Treating impoverished First Nations patients is a surprisingly lucrative enterprise for the country’s dentists, with the six highest-billing practitioners receiving more than $1-million a year from Health Canada, according to government figures the National Post obtained.

Subtracting the 60% of dental billings typically spent on staff salaries and other overhead, the top 25 billers would earn personal income from work on aboriginal patients of about $200,000 to $640,000 a year, the Health Canada statistics suggest. The average full-time dentist in Canada makes $142,000 a year.

The figures, released under the Access to Information Act, come as the cost of dental care for aboriginals — who suffer from sky-high rates of dental decay — climbs swiftly, with spending on the program jumping more than 9% per capita in 2009-10.

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New Zealand's internet watchdog is telling parents to warn their children about online dangers after TV ONE's Close Up tracked down men preying on a fictitious 14-year-old girl for sex.

A Close Up reporter confronted men in parkland and other Auckland locations after they made sexually explicit comments to a fictitious 14-year-old in an online chatroom, and arranged to meet. A Close Up producer set himself up as a 14-year-old on a chatsite commonly used by young people.

Men were quick to make contact, with sexually explicit suggestions and requests. Executive director of Netsafe Martin Crocker told Close Up everybody should be concerned and worried about the risks online.

"If our children go on the internet then they are potentially going to be exposed to these sorts of people," he said. "That's the case for all children and they all go on the internet. So they're all going going to be exposed. "There's conversations that we as parents need to have with our children. We're having to have them at younger and younger ages because the internet is exposing quite young children to some of these risks."

Crocker said he thinks parents are probably putting off the conversation with their children about internet risks "just a little too long generally". He said: "But you just have to have that conversation now."Unfortunately there's no technological solution to the problem, he said, because access to the internet is everywhere. "You can't sort of say 'we'll just put the computer in the living room' or something like that anymore. They can get on anywhere."

No surprises
Crocker said the scale of the responses from men to the "girl" in the chatroom doesn't surprise him. "That's what the internet does. It gives people the opportunity to fish around and look for potential victims, and so there are a lot of people doing  that unfortunately."

He said as soon as somebody travels for the purpose of having sex with a minor, they have broken the law, so all five of the men in the story broke the law. A young woman posed as a 14-year-old for face-to-face meetings with the men.

Confronted by Close Up, one of the men said: "I wasn't going to take her anywhere in the house or nothing. We were going to have an ice cream and that was it."In the online chat he had asked how long the ice cream would take because he had other plans, and asked would she have sex with him. "They get on the internet, have a conversation with you and lead you on," the man told Close Up.

'Bullet proof' attitude
However, Detective Senior Sergeant John-Paul Michael of the police team Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand told the programme police have not encountered young girls leading men on. Michael said young girls can think they are "ten foot tall and bullet proof" and the internet is a great place.

"But if you put personal information out there, if you put photos out there people can get those. And we've had cases in Australia and in the UK where young women have been murdered after meeting people through social networking sites."Michael said police warn about the internet risk time and time again but it does not seem to get through.

"So as law enforcement we get a little bit frustrated thinking how often to we have to give this warning before it gets through. Does it take the death of someone before it gets through? We would hate to see that happen."Close Up is passing complete recordings made with the online predators to the police for their follow-up.  Crocker said for advice on the issue, parents or teenagers can visit the Netsafe website. Netsafe works in conjunction with the police to fight cybercrime.

If somebody witnesses an online crime or is the victim of one, they can visit theorb.org.nz to report the crime and it will then it will be forwarded to a law enforcement agency. Crocker has encouraged people to come forward "otherwise people will continue to get away with it and there will be more and more victims".

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Kids might be at higher risk for obesity if dad is overweight, a study suggests.Other studies have shown an association between two overweight parents and higher weight in their children, and weight relationships between fathers and sons and mothers and daughters. Researchers in this study, published in the January issue of the International Journal of Obesity, measured the height and weight of children from 3,285 two-parent families in Australia in 2004, when the children were ages 4 and 5, and again in 2008 when they were ages 8 and 9.

Parents self-reported their weight at the same points and were divided into three categories of weight according to their body mass index: healthy, overweight and obese.

Having an overweight father and a healthy-weight mother increased the odds of the child becoming obese four years later by 318%. Having a father who was obese increased the odds to 1,388%. But having a healthy-weight father and an overweight or obese mother did not significantly predict that the child would be obese.

Also, having two parents who were overweight was a predictor of the child becoming overweight, compared with having two healthy-weight parents. Having two obese parents was an even stronger predictor of obesity than having two overweight parents.

"The results from this study," the authors wrote, "provide evidence of the important role that fathers have in the development of children's weight status and this has consequences for their long-term health outcomes." Interventions are needed, they added, to see if helping overweight dads lose weight is effective in preventing childhood obesity.

