BPA, Dangerous Plastics, Boys Adrift, and Scarey Headlines

**I am reposting this from last October because of the FDA finally taking a look at the dangers of BPA {Bisphenol A}. BPA is a chemical in certain types of hard plastics. It is especially common in baby bottles. Please read this post & send to your friends! xoxo, Alli**

 

I recently read a wonderful book by family physician, research psychologist, and best selling author Dr. Leonard Sax. His new book, Boys Adrift, answered many of the questions that many mothers of boys have. The most important one being, why in the world do today's boys and young men seem so unmotivated and uninterested in school? How could thing have changed so much in one generation? Why is this not happening in other western nations?

endocrine disruptors because our bodies read them as a hormone- ESTROGEN! Imagine if we purposely gave our sons excess estrogen?  Dr. Sax said,  "There is really a huge and rapidly-growing body of evidence now linking these endocrine disruptors, these environmental estrogens, to many of the phenomena I describe in the book: boys being less motivated, young men having more problems with erectile dysfunction, boys breaking their bones more easily than boys did a generation ago, and so forth." He also said that he prescribes more Viagra for men under 30 than he does for men over 40.

Dr. Sax identifies five factors that work together to put young boys at risk-

1. Changes in education over the past three decades. How has kindergarten changed? Thirty years ago, kindergarten was primarily about socialization. Typical activities then would have included finger-painting, singing in rounds, playing duck-duck-goose, etc. Not any more. Today, kindergarten is first and foremost about teaching literacy and learning basic arithmetic. In 2007, the kindergarten curriculum at most American schools, both public and private, looks very much like the first-grade curriculum of 1977. Nowadays, it’s all about learning to read and write. I have yet to find any replicable studies that prove early forced learning has any long-term benefit at all.

It’s a bad thing because girls’ and boys’ brains develop differently, and for many boys, it’s simply not developmentally appropriate to ask them to learn to read at age five. A distinguished team of 15 neuroscientists, based primarily at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD, recently published a remarkable account of the development of the human brain (see “Recommended Reading”). Since the early 1990s, these investigators have been doing MRI scans on young children’s brains. The team’s July 2007 report was its most definitive account yet. Among the most striking findings were the differences in the developmental trajectories of girls and boys. These researchers have found that the various regions of the brain develop in a different sequence and tempo in girls compared with boys.

It now appears that the brain’s language centers in many five-year-old boys look like the language centers in the brains of the average three-and-a-half-year-old girl. Have you ever tried to teach a three-year-old girl to read? It’s frustrating, both for the teacher and the child. It’s simply not developmentally appropriate, to use the jargon of early childhood educators. You’re asking a young girl to do something that her brain is just not yet ready to do.

Trying to teach many five-year-old boys to read and write may be just as inappropriate. These boys aren’t dumb, any more than three-year-old girls are dumb. Timing is everything—in education as in many other fields. It’s not enough to teach well. You have to do the right thing at the right time. Asking five-year-old boys to learn to read—when they’d rather be running around or playing games—may be the worst possible introduction to school, at least for some boys.

2. Video games. Recent scholarly work demonstrates clearly that some of the most popular video games are distracting boys from real-world pursuits. Many boys spend up to 5 hours a day (school-days) playing these supa-fab realistic games on plasma TVs. Of course, real life gets boring.

3. Medications for ADHD. Medications such as Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, and Metadate, which are over prescribed, may be causing irreversible damage to the motivational centers of boys’ brains.

4. Endocrine disruptors. Environmental estrogens from plastic bottles and other sources may be throwing boys’ endocrine systems out of whack. Here is a quick intro. to the wonderful world of endocrine disruptors.

5. Devaluation of masculinity. Shifts in popular culture have transformed the role models of manhood. Forty years ago, we had Father Knows Best; today we have The Simpsons. Have y'all noticed that every commercial and sit-com shows the father as a big doofus, and mom being the all-knowing boss? This is especially true for those "kiddie cartoons" on the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. Every kid is a smartypants genius and the parents are all idiots. I don't allow any of these shows, except Hannah Montana. That one is OK. Sorry, off on a tangent.....Where's my Ritalin? Just kidding!

