Exposure to the family dog and more siblings reduced the risk of babies developing egg allergies, according to a Melbourne study.

Allergy experts from Melbourne's Murdoch Childrens Research Institute studied more than 5000 babies and found those with young siblings and infants exposed to a dog inside the home were less likely to develop an allergic reaction to egg, News.com.au reported

According to the study published in the journal Allergy, food allergies now affect up to 10 per cent of babies. 

It found 10.8 per cent of infants with no siblings were allergic to egg but as the number of brothers and sisters increased the incidence of egg allergy decreased.

Meanwhile, about 10 per cent of babies in households without a dog had an egg allergy compared to only six per cent of those with a dog.

Lead researcher Dr Jennifer Koplin said the risk of developing a food allergy seemed to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

She said the immune system evolved at a time when people were exposed to more bacteria in food and the water supply, and infections through crowding and larger families.

Dr Koplin said it was possible developing infants were now not exposed to the right environmental factors to teach their immune systems how to react appropriately.

"They are reacting inappropriately to something that they should be able to tolerate which is in this case, food allergens, or food proteins," Dr Koplin told a foreign news agency.

The research suggested the protective effect of a family dog on egg allergy could be due to exposure to endotoxin, a type of bacteria.

Dr Koplin said endotoxin stimulates the immune system to attack bad bacteria and in doing so, is distracted from attacking harmless things in the environment like foods.

The study also found babies with a family history of allergy and those with parents born in East Asian countries like China and Vietnam are at increased risk of egg allergy.

Dr Koplin said East Asian families, as well as being genetically at higher risk of food allergy, may be exposed to different bacteria in their home countries.

"When they migrate over here and the kids are born here, they don't have that same exposure that suppresses the development of allergy," she said. 

When a child is bitten by a four-legged family member, it can turn the household upside-down. Owners feel puzzled and confused. “They sleep together all the time,” they might say, or, “He’s always been really good. He even lets Timmy sit on him.” In a majority of cases, the bite seems out of the blue. The humans can’t fathom why their once-trusted companion would bite an innocent child. But anyone who reads “dog” or can see life from the pet’s point of view would most likely say, “I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”

The fact is, a quick perusal of YouTube or a thorough investigation of a bite reveals that often the bite occurs because humans, especially children, are extremely rude. Parents may view their kid’s behaviors as cute and assume that because their dog is tolerating the behavior now, he will have an endless fuse and always put up with it, rather than eventually exploding. In other words, parents expect dogs to behave like saints, even when they are pestered to the point that would try the average human’s patience and cause her to blow up!

For instance, I recall one tragic case where an infant was left at home with the babysitter and the family pitbull. The infant was allowed to incessantly crawl after the dog, tailing the dog as if she was an armed criminal. He followed her from corner to corner as she kept trying to get away from the baby, but the dog had no escape. While the parents were able to take a “vacation” from their child by hiring a babysitter and leaving the house, the dog was left at home to fend for herself. Ordinarily, a person being pestered this way with no way to escape would eventually turn and yell and possibly even resort to violence. A dog might do the same—turn and bark, snarl, or growl. But when all of these early signs are ignored, escalation to a bite can be the next step. Unfortunately, a bite by any large dog at her wits end can cause serious damage to a child, and in this case it resulted in death.

More often than not, cases where the dog bites a young child are tragic—often more so for the dog. The dog may be relinquished to a shelter, where he has a low probability of safe adoption. Or he may be euthanized after a quarantine period. The worst part of the story is that these bites could often have easily been prevented just by understanding the types of actions that drive a dog to feel bullied or pestered so much that he feels he has to bite.

Understanding What the Actions that Might Cause the Family Dog to Bite are Common Sense

In fact, understanding what can drive a dog to bite the family kids is pretty simple. They are the same things that drive humans to need a break from their kids.

Reason 1: 
For instance, most people dislike it when others stick their grimy hands in their meal. Similarly, dogs want to eat in peace. 

Reason 2:
We teach children that it’s clearly wrong to steal toys from each other. It’s also rude to steal toys from the dog. Kids should be taught to leave Fido’s toys alone. To build in a tolerance in case the child makes a mistake when your attention has lapsed, dogs should be trained to give up their toy for a reward or even a sequence of rewards. That way, they will willingly give the child the toy instead of feeling possessive. (See Perfect Pup in 7 Days, chapters 1 and 6 .) 