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The junk food sold at schools does not appear to contribute to middle schoolers' weight gains, a new study says. In the study, no link was found between children's weight gain and the amount of time between fifth and eighth grade they attended schools that sold junk food, the researchers said. Even transferring from a school that did not sell junk food to one that did did not increase a child's likelihood of gaining weight. The findings suggest that efforts to combat childhood obesity might best be aimed at parents and the foods available at home and outside of school.

"If we really want to address the child obesity epidemic, we can't solely focus on schools," said study researcher Jennifer Van Hook, a professor of sociology and demography at Pennsylvania State University. "Schools only represent a small portion of children’s food environment," Van Hook said.
However, experts say the study does not provide the final word on school junk food and obesity. And regardless of their ultimate impact, the food sold in schools should reinforce the messages of healthy eating that kids are learning in the classroom, said Nancy Copperman, director of public health initiatives at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, N.Y. "You'd want to have an environment that was supportive of what they were learning" about healthy eating, Copperman said.

Junk food for sale
While previous studies have looked at the link between food sold in school and childhood weight gain, the new study is the first that includes a nationally representative sample of kids and follows them over time.

The study followed 19,450 children in the United States as they progressed from fifth to eight grade. Children could change schools while in the study, but their new school had to be in the same county.
Administrators at the schools provided researchers with information on whether "competitive foods," or foods that are sold in competition with the National School Lunch Program, were available at the school through vending machines, snack bars or a la carte. Such foods included junk food, such as soda and candy bars, as well as healthy food, such as nonfat yogurt and bottled water. Between fifth and eighth grade, the percentage of students who attended schools that offered competitive foods increased from 59.2 percent to 86.3 percent.

Children who moved into middle schools that offered competitive foods were no more likely to gain or lose weight than children who attended schools that did not offer competitive foods. In addition, children who moved out of schools that sold competitive food were no more likely to gain or lose weight than children who remained at schools that sold competitive foods.

The findings held even after the researchers took into account factors that could affect the results, including the students' age, gender, ethnicity, family-income level and the schools' revenue.
The biggest factor influencing children's weight in middle school was how much they weighed when they were younger, according to the study.

Comprehensive nutrition
While the study was rigorous, it did not look at what the children were actually choosing to eat at the schools, Copperman said. Future studies should assess whether the introduction of vending machines at schools changes kids' eating habits, Copperman said.

In addition, while a single factor, such as getting rid of competitive foods at schools, might not make a big difference in terms of a child's weight, it might have a greater influence when added as part of a larger nutrition education program, Copperman said. "A lot of times when you just take one thing by itself and you don’t put it in to a comprehensive program, you don’t find a lot of effects," Copperman said.

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Parents are dumping their children at indoor play centres so they can go shopping or to avoid the soaring cost of day care, according to a Herald Sun investigation. The paper says police are being called in every week after children were found unsupervised at play areas across Victoria.

Centre staff say the problem is worse during school holidays. 'I would say one in five parents try to sneak off,' said Docklands Monkey Mania centre supervisor Lesley Salazar. At least four centres have contacted police and the Department of Human Services because children were left alone for several hours.

Ms Salazar said supervised care was available, but many parents still risked their children's safety. 'It is a big liability issue,' she said. 'We are not meant to be responsible, the parents are, but if something happens we will be blamed.'

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An authoritative annual report on the status of school education in India has confirmed the bad news from the international PISA ratings last month. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011, prepared by the NGO Pratham, shows that both reading and arithmetic abilities — already disappointing — have further worsened since last year.

The report was released by Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal today. The PISA ratings put Indian children at the bottom of the global heap in the test of scholastic performance.

The all-India figure for the proportion of children in Class 5 able to read a Class 2 text has dropped from 53.7% in 2010 to 48.2% in 2011, shows ASER. The decline is most pronounced in the northern states. Gujarat, Punjab and Tamil Nadu have, however, improved since 2010.

The fall in arithmetic abilities is seen across all states. Nationally, the proportion of Class 3 children able to solve a 2-digit subtraction problem with borrowing has dropped from 36.3% in 2010 to 29.9% in 2011. Among Class 5 children, the ability to do similar subtraction problems has dropped from 70.9% in 2010 to 61.0% in 2011.

Sibal called for a “proactive” role from states, saying the responsibility of education lay “squarely on their shoulders”. The Pratham report, however, shows improvement in enrolment levels. A total 96.7% of 6-14-year-olds in rural India are now enrolled in school, and the dropout rate has been arrested considerably.

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Breastfeeding babies could be crankier than bottle-fed babies, and new mothers should be informed this heightened irritability is natural, a new study by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in Cambridge, England suggested.

