NEWSBITES FOR KIDZ™ Jan. 31 2005
This is what kids all over the world did last
fortnight!
The power of
prejudice -Learning colorful lessons �Indiana, USA
Mideast peace
dependent on children, priest believes
Kids flout fatwa
�Bengal, India
School-children donate
Rs 15,12,000 [$34,619.35 USD] to PM's Nat'l Relief Fund- Delhi, India
Students give to
tsunami relief �Maryland, USA
Huckaby: My life as
a chauffeur for my kids
http://onlineathens.com/stories/013005/fea_20050130077.shtml
What's best for the
kids �After the Tsunami
Pester power pays
off for kids
Alliance fights for the
right to plug kids' food- Michigan, USA
Kids and Yoga for
Perfect Harmony� -Oregon, USA
New disease
threatens kids �Arizona, USA
Montreal firm's kids
books put children in their own stories -Canada
Talented children
shine� -Bahrain
Red faces at Blue Peter
over red hand Guardian
The power of prejudice -Learning
colorful lessons �
Kids find
out that discrimination stinks, is hurtful
By Lisa Renze-Rhodes
�
http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/211313-9552-128.html
Teacher Julie Vairo works with Brianna Richardson during class. Students
in Vairo's class were assigned to be brown or white
eggs and experience prejudice firsthand. -- Joe Vitti
/ The Star
A nation
where children are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of
their character, was a dream given voice by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in
late August 1963.
More than
40 years later, the hopes of the slain civil rights leader and of the millions
for whom he spoke are hard to translate into ideas that first-graders can
understand.
But what
about not being able to play with a good friend at recess just because she has
a different color construction-paper egg hanging around her neck?
Or how
about not being able to answer a question in class because you don't have the
right color egg -- meaning the teacher won't call on you?
Students
in Julie Vairo's class at Fall Creek Elementary used
words like sad and angry to sum up the preferential treatment.
Which is exactly the response Vairo
wanted.
On
Tuesday, as students returned from having Martin Luther King Jr. Day off and
entered her brightly decorated classroom, Vairo gave
them pieces of black yarn with either a brown or white paper egg dangling from
the string.
Half the
day, the brown eggs could do no wrong, even getting to sit atop their desks
while watching a video.
The other
half of the day, the white-egged students got to answer questions during a
favorite lesson and seemed to bask in their teacher's attention.
Finally,
with the experiment drawing to a close, Vairo
distributed hard-boiled brown and white eggs to the students, who sat
cross-legged in a circle on the classroom floor.
"Everybody,
look at these two eggs," Vairo said as she held
aloft one of each color. "What's the difference between the two?"
A chorus
of "the color" came from the children.
"Now,
crack them open," Vairo instructed. "Are
they the same inside?"
Slowly
the little fingers worked to get hold of the shells, and one-by-one they
answered Vairo's question, "yeah."
"Did
recess kind of stink because I wouldn't let you play with some of your
friends?" she asked.
More
"yeahs" come from the crowd.
The
moral, of course, is exactly what King was teaching 40 years ago.
And the
message wasn't lost on the young students.
"Sometimes
she treated us nice, and it made us happy," said white-egged Cameron
Scott, 6. "But she let the brown eggs sit on top of their desks, (and) she
made us sit in our chairs. I wanted to sit on top because that's really
cool."
When his
requests were ignored, Cameron said, "I feeled
sad."
Brown-egged
Ashley Mager lamented that her attempt to answer a
question during the fun daily language exercises went unnoticed.
"I
had my hand up the whole time," said Ashley, 7.
Nicole
Cooper, a fellow brown-egger, saw the big picture.
"Brown
people and white people are the same," the 7-year-old-said. "Just the
color of their skin is different."
Mideast
peace dependent on children, priest believes
Education
region's best hope, Palestinian-born Israeli says
By Mary Giunca
JOURNAL
REPORTER
Saturday,
January 22, 2005
The Rev.
Elias Chacour, a Palestinian-born Israeli citizen and
Catholic priest, said this week that after years of fighting in his homeland,
he believes that children are the best hope for peace.
