Children’s Health

Childhood vaccines are safe. Seriously

Flu Shots

Children should get vaccinated against preventable and potentially deadly diseases.

That’s what a project that screened more than 20,000 scientific titles and 67 papers on vaccine safety concludes this week. The review appears in the latest edition of the medical journal Pediatrics.

The evidence strongly suggests that side effects from vaccines are incredibly rare, the study authors said. They found no ties between vaccines and the rising number of children with autism, as a small but vocal group of anti-vaccine activists, including actors Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carey, have said.

The review also found no link between vaccines and childhood leukemia, something that was suggested in earlier studies. The researchers found that some vaccines did cause a few adverse effects but it was only for a tiny fraction of the population.

There was evidence that the meningococcal vaccine can lead to anaphylaxis — a severe, whole-body allergic reaction — in children allergic to ingredients in the vaccine. Other studies found the MMR vaccine was linked to seizures.
“Vaccines, like any other medication, aren’t 100% risk free,” said Dr. Ari Brown an Austin, Texas-based pediatrician and author of the popular book “Baby 411,” who was not involved with the study.

“You have a sore arm, redness at the injection site. Those are the things we see commonly. Fortunately the serious adverse effects is extremely rare.” Brown said parents ask her how safe vaccines are all the time. Some patients also ask if they should delay or stagger the vaccinations. She counsels against that practice. She said the younger the child, the more danger these diseases present.

“By delaying the vaccines you’re putting your child at risk,” Brown said. The positive effects of vaccines dramatically outweigh the bad, experts said.

An editorial accompanying the study calls vaccines “one of the most successful public health achievements of the 20th century.” Because of vaccines, many diseases that plagued children for centuries have all but been eliminated.

“There were good reasons that these diseases were targeted for vaccine development since they are so life-threatening,” said Dr. Carrie Byington, vice-chair for research in the University of Utah’s pediatrics department, and the new chair for the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases.

Millions of Americans live longer on average because of the protection vaccines provide. Life expectancy has gone up in the United States by more than 30 years. Infant mortality decreased from 100 deaths per 1000 to 7 between the 1900s and 2000.

A vaccine for smallpox led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to declare the disease eradicated in 1978. Prior to a vaccination for diphtheria, it was one of the most common causes of illness and death among children.  Now it is rarely reported in the United States.

What vaccines do children need? Experts: vaccines are necessary
Yet research shows there is still doubt among some medical residents about the effectiveness of vaccinations.

“That is particularly concerning for me,” Byington said. “Young residents may be in the same position as young parents who have trained at a time, or lived at a time, when these diseases were extremely rare, and they may not have ever seen how serious a vaccine-preventable infection can be.”

An increasing number of parents over the years have opted out of getting their children vaccinated. And that may be having a negative impact on the community’s health.

A study found that large clusters of children who had not been vaccinated were close to the large clusters of whooping cough cases in the 2010 California epidemic. While California typically has higher vaccination rates than the rest of the country, that state is dealing with yet another whooping cough epidemic.

This spring also saw an 18-year high number of measles cases in the United States. The largest outbreak was in Ohio where the virus spread quickly among the Amish, who are mostly unvaccinated. This outbreak was a real surprise to health officials who thought that the infectious disease was thought to have been eliminated from the United States in 2000.

The editorial accompanying this latest study suggests doctors, who parents typically trust to tell the truth about medical information, need to use this study to speak with confidence about the importance of vaccinating children.
“Looking at all these mounds of data — there is still no data that show an association that shows vaccine and autism,” said Brown. “I would love it to close this chapter and move on. I don’t think it will. But the more research, the more we learns about autism, the more we can reassure parents that there are no links here.

Source: cnn news

Drowning Prevention: How to Be Cautious Around Water

Drowning Prevention How to Be Cautious Around Water

Whether you are taking your kids to a pool, a river or the ocean, it is crucial that you exercise caution and use good judgment about water safety. Drowning is a very important cause of injury-related death among young children. Although young children are particularly at risk, even older kids who know how to swim can experience difficulty, or even drown.

