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What Makes You Beautiful
I have a bone to pick with my colleagues who don’t wear white coats because they say the coats make children cry. As a coat-wearing pediatrician (one of 12 in the United States) I have, on occasion, spilled coffee on my jacket and had to go without, entering the exam room fumbling a laptop, pens, a smartphone, my tape measure, and a tongue blade or two as I close the door with my foot. On those occasions one thing has been abundantly clear: it’s not the coat that makes kids cry. It’s me. But at least I’m not this guy.
Fast-Breaking News
It was a big news week in the world of pediatrics, but to me the lead story came from the Vaccine Study Center at Kaiser Permanente, where researchers reported that protection from the acellular pertussis vaccine is disappointingly Temporente. Contacted off the record, researchers struggled for an apt analogy: “The vaccine wears off faster than Justin Bieber’s innocence. It lasts shorter than a Kardashian’s marriage.”
From the time of the fifth dose of DTaP vaccine, usually given around kindergarten, a child’s risk of contracting pertussis rises by 42% a year. I’m not the best at math, but to me that means that by the time he gets his next dose at age 10 that child has a 240% risk of contracting whooping cough. That’s more than the 18.5% reported in the article, but either way it’s a bit high for comfort. Short of suggesting annual pertussis booster shots, the researchers (on the record) stated, “Prevention of future outbreaks will be best achieved by developing new pertussis-containing vaccines that provide long-lasting immunity.” I couldn’t agree more, but what are we to do in the meantime? I suspect the vaccine development and approval process will outlast One Direction’s musical career.
High-Pressure Sales
County Fair season is upon us, and it seems every year the vendors top themselves to sell the least healthy stick-based foods. Corn dogs and elephant ears have given way to deep-fried Oreos, Snickers, and, yes, butter (top that, y’all!). With all the hypertension we have around here, I’m planning a new booth where we will batter, deep-fry, and glaze Lasix.
Now an article in Pediatrics suggests that for many American children, every day is the County Fair. Thanks largely to the salt that makes processed foods so tasty, children are consuming adult-sized portions of sodium, giving 15% of them grown-up blood pressures. The effect of sodium on blood pressure was not evenly sprinkled over the population; overweight children were much more sensitive. The solution, of course, is for busy parents to stop buying children the inexpensive, convenient, tasty treats that they love and instead substitute actual whole foods of the sort that you find at the County Fair, always on display but never for sale. Email me if you know how to deep-fry salad.
Just A Thimble
For all the anti-European sentiment you hear, the fact is that many Americans still suspect that, at least in matters of taste, sex, and alcohol, Europe has us beat. What else could possibly explain the wild popularity of Louis Vuitton purses, Heineken beer, or One Direction? Unfortunately, this belief, as measured particularly among college-educated white Southern women, may be putting our children at increased risk for alcohol abuse.
The flawed theory, tested in Europe as well as in the United States, is that letting children try alcohol in the home will demystify the experience and teach them to be moderate, responsible drinkers like, say, the ones at European soccer games. As it turns out, kids who try alcohol with parental permission in fifth grade are twice as likely to drink in seventh grade. Armed with this information, pediatricians can hopefully educate parents and help this trend go, well, One Direction.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
I have a bone to pick with my colleagues who don’t wear white coats because they say the coats make children cry. As a coat-wearing pediatrician (one of 12 in the United States) I have, on occasion, spilled coffee on my jacket and had to go without, entering the exam room fumbling a laptop, pens, a smartphone, my tape measure, and a tongue blade or two as I close the door with my foot. On those occasions one thing has been abundantly clear: it’s not the coat that makes kids cry. It’s me. But at least I’m not this guy.
Fast-Breaking News
It was a big news week in the world of pediatrics, but to me the lead story came from the Vaccine Study Center at Kaiser Permanente, where researchers reported that protection from the acellular pertussis vaccine is disappointingly Temporente. Contacted off the record, researchers struggled for an apt analogy: “The vaccine wears off faster than Justin Bieber’s innocence. It lasts shorter than a Kardashian’s marriage.”
