Debbie Koenig

Rare is the parent who has never so much as thought about spanking an unruly child. But a new study provides another reason to avoid corporal punishment: Spanking may cause changes in the same areas of a child’s brain that are affected by more severe physical and sexual abuse.

Previous research has consistently found links between spanking and behavioral problems, aggression, depression, and anxiety, says Jorge Cuartas, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and first author of the study. “We wanted to look at one potential mechanism, brain development, that might explain how corporal punishment can impact children’s behavior and cognitive development.”

The study, published in Child Development, used functional MRIs to map brain changes in 147 tweens who’d never experienced physical or sexual abuse. Researchers tracked which parts of the children’s brains activated in response to neutral or fearful facial expressions. When shown pictures of someone looking fearful, kids who reported having been spanked had a larger response in certain parts of the brain than kids who hadn’t been. Those areas drive the response to environmental cues, recognizing threats and reacting to them. If a child’s brain overreacts, behavioral challenges can result.

“We saw those changes in the same areas as more severe forms of abuse or domestic violence. It suggests the difference is of degree rather than type,” Mr. Cuartas says. As far as a child’s brain is concerned, “It’s all violence.”

It’s a significant finding because many parents don’t think of spanking as being violent, says Vincent J. Palusci, MD, a pediatrician and editor-in-chief of the journal Child Maltreatment. “We want to raise kids who are happy and healthy, and many parents who use spanking are doing it with that goal.”
 

Spanking in the U.S.

Around the world, 62 states and countries have outlawed corporal punishment. While the U.S. has no such protections, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association have condemned the practice. Acceptance of spanking seems to be shrinking: The percentage of parents in this country who say they spank their children is trending downward. In 1993, 50% of parents surveyed said they did, but by 2017 that number had fallen to 35%. Still far too many, Mr. Cuartas and Dr. Palusci say, but a promising trend.

“While we wouldn’t as parents want to hurt our kids,” Dr. Palusci says, “we need to understand that spanking can be just as bad as things we’d never do.”
 

Discipline vs. punishment

For some parents, it may require a shift in thinking, differentiating between discipline and punishment. “Discipline changes behavior – it teaches positive behavior, empathy, essential social skills. But that’s different from punishment,” Mr. Cuartas says. “That makes somebody feel pain or shame. We have to start thinking about spanking as punishment.”

That can be difficult, especially for adults who’ve been spanked themselves. They may believe that since they turned out fine, spanking must be fine, too. But the study doesn’t suggest that every child who’s spanked will have these difficulties – it just shows they happen, Mr. Cuartas says. “Compare this to smoking. We all know someone who smokes who’s healthy, but that doesn’t mean smoking is good,” he says. “Individual cases aren’t enough to understand whether certain experiences are good or bad.”

Dr. Palusci draws parallels to the advice pregnant women receive about taking medications: If it hasn’t been tested in pregnancy specifically, no amount can be considered safe. “We don’t have the studies to say how much spanking is dangerous, so we have to think that any amount has this potential.”

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Rare is the parent who has never so much as thought about spanking an unruly child. But a new study provides another reason to avoid corporal punishment: Spanking may cause changes in the same areas of a child’s brain that are affected by more severe physical and sexual abuse.

Previous research has consistently found links between spanking and behavioral problems, aggression, depression, and anxiety, says Jorge Cuartas, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and first author of the study. “We wanted to look at one potential mechanism, brain development, that might explain how corporal punishment can impact children’s behavior and cognitive development.”

The study, published in Child Development, used functional MRIs to map brain changes in 147 tweens who’d never experienced physical or sexual abuse. Researchers tracked which parts of the children’s brains activated in response to neutral or fearful facial expressions. When shown pictures of someone looking fearful, kids who reported having been spanked had a larger response in certain parts of the brain than kids who hadn’t been. Those areas drive the response to environmental cues, recognizing threats and reacting to them. If a child’s brain overreacts, behavioral challenges can result.

“We saw those changes in the same areas as more severe forms of abuse or domestic violence. It suggests the difference is of degree rather than type,” Mr. Cuartas says. As far as a child’s brain is concerned, “It’s all violence.”

It’s a significant finding because many parents don’t think of spanking as being violent, says Vincent J. Palusci, MD, a pediatrician and editor-in-chief of the journal Child Maltreatment. “We want to raise kids who are happy and healthy, and many parents who use spanking are doing it with that goal.”
 

Spanking in the U.S.

Around the world, 62 states and countries have outlawed corporal punishment. While the U.S. has no such protections, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association have condemned the practice. Acceptance of spanking seems to be shrinking: The percentage of parents in this country who say they spank their children is trending downward. In 1993, 50% of parents surveyed said they did, but by 2017 that number had fallen to 35%. Still far too many, Mr. Cuartas and Dr. Palusci say, but a promising trend.