Reason 3: Kids frequently can’t help but get in your face. They often have to be trained to maintain the appropriate social distance. Similarly, putting your face into a dog’s face, even if it’s all in the family, can be irritating to the dog, especially when the dog has no control over the child’s behavior.


Reason 4: Most people dislike being disturbed when they are resting or sleeping. But fortunately for us humans, we can often close or lock our bedroom door. Similarly, dogs need a safe location where they can be away from kids and excitement. Kids should avoid bugging them in their “private” location or any time they are sleeping or resting. If they call the dog from far away and the dog chooses to get up and come over to the child, this type of interaction is okay. But if the dog chooses to be left alone, he should be.


Reason 5:
Kids dislike being handled roughly, and so do dogs. Dogs can be trained to tolerate or sometimes even enjoy this handling, so that they are not reactive when an accident occurs (SeePerfect Puppy in 7 Days, chapters 1 and 6), but in general children should be taught to be polite.


Reason 6:
It’s rude to climb on, step on, or otherwise invade someone’s personal space. It’s also rude to do the same things with dogs.


Reason 7: 
Loud screaming can frazzle humans, imagine its effect on the more sound-sensitive dog!


Reason 8:
We often forget that even some friendly gestures, such as pinching a child’s cheeks, may be irritating. In general, dogs dislike being hugged, even by family members. You can tell by the expression on their face. (See the Body Language of Fear and Anxiety in Dogs poster and chapter 7 in Perfect Puppy in 7 Days.) You can train dogs, especially as puppies, to enjoy cuddling and hugging (See Perfect Puppy In 7 Days chapters 1 and 6) and other close handling. But even so, it’s important for children to know the types of interactions their pet likes and also to realize that other dogs may not have the same tolerance as their dog does.

By David Macknish
Head of Junior School Ipswich Grammar

EACH day at Ipswich Grammar School commences with a series of exercises and physical activities aimed at exercising the Junior School students’ brains and developing their “brain fitness”.
 Students across all year levels from Prep through to Year 6 commence each school day with a period of physical activity. Building upon skills, fitness and high level activity, these sessions of activity are crucial in the Junior School’s programs which strive for literacy and numeracy excellence.
 Critical elements of the daily physical activity program include:
• Learning Connections program involving laterality exercises, coordination and links between body awareness and brain function
• Finger Gym exercises
• Physical fitness development
• Gross-motor program activities
• Fine-motor coordination activities
• Flexibility development.

 The benefits of physical activity prior to commencing concentrated work requiring focussed brain function are many. Evidence from imaging sources, anatomical studies and clinical data conclude that moderate exercise enhances cognitive processing and increases the number of brain cells. In addition, it has been proven to oxygenate the brain, improve memory and improves the synapse-brain connections (Jensen, E.; “Teaching with the Brain in Mind”)  A research study outlined in “The Human Brain” (www.fi.edu/brain) states that “exercisers showed significant improvements in the higher mental processes of memory and in “executive functions” that involve planning, organization, and the ability to mentally juggle different intellectual tasks at the same time.”
 At Ipswich Grammar School, we have encountered similar experiences through our approach to creating the optimal learning environment for our students. Over the last twelve months of gradual implementation of the program, the following benefits have been observed in the participating classes:
• Increased student focus and concentration;
• Improved handwriting;
• Significant increase in fine-motor and gross-motor skill development;
• Alertness;
• Increased readiness and willingness to participate in learning activities;
• Reduced distractibility.
 Secondary benefits have flowed on to literacy development and reading skills. 
 The benefits have been so distinct that the Junior School commenced implementing the program across all classes to Year 6 in 2007. 

Morning physical activity prior to commencing academic learning will continue to assist the outcomes at Ipswich Grammar School and give the students a crucial “edge” in their learning.

