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10 Toxic Things Parents Do That Make Their Children Less Functional In Adulthood

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https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/412295

What Are the Qualities of a Strong Woman and How to Get Them.

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“A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.” ~ Diane Mariechild

Being a strong woman is not about behaving like a man. Instead, it is about embracing your femininity and showing it to the world, while making sure that you take control of the things that you’re doing and get them done. This is why motherhood is one of the best proofs of how strong women can be.

What Are the Qualities of a Strong Woman and How to Get Them

Why Are Mothers Strong?

Motherhood does not only change a woman physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. While the physical wounds brought about by the ordeal of bearing a child would heal, it’s a completely different story when it comes to the emotional aspect of a mom. This change will make her vulnerable until her last breath.

Motherhood makes a woman family oriented. It’s not about her hair, her manicure or her clothes anymore. She has to grow up and be a more responsible individual to take care of the life that she helped bring into this world.

A mother always makes sure that she’s able to provide what her children need. Despite how successful or glamorous she might be professionally, motherhood will always make her feel like a lion protecting a cub. She becomes fierce and strong when it comes to dealing with threats that put her children at risk. She instantly becomes a hero and a mighty fighter.

Motherhood makes a woman more attuned to the needs of others, especially that of her children. She always makes time to listen to her kids, to give them a hug when they are in pain. She nurtures them endlessly like a patient gardener who becomes happy only after seeing her plants grow into a full bloom.

Despite her own stress, she always attends to her to-do list, which usually involves the children. She doesn’t miss an opportunity to kiss her children and hug them tenderly. Her smile is always ready for whoever needs it.

What Qualities Distinguish Strong Women

Strong moms and strong women in general share the following qualities that make them stand out among the rest:

1. Strong women know who they really are

They have already identified their needs and their goals. They always put their dreams over anything else. They are not embarrassed to show their genuine self. Although life is a fast evolving process, strong women will continue to grow while staying true to themselves. They do it partly by giving time to let their interests and passion develop. Another reason for their success in being honest about their identity is that they recognize their strengths and use them as leverage to be successful in life.

2. Strong women stick it out for themselves

They are truly confident and know a good cause when they come across one. They would show intense passion for their advocacies, something that vulnerable adolescent girls should have these days as they deal with peer pressure and bullies.

3. Strong women like to challenge themselves

They want to keep growing and improving, which is why they are keen on pushing themselves more even onto new boundaries. They make sure that they don’t only do good, but better.

4. Strong women always have room for improvement

Despite their strength, confidence, and capabilities, they don’t slack off and say “I’m better than everyone else.” They don’t grow complacent for the sake of improving themselves. If they don’t know certain things, they don’t hesitate to ask questions and get answers. Strong women are not ashamed about still having to learn a lot of things, but this doesn’t mean that they are not willing to teach what they have learned to others. Although they are confident about what they can do, they don’t let it stop them from learning more.

5. Strong women know how to be happy

They are determined to stay happy and jovial in their everyday life. Their principle in life is to always stay positive. They know how blessed they are and how to be thankful for it. Strong women are noted for making things fun, whatever it is that they are doing. This is how they ensure that their family and loved ones are happy. While they are serious about achieving their goals, they do have a great sense of humor.

If you want to be an independent and strong woman, you need to develop these traits within yourself. Eventually, you’ll be leading the life similar to that of the other strong women around the world.

First Children Are Smarter—but Why?

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One mysterious finding—and seven theories.

Those born earlier perform better in school”—and according to a new study, it’s because of the parents.

Moms and dads simply go easy on their later-born kids, according to data analyzed by economists V. Joseph Hotz and Juan Pantano, and as a result, first-born children tend to receive both the best parenting and the best grades.

The first thing to say about a study like this is that lots of readers will reflexively disagree with the assumption. With kids, as with anything, shouldn’t practice make perfect? Don’t parents get richer into their 30s and 30s, providing for better child-rearing resources? I’m a first child, myself, well-known within the family for being unorganized, forgetful, periodically disheveled, and persistently caught day-dreaming in the middle of conversations. For this reason, I’ve put stock in what you might call the First Pancake Theory of Parenting. In short: First pancakes tend to come out a little funny, and, well, so did I. And so do many first-borns.