“While we wouldn’t as parents want to hurt our kids,” Dr. Palusci says, “we need to understand that spanking can be just as bad as things we’d never do.”
 

Discipline vs. punishment

For some parents, it may require a shift in thinking, differentiating between discipline and punishment. “Discipline changes behavior – it teaches positive behavior, empathy, essential social skills. But that’s different from punishment,” Mr. Cuartas says. “That makes somebody feel pain or shame. We have to start thinking about spanking as punishment.”

That can be difficult, especially for adults who’ve been spanked themselves. They may believe that since they turned out fine, spanking must be fine, too. But the study doesn’t suggest that every child who’s spanked will have these difficulties – it just shows they happen, Mr. Cuartas says. “Compare this to smoking. We all know someone who smokes who’s healthy, but that doesn’t mean smoking is good,” he says. “Individual cases aren’t enough to understand whether certain experiences are good or bad.”

Dr. Palusci draws parallels to the advice pregnant women receive about taking medications: If it hasn’t been tested in pregnancy specifically, no amount can be considered safe. “We don’t have the studies to say how much spanking is dangerous, so we have to think that any amount has this potential.”

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Rare is the parent who has never so much as thought about spanking an unruly child. But a new study provides another reason to avoid corporal punishment: Spanking may cause changes in the same areas of a child’s brain that are affected by more severe physical and sexual abuse.

Previous research has consistently found links between spanking and behavioral problems, aggression, depression, and anxiety, says Jorge Cuartas, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and first author of the study. “We wanted to look at one potential mechanism, brain development, that might explain how corporal punishment can impact children’s behavior and cognitive development.”

The study, published in Child Development, used functional MRIs to map brain changes in 147 tweens who’d never experienced physical or sexual abuse. Researchers tracked which parts of the children’s brains activated in response to neutral or fearful facial expressions. When shown pictures of someone looking fearful, kids who reported having been spanked had a larger response in certain parts of the brain than kids who hadn’t been. Those areas drive the response to environmental cues, recognizing threats and reacting to them. If a child’s brain overreacts, behavioral challenges can result.

“We saw those changes in the same areas as more severe forms of abuse or domestic violence. It suggests the difference is of degree rather than type,” Mr. Cuartas says. As far as a child’s brain is concerned, “It’s all violence.”

It’s a significant finding because many parents don’t think of spanking as being violent, says Vincent J. Palusci, MD, a pediatrician and editor-in-chief of the journal Child Maltreatment. “We want to raise kids who are happy and healthy, and many parents who use spanking are doing it with that goal.”
 

Spanking in the U.S.

Around the world, 62 states and countries have outlawed corporal punishment. While the U.S. has no such protections, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association have condemned the practice. Acceptance of spanking seems to be shrinking: The percentage of parents in this country who say they spank their children is trending downward. In 1993, 50% of parents surveyed said they did, but by 2017 that number had fallen to 35%. Still far too many, Mr. Cuartas and Dr. Palusci say, but a promising trend.

“While we wouldn’t as parents want to hurt our kids,” Dr. Palusci says, “we need to understand that spanking can be just as bad as things we’d never do.”
 

Discipline vs. punishment

For some parents, it may require a shift in thinking, differentiating between discipline and punishment. “Discipline changes behavior – it teaches positive behavior, empathy, essential social skills. But that’s different from punishment,” Mr. Cuartas says. “That makes somebody feel pain or shame. We have to start thinking about spanking as punishment.”

That can be difficult, especially for adults who’ve been spanked themselves. They may believe that since they turned out fine, spanking must be fine, too. But the study doesn’t suggest that every child who’s spanked will have these difficulties – it just shows they happen, Mr. Cuartas says. “Compare this to smoking. We all know someone who smokes who’s healthy, but that doesn’t mean smoking is good,” he says. “Individual cases aren’t enough to understand whether certain experiences are good or bad.”

Dr. Palusci draws parallels to the advice pregnant women receive about taking medications: If it hasn’t been tested in pregnancy specifically, no amount can be considered safe. “We don’t have the studies to say how much spanking is dangerous, so we have to think that any amount has this potential.”

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Many emergency room workers remove their clothes as soon as they get home – some before they even enter. Does that mean you should worry about COVID-19 transmission from your own clothing, towels, and other textiles?

While researchers found that the virus can remain on some surfaces for up to 72 hours, the study didn’t include fabric. “So far, evidence suggests that it’s harder to catch the virus from a soft surface (such as fabric) than it is from frequently touched hard surfaces like elevator buttons or door handles,” wrote Lisa Maragakis, MD, senior director of infection prevention at the Johns Hopkins Health System.