When you’re out with your kids having fun in the water, safety issues may not be at the top of your mind. However, in order to keep your kids safe, you need to follow some basic precautions. By adopting proper water safety practices, you can help protect your family from serious, even deadly, accidents and injuries.

Ensure Adult Supervision
Though you may feel your kids are old enough to monitor their own activities in the water, don’t let your guard down. Whenever children are near water, responsible adults should closely supervise them at all times.

When watching children – whether near or around a pool, river, ocean, or even a bathtub – avoid multitasking. Do not engage in distracting activities that can cause you to lose your focus on watching your children, such as making phone calls, reading, playing games with other adults, or watching TV.

Wear Life Jackets
Life jackets aren’t just for boating. When your kids are around natural bodies of water – such as rivers or the ocean – consider if life jackets should be mandatory. Even if your kids are excellent swimmers, it’s possible for rip tides and currents to overpower them. Children who are weaker swimmers may need to wear a life jacket when they are in or near swimming pools as well.

Use Pool Fences
Swimming pools, however small, inside houses can be as dangerous as the ocean when it comes to small children. Even if parents are nearby, children are at risk for drowning if proper precautions aren’t taken.

If you have a swimming pool in your house, it is recommended to separate your house from the pool by installing an “isolation fence.” This fence should be four-sided to completely encompass the pool, and should include gates that self-close and self-latch. Isolation fences can help keep children away from the pool area when they’re in the surroundings playing.

Know the Basics
Sometime’s prevention isn’t enough, and accidents happen. It is recommended that all parents learn basic life-saving skills. In addition to knowing how to swim (or at least how to float and move through the water), adults with young children should also learn how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). It isn’t hard to find a basic CPR course. There are many hospitals and NGOs offering the basic CPR courses to interested individuals.

CPR helps to save lives by keeping a flow of oxygenated blood to vital organs. When the heart stops, a person can die in a matter of minutes. If you’re trained in CPR, and administer your skills promptly, you may be able to help save a life.

Avoid Disaster: Use Caution
According to an estimate, India has the highest number of child deaths due to drowning. One of the most tragic aspects of these deaths is that they are completely avoidable. Water injuries and deaths can be prevented, as long as adults remain mindful of children at play. It’s important not to become careless around water, even when your kids are splashing and having fun. By learning the best practices for water safety at pools, rivers, and ocean beaches, you can help keep your kids safe and healthy.

Source: healthline

How to Protect Your Baby From Whooping Cough

How to Protect Your Baby From Whooping Cough

As a parent, the thought of your baby getting whooping cough, or pertussis, may concern you. But you can take steps to protect your little one, even before he is born.

In order to keep your baby safe, you’ll need to protect yourself and your whole family.

Whooping Cough Is Very Easy to Catch

Pertussis vaccines don’t completely wipe out whooping cough. The protection you get from the childhood vaccine — or from having whooping cough — wanes after a while.

If you’ve had the vaccine, you may still get whooping cough, but not a severe case. In fact, you may mistake it for a cold. And you can still spread it.

“It’s quite contagious,” says Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program. “It makes you cough, which is an effective way for the organism to spread.” Sneezing and even just breathing are other ways to pass it throughout your household.

It’s Very Dangerous for Babies

When a baby catches whooping cough, it can have breathing trouble, pneumonia, and in rare cases, even brain damage or death. Infants aren’t vaccinated for whooping cough until they are 2 months old.

“Most deaths from whooping cough occur in babies under 4 months old,” says James Cherry, MD, a specialist in children’s infectious diseases, “and most of these babies have gotten it from their parents, particularly their mothers.”

The Vaccinations

There are two pertussis vaccines:

  • DTaP is for children under 7 years old.
  • Tdap is for adults and older children.

