Health Tip: Keep Your Child Safe in a High Chair

HealthDay – 2 mins 54 secs ago (HealthDay News) -- A high chair makes it easier to feed your child, But you should make sure the child can't tip it over.

The American Academy of Pediatrics mentions this safety checklist for high chairs:

The chair should be sturdy and not tip over easily.If the chair folds, make sure it's locked before the child sits down.Fasten all safety straps in the chair, and don't allow your child to stand up in it.Don't position the chair close enough to a table that your child can push against the table and tip over.Children should never be left unattended in a high chair. Older kids should never be allowed to climb on it.Avoid using a high chair that hooks onto the table, in place of a freestanding one.

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Cambodian deaths tied to common child illness

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Developing world has less than 5% chance of meeting UN child hunger target, study estimates

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2012) — Insufficient progress has been made in most developing countries to meet the United Nations' target of halving the proportion of children who suffer from hunger by 2015 compared with 1990 levels, according to a systematic analysis of data on children's height and weight, published July 5 in the Lancet. Although the nutritional status of children under five has improved overall since 1985, one in five infants and children in developing countries is still moderately or severely underweight, amounting to an estimated 110 million children worldwide. Another 148 million are mildly underweight.

See Also:Health & MedicineChildren's HealthDiet and Weight LossInfant's HealthScience & SocietyPublic HealthWorld DevelopmentEducational PolicyReferenceBody mass indexMicronutrientMalnutritionOverweight

The UN set the target as part of its Millennium Development Goals. This new analysis, led by Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, estimates that while 61 out of the 141 developing countries studied are likely to meet this target, the developing world as a whole has less than a 5% chance of succeeding. Progress has been uneven between regions, with Asia and Latin America making the strongest improvements and sub-Saharan Africa falling behind.

Because nutrition has a strong effect on children's growth, nutritional status in children can be assessed using scores based on their height and weight relative to their age, called height-for-age and weight-for-age Z scores (HAZ and WAZ).

Researchers from Imperial College London, the World Health Organisation and universities in the US compiled HAZ and WAZ data from national surveys and other sources, and used statistical methods to estimate average Z scores and the prevalence of undernutrition (defined as insufficient food intake and absorption) for entire countries.

The results show that:

• The proportion of children classed as moderately to severely underweight fell from 30.1% to 19.4% between 1985 and 2011 in the countries studied. The prevalence of moderate to severe stunting (insufficient growth in height for their age) declined from 47.2% to 29.9%.

• South Asia, the region with the worst nutritional status in 1985, has improved considerably, but undernutrition is still a major issue. About one half of the world's underweight children live in South Asia, mostly in India.

• Undernutrition worsened in sub-Saharan Africa from 1985 until the late 1990s, when height and weight scores began to improve. The deterioration may have been due to economic shocks, structural adjustment, and trade policy reforms in the region in the 1980s and 1990s.

• In Ivory Coast and Niger, nutritional status was measurably worse in 2011 than it had been in 1985.

• Height and weight scores improved in all other regions, with the largest improvements in South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, and Southern and Tropical Latin America. The biggest improvement in children's height occurred in China and Vietnam.

• Some countries in Latin America, such as Chile, now have almost no undernutrition. The proportion of underweight children almost halved per decade in Brazil.

• As of 2011, about half of children in Burundi, Yemen, Timor-Leste, Niger and Afghanistan are moderately or severely stunted. More than one third of children in Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, Niger, India and Nepal are moderately or severely underweight.

This new study includes estimates of all levels of malnutrition, unlike previous analyses, which excluded children who were mildly malnourished. The statistics suggest that in most countries, the improvements are due to population-wide improvements in nutrition, rather than interventions targeting high-risk children.

Professor Majid Ezzati said: "Our analysis shows that the developing world as a whole has made considerable progress towards reducing child malnutrition, but there are still far too many children who don't receive sufficient nutritious foods or who lose nutrients due to repeated sickness. Severe challenges lie ahead.

"There is evidence that child nutrition is best improved through equitable economic growth, investment in policies that help smallholder farmers and increase agricultural productivity, and primary care and food programmes targeted at the poor. We mustn't allow the global economic crisis and rising food prices to cause inequalities to increase, or cut back on investments in nutrition and healthcare."

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Child CT scans could raise cancer risk slightly

Children who get several CT scans have a slightly higher chance of brain cancer and leukemia in later life, though the risk is still small and probably outweighed by the need to get the test, researchers reported.

The use of CT scans has risen rapidly since they were introduced 30 years ago. For children, they're used to evaluate head, neck or spine injuries or neurological disorders.

