Hina Talib, adolescent medicine specialist at the Atria Institute in New York and associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

    “Bullying is such a pattern of behavior that causes harm to the victim of the bully, the children that might just be witnessing the bullying happening and even to the bully themselves,” said Talib, who was not involved in the research.

    Rarely is a child exerting power over others just for its own sake, Talib added.

    While caregivers may have the first reaction to punish their child when they hear they are bullying others, it is important to probe a little deeper into what is going on with them, she said.

    “There are likely reasons there that are causing them to act out in this way,” Talib explained. “Underneath that, I think it’s important to see that their child is hurting also.”

    She recommended coming to them with the mindset of “this is not acceptable behavior, and this is why, and I’m here to help you through it,” Talib said.

    “The bully can and should be helped as well,” she added. “There’s almost always more to it.”

    There are many ideas about what motivates bullying behavior, but one could be that kids are emulating how they see the adults in their lives resolve conflict, Rovers said. These adolescents might learn that violence is a way to protect themselves.

    For children that are being bullied, they may not always be direct in telling the adults in their lives what is wrong, Talib said.

    Instead of hearing about cruel words or isolating actions, families might first see stress, anxiety, depression, stomachaches and avoiding school, she said.

    She recommended being attentive to your child and their individual behaviors and stepping in when you see a change. That could mean asking directly, having their pediatrician speak to them about it privately or even coming to them indirectly.

    A helpful way in could be to ask about their friends’ experiences.

    Say something like: “There was an interesting research report about bullying, and it made me think about bullying. It made me interested in if your friends were bullied or if you ever witnessed a bullying situation,” Talib said.

    If you do find that your child is the victim of bullying, Talib said it’s a good idea to get in contact with the school and the other family to develop an action plan together.

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    Common kinds of air pollution led to changes in teens’ blood pressure, study says | CNN



    CNN
    — 

    Scientists know that air pollution can make it difficult to breathe and may ultimately cause serious health problems like cancer, but a new study shows that it might also have a negative impact on teens’ blood pressure.

    Exposure to higher levels of nitrogen dioxide was associated with lower blood pressure in teens, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One. Exposure to particulate matter 2.5, also known as particle pollution, was associated with higher blood pressure.

    The researchers say the impact is “considerable.”

    Other studies have found a connection between blood pressure changes and pollution, but much of that work focuses on adults. Some research has also found negative associations with pollution exposure and younger children, but little has focused on teens.

    Generally, low blood pressure can cause immediate problems like confusion, tiredness, blurred vision and dizziness. High blood pressure in adolescence can lead to a lifetime of health problems including a higher risk of stroke or heart attack. It’s a leading risk factor for premature death worldwide.

    The study did not look at whether the teens had symptoms or health effects from the change in blood pressure.

    The scientists saw this association between pollution and blood pressure in data from the Determinants of Adolescent Social Well-Being and Health study, which tracks the health of a large and ethnically diverse group of children in London over time.

    The researchers took data from more than 3,200 teens and compared their records to their exposures to pollution based on annual pollution levels where they lived.

    Nitrogen dioxide pollution is most commonly associated with traffic-related combustion byproducts. Nitrogen may help plants grow, but it can impair a person’s ability to breathe and may cause damage to the human respiratory tract. In this study, the nitrogen was thought to be coming predominantly from diesel traffic.

    The particle pollution in the study is so tiny – 1/20th of a width of a human hair – that it can travel past the body’s usual defenses. Instead of being carried out when a person exhales, it can get stuck in the lungs or go into the bloodstream. The particles cause irritation and inflammation and may lead to a whole host of health problems.

    Particle pollution can come from forest fires, wood stoves, power plants and coal fires. It can also come from traffic and construction sites.

    In this study, the link between pollution exposure and changes in blood pressure was stronger in girls than in boys. The researchers can’t determine why there is a gender difference, but they found that 30% of the female participants got the least amount of exercise among the group and noted that that can have an effect on blood pressure.

    “It is thus imperative that air pollution is improved in London to maximise the health benefits of physical exercise in young people,” the study says.