That's
why Chacour recently arranged a field trip with a
neighboring Jewish school in
The real
work is to reconcile adults, he said.
Chacour will give a talk called "Building Peace on the
Desktops of Students" at 1 p.m. today in
Chacour is a priest in the Melkite
Catholic Church, and is the president and founder of Mar Elias Educational
Institutions, a school for young people from a variety of faiths in Ibillin, an Arab village in the Galilee region of
"We
have tried all kinds of power, oppression and denial and none of that
worked," Chacour said of various efforts to
bring peace to the region.
He said
that he has come to realize that education is the best tool to introduce
children to each other, and to help them discover that when they are together,
they are neither Palestinian nor Jew. They are just children, he said.
Rabbi
Mark Strauss-Cohn of
"I
think he's absolutely right," Strauss-Cohn said. "We start with the
children, and if the kids can do it, then hopefully, we can as well."
Once
people are brought together, they tend to make personal connections and usually
find it difficult to view each other as enemies, he said.
"You
start with the children, but there has to be both that personal connection that
we create with our children," Strauss-Cohn said, "but the adults have
to do it as well."
In his
books, Blood Brothers, and We Belong to the Land, Chacour
chronicled his own journey toward understanding the region's tangled history. Chacour was born in Arab Palestine in 1939. When he was 8
years old, Israeli authorities evicted his entire village. He was granted
Israeli citizenship in 1948.
Chacour has often been the object of controversy. He has
supported the rights of Palestinians; the Palestinian Liberation Organization
kidnapped him in 1975. Nevertheless, Chacour said he
does not believe in retaliation.
"We
need to give something better to the world," he said, "than the
insane hostility that is only producing martyrs on both sides."
Kids flout fatwa �
Asim Pramanik
Statesman News Service
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=67090
BEJPARA (Murshidabad), Jan. 29. � This year, 26
January was a watershed for Murshidabad�s Bejpara village. For the first time in the history of the
Republic, villagers were able to sing, dance, hold a march-past with the Tricolour, defying the fundamentalists� fatwa,
that bans cultural functions.
The credit goes largely to school children, who couldn�t care less for the
decree issued by the Imam of the local mosque.
Apart from dispelling the darkness of ignorance, the flag virtually proclaimed
the defeat of the fundamentalists, who issued a ban on performance of music,
dance, parade, etc. by children, especially girls.
The world�s largest functional democracy stood stationary at Bejpara, where no one could ever take part in singing or
any sort of musical performance. Lending voice to the tune of harmonium was an
offence, more so when jazzing up to the beats of tabla
and drums or to the play of recorded music.
Though for the stage performance, no musical instruments were allowed to
accompany the child artistes of the
Education department officials, led by the District Inspector (SE), Mr Subhendu Ghosh,
declared that they have made a list of the villages where television is banned
and the cultural performance dubbed an enemy to society. They made an appeal to
come up with social awareness programmes.
The headmaster of
The SFI district president, Mr Jamir
Molla, who is also the secretary of the school�s
managing committee and hails from the area, admitted that there was problem
indeed. �We can�t deny that many tried to dislodge the school authority�s
attempt to organise the Republic Day programmes. In consultation with the dissenters, we reached
a consensus and organised the programmes.
We hope to win over the fundamentalist elements soon.�
School-children donate Rs 15,12,000 [$34,619.35 USD] to PM's Nat'l Relief
http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=63214
[India
News]: New Delhi, Jan 21 : Children from five public schools in Delhi and one
in Haryana today joined the massive task of tsunami
relief by donating Rs 15,12,000 to the Prime
Minister's National Relief Fund which now
stood at a whopping Rs 548 crore.
The
children donated their pocket money supplemented by donations from their
parents and teachers to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
here today.
The
children from
The
generous contributions from across the country, symbolising
the national spirit of support and care for the tsunami victims, were continuing
to pour into the Prime Ministers' National Relief Fund, he said.
