Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

I've been searching for answers to your questions on the emerging news about possible hazards in baby bottles and other containers from bisphenol-A. Here are a few resources for learning more:

--The Environmental Working Group has a guide to safe feeding for babies, including how to spot a bottle with BPA. In general, it says, avoid hard, plastic bottles labeled "7" or "PC."

--Julie's Health Club, a blog by a Chicago Tribune health writer who's also a mom, has a number of posts and links about this subject, including info about a new kind of bottle that is no. 7 plastic but is BPA-free.

--The Washington Post reports today that Wal-Mart will pull bottles and other products with BPA from its shelves in the U.S. soon.

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Parents have been talking today about increasing evidence that a chemical widely used in plastic baby bottles and other food and beverage containers can cause harm to humans.

Here's our story from yesterday, in which the federal National Toxicology Program reported that the compound bisphenol-a, or B.P.A., could be linked to precancerous prostate tumors, early puberty and urinary system problems in rats injected with it. The New York Times report today that Canada is about to label B.P.A. as toxic was the second most-emailed story on the Times' Web site when I checked just now.

We talked a bit earlier about glass baby bottles making a comeback, and now there's more reason for a parent to fret about this. When I saw one of my best mom pals this morning, it was at the top of her list of worries.

What do you think? Have you combed through your house to get rid of plastics you're worried about?

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

There's an interesting story on the Los Angeles Times web site today about parents wrestling with the circumcision decision. It's interesting to read the statistics behind the debate: In 1965, the story says, 85 percent of boys born in the U.S. were circumcised. In 2005, slightly more than half were.  

How did you make this decision for your son/s? And if you're expecting a boy, is this a topic of debate in your house as birth approaches?

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

The Food Allergy & Anaphalaxis Network is having a conference tomorrow in Baltimore called "Food Allergies: Living and Learning." The conference is open to the public (see prices below), and will include information on helping a child manage food allergies and reactions and on how and when to use epinephrine. There's a special lunch session for teens to discuss handling allergies while dating, traveling and dining out, with a concurrent (but separate) session for parents of teens.

The conference starts at 8:30 a.m. at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel, 300 S. Charles St. Online registration is closed, but you can call the FAAN office at 800-929-4040 to register, or do so the morning of the conference.

The registration costs are: Member: $85; Guest: $75; Teen: $65; Nonmember/walk-in: $105; Nonmember Guest: $95; Nonmember Teen: $75.

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

I've often been curious about what it's like to be a mom and a pediatrician. On one hand, it would seem you could breeze through life knowing how to handle all the health crises that put the rest of us in a panic.

On the other hand, maybe you know too much. Not to mention how exhausted you must be from taking calls from the rest of us day and night.

Anyway, I thought readers of this blog might be interested to know that two Washington-area pediatricians who graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine have launched mommydocs.com to answer parents' questions. You can listen to the doctors' podcasts and read their blog about common medical problems.

If you're a mom-pediatrician reader, I'd love to hear from you how you juggle parenthood and taking care of other people's children -- and whether you ever treat your children yourself.

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Susan Reimer is writing a piece for our Taste section about the increasing interest in veganism and vegetarianism on the part of teenage girls and young women, spurred in part by books like Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. She'd like to talk to a local parent or two of a vegan or vegetarian girl who's still living at home about how you integrate your daughter's diet with the family's, and about how you approach any health concerns you might have about the way your perhaps-still-growing girl eats.

If you'd be willing to talk to Susan, please email her at susan.reimer@baltsun.com.

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

It's been debated for years whether there's a link between childhood vaccines and autism, with many research studies concluding there was no connection, and a small but vocal cadre of parents with autistic children fervently believing otherwise.

Now, the Sun reports today, federal health officials have acknowledged that a series of vaccines given to a now-9-year-old girl when she was living in Ellicott City years ago worsened an underlying condition and led her to be diagnosed with autism. The Centers for Disease Control is telling the public that the girl's case was unique, and that immunization is safe and vital to protect children from diseases. Still, officials are worried this case will make parents reluctant to have their children vaccinated.

How do you react to this news? I'd like to hear from pediatricians, parents, and pediatrician/parents.

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

It hadn't occurred to me until recently that the inconveniences of having braces include not being able to eat a lot of things easily.

Hard foods. Sticky foods. Stuff that's difficult to brush away.

If you're dealing with these issues in your house, you might want to check out this link from the American Association of Orthodontists, which offers "braces-friendly recipes" from chefs like Chicago's Gale Gand.

That's her Chocolate-Baked Bananas Over Ice Cream at right. You can watch a video of Gand making the recipe here.

Just how painful, or not, has your experience with braces been? I'm sure parents with up-and-coming brace wearers (I may be included in this group) would love to hear how you've helped your children through it. Please tell us by commenting below.

(Photo courtesy of the American Association of Orthodontists)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Yesterday's post about the new multimedia symptom tracker at parenting.com sent me digging into the album for this picture last night. Baby girl was just 9 months, and my parents, bless their hearts, had treated my family, my brother and his wife to a Caribbean cruise.