    Although the study also can’t pinpoint why teens’ blood pressure changed with pollution exposure, others have found that exposure to air pollution may affect the central nervous system, causing inflammation and damage to the body’s cells. Additionally, exposure to particle pollution can disrupt a person’s circadian rhythms, which could affect blood pressure. Particle pollution exposure may also reduce the kidneys’ ability to excrete sodium during the day, leading to a higher nighttime blood pressure level, the study says.

    When it came to nitrogen dioxide pollution, the researchers had previously done a crossover study that involved the blood pressure of 12 healthy teen participants who were exposed to nitrogen oxide from a domestic gas cooker with lit burners. Their blood pressure fell compared with participants exposed to only room air.

    In the new study, the associations between pollution and blood pressure were consistent. Body size, socieoecomonic status and ethnicity didn’t change the results.

    However, it looks only at teens in London, and only 8% of them were people of color. Those children were exposed to higher levels of pollution than White children, the study found.

    Levels of pollution in London are also well above what World Health Organization guidelines suggest is safe for humans. However, the same could be said for most any area in the world. In 2019, 99% of the world’s population lived in places that did not meet WHO’s recommended air quality levels.

    Earlier work has shown that pollution can damage a young person’s health and may put them at a higher risk for chronic diseases like heart problems later in life. Studies in adults found that exposure to air pollution can affect blood pressure even within hours of exposure.

    Pollution caused 1 in 6 deaths worldwide in 2019 alone, another study found.

    Some experts suggest that one way to reduce a teen’s risk of pollution-related health problems is to invest in portable air cleaners with HEPA filters that are highly effective at reducing indoor air pollution. However, the filters can’t remove all of the problem, and experts say communitywide solutions through public policy are what’s needed.

    Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, an assistant professor in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said research like this is important to generate a hypothesis about what these pollutants are doing to people. Galiatsatos, a volunteer medical spokesperson with the American Lung Association, was not involved with the new study.

    “A lot of these air pollutions tend to cluster in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, so it’s one of the big reasons we want to always keep a close eye on this, as it disproportionately impacts certain populations more than others,” he said.

    Blood pressure is an important marker to track for health because it is a surrogate to understand the more complex processes that might be happening in the body.

    “My big takeaway is that these toxins clearly seem to have some physiological impact on the cardiovascular system, and any manipulation should be taken into the context of a concern,” Galiatsatos said.

    Study co-author Dr. Seeromanie Harding, a professor of social epidemiology at King’s College London, said she hopes it will lead to more research on the topic.

    “Given that more than 1 million under 18s live in [London] neighborhoods where air pollution is higher than the recommended health standards,” she said in a news release, “there is an urgent need for more of these studies to gain an in-depth understanding of the threats and opportunities to young people’s development.”

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    I’m a parent with an active social media brand: Here’s what you need to check on your child’s social media right now | CNN

    Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Stress, But Less newsletter. Our six-part mindfulness guide will inform and inspire you to reduce stress while learning how to harness it.



    CNN
    — 

    If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you’ll know I wear a lot of hats: romance author, parent of funny tweenagers, part-time teacher, amateur homesteader, grumbling celiac and the wife of a seriously outdoorsy guy.

    Because I’m an author with a major publisher in today’s competitive market, I’ve been tasked with stepping up my social media brand: participation, creation and all. The more transparent and likable I am online, the better my books sell. Therefore, to social media I go.

    It’s rare to find someone with no social media presence these days, but there’s a marked difference between posting a few pictures for family and friends and actively creating social media content as part of your daily life.

    With a whopping 95% of teens polled having access to smartphones (and 98% of teens over 15), according to an August Pew Research Center survey on teens, social media and technology, it doesn’t look like social media platforms are going away anytime soon.

    Not only are they key social tools, but they also allow teens to feel more a part of things in their communities. Many teens like being online, according to a November Pew Research Center survey on teen life on social media. Eighty percent of the teens surveyed felt more connected to what is happening in their friends’ lives, while 71% felt social media allows them to showcase their creativity.