"The
donations being received for the PMNRF at the PMO are unprecedented with the
total receipts so far being Rs 548 crores", he added. PTI
Students give to tsunami relief �
By Pete Macinta, Daily Banner
HURLOCK -
Despite a few days off from school, the coins keep rolling in for the
A large
collection jar is located in the main office of the school. Near the main
entrance to the school, a bulletin board displays brief facts about the
disaster.
News
pictures from
A most
touching photograph depicts a little boy and girl sharing a plastic container
of water.
A simple
definition of the word tsunami is centered on the display. It reads, "A
great sea wave produced by an earthquake or a volcano eruption under the
sea."
At the
bottom of the display is a graphic that shows the epicenter of the earthquake,
with concentric circles moving away from it and reaching the nations affected
by the tsunami.
Some
students came by to drop coins in the big bottle and explained why they
contributed.
Austin
Myers said, "I want to help them so they can get money to buy more houses
and get more money and buy food and shelter."
"They
are poor and the tsunami hit them with a big wave. A bunch of people lost their
lives, and a bunch lost their house, their money and their car," said Gamalire Alvia.
Shakyra Jones said, "They lost their children and they
lost a lot of stuff. They lost their people and their family."
The drive
began the beginning of January and will continue until the end of the month.
The money will be donated to either Save the Children or UNICEF.
The
entire student body is participating in the effort and area residents are
welcome to donate to the school's jar in the main office.
The
school promotes a worthwhile cause almost every month. There was a food drive
in November, and a mitten tree for December.
A
lymphoma penny drive is slated next.
Huckaby:
My life as a chauffeur for my kids
http://onlineathens.com/stories/013005/fea_20050130077.shtml
Do you
ever feel like your only purpose on Earth is to chauffeur your children around?
Me too. My entire schedule seems to revolve around where my
kids need to be - and when. Swim practice, piano lessons, basketball games,
church activities - and they never go anywhere alone. They are like stray dogs.
They always seem to travel in packs and their friends always seem to live in the
exact opposite direction of the place we're going.
For 20
years I drove about 70 miles, round trip, to work and back every day. Now I
live less than a mile from my school and am putting more miles on my car than
ever.
Don't get
me wrong. I love my kids and enjoy being with them, even during a short trip to
the swimming pool or church, but I don't think the feeling is mutual.
You can
forget conversation when you're in the car. That might interfere with the
radio. And if they don't like the station I am listening to, no problem. They
just put on their headsets and listen to their own electronic contraption.
And when
I go by and pick up a friend, my own kid will get in the back seat with the
friend. Does that ever happen to you?
"Yes,
sir," I feel like saying. "Very good, sir. Where to next, my lord?"
I feel
like I should run around the car and open the back door to let them out. Of
course, a chauffeur gets much better tips.
It was
different back when I was a kid. My mama had a favorite saying that she would
use whenever I wanted to go somewhere within a five-mile radius. "Walking ain't crowded." And she was right. It wasn't.
Folks
just don't walk like they used to. We used to walk to school every day, for
instance, which is something my kids have never done, even though we live a lot
closer to their schools than I lived to the school in Porterdale.
It never
crossed my parents' minds to drive me to school. I just got up every morning
and went. If the weather was cold, I would wear my brown leather jacket and
that funny little leather cap - the one with the fur-lined flaps that came down
over my ears and buckled under my chin. If it rained I wore a yellow slicker
and goulashes. The raincoat had a separate hood that fastened under the chin,
too. We were big on fastening things under the chin.
We didn't
just walk to school, either. We walked to Boy Scouts and Little League practice
and Sunday school. We'd also walk to the store and to our friends' houses and,
sometimes, we would walk just for the sake of walking.
Of course
we had sidewalks in Porterdale, which made walking a
lot more convenient, and there wasn't as much meanness back then. Truth be
known, I would be afraid to have my kids walk the places they need to go, even
if they were so inclined. I would be worried to death that something might
happen to them. They might step out in front of a car or get snatched up - or
worse.
It's kind
of funny, really - and a little sad. We try so hard to give our children a
better life than we had and a better world to live in, but truth be known, I
don't think we are even coming close - at least not in some very important
ways.