But international surveys of birth orders and behavior (which might have offered me an empirical excuse to behave this way) aren’t doing me any favors. First borns around the world, it turns out, have higher IQs, perform better in school, and are considered more accomplished by their parents. Looking at parent evaluations of children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth in 1979, the researchers found that mothers are much more likely to see their first children as high-achievers. They regard their subsequent children as considerably more average in their class (see table and chart below).

Let’s briefly count off and nickname some of the leading older-kids-are-smarter theories reviewed by the economists, which push back against the principle of first pancakes.

1) The Divided-Attention Theory: Earlier-born siblings enjoy more time, care and attention than later-born siblings because attention is divided between fewer kids.

2) The Bad-Genes Theory: The strong evidence of higher IQs among first children leads some to believe that later kids are receiving diminished “genetic endowment.”

3) The I’ve-Had-It-With-Kids! Theory: Some parents decide to stop having more children after a difficult experience raising one. In that case, the poorer performance of later children isn’t genetic, so much as selection bias: Some parents keep having children until they have one that’s so problematic it makes them say “enough.”

4) The No-One-to-Teach Theory: This is the idea that older siblings benefit from the ability to teach their younger brothers and sisters. Building these teaching skills helps them build learning skills that makes them better in school.

5) The Divorce Theory: Family crises like divorce are far more likely to happen after the first child in born (first marriage, then divorce, then a first child is not a common sequence) and they can disrupt later kids’ upbringing.

6) The Lazy-Parent Theory: The general idea here is that first-time parents, scared of messing up their new human, commit to memory the first chapter of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother but by the second or third child, they’ve majorly chilled out.

Hotz and Pantano settle close to Theory (6). Parents are more likely to make strict rules (about, e.g., TV-watching) and be intimately involved in the academic performance of their first children, according to survey data. They’re also more likely to punish their first child’s bad grades. Hotz and Pantano say moms and dads start tough and go soft to establish a “reputation” within their household for being strict—a reputation they hope will trickle down to the younger siblings who will be too respectful to misbehave later on.

The theory is interesting but not entirely persuasive. First it seems nearly-impossible to test. The survey data is much better at showing that parents chill out as they have more kids than at showing that parents chill out *because* they’re explicitly establishing a reputation for strictness. Nothing in the paper seems to argue against the simpler idea that parents seem to go soft on later kids because raising four children with the same level of attention you’d afford a single child is utterly exhausting. What’s more, if later-born children turn out to be less academically capable than their older simblings, it suggests that the economists’ reputation theory is failing in families across the country.

Vaccination Opt-Outs Found to Contribute to Whooping Cough Outbreaks in Kids.

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Several factors may be contributing to recent whooping cough outbreaks, but parents’ refusal to immunize their children is one

A California whooping cough epidemic in 2010 was one of the worst U.S. outbreaks of the disease in the past several decades. Ten infant deaths occurred among the more than 9,000 cases—the most in that state since 1947. Now, a study reveals that parental refusals to vaccinate their children may have played a part in that epidemic and possibly in a concurrent nationwide resurgence of the disease. The research found significant overlaps of areas with high numbers of whooping cough cases and areas where more parents had sought legal exemptions to opt out vaccinating their children.

 

CAUSE FOR WHOOPING COUGH‘S RESURGENCE?: Research shows California’s rates of nonmedical vaccine exemptions tripled from 0.77 percent in 2000 to 2.33 percent in 2010, and some schools had 2010 nonmedical exemption rates as high as 84 percent.

 

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial infection in the lungs that causes violent coughing and sometimes lasts for months. A combination vaccine called the DTaP (for diphtheria,tetanus, and acellular pertussis) protects children up to six years old from pertussis, and a similar formulation called Tdap is used to protect older children and adults.Previous research has found, however, that neither vaccine, made from the pertussis toxin and other genetic pieces of the bacterium, is as effective as DTP vaccine, a preparation that contained the whole bacterial cell; it was discontinued in the 1990s. Accordingly, pertussis cases remained low when DTP was the standard of care—typically fewer than 5,000 U.S. cases annually—but made a comeback in the past decade.