    So, while posting online is work for me, it’s a way of life for the tweens and teens I see creating and publishing content online. As a parent of two middle schoolers, I know how important social media is to them, and I also know what’s out there. I see the good, the bad and the viral, and I’ve have put together some guidelines, based on what I’ve seen, for my fellow parents to watch for.

    Here are eight questions to ask yourself as you check out your children’s social media accounts.

    If you don’t, it’s time to start. It’s like when I had to look up the term “situationship,” I saw that ignorance is not bliss in this case. Or really any case when it comes to your children. Both of my children have smartphones, but even if your children don’t have smartphones, if they have any sort of device — phone, tablet, school laptop — it’s likely they have some sort of social media account out there. Every app our children wish to add to their smart devices comes through my husband’s and my phone notifications for approval. Before I approve any apps, I’ll read the reviews, run an internet search and text my mom friends for their experience.

    Most tweens and teens use social media for socializing with local friends.

    If I’m still uncertain about an app, I’ll hold off on approving it until I can sit down with my children and ask them why they want it. Sometimes just waiting and forcing a short discussion is enough to convince them they no longer want it. In our household, I avoid any apps that run social surveys, allow anonymous feedback or require the individual to use location services.

    If you don’t have your family phone plan all hooked together with parental controls, I’d advise setting that up ASAP. Because different devices and apps have different ways to monitor and set up parental controls, it’s impossible to link all the options here. However, a quick search will give you exactly the coverage you are comfortable with, including apps that track your child’s text messages and changing the settings on your child’s phone to lock down at a certain time every night.

    The top social media platforms teens use today are YouTube (95% of teens polled), TikTok (67%), Instagram (62%) and Snapchat (59%), according to the Pew Research Center survey on teens and social media tech. Other social media platforms teens use less frequently are Twitter, Reddit, WhatsApp and Facebook. Most notably, Facebook is seeing a significant downturn in teen users. This list isn’t exhaustive, however. I would check out your children’s devices for group chat apps (such as Slack or Discord) and also scroll through their sport or activity apps where group chat capabilities exist.

    I’ve seen preteens and teens using their real names, birthdate, home address, pets’ names, locker numbers or their school baseball team. Any of that information could be used to identify your child and location in real life or using a quick Google search. All of that is an absolute “no” in our house.

    I also tell my kids not to answer the fun surveys and quizzes that invite children to share their unique information and repost it for others to see. These can be useful tools for predators and people trying to steal your children’s identity.

    What I do: I made the choice a long ago to withhold the names of my children and partner. It’s not an exact science, and I know some clever digging could find them. For my husband, it’s for the sake of his privacy and also the protection of his professionalism. Just because he’s married to a romance author doesn’t mean he should have to answer for my online antics, whatever they may be. For my children, I want to avoid anything embarrassing that could be traced back to them during their college application season.

    Even if your children keep their social media profiles private (more on that later), their biographical information, screen name and avatar or profile picture are public information.

    Do an internet search of your child’s name to see what’s out there and scroll through images to make sure there isn’t anything you wouldn’t want to be made public. In our household, I’ve asked my children to use generic items or illustrated avatars in their social media bios.

    What I do: Parents who do have active social media accounts may want to do a search of their own names. When my first book was published in 2019, I did a search of my name and images and found many photos of my children that came directly from my social media pages. I hadn’t posted pictures of them, but I did use a family photo as my profile photo and those are public record. Once I deleted them, the photos disappeared.

    Another “no” in our household is posting videos or photos of our home or bedrooms. Something that feels innocent and innocuous to your middle schooler may not feel that way to an adult seeking out inappropriate content.

    I learned this from one of my children’s Pinterest accounts. My kid loves to create themed videos using her own photos and stock pictures, and she’s gained over 500 followers in a short period of time. She has completely followed our rules and I know, because I check and follow her myself — but it hasn’t stopped the influx of adult men following her content.

    What we do: Over the holidays, I sat with her and went through each follower one by one and blocked anyone we decided was there for the wrong reasons. In the end, we blocked close to 30 adult men on her account. (I also know that some predators cleverly disguise themselves as children or teens, and we may not catch them all, but this is still a worthy exercise.)

