Eating Healthy Over the Holidays

With Halloween treats running out just in time for pantry shelves to be packed with Thanksgiving food, we would like to provide some helpful tips on how to keep a balanced diet for you and your family during the holidays!

•  Use healthy substitutes! Cooking with lemon juice, olive oil, and other natural products when cooking. Instead of loading up on soda at the family get-together, why not bring natural juice? As for sweets- try using whole grain flour and unrefined sugar!

•  Be mindful of portions! For parents, it is important to make sure your children are getting proper portions. Since children need fewer calories than adults, it can be easy for them to over indulge- especially with sweets! Try using smaller plates for children and monitor their portion sizes.

•  Engage your children! While preparing a holiday feast, ask for your child’s input on the menu. This will help make them feel like an important part of the celebration. This is also a perfect opportunity for parents to educate their children on what a balanced meal should consist of, even during the holidays! 

•  Don’t skip meals! Help set a healthy example for your children by eating breakfast and lunch, even if there is a big holiday dinner planned! Skipping meals can be harmful to an individual’s metabolism, and can lead to overeating during the holiday feast. Keep in mind, snacking could help keep off hunger pains!

• Put extra thought into “extras!” Since children already require less calories than adults, adding that whipped cream or extra helping of gravy to an already excessive meal can really do some damage! Be sure to monitor your child’s consumption!

For more information on how to eat over the holidays, click here & here.

Did you know that November is Child Safety and Protection month?

Although child safety campaigns for this month are generally geared toward household safety and injury prevention, we can pause to review important tips regarding sexual safety and education.

The Good Men Project recently featured an article describing age-appropriate discussions and behaviors for parents to demonstrate with their children. “The Healthy Sex Talk: Teaching Kids Consent, Ages 1-21,” was created with the hope that “parents and educators find this list of action items and teaching tools helpful, and that together we can help create a generation of children who have less rape and sexual assault in their lives.”

The authors of this article believe that education can start as early as one year old. The guidelines are separated into three age groups- very young children, older children and teens/young adults. Here are some of the guidelines listed in the article:

For ages 1-5: 

•  Teach children to ask permission before touching or embracing a playmate. Use language such as, “Sarah, let’s ask Joe if he would like to hug bye-bye.” If Joe says “no” to this request, cheerfully tell your child, “That’s okay, Sarah! Let’s wave bye-bye to Joe and blow him a kiss."

For ages 5-12:

• Teaching kids that the way their bodies are changing is great, but can sometimes be confusing. The way you talk about these changes—whether it’s loose teeth or pimples and pubic hair—will show your willingness to talk about other sensitive subjects.

For Teens and Young Adults:

• Education about “good touch/bad touch” remains crucial, particularly in middle school. This is an age where various “touch games” emerge: butt-slapping, boys hitting one another in the genitals and pinching each other’s nipples to cause pain. When kids talk about these games, a trend emerges where boys explain that they think the girls like it, but the girls explain that they do not.  We must get kids talking about the ways in which these games impact other people. They will try to write it off, but it’s important to encourage them to talk it through, and ask them how they would feel if someone hit them in that way, or did something that made them feel uncomfortable or violated.

For the full article with all of the guidelines, click here.

Halloween Safety Tips!

Festive costumes, a surplus of candy at the grocery store, and Hocus Pocus reruns have all come together to signal that special time of year again- Halloween. While Halloween is one of the most exciting nights during the year for children, it also has the reputation of being one of the most worrisome nights for caregivers. Here are some tips to help you and your family maximize on safe fun this Halloween!

• Tell your kids not to enter any home unless you are with them
• Supply your children with glow sticks, flashlights or brightly colored costumes so that they are visible when it gets dark outside
• Make sure that your child knows your cell phone number and home number, as well as address
• If they cannot memorize it, allow them take a cell phone trick or treating with them in case you get separated
• If wearing a mask or hat is part of their costume, make sure that they have proper visibility out of their head wear and can see all around them
• Make sure that your trick or treat route is on brightly lit streets and in a well-know area, while avoiding unlit porches and alleys
• Teach your children to dial 9-1-1 in case there is an emergency or they get separated
• Finally, teach children to yell "NO" if they are asked to go anywhere with strangers

You can compare the tips listed in this blog to here, here and here! Have a safe and happy Halloween!

What is a MDT?

Children’s Advocacy Centers were created with the purpose to better serve children who are victims of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and/or witness to violent crime. In order to respond to child abuse in communities, CACs use a multi-disciplinary team, "MDT," approach. This inter-agency approach includes law enforcement, social services, medical, prosecutors, victim advocacy and mental health professionals. The MDT approach ensures the most effective coordinated response possible.

The Multi-Disciplinary Approach improves communication among agencies, makes pertinent information available for all involved professionals, and prevents duplication of services.

Prior to the Children’s Advocacy Center model, children would often be treated as adults and were expected to disclose what happened to dozens of professionals. Because forensic interviews are conducted at CACs, the number of people with whom a child discloses to is significantly reduced, which helps prevent revictimization.