Both Tdap and DTaP also protect against diphtheria and tetanus.

Get a Vaccine When You’re Pregnant

If you are expecting, protecting yourself protects your baby.

“A woman should get a Tdap vaccine every time she is pregnant,” Edwards says.

Get the shot between weeks 27 and 36 of your pregnancy. It helps you build antibodies to fight whooping cough that you pass on to your newborn, protecting him before he can get his first DTaP shot.

Build a Circle of Protection at Home

All other adults, older children, and caregivers who will come into close contact with your infant should also have a Tdap shot.

The ideal age to get the Tdap shot is 11 or 12 years old. But teen siblings, cousins, grandparents, and caregivers who haven’t already had the shot should get one, at least 2 weeks before being around the baby.

Get Baby’s Vaccines on Schedule

Your baby starts building his own immunity when he gets the first DTaP shot. He should get a total of five doses, one each at:

  • 2 months
  • 4 months
  • 6 months
  • 15-18 months
  • 4-6 years

When kept to schedule, the vaccine is 80% to 90% effective, and will protect the child until he or she is ready for the Tdap shot.

About one in four children get a fever or soreness, swelling, or redness at the site of the DTaP shot, most likely after a later dose. In rare cases, some children have severe reactions to the vaccine and should stop getting it.

Source: webmd

Mediterranean diet may control weight among kids

Mediterranean diet may control weight among kids

Children taking a Mediterranean diet are at least 15 percent less likely to be overweight or obese than those children who do not, claims a new study.

Weight, height, waist circumference and percent body fat mass were measured in children from eight countries – Sweden, Germany, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Belgium, Estonia and Hungary.

“The adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet was assessed by a score calculating by giving one point for high intakes of each food group which was considered typical of the Mediterranean diet such as vegetables, fruit and nuts, fish and cereal grains,” explained study author Gianluca Tognon from University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

“One point was given for low intakes of foods untypical of the Mediterranean diet such as dairy and meat products,” he said. High scoring children were then considered high-adherent and compared to the others.

The team found that children with a high adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet were 15 percent less likely to be overweight or obese than low-adherent children.

The findings were independent of age, sex, socio-economic status or country of residence. “The promotion of a Mediterranean dietary pattern is no longer a feature of Mediterranean countries.

“Considering its potential beneficial effects on obesity prevention, this dietary pattern should be part of EU obesity prevention strategies,” said Tognon.

Source: Times of India

Flu Vaccine Spray Better Than Shots for Young Kids

HOLLAND

Spraying a flu vaccine up young children’s noses is more effective than giving them a shot, a U.S. government panel ruled Wednesday.

The new recommendation, voted on during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, only applies to children aged 2 to 8, according to the Associated Press.

Currently, the only flu vaccine spray on the market is AstraZeneca’s FluMist, and it is approved for people aged 2 to 49. Instead of using a killed virus, the spray is made from a live but weakened flu virus, the wire service reported.

The spray triggers a stronger immune response in children who may have never had the flu before, experts say. Kids within that age group are about half as likely to get the flu if they get the nasal spray vaccine instead of a shot, research has shown, the AP reported.

Although federal health officials usually adopt the recommendations of the committee, the nation’s largest pediatrician’s group objected to the new recommendation, the AP reported.

FluMist is more expensive, it can’t be used for everyone and doctors have already ordered their vaccine doses for the fall flu season, a representative of the American Academy of Pediatrics said during the meeting.

But health officials stressed that flu shots are perfectly fine to use, the AP reported. FluMist costs about $23; shots range from about $8 to $22.

Source: webmd

 

Playing puzzle games can improve mental flexibility!

playing puzzle games can improve mental flexibility 2

Playing games are often tied with negative connotation. Many consider it as a waste of time.

However, that might not be the case anymore.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Nanyang Technological University (NTU) study released said playing puzzle games actually improve adults’ executive functions.