    We also talk to our children about how to protect themselves. They wouldn’t want those strangers standing in their bedroom; therefore, they don’t want to post videos of their bedroom or bathroom or classroom for strangers to view.

    This is a tricky one for lots of reasons. For content creators to build their following, they need to remain public on social media. If your child is an entrepreneur or artist hoping to grab attention, locking down their account will prevent that from happening.

    That said, a way around this is to have two accounts. First, a private one, locked down and only used for family and close friends, and second, a public one that lacks identifiers but showcases whatever branding the child is hoping to grow. I’ve come across some well-managed public accounts for children who have giant followings and noticed they are usually run by parents, who state that right in the profile. I like this. If your children want public profiles because they are hoping to catch the attention of a talent scout, having the accounts monitored by a responsible adult who has their best interest in mind is a healthy compromise.

    This is the exception, however. Most tweens and teens today use their social media for socializing with local friends. The benefit of keeping their account as private (or as private as can be) is threefold. It allows them to screen who follows their content, thus preventing our Pinterest fiasco. It prevents strangers from accessing their content and making it viral without their permission. And it protects them from unsolicited contact with strangers.

    Not all social media platforms have the option to make your account “private.” For example, YouTube has parental controls that can be adjusted at any time. TikTok and Instagram can be made private (which means users must approve followers) by making the change in the account settings. Once the account is private, a little padlock will show next to the username.

    Snapchat allows users to approve followers on a case-by-case basis as well as turn off features that disclose a user’s location. Notably, Snapchat also informs users when another user takes a screenshot of their story, which is a feature other social media platforms don’t have yet.

    Most group chat apps don’t have the ability to go private so much as they ask users to approve of follower requests. Take time to discuss with your children who they allow to follow them and what personal information they allow those followers to know. It’s also a great time to teach them the art of “blocking” those individuals who are unsafe or unkind.

    My suggestion is to log in, scroll around and even ask your children to teach you about the platforms they use. Then, when they roll their eyes at you, go ahead and tell them about your first Hotmail email address and the way you picked the perfect emo playlist on your Myspace page … and when they’re bent over laughing, sneak a peek at their follower list. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.

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    Children’s mental health tops list of parent worries, survey finds | CNN



    CNN
    — 

    Forty percent of US parents are “extremely” or “very” worried that their children will struggle with anxiety or depression at some point, a new survey finds.

    The Pew Research Center report said mental health was the greatest concern among parents, followed by bullying, which worries 35% of parents. These concerns trumped fears of kidnapping, dangers of drugs and alcohol, teen pregnancy and getting into trouble with the police.

    Concerns varied by race, ethnicity and income level, with roughly 4 in 10 Latino and low-income parents and 3 in 10 Black parents saying they are extremely or very worried that their children could be shot, compared with about 1 in 10 high-income or White parents.

    Nearly two-thirds of the respondents said that being a parent has been at least somewhat harder than they expected, about 41% say that being a parent is tiring, and 29% say it is stressful all or most of the time.

    The report captured the perceptions of a nationally representative sample of 3,757 US parents whose children were younger than 18 in 2022.

    Experts say mental health issues among children and adolescents have skyrocketed in recent years.

    “I would say over the last 10 years, since I’ve been practicing as a general pediatrician, I have seen a shift both in the amount of patients and of all ages dealing with anxiety and depression. And their parents being concerned about this is a key issue,” said Dr. Katherine Williamson, a pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Even before the pandemic, we were seeing skyrocketing numbers of kids and adolescents dealing with mental health issues, and that has increased exponentially since the pandemic.”

    Suicide became the second leading cause of death among children 10 to 14 during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mental health-related emergency room visits among adolescents 5 to 11 and 12 to 17 also jumped 24% and 31%, respectively.

    Many parents feel helpless when their children have mental health issues because they don’t feel equipped to offer support in this area.

    “They are unable to relieve [mental health issues] and address that as they could if they were struggling with their grades or other things that seem more traditional to for kids to struggle with,” said Allen Sabey, a family therapist at the Family Institute at Northwestern University.

