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Ped-E-News

November is American Diabetes Month

November is American Diabetes Month®—a time to shine a spotlight on a serious disease that leads to potentially life-threatening complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and amputation.

This year, we need to take a bolder, more audacious approach to American Diabetes Month. Consider that:

• 24 million children and adults in the United States live with diabetes

• 57 million Americans are at risk for type 2 diabetes

• 1 out of every 3 children born today will face a future with diabetes if current trends continue

We ask you to join the American Diabetes Association in launching a national movement to Stop Diabetes—help us confront it, fight it, and most importantly, stop it. The information found for the article was taken from the ADA website.
http://www.diabetes.org/family-link/home.jsp

For more information about pediatric diabetes care at UTMB Children's Health, please click here.

How to Help Your Child Avoid Overeating During the Holidays

Before a holiday event, eat a snack or light meal. Foods high in protein, like chicken or cottage cheese, help you to eat less later. Fasting ahead of time to leave room for a big meal or extra trips to the buffet may lead you to overeat.

It's important not to let kids eat whatever they want during this festive time of year. In particular, limit the number of sodas your children drink. Soda has little or no nutritional value and is loaded with caffeine and sweeteners. These ingredients, which are found in many holiday goodies, can make your child hyper. Besides, weight gain isn't just an adult issue. Too many children are obese, so don't let your child's holiday fun add excess weight.

If you are hosting a holiday event, do your guests a favor by including healthier items such as vegetables, salad, and fruit on the menu. Use low-calorie and fat-free salad dressings. Putting these items out before the sweets, meats, and soufflés will give everyone a better chance of not overdoing it with high-fat, high-calorie choices.

Look for healthy substitutes for ingredients when you whip up your favorite holiday fare. You may be able to use low-fat or skim milk products instead of whole milk products in some dishes. In some baked goods, you can swap applesauce for oil. Switching ingredients can create tasty results without the high calories that often come with rich foods.

Here are a few more tips for healthy holiday eating:

• Eat smaller portions of food.
• Eat slowly. Savor each bite and enjoy the taste of the food-chances are you will eat less.
• After a meal, go for a walk with your family to see holiday displays in your neighborhood.
• Offer to bring a low-calorie dish to holiday parties. Your host might appreciate it, and you'll know that at least one healthy item will be on hand.
• Don't park yourself in front of the buffet at a party. Mingle! If you stand by the buffet, you'll eat more than you would if it was across the room.
• Avoid fast food. Prepare and freeze quick, healthy meals ahead of time to stay out of the fast food trap.

This information was found on the SAMHSA website:  http://family.samhsa.gov/be/holidayeat.aspx

'Tis the season to be jolly? Not necessarily. For many people the holiday season, which kicks off with Thanksgiving and spans through New Year's, is anything but blissful. In fact, this time of year may trigger a bout of the blues or perhaps ignite a depression that has been smoldering under the surface for months.

"Holiday blues are a pretty common problem despite the fact that as a society, we see the holidays as a joyous time," says Rakesh Jain, MD, director of psychiatric drug research at the R/D Clinical Research Center in Lake Jackson, Texas. "Many people feel depressed, which can be due to the increased stress that comes with the need to shop and the decreased time to exercise which gets put on the back burner during the holidays."

To read more about this, please click here. This article is from the Web M.D. website.

Volume No.1, Issue No. 6

November 16, 2009

Copyright 2009 The University of Texas Medical Branch.
Published by UTMB Department Pediatrics    •   Phone: (409) 772-5273  •   Fax: (409) 772-4599
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