Thanks for the Mammaries: Prolonged Breastfeeding Impacts Intelligence to Age 30, Says Lancet.

Posted on March 18, 2015 by GREG

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The link between prolonged breastfeeding and intelligence is well-established but this study, published in the esteemed British medical journal, The Lancet, is the first to show just how long the advantages given to children through extended nursing continues to impact their development.

“Our study provides the first evidence that prolonged breastfeeding not only increases intelligence until at least the age of 30 years but also has an impact both at an individual and societal level by improving educational attainment and earning ability. What is unique about this study is the fact that, in the population we studied, breastfeeding was not more common among highly educated, high-income women, but was evenly distributed by social class. Previous studies from developed countries have been criticized for failing to disentangle the effect of breastfeeding from that of socioeconomic advantage, but our work addresses this issue for the first time….”

This was huge, very well-designed study examining 3500 newborns over the course of 30 years.

“….While the study showed increased adult intelligence, longer schooling, and higher adult earnings at all duration levels of breastfeeding, the longer a child was breastfed for (up to 12 months), the greater the magnitude of the benefits. For example, an infant who had been breastfed for at least a year gained a full four IQ points (about a third of a standard deviation above the average), had 0.9 years more schooling (about a quarter of a standard deviation above the average), and a higher income of 341 reais per month (equivalent to about one third of the average income level) at the age of 30 years, compared to those breastfed for less than one month.” READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

In Parenting with Grace and its companion for parents of infants and toddlers, Then Comes Baby, my wife and I show how the Theology of the Body reveals God’s plan for parenting. Pope St John Paul the Great taught that by studying and prayerfully reflecting on God’s design of the body we could learn a great deal about his plan for relationships. The more we are willing to learn from the theology of our biology, the more we are able to receive all the benefits God wants to give us that enable us to live life as a gift. Extraordinarily well-designed studies like this give empirical weight to the theological claims made by Pope St John Paul the Great. By opening their hearts to both the Theology of the Body and the science that reveals the theology of our biology, we can give our children all the gifts God wants to convey to them through us and enable them to grow into men and women who can glorify God in every aspect of their lives.

Hugs Can’t Fix Anxiety Caused by Physical Punishment, Study Shows.

Posted on March 17, 2015 by GREG

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A new study by Duke University published in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology shows that being loving after administering corporal punishment tends not to ease a child’s anxiety and may, in fact, make it worse.

A loving mom can’t overcome the anxiety and aggression caused by corporal punishment, and her otherwise warm demeanor may make it worse, according to research led by Duke University that was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology….[Researchers] interviewed more than 1,000 children and their mothers, from eight different countries, asking about levels of physical punishment and also about anxiety and aggressive behavior on the part of the children.

“…Generally, childhood anxiety actually gets worse when parents are very loving alongside using corporate punishment,” she wrote. The researchers aren’t sure why, but she said it might be “simply too confusing and unnerving for a child to be hit hard and loved warmly all in the same home.” READ MORE

The article goes on to say, “It’s far more effective and less risky to use nonphysical discipline,” Janet Lansbury, a Los Angeles parent educator, told the Deseret News recently for a story on effective nonphysical discipline. “Discipline means ‘to teach,’ not ‘punishment.’ “

This is actually the position Lisa and I take in Parenting with Grace. The ways most parents approach discipline just makes their work harder. Good behavior doesn’t spontaneously erupt when bad behavior is sufficiently punished. If children are misbehaving, it is either because they don’t have the skills to behave properly in that context OR they don’t have the ability to access those skills in that situation for some reason. In Parenting with Grace, we show parents how gentle, skill-building techniques enable them to both set higher standards and achieve those standards more easily than they would be able to with more physical/punitive approaches to discipline.

The bottom line is that the more parents use methods that respect the dignity of the child, the integrity of the parent-child relationship, and that teach skills as opposed to punishing missteps, the happier parents and children are, the healthier their family life will be, and the more well-behaved their children will ultimately become.

“Dear Gay Community, Your Kids are Hurting”

Posted on March 17, 2015 by GREG

This is a power letter from a young woman, raised by two women, who was a former gay marriage activist and is now a children’s rights advocate and mom of 4.

Image via Shutterstock. Used with permission.

“….Kids of divorced parents are allowed to say, “Hey, mom and dad, I love you, but the divorce crushed me and has been so hard. It shattered my trust and made me feel like it was my fault. It is so hard living in two different houses.” Kids of adoption are allowed to say, “Hey, adoptive parents, I love you. But this is really hard for me. I suffer because my relationship with my first parents was broken. I’m confused and I miss them even though I’ve never met them.”