Any mother of a son over 10 can tell many stories of boys, her own or not, who seem absolutely hostile to school, obsessed with his video games, and lacks a strong connection with an adult male role- models (Father, Coach, etc...) Many times, these boys are put on ADD "academic steroids" medication and a general listlessness takes over. It is this sort of 'common sense observations' which made the book resonate with me.

Here are a few quick facts-

• The United States has about 5% of the world's population but consumes about 90% of the total global production of ADHD medications such as Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, and Metadate. (Please see chapter 4 of Boys Adrift for more facts and figures about the overdiagnosis and over-prescribing of medications for ADHD in the United States.)

• In some suburban schools, more than half of the boys are being treated with medications for ADHD."Boys in 2007 are thirty times more likely to be taking these medications compared with boys in 1987," Sax writes. He notes the distressing new research indicating that even low doses of these drugs permanently alter the nucleus accumbens, an area of the brain associated with motivation.

• Certain types of plastics (BPa) leach chemicals into our food and water. There actually are a number of studies which show that substances found in common plastics can act as estrogens in animals and can even decrease those animal's testosterone levels and sperm production. The estrogens effect the male brain differently, by attacking the brain centers that affect motivation. In females, this brain center is not effected. Excess estrogen cause early onset puberty. It's not the hormones in meat, peoples, it's estrogen mimic chemicals that leach out of PBa plastics!

• This increase in estrogen in women not only causes early onset puberty, but puts women at an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

• Over the last 20 years during which we've seen an acceleration and intensification of the early elementary curriculum, there has been an explosion in the number of kids, especially boys, being diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder. Hmmmm!

• He points out that Finland, which doesn't start education until age 7, has some of the highest test scores in the world.

• In public schools, not so much in the elite private schools, recess has been cut back. There's less music, less art, less physical education, and more reading drills, writing drills, and arithmetic exercises. (This is often done in an ill-advised way to ensure more federal funding.) When you turn elementary school into year-round test-prep, you will see test scores rise. But that improvement comes at a price. Some students, especially boys, tune out. They lose interest. They no longer read for fun. (See chapter 2 of Boys Adrift for documentation of the lower propensity of boys to read for fun today compared with 1980.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Because I aim to please......

My Dr. Oz post

Pass on the Plastic from Blissfully Domestic

The Boys Adrift Website

A wonderful podcast interview with Dr. Sax complete with Q&A call-ins!

A Washington Post Op-Ed by Dr. Sax

National Review interview with Dr. Sax

Read this about what endocrine disruptors do to your body.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alarmed about plastics? Join the club....

As a quick rule of thumb- Look at the recycling codes on the bottom of all your plastics. The code inside the three recycling arrows are important.

Here is what I know about what brands (sippy cups/bottles) use the type of plastic that leaches PBa's-

Unsafe plastics-

#3- PVC

#6-PS

#7-Polycarbonate {the jury is still out on this one}

Look for-

#1-PETE

#2-HDPE

#4-LDPE

#5-PP

BPA is in the canned food liners and plastic utensils. Be careful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Love to you all,

Alli

Comments

[Robin ~ PENSIEVE]

Oh, dear...I stumbled this because it's the first time I've heard ANY of it. I'm not an alarmist, but I am a concerned mom.

Thanks, Alli.

[linda s]

I'm off to buy the book! My h.s.senior is described as "Type B"...and while he's not on ADD meds, this could be him. Then I see my girls tearing it up, and can't figure out why... He deals with disabling migraines that are diagnosed as "stress induced" and I am close to pulling him out to homeschool him just to get him through the year, as we barely made it through last year. Thank you, I'm really interested to see what this reveals.