Conducted by by Assistant Professor Michael D. Patterson and his PhD student, Mr Adam Oei, it is found that adults who play the physics-based puzzle game regularly, for as little as an hour a day, had improved executive functions. These functions in one’s brain are important for making decisions in everyday life when having to deal with sudden changes in the environment.

playing puzzle games can improve mental flexibility 1

In the study, four different mobile games were tested: a first-person shooter (Modern Combat); arcade (Fruit Ninja); real-time strategy (StarFront Collision); and a complex puzzle (Cut the Rope). About 52 NTU undergraduates who were non-gamers were selected to play an hour a day, five days a week on their iPhone or iPod Touch devices. This exercise lasted for four weeks, or a total of 20 hours.

After the gaming exercise, the study found that players of Cut the Rope could switch between tasks 33 per cent faster, were 30 per cent faster in adapting to new situations, and 60 per cent better in blocking out distractions and focusing on the tasks at hand than before training.

The statement added the three tests to measure one’s executive functions were done a week after the undergraduates had finished playing their assigned game. This was to ensure the findings were not temporary gains due to motivation or arousal effects, it said.

playing puzzle games can improve mental flexibility

“This finding is important because previously, no video games have demonstrated this type of broad improvement to executive functions, which are important for general intelligence, dealing with new situations and managing multitasking,” said Asst Prof Patterson.

“This indicates that while some games may help to improve mental abilities, not all games give you the same effect. To improve the specific ability you are looking for, you need to play the right game,” Mr Oei added.

So yes, you can go ahead and play your games because apparently, they make you smarter.

Source: Vulcan post

Pediatrics Group to Recommend Reading Aloud to Children From Birth

Pediatrics Group to Recommend Reading Aloud to Children From Birth

In between dispensing advice on breast-feeding and immunizations, doctors will tell parents to read aloud to their infants from birth, under a new policy that the American Academy of Pediatrics will announce on Tuesday.

With the increased recognition that an important part of brain development occurs within the first three years of a child’s life, and that reading to children enhances vocabulary and other important communication skills, the group, which represents 62,000 pediatricians across the country, is asking its members to become powerful advocates for reading aloud, every time a baby visits the doctor.

“It should be there each time we touch bases with children,” said Dr. Pamela High, who wrote the new policy. It recommends that doctors tell parents they should be “reading together as a daily fun family activity” from infancy.

This is the first time the academy — which has issued recommendations on how long mothers should nurse their babies and advises parents to keep children away from screens until they are at least 2 — has officially weighed in on early literacy education.

While highly educated, ambitious parents who are already reading poetry and playing Mozart to their children in utero may not need this advice, research shows that many parents do not read to their children as often as researchers and educators think is crucial to the development of pre-literacy skills that help children succeed once they get to school.

Reading, as well as talking and singing, is viewed as important in increasing the number of words that children hear in the earliest years of their lives. Nearly two decades ago, an oft-cited study found that by age 3, the children of wealthier professionals have heard words millions more times than have those of less educated, low-income parents, giving the children who have heard more words a distinct advantage in school. New research shows that these gaps emerge as early as 18 months.

According to a federal government survey of children’s health, 60 percent of American children from families with incomes at least 400 percent of the federal poverty threshold — $95,400 for a family of four — are read to daily from birth to 5 years of age, compared with around a third of children from families living below the poverty line, $23,850 for a family of four.

With parents of all income levels increasingly handing smartphones and tablets to babies, who learn how to swipe before they can turn a page, reading aloud may be fading into the background.

“The reality of today’s world is that we’re competing with portable digital media,” said Dr. Alanna Levine, a pediatrician in Orangeburg, N.Y. “So you really want to arm parents with tools and rationale behind it about why it’s important to stick to the basics of things like books.”