The ability to generate original ideas;  develop new possibilities; solve problems; learn from mistakes and use failures  to reinvent processes;  put your own “stamp” on a product, or service, to differentiate it from others are all at the heart of what it means to be a creative thinker and traits that are highly sought after. Children are the masters of thinking in creative ways, they are pioneers when it comes to inventing and creating. They are not bound by preconceived ideas, taking a risk is all part of the fun and a failure is not necessarily viewed as a setback, in fact, it is often embraced and opens doors to new ways of achieving a goal. Nurturing children’s creativity is essential and strengthening the ability to think in creative ways will result in gaining many beneficial skills that can be used throughout life. 
Nurturing children’s creativity is something that parents, carers and educators can do on a daily basis. One way to nurture children’s creativity is to provide creative prompts to encourage children to think in new ways. For example, shadows can be an excellent source of inspiration for young children when it comes to drawing. At night time, my children enjoy making shadows on the walls. I have been taking photos of their silhouettes as they perform various actions, for example looking up, down, with arms stretched out. I have printed these photos and glued one photo per page onto paper (if the silhouette image is looking up, be sure to glue the photo at the bottom of the page so children have space to draw at the top). Give children a sentence starter, such as the girl/boy looked up and couldn’t believe she/he was looking at………..(children then draw what they imagine could be above their heads). Another way to use shadows for drawing purposes involves drawing outside with chalk. Someone strikes a pose and others use chalk to draw something onto the shadow figure. Hands outstretched could be filled with chalk drawings of flowers, ice creams, all sorts of clothing can be drawn onto the figure as well as outlandish hats.

Creating with recycled materials lends itself to creative thinking as “working” with recyclables requires users to think of alternative ways to use the items and explore new possibilities which can often involve problem solving, lateral thinking and discovering through trial and error. The possibilities for creating with bottle top lids seem to be endless, for example, secure a piece of contact to a window (sticky side facing out) and use bottle top lids (as well as other craft supplies such as coloured paper, pens etc) to create a picture. Another idea is to set a creative challenge, for example plan a party for some favourite toys using recycled materials to create the decorations and cake. Old newspapers and magazines can be turned into party hats, scraps of paper could be used to make bunting and a box could be transformed into a cake (cover a box in white paper and for a mess free option secure some contact, sticky side facing out, to the box and encourage children to decorate the box with craft supplies (ribbon, pom poms, feathers or natural resources like flowers). Alternatively, children could use play dough to transform a box into a birthday cake.                                          

used to make bunting and a box could be transformed into a cake (cover a box in white paper and for a mess free option secure some contact, sticky side facing out, to the box and encourage children to decorate the box with craft supplies (ribbon, pom poms, feathers or natural resources like flowers). Alternatively, children could use play dough to transform a box into a birthday cake. 
Investing in children’s creativity is vital given the dialogue about creativity and how it is considered to be the currency of the future. This investment involves providing children with a diverse range of experiences that inspire them to problem solve, brainstorm, “think outside the box”, tinker, explore, discover, take risks and learn from mistakes. Children who have developed creative thinking skills at a young age will have a wealth of experiences to draw upon and valuable transferable skills that they can employ throughout their life.

Elise Ellerman is the founder and owner of Creative Play Central and provides several different services to assist parents and educators to provide innovative play ideas and highly creative experiences for young children. The newest service that Creative Play Central is offering (as of August 6) is Imagination Creations which are classes for children aged 3 -10. In these unique classes that have been carefully designed to encourage creative thinking, children use creative prompts to inspire them to think and create in new and original ways. For more details about Creative Play Central’s services as well as details regarding days, times and location for classes please visit the website: www.creativeplaycentral.com.au. Follow us on Facebook for more ideas to nurture creative thinkers.   

Critics are questioning a US family's decision to take their 5-year-old daughter to swim with sharks, but how dangerous are sharks? 

In 2011, there were 75 shark attacks worldwide, 29 of which occurred in the U.S. Officials say there was a downward trend of shark attacks in the U.S. while the number doubled between 2010 and 2011 worldwide. (Source: Livescience.com )

According to a study conducted by the Florida Museum of Natural History, there is a 1 in 3,748,067 chance of dying from a shark attack, as compared to dying from heart disease, which is a 1 in 5 chance, or in a car crash 1 in 84. 

