40% PARENTS INAPPROPRIATELY GIVE COUGH MEDICATIONS
IN 2008 THE FDA ADVISED THAT CHILDREN TWO AND UNDER SHOULD NOT RECEIVE OTC COUGH MEDICATIONS.
Manufacturers responded and labeled all cough medications to be given to children four and older.
A recent survey In the “University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health”, over 40% of parents said they give their child under 4 years of age cough medicines or multi-symptom medications.
Why is this bad?
The medications are ineffective in treating children’s colds and coughs.
The medications can have serious side effects:
Arrhythmias
Convulsions
Hallucinations
Confusion
Shallow/slow breathing.
POV: Read Labels thoroughly.
Do Not give OTC cough and cold medications to children under the age of four.
ELIMINATION COMMUNICATION: It’s BACK…….
” Baby’s Latest: Going Diaperless” - New York Times April 18, 2013.
The method: Baby is diaper free. Parents listen for the sounds of impending elimination and hold infant over a sink, container, potty or curbside.
“Parents are drawn to the method as a way of preserving the environment from the ravages of disposable diapers, as well as reducing the laundering of cloth diapers and preventing diaper rash. Many of them like the thought that they are rediscovering an ancient practice used in other cultures”
This is not new. The New York Times “discovered” this cultural phenomenon in 2005 and caused a minor news cycle kerfulle with the announcement. I appeared on The Paula Zahn Show (CNN) on November 3, 2005 to discuss the trend and the story lasted less than a week.
This will never be more than a fringe movement, being rediscovered on slow news days to titillate the public. “Go Diaper Free Week” is upon us and I suspect diaperfreebaby.org sold the NYT on the importance of this seismic shift in parenting.
DR. WAKEFIELDS LEGACY: Measles Threatens London
Dr Andrew Wakefield, British physician and researcher, reported in a 1998 Lancet article that the MMR vaccine caused autism. As a result of his now discredited work, millions of young children were never immunized. Two million children currently are at risk for measles. 50% of them live in London.
There is a measles epidemic in Wales which threatens to spread to England.
“A figure of 808 measles cases in Swansea with a population of 270,000, is equivalent to 56,000 kids with measles in the metropolitan area of New York City (population circa 18,800,000). In the whole of the USA, in a typical year there are between 50 and 60 reported cases of measles. In 2011, America had 222 cases, most of whom were visiting foreigners or Americans who had become infected abroad.” (MNT)
POV: Hurry up United Kingdom and immunize your children. NOW.
This is a warning to the McCarthyites, the non immunizers in the United States: Don’t let this happen here. Measles kills children. Blinds children. Makes children deaf.
Please follow the science not the fear mongers.
CINNAMON CHALLENGE
New fad: swallow a spoonful of dry cinnamon in 60 seconds without drinking any fluid.
Video of this “performance art” is posted on You Tube and Facebook.
Downside: Choking, hoarse voice, pneumonia, wheezing and possible lung collapse.
Moms Weigh In On 'Latch On NYC' Breast-Feeding Initiative
My appearance on WPIX this morning
Again and Not the Last Time
How many innocent people have to be murdered by young men with semi-automatic guns before we say enough?
“There are nearly three hundred million privately owned firearms in the United States: a hundred and six million handguns, a hundred and five million rifles, and eighty-three million shotguns. That works out to about one gun for every American.”
President Obama spoke today about the murders in Aurora, Colorado but did not address the American love affair with the Second Amendment and the need for gun control. Where is the outrage with the gun lobby and its blatant disregard for our young peoples’ safety? How many more mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, grandparents and friends will appear on the evening news, “horrified”,”shocked” and “devastated?”before we question our core values as a nation?
Parents throw themselves into the jaws of snarling dogs, runaway cars and flying bullets to protect their children. Many work three jobs to provide a better life for their kids. Why so quiet about guns?
Do you love your children?
Yes?
Get up and fight like you mean it. Write, yell, march, vote that love and save our children from needless gun violence.
That’s what a good parent does.
Rory Staunton
Jim Dwyer wrote a heartbreaking piece in today’s NY Times about the life and death of a 12 year old boy named Rory Staunton. The story chronicles the events leading to his death from overwhelming streptococcal sepsis. A death that may have been prevented if the signs of severe illness had been heeded earlier by medical professionals.
Please read this story and tell me your reactions. Mine are complicated, visceral, parental, professional and personal. I would love to have a conversation.
Maurice Sendak. You will be missed.
April 5, 2010: The Boss Arrives
Surgery is penciled in for 6 am, it is almost midnight and I haven’t met my surgeon. Dr L is a highly qualified orthopedic trauma surgeon who operated on Haitian earthquake victims and holds important academic posts at NY Presbyterian and The Hospital For Special Surgery. He is busy doing post op rounds and may not see me tonight.
“How can I let someone operate on me who I’ve never met? I need to see his face, look into his eyes, hear his voice,” I mewl. ‘If he doesn’t come, I won’t have the surgery!!”
Ed, calm and reassuring, gently endeavors to talk me off the ledge as the clock’s second hand relentlessly repeats its 360* cycle over and over and over, my tangled thoughts bouncing around my head like a bingo mixer. I am stranded and alone in my fear.
11:25 pm: The door opens and a tired band of white coats enters the room. Dr L, muscular and handsome, introduces himself and shares his plans. Tomorrow he will fix my right wrist and Thursday my left wrist and knee.
“Why are you separating the surgeries,” I ask.
“I would be bored operating for 11 hours.”
I love the answer. Straight, to the point and believable.
“Do you have any questions,” he asks.
“No.”
The herd moves on to another patient.
I feel much better. I like and trust this man and will place my future in his hands. He is the expert and I look to him for guidance and technical excellence. I need the team to be invested in my outcome.