One thing experts do know: At this point, transmission happens mostly through close contact, not from touching hard surfaces or clothing. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to stay home. And if you do go out, practice social distancing.

“This is a very powerful weapon,” Robert Redfield, MD, director of the CDC, told National Public Radio. “This virus cannot go from person to person that easily. It needs us to be close. It needs us to be within 6 feet.”

And don’t forget to use hand sanitizer while you’re out, avoid touching your face, and wash your hands when you get home.

If nobody in your home has symptoms of COVID-19 and you’re all staying home, the CDC recommends routine cleaning, including laundry. Even if you go out and maintain good social distancing – at least 6 feet from anyone who’s not in your household – you should be fine.

But if you suspect you got too close for too long, or someone coughed on you, there’s no harm in changing your clothing and washing it right away, especially if there are hard surfaces like buttons and zippers where the virus might linger. Wash your hands again after you put everything into the machine. Dry everything on high, since the virus dies at temperatures above 133 F. File these steps under “abundance of caution”: They’re not necessary, but if it gives you peace of mind, it may be worth it.

Using the laundromat

Got your own washer and dryer? You can just do your laundry. But for those who share a communal laundry room or visit the laundromat, some extra precautions make sense:

• Consider social distancing. Is your building’s laundry room so small that you can’t stand 6 feet away from anyone else? Don’t enter if someone’s already in there. You may want to ask building management to set up a schedule for laundry, to keep everyone safe.
• Sort your laundry before you go, and fold clean laundry at home, to lessen the amount of time you spend there and the number of surfaces you touch, suggests a report in The New York Times.
• Bring sanitizing wipes or hand sanitizer with you to wipe down the machines’ handles and buttons before you use them. Or, since most laundry spaces have a sink, wash your hands with soap right after loading the machines.
• If you have your own cart, use it. A communal cart shouldn’t infect your clothes, but touching it with your hands may transfer the virus to you.
• Don’t touch your face while doing laundry. (You should be getting good at this by now.)
• Don’t hang out in the laundry room or laundromat while your clothes are in the machines. The less time you spend close to others, the better. Step outside, go back to your apartment, or wait in your car.

Courtesy WebMD

If someone is sick

The guidelines change when someone in your household has a confirmed case or symptoms. The CDC recommends:

• Wear disposable gloves when handling dirty laundry, and wash your hands right after you take them off.
• Try not to shake the dirty laundry to avoid sending the virus into the air.
• Follow the manufacturers’ instructions for whatever you’re cleaning, using the warmest water possible. Dry everything completely.
• It’s fine to mix your own laundry in with the sick person’s. And don’t forget to include the laundry bag, or use a disposable garbage bag instead.

Wipe down the hamper, following the appropriate instructions.

This article first appeared on WebMD.

Many emergency room workers remove their clothes as soon as they get home – some before they even enter. Does that mean you should worry about COVID-19 transmission from your own clothing, towels, and other textiles?

While researchers found that the virus can remain on some surfaces for up to 72 hours, the study didn’t include fabric. “So far, evidence suggests that it’s harder to catch the virus from a soft surface (such as fabric) than it is from frequently touched hard surfaces like elevator buttons or door handles,” wrote Lisa Maragakis, MD, senior director of infection prevention at the Johns Hopkins Health System.

One thing experts do know: At this point, transmission happens mostly through close contact, not from touching hard surfaces or clothing. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to stay home. And if you do go out, practice social distancing.

“This is a very powerful weapon,” Robert Redfield, MD, director of the CDC, told National Public Radio. “This virus cannot go from person to person that easily. It needs us to be close. It needs us to be within 6 feet.”

And don’t forget to use hand sanitizer while you’re out, avoid touching your face, and wash your hands when you get home.

If nobody in your home has symptoms of COVID-19 and you’re all staying home, the CDC recommends routine cleaning, including laundry. Even if you go out and maintain good social distancing – at least 6 feet from anyone who’s not in your household – you should be fine.

But if you suspect you got too close for too long, or someone coughed on you, there’s no harm in changing your clothing and washing it right away, especially if there are hard surfaces like buttons and zippers where the virus might linger. Wash your hands again after you put everything into the machine. Dry everything on high, since the virus dies at temperatures above 133 F. File these steps under “abundance of caution”: They’re not necessary, but if it gives you peace of mind, it may be worth it.