International researchers studied nearly 180,000 patients under age 22 who had a CT scan in British hospitals between 1985 and 2002. They followed those patients until 2008. They found 74 of them were diagnosed with leukemia while 135 had brain tumors.

The scientists didn't measure the number of scans, which were mostly of the head, but looked at data measuring radiation doses from the scans. That's because the amount of radiation received by body parts such as the brain and bone marrow depends on the age and size of the patient.

The children who later developed leukemia or brain tumors were compared to a group of people who got a very low dose of radiation to the same parts of their bodies.

"CT scans are very useful, but they also have relatively high doses of radiation, when compared to X-rays," said Mark Pearce of Newcastle University, the study's lead author, at a press briefing Wednesday. He said CT scans were warranted in most situations but more needed to be done to reduce the amount of radiation.

Pearce and colleagues concluded the risk of brain tumors was tripled if children had two to three scans and the risk of leukemia was tripled with five to 10 scans. But he emphasized these were rare diseases and that the higher risk was still small. The risk of leukemia in children is about 1 in 2,000, so having several CT scans would bump that up to about 1 in 600.

"This (risk) is important, but the CT scan may be even more important," said David Spiegelhalter, of the University of Cambridge. He was not connected to the research.

"A judgment has to be made," he said in a statement.

The researchers noted that modern CT scanners give off about 80 percent less radiation than the older machines used in the study. Even at low doses, the radiation can damage genes that may increase the patient's risk of developing cancer later.

The study was paid for by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the U.K. Department of Health. It was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet.

In the U.K., laws already require radiation from medical scans be kept as low as possible. In the United States, the government is pushing manufacturers to design new scanners to minimize radiation exposure for the youngest patients. And it posted advice on the Internet urging parents to speak up when a doctor orders a scan

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Tide to change Pods lid over child safety concerns

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Does Your Child Have Seasonal Allergies or a Cold?

HealthDay – 3 hrs ago SATURDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) -- It can be difficult during the spring months for parents to determine whether their children have a cold or seasonal allergies, but an expert outlines how to tell the difference.

"Runny, stuffy or itchy noses; sneezing; coughing; fatigue; and headaches can all be symptoms of both allergies and colds, but when parents pay close attention to minor details they will be able to tell the difference," Dr. Michelle Lierl, a pediatric allergist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said in a hospital news release.

"Children who have spring or fall allergies have much more itching of their noses; they often have fits of sneezing and usually rub their noses in an upward motion," she explained. "They also complain about an itchy, scratchy throat or itchy eyes, whereas with a cold, they don't."

When people have allergies, their nasal discharge is usually clear and has the consistency of watery mucus, while those with colds typically have yellowish mucus discharge, Lierl said.

She recommended that children with seasonal allergy symptoms be tested for environmental allergens -- such as pollen -- that are present during seasons when they have symptoms, but not tested for food allergies or allergens present during seasons when children don't have symptoms.

If your child has seasonal allergies, Lierl suggested many things you can do to control symptoms:

Keep windows closed during periods of high pollen and fungal spore levels, and change air conditioner filters every month.Change children's clothing when they come inside from outdoors. Wash clothing to rid them of all outdoor allergens.After being outside, children should wash their face, hands and hair, and parents should use a nonprescription saline solution to rinse children's eyes and nose.Limit outdoor activity in the morning, when pollen counts are higher. When traveling, keep vehicle windows closed to keep pollen and other allergens out.Make sure children take their allergy medicine daily during pollen season.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about seasonal allergies in children.

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Prepregnancy obesity linked to child test scores

ScienceDaily (May 8, 2012) — Women who are obese before they become pregnant are at higher risk of having children with lower cognitive function -- as measured by math and reading tests taken between ages 5 to 7 years -- than are mothers with a healthy prepregnancy weight, new research suggests.

See Also:Health & MedicineObesityDiet and Weight LossChildren's HealthMind & BrainChild DevelopmentIntelligenceChild PsychologyReferenceBirth weightNutrition and pregnancyMaternal bondStillbirth

In this large observational study, prepregnancy obesity was associated, on average, with a three-point drop in reading scores and a two-point reduction in math scores on a commonly used test of children's cognitive function.

Previous research has suggested that a woman's prepregnancy obesity can have a negative effect on fetal organs, such as the heart, liver and pancreas. Because fetal development is rapid and sensitive to a mother's physiological characteristics, Ohio State University researchers sought to find out whether a mother's obesity also could affect the fetal brain.

"One way you measure the effects on the brain is by measuring cognition," said Rika Tanda, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in nursing at Ohio State.

The research also supported findings in previous studies suggesting that several other conditions affect childhood cognition, including how stimulating the home environment is, family income and a mother's education and cognitive skills.