But I
really should leave well enough alone. I already have one child with her own
car, and that brings up a whole 'nother set of
problems. And my boy Jackson will be 16 in a couple of months, so maybe being a
chauffeur for my children isn't such a nuisance after all.
Let me
get my keys, kids.
� Darrell
Huckaby is an educator, author and public speaker.
Contact him at [email protected].
What's best for the kids �After the Tsunami
By Jeswant Kaur
Jan 30:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
�
http://www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/MM/Sunday/National/20050130113619/Article/index_html
Children
orphaned because of the tsunami are best left with those who have suffered
similar fate as both child and foster family will be able to relate to their
loss, writes JESWANT KAUR
CHILDREN
the world over who are affected by poverty, wars or calamities must be allowed
to grieve over their loss without being uprooted from their country of birth.
Cross-border adoption of such children should be the last resort.
After
disastrous situations like the December 26 tsunami, the desire to care for
children who have been orphaned by the calamity does little to help the
affected children deal with the tragedy.
United
Nations Children's Fund or Unicef
representative to
Phillips
adds that while there is place for international adoption, it must be mutually
agreed upon by both countries.
"This
is very important because it puts in place a legal framework and all the
protective mechanisms if there is a government-to-government agreement. Within
that framework, there may be occasions where adopting children and uprooting
them from their birth country is in the best interest of the child. This is
decided by a number of people, including the child if he or she is old enough.
Otherwise it is the parents, guardian or the state that will act as loco parentis.
However,
experiences have shown that cross-border adoption could be traumatic for both
the children and foster families, says Phillips.
"In
In the
case of Aceh, the Indonesian government has said no
to international adoption and it is its right to do so, being the sovereign
government. The Indonesian government has made it clear that it will find ways
to protect the children and would ask for international help if need be.
Phillips
said the tsunami aftermath has also exposed children in this disaster hit
countries to unscrupulous and criminal exploitation.
"One
of the aims of our Millennium Development Goals is to protect children from
violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination of any sort.
"The most vulnerable will be those who have lost their parents or
have been separated from their families. Concerned about the prospect of child
trafficking, the Indonesian government put a temporary moratorium in children
under-16 from Aceh travelling
outside the country without a parent. The government also put a temporary
moratorium on the adoption of children from Aceh
until all children can be properly identified and the process of family tracing
is completed." She adds: "The people are still looking for their
loved ones and need to go through the process of finding them or burying them
if they are found dead. They need to have a closure of some sort before moving
on with life." Phillips says Unicef
was amazed to see that for all the damage that had taken place, the Acehnese were not disengaged from life.
"People
are getting back with their lives, creating some sense of reality before the
tsunami hit. "The calamity has destroyed the
tangible stuff but it failed to do any damage to the intangible side of the Acehnese. That is why we often see people looking for
personal belongings, like photo albums, after a fire, as a way of regaining a
sense of reality that once existed
Pester power pays off for kids
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1395832,00.html
Sandra Haurant
Friday
January 21, 2005
British
children and teenagers use "pester power" to get twice as much in
pocket money and handouts as their
Spanish
counterparts, according to a report published today.
Analysts
at research firm Datamonitor said that, in 2003, kids
in the
And kids
are in for a considerable pay rise over the coming years. According to Datamonitor, by 2008, 10- to 17-year-olds in the
Lawrence
Gould, consumer markets analyst at Datamonitor, said:
"Parents are increasingly prepared to give in to the demands of their
children, a phenomenon known as pester power."
|
Daniel
Acker / Bloomberg News
|
Lobbying group makes a concerted effort to deflect
|
� What: Small industry group
that monitors children's ads. � Guidelines: Food companies
should advertise truthfully and accurately to children, using appropriate
messages children should understand. � Age restrictions: None. |
Under pressure from legislators and advocacy groups to curb
advertising to children, food companies and ad agencies have created a lobbying
group to defend the right to advertise to kids.