Parents in many states may opt out of vaccinating their children by seeking legal exemptions to public school immunization requirements. All but two states—Mississippi and West Virginia—allow religious exemptions, and 19 states, including California, offer some variation of a philosophical or “personal belief” exemption, depending on the law’s language. California’s rates of nonmedical exemptions tripled from 0.77 percent in 2000 to 2.33 percent in 2010, and some schools had 2010 nonmedical exemption rates as high as 84 percent.

In the new study, published September 30 in Pediatrics, lead author Jessica Atwell and her colleagues mapped “clusters”—statistically unusual aggregations—of nonmedical exemptions for kindergartners between 2005 and 2010. Theresearchers identified 39 clusters of such opt outs, including one that covered nearly all of northern California. In each of these clusters the area covered contained a statistically higher concentration of kindergartners with exemptions than the areas outside the clusters. Atwell’s team then used a similar modeling method to identify two pertussis outbreak clusters—areas where the cases reached statistically higher numbers than the rest of California. One such cluster included most of central California between May and October 2010. The other included San Diego County between July and November 2010. Then the researchers analyzed the clusters’ overlap.

“The strength of our approach was not just to find out the clustering of cases but also the statistical significance of the clustering overlap,” says senior author Saad Omer, an associate professor at Emory University School of Medicine’s Vaccine Center. “This tells us whether the clustering is by chance or not.” Neither the clusters nor their overlapping was by chance. Census tracts within a nonmedical exemption cluster were 2.5 times more likely to be within a pertussis cluster, even after accounting for population characteristics including racial demographics, population density, household income, average family size, percentage of residents with a college degree and location within a metropolitan area. Residents living in a census tract within a nonmedical exemption cluster were 20 percent more likely to catch pertussis than those outside a cluster, the analysis revealed.

Past research has already revealed that the weaker vaccine is driving whooping cough outbreaks and epidemics in the past decade. The new findings reveal there is more to the story. “What this study tells us is that if more and more people choose not to get a vaccine,” says Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, “then you’ll have bigger and bigger outbreaks.” This study also backs up the results in a 2008 study led by Omer that similarly found overlaps in pertussis outbreaks and nonmedical exemptions in Michigan during an 11-year period.

Atwell, a PhD candidate in Global Disease Epidemiology and Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says it is difficult to quantify the contributions of different factors to the resurgence of pertussis and that it is a multifaceted issue. “There are a lot of factors, including waning immunity from the vaccine, increased case detection and possible changes in circulating strains,” she says, “but our study shows that nonmedical exemptions and clustering of unvaccinated individuals may have also played a role.”

Public health efforts to prevent epidemics of infectious diseases typically rely onherd immunity: The more people in a community are vaccinated or otherwise protected from a disease, the less likely it is to be transmitted throughout the population. This approach is particularly crucial with pertussis, which is almost as contagious as measles and requires about 95 percent vaccination coverage to maintain herd immunity. Increasing numbers of parents opting out of vaccinating their children can erode this immunity. “When you look at statewide or countywide data, the increases in nonmedical exemptions don’t look that significant,” Atwell says, “but when you look at community-wide coverage, it is much lower than the threshold needed to maintain herd immunity in some areas.”

Unvaccinated individuals in the 2010 epidemic were eight times more likely to contract pertussis than vaccinated ones. But unvaccinated individuals pose risks to the community as well. “It’s a choice you make for yourself and a choice you make for those around you,” Offit says. “Infants need those around them to be protected in order not to get sick. We have a moral and ethical responsibility to our neighbors as well as to ourselves and our children.”

Data has shown exemptions are more prevalent where they are easier to obtain. In California parents currently can obtain exemptions simply by signing a form. A law takes effect there next year requiring parents to meet with a health care provider before obtaining an exemption. “I hope the legislation will help address the increased risk for pertussis and raise immunization rates in those areas,” says Richard Pan, a pediatrician and member of the California State Assembly who sponsored the bill. He says the law may not effect much change in areas with strong pockets of vaccine-refusing parents, but he hopes more of the parents feeling uncertain about immunization will realize the benefits after getting accurate information from a health care professional.

Parents who turn down vaccinations for their children are often misinformed aboutthe safety and effectiveness of vaccines. “I don’t think people understand that our control of vaccine-preventable diseases such as pertussis and measles is fragile,” Atwell says. “We need to continue to educate people about the implications of not vaccinating their children.”

 

 

 

 

 

Money Isn’t a Dirty Word: How to Use Money to Serve Your Purpose.

