Sunday, November 21, 2010

(A-6) "PRETTY POISONS" SHOULD WORRY PARENTS

Note: Scroll down the right margin to Code "(A-6) Pretty Poisons" for free videos and free articles on this topic.

Dear Mr. Morton- Last year you wrote a column about “pretty poisons” and how dangerous they were to preschool children. Please update that column. I will tape it to my refrigerator door as a reminder. - L.W.

Dear L.W. - Poison control centers receive over two million calls annually asking for help on how to treat possible poisonings. Fifty-three percent involve children under age 6, many at the toddler stage. Not surprising, 92 percent of all poisonings occur in the home. Unintentional poisonings from medicines and household chemicals kill over 30 children per year and the experts mention three very important steps parents can take:
1. Use child-resistant packaging because it saves lives;
2. keep medicines and household chemicals should be locked up out of reach and out of sight of young children because some children can open child-resistant packaging; and
3. place the poison control center number next to your telephone and call immediately if a poisoning occurs (1-800-222-1222).


Toddlers have an incomplete schema of the world. Ever since they overcame gravity and began to explore the household on foot, they began to get into trouble with "pretty poisons". To show how easily they may be unintentionally poison themselves, here’s some official cases from the Northern Ohio Poison Center: “mistaking a round, green can of Comet bleach for Parmesan cheese, vitamin or prescription drug pills for sweet candy, colorful and sweet-smelling liquid soap or lamp kerosene for pop, ammonia/rubbing alcohol for water, E-Lax Chocolate laxatives for Hershey’s Chocolate bars, colored lamp oil for cranberry juice, mothballs for mini-marshmallows, Pine-Sol for apple juice, windshield washer fluid for Blue Punch/Kool Aid”…the list is endless!

The video below is an excellent broadcast about how manufacturers want their "poisonous" products to look pretty on the store shelf. No more ungly, black skull & crossbones on the label anymore!





The consequences for toddlers ingesting such “pretty poisons” are serious since the poisons have a rapid effect due to the smaller body size and quicker metabolism rate. Perhaps, toddlers shouldn’t be told that medicine is candy or manufacturers shouldn’t make medicines taste so good.


It's amazing, but the top two states for mercury emissions are Texas and Ohio, respectively. Click HERE to read about this neuro-toxin which accounts for thousands of babies being born with neurological and brain disorders.


Robert Morton, M.Ed., Ed.S., has retired from his positions of school psychologist and adjunct professor in the School of Leadership & Policy Studies at BGSU. Questions about family, parenting, personal or educational issues? Contact him at the secure Bpath Mail Form . To visit the national FAMILY JOURNAL column, click HERE

Monday, November 15, 2010

(A-5) TOO MUCH TV HARMS CHILDREN


Dear Mr. Morton- My son Timmy, age 3, watches too much TV and wants all the stuff peddled in the ads. Is this bad?-
Mom
Dear Mom- Yes. The experts tell us Timmy will be watching TV 45 minutes per day. In the early primary grades, his TV time will jump to 3 hours per day, and by 7th grade, he'll spend 4 hours a day in front of the tube.



Between the time he starts first grade to when he graduates from high school, he'll spend 16,000 hours viewing TV programs conjured up by only 400 Hollywood writers and producers. The flamboyant lifestyles this small Hollywood clan enjoys depend on money advertisers pay them, and they will fabricate shows for Timmy that are full of hype, designed to lure him away from other things he could be doing. Before high school graduation, Timmy will be an onlooker to 200,000 acts of violence, including 40,000 murders.



TV advertisers view Timmy as a "Super Consumer." They know that he has no money, but that you do. Before he's 11 years old, he’ll view 20,000 TV commercials, many pressuring him to buy, or ask mom and dad, to buy a product. Advertisers know how to appeal to Timmy, since they hire child psychologists to tell them how children think. After age 11, the average American child sees about 40,000 television commercials every year. Companies target younger viewers all the time, selling everything from sugar cereals to minivans, and cross-promotional marketing influences everything from the food stocked in school vending machines to the characters who appear in children’s books.


In fact, young children are requesting specific brands as soon as they can talk. American corporations spend over $15 billion yearly on marketing to children in an effort to cultivate nagging, insatiable, “cradle-to-grave” consumers. The experts tell us that your Timmy will be a regular TV viewer before he enters Kindergarten in several years and that he will spend many more hours in school (7,400 hours before entering 7th grade) learning reading word attack, reading comprehension, math computation, math reasoning, and written expression skills. These skills won't be easy to learn and will take an active effort by Timmy to master. But, TV is a passive activity, a pastime that clashes with the alert action required to master the "3 R's."

So, my answer is “yes“ due to the long-term impact TV has on today’s toddlers and their future learning.


ClickN KIDS Teaching KIDS to READ One Click at a Time
Robert Morton, M.Ed., Ed.S. has retired from his positions of School Psychologist and adjunct professor in the School of Leadership & Policy Studies at Bowling Green State Univeristy. A portion of Ad sale revenue from this site is donated to Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. Questions? Comment? Concerns about family, parenting, educational or personal concerns? Contact him on the secure Bpath Mail Form.