The first or second night, my folks had offered to babysit while the two younger couples enjoyed a rare evening out sans kids. We had just climbed into the hot tub with our little umbrella drinks when my dad ran up in a panic.

Seal cough.

We raced down and found baby barking up a storm. I'd read about croup, but to hear it, in a baby so many miles from home, was really scary. I did remember the advice I'd read about getting the child some cool night air (just as Christine mentioned in her comment).

Fortunately, my folks had sprung for a balcony. The little girl and I stayed out there all night, and in the morning, my husband snapped this picture.

For me, it captures what parenting is all about. It's an image of an exhausted mother, to be sure, but she's in a beautiful place with a child who, so sick hours before, appears miraculously healed in that way only young kids do. What could be better?

Do you have pictures you love with your kids of times that were hard -- but worth it? Please send them to me in an email and I'll post them here. And do tell us the stories that go with them, either in a comment below or with the pictures.

(Photo courtesy of me)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Parenting.com has a great new resource for parents -- an online symptom checker, developed in cooperation with the faculties of Harvard and Dartmouth medical schools, with audio and video of children with common illnesses. You can hear what croup with stridor sounds like and watch how a child with a stiff neck (a sign of meningitis) behaves.

It's painful to watch the videos of these sick children (though they are later seen getting better). But I suspect this will be valuable for many of you, especially when a child suddenly gets sick in the middle of the night. Sometimes all the books in the world just don't really tell you what you're looking for.

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

I asked Dr. Daniel Levy, who helped us with Monday's Consult and is quoted in The Sun's stories on kids and flu today, to weigh in on the issues in my previous post. Here's his e-mailed comment:

Parents often fail to recognize the serious nature of influenza, which hospitalizes 20,000 children annually. More than half of all hospital admissions for flu are in the 0-2 years age group. Flu can often carry complications such as ear infection, sinusitis and pneumonia. School-aged children tend to be the spreaders of influenza in society, and we know immunizing that group tends to reduce the incidence of influenza in communities.

The new recommendations for flu vaccine make a lot of sense, based on what we know. Parents should keep abreast of the latest recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics on all vaccines, and protect their children from the burden of diseases that are preventable with a simple shot.

Dr. Dan

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

A federal advisory panel yesterday recommended that all children 6 months through 17 years (except those with serious egg allergies) get the flu vaccine. If the Centers for Disease Control acts on this advice, it would be a shift from the current recommendation that only children from 6 months to 5 years old be vaccinated. Here's our story.

But the recommendations wouldn't take effect until 2009 because vaccine orders already have been placed for the next flu season, and there are concerns that there might not be enough to cover all those children.

This, it seems to me, leaves parents and pediatricians with an interesting dilemma in the meantime. Will more parents push for their kids between 5 and 18 to be vaccinated in 2008, knowing that this panel thinks it's a good idea? If you asked them now -- in the thick of a very bad flu season in Maryland, when many parents are nursing their own kids through flu and catching it from them -- the answer might be yes.

And how will pediatricians respond if they are asked this year to vaccinate a child who falls within the future, but not the current, recommendations? After all, one reason this year's flu season is bad is that the vaccine offered didn't exactly match the strains that are out there.

I'd like to hear both parents and pediatricians weigh in on this. Spread the word (but not the flu, please! :)

(Sun file photo by Jed Kirschbaum)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Welcome to our first Monday Consult. Each week I'll look for an expert to answer your most pressing questions about parenting. Because he was this blog's very first commenter -- and had an interesting question -- this week's answer goes out to Hugh, whose 4-year-old daughter has been begging for Children's Motrin when she's clearly not sick.

For this question, I turned to Dr. Daniel Levy, a pediatrician in Owings Mills and president of the Maryland chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Here's his e-mailed reply:

"With respect to your little 4 year old who loves Motrin, the most important issue here is safety. All medications should be stored in locked cabinets away from prying little hands and eyes. Kids should also know that any medication should only be given by a parent or caretaker.

"The second issue your reader raises is one of tantrums and feigned illness. The key to both items is this: Children are very process-oriented with their parents. That is, they pay most attention to facial expression, tone of voice, and gestures. If a parent maintains composure, speaks in an even voice, and reacts to what is being experienced instead of the content of the child's words, the child will soon learn to regulate her mood and behavior. In this instance, one might say, 'it looks like you are very upset, but I know you are not sick, and we give this medicine only when you have fever.' End of discussion. It is not necessary to have a whole repartee with a 4 year old.

"While the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend any of the cough and cold medications, medication to relieve pain or fever is still useful to ameliorate a child's discomfort. Ibuprofen and acetaminophen are both wonderful, safe products when given in doses recommended by the child's health care provider."

(Photo by me)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

If you're the parent of a teenager, you'll want to check out the Sun's "Ask the Expert" feature today on mononucleosis, the dreaded "kissing disease."

When I was a teenager, it seemed that kids were coming down with mono left and right, and that they were out of school for long stretches at a time. That's how I remember it, anyway. I'm wondering if that's so true today.

Has your teenager had an experience with mono? How did you take care of him or her? And how did it affect the family?

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)