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“What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.” ~ Julia Cameron

So many of us cringe at the image of a person who loves money. We tend to think it’s tacky, greedy, and not noble to strive to be rich. And for those of us who want to do work that serves the world in a positive way, money can start to feel like a dirty word.

how-to

And I’m here to change that.

I don’t believe money is the root of all evil. Nor do I believe money can buy happiness. But I do believe that when we can get rid of our hang-ups around money, it allows us to serve the world in a bigger way. Especially if your career is centered around doing good in the world, it’s important for you to embrace making money as a part of your making-a-difference strategy.

It’s time to stop shaming yourself for wanting to make money in your career or your passion-based business. You might think it’s noble to work for free or low cost and help the less fortunate, but there is nothing noble about not being able to pay your rent.

In order to do good in the world, you must be able to take care of yourself first. And when you do that, you stop playing small and you can fully step into what you were put here to do – fulfill your purpose through your work.

Here’s how you can start shifting your money mindset right now:

1. Acknowledge that what you do has value

And even more than that, acknowledge that who you are has value. All of us have our own unique gifts that we don’t think are that remarkable, when in fact, these are the very traits that others admire in us. The more you can play up who you are at your core, the more you will see the value that you bring to the world around you. And the more value you can find in your own self worth, just the way you are, the easier it is to see why people would pay you for these qualities. You are different and special, and you deserve to be paid well for doing that special thing that only you can do.

2. Start to love money

Like, really love it. Part of this practice is being grateful for all the things that money helps you do in your life. With money, you can buy yourself healthy organic food, you can support your local charities, you can give your kids an education. When you start to realize how the money you make is able to be filtered back into your life s a source of growth, you start to become grateful for every penny you earn, because you know it allows you to give back to yourself and your community.

3. Stop discounting money as something you don’t need

Stop discounting money as something you don’t need, and imagine a life where money flows freely. Recognize that you DO need money to live, and pay attention to how it would feel to no longer have to be penny pinching, or budgeting carefully every month. Imagine a life where you had all the money you wanted, more than you knew what to do with. How would you spend it? What would you do with it? Imagine the possibilities of how you could use that extra money as a force for good in the world, how many lives you could shape with it, how many of the world’s problems you could solve by re-investing it back into your community.  Start thinking of money as possibility instead of burden, and notice how much energy that brings to your purpose in the world. Money could help you build that school in Africa, or support your local animal shelter, or run the women’s group you volunteer at. Money is essential in helping support your purpose and passions.

When you stop fearing money and start allowing yourself to fall in love with it, doors open for you like you might never have imagined. Making money is not a sin and wanting money is not a sin. Money gives you the gift of taking care of yourself and those around you, which allows you to live a life that lets you help the world in a bigger way.

Money can be used as a force of good in the world. You just have to let it in.

Do you believe money is the root of all evil? What are some of the limiting beliefs you borrowed from others when it comes to money? Share your insights by joining the conversation in the comment section bellow.

Source:Purpose fairy

9 Secrets of Highly Happy Children.

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Story at-a-glance

  • Stress, depression and poor mood impact kids just like adults, so tending to your child’s emotional health is vitally important
  • Healthy eating, proper sleep, and time for free play are essential for kids’ happiness
  • Kids also need unconditional love, the ability to make choices and express their emotions, and they need to feel heard by their parents
  • You have a tremendous impact on your child’s happiness; lead by example by modeling happy, healthy habits for your children

Children are probably not the first ones who come to mind when you think about stress. After all, they’ve got no bills to worry about, no job or other responsibilities on their shoulders…

healthy-eating

Yet, children feel stress, too – often significantly. They worry about making friends, succeeding at school or sports, and fitting in with their peers. They may also struggle with the divorce of their parents or feel anxious about war and violence they see on the news.

While a child’s natural state is to be happy, vibrant and curious, it’s estimated that up to 15 percent of children and teens are depressed at any given time.1

In reality, many of the same worries that make you feel anxious and sad have the same impact on your children. However, kids also have unique needs that can interfere with their ability to be happy if left unmet.

Nine Tips for Raising a Happy Child

Virtually every parent wants their child to be happy. The Huffington Postrecently highlighted seven simple strategies for achieving this goal,2 and I’ve added a couple of my own as well.

