Chewy chocolate date balls

These chocolate date balls are full of unprocessed goodness and their chewy texture is reminiscent of melty, tongue-dance-worthy chocolate truffles.

 

Try coating them in different sprinkles such as coconut, dried fruit, chia seeds and hemp seeds.

Ingredients (makes 24 balls)

•    1 cup soaked, pitted Medjool dates
•    1 cup nuts (pecan, walnut, almond, Brazil, or a mix)
•    ¼ cup unsweetened natural coconut
•    Organic 72% chocolate (for coating)
•    Extra coconut or favourite seeds (optional, for coating)

What you’ll do:
Place dates, nuts and coconut in food processor and process until a thick paste forms – not too smooth but almost like chunky nut butter. Collect heaped teaspoons of mixture and form balls between your palms.

Melt chocolate on stove or in microwave and dip truffles to coat or half coat. You may choose to roll them in coconut or nut pieces or leave as is.

For straight date balls, roll while slightly sticky at room temperature in coconut or nuts.

Keep in an airtight container or freeze until needed. They get chewier in the freezer and don’t freeze to rock hard.

Nutritional value: 10 kJ; 5 g carbs; 3.5 g sugar

Recipe from Rita Catolino, yourbeautyfuel.com

NEXT: Coconut quinoa balls>>

 

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Flu Shot a Must for Moms-to-Be

MONDAY, Sept. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Catching the flu early in pregnancy doubles the risk of having a baby with a serious birth defect, which is why getting a flu shot is so important for women who are expecting, the March of Dimes warns.

But despite the protection offered by flu vaccination, only half of all pregnant women in the United States get a flu shot every year.

“The annual flu shot should be a priority in prenatal care,” Dr. Edward McCabe, chief medical officer at the March of Dimes, said in a news release from the organization. “Health care providers should offer all their pregnant patients a flu shot each year and if they don’t offer it, then women should ask for it.”

Now is the time for pregnant women to make an appointment for a flu shot to ensure they get vaccinated early in the flu season, McCabe said.

Pregnant women should receive the flu shot and not the nasal spray vaccine, which is made with the live flu virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The March of Dimes said along with getting a flu shot, pregnant women can reduce their risk of flu by limiting contact with others who have the flu; not touching their eyes, nose and mouth; washing hands with soap and water; using hand sanitizers; using hot, soapy water or a dishwasher to wash dishes and utensils; and never sharing dishes, glasses, utensils or toothbrushes.

It’s also important for people who live with pregnant women, or are in close contact with them, to get flu shots.

Pregnant women who develop flu symptoms such as fever, muscle aches and cough should see their health provider as soon as possible to begin antiviral treatment, according to the March of Dimes.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about pregnancy and flu shots.

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Jumbo Portions Lead to Overeating, Study Confirms

MONDAY, Sept. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Larger portions and oversized tableware do contribute to overeating, a new study reports.

Eliminating jumbo servings of foods and beverages could reduce caloric intake among Americans by 29 percent, British researchers found.

“Helping people to avoid ‘overserving’ themselves or others with larger portions of food or drink by reducing their size, availability and appeal in shops, restaurants and in the home, is likely to be a good way of helping lots of people to reduce their risk of overeating,” said the study’s co-leader, Dr. Gareth Hollands, a behavior and health researcher at the University of Cambridge.

Until now, the evidence for this effect has been fragmented, so the overall picture has been unclear, Hollands said in a university news release.

“There has also been a tendency to portray personal characteristics like being overweight or a lack of self-control as the main reason people overeat,” he added.

It has long been known that overeating leads to obesity, increasing your risk for serious chronic health issues, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The researchers analyzed the results of 61 high-quality studies involving more than 6,700 participants. The study, published Sept. 14 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, found that people routinely offered larger portion sizes consistently ate more food and drank more non-alcoholic beverages.

This effect didn’t vary much between men and women or by body mass index (a measure used to assess a healthy weight), the study authors said.

With improved portion control, daily energy consumed from food among U.S. adults would drop 22 to 29 percent (up to 527 calories a day), the investigators determined.

But new legislation and marketing tactics may be needed to help bring about significant reductions in food consumption, the study suggested.

