November 15th, 2009 by Nancy Brown, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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As a parent, sometimes it is hard to know how our teens perceive us. We all want to be there for our children and have a great relationship with each of them, but sometimes they might not perceive our actions the same way we intend them to, so here is what a group of teens have to say about the perfect relationship with a parent. Just food for thought.
The perfect parent would …
- Male, age 18: Listen. Everything else hinges upon listening.
- Female, age 17: Be open to talk and understand me.
- Male, age 17: Talk, express what they want and show affection, not think affection is understood, or a given. Read more »
This post, Teens Describe Their Ideal Realtionship With A Parent, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..
November 13th, 2009 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Opinion
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By Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD
If asked what a doctor does, most people would probably come up with the standard description of diagnosing and treating disease, usually while wearing an ill-fitting white coat. Before I entered practice, even during my medical training that probably would have been my answer too.
But my years in the trenches of real medicine have altered that definition greatly. I do spend time doing the things I learned in medical school like diagnosing disease and writing prescriptions, but that turns out to be only a part of the job, often a very small part.
Much of the time I find myself acting as sounding board. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
November 13th, 2009 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News
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French and German scientists decided to analyze the crying of newborns from the two countries for differences in intonation. Turns out that German babies have a different “accent” to their cry compared with those from France, which implies that language learning perhaps begins even in the womb.
The analysis of crying conducted under the supervision of the psychologist Kathleen Wermke from the ZWES showed that the newborns tended to produce the intonation pattern most typical for their respective mother tongue. The crying patterns of the German infants mostly began loud and high and followed a falling curve while the French infants more often cried with a rising tone. This early sensitivity to features of intonation may later help the infants learn their mother tongue, the researchers say. “When they begin to form their first sounds, they can build on melodic patterns that are already familiar and, in this way, don’t have to start from scratch”, says the neuropsychologist. The evolutionary roots of this behaviour are older than the emergence of spoken language, the researchers believe. “The imitation of melodic patterns developed over millions of years and contributes to the mother-child bond” says Friederici.
Press release: Babies with an accent …
Abstract in Current Biology: Newborns’ Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native Language…
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
November 13th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Humor, Opinion
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What’s the deal with hospital stickers these days? I found this sticker laying around in Happy’s emergency department the other day. Should we be encouraging children to come to the emergency room and feeling happy and excited about the sticker they get? I’m not sure putting a happy robot on a sticker and proclaiming ones exciting visit to the emergency is the best public health policy. Perhaps we need to take a different course of action before another entire generation of citizens feel obliged to use the emergency department as their sole source of medical care. Perhaps instead of a hospital sticker, children in the emergency room would all get a saline injection in their shoulder. Now that’s the kind of memory you want kids to have of their emergency room visit. They should fear the hospital and do everything in their power to stay healthy as adults. Not feel giddy about happy robots on hospital stickers.
Do children get hospital stickers at your facility?
*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*
November 9th, 2009 by Nancy Brown, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
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My heart is going out to teens these days, especially in my high-achieving community. It seems school districts and parents alike have lost the sense that “average” is really OK, and in some cases, much healthier than “above average.”
An emotional goal of adolescence is to answer the question “who am I” acquiring self-certainty as opposed to self-consciousness and self-doubt. Most teens approach life expecting to succeed and achieve their goals rather than being paralyzed by feelings of inferiority. On a normal path, adolescents seek out people who inspire them and gradually develop a set of ideals and goals for their future. This is all perfectly normal, and if all goes well, teens become young women and young men who believe they can do whatever they set their minds to and are willing to work hard enough for. This process gets stunted if the expectations set for them are unreasonable. Read more »
This post, All Teens Under Pressure To Be Above Average, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..