[Mrs. D]

I don't think there is anything wrong with expecting to teach a 5 yr old boy to read. I've been teaching my son since birth, via constant exposure to alphabet, the letter sounds, shapes, colors, days of week, time, etc. and not surprisingly, he's been reading alone since age 4. He's 5 now and in kindergarten and is reading at a 2nd to 3rd grade level, as well as can add/subtract 1-20, knows all the geometric shapes, solar system, and lots of stuff you wouldn't expect from a young boy. I don't buy it that boys are just "too active" or whatever to pay attention and learn. They are like sponges from 0-5, teach them as much as possible! And sure, they'd rather play much of the time, but they have to learn to do things that they'd rather not do.
I do agree on the plastics, though. I have been trying to eliminate plastic containers at my house and get pyrex glass things. But they are EVERYWHERE! It's hard to weed them all out.

[Mrs. D]

Sorry, not trying to sound all know-it-all-y, but I just strongly feel that society expects less from our kids sometimes. Boys may have a "harder" time concentrating or whatever, but that's just a hurdle they need to jump. Just my opinion, I'm not trying to offend anyone. No angry mail, please. :-)

[Kim]

Excellent post, Fussy. I don't have any sons, but I do have four daughters so I'm rather concerned about their potential mates.

I've noticed a significant shift "since I was a kid" in how boys are being raised. There's not a lot of letting "boys be boys" any more--they're being trained to sit in their seats all day and use their inside voices. If I did have a boy, everyone would hate me because I'd be that horrible mom who yells, "Get outside and ride your bike! And don't let anyone push you around! Here's a toy gun for you to play cops and robbers with!"

And the whole issue with plastics . . . oy vey! as if I didn't feel guilty enough about the food I give my kids, now I'm sick with worry about the containers in which it's served.

Lots of good information here--thanks for the additional links.

[missy wiggins]

GReat post with a lot of info! Thanks.
I will pass this on...

[Jennifer A]

As a mom who sends a child to an "elist private school" (never knew Catholics were elist) for 1st grade and another child to public school for Early Childhood, I think these teachers have learned what they are teaching and who they are teaching to. My daughter's school, the elist one, does offer extra help to the kids having problems and all parents have to do is ask!
As for my 3 1/2 year old son, the ped is watching him for ADD, but will get second opinion in a couple years if we still have issues and not medicate until AT LEAST 6. Some of the problems overlap with SID/SPD. Am I concerned now? No. Are the teachers? No. Will I medicate? If needed, yes, not without a few opinions and more trials of the Feingold program. a lot of behavior problems can be linked to the diet kids eat these days.
Teaching a child to read? Pick what interests them. I would rather read He Came with the Couch over and over again to my son than force read to them something they are not interested in. This is what I did with my daughter when she was younger.

[cory huff]

man could I go on about the denigration of men in the media...but since readers here are mostly women, I might be speaking out of turn.

Some of the most creative minds in the world would be diagnosed as ADD. Several top CEO's actually have ADD (Jetblue's CEO most notably). What do we do with hyperactive boys instead of medicating them?

[Mz. Nesbit]

OMG OMG OMG!
I did not know this! I mean, I knew about the chemicals leeching out and contaminating, but I did not know what they did!
That is soo scary! Now I'm checking every plastic container I have!
Can I repost this on my blog?

[Christine]

ACK! That's it, I'm packing up and moving the kids to Finland...and milking my own cows...and...ACK!

Seriously, this is good info and I so appreciate you getting the word out.

[jackie @agsoccermom]

I wrote about this a while back after hearing about it on the Today Show. I went through my cupboards and threw out everything 3, 6 or 7. I have a special needs son so we read labels anyway, but come on someone had to know this was bad. We watch really closely now what I even let in the house. I had a whole trash can full. Those really cool looking polycarbonate water bottles are all over the soccer fields and in classrooms are suppose to be the worst. Buy stainless steel bottles that are now available and reuse those.

[Viv]

I would so love this to be alarmist rumour-mongering. Do you know the basis for Dr. Sax's theories on endocrine - disruptors? (or do I have to stop trying to pick your brain & read the book myself?!)