Potential actions the study authors recommend include setting limits on the serving sizes of high-calorie foods and drinks — such as desserts and sugary beverages — and restricting the size of plates, bowls, utensils and glasses.

Putting large servings farther back on shelves, wrapping individual portions or visually indicating single-serving sizes might also help curb overeating, the study suggested.

The researchers also recommend restricting “bargain” pricing of fattening foods sold in larger portions or bulk sizes.

But how much such steps might help in the long-term remains to be seen, as the study doesn’t prove that downsizing portions and packages will translate to slimmer people.

“With the notable exception of directly controlling the sizes of the foods people consume, reliable evidence as to the effectiveness of specific actions to reduce the size, availability or appeal of larger-sized food portions is currently lacking and urgently needed,” said Hollands.

He and study co-leader Ian Shemilt said they hope the current findings will spark a discussion on how these proposed changes can be implemented.

“At the moment, it is all too easy — and often better value for money — for us to eat or drink too much,” said Shemilt in the news release.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides tips to avoid portion control pitfalls.

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Tricycle Accidents Send More Than 9,000 Tots to ER a Year: Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Sept. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The lowly tricycle can be a dangerous ride, sending more than 9,300 children to U.S. emergency rooms each year, a new study finds.

Kids 1 and 2 years old accounted for 52 percent of those tricycle-related ER visits in 2012-2013, researchers found. Boys were injured more often than girls, and most injuries involved cuts, usually on the face.

“Parents need to take a good hard look at what their kids are playing on to make sure they don’t get injured,” said study co-author Dr. Hany Atallah, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Check the safety features and the age recommendations, he said.

Although no trike deaths were reported during the study period, the researchers said two dozen children died from tricycle injuries between 2005 and 2012. The deaths were due to falling or drowning.

For the study, published online Sept. 14 in Pediatrics, the researchers analyzed data on tricycle injuries from 98 ERs in the United States for 2012-2013. Among the other findings:

• Damage to organs, usually the head, was the most common injury among 3- and 5-year-olds.
• After fractured elbows, the most commonly fractured bones were in the arms and wrists.
• About 2.4 percent of all children with trike injuries were admitted to the hospital.
• In cases where the accident location was known, most injuries occurred at home.

Many kids injured on trikes are too young for them, said Dr. Michelle Blumstein, a pediatrician in the emergency department at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.

“It’s not surprising that kids who are not developmentally ready to ride a tricycle are getting hurt on them,” said Blumstein, who was not involved with the study.

Most tricycles are not for kids younger than 3, she said.

Protective gear is also critical, both experts said. “I recommend from the moment you put your child on any type of riding toy putting them in a helmet,” Blumstein said.

“Wrist guards are my second recommendation, because wrists often get broken,” Blumstein said. Atallah also suggested elbow pads, noting elbow fractures were the most common bone breaks.

But most important is to watch your kids, Blumstein and Atallah said. “They’re tripping, they’re falling, so parents need to be at their side,” Blumstein said.

Make sure the area where your child is riding is free of hazards and doesn’t lead to the street, a pool or other body of water, the study noted.

Making modifications to the tricycle can also reduce the risk of injury, the researchers said.

Because many accidents occur after a sudden turn, Atallah’s team suggested limiting the turning radius of the handle bars.

A tricycle without brakes can pick up speed going down graded, paved areas, increasing the risk that children may lose control, the study pointed out.

Atallah’s team suggested adding an implantable device to the front wheel of the tricycle that prevents the tricycle from going too fast.

More information

For more on child safety, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Pregnancy Intervals May Affect Autism Risk, Study Suggests

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Sept. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The amount of time between a woman’s pregnancies may matter when it comes to the possible risk of her children developing autism, new research suggests.

“Children conceived in less than two years after the birth of their older sibling or greater than six years have [about] a two- to threefold increased risk of being diagnosed with autism,” said study researcher Lisa Croen, director of the autism research program at Kaiser Permanente division of research, in Oakland, Calif.

Croen said that previous studies have shown an increased risk associated with very short pregnancy intervals, and a higher risk with longer than usual intervals. “We are finding the same thing. I think now there is a growing body of evidence that is pointing in the same direction,” she said.