    Parents trying to “work out and look at and connect with their own feelings will give them important information about what feels off or OK for their kid,” he said.

    When it comes to anxiety and depression in children, pediatricians say, parents can watch for signs like decreased interest or pleasure in things they previously enjoyed, poor self-esteem and changes in mood, appetite or sleep.

    Experts also say parents should consider the amount and content of social media their child consumes, as research has found that it can have negative effects on their mental health.

    But, they say, having more parents recognize the importance of mental health in children is a step in the right direction.

    “I have always felt there’s been so much resistance to seeking care for mental health among the population that I serve. And I am actually happy that since the Covid pandemic, at least people now are recognizing this as a very key and important health need,” said Dr. Maggi Smeal, a pediatrician at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health.

    Smeal hopes that “all people that are interacting with children can be aware of these issues and feel empowered to identify and advocate for these children, to tell them to go to their primary care provider and have an assessment just like you do if your kid has a cough or a fever or ear infection.”

    The number of parents concerned about gun violence reflects the fact that guns are the leading cause of death among children in the US, research has showed. From 2019 to 2020, the rate of firearm-related deaths increased 29.5% – more than twice the increase as in the general population.

    “Gun violence is a real risk to our kids today. And that is both being killed by somebody else as well as suicide in the face of the mental health issues that we’re seeing today,” Williamson said.

    The survey found that Black, Hispanic and lower-income parents were most likely to be concerned about gun violence, a finding that’s consistent with the communities most affected. Research has shown that from 2018 to 2021, the rate of firearm-related deaths doubled among Black youth and increased 50% among Hispanic youth. Another study found that children living in low-income areas are at higher risk of firearm-related death.

    Direct and indirect exposure to gun violence can contribute to mental health problems.

    “Even if they hear gunshots in their community, they hear adults talking, there’s all different ways that children are traumatized and victimized by gun violence. And what we see is all the symptoms of anxiety in even the youngest of children. We see children with somatic complaints – stomachaches, headaches. They have post-traumatic stress disorder,” Smeal said.

    Most of the parents in the survey said parenting is harder than they expected, and that they feel judgment from various sources.

    “The findings of this of this report were, as a pediatrician and a parent, just exactly what you would expect. Parenting is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, and there are very high levels of stress and fatigue, especially in the parents of young children,” Smeal said.

    One of the best things parents can do is lean on fellow parents, experts say.

    “The main challenge for parents is our siloed independent nature sometimes, and so we want to find people who we trust and kind of work towards being more vulnerable and open with,” Sabey said. “To where it’s like not just you and your kid, but it’s a kind of a group of people caring and working together.”

    Pediatricians emphasize that no parent is perfect and that the most important thing you can do is to just be there for your child.

    “We know that the best chance for a child to be successful and happy is for them to have at least one person in their life who believes in them and advocates for them. So I think it’s important for parents to know that there’s no such thing as a perfect parent, because we are all human, and humans are imperfect by nature, but that is OK,” Williamson said.

    A parent’s job is to “really make sure that they know how important they are and they have a voice in this world,” she said. “Every child will have their own unique struggles, whether it is academically, emotionally, physically. Our job is to help them with the areas [where] they struggle, but even more, help them recognize their strengths.”

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    Does having a teen feel like living with a chimpanzee? You may not be far off, study shows | CNN

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    CNN
    — 

    Chimpanzee teens may not be so different from the ones living in our homes, a new study says.

    Except that your teen might be more impulsive.

    Researchers worked with 40 chimpanzees born in the wild while they were at a sanctuary in the Republic of Congo, playing games that tested the adolescent animals’ orientation toward risk-taking and impulsivity, according to the study published January 23 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General by the American Psychological Association.

    “Human adolescents are grappling with changing bodies and brains, and tend to be more impulsive, risk-seeking, and less able to regulate emotions than adults,” said lead study author Dr. Alexandra Rosati, associate professor of psychology and anthropology at the University of Michigan, via email. “Chimpanzees face many of the same kinds of challenges as humans as they grow up.”