According to the National Children’s Alliance, “Children’s advocacy centers are modeled on the simple but powerful concept of coordination between community agencies and professionals involved in the intervention system. Today, there are more than 750 children’s advocacy centers nationwide, and more on the way. Children's advocacy centers emphasize the coordination of investigation and intervention services by bringing together professionals and agencies as a multidisciplinary team to create a child-focused approach to child abuse cases.”

What is the National Children's Alliance?

As of 2012, the number of children served by Children’s Advocacy Centers across the country increased by 175 percent since 2000. Started by former Congressman Robert E. "Bud" Cramer in 1985 in Huntsville, Alabama as an effort to create a better system to help abused children, CACs are now located throughout the world.
The National Children’s Alliance, which is the “national leader on training, technical assistance, research, support and education for children’s advocacy centers,” was created in 1998, a decade after the National Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers was instituted. NCA works with 775 Children’s Advocacy Centers and 47 State Chapters to minimize trauma for abused children, break the cycle of abuse and hold offenders accountable by offering services in several areas. Through accreditation, community awareness, training, funding and membership, NCA helps state chapters, local CACs and communities stand up for children.
Because the NCA exists, Children’s Advocacy Centers and State Chapters are able to provide the highest quality care and services, increase public understanding about child abuse and more effectively respond to the unique needs of commercially sexually exploited children.
In 2012, the NCA effectively administered $12,539,628 in federal grants to State Chapters and local Children’s Advocacy Centers, which improved services to child victims. The NCA also increased service coverage of CACs to more than 128 counties so that more children and communities could receive the help they needed!

For more information on the National Children's Alliance, click here and here.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

In October 1987, the first Domestic Violence Awareness Month was observed. It evolved from the first Day of Unity in 1981 with the intent to connect advocates for survivors of domestic violence across the nation who were working to end violence against women and their children. During the month of October, advocates working to end domestic violence campaign for awareness and education. Children are also affected by domestic violence and it is important to understand how:

"Children witnessing domestic violence and living in an environment where violence occurs may experience some of the same trauma as abused children. Not all children are affected by domestic violence in the same way. Children may become fearful, inhibited, aggressive, antisocial, withdrawn, anxious, depressed, angry, confused; suffer from disturbed sleep, problems with eating, difficulties at school and challenges in making friends. Children often feel caught in the middle between their parents and find it difficult to talk to either of them. Adolescents may act out or exhibit risk-taking behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, running away, sexual promiscuity and criminal behavior. Young men may try to protect their mothers, or they may become abusive to their mothers themselves. Children may injured if they try to intervene in the violence in their homes."

There are several events happening in the area where you can show your support to end domestic violence!

New Orleans Family Justice Center- "Unmasking Domestic Violence Soiree" Oct. 20th

Loyola, Tulane, Dillard and Xavier Universities Take Back The Night! Oct. 23rd

Greater New Orleans Corvette Club: 22st Annual All Corvette Car Show on Oct. 19th, Proceeds From The Show Benefit The Metropolitan Center For Women & Children

Survivor Biographies

Last week we provided a list of books recommended for victims of child sexual abuse. This week, we are featuring some books written by child sexual abuse survivors who share their stories through biographies.

It is important to keep in mind that books should be used with therapy and not in place of counseling services. Remember to read each book before sharing with children!

"The emotions are strong throughout this well-written book and lead the reader into a world few travel and survive."- Susan Murphy Milano, violence expert and author, Time's Up: A Guide on How to Leave and Survive Abuse and Stalking Relationships









"Told in a voice that combines childlike wonder with grown-up wisdom…Fragoso manages to tell a disturbing story beautifully, leading readers into the secret world she inhabited for decades and even inspiring a modicum of sympathy for the man who manipulated and abused her."- Lisa Bonos The Washington Post

"A meticulously reported account of one girl's journey through a violent and unpredictable childhood. Holloway's strong voice and remarkable sense of humor, in spite of the horror in her past, make this an unforgettable read."- Hope Edelman, New York Times bestselling author of Motherless Daughters

"To escape the horror of violent abuse, the two-year-old child 'went to sleep' and created the inner world of 'the Troops,' the 92 voices that shielded her from pain, but that she didn't know existed until adulthood. this is a journey through the fragmented world of the multiple personality—told by the Troop."- Amazon.com.

"With great courage and startling compassion, Silverman tells [her] story. . . . Harrowing in its depiction of savage violation and profoundly moving in its portrait of a child's fear, confusion, and desperate search for a safe place."- Kirkus Reviews

 "Stolen Innocence is written with conviction and clarity. [Erin Merryn] doesn't hold back, and I respect her honesty and openness...By the end of the book, I thought I was reading passages from a much older adult than a high school senior. Erin has grown into a strong, wise, intelligent, perceptive, spiritual, caring adult."- Susan Reedquist, The Children's Advocacy Center

"This book is a study in courage, honesty, and the pursuit of truth, even at the risk of alienating the ones you love. Erin's story will stay with you long after you have finished it."- Lee Woodruff, Author of Perfectly Imperfect and In an Instant