As I write much about nutrition, I have been asked: In terms of healthier children, what is the best time for a female to start eating well?

Answer: BEFORE you even consider getting pregnant! Preferably when still in your teens!

So – BIG OOPS!!  What happens if you did not? We all know teen diets outside the home are not usually nutritious and that adult women may not eat well either. 

What to do?

If getting pregnant is in your future – start eating well NOW!  Or as soon as you think you are pregnant – start getting good nutrition Immediately.

In the USA we have a long history of not taking care of pregnant women; especially poorer pregnant women – while knowing that good nutrition during pregnancy would help solve many of the problems that newborns come into the world with.

Decades ago I saw a film about the high costs associated with early prenatal care of infants born to malnourished mothers. Intensive care nurseries are very expensive – yet the cost of feeding a pregnant woman with good food is minimal. Over those decades, the cost of food has not risen to the levels of the costs for the newborn intensive care – so why do we still not feed pregnant women?  Answer: Politics…..[and that's for another day and another eBook or blog: http://lynnsrants.com]

A growing fetus needs protein – so the mother must eat that protein or the fetus does not get it. A long held myth is that babies will take what they need from the mother's body.  Not true. The mother needs to ingest the nourishment while she is pregnant or it is not there for the fetus.

Long term effects of poor nutrition during pregnancy are problematic births, delayed physical and cognitive growth and ongoing illnesses. This is worsened if the child continues to be malnourished after it is born. And malnourishment, while found more often in poorer homes, is not absent from homes of the wealthy.  Just having money does not create common sense!

What is good nourishment? Protein is important as is a balanced diet. Junk food is not nutritious for anyone! Diet sodas and chemically doctored food that supposedly tastes good is not nourishing….Prepackaged "stuff" [I dare not call it food] is not nourishing.

Look at the labels on the food you are buying next time you in a store. You might find words there that you cannot pronounce. One of my mantras is that if I can't read the small print or I can't even pronounce the name of the ingredient – I don't want it in my body…and I'm well past child bearing age

This issue most always comes up when I teach a class on human  development – so here is my long post on the topic!

What are mood disorders?

According to the DSM-IV [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition] mood disorders are “disorders that have a disturbance in mood as the predominant feature.”  While this may sound like an odd definition – it is a common way to define terms in the realm of mental health.  [Like IQ is what the IQ Test measures.]

Mood disorders include major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder and a person needs to be diagnosed by a professional who uses the DSM-IV as the guide to determine if that person meets the criteria for the particular disorder.  [And even within a diagnosis there are features and causes that can be further classified.]

Many disorders are not clearly seen until a child is nearing adolescence – but signs and symptoms can be seen earlier – even if the child does not meet the full criteria for the disorder.

It is also possible we don't "see" this as a problem because we have some cultural reluctance to see young children or teens as depressed or suicidal. 

Added to this is that teenagers often go through what I call a “period of normal craziness.”

But young children and teens can and do have mood disorders – and they are crippling in a few ways and can be crippling at those young ages.

Mood disorders can

• cause a child to be ostracized from the peer group, leading to socialization issues
• lead to problems with cognitive functioning, which can lead to problems with academics
• lead to self-destructive behavior or destruction aimed at other people or objects
• lead to stress and tension within the family, which impacts on everyone

What can a parent do?

Mood disorders need to be diagnosed by a professional – not by the teacher,  in-law or neighbor –  [although sometimes these persons may be the first to notice that “something is not right.”

I’ve never been one to think of medication as a first response but sometimes medication may be necessary.

Parents and teachers need to understand that this is an illness and not “bad behavior” that requires punishment.  We don’t punish kids who get the flu so we should not punish a child with a mental illness. 

Sadly – in my professional life I have heard of and seen punishing used as a “cure" for many issues and my take is that physical punishment always does more harm than good – but that's for another post!

 Comments?  Always appreciated.

If you are one who would like to re-do them – AS THEY WERE – please please add a comment and tell us why.

The years where your age ends in "teen" are given different labels by different theorists; labels like adolescence, pre-adult, puberty, and one I like – "normal psychosis."

No matter what it is called, we as a species need to evolve through those 7 years.  Not that 12 and 20 are always so great but we don't tend to put kids that age into the category teen.  [By the way, I usually say "kid." It's a habit from way back when I first started studying psychology.]

The teen years tend to be ushered in by hormonal changes – which in turn lead to physical changes and all of this is accompanied by emotional, cognitive and social change.  Just like with 2- and 3-year-olds coping with an awful lot of changes – a teen seeks a variety of ways to deal with what is going on in their body.  A major difference is that 2 and 3-year-olds are still under parental control while teens are not- or not as much as we as parents would like.  They are in school, they often travel there and elsewhere without the car pool or parent.  They learn to drive – and like it or not – they experiment with "things."

"Things" can include not only drugs, alcohol and sex; it can include personality, academic interests, and sports.  It's a period where the once "child" is learning "who am I"  and "what do I want me to be."

This self-learning can lead to sudden mood and personality shifts – some intentional, some probably hormonal –  it's why I say about having a teen in the house:   Welcome to "normal psychosis." 

This is life with a teen … and I'll be writing more about this – so please comment and let me know what you'd like to see here.

[ Read the full article about parenting teenagers.]

Like teens, parents are not amenable to listening to other people – at least not usually. 

If someone tells you that you need to be a stricter parent or to spend more or less time with your teenager when you do not believe this is the way to parent – would you listen to them?

That said – teens need rules.  Teens do not need more and more freedom even though that is what they tell you they need and want. 

As a parent you need to set limits for all your kids – they bump against the limits and fight them but that is a good thing.  It's how they learn what are the rules for our culture.  If you keep moving the limits as kids bang against them – they never understand limits.  Kids are very good at the "gimme gimme gimme" game and it is perfectly fine to say "no no no" to them.

I never said it was easy having a teen in the house – in fact it can be downright nasty.