In the MRC Epidemiology Unit's cohort (or panel) study of 316 three-month-old babies, mothers reported their breastfed babies cried more and were harder to comfort than babies who were bottle-fed formula, but the researchers concluded these temperament differences were due to different mother and child communication dynamics, and women breastfeeding extra-cranky babies should not become discouraged and switch to bottle-feeding, fearing their babies must be nutritionally stressed, the BBC reported about the findings published in the online journal PLoS One.

Digital Journal reported in September 2010 and February 2011 on earlier studies that showed formula-fed babies and babies switched from breastfeeding to bottle-feeding early were more likely to become obese later in life.

Ken Ong, MRC pediatrician and lead author of the study that was designed to highlight associations but not prove causality, explained why his team's findings suggest new mothers dealing with difficult infant behaviors should be given more information and support, so fewer give up breastfeeding after only a few weeks:

According to the MRC team, the Department of Health recommends exclusive breastfeeding of newborns for six months, but the 2005 Infant Feeding Survey indicated three-quarters of new UK mothers begin breastfeeding, but only a third keep it up longer than four months.

The most common reason the surveyed mothers gave for stopping was, “Breast milk alone didn't satisfy my baby."But irritability is not a negative signal or sign of inadequate nutrition, and is instead a natural feature of the more complex dynamic signaling going on between breastfeeding babies and their mothers, Ong and his team wrote.

In related news, Digital Journal reported in April 2011 about the controversy stirred up the United States over a doll that simulates breastfeeding, marketed as a tool for teaching children "nurturing skills they’ll need to raise their own healthy babies in the future," including encouraging breastfeeding their future babies, according to the manufacturer.

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Most Canadian parents want to devote more time to helping educate their children, but many aren’t taking advantage of moments during routine tasks to share their knowledge, a new poll suggests. The Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of ABC Life Literacy Canada interviewed more than 1,000 parents between the ages of 18 and 55. Findings revealed that 62 per cent of parents polled agreed that they don’t have as much time as they’d like to spend helping their kids learn.

The survey found 70 per cent of respondents agree that they are their child’s best teacher – a feeling even stronger among those with little ones at home. And 63 per cent disagree with the statement that the primary place for a child to learn is at school, not home.

Reading was the most common activity parents were likely to engage in with their children daily, followed by helping with homework, playing games, using a computer, writing stories or visiting a library.

Yet while many parents yearn for more time to devote to helping educate their kids, few are making use of opportunities during daily activities to engage youngsters in teachable moments.

For example, while 14 per cent said they always use paying their bills as a learning opportunity for their children, most never (27 cent) or rarely (28 per cent) use the occasion as a teachable moment.

As for cooking or baking, 27 per cent of respondents say they always use the time while whipping up a dish as a learning moment for their kids — signifying that the majority do not.

Kids can learn about matching, measurement and colours while parents do laundry, but only 19 per cent of parents surveyed said they always use the household chore as a teachable moment.

“We know that people are pressed for time, so what we’re suggesting is take a look at the activities that you participate in with your families and see that there are inherent learning moments within those activities that you can engage with your child and enjoy,” said Margaret Eaton, president of ABC Life Literacy Canada.

Eaton said discussing the day’s news events or what was read online earlier in the day can help improve kids’ vocabulary and get them thinking about and sharing opinions on issues.

Getting children to look at a frozen pizza box for baking instructions encourages them to find information — another key literacy skill, she noted.

A possible factor in parents missing the chance to translate daily activities into teaching moments could be that some parents aren’t wholly confident when it comes to teaching their kids about particular subjects. While 69 per cent of those polled said they were very confident in teaching their child to read, 26 per cent said they were only somewhat confident and five per cent said they weren’t confident.

It was a similar story when it came to writing, with 59 per cent expressing being very confident in teaching those skills, 33 per cent being someone confident and eight per cent being not confident.

Findings of a separate survey for ABC Life Literacy Canada released last May revealed that 79 per cent of respondents weren’t fully confident in their ability to teach another person about money, saving and budgeting.

In addition to reading at least two books before bed, Jill Amery also talks to her four and five-year-old boys about their day. But the learning doesn’t begin and end with storytime.

The Vancouver-based mom said that ever since her kids were young, she has been teaching them to recognize their names by writing letters in the sand at the beach. During grocery store visits, she would encourage them to identify vegetables of a particular colour in the produce section.

The family also tries to use technology to their advantage, and says using a computer to access kid-friendly sites or an e-reader to download children’s books helps make life easier for parents.

“I think it’s actually been much more effective than when I’ve tried to use conventional methods, and it’s been much more fun for me as a parent,” said Amery, publisher of UrbanMommies Media who operates urbanmommies.com and urbandaddies.com.