She cautioned, however, that “this is not causal. These kinds of studies can’t prove cause, this is association.”

And at least one neonatologist reiterated that the study only found an association between pregnancy intervals and possible autism, and much more research is needed into the topic.

Croen said the findings lend support to the current recommendation by the World Health Organization to wait at least two years after a child is born before attempting the next pregnancy.

The research was released online Sept. 14 and will be published in the October print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

One in 68 U.S. children has an autism spectrum disorder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Boys are more likely than girls to be diagnosed with autism, the CDC reports. Genetic and environmental factors may play a role in the condition, which involves problems with communication and socialization.

The new study included medical record reviews of about 45,000 second-born children, delivered between 2000 and 2009 in Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals.

The researchers looked at codes that encompass a diagnosis of any condition under the umbrella of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which can range from mild to severe. The study team also looked at interpregnancy intervals, defined as the time from the first birth to conception of the second child.

Most older siblings of the 45,000 second-born children did not have a diagnosis of ASD, but 878 did. The researchers first analyzed the group without an older sibling with ASD.

For these children, the risk of autism was 1.5 to three times higher for intervals less than 24 months and 72 months or longer, when compared with an interval of 36 to 47 months. Intervals of less than six months appeared to carry the highest risk, the study found.

The researchers did a secondary analysis of those whose older siblings had ASD and found the same pattern — that short or long intervals increased the risk of an ASD diagnosis.

The researchers don’t know how to explain the association with certainty, according to Croen. One possible explanation is that mothers with short intervals between a pregnancy may have depleted levels of folic acid. “Folic acid is a critical nutrient in terms of healthy brain development,” she said.

Dr. David Mendez, a neonatologist at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, said many researchers have looked at the pregnancy gap and investigated the effects of long ones versus shorter ones. Some have linked short intervals to psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, he added.

However, Mendez said, “more specific studies need to be done before anyone can say anything definitive.”

Pregnancy interval is one of many factors that may affect a child’s health and upbringing. However, he suggested that avoiding short intervals between pregnancy may make it easier for parents to cope.

More information

To learn more about autism spectrum disorder, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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4 Ab Exercises You’ve Never Seen Before

When it comes to working the mid-section, we’ve tried it all: crunches, sit-ups, and planks of all kinds. They’re all great exercises, but let’s be honest: the same old routine gets boring—for your mind and your muscles.

I myself needed some major “ab-spiration,” so I asked Natania Goldberg, area group exercise manager for 24 Hour Fitness in Los Angeles, for help. I’ve never seen these ab exercises before (and ahem, I do this for a living) so I’m willing to bet you haven’t either.

These effective and unique moves will work your core like never before. To see  Do 15 reps of each move, and repeat the circuit three times. Aim to do the full workout three times a week.

RELATED: The 5-Minute Ultimate Core Workout

Blow-up balloon

This exercise works your deep abdominals. Because it requires every muscle in your mid-section to work together, it’s also a great exercise for warming up your abs for other exercises. You’ll need one regular party balloon.

Try it: Lay on your back with knees bent, finding a neutral position for your back. Take a deep diaphragmatic breath in with as much air as possible, pushing out your belly. Then blow into the balloon slowly, pushing out as much as you can. Feel your deep abdominal muscles activate as you continue to try to blow into the balloon.

Credit: Jennifer Cohen

Windshield wiper lunge

This fat-burning exercise is very versatile because it hits your abdominal muscles from every angle. When you reach your arms overhead your core needs to stabilize. Your lats (back muscles) also work with your obliques (sides) in this exercise, so you are sure to feel this working from the belt up. You’ll need a small towel.

Try it: Hold the towel over your head. Step out to left side sitting back into right hip (be sure the knee is tracking over the toes) and straightening left leg. At the same time, lean over your left side, forcing your core to keep you in one plane. Return arms overhead, and then reach towards the opposite side while still holding your lunge. Return to standing with arms over your head, and repeat on the other side.

Credit: Jennifer Cohen

RELATED: 6 Core Exercises for Beginner Runners

Runner’s arms

Most people think of running as a forward-only motion, but there is actually quite a bit of side-to-side and turning action going on above your waist. As you run and your arms swing back and forth, your abs are hard at work providing a stable platform for your limbs to work against. This move takes that idea minus the running part.