But children of same-sex parents haven’t been given the same voice. It’s not just me. There are so many of us. Many of us are too scared to speak up and tell you about our hurt and pain, because for whatever reason it feels like you’re not listening. That you don’t want to hear. If we say we are hurting because we were raised by same-sex parents, we are either ignored or labeled a hater.” READ The Rest Here.

Don’t Think NFP is Effective? Advertisers KNOW It Is–“Bio-Marketing” Can Remotely Monitor Fertility Data to Increase Sales

Posted on March 4, 2015 by GREG

This blew my mind–and not in a good way.

“In the creepy brave new world of marketing, a woman who logs onto Facebook during her fertile phase can expect to be barraged by ads for new consumer products that are absent on non-fertile days. It is not happening yet, but it is technically possible and it is hard to see who has the power to stop it.”

Aldous Huxley? Meet Don Draper.

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Dr. Nigel Barber, an evolutionary psychologist who writes at Psychology Today describes new research that shows how and why advertisers could access and use a woman’s fertility signs (via health monitoring apps) to developed fertility cycle-based targeted marketing campaigns. Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Barber’s piece…

“…University of Texas marketing researchers Kristina Durante and Ashley Rae Arsena found that women are also flightier in respect to choices of a variety of consumer products from candy bars or lipstick colors to high-heeled shoes. They opt to try 15 to 20 percent more products when fertile(link is external) compared to the low-fertility phase of the cycle.

This is not a huge difference, but it might help a new consumer brand for women to get an edge against established brands. From a marketing perspective, the fertile phase of the cycle is a time not just to introduce new products but to offer women premium brands at a time when they are most likely to trade up. Hence, the buzz amongst marketers.

We are accustomed to being tracked on the Internet by scores of companies who collect our data. Now these big-data operations are trying to link our online keystrokes with what is happening inside our bodies.

How is this even possible? One source of vulnerability is the growing popularity of wearables, such as physical activity monitors and smart watches that connect to the Internet. Some of these devices automatically record health data, such as pulse rate and temperature. As users of the “rhythm” method of birth control know, temperature rises during ovulation, giving the marketers one good clue to a woman’s reproductive condition. Some women volunteer information about their reproductive condition by using cell phone apps that track their menstrual cycle.

In the creepy brave new world of marketing, a woman who logs onto Facebook during her fertile phase can expect to be barraged by ads for new consumer products that are absent on non-fertile days. It is not happening yet, but it is technically possible and it is hard to see who has the power to stop it.“ READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE.

UPDATE: POPCAK NOTE: People are writing to take me to task for referring to NFP as the “rhythm method” I DID NOT WRITE THIS ARTICLE. It says so in the bolded section above. This is an excerpt from a larger article by Dr. Nigel Barber at Psychology Today. I didn’t call it the rhythm method. He did. I too look forward to the day that secular writers don’t confuse the two.

Helping Your Kids Deal with Anger

Posted on March 3, 2015 by GREG

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Parents often struggle to deal effectively with their children’s anger. We either tend to respond by coddling them when they tantrum or shutting them down. Of course, neither response is effective and both responses tend to produce angrier more impulsive kids.

Of course, an important part of raising moral, loving, faithful kids is teaching our children to manage all of their emotional reactions in more godly, appropriate ways. In Parenting with Grace and Then Comes Baby, we offer a ton of strategies for dealing with tantrums and angry outburst in respectful and effective ways but here’s a great article from PsychCentral on how parents can teach their children how to manage anger appropriately. By all means go and read the whole thing, but here are some tips to get you started.

helping him understand what triggers his anger
teaching him about symptoms of being angry (such as feeling tense in his body, having a fast heartbeat, thinking about wanting to hit a sibling, etc.)
teaching your child to make healthy and appropriate choices as soon as possible when he becomes angry (such as walking away, taking deep breathes, etc.)
creating a tool box with your child of ways he can calm himself down
identifying his strengths and building on them
rearranging the environment and/or restructuring his daily schedule to better suit his true self (such as by placing less demands on him after school if your child would do better by having a break after school, although this does not mean to let him get out of responsibilities)
modeling healthy responses to anger
identifying what makes your child calm, happy, and feeling great and then put more of those things into his life (be sure to have him be involved in the process as much as possible as well as take on ownership and control of implementing these strategies)
work on problem-solving skills
practice stress-management skills together (such as doing exercise, getting enough sleep, learning progressive muscle relaxation, doing hobbies, etc.)

Anger, like all of our emotions, is a gift from God but we need to be taught how to use it. These tips can give parents some great ways to help their children express their anger in respectful and appropriate ways. When that happens, children feel heard, parents feel respected, and everybody wins!