“In cooking in the kitchen, in walking the dog, there are so many learning opportunities,” she added. “If you don’t use those as parents, I think not only are you going to be more unhappy because you feel guilt, you feel stress because you’re not reading x number of books every day or those simple things that we understand as the only learning opportunities.

“I really do feel like parents need to ... do what they love as human beings and as people with their kids and teach them through those activities so they’re happy and involved and excited about what they’re sharing with their children.”

The findings were released in advance of Family Literacy Day which is held each year on Jan. 27. The day was developed by ABC Life Literacy Canada to celebrate adults and kids reading and learning together, and to encourage Canadians to spend at least 15 minutes enjoying a learning activity as a family every day.

The online survey of 1,002 adults was conducted between November 17 and November 22, 2011, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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Lenovo is to launch a TV built on the Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ platform. One of the cool features that this TV will offer is a parental control mechanism that relies on facial recognition. This is a feature that the kids will love … because it is a snap to circumvent!

GigaOM has the spec of the K91 ‘Smart TV’:

The K91 is powered by Qualcomm’s 8060 Snapdragon processor, which clocks 1.5 Ghz.
It will have 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage and 2 GB SD card.
There will be two models, one with a 42” and one with a 50” 3-D LED screen.
It will have an integrated 5 MP webcam, which will be used for facial recognition. Why would you need that? Parental control, of course.
There will be a 3-axis gyro gamepad, but the regular remote control sounds pretty cool, too: It will have a touchpad as well as an integrated microphone, and voice recognition will make it possible to control the devices without pressing any buttons at all.
Good TV, but I have severe reservations about Android’s ability to use facial recognition properly to control parental controls. Why? Because the system has already been shown to be broken.

One of the new features of Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ was being able to use the camera (and your face) to unlock the handset. Problem is, the camera has a hard time telling the difference between your face and and a photo of your face.

And in case you think that video might have been faked in some way, Dwight Silverman over on TechBlog tried this out and found that the system is easy to fool:

I took a picture of myself with my iPhone, and then pulled that likeness up on the screen. I aimed the iPhone image at the Galaxy Nexus’ camera, and voila! The Android phone unlocked and I was granted access. This works every time I try it.

So, if your kids see you using your face to unlock the parental control mechanism, how long do you think it will take them to try the photo trick? I would say that a smart kid will think of trying this as within seconds of seeing you use it for the first time.

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The research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is one of the first looks at the combined effects of breastfeeding and how many sugary drinks, like soda and juice drinks, children consume in the first few years of their lives.

Past studies have suggested that breastfeeding is linked to a lower risk of obesity in children; however, Jaimie Davis, the study's lead author and a professor at the University of Southern California, said mothers will also give their babies and toddlers sugary drinks.

"What happens is that they're breastfeeding and they're often giving their kids juice or Gatorade," said Davis. "They don't realize it's having the counter effect."Davis and her colleagues compared children who were only breastfed for the first year of their lives without drinking beverages containing added sugar to children who were breastfed for shorter periods or not at all and who did get sugary drinks.

All the children were between the ages of two and four, and were included in a database of families in Los Angeles County receiving financial assistance to purchase food. Through phone interviews and the use of height and weight records, the researchers determined that 15 percent of the 1,480 children in the study were obese. Another 27 percent were overweight.

They found that kids who were only breastfed for at least the first year of their life -- 326 of the children -- were about 55 percent less likely to be obese than children who were not breastfed. Kids who consumed no sugary drinks, whether or not they were breastfed, were 70 percent less likely to be obese than those who drank the most sweetened beverages.

Looking at combinations of breastfeeding and sugary drinks, the team found that kids with a year or more of breastfeeding and no sugary drinks were 60 percent less likely than kids with high sugary-drink consumption and no breastfeeding to be obese. Kids who were breastfed for at least 12 months and who only drank sugary drinks later in childhood were also less likely to be obese.

Though the results cannot prove that sugary drinks or breastfeeding caused the weight patterns seen, the researchers speculate that breastfeeding may biologically program the child's metabolism and eating behavior in a way that helps to protect against obesity.

Alison Ventura, a professor of nutrition sciences at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, said the new findings are important because they show that the benefits of breastfeeding last beyond the time when the feeding stops.

"There's been a lot of studies that linked breastfeeding and obesity, but it's nice to see one to go beyond that," said Ventura, who was not involved in the new research.

According to Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the findings are important from a public health perspective, because it's common for mothers not to breastfeed for very long, and to give their children sugary drinks, like juice.
"It's really no different than sweet teas or sodas," said Mayer-Davis, who did not work on the new study.

Davis said the new findings cannot predict whether the children will go on to be overweight later in life, but it's not good to see them so heavy at age two and age four. "We're setting these children up to be very chubby and overweight at a very early age," said Davis.

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