From the time of the fifth dose of DTaP vaccine, usually given around kindergarten, a child’s risk of contracting pertussis rises by 42% a year. I’m not the best at math, but to me that means that by the time he gets his next dose at age 10 that child has a 240% risk of contracting whooping cough. That’s more than the 18.5% reported in the article, but either way it’s a bit high for comfort. Short of suggesting annual pertussis booster shots, the researchers (on the record) stated, “Prevention of future outbreaks will be best achieved by developing new pertussis-containing vaccines that provide long-lasting immunity.” I couldn’t agree more, but what are we to do in the meantime? I suspect the vaccine development and approval process will outlast One Direction’s musical career.
High-Pressure Sales
County Fair season is upon us, and it seems every year the vendors top themselves to sell the least healthy stick-based foods. Corn dogs and elephant ears have given way to deep-fried Oreos, Snickers, and, yes, butter (top that, y’all!). With all the hypertension we have around here, I’m planning a new booth where we will batter, deep-fry, and glaze Lasix.
Now an article in Pediatrics suggests that for many American children, every day is the County Fair. Thanks largely to the salt that makes processed foods so tasty, children are consuming adult-sized portions of sodium, giving 15% of them grown-up blood pressures. The effect of sodium on blood pressure was not evenly sprinkled over the population; overweight children were much more sensitive. The solution, of course, is for busy parents to stop buying children the inexpensive, convenient, tasty treats that they love and instead substitute actual whole foods of the sort that you find at the County Fair, always on display but never for sale. Email me if you know how to deep-fry salad.
Just A Thimble
For all the anti-European sentiment you hear, the fact is that many Americans still suspect that, at least in matters of taste, sex, and alcohol, Europe has us beat. What else could possibly explain the wild popularity of Louis Vuitton purses, Heineken beer, or One Direction? Unfortunately, this belief, as measured particularly among college-educated white Southern women, may be putting our children at increased risk for alcohol abuse.
The flawed theory, tested in Europe as well as in the United States, is that letting children try alcohol in the home will demystify the experience and teach them to be moderate, responsible drinkers like, say, the ones at European soccer games. As it turns out, kids who try alcohol with parental permission in fifth grade are twice as likely to drink in seventh grade. Armed with this information, pediatricians can hopefully educate parents and help this trend go, well, One Direction.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
I have a bone to pick with my colleagues who don’t wear white coats because they say the coats make children cry. As a coat-wearing pediatrician (one of 12 in the United States) I have, on occasion, spilled coffee on my jacket and had to go without, entering the exam room fumbling a laptop, pens, a smartphone, my tape measure, and a tongue blade or two as I close the door with my foot. On those occasions one thing has been abundantly clear: it’s not the coat that makes kids cry. It’s me. But at least I’m not this guy.
Fast-Breaking News
It was a big news week in the world of pediatrics, but to me the lead story came from the Vaccine Study Center at Kaiser Permanente, where researchers reported that protection from the acellular pertussis vaccine is disappointingly Temporente. Contacted off the record, researchers struggled for an apt analogy: “The vaccine wears off faster than Justin Bieber’s innocence. It lasts shorter than a Kardashian’s marriage.”
From the time of the fifth dose of DTaP vaccine, usually given around kindergarten, a child’s risk of contracting pertussis rises by 42% a year. I’m not the best at math, but to me that means that by the time he gets his next dose at age 10 that child has a 240% risk of contracting whooping cough. That’s more than the 18.5% reported in the article, but either way it’s a bit high for comfort. Short of suggesting annual pertussis booster shots, the researchers (on the record) stated, “Prevention of future outbreaks will be best achieved by developing new pertussis-containing vaccines that provide long-lasting immunity.” I couldn’t agree more, but what are we to do in the meantime? I suspect the vaccine development and approval process will outlast One Direction’s musical career.