The new group, the
The alliance includes three giant food companies -- Battle Creek-based
Kellogg Co., General Mills Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. They
rank as the top three advertisers of packaged-foods to children, by virtue of
their breakfast cereals, with combined annual spending on kids' ads that
approaches $380 million in the
The alliance's purpose, according to Wally Snyder, president and chief
of the American Advertising Federation, another alliance member, is to defend
the industry's First Amendment rights to advertise to children and to promote
its willingness to police itself.
The alliance is wading into territory most food companies have taken
pains to avoid.
In a one-page position statement, the alliance disputes that there is
a link between advertising and childhood obesity.
While the alliance members all want to fend off government regulation,
there are already divisions forming over tactics.
Earlier this month, Kraft announced that it would stop running print,
radio and TV advertising for products such as Oreos and Chips Ahoy! aimed at 6- to 11-year-olds.
Kids and Yoga for Perfect Harmony� -
By Jane Sauls�
Staff
Writer / SouthernOregonNews.com�
9:55 pm
PT, Saturday, Jan 29, 2005
Area yoga
buffs say parents and children alike can benefit from a family's youngest
members getting in touch with their inner little selves while improving
balance, flexibility and relaxation skills.
"I
taught all three of my kids to do yoga and I catch them using the stretches and
positions just to relax around the house," said Talent resident Val Copriati.
"Since
they could walk they've been copying me during yoga sessions with friends. Most
people see it on TV and they roll their eyes. My kids see it and they are
interested in what new pose that person is showing. They have to go try and do
what they saw."
Copriati said she jumped full swing into daily yoga as a busy
real estate agent in her 20s. Three kids later - four-year-old Dustin,
seven-year-old Riley and nine-year-old Corey - Copriati
said the techniques she's honed over the years are equally as, if not more so,
helpful in the rat race of everyday.
Everyday,
for Copriati, means soccer coaching, PTO, Boy Scout
activities, ballet, basketball practice, caring for the Persian cats she breeds
in her home and church activities.
An
ancient science and philosophy that has been practiced for thousands of years,
yoga for adults has long been known to have numerous benefits. Yoga� popularity in
children has increased drastically in recent years and can be found in after
school programs, special education classes, pre-schools and daycares.
"I
find myself needing it more now than when I had a full-time career. It keeps us
balanced," said
Todd said
she first gave yoga a try as an adult when her now six-year-old daughter Haylie was given a yoga tape by a grandparent when she was
just four.
"It
was something fun to do together... she loved the upbeat music the video had.
We were on the floor together stretching and laughing. When we did the whole
video, she slept so well at night that I decided to pick up some mommy yoga. Of
course, she does mine with me now, too."
Benefits
for kids who do yoga - or simply attempt yoga but manage in the least to switch
to a lower gear - include strength, flexibility, ability to focus, connecting
with oneself, knowing how to self-sooth, and balance and harmony.
Children
with health considerations like hyperactivity or weight problems can especially
benefit by taking the time to slow down and focus on their bodies and minds.
"Heck
yes kids are feeling the stress their parents are under," said
"It's
just as important for them to learn to cool things down at the end of a hectic
day. Parents might have work and home responsibilities, but aside from their
children feeling the stress that Mom and Dad go through, kids have school to
keep up with, extra curricular and just the stress of things going on in their
world."
For kids,
publishers are offering an increasing selection of yoga books and videos for
the smallest of yoga fans. While adults learn positions like cat, dog or tree, kids perfect poses entitled kitten, puppy and sapling.
Other
programs offer up colorful names and music for traditional poses. For example,
under a program dubbed Yoga4Kids, the traditional "downward-facing
dog" pose becomes kid-friendly by the addition of big puppy feet, wagging
tails and barking.
�Locally, classes are routinely available at
area yoga studios, specially scheduled for kids who want to come with a parent, and
Nationwide,
Target and Wal-Mart stores have introduced a YogaKids
program consisting of books and videos for parents and children to do together.
Wherever
they get it, Todd encouraged moms and dads to try it with their children.
