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Here’s why parents should set screen-time limits for their kids

Agencies
June 7, 2019

Washington, Jun 7: Parents should encourage their children to adopt healthy habits like physical exercise, a nutritious diet and getting sound sleep instead of spending long periods of time on electronic devices, a doctor who is leading the Canadian Pediatric Society’s digital health task force has said.

Dr Michelle Ponti said that the society’s new guidelines describe how and when screens are used based on age rather than the prescribed time limits of low and medium exposure to the electronic devices, CTV news reported.

“We’re trying to avoid the fights by starting these screen-time limits and these digital literacy talks with families early,” she said.

Ponti pointed out that excessive and isolated use of screens can be more harmful to kids and teenagers, especially if they are permitted in their bedrooms.

“It’s much more difficult to pull back with a teenager,” said Ponti, a London-based pediatrician who has a nine-year-old son and two daughters aged 17 and 18.

Talking about the challenges she faced with her children, Ponti said, “My oldest daughter is quite responsible with her phone, my middle daughter, I have to constantly remind of screen-time rules and my son, he doesn’t even own his own mobile device but he has access to the family’s computer and the television and he has a gaming system.”

According to the society’s guidelines, families having children aged five to 12 years should watch educational programs together, emphasising more on positive social skills, according to CTV news.

“The time to start having conversations about screen time and setting rules is when kids are in pre-school and also to model good behavior, such as not texting while driving,” Ponti said.

She further said, “We really want families, kids and teens to have these conversations about how screens can fit into their lives in a productive way rather than detracting from all the other healthy habits we’re hoping they’ve already prioritized. Have these conversations, honestly and openly with teens and do it at a time when there’s not a fight.”

Ponti underscored that teachers are increasingly finding students’ use of phones in the classroom a huge distraction which can interfere with their studies and said that schools are in the same position as parents when they find themselves in a conflict over excessive use of electronic devices.

According to WTOP, local museums can also help kids and adolescents to keep their minds engaged during the summer break.

Meanwhile, mobile phones will be banned in Ontario classrooms from September this year. Jurisdictions around Canada have set rules to deal with the devices whereas individual teachers formulate their own guidelines in some schools, CTV news reported.

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Agencies
June 21,2020

Lower neighbourhood socioeconomic status and greater household crowding increase the risk of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, warn researchers.

"Our study shows that neighbourhood socioeconomic status and household crowding are strongly associated with risk of infection," said study lead author Alexander Melamed from Columbia University in the US.

"This may explain why Black and Hispanic people living in these neighbourhoods are disproportionately at risk for contracting the virus," Melamed added.

For the findings, published in the journal JAMA, the researchers examined the relationships between COVID-19 infection and neighbourhood characteristics in 396 women who gave birth during the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak in New York City. Since March 22, all women admitted to the hospitals for delivery have been tested for the virus, which gave the researchers the opportunity to detect all infections -- including infections with no symptoms -- in a defined population

The strongest predictor of COVID-19 infection among these women was residence in a neighbourhood where households with many people are common.The findings showed that women who lived in a neighbourhood with high household membership were three times more likely to be infected with the virus. Neighbourhood poverty also appeared to be a factor, the researchers said.Women were twice as likely to get COVID-19 if they lived in neighbourhoods with a high poverty rate, although that relationship was not statistically significant due to the small sample size.

The study revealed that there was no association between infection and population density.

"New York City has the highest population density of any city in the US, but our study found that the risks are related more to density in people's domestic environments rather than density in the city or within neighbourhoods," says co-author Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman."

The knowledge that SARS-CoV-2 infection rates are higher in disadvantaged neighbourhoods and among people who live in crowded households could help public health officials target preventive measures," the authors wrote.

Recently, another study published in the Journal of the American Planning Association, showed that dense areas were associated with lower COVID-19 death rates.

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Agencies
March 11,2020

With the sales of chicken and mutton going down due to the coronavirus scare, it is the humble 'Kathal' (jackfruit) is emerging as an acceptable alternative.

'Kathal' is now selling at ₹120 per kilogram -- an increase of more than 120 per cent over the normal ₹50 per kilogram.

The jackfruit, in fact, is now priced higher than chicken which is selling at ₹80 per kilogram due to poor demand.

"It is better having a 'Kathal' biryani instead of a mutton biryani. It tastes reasonably good. The only problem is that 'Kathal' has been sold out in the vegetable market and is difficult to find," said Purnima Srivastava whose family savours non-vegetarian food on a regular basis.

The corona scare has hit poultry business so hard and the Poultry Farm Association recently organized a Chicken Mela in Gorakhpur to dispel the misconception that birds are carriers of the deadly virus.

"In fact, we gave away plateful of chicken dishes for Rs 30 to encourage people to savour the delicacies. We cooked one thousand kilograms of chicken for the Mela and the entire stock was sold out," said Vineet Singh, head of the Poultry Farm Association.

However, the Mela did not do much to dispel the fears about chicken, mutton or fish consumption amid the virus outbreak.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

Washington, Aug 2: Children under the age of five have between 10 to 100 times greater levels of genetic material of the coronavirus in their noses compared to older children and adults, a study in JAMA Pediatrics said Thursday.

Its authors wrote this meant that young children might be important drivers of Covid-19 transmission within communities -- a suggestion at odds with the current prevailing narrative.

The paper comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump is pushing hard for schools and daycare to reopen in order to kickstart the economy.

Between March 23 and April 27, researchers carried out nasal swab tests on 145 Chicago patients with mild to moderate illness within one week of symptom onset.

The patients were divided into three groups: 46 children younger than five-years-old, 51 children aged five to 17 years, and 48 adults aged 18 to 65 years.

The team, led by Dr Taylor Heald-Sargent of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, observed, "a 10-fold to 100-fold greater amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract of young children."

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The authors added that a recent lab study had demonstrated that the more viral genetic material was present, the more infectious virus could be grown.

It has also previously been shown that children with high viral loads of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are more likely to spread the disease.

"Thus, young children can potentially be important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 spread in the general population," the authors wrote.

"Behavioral habits of young children and close quarters in school and daycare settings raise concern for SARS-CoV-2 amplification in this population as public health restrictions are eased," they concluded.

The new findings are at odds with the current view among health authorities that young children -- who, it has been well established, are far less likely to fall seriously ill from the virus -- don't spread it much to others either.

However, there has been fairly little research on the topic so far.

One recent study in South Korea found children aged 10 to 19 transmitted Covid-19 within households as much as adults, but children under nine transmitted the virus at lower rates.

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