Kids' health: True or false quiz

I can still hear my mother's voice booming from the kitchen. "Don't sit so close to the TV. You'll ruin your eyes!" I didn't believe her, but by the time I was in Grade 8, I was wearing glasses and so were all my brothers and sisters. Did TV wreck our eyesight? Is that why so many kids wear glasses today? No. The premise is false. But there's a reason for the persistent myth, says Dr. Michelle Ponti, a pediatrician in London, Ont., and chair of the Canadian Paediatric Society's community pediatrics committee. Many kids who sit right near the TV screen already have impaired vision, she explains, and that's the reason they're up close.When parents get their children's eyes checked and find out their kids need glasses, they blame the TV. "It's sort of backward," says Ponti.

Many commonly held beliefs about children's health are homespun blends of misinformation and folklore. Others are correct and have been backed up by scientific research. To find out which are which, read on.

Listening to loud music can contribute to hearing loss.
True. "Loud music and loud sound can damage your hearing," says Margaret Cheesman, a professor of communication sciences and disorders at the National Centre for Audiology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. Short exposure to extremely loud noise, such as a jet taking off, can damage a child's hearing, says Cheesman. And exposure over many years to moderately loud noise, such as music turned up high, can also weaken your hearing by permanently damaging the ear's delicate hair cells. What's too loud? Anything over 80 decibels. Normal speech is about 60 decibels, yelling in someone's ear is about 85 and the average rock concert is more than 100. So, can kids safely enjoy their iPods? Yes, says Cheesman, as long as they turn them down a bit.

If you swallow chewing gum, it will stay in your stomach for seven years.
False. Everything you eat enters your digestive system and is either digested or passes through and is, well, eliminated. The myth comes from the fact that gum is not food. It's an inert, insoluble substance usually made from chicle -- a natural latex extracted from the sapodilla tree. You can chew it, but you can't digest it, so it will just go through your digestive system. It's like swallowing a coin. "It will pass in 24 to 48 hours usually," says Ponti.

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