Search Results for: blog the desensitization of children

Exposing Children to Catastrophes

This past weekend has been very difficult, to witness the devastation and loss in Japan. It has been heart-wrenching but a good reminder of how precious life is and how much we need to make the most of the time we have. I was listening to a caller on a radio station who was expressing his thoughts on how much exposure our children should receive with catastrophes such as this. Some parents feel children should be sheltered from these horrors but other parents such as the caller, believe that children need to face reality. I tend to lean more toward … Continue reading →

The Desensitization of Children

My son came home with tragic news yesterday. A 7th grade teacher at his middle school didn’t report in and when relatives were sent to his house, he was discovered on the floor dead. So far we don’t know the cause of his death. He was only in his 40’s but if I were to guess I would bet it was a heart attack. I don’t know the teacher and my son is only in 6th grade so he didn’t know him either. But it really shook me up. First, the fact that the man was only in his 40’s … Continue reading →

Developing Cat Allergies in Adulthood

Here’s an even better reason to expose your children to pets at an early age: adults never exposed to them have a higher chance of developing allergies if they get pets. A team from the University Hospital of Verona (in Italy) studied more than 6,000 adults twice in nine years. It found that people who had never lived with cats before, and then adopted them in adulthood, doubled their chances of becoming allergic to the cat. The chances were even higher if the adults had other allergies or asthma. The process of becoming allergic to something when previously you weren’t … Continue reading →

Are Teens Desensitized?

When catastrophes happen, do teens really grasp the horror or tragedy of the event? Some experts don’t think so because they believe that most teens have become desensitized. There are a number of ways that teens can become desensitized—the media, video games and just the general violence that surrounds us. It has become really no big deal when someone dies; it’s just another typical everyday event. About a month ago my daughter mentioned they were learning about the Holocaust in school. They watched some kind of movie or documentary (not sure exactly what it was) and my daughter couldn’t believe … Continue reading →

Have an Egg Allergy? Eat Cake!

Similar to the heated milk study from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, a group of researchers from the University of Athens looked at a way to desensitize children with egg allergies. The study looked at nearly a hundred children under the age of four who were referred to the food allergy department at the University of Athens. More than half the children had been diagnosed with an egg allergy after eating eggs; the rest of the children showed sensitivity to eggs in skin tests. Many of the participants also had some form of eczema (a chronic itchy and/or scaly rash). … Continue reading →

Helping Your Child with Hypersensitive Gagging

The gag reflex is designed to be a normal response of the mouth and throat, to prevent your baby from swallowing foreign objects or getting food trapped in the airway. When a child gags, the reflex pushes the food off the back of the tongue and forward out of the mouth. Infants usually have an automatic gag response when the back of the tongue is touched, as part of this natural protection nature provides. Yet ideally, as the child progresses from liquids to strained foods to solids, the gagging reflex diminishes. For some children with disabilities, however, the gagging continues … Continue reading →

The Grooming Process of a Child Sexual Predator.

Grooming is a process of desensitization that predators use on children to prepare and trick them into accepting sexual abuse. Once the predator has gained the child’s trust and confidence, they use everyday behaviours, like telling an inappropriate joke, a touch on the upper arm that lingers a little too long or a kiss on the lips to test whether your child is likely to tell on them. If the perpetrator is satisfied that your child won’t tell, the predator moves onto other forms of bad touching. If the child still doesn’t tell, then the abuse continues along the continuum … Continue reading →