Nurse sharks are generally, are harmless to humans, but will bite defensively if bothered by divers. (Source:National Geographic ) 

Lemon sharks are a small threat to humans, they rarely attack when unprovoked. There have been no fatal attacks by this species. (Source: Florida Museum of Natural History ) 

Caribbean Reef sharks are not considered a threat to humans. However, like most sharks, they can become aggressive if they feel threatened. (Source:marinebio.org ) 

Sharks species that pose the biggest threat to humans: 
1. "Great" white shark 
2. Tiger shark 
3. Bull shark 
4. Sand tiger shark 
5. Requiem shark

*Source: Florida Museum of Natural History

AN AMERICAN family is making waves this morning after a video of their five-year-old daughter swimming with sharks went viral. 


When Elana and David Barnes posted a home video to YouTube of their daughter swimming in the ocean, they intended to share their holiday memories with friends and family, not the world.
But the video quickly became a viral sensation because it shows their daughter, Anaia, not just frolicking in the water but snorkeling with sharks in the waters off the Bahamas.
Little Anaia Barnes, an instructor and her parents swam alongside the sharks. 
"At no point did I feel like this is dangerous, like going on a rollercoaster, I'm probably not going to fall off, but it's still scary," said Anaia's mother, Elana Barnes, told Good Morning America. 
"To each his own, but I would prefer to keep my kids out of the water with sharks if I can," said Kristen Vesey of Brookfield. 
Shark experts at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, US had mixed feelings about how safe or dangerous this scenario really was. 
"Would I intentionally do that? I honestly don't know, I'd probably be a little bit more cautious myself," said John Lenzycki, who has worked with sharks for 24 years. 
He says last year there were less than 100 unprovoked shark attacks worldwide and says 90 percent of them happen in three feet of water or less. What concerns him are the sharks are being fed by people, so he says the animals associate people with food. 
"I wouldn't want to be that person standing in the lagoon at 11 o'clock in the morning and that particular person called in sick that day," he said. 
Also, the Barnes swam alongside Nurse sharks, which Lenzycki says are very mild tempered. While lemon and reef sharks are higher on the predatory scale. 
"But still sharks are not mindless eating machines, they tend to be extremely cautious about what they eat," he said. 
Still the nurse shark touch tank at the Norwalk Maritime Aquarium is close enough for this mom. 
"It's a situation where you don't know what could happen so, why put them in harms way," Vesey said. 
"Life is too short to be boring you know," Barnes said.
"After reviewing the video with our fish and invertebrate team, we feel that it would be too speculative to comment on the safety of the situation," said Mystic Aquarium spokesperson Erin Merz.

1. You will spend a crazy amount of time clipping their weed-like fingernails, even though your own nails don't grow worth a damn.

2. They will also probably have nicer eyelashes than you.

3. Little-boy funk-smell kicks in sometime around age 3.

4. It smells like a combination of feet and maple syrup.

5. You will totally get peed on. In the face, directly, at least once.

6. I also do not suggest painting the walls immediately around changing tables or toilets with a flat finish. Go with eggshell or satin, or else just thumbtack up some freaking towels.

7. Those little PeePee TeePee things do not work, unless you care to see just how far your son's urine can propel a tiny, soggy cone of fabric across the room.

8. All that said, a lot of times they just manage to pee right on their own heads. Memorize their shocked expression when it happens, because hiiiiiiiiiilarious.

9. Boners.

10. Yeast infections are not just for girls.

11). EW.

12. The instinct to turn random objects into guns/blasters/lasers/phasers/swords/lightsabers/arrows/cannons/etc. is something they are born with. Don't worry about it too much.

13. Buy helmets, though.

14. Remember that one mean little girl in first grade who would randomly announce that she wasn't your friend any more; she was someone ELSE'S friend now and you couldn't be friends with either of them because she said so and made you cry but then the very next day the rules were all completely different?

15. There are mean little boys like that, too.

16. The good news is that once you're a grown-up you realize it's perfectly okay to think that they're annoying little sh*ts and tell their moms on them when they color on your walls with markers.

17. Even after many mature, frank discussions about body parts and the differences between boys and girls, you will definitely be asked - loudly and publicly - about your own lack of a penis and whether or not you pee out your butt.

18. At some point, you'll have to sack up and send them into the mens' room by themselves. This is both amazing and terrible.

