Parenting Solved

Wiiitis

This month’s journal Pediatrics has a great article from the Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness summarizing an often neglected problem in children: overuse injuries. While the full article is available only to American Academy of Pediatrics members, it may be worth finding a copy if you work with kids who are even remotely serious about their sports.

Unfortunately, the council's report went to press too late to cover Wiiitis. As reported on WebMD, a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine describes the first case of overuse injury associated with the Nintendo Wii system. This case of Nintendinitis was reported in a healthy 29-year-old male medical resident who woke up one morning with intense pain in the right shoulder. He hadn’t participated in any sports or physical exercise recently, but he had just purchased a Nintendo Wii video game system and had spent several hours playing the tennis video game.

But pediatricians and parents be warned: This is not to be confused with Nintendo elbow. The author Dr. Julio Bonis warns, “Physicians should be aware that there may be multiple, possibly puzzling presentations of Wiiitis." Makes me glad we have Xbox 360

Awesome Pediatric Grand Rounds

Awesome Mom has put together a wonderful PGR. Everyone needs to check it out. I'm proud to say that I made the Editor's Pick which is a first for me. Thanks, Mom. PGR is a great deal of work to pull together and it's much appreciated. Now I have to email Clark and sign up to edit PGR ... I think I'm due!

Rejuvenile All Over Again

For those of you who missed it in hardcover, Rejuvenile is now available in paperback. This is required reading for the adult set who can’t seem to let go of kickball, cup cakes and go carts. Beyond the identification of a sociological curiosity, Rejuvenile exposes the incredible power of play for adults both at home and at work. It’s important reading for anyone looking to understand an often overlooked and underappreciated part of healthy parenting.

Interesting trivia: Christopher Noxon proposed by putting the engagement ring inside of a kickball which he offered to his wife on home plate. Good stuff. Learn more by watching his interview with Bill Maher on Amazon Fishbowl.

Stealthy Teddy

As closet fan of I Saw Your Nanny, The TeddyCam caught my eye. This fuzzy double agent lets you run reconnaissance on the nursery or keep an eye on that nanny you’ve always wondered about. Through an itty-bitty lens in the nose, TeddyCam wirelessly transmits black-and-white video via the 2.4-GHz band to a receiver that connects to your TV. At $54 it seems like a good idea unless your child actually decides to pick it up and blow your view.

Picture and tip via Sci Fi Tech

Feral Little Diners

If you haven’t been there you should check out The Juggle over at the Wall Street Journal. This blog focuses on the choices and tradeoffs people make as they juggle work and family. The authors are WSJ staff with kids and the pithy subject matter is surpassed only by the great writing.

Jason Fry’s Dining Out with Kids addresses the issue of discipline (or lack of) in restaurants. We’ve all seen it, children roaming free doing as they wish while mom and dad enjoy a quiet dinner. These are the children who “go feral” as Jason and his wife like to call it. While I’d like to say that we impose the same discipline when in restaurants as we do at home, I’d have to say that my wife and I are a fair bit stricter. Universally we consider the experience of those around us above our own. And if we can’t keep things in line with a stern look or concrete threat, there’s always the parking lot. How we teach our children to behave in public determines in part how they see the world around them. And we all have to do our part to cultivate the next generation of great dining citizens.

The comment thread in Jason’s post evolves to discuss public breastfeeding. All the customary lactivist/anti-lactivist rhetoric can be found.