1. Healthy Eating

Mood swings and even depression in kids are often the result of a heavily processed-food diet. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain! Your gut and brain actually work in tandem, each influencing the other.

This is why your child’s intestinal health can have such a profound influence on his mental health, and vice versa – and why eating processed foods that can harm his gut flora can have a profoundly negative impact on his mood, psychological health and behavior.

The simplest way back toward health and happiness, for children and adults alike, is to focus on WHOLE foods — foods that have not been processed or altered from their original state; food that has been grown or raised as nature intended, without the use of chemical additives, pesticides and fertilizers.

You, a family member, or someone you pay will need to invest time in the kitchen cooking fresh wholesome meals from these whole foods so that you can break free from the processed food diet that will ultimately make you and your children sick.

Food is a part of crucial lifestyle choices first learned at home, so you need to educate yourself about proper nutrition and the dangers of junk food and processed foods in order to change the food culture of your entire family. 

To give your child the best start at life, and help instill healthy habits that will last a lifetime, you must lead by example. If you’re not sure where to start, I recommend reading my nutrition plan first. This will provide you with the foundation you need to start making healthy food choices for your family.

2. Eating on Time

If a child goes too long without eating, it may lead to fluctuations in blood sugar levels that lead to irritability. Children need to refuel their growing bodies on a regular schedule, so try to keep your child’s meal and snack times consistent.

3. Regular, High-Quality Sleep

Too little sleep not only makes kids prone to being grouchy and having mood swings, it also negatively impacts children’s behavior and attention. In fact, as little as 27 minutes of extra sleep a night has been shown to have a positive impact on children’s mood and behavior.3

Children aged 5 to 12 need about 10-11 hours of sleep a night for optimal mood and health. To help your child get a good night’s sleep, get the TV, computer, video games and cell phone out of your child’s bedroom, and be sure the room is as dark as possible. Even the least bit of light in the room can disrupt your child’s internal clock and her pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin. I recommend using blackout shades or drapes. For my complete recommendations and guidelines that can help you improve your child’s sleep, please see my article 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep.

4. Free Play

Unstructured playtime is essential for kids to build their imagination, relieve stress and simply be kids. Yet today, many kids are so over-scheduled that they scarcely have time to eat dinner and do homework, let alone have any free time for play. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics states that free, unstructured play is essential for children to manage stress and become resilient, as well as reach social, emotional and cognitive development milestones.4

Along with slowing down and resisting the urge to sign your child up for too many activities, be sure to provide your child with simple toys like blocks and dolls that allow for creative play. Free play time is also an ideal time for active play – like tag or chasing butterflies – which is naturally mood-boosting (as exercise is for adults).

5. Express Emotions

Kids need to yell, cry, stomp their feet and run around with excitement. This is how they express their emotions, which is healthy for emotional development and will prevent a lifetime of internalizing negative emotions. Encourage and allow your child to vent and express his emotions in healthy ways.

6. Make Choices

Kids are constantly being told what to do, so giving them the ability to make choices goes a long way toward increasing their happiness. Try letting your child decide what to wear or what to eat (within reason), or give her a few choices for activities and let her decide which one to do.

7. They Feel Heard

Your child knows when you’re not really listening to them (such as if you’re ‘talking’ to them while surfing the Web or watching TV). Yet a child’s happiness will soar when he feels like his parents truly listen and respond to what he’s saying. Not only will you feel more connected to your child, but you’ll also build his self-confidence and happiness.

8. Unconditional Love

Above all else, children need unconditional love, and they need it consistently. If your child makes a mistake, let her know you still love and support her regardless. Your child will grow up confident and happy knowing you are behind her every step of the way.

9. Be Happy Yourself

If you’re stressed out and unhappy, your child will sense this and also feel sad and worried in response. You are your child’s first role model, so lead by example by embracing the bright side of life. If you need some help, use these 22 positive habits of happy people to become a happy person yourself.

Does Your Child’s Mood Need an Extra Boost?

If you’ve addressed the lifestyle factors listed above, especially proper diet, sleep and time for free, unstructured play, but your child is still unhappy (for no obvious reason, such as being bullied or due to stress such as divorce at home), try these three tips below:

·         High-quality animal-based omega-3 fats: Low concentrations of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA are known to increase your risk for mood swings and mood disorders. Those suffering from depression have been found to have lower levels of omega-3 in their blood, compared to non-depressed individuals. Krill oil is my preferred source of omega-3 fats.

