As they say, only in America. Instead of a brand new Malibu Barbie or a shiny pair of Twinkle Toes, seven-year-old Poppy, the child of Sarah Burge (aka the Human Barbie) got something, uh, a bit more unconventional for her birthday. A gift certificate for a boob job.
A self-professed plastic surgery addict, who has reportedly spent close to a million dollars on enhancements, Burge obviously had no moral quandary when it came to her daughter's gift. “Poppy begged me for a boob job, so I gave her the voucher so she can have it after she’s 16, when it’s legal.” She added that, “If she develops naturally big boobs, she can have something else done with it.”
Apparently, Poppy was tickled pink at the idea of implants. “I can’t wait to be like Mummy with big boobs. They’re pretty,” she reportedly said. Obviously if Mother Nature decides to grant Poppy naturally large breasts, then she'll be free to spend the certificate on another procedure(s).
Knowing the mutiny of the mirror, and if Burge has anything to do with it, when puberty strikes its cruel blow, little Poppy is guaranteed to find a multitude of things on her body that need fixing.
Ever feel like you're sleepwalking through your days? Well, maybe you are. According to new research in the journal Nature, just because your eyes are open, doesn't mean you're truly awake or that your brain is functioning properly.
When we’re really sleep deprived, so goes the theory, parts of our brains actually shut down temporarily. We may still be able to go about our daily business of cooking, cleaning, driving the kids to and from school, but behind the scenes some of our neurons are power napping.
Researchers in the study kept rats - whose sleep-wake cycles are very similar to humans - awake for longer periods of time while electrodes in their brains and EEG machines measured their overall brain activity.
The rats looked fully awake, but their brain waves told another story. Segments of neurons registered the slower currents of activity typical in deep sleep. The longer the rats stayed up, the more brain cells entered "sleep mode".
We tend to think of our brains as having an ON/OFF switch. We are either soundly asleep or fully awake. Now we know the reality is not so cut and dry. During the sleep-deprived haze experienced when you welcome home a newborn baby, you tend to forget things. Everything goes in slow motion. We call the phenomenon 'mommy brain' and accept that it will pass, eventually.
But sleep deprivation can chronically impair our ability to function. It may be a symptom of modern times and an unavoidable part of parenthood, yet we ought to do more to safeguard our precious sleep.
Contrary to popular belief, most of us can't truly thrive on fewer than six hours' sleep each night. When infants repeatedly lack their quota of sleep, their physical and mental development is affected.
Tips for more z's include minimizing consumption of alcohol and caffeine, as well as switching off all screens at least an hour before "lights out". What are your top tips for a sound night's sleep?
Image Credit: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
"
Researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., are rejecting plans to introduce routine screening for detecting autism in children. "There is not enough sound evidence to support the implementation of a routine population-based screening program for autism," said researchers in an online edition of the Journal of Pediatrics.
According to Dr. Jan Willem Gorter, a researcher in McMaster's CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research and associate professor of pediatrics, there are no effective screening tools currently in place, even though the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended that screening for autism be included as part of a child's regular physician check-up, regardless of whether parents have reported a concern.
A neurodevelopmental disorder with major life-altering implications, autism -- or the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) -- has a wide-ranging list of early symptoms from social, communication skills, fine and gross motor skills and sometimes intellectual skills.
In the past thirty years, autism has become more prevalent (from 0.8 cases per 1,000 to 11 cases per 1,000 school-aged children). That increase is due, in part, to improved detection and changes in the way the disorder is diagnosed. Autism is more common in males with a 4:1 male-to-female ratio.
Still, McMaster researchers maintain the current procedures are not accurate or adequate enough to make a case for routine screening as held by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"None of the autism screening tests currently available has been shown to be able to fulfill the properties of accuracy, namely high sensitivity, high specificity, and high predictive value (proportion of patients with positive test results who are diagnosed correctly) in a population-wide screening program," researchers said.
At this time, researchers viewed community screening of preschoolers as premature. Until screening measures improve, parents and medical staff are encouraged to carefully assess all preschoolers who show signs of language, social and cognitive problems.
Printer-friendly version