Autism And Vaccines Are Not Correlated

MSNBC: Court says vaccine not to blame for autism

TimesOnline: MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism

For The Parents - Kids And Marriage Quality

NYT: Till Children Do Us Part

More than 25 separate studies have established that marital quality drops, often quite steeply, after the transition to parenthood.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus

RSV is quite common in children under two. Know the symptoms and don't let your pediatrician try to talk you into allergy and asthma medications. However, if your child is wheezing get them to a hospital.

See: More children need medical help for RSV than previously known

More than 2 million children with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) are seen in hospitals, emergency rooms and doctors' offices in the United States every year -- many more than doctors know. In fact, only 3 percent of children with RSV in an outpatient setting actually receive a diagnosis of RSV infection.

After a couple of emergency room visits for RSV I developed this strategy to stop wheezing: make sure the child naps every day, even if that means walking for four hours and 20 miles; and lower any fever as soon as possible as I have a hunch the body's fever response is involved in constricting the esophageal lining leading to the wheezing which leads to low oxygen levels in the blood.

Little Things Moms-to-Be Can Do

Visit farms regularly, get plenty of sunlight (or Vitamin D), and have a stimulating environment (seems Lamarckian).

See:
SciDaily: Farm Moms May Help Children Beat Allergies

PhysOrg: Sun In Pregnancy Builds Stronger Bones For Baby

TechReview: A Comeback for Lamarckian Evolution? Two new studies show that the effects of a mother's early environment can be passed on to the next generation.

Don't Prescribe Steroids For Wheezing

Via MSNBC: Steroids do not help wheezing kids, studies say

Revisiting The Hygiene Hypothesis

NYT: Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You

Dr. Ruebush deplores the current fetish for the hundreds of antibacterial products that convey a false sense of security and may actually foster the development of antibiotic-resistant, disease-causing bacteria. Plain soap and water are all that are needed to become clean, she noted.

“I certainly recommend washing your hands after using the bathroom, before eating, after changing a diaper, before and after handling food,” and whenever they’re visibly soiled, she wrote. When no running water is available and cleaning hands is essential, she suggests an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Dr. Weinstock goes even further. “Children should be allowed to go barefoot in the dirt, play in the dirt, and not have to wash their hands when they come in to eat,” he said. He and Dr. Elliott pointed out that children who grow up on farms and are frequently exposed to worms and other organisms from farm animals are much less likely to develop allergies and autoimmune diseases.

Also helpful, he said, is to “let kids have two dogs and a cat,” which will expose them to intestinal worms that can promote a healthy immune system.

First, Do No Harm

Don't let grandma rub Vicks on children under two.

See MSNBC: There’s the rub: Vicks might make kids sicker

College Admissions Confessions

Admissions officers are just as whimsical as anyone else. See the DailyBeast: Dirty Secrets of College Admissions

But in reading it I thought how is it any different in how some students pick a school? I picked my college because I liked their colors.

That Teenage Feeling

USNews: How to Deploy the Amazing Power of the Teen Brain

...experts now are realizing that the popular parental response—to coddle teens in an attempt to shield them from every harm—actually may be counterproductive.

This is why I call my parenting style "boundaries for failure".

Another Reason To Breast Feed

Better lung function later in life.

See MSNBC: Better lungs for kids fed from breast, not bottle

"The physical exercise caused by suckling at the breast — about six times daily on average for more than 4 months — may result in increased lung capacity and increased airflow in breast-fed children compared with bottle-fed children," Dr. Ikechukwu U. Ogbuanu

Pregnancy And Caffeine

Study in mice indicates potential problems with two cups of coffee worth of caffeine.

See: A Low Dose Of Caffeine When Pregnant May Damage The Heart Of Offspring For A Lifetime

Reminds Me Of The Candy Bar In The Pool Scene From Caddyshack

Fear of nuts creating hysteria of epidemic proportions

These extreme measures to reduce exposure to nuts are fuelling anxiety in parents, leading to more sensitisation, and creating the very epidemic they are designed to stop. A recent study has suggested that early exposure to peanuts actually reduces, rather than increases the risk of allergy.

Free Range Kids, Not Open Range

Via NPR: Texas Boy Hits Toy Mother Lode

A 4-year-old boy in Beaumont, Texas, apparently couldn't wait for Christmas. He unlocked a door at his home around 3 a.m. and walked into the street. He reached the the Family Dollar discount store on the other side and started trying doors. The store was closed, but somebody had left one door unlocked — which explains why, when police responded to the silent alarm, they discovered the boy eager to show them all his new toys.

More Boys Born After Wars

Apparently due to a "mystery" gene.

See: Boy Or Girl? It's In The Father's Genes

As the odds were in favour of men with more sons seeing a son return from the war, those sons were more likely to father boys themselves because they inherited that tendency from their fathers. In contrast, men with more daughters may have lost their only sons in the war and those sons would have been more likely to father girls. This would explain why the men that survived the war were more likely to have male children, which resulted in the boy-baby boom.

Preterm Infants And SIDS

A new hypothesis links the two via low blood pressure.

See: SIDS link: Low blood pressure in preterm infants

Would You Give Your Child A Smart Pill?

Commentary at Nature.com: Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy

In USNews: Boost Kids' Brainpower With a Pill

Proof That Kids Are Coddled Today

Vaccine For Autism Related Disorders Being Tested

See TechReview: Drug Trials for Autism

Three drugs will be tested in humans to treat rare, inherited conditions that are often linked to autism: Rett syndrome, fragile X, and tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Scientists hope that the new drugs, if successful in the current trials, will eventually help treat more common forms of autism, which affects about 1 in 166 children in the United States. Existing drugs are used to treat symptoms of autism, such as digestive problems and psychosis, rather than the root of the disease.

Another Risk To Caesarean Births

See MSNBC: C-sections tied to higher asthma risk for babies: Natural birth helps prime infant’s immune system, researchers explain

Babies born by Caesarean section are more likely to develop asthma than children delivered naturally, Swiss researchers said on Tuesday.

There has been conflicting evidence on the link between asthma and C-sections but the researchers said the number of children involved in their study and a long monitoring period strengthened their results.

Lazy Sunday

NYT: Report Ties Children’s Use of Media to Their Health

Dr. Emanuel, whose brother, Rahm, is the president-elect’s chief of staff, said he was surprised by how lopsided the findings were. “We found very few studies that had any positive association” for children’s health, he said.

Researchers sought to look at the health effects of a wide array of media and distill 30 years of research into a simple message. “The average parent doesn’t understand that if you plop your kids down in front of the TV or the computer for five hours a day, it can change their brain development, it can make them fat, and it can lead them to get involved in risky sexual activity at a young age,” Mr. Steyer said.