Reading aloud is also a way to pass the time for parents who find endless baby talk tiresome. “It’s an easy way of talking that doesn’t involve talking about the plants outside,” said Erin Autry Montgomery, a mother of a 6-month-old boy in Austin, Tex.

Low-income children are often exposed little to reading before entering formal child care settings. “We have had families who do not read to their children and where there are no books in the home,” said Elisabeth Bruzon, coordinator for the Fairfax, Va., chapter of Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, a nonprofit program that sends visitors to the homes of low- to moderate-income families with children ages 3 to 5.

The pediatricians’ group hopes that by encouraging parents to read often and early, they may help reduce academic disparities between wealthier and low-income children as well as between racial groups. “If we can get that first 1,000 days of life right,” said Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, “we’re really going to save a lot of trouble later on and have to do far less remediation.”

Dr. Navsaria is the medical director of the Wisconsin chapter of Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit literacy group that enlists about 20,000 pediatricians nationwide to give out books to low-income families. The group is working with Too Small to Fail, a joint effort between the nonprofit Next Generation and the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation that is aimed at closing the word gap.

At the annual Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in Denver on Tuesday, Hillary Rodham Clinton will announce that Scholastic, the children’s book publisher, will donate 500,000 books to Reach Out and Read. Too Small to Fail is also developing materials to distribute to members of the American Academy of Pediatrics to help them emphasize the read-aloud message to parents.

Source: ny times

Parents Should Read to Kids Starting in Infancy, Docs Say

Parents Should Read to Kids Starting in Infancy, Docs Say

Parents should read to their children often, and start well before the kids enter school, according to a new statement from the nation’s largest group of pediatricians.

The statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that pediatricians advise parents to read regularly to their children, beginning in infancy and continuing at least until the child enters kindergarten. Reading to children at a young age fosters parent-child bonding and encourages the development of early literacy skills needed in school, the statements says.

The AAP also recommends that pediatricians provide books at health check-ups to low-income children who are at high risk of having low reading proficiency.

Source: live science

Monsoon Special: How to keep your little ones safe and healthy!

Monsoon Special How to keep your little ones safe and healthy

 

The cool breeze and the refreshing rains in monsoons come as a huge relief after the hot summer season. But these gleeful moments can also bring along humidity, mosquitoes, diseases, etc, which in turn can give you a lot of anxiety and worries regarding your little one’s health.

Below are a few tips to help you keep your kids healthy during this season:

Hygiene and Cleanliness: Since this season brings with it a lot of challenges, hygiene comes first. Keep your room and surrounding areas clean and dry.

Due to humidity, your little ones may sweat a lot, which can lead to fungal infections, skin rashes or allergies. Keep your baby clean by bathing him/her atleast once a day. Adding a few drops of neem oil in the bathing water works as a disinfectant.

Wash your hands as well as your baby’s after changing nappies and after he eats, to keep diseases at bay. Cut your baby’s nail short to keep him/her clean and healthy. .

Food and Drink: Always serve your little ones moderately hot/warm food. Make sure your children drink only boiled or filtered water. Even when you go out, carry water bottle from your home. Avoid giving them food, fruit juices and drinks with ice from outside. Not just your kids, but adults should also avoid eating from outside during this season.

If you have a baby who’s on formula milk, always use boiled and cooled water to make his feed. And if your are breastfeeding, keep breastfeeding your baby. This will strengthen the baby’s immune system as well as help protect from illness. Your breastmilk contains antibodies that can keep your baby strong and healthy.

Also, make your child drink plenty of boiled water to prevent dehydration.

Clothes: During this humid season, dress your child in loose cotton clothes that will absorb the sweat and let his skin breath. Avoid synthetic and nylon clothes.

Make sure that your child does not wear damp clothes as this can lead to fungal infections. Remember even slightly wet cloth can lead to flu. Keep his/her skin dry to prevent prickly heat.

During day time, be sure to cover your baby’s arms and legs to avoid mosquito bites.

