The Kid's Doctor: Your Partner in Parenting » Your Baby

Chicken Pox Vaccine May Protect Against Shingles, Too

sgalier — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:00:39 +0000

New findings suggest that children who are vaccinated against chicken pox may also have increased protection against shingles.

U.S. researchers looked at the health records of over 170,000 children in southern California who were vaccinated with the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine between 2002 and 2008.

2.5 years after receiving the chicken pox vaccine, only 122 cases of singles (herpes zoster) appeared in the children. Researchers say the rate is lower than what would be expected in unvaccinated children.

“The message to parents and pediatricians is: vaccinating your child against the chicken pox is also a good way to reduce their chances of getting herpes zoster,” study lead author HungFu Tseng, a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena, Calif., said.

“More research is needed to identify the virus strains that cause herpes zoster,” Tseng added.

The study appeared in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

Mom Slaps Baby On Flight

Dina — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:47:05 +0000

There were a few tense moments on a Southwest Airlines flight this week.

According to witnesses on the flight from Dallas to Albuquerque, a mother slapped her crying baby’s face during the flight and a Southwest flight attendant took the baby away from the family to console the child.

Southwest Airlines said “the family was visibly having some heated discussions.”

The flight attendant returned the child to the parents just before the plane landed. Police were waiting at the gate when the flight arrived and questioned the couple, flight attendant and witnesses. The child was returned to the parents and they were neither cited nor charged.

Did the flight attendant act properly? What do you think? How do you control a crying or fussy child on a flight? Let is know and leave your comments below!

Giving Babies Tylenol May Blunt Vaccine Effects

sgalier — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:45:09 +0000

The long-prescribed advice by pediatricians to give a baby Tylenol (acetaminophen) to prevent fever after they get their vaccinations may not do any good and could even make the vaccinations less effective according to research.

The study, published in the British medical journal Lancet is the first major study to tie reduced immunity to the use of fever-reducing medicines. Although the effect was small and the vast majority of kids still got enough protection from vaccines, the results make “a compelling case” against routinely giving Tylenol right after vaccination, say doctors from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study only looked at preventive use of Tylenol — not whether it is OK to use after a fever develops.

Tylenol or its generic twin, acetaminophen, is widely recommended as a painkiller for babies. Many parents give it right before or after a shot to prevent fever and fussiness, and some doctors recommend this. The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel says it is a reasonable thing to do for children at high risk of seizures, which can be triggered by fevers.

However, fever after a vaccine isn’t necessarily bad — it’s a natural part of the body’s response. Curbing fever, especially the first time a baby gets a vaccine, also seems to curb the immune response and the amount of protective antibodies that are made, the new study found.

The study involved over 400 infants, aged 9 to 16 weeks old, in the Czech Republic who were getting vaccines against polio, pneumonia, meningitis, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis and other childhood diseases.

Half were given three doses of Calpol, or paracetamol — a Tylenol-like brand sold in Europe — during the first day after vaccination. The others were given nothing besides the vaccines.

Babies given the painkiller were significantly less likely to develop a fever — 42 percent versus 66 percent of the others — and very few in either group developed a high one.

However, lower rates of protective antibody levels from several vaccines were seen in the group given the drug. Levels remained significantly lower in this group after booster vaccines, given when the babies were 12 to 15 months old.

Next, the researchers looked at 10 other vaccine studies and found some supporting evidence that using Tylenol to prevent fevers at the time of vaccination may curb immune system response rates. The same may not be true of using the drug to treat fevers after they develop.

The research was sponsored by Belgium-based GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, which makes all the vaccines used in the study. Some authors have financial ties to the company, including owning stock in it, and Glaxo had a role in reporting the results.

Car Seats, Out Of Cars, Injured 43,000 U.S. Children

sgalier — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:30:47 +0000

Parents and caregivers who place car seats on beds, kitchen counters and other places outside the car injured 43,000 U.S. children over five years, new research has found.

Over 3,000 of those children were injured seriously enough to require hospitalization.

“Many families learn the importance of strapping an infant car seat into a vehicle, but they do not learn about the dangers of using infant car seats as carriers or placing them on countertops or beds,” said Dr. Shital Parikh of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Most of the children were injured on the head, but they also broke leg and arm bones, he said.