"Even
if they rent a yoga tape at the movie store, they'll notice the benefits
immediately. There are days when my kids know before I do that we should do a
session before we call it a day. It's a great sense of balance for all of
us."
Parents
interested in finding yoga for their children should call area yoga studios or
search online for Kids and Yoga.
On the
web: Yoga Kids International, www.yogakids.com
New disease threatens kids �
Two
By Carla
McClain
�
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/printDS/59173.php
Learn
more and get help
�
RISK
FACTORS
�
● Some factors put children at higher risk for eosinophilic disease. Among them:
�
● Early introduction of solid foods in infancy.
�
● A gastrointestinal infection early in life.
�
●
Genetic susceptibility: Food allergies tend to cluster in families.
�
IS IT
NEW?
�
● Is this disease really new? Or has it been around for years,
just recently discovered?
�
"It's
probably existed for a very long time," said Dr. Fayez Ghishan,
director of the UA's Steele Children's
�
Disagreeing,
Dr. Jonathan Markowitz - a pediatric
gastroenterologist at The Children's
�
Just why
this "mother of all food allergies," as one physician dubbed it,
would show up at the end of the 20th century is the stuff of myriad theories.
�
A
favorite is "the hygiene theory," which many believe explains the
coexisting rise in childhood asthma rates. In brief, the widespread use of
antiseptics and antibacterials has left our immune
systems unchallenged by common germs, making us likely to overreact to those we
encounter. This may be related to lung and digestive allergies, Markowitz said.
�
Or
plastic food packaging or household chemicals may be affecting our immune
systems.
�
GET HELP
�
● If you think your child might have EE or EG, contact the
local support group by e-mail: eosinophilic
[email protected]
�
● For more information on eosinophilic
disorders, visit these Web sites:
�
●
www.cincinnatichildrens.org
�
●
www.chop.edu
�
�
As they
dug into the heaping plates of pasta smothered in melted cheese and spicy
tomato sauce, the small boy watched, his dark eyes
wide and wondering.
�
He
reached out, put his finger gently on the food, then
in his mouth. He wanted to eat.
�
But
3-year-old Anthony Bianchi has not eaten any food for four months. No one knows
if he will ever again be able to take food through his mouth.
�
The boy
is the
�
By one
estimate, some 22,000 American children may be affected. They fail to thrive -
and many doctors don't know why. Some don't even know this disease exists, much
less how to treat it.
�
"In
�
Though it
took nearly two years to figure out, what Anthony Bianchi has is a disease
called eosinophilic gastroenteritis, or EG. It is an
especially severe form of what is known as the eosinophilic
disorders - inflammation of the digestive tract caused by huge numbers of
allergy-related white blood cells, known as eosinophils.
�
�
Linked to
severe allergies to multiple foods, EG may be triggered or worsened by airborne
allergies, experts say. That is why
�
"In
certain areas of the country where there is cross-sensitivity with
aero-allergens - as in
�
One of
the first physicians in
�
In
Anthony's case, the eosinophils are attacking his
entire digestive tract. In the more common, less severe, but still disabling
cases, eosinophils strike only the lower end of the
esophagus, causing eosinophilic esophagitis,
or "EE."
�
Only one
�
The
debate is stirring nationally over why this disease is appearing now, and why
it is on the rise. No one yet knows, though some are linking it to the
skyrocketing rates of childhood asthma.
�
"Very
quickly, Sam went from a normal 5-year-old - playing, active, happy - to
chronic stomach pain, vomiting, pale, winded and weak," said Michelle Racioppo, whose 7-year-old son has EE. "Every week I
had to take him home from school, he was so sick.
�
"He
was tested over and over, but everything came back normal. None of the drugs
they tried worked for him - they only caused him more pain."
�
Symptoms
similar to reflux
�
What
confounds and confuses so many doctors is that the symptoms of EE and EG -
nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, choking, cramping, diarrhea, weight loss -
almost exactly mimic a much more well-known problem - acid reflux disease, or
chronic heartburn.
�
Fairly
common in children and adults, reflux occurs when stomach acid backs up to the
esophagus, causing burning and irritation.