Try it: Sit on the floor with legs out straight and squeeze the inner thighs together. Maintain a nice tall spine, shoulders back, and elbows at 90 degrees. Quickly start driving your arms up and down. Concentrate on moving from the elbow down, and driving the other forearm up while you squeeze your core muscles.

Credit: Jennifer Cohen

Multi-directional mountain climbers

Now finish the circuit out by working your abs and getting your heart rate up.

Try it: Get into plank position, but with hands on floor, slightly wider than shoulder width. Pull one knee forward under your body to same-side elbow. While holding upper body in place, alternate leg positions by pushing hips up and immediately extending forward leg back and pulling rear leg forward under body, like a regular mountain climber. The twist: While doing this, move your legs in a constant motion to the right, like you’re body is one hand of a clock. When you’ve gone as far as you can go without moving your hands, you’ll travel back to the left, all while continuing to alternate your feet in a continuous fashion.

Credit: Jennifer Cohen

For more like this, check out 6 Small Fitness Tweaks That Add Up to Big Results for Your Body

Jennifer Cohen is a leading fitness authority, TV personality, entrepreneur, and best-selling author of the new book, Strong is the New Skinny. With her signature, straight-talking approach to wellness, Jennifer was the featured trainer on The CW’s Shedding for the Wedding, mentoring the contestants to lose hundreds of pounds before their big day, and she appears regularly on NBC’s Today Show, Extra, The Doctors, and Good Morning America. Connect with Jennifer on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and on Pinterest.

RELATED: Mix-and-Match Boot-Camp Workout

 

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Connie Britton Has Something Important to Say About Her Hair

Photo: Getty Images

Like most celebs, Nashville star Connie Britton has been answering questions about her beauty routine for years. And now, she’s finally telling the world how she keeps her hair so shiny. This is kind of amazing, so y’all better be listening.

We told you — amazing, right?

To create the video, Britton teamed up with former Nashville co-star Laura Benanti, who’s working with The Representation Project’s #AskHerMore campaign. According to People, the campaign encourages reporters to ask women more substantial questions than the usual, “How do you get your hair so pretty?”

Not going to lie — as a site dedicated solely to beauty, we can’t resist asking our favorite celebs to divulge their beauty secrets (sorry, Connie!). But as fellow (hair and makeup-loving) feminists, we here at MIMI totally get it — women are so much more than what they put on their heads.

“The message of the video is: ‘Don’t be afraid of feminism,'” Britton told People. “Don’t think that feminism is something that you don’t need or something that could be threatening, because look at what it’s created already and look at what it can continue to create.”

Amen to that! But let’s not forget that being feminists and appreciating the wonders of dry shampoo are not mutually exclusive. Just last week, Britton took to Instagram to gave a mega shout-out to her hair and makeup team for making her life “saner” and “prettier every day”:

 

See, ladies? We really can have it all!

This article originally appeared on MIMIchatter.com. 

More from MIMI:

Can a Fragrance Be Feminist?

Confessions of a Feminist Makeup Addict

MIMI Chatter is an endless stream of beauty content. We bring together the must-knows and the how-tos from your favorite sites, beauty influencers, our editors, and YOU.

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Mediterranean Diet With Olive Oil Might Cut Breast Cancer Risk: Study

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Sept. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Eating a Mediterranean diet, rich with plant foods, fish and olive oil, has been found to be good for the heart, the brain and overall health. Now, a new study out of Spain suggests the diet supplemented with olive oil may also reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Researchers randomly assigned more than 4,200 women, ages 60 to 80, to eat either a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or with nuts, or a low-fat control diet.

“We found a strong effect of a long-term dietary intervention with the Mediterranean diet and extra virgin olive oil on breast cancer incidence,” said Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez, a researcher at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.

Compared to the control diet group, the Mediterranean plus olive oil group had a 68 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer over a follow-up of about five years.

The Mediterranean diet with nuts also reduced risk, but the results were not considered statistically significant.

During the follow-up, 35 new breast cancer cases were diagnosed.

The women, who joined the study in 2003 to 2009, were all at high risk of heart disease, and their average body mass index, or BMI, was 30, which considered is obese. Obesity itself is a risk factor for breast cancer.