"The new piece here is we have a measure associated with the fetus's environment to add to that set of potential risk factors," said Pamela Salsberry, senior author of the study and a professor of nursing at Ohio State. "If we have a good way to understand the risks each child is born with, we could tailor the post-birth environment in such a way that they could reach their maximum capabilities."

The research appears online and is scheduled for future print publication in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.

The researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979 Mother and Child Survey, a nationally representative sample of men and women who were 14-21 years old in December 1978. From that dataset, Tanda collected information on 3,412 children born to NLSY mothers who had been full-term births, were between 5 and almost 7 years old at the time of their interview and who had no diagnosed physical or cognition problems.

In addition to documenting a number of characteristics about the mothers and the family environment, the researchers gauged the children's cognitive function based on their performance on Peabody Individual Achievement Test reading recognition and math assessments.

The researchers calculated the mothers' body mass index (BMI) based on their reported heights and weights. More than half of mothers had normal BMIs before pregnancy, and 9.6 percent were obese, meaning they had a BMI of 30 or higher.

Controlling for all other variables, the analysis showed that maternal prepregnancy obesity was negatively associated with math and reading test scores. Children of obese women scored, on average, three points lower on reading and two points lower on math than did children of healthy-weight women. The mean reading score among all the children was 106.1 points and the mean math score was 99.9.

Though the score differences seem small, Tanda noted that these effects of prepregnancy obesity were equivalent to a seven-year decrease in the mothers' education and significantly lower family income, two other known risk factors that negatively affect childhood cognitive function.

Tanda said clinicians could use these findings to help encourage women patients of childbearing age to maintain a healthy weight, especially if they plan to get pregnant.

"This is a large population study, so at the individual level we can't say that one person's decision to change her weight will change her child's outcome," she said. "But these findings suggest that children born to women who are obese before pregnancy might need extra support."

Added Salsberry, "It's not only for their child's sake. It's also important for the health of the mother. But it is important to understand that maternal obesity during pregnancy could have implications for their children as well."

Without actual measures of women's and fetuses' insulin levels, inflammation and blood sugar readings, scientists can't say for sure how prepregnancy obesity might affect the fetal brain. But previous studies have suggested that a mother's impaired metabolic processes affect the fetal brain cell growth and formation of synapses.

The researchers also noted that obesity doesn't automatically equate to unhealthy.

"There may be two obese moms that in fact have very different metabolic profiles. For the purposes of this study, her weight is a stand-in for biological data that we would like to have but don't," Salsberry said.

Socioeconomic data from the study supported previous findings that several post-birth conditions can have a positive association with higher children's test scores. These include a stimulating home environment with plenty of books, a safe play environment and frequent family meals; higher family income; and higher maternal education levels and cognitive function. Girls and first-born children also performed better on the math and reading tests than did boys and younger siblings.

With all these data combined, Tanda said, the study also reveals how health disparities can have long-lasting effects.

"Young females who grow up poor, who have less access to healthy foods resulting in diets that are of poorer quality, are at higher risk of having children with disadvantages and repeating this cycle," she said.

The researchers are continuing to examine additional influences on childhood cognition, including race, sex and age differences among mothers.

This study was supported by a grant from the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award predoctoral fellowship sponsored by the National Institute of Nursing Research.

Additional co-authors included Patricia Reagan and Muriel Fang of Ohio State's Department of Economics and the Center for Human Resource Research.

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Health Tip: When Your Child is Stressed

HealthDay – 14 mins ago (HealthDay News) -- Stress is a fact of life, and children are no less immune than their parents.

How can you recognize if your child is "stressed out?" The American Academy of Pediatrics mentions these possible warning signs:

Having physical problems, such as stomach ache or headache.Appearing agitated, tired or restless.Seeming depressed and unwilling to talk about his or her feelings.Losing interest in activities and wanting to stay at home.Acting irritable or negative.Participating less at school, possibly including slipping grades.Exhibiting antisocial behavior (stealing or lying), avoiding chores or becoming increasingly dependent on his or her parents.

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What to do with a child who’s happy hanging out at home: Advice from Marguerite Kelly

The Lorax’ movie and the kids who protected Dr. Seuss’ messageLeap Year: Is Feb. 29 a good day to give birth or not worth the hassle?The Ohio school shootings: Why we keep repeating the pastStories By DateFull Monthly Archive Posted at 04:25 PM ET, 03/02/2012By On Parenting
From elsewhere in The Post: A 7-year-old boy isn’t as active as his parent would like, prompting a letter to Family Almanac columnist Marguerite Kelly.

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