�
That's
what Anthony's and Sam's doctors thought the children had. They treated them
for it, with zero success.
�
"We
could not figure out why he was failing, why he wasn't growing, and why nothing
we did could help him," said Dr. Eve Shapiro, a
�
Finally,
she referred the boy to Ghishan, who immediately
suspected an eosinophilic disorder after preliminary
tests suggested Anthony was hypersensitive to nearly a dozen foods.
�
"I
had never seen a patient with this before," Shapiro said, noting that one
�
Though
Anthony finally was getting back on the right track, his mother, Denise - who
by now had taken a two-month leave of absence from her job to research her
son's illness - knew he needed more help than
�
"He
needs a team of doctors on this - a gastrointestinal specialist, an allergist,
a nutritionist, and they all need to be in the same room, working together with
him," she said. "That is not happening in
�
Nor is
�
Help in
�
At this
point, only two
�
"My
husband and I just said we're going," said Racioppo,
a mother of two. "We had to. This is our son's life."
�
However,
the family's insurance denied coverage for out-of-state treatment. It was not
until that decision was overturned in a rare move by the Arizona Department of
Insurance that they could afford to go. A letter of support from their
�
"I
just told them that, in
�
Left
undiagnosed and untreated, EE eventually will scar and thicken the esophagus,
making it painful and difficult to swallow.
�
"The
food pipe stiffens and narrows, the way the little airways constrict when you
have asthma," Ghishan said.
�
Even the
test needed to confirm an eosinophilic diagnosis - a
lab count of eosinophils in tissue biopsies taken
during an endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal
tract - is rarely done in most cities.
�
In
�
For Anthony,
with his entire gut inflamed, that meant an extreme elimination diet - no food
at all for at least eight months. He is nourished only by a pure amino acid
liquid formula via a tube in his stomach.
�
If
further tests show his eosinophils dropping, he will
begin to eat again - but only one food at a time, to see what, if any, he can
tolerate.
�
"Food
is his enemy," said his mother, Denise. She and her husband have three
other children. "But it's so hard. He wants food. It's heartbreaking when
we sit down to dinner and he sees all of us eating - he wants to be part of
that. So he climbs in my lap and tries to feed me."
�
She's had
to put locks on their kitchen cabinets, because Anthony will sneak in and steal
food - and get sick every time.
�
Things
are not quite as tough for Sam, with his less severe EE. He can eat some
things, but no gluten, potatoes, apples, pears, peas or lamb. No broccoli, no
pizza, no chocolate, no sugars, no processed foods.
�
The
bottom line is, it's working. Both children are at
full weight and growing again. Their stomach pains are gone. They don't throw
up everything. They are active, full of energy. They have strength.
�
Their
mothers think of their boys as "pioneers" whose stories will help
those sure to follow.
�
"We
are in a whole different world than we were a year ago," Michelle Racioppo said. "And I know there are parents in this
town this minute, seeing these things happen to their children, who are
desperate for answers."
Updated at 14:14 on January 29, 2005, EST.
And they
do it again every time they crack open their copies of a new series of
personalized children's books produced by Printakid,
a
"My favourite part of the book was when Sniffy
dragged me into the Christmas ball," said
"She
liked it when our big brother was saying funny stuff" in the story,
"When
they opened them Christmas morning, they were really excited," said a
pleased Kelly. "I anticipated that reaction and I was right."
The other
titles in the six-volume series are The Robots of Sedna,
Laughing All the Way to School, A Fantastic Birthday and In the Kingdom of Nevernight.
The books
are the brainchild of Noemi Berlus
and her husband Christian Roy. Berlus hit on the idea
when she was trying to find something for her goddaughter but didn't see
anything in stores that particularly addressed mixed-race children.
"I
couldn't find anything that was culturally interesting, was educational, that
would help raise her self-esteem," said Berlus
at the family company's east-end office.
It
occurred to her that there are a lot of kids out there in different situations
that aren't tapped by publishers. Kids raised by
grandparents or in single-parent families, for instance.