19. Wearing a dress makes you look beautiful, Mummy. A single sequin on your shirt or a sparkly necklace earns you an upgrade to princess. Your hair looks gweat. Your hugs are nice. Your cuddles are the best. I wuv you, Mommy.

20. Ugh, they are so awesome, it hurts.  

A leading Perth paediatrician is urging WA parents to  reduce their kids’  “screen time”.


THE NATURAL environment is being replaced by a digital world for today's children and is at risk of never being re-discovered, a prominent Perth doctor has warned.

Dr David Roberts said the increasing reliance on technology as entertainment for children had seen a rapid, disturbing decline in outdoor play.

Dr Roberts, chief executive of Nature Play WA, said parents were also partly to blame by restricting their children's outdoor activities out of fear that they may come to harm.

AN online survey has revealed 42 per cent of children first use bad language by three years of age.

By kindergarten, more than 90 per cent of children have uttered their first rude word, leaving parents in shock, a survey has found.

Swear words starting with "f" and "s" were the most common first naughty word. Bloody, used by 5 per cent of children as their first bad word, ranks as the third most common. The two most popular expletives each was expressed by 28 per cent of children.

Linguistics expert Kate Burridge said it was not surprising children experiment with swearing as lively language is very much part of our vernacular. "They soon learn they get maximum attention (with a curse word)", Professor Burridge, of Monash University, said.

"In the old days they might have had their mouths washed out with soap or been sent to the bedroom with no supper but they get maximum attention and learn how potent these words are."

Parents admit their children often heard their first curse at home (52.7 per cent) but the overwhelming majority (78.4 per cent) actively discourage swearing. The second most common place for children to pick up obscenities was in the playground at school or pre-school (48.2 per cent) followed by television (31 per cent).

Sitting in the back seat of the car is another good place for kids to learn foul language (15 per cent).

Parents who generally refrain from swearing admit stressful driving situations have caused them unintentionally to use bad language in front of their child (9.7 per cent).

Etiquette expert June Dally-Watkins said the level of swearing on TV and in public was unacceptable. "I think it is disgusting and should be taboo," she said. "Parents should not permit it. Swearing is ugly. There is too much bad language going on and too much on television."

Ms Dally-Watkins said parents posting clips of swearing toddlers on YouTube was horrifying. Most parents agree with her.

Professor Burridge said foul language was not considered as bad as racist, sexist or religionist language. He advised parents did not need to panic if their child swore. "It is probably best to treat these as ordinary words," she said. "They have always been an important part of the vernacular." 

AUSTRALIAN toddlers will be screened for mental illness under a new, federal government funded program that some critics fear may medicalise normal childhood behaviour. 

THE Healthy Kids Check - starting on July 1 - will be predominantly conducted by GPs, who will refer children with troubling behaviour to psychologists or paediatricians.

The program is expected to identify more than 27,000 children who the government believes will benefit from additional support, but who some doctors say will be wrongly labelled as having a mental illness.
While the aim is to prevent mental illnesses - 50 per cent of which start in childhood - the Australian Medical Association and some mental health experts fear children may be misdiagnosed or given psychiatric drugs unnecessarily.


''We have to be careful we don't medicalise normal behaviour and that's a real caution with children,'' the AMA president, Steve Hambleton, said. ''There are genuine kids who need extra support to help them integrate into normal kindergartens and classrooms and a lot of the funding for that is driven by diagnoses so there's a perverse incentive to diagnose conditions like autism. There are kids who need it but we don't want to make normal kids abnormal.''
Frank Oberklaid, director of the centre for community child health at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital and chair of the expert committee appointed by the Minister for Mental Health, Mark Butler, to develop the check, said their priority was to ''first do no harm''.

''The critics are worried that we're going to slap diagnoses on three-year-olds and treat them with drugs but this is not the point of the exercise,'' Professor Oberklaid said. ''Many parents and preschool teachers face behaviours in children that are challenging and cause stress and distress. We also know that thankfully many of these are transient but we can't predict in a particular child which ones are going to disappear and which ones are going to go on and cause mental health problems. What we're really doing is having a more systematic way of finding out those kids who are causing difficulties and doing something about it.''