Using the laundromat

Got your own washer and dryer? You can just do your laundry. But for those who share a communal laundry room or visit the laundromat, some extra precautions make sense:

• Consider social distancing. Is your building’s laundry room so small that you can’t stand 6 feet away from anyone else? Don’t enter if someone’s already in there. You may want to ask building management to set up a schedule for laundry, to keep everyone safe.
• Sort your laundry before you go, and fold clean laundry at home, to lessen the amount of time you spend there and the number of surfaces you touch, suggests a report in The New York Times.
• Bring sanitizing wipes or hand sanitizer with you to wipe down the machines’ handles and buttons before you use them. Or, since most laundry spaces have a sink, wash your hands with soap right after loading the machines.
• If you have your own cart, use it. A communal cart shouldn’t infect your clothes, but touching it with your hands may transfer the virus to you.
• Don’t touch your face while doing laundry. (You should be getting good at this by now.)
• Don’t hang out in the laundry room or laundromat while your clothes are in the machines. The less time you spend close to others, the better. Step outside, go back to your apartment, or wait in your car.

Courtesy WebMD

If someone is sick

The guidelines change when someone in your household has a confirmed case or symptoms. The CDC recommends:

• Wear disposable gloves when handling dirty laundry, and wash your hands right after you take them off.
• Try not to shake the dirty laundry to avoid sending the virus into the air.
• Follow the manufacturers’ instructions for whatever you’re cleaning, using the warmest water possible. Dry everything completely.
• It’s fine to mix your own laundry in with the sick person’s. And don’t forget to include the laundry bag, or use a disposable garbage bag instead.

Wipe down the hamper, following the appropriate instructions.

This article first appeared on WebMD.

Many emergency room workers remove their clothes as soon as they get home – some before they even enter. Does that mean you should worry about COVID-19 transmission from your own clothing, towels, and other textiles?

While researchers found that the virus can remain on some surfaces for up to 72 hours, the study didn’t include fabric. “So far, evidence suggests that it’s harder to catch the virus from a soft surface (such as fabric) than it is from frequently touched hard surfaces like elevator buttons or door handles,” wrote Lisa Maragakis, MD, senior director of infection prevention at the Johns Hopkins Health System.

One thing experts do know: At this point, transmission happens mostly through close contact, not from touching hard surfaces or clothing. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to stay home. And if you do go out, practice social distancing.

“This is a very powerful weapon,” Robert Redfield, MD, director of the CDC, told National Public Radio. “This virus cannot go from person to person that easily. It needs us to be close. It needs us to be within 6 feet.”

And don’t forget to use hand sanitizer while you’re out, avoid touching your face, and wash your hands when you get home.

If nobody in your home has symptoms of COVID-19 and you’re all staying home, the CDC recommends routine cleaning, including laundry. Even if you go out and maintain good social distancing – at least 6 feet from anyone who’s not in your household – you should be fine.

But if you suspect you got too close for too long, or someone coughed on you, there’s no harm in changing your clothing and washing it right away, especially if there are hard surfaces like buttons and zippers where the virus might linger. Wash your hands again after you put everything into the machine. Dry everything on high, since the virus dies at temperatures above 133 F. File these steps under “abundance of caution”: They’re not necessary, but if it gives you peace of mind, it may be worth it.

Using the laundromat

Got your own washer and dryer? You can just do your laundry. But for those who share a communal laundry room or visit the laundromat, some extra precautions make sense:

• Consider social distancing. Is your building’s laundry room so small that you can’t stand 6 feet away from anyone else? Don’t enter if someone’s already in there. You may want to ask building management to set up a schedule for laundry, to keep everyone safe.
• Sort your laundry before you go, and fold clean laundry at home, to lessen the amount of time you spend there and the number of surfaces you touch, suggests a report in The New York Times.
• Bring sanitizing wipes or hand sanitizer with you to wipe down the machines’ handles and buttons before you use them. Or, since most laundry spaces have a sink, wash your hands with soap right after loading the machines.
• If you have your own cart, use it. A communal cart shouldn’t infect your clothes, but touching it with your hands may transfer the virus to you.
• Don’t touch your face while doing laundry. (You should be getting good at this by now.)
• Don’t hang out in the laundry room or laundromat while your clothes are in the machines. The less time you spend close to others, the better. Step outside, go back to your apartment, or wait in your car.

Courtesy WebMD

If someone is sick

The guidelines change when someone in your household has a confirmed case or symptoms. The CDC recommends:

• Wear disposable gloves when handling dirty laundry, and wash your hands right after you take them off.
• Try not to shake the dirty laundry to avoid sending the virus into the air.
• Follow the manufacturers’ instructions for whatever you’re cleaning, using the warmest water possible. Dry everything completely.
• It’s fine to mix your own laundry in with the sick person’s. And don’t forget to include the laundry bag, or use a disposable garbage bag instead.

Wipe down the hamper, following the appropriate instructions.

This article first appeared on WebMD.