The study was done within the framework of a large study called PREDIMED, designed to look at the effect of the diet on heart disease prevention. It was published online Sept. 14 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Some of the co-authors reported receiving grants from the nut industry and fees from pharmaceutical companies.

The authors did note there were limitations in the study, including that breast cancer was not the primary end point and that it was unclear whether the olive oil was beneficial on its own or taken within the Mediterranean diet.

How might the olive oil added to the diet work? Substances in the olive oil, Martinez-Gonzalez speculated, may inhibit the growth of the breast cancer cells and kill abnormal cells, among other potential mechanisms.

The study group adding olive oil were told to eat about 4 tablespoons a day, Martinez-Gonzalez said, and to use it as a spread, for salads and for cooking and frying. Those in the nut group were told to add about an ounce of nuts a day, half walnuts and the other half split between hazelnuts and almonds.

While the study was conducted with women from Spain, “there is no reason to think that these biological mechanisms will not work in women from other geographical regions,” Martinez-Gonzalez said.

The research also suggests that it’s never too late to change eating habits for health, he added.

Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, reviewed the study findings.

“This study provides an interesting look at the potential role of fats, both total and type of fat, on breast cancer incidence,” said Diekman, author of “The Everything Mediterranean Diet Book.”

She added, “While the actual number of [breast cancer] cases was small, and thus makes it hard to say for sure that diet was the factor that made the difference, the fact that the diet with extra virgin olive oil resulted in fewer cases of breast cancer is worth assessing.”

Questions remain, Diekman added, about what impact the women’s nutrition before the study had, and how exercise and other factors might have played a role.

“As a registered dietitian, my main take-away from this study is the value of the Mediterranean diet to overall health continues to grow in research support. Shifting an eating plan to more plant foods and plant-based fats is going to be beneficial to overall health, even if we don’t completely understand the mechanisms,” she said.

Dr. Lesley Taylor, a breast surgeon and assistant clinical professor of surgical oncology in the Breast Program at City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., also reviewed the results and noted that the strengths of the study included the large number of women.

She called the study findings “great news for people interested in breast cancer prevention.”

But, Taylor added, the findings might not be applicable to all groups of women. “Longer-term studies are still needed,” she said.

Other strategies for reducing breast cancer risk that Taylor recommends include eating a diet rich in vegetables, drinking alcohol only moderately, not smoking and undergoing breast cancer screening as recommended by a doctor.

More information

To learn more about the Mediterranean diet, see Oldways.

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ADHD May Mask Autism in Young Kids

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Sept. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Symptoms attributed to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may overshadow or mask autism spectrum disorder in very young children, a new study reveals.

This can create a significant delay in the diagnosis of autism. It took an average of three years longer to diagnose autism in children initially thought to have just ADHD, the researchers said.

That delay can make a big difference in the future of the child, said study author Dr. Amir Miodovnik, a developmental pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital.

“It’s been shown the earlier that you implement these therapies for autism, the better children do in terms of outcomes,” Miodovnik said. “Three years is a significant amount of time for the kids to not be receiving therapy.”

The study was published online Sept. 14 and will appear in the October print issue of Pediatrics.

Autism and ADHD are very different neurological conditions, but they share a number of symptoms, genetic factors and brain pathways, the study authors said in background information.

For example, children who are hyperactive, impulsive and inattentive could be diagnosed with ADHD, but similar symptoms also are found in kids with autism spectrum disorder, the study said.

To see whether an early diagnosis of ADHD would interfere with detection of autism, the researchers looked at data on nearly 1,500 children with autism drawn from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children’s Health.

In the survey, parents were asked whether their children had been diagnosed with ADHD or autism. They were also asked to provide the ages when they received their diagnosis. About 43 percent of the kids had been told they have both conditions, parents reported.

More than two out of every five kids diagnosed with both ADHD and autism had been diagnosed with ADHD first, the researchers found.

Most of those children initially diagnosed with ADHD — about 81 percent — wound up diagnosed with autism after age 6.

In fact, kids diagnosed first with ADHD were nearly 17 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism after age 6 compared to kids who only received a diagnosis of autism.