[texasholly @ June Cleaver Nirvana]

I am usually very calm about scary statistics, but these freak me out big time. I am off to get the book. Thanks for the heads up.

[lindsey]

What a fabulous book review. I agree completely. I flagged the book at the library and will pick it up soon.

[lindsey]

I've been hearing about the feminization of American boys for years. Glad to be able to read more on the topic.

[bermudabluez]

Very, very good information! I think Oprah did a show on this....perhaps it was Dr. Oz? It's just not the same raising kids anymore...and that's a shame!

[Amber]

What an awesome post! I'm a lurker who never comments, but I had to speak up on this one. I TOTALLY agree about the kindergarten thing. It's my soapbox. I have no little boys, only little girls, but my heart goes out to them. Thanks for the informative, intelligent post. I'm printing it out. And BTW, I had NO idea about the plastics. Yikes.

[Amydeanne]

i'm a firm believer in letting children be children while it's their time and not forcing them into organized learning.. as I like to say "Einstein didn't have baby Einstein now did he?" lol

thanks for the heads up about the plastics! here in Canada all bpa was banned a few months back in baby food and bottles.. which i understand, but man was it a crabby point for bottles at our house!

[water works]

I think the thing to remember here is DO YOUR RESEARCH. Then make decisions best for your family. I made the shift away from most plastics this year...mainly to save money. My kids use Nalgene bottles (which are BPA safe) to tote water to and from school and around town.

As for the baby bottles...well, what's done is done. I can only change the now and future.

Okay, I wrote an entire paragraph about society's input on how we raise our kids, but then I read it and it was maybe a bit TOO much. So let's just say, do what you think is right for your children. I have to do some things differently for each of our boys and yet another way for our girl. What works for one doesn't always work for another.

[water works]

One more thought, Alli, sorry! As for the boys in kindergarten thing. Your sources are so right. Our second one really had to work at just sitting some days. Luckily, his teacher developed the standing station just for the boys. Each day, children would cycle through this station where they could stand, wiggle a bit, and still get their work done. Brilliant! And totally appropriate for those boys. And a few of the girls.

I've also figured out that no matter how much you encourage, press, support, teach, etc. some skills just happen when they are ready. One of the boys could put the pieces together and read by the end of K5, the other didn't have that lightbulb go off until the middle of 1st. It happens when it happens.

[Tanya]

This is a fantastic post and makes sense to me as my family are from Finland also! I think that kindergarten should just be games, numbers and the alphabet, thats what I had. I remember my first math lessons and reading were in grade 1 when we were 7 and everyone learnt the same stuff. (In aus we have kinder, prep and then grade 1. Prep was basic math and really basic letter recognition)

As for the plastics, this was on the news this morning. I had no idea.

[Dorothy Stahlnecker]

Thank you for this post, I'll be sending on to many of my friends and my daughter who now has four new grandchildren herself.. this is all so disturbing.

Dorothy from grammology
www.grammology.com

[Marc Beharry]

Oh no, I have two boys at home to try and motivate! And I some adhd drugs as a teen and hope to never have to give them to my kids. As for plastics, they have had evidence on this for years, but lobbyists have done a good job paying our great leaders to silence the problem. when and if there are congressional hearings everyone will see how old the research on this is. our corporations are worse than the evil computer in the matrix, lol

[Ruby Red Slippers]

It never hurts to keep learning and reading about this issue with boys-I have three.
I appreciate this article also as a former first grade teacher. So important how we educate our boys.
Thank you, I needed to hear it again!

[Brenda in Aztec, NM]

Great article. My husband just read the book and wrote about it on his blog. Good to know this stuff!

[Octamom]

Great article. I'm always fascinated with brain development and cognitive theory--and it is so interesting to note that we are pushing kids farther faster--with poorer results.

Thanks for a great compilation list of things to consider and things to watch out for--

Blessings!