And if you have a school-going kid, make sure that his/her raincoat, school bag, gumboots, socks and other items are dry and clean.

Avoid Mosquitoes: As monsoons bring along a lot of illnesses, keeping your home and surroundings clean can help avoid your child from mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria or chikungunya. Applying mosquito repellants/creams on your baby’s skin or using a mosquito net will help avoid mosquito bites.

Source: zee news

Separated parents are ‘damaging’ children by sharing their care, expert claims

damaging parents

Penelope Leach, a psychologist and one of Britain’s best known parenting experts, has claimed young children can be ‘damaged’ by splitting their time between their parents if they are separated

Separated parents who share the care of their young children and allow them to stay overnight at both of their homes are damaging them, a parenting expert has claimed. Penelope Leach, one of Britain’s leading childcare experts, said shuttling children backwards and forwards between two homes and allowing them to ‘sleepover’ with the parent they do not normally live with can affect the development of their brains. Her comments have angered fathers’ rights groups as children usually stay primarily with their mothers when their parents divorce or separate.

Ms Leach, a former president of the National Childminding Association who has written a number of books about caring for children, says allowing under fives to spend a night with one parent when they primarily live with another creates “unhealthy attachment issues.”

She also claims in her latest book, Family Breakdown, that there was “undisputed evidence” that a period of separation from the parent they normally live with – typically their mothers – can adversely affect a child’s brain development.

She argues that “When people say that it’s ‘only fair’ for a father and mother to share their five-year-old daughter on alternate weeks, they mean it is fair to the adults – who see her as a possession and her presence as their right – not that it is fair to the child.”

Ms Leach said when lawyers bid for their client to have overnight access with their young children they are ignoring evidence about the distressing and damaging impact on the child.

Leach said the rights of the child must always outweigh those of the parents and added: “It can be damaging to the child to divide time equally between the parents.” Ian Maxwell, from Families Need Fathers, told the Independent on Sunday that society had moved on from classic attachment theory when bonds between mother and child were seen as the strongest.

He added: “The bond between fathers and children is just as important and we would question the evidence Ms Leach is citing for the primacy of the maternal bond.” He said her argument did not accord with common sense was described her claims as “worrying.”

Leach has previously drawn criticism for her previous bestselling book, Your Baby & Child: From Birth to Age Five, published. In this she claimed only mothers could care properly for their children.

She has also attracted controversy after she claimed scientific evidence showed that leaving a baby to cry could affect the development of its brain and make it prone to anxiety in later life.

It comes as a think tank suggested that working fathers should be given the chance to play a bigger role in early parenting, through an entitlement to four weeks of paid leave following the birth of their child.

The IPPR argues that this doubling of the current paternity leave entitlement of just 2 weeks should be combined with a doubling of the level of pay and paid at least the national minimum wage.

They claim that more than 400,000 working dads a year would benefit.
Only 55 per cent of fathers take the full 2 weeks off work when their child is born and one third of eligible fathers do not take any of their statutory leave at all. Most state this is because they can’t afford to take the entitlement.

The proposed 4 weeks of paternity leave would be a period of leave specifically for fathers that cannot be taken by mothers. The IPPR also argues that working dads should also be able to get twice as much paid time off to go with their parenters to hospital scans and midwife appointments.

Kayte Lawton, IPPR Senior Research Fellow, said: “New parents need time away from work to care for their young children, and to strengthen their relationship with each other at what can be a hugely enjoyable but also very stressful time. However, this is often difficult for fathers because they have limited entitlements to paid leave, and so they often assume the role of breadwinner while their partner is on maternity leave.

“Fathers who take more than a few days off around the birth of their child are more likely to be actively involved in raising their child than those who do not. Fathers’ greater involvement in family life can make it easier for mothers to return to work after taking maternity leave, which helps to raise the family’s income and lessen the impact of motherhood on women’s careers.”

Source: The telegraph