The children also were 30 times more likely to receive an autism diagnosis after age 6 when compared with kids who were diagnosed with ADHD and autism at the same time, or diagnosed initially with autism and later with ADHD.

These results indicate that doctors may be rushing to apply a diagnosis of ADHD at an age that’s much too early, said Dr. Daniel Coury, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a professor of clinical pediatrics and psychiatry at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.

“In fact, these children may have a neurodevelopmental problem that is going to change over the next few years, and will be much more apparent at 4 or 5 years than it is at 2,” Coury said. “We don’t usually make a diagnosis of ADHD in 3- and 4-year-old children. If we’re making a diagnosis at that early age, maybe we should be thinking about a developmental disorder that is more common for that age group, like autism.”

Miodovnik agreed, noting that in his study kids with autism were diagnosed with ADHD at around 5 years old on average, much younger than the national average of 7 years old for a typical ADHD diagnosis.

Coury said the findings line up with what he’s seen in his practice.

“My personal clinical experience is that we see a fair number of children we evaluate for autism spectrum disorder at an older age who previously have had an ADHD diagnosis,” he said. “There is a tendency that once a patient has a diagnosis, because they have a number of symptoms that fit that diagnosis, clinicians can develop a bit of tunnel vision where some other findings might be overlooked.”

Parents who believe that a child younger than 5 has ADHD should take their child to a developmental pediatrician, rather than a family physician, to make sure that possible autism will not be overlooked, Miodovnik said.

“If you suspect ADHD in very young children, it’s probably best for them to be evaluated by a specialist, partly to not miss a diagnosis of autism, and also because managing a child with ADHD can be complicated,” he said.

More information

For more on autism, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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Disaster Aftereffects May Linger for Children

MONDAY, Sept. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Natural and man-made disasters can put children’s health and development at risk for years to come, a new report from a leading group of pediatricians suggests.

“Disasters touch the lives of millions of children every year, and children are especially vulnerable to the aftereffects of these events,” said Dr. David Schonfeld, lead author of the report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

“As pediatricians, we are in an excellent position to detect and address a breadth of problems following a disaster, as well as to counsel families and communities on how to be prepared for a crisis situation,” he said in an academy news release. Schonfeld is director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at the University of Southern California School of Social Work.

Nearly 14 percent of children in the United States between the ages of 2 and 17 have been exposed to some type of disaster, the report showed. This includes natural disasters like earthquakes, fires, floods and disease outbreaks, as well as man-made disasters such as industrial accidents, war and terrorism acts.

Adjustment problems among children who’ve experienced a crisis or lived through a disaster are a significant public health issue, the academy cautioned.

But these kids often show no visible signs of trouble. Even those who develop post-traumatic stress disorder may not be diagnosed unless their doctor specifically asks about their symptoms, according to the report.

Trouble sleeping or getting up in the morning may be a red flag, the report found. Similarly, sudden difficulty concentrating could be a warning sign of emotional struggles.

Other behaviors parents should watch for after a disaster include:

• Changes in eating habits: Children may lose their appetite or eat more.
• Withdrawal: Kids may be less willing to engage in social activities with friends or adults. They may seem sad or even depressed.
• Anxiety: Children who’ve experienced one disaster may worry it will happen again. They may also develop unrelated fears, such as fear of the dark or separation anxiety.
• Unexplained symptoms: Some children coping with emotional or psychological stress will complain of unexplained physical symptoms — a condition called somatization.
• Regression: After a disaster, some kids may wet the bed, become more irritable or become disruptive.
• Risk-taking: Older kids and teens, in particular, may engage in more risky behaviors, including substance abuse and sexual activity.

Parents who notice these warning signs should discuss their concerns with their child’s pediatrician, says the report, published online Sept. 14 in Pediatrics.

Meanwhile, doctors should be aware that disasters are often followed by a string of negative events, such as financial worries, the loss of loved ones, domestic violence and problems with parents’ health or marriage, which could place added stress on children, the report showed.

Dr. Sandra Hassink, president of the AAP, said in the news release, “Especially as we mark the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which showed the medical profession to be underprepared for the rippling effects of disaster, it is crucial that we are fully ready to protect and heal children in the face of traumatic events.”

More information

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency provides more information on how to cope with disasters.

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