"I
have friends from different backgrounds with last names or first names that are
not commonly found in books," she continued, saying she wondered
"Isn't there a way we can make a book for them?"
That's
when Printakid was born. Berlus
wrote some stories but the bulk of the tale-spinning is done by Roy, who she
describes as having "a youthful spirit."
Stories
and art in the Printakid books are tailored to
reflect the child's situation.
"They're
really able to identify themselves with the character because it's them,"
said Berlus. "There's still space for the
imagination, though, because they look at the character and the character has
the same colour hair, the same colour
eyes but it's not a portrait of the child.
"It's
just a child that looks like them, that has the same name and same family
members and friends."
Berlus said 9,000 different combinations of children and
families can be represented and efforts are being made to include handicapped
children.
"Even
though this product was started with the idea that we wanted to represent
children that didn't have books in mainstream publishing, the majority of our
customers are traditional North Americans, if you can call them that, with fair
skin, and brown or blond hair and two parents."
"Their
kids can see themselves in their stories and parents are craving to find
something that can compete with all the plastic, all the toys and the
electronic stuff that kids have that don't necessarily give a positive
experience."
The books
aim to teach a lesson or boost self-esteem through their content, and they come
in a choice of reading levels, for kids three-to-six years old and seven-to-10.
The books cost $29.99 and story CDs are also available along with a selection
of toys, cards and wrapping.
Most
personalized children's books already on the market have just had the child's
name inserted into a story which has generic art.
The Printakid books, which have been
available in French for about a year and in English since just before
Christmas, have been shipped across
"It's
boomed," said Berlus. "There's been a need
out there, not only from kids who are different but from kids who have
different friends, who want to see their name in the story with their parents, with
the names of family members, with the names of their friends."
Kelly
Walsh thought the books would be a unique Christmas gift for her sisters.
"I
thought it was neat that they would see their names and they would characterize
them all according to their personalities," she said.
"The
characters are overcoming a lot and succeeding in a lot of their story lines so
it's a good thing for kids to be reading."
Their dad
Graeham Walsh also liked the book because it's tough
to find personalized items with his younger daughter's name.
"It
was interesting for Shalee because it's not a common
name," he said. "We've never seen anything the way Shalee spells her name.
"I
think it was pretty neat for both her and for me to see her name in the
book," he said, adding: "It was kind of neat to see my name in
there."
Mother
Li-Ling Lin liked the fact that her kids could identify with the characters so
closely.
"I
found the book is very personal," she said. "It's their story instead
of anybody's story. They can identify their siblings and their mother and
father. They can clearly imagine it."
Berlus gave up a successful career as a globe-trotting
management consultant to become a publisher for the wee set. She doesn't regret
it.
"There's
nothing more heartwarming as giving this to a child and looking in their eyes
and seeing them receive this," she said.
"I've
never had a CEO hug me. It's very gratifying."
�
The
Canadian Press, 2005�
Talented children shine�
-
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=103135&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=27316
THE final
elimination round for the Children's Arts and Literature Competition's theatre
category was held last night at the Salman Cultural
Centre, in Gudaibiya.
Hundreds
of children, aged seven to 18, initially entered the competition that started
last month.
Names of
the children who came through last night's elimination round will be announced
in the GDN tomorrow.
Other
competition categories include creative and journalistic writing, poetry,
music, web design, photography and art.
An awards
ceremony for the winners of the competition will be held on March 16 at the
All winning
entries will go on display at the museum at the ceremony.
The
competition falls under the umbrella of the Third Children's Arts and
Literature Festival, which is being held under the theme Who Am I?
The theme
was chosen to encourage children to explore and express their inner selves.
The
festival is being held under the patronage of Her Highness Shaikha
Hala bint Daij Al Khalifa, wife of Crown
Prince and BDF Commander-in-Chief Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Other
festival activities include the Edutainment Expo, being held from April 11 to
May 6 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre, and Book For All, which is being held in celebration of World Book
Day on April 23.
Red faces at Blue Peter over red hand Guardian