“When parents or caregivers place the infant car seat on top of a table or elevated surface, the infant can wiggle and end up toppling off out of the seat onto the floor, which can lead to severe injuries,” Parikh said in a statement.

“Another accident that can happen is the turning over of the car seat on to a soft surface, which can lead to suffocation.”

Parikh used a Consumer Products Safety Commission database to make his calculations.

Babies Born In High Pollen & Mold Months At Wheezing Risk

Dina — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:30:44 +0000

A recent study shows that children exposed to high levels of pollen and mold in their first few months of life are more likely to develop wheezing, which is a possible early symptom of asthma.

Researchers from the University of California Berkeley studied more than 500 children in California’s Salinas Valley. They found that children born in high mold season (fall and winter) were three times more likely to develop wheezing by the age of two than children born at other times of the year.

The findings help clarify why babies born in the fall and winter appear to have a higher risk of developing asthma than children born in the fall. As many as 40 percent of children who wheeze early in life may go on to develop childhood asthma.

Study author Kim Harley, associate director of health effects research at UC Berkeley’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research said she and her colleagues were continuing to follow the children in the study.

“We are not in a position to say conclusively why some children develop asthma, or to even suggest precautionary measures to help babies born in the fall and winter,” study senior author Dr. Ira Tager, professor of epidemiology, said in a news release. “We already know that family history is a major risk factor for developing asthma, but the role environmental factors play is still being fleshed out. What this study does is provide valuable clues about airborne allergens that are worth exploring further.”

Is My Baby Teething?

Dina — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:15:39 +0000

A major milestone in a your-baby’s first year is the cutting of their first tooth. Babies typically get their first tooth, on the bottom, around four to seven months of age. But it is important for parents to realize that babies develop differently and it is not unheard of for your-baby to cut their first tooth closer to their first birthday.

The arrival of that first tooth can sometimes be painful. Babies typically experience pain with teething two to three days before and after a tooth erupts. That pain can be managed with an over-the-counter pain reliever like Tylenol. “I do not recommend giving a young infant a product with ibuprofen,” says pediatrician Dr. Sue Hubbard.

Dr. Hubbard says one way to also manage the pain is to give your child something to chew one, like a large piece of frozen bagel, a frozen washcloth or frozen teething ring.Many parents attribute a sudden fever to teething. But Dr. Hubbard says “You don’t run high fever with teething. If your your-baby is running a high fever, pulling on ears, and is irritable, it could be a sign of a secondary infection and you should contact your pediatrician about it.”

Tiny Batteries Can Cause Big Problems for Young Children

sgalier — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:00:49 +0000

A recent study warns parents that it is not unusual for children to eat small “button” type batteries that power things like watches and cameras. After monitoring cases at a pediatric hospital over a 10-year period and checking case reports from other hospitals, researchers found that some children swallow the batteries while others stick them up their nose.

But, the study authors pointed out, parents and health-care providers often aren’t aware of the dangers posed by these miniature disc batteries.

Button batteries, which are about the size of a coin or smaller, power a variety of devices, including hearing aids, calculators, small toys and musical greeting cards.

An estimated 3,000 people of all ages accidentally ingest the batteries each year in the United States. About two-thirds of the cases involve children under age 5, with 1- and 2-year-olds at highest risk, the researchers noted.

In the most severe cases, serious consequences can develop, such as vocal paralysis, the need for throat and gastrointestinal tubes, and perforation of nasal passages, according to the study authors.

The experts say it’s vital for physicians to promptly identify and treat ingestion of button batteries. They also call for better packaging and markings on button batteries.

According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, ingested batteries can cause a variety of symptoms, including abdominal pain, chest pain and vomiting.

Living With a Smoker Puts Kids at Risk for Emphysema

sgalier — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:10:07 +0000

Children who spend time around smokers face a higher risk of developing early emphysema as non-smoking adults a recent study shows. The results of the study suggest that they may develop emphysema because their young lungs never completely recover from the secondhand smoke exposure.

Researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health looked at the CT scans of over 1,700 non-smokers from six U.S. communities. The results showed that about half of them grew up in homes with at least one smoker.

“We were able to detect a difference on CT scans between the lungs of participants who lived with a smoker as a child and those who did not,” Gina Lovasi, an assistant professor of epidemiology said. “Some known harmful effects of tobacco smoke are short-term, and this new research suggests that effects of tobacco smoke on the lungs may also persist for decades.”