·         Regular sun exposure: This is essential for vitamin D production, low levels of which are linked to depression. But even beyond vitamin D, regular safe sun exposure is known to enhance mood and energy through the release of endorphins.

·         Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT): If difficult life circumstances and the negative emotions they create are making happiness hard to come by for your child, try EFT, which is a form of do-it-yourself psychological acupressure. This simple technique can help clear your body and mind of negative emotions so you can implement positive goals and habits more easily in your life, and kids can learn to do it themselves.

·         Source: mercola.com

 

 

New China law says children ‘must visit parents’.

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Grown children in China must visit their parents or potentially face fines or jail, a new law that came into effect on Monday says.

old china

China’s new “Elderly Rights Law” deals with the growing problem of lonely elderly people by ordering adult children to visit their ageing parents.

The law says adults should care about their parents “spiritual needs” and “never neglect or snub elderly people”.

The regulation has been ridiculed by tens of thousands of Chinese web users.

Many across China are questioning how the law could be enforced, since it fails to spell out a detailed schedule dictating the frequency with which children should make parental house calls.

“Those who live far away from parents should go home often,” it says.

However, that does not mean the law is toothless.

Instead, it serves as an “educational message” to the public, while also serving as a starting point for law suits, explained Zhang Yan Feng, a lawyer with Beijing’s King & Capital Law Firm.

“It’s hard to put this law into practice, but not impossible,” Mr Zhang explained.

“If a case is brought to court on the basis of this law, I think it’ll probably end up in a peaceful settlement. But if no settlement is reached, technically speaking, court rulings can force the person to visit home certain times a month.”

“If this person disobeys court rulings, he could be fined or detained.”

‘Spontaneous emotions’

 “Start Quote

We all know to cherish our elderly parents, but sometimes we are just too busy trying to make a living”

Weibo user

But few in China seem to fear they will end up behind bars if they fail to log visits home.

“Who doesn’t want to visit home often? What is considered “often”? Who will oversee the process?” complained one poster on weibo, China’s version of Twitter.

“We all know to cherish our elderly parents, but sometimes we are just too busy trying to make a living and the pressure is too much.”

“It’s fine that no-one is paying for us to visit our parents, but is there someone who can give us time off to do it?” asked another.

The question of how to deal with ageing parents is a mounting problem in China.

According to Chinese government statistics, more than 178 million people in China were 60 years or older in 2010. By 2030, that figure will double.

As China’s population goes grey, the Chinese media fills with stories of neglected old people.

Many were shocked by the story of a 91-year-old grandmother who was beaten and forced out of her home in China’s southern Jiangsu province after she asked her daughter-in-law for a bowl of rice porridge.

Two days later, internet forums were filled with a similar story of farmers in the same province who allowed their family’s 100-year-old matriarch to sleep in a pig sty, sharing close quarters with a pungent pig.

But those stories have not lead most people to support the new Elderly Rights Law.

“Family bonds should be based on spontaneous emotions,” argued one weibo user.

“It’s funny to make it part of a law; it’s like requiring couples to have a harmonious sex life after marriage.”

Source: BBC

 

 

Pass the Paci: Parental Pacifier-Sucking May Ward Off Allergies.

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Infants whose parents “clean” their pacifiers by sucking on them are at lower risk for developing asthma and eczema, a small study inPediatrics indicates.

Researchers in Sweden followed nearly 200 infants, 80% of whom had at least one allergic parent. At 6 months, parents were asked how they cleaned their child’s pacifiers. Nearly half said they sucked them before returning them to the infant.

Parental pacifier-sucking was associated with significantly reduced risks for asthma and eczema at 18 months, compared with other cleaning methods. By 36 months, only the association with eczema was still significant.

DNA analysis of infant saliva collected at 4 months showed that infants whose parents sucked their pacifiers could be identified based on the patterns of saliva microbes. The authors conclude: “Exposure of the infant to parental saliva might accelerate development of a complex oral/pharyngeal microbiota that … might beneficially affect tolerogenic handling of antigens.”

Source: Pediatrics