Child health study

The largest-ever child health study is currently recruiting participants (expectant mothers) in North Carolina and New York. This "National Children's Study" will follow 100,000 children from conception to age 21. Hopefully, scientists will be able to seek out the roots for certain ailments such as allergies, chronic diseases, and autism, and they will be able to separate the genetic causes from the environmental causes.

There are, of course, ethical considerations involved with this study. The subjects (children) must submit to frequent physical exams and the home environment will be monitored every three years. The scientists hope to begin studying their first child by July 2009, with data on premature birth and birth defects as early as 2012. They plan to have nationwide enrollment by 2010.

My main hope for this study is that they will be able to monitor nutrition and possible causes for childhood obesity. Fortunately, other news comforts my worry for the youth of America: 1 in 200 children is a vegetarian.

While I believe that the nutritional benefits of meat are vital for children's growing muscles, there are alternative sources for those who find meat products nauseating. The study finds that most vegetarian children follow the diet because of animals rights beliefs rather than nutritional concerns.

Adopting healthy eating habits as a child is important and I believe they should be counseled closely by parents. A vegetarian diet may mean skimping on meat, but children can still go overboard on sugars, like candy and soda.

Regardless of a child's nutritional beliefs, an awareness of moderate consumption and the freedom to try new things can lead the way to a healthy-decision-making adult.