The Centers for Disease Control reports that an estimated 16 percent of children ages 6 to 19 are overweight as determined by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 1999-2002. That’s a 45 percent increase from the 1988-94 survey.

Clearly, the alarming reality of booming childhood obesity rates is well publicized, but even those not up on all the news reports can see the epidemic at shopping malls, playgrounds and schools.

Despite a high level of awareness, the challenge of helping kids make the necessary lifestyle changes to fight the battle of the bulge remains an ominous task. Educated parents can exercise much control in the toddler, preschool and early elementary years, but perhaps most challenging and at risk are those with a greater level of independence.

With pots boiling, ovens baking and skillets sizzling, Thanksgiving can be a hazardous day in the kitchen.

So much so, in fact, that the National Fire Protection Association says that with so many more people cooking on Thanksgiving than on a typical day, Americans are twice as likely to have a home fire on the holiday than any other day of the year.

“We want the dinner to come off well,” says John Drengenberg, the consumer safety director at the Northbrook-based Underwriters Laboratories, a product safety testing organization. “We want to dazzle friends and relatives, but you have to think about safety. A fire in your kitchen doesn’t dazzle anybody.”

NWI Parent Blog—Rick Kaempfer’s business card says author/writer/blogger, but his real job is “stay-at-home-dad.”

My mother never swears…at least not intentionally.

She has a great excuse when she slips, too. She grew up in Germany, and she was never formally schooled in English. Her English is pretty good considering, but every now and then she’ll use a phrase completely incorrectly, or she’ll slip into half-German, half-English, and inadvertently say something hilarious, obscene, or both.

In our family, we call this “pulling a Hildegard.”

Continue reading Rick’s latest post here on his “Father Knows Nothing” blog.

NWI Parent Blog—Stephanie is a stay-at-home mom to three boys and a baby girl, but don’t let that fool you. She’ll keep you in style and in-the-know with reviews on the latest products and services you’ll use, with a little bit of life thrown in.

It has been weeks maybe MONTHS since everyone in our house was healthy. It’s one cold after flu after pink eye after bronchitis after the other. It seems ALL we’ve been eating is soup. Which is ok with me because I LOVE SOUP.

Like, I think about it and I think, I love soup! Could it be the perfect food?

When I’m up for it, I love to make a huge pot of copycat Olive Garden minestrone. I make this all the time. And mine is better than Olive Garden’s. But I haven’t really felt like chopping up all those veggies and stuff lately so we’ve been eating mostly canned.

Continue reading Stephanie’s latest post here on her “Close to Home” blog.

Construction to include dorm renovation, recreation center

About 18 years ago, Gavin Mariano ran away from the verbal abuse and gang activity in his East Chicago home to the Gary’s Crisis Center in the Miller Beach area.

“I knew it wasn’t the life I wanted,” said Mariano, now 35. “I needed to make a drastic change.” That was 1991. Today the center helps more than 400 youths each year, and Mariano said it is about to evolve even more.

Construction of a $2.5-million expansion project to renovate the Crisis Center’s boys’ dormitory and build an indoor recreation area will begin today. The Crisis Center offers emergency shelter, counseling and early intervention services to youth, as well as community services to adults and seniors.

When the news media broadcasts stories about the medical concern of the day, Dr. Crystal Strickland readies herself for questions she will face in her Portage and Valparaiso offices in the coming days.

One of the things on parents’ minds lately is the Gardasil vaccine to protect against the human papilloma virus (HPV). The vaccine protects against two of the high risk subtypes of HPV that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers and two lower risk types that cause genital warts. HPV is passed through sexual contact. In 2006, the FDA approved the Gardasil vaccine, manufactured by Merck & Co., for girls ages 9 to 26.

Northwest Indiana youth who are interested in the arts were well represented on a national level this past fall. On September 21, 2009, Kay Wuchner Marcus, chairperson of NWI’s “Leap into the Arts” committee, found herself appearing on the Today show in New York City.

Kay stood outside the taping of the show holding a sign promoting Leap into the Arts, when she met personable weatherman Al Roker, who posed for a picture with her.

School also a choice for some parents who want to avoid bad influences

If it weren’t for Campagna Academy Charter School, a number of students who have not been successful in a traditional public school would not have other local options.

The Office of Charter Schools at Ball State University, which has authorized 34 charter schools in the state, renewed Campagna’s charter in April for three years. The only school that’s similar to Campagna in the state is Options Charter School in Carmel and Noblesville.

Bruce Hillman, Campagna’s chief executive officer and superintendent, said the school’s population has changed. Of 127 students in grades nine through 12, 76 percent are from the community, and 24 percent were placed there through the court system.

Your teenager may need more sleep than you think

You’ve seen that sleepy teen waiting at the bus stop with bleary eyes and shoulders slumped, looking as though she’s just been yanked out of bed. An extra hour in the sack would be a luxury, but lack of sleep goes much deeper than that. Sleep deprivation in teens is a serious issue.

“Sleep deprivation is one of the biggest issues facing teens and teen functioning,” says Tanya Gesek, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and professor at Syracuse University in the psychology department. “Many teens are misdiagnosed with significant mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, ADHD and others, when the culprit is simply a lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation impacts attention and arousal, two key components in academic engagement, which is important for overall achievement.”

Sleep Habits

Dr. Gesek says teens on average require 8 to 10 hours of sleep, much more than adults. This is because brains do not stop developing until we are in our mid 20s, and sleep helps that process along.

My good friend just found out she is pregnant with a boy. It is her first child, and instead of celebrating the good news, she cried during her ultrasound.

That’s because she really wanted a girl.

Good mothers are supposed to say they are happy with a boy or a girl, as long as the baby is healthy. But gender disappointment is a very real and heartbreaking issue that affects many pregnant women.