The researchers did not find a link between childhood exposure to tobacco smoke and lung function. “However, emphysema may be a more sensitive measure of damage compared with lung function in this relatively healthy cohort,” Lovasi stated.

The findings are published in an issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Children’s Cold & Allergy Medicine Recall: What Should You Do Now?

Dina — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:00:31 +0000

If you follow us on twitter or Facebook, you already know that over the weekend McNeil Consumer Healthcare division announced a huge recall of some of the most popular over the counter infants’ and children’s products.

McNeil announced that this was a voluntary recall of many of their over the counter (OTC) products including Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Zyrtec. This recall includes 7 different products and 43 different flavored liquid medication. Their press release stated that the recall was being initiated “because some of these products may not meet required quality standards”.

The recall was not mandated by the FDA and was not undertaken due to any adverse medical events being reported. So, if you have given your children a recent dose of one the named products, I do not think you need to worry as it seems that the products in questions may either contain a higher concentration of active ingredient than specified on the bottle, or may also contain tiny particles or inactive ingredients that do not meet internal testing requirements.

With that being said, McNeil also made a toll free number available (1-888-222-6036) that could be used to report any adverse events and also to answer questions regarding the recall. Despite the fact that adverse events have not been reported I would take this opportunity to dispose of any of the mentioned drugs and replace them with a generic equivalent.

It is my understanding that all of the recalled drugs (McNeil recall website) are the infant’s and children’s liquid products, which includes both infant drops and children’s suspension. All lots that have not yet expired, including samples from the physician’s office or hospital are included in the recall. This is the time to look for generic equivalents of these products, as McNeil alludes to the fact that it may be “some time” before their name brand products will be available for purchase.

Tylenol is the number one selling brand of acetaminophen, while Motrin is the equivalent of generic ibuprofen. Benadryl, which is diphenhydramine is the best selling antihistamine for allergies and is often used to alleviate itching from problems such as poison ivy or eczema. Zyrtec is cetirizine which is a once daily antihistamine with less sedation than diphenhydramine. At this time of year, many parents have been using both Benadryl and Zyrtec to help combat the severe allergy season which has been affecting the entire country.

While doing the radio show over the weekend, a caller called asking if she could replace her son’s Benadryl (remember diphenhydramine) with Sudafed (pseudoephedrine) which is definitely not the same drug. This shows the importance of reading labels and asking either your pharmacist or physician if you have questions.

In the meantime, get the trash bags out and throw out the recalled medications, and see if you have any pharmacy discount coupons you can use to refill your medicine cabinet!

That’s your daily dose. We’ll chat again tomorrow.

Send your question to Dr. Sue!

Alert! Children’s Cold And Allergy Medicine Recalled

Dina — Sat, 01 May 2010 12:50:37 +0000

Parents take note: a voluntary recall has been issued for more than 40 over-the-counter medicines for children. The drugs include Tylenol and Motrin. Reason for the recall? They may not meet quality standards.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare issued a statement saying “this recall is not being undertaken on the basis of adverse medical events, however, as a precautionary measure, parents and caregivers should not administer these products to their children.”

The brand affected by the recall include: Tylenol Infants’ Drops, Children’s Tylenol Suspensions, Children’s Tylenol Plus Suspensions Motrin Infant Drops, Children’s Motrin Suspensions, Children’s Zyrtec Liquids in bottles and Children’s Benadryl Allergy Liquids in bottles.

For more information you can go to McNeil’s product recall website.

The Kid's Doctor: Your Partner in Parenting » Your Baby

Chicken Pox Vaccine May Protect Against Shingles, Too

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Mom Slaps Baby On Flight

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Giving Babies Tylenol May Blunt Vaccine Effects

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Car Seats, Out Of Cars, Injured 43,000 U.S. Children

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Babies Born In High Pollen & Mold Months At Wheezing Risk

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Is My Baby Teething?

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Tiny Batteries Can Cause Big Problems for Young Children

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Living With a Smoker Puts Kids at Risk for Emphysema

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Children’s Cold & Allergy Medicine Recall: What Should You Do Now?

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Alert! Children’s Cold And Allergy Medicine Recalled

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