    The study described chimpanzees’ adolescence as a period from about ages 8 to 15 in a 50-year life span. Like young humans, they experience rapid hormone changes, new social bonds, increased aggression and a competition for social status.

    Teen chimpanzees are overlooked in studies compared with infants and adults, said Dr. Aaron Sandel, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in the current study.

    “For a while there was a pretty big gap in the literature on (chimpanzee) adolescents,” Sandel said, noting that researchers often don’t focus on this period. Scientists may avoid studying teen chimps because their own human experiences with teenage years are complicated, he said.

    The new study found that adolescent chimpanzees were more likely to take risks in their games than their adult counterparts, but they just as likely would wait for a greater delayed reward.

    But human teens are known to be more likely to take a smaller, more immediate reward, the study noted.

    The chimpanzees underwent two tests with food rewards. These animals tended to dislike cucumbers while liking peanuts somewhat and loving bananas.

    The first test involved a bit of a gamble. Both adult and teen chimpanzees were asked to choose between two containers: one that always had peanuts and another that had either the dreaded cucumber or treasured banana, the study said.

    The adolescent chimps were more likely to take a risk and go for the cucumber or banana container than the adults, the study said. Both groups showed similar negative reactions – such as moaning, whimpering, screaming and banging on the table – when they ended up with a cucumber.

    The second test resembled a well-known one that has been given to human children. Chimpanzees had the option of having one banana slice immediately or waiting for a minute and then getting three slices.

    Both adults and adolescents waited for the three slices at a similar rate, but the teens were more likely to throw a fit while they waited a minute, the study said.

    In a similar test, human teens were more likely to take the smaller treat right away, according to the study.

    “Prior work indicates that chimpanzees are quite patient compared to other animals, and this study shows that their ability to delay gratification is already mature at a fairly young age, unlike in humans,” Rosati said.

    Sandel noted that it is important to be careful about comparing the experience of humans with other animals. While primates are our closest relatives, we are different species, he pointed out.

    So how might a parent handle a teen who engages in risky behavior and hates to wait for a reward?

    The first step is to understand what is going on in their developing brains, said Dr. Hina Talib, an adolescent medicine specialist and associate professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

    “I think teenagers get a bad rap,” she said. “We often think of them as risky little devils. It does come from some element of truth.”

    The human teenage years are a time of explosive growth and development, she added.

    Their brains are wired to seek out new experiences and information, which often means taking risks, Talib said.

    At this time, they can try new things, build their ideas of who they are and try on different identities, said Tina Bryson, a Pasadena, California, therapist and author of “The Power of Showing Up: How Parental Presence Shapes Who Our Kids Become and How Their Brains Get Wired.”

    They learn from the information they gain, which can help them manage their behavior better – eventually, Talib said.

    Families can encourage them to try new things, she said, while providing ground rules and support that will help keep them safe.

    “We want you to go anywhere and do everything … Here is where we might step in or where we have house rules about something,’” Talib recommended that parents say. Your conversations should be “coming from a perspective of we are here as the floor, as the safety net as you go and have these amazing trapeze experiences.”

    And while their brains are growing a lot, not every area is able to be fully and optimally utilized at the same time.

    Late middle and early high schoolers might be relying on the parts of the brain that rule emotion and reactivity, she added, while their decision-making and reasoning parts are busy growing.

    That doesn’t mean that teens are not capable of good decision-making and long-term planning, she added – you just have to help set them up for success.

    “When things are calm, they are able to problem solve just as well as adults,” Talib said. Help them stay calm when they are in trouble and need to solve a problem and save the difficult conversations for when they are no longer stressed out, she added.

    Instead of worrying about how to get rid of their impulsivity, Bryson recommended finding ways to help strengthen empathetic, thoughtful, and reasoned decision-making.

    Encourage them to pause before acting and walk through the thinking process with them, she said. You can also talk through how you think through your own decisions, Bryson said.

    And while their brains may be undergoing changes, be sure to call out the things they are doing well, Talib said.

    “The more you do that, the more you help them see themselves in a positive light, the more that gets hardwired in them,” she said, “and they are better able to face the world around them.”

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