High-Pressure Sales
County Fair season is upon us, and it seems every year the vendors top themselves to sell the least healthy stick-based foods. Corn dogs and elephant ears have given way to deep-fried Oreos, Snickers, and, yes, butter (top that, y’all!). With all the hypertension we have around here, I’m planning a new booth where we will batter, deep-fry, and glaze Lasix.
Now an article in Pediatrics suggests that for many American children, every day is the County Fair. Thanks largely to the salt that makes processed foods so tasty, children are consuming adult-sized portions of sodium, giving 15% of them grown-up blood pressures. The effect of sodium on blood pressure was not evenly sprinkled over the population; overweight children were much more sensitive. The solution, of course, is for busy parents to stop buying children the inexpensive, convenient, tasty treats that they love and instead substitute actual whole foods of the sort that you find at the County Fair, always on display but never for sale. Email me if you know how to deep-fry salad.
Just A Thimble
For all the anti-European sentiment you hear, the fact is that many Americans still suspect that, at least in matters of taste, sex, and alcohol, Europe has us beat. What else could possibly explain the wild popularity of Louis Vuitton purses, Heineken beer, or One Direction? Unfortunately, this belief, as measured particularly among college-educated white Southern women, may be putting our children at increased risk for alcohol abuse.
The flawed theory, tested in Europe as well as in the United States, is that letting children try alcohol in the home will demystify the experience and teach them to be moderate, responsible drinkers like, say, the ones at European soccer games. As it turns out, kids who try alcohol with parental permission in fifth grade are twice as likely to drink in seventh grade. Armed with this information, pediatricians can hopefully educate parents and help this trend go, well, One Direction.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
There's No Place Like Home
As a native Southerner, I have to say that Brooklynites have officially taken this whole Southern chic trend too far. I thought it was kind of cool when Williamsburg restaurants like Pies ‘N’ Thighs popularized cheese grits. I took mild umbrage when Park Slope hipsters started wearing trucker caps ironically (How would y’all like it if smirking truck drivers began sporting porkpie hats and goatees?). But now Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighborhood has tornados?! I’m sorry, but it’s my birthright to huddle in terror on the bathroom floor, and y’all can’t have it! I don’t know just what we Southerners are going to do about it, but I can tell you there’s some angry talk down here among the regulars at Bubba’s Bagels, Espresso, and Cannoli Hut.
Round Midnight
As a parent I wonder, more than anything else, “How will I guarantee lifetime employment for my child’s future psychotherapist?” This week I was perplexed to learn that letting my infant cry at night probably didn’t do the trick. According to a new Australian study of infant sleep advice, those of us who hoped to scar our children for life by allowing them to cry some at bedtime will need to dig a little deeper. The results may especially shock proponents of attachment parenting, the theory that an infant’s future mental health is best ensured by a tight hug and a jumbo bottle of Super Glue.
The Australians took 326 7-month-olds with sleep problems and taught half of their parents evidence-based sleep interventions. Parents in the intervention group used either “controlled comforting,” in which they waited a little longer each night to check on their crying infants, or “camping out,” in which, as I understand it, they built a fire and ate s’mores. By contrast, parents in the control group received a firm pat on the shoulder and a sympathetic expression.
Earlier studies had already demonstrated that the sleep interventions improved both infant sleep and maternal depression. The new study followed up parents and children at 6 years, using an extensive battery of mental health tests to prove that yeah, the kids had no hard feelings, and the parents had gotten over their guilt. Researchers do not report whether parents ever lost the excess weight from the s’mores.
Point and Clique
In high school it’s easy to resent the “cool kids,” at least if you’re not one of them (ahem). But popularity comes with its down sides, and not just the stress of deciding whose awesome car to take to that amazing party where you’ll totally make out with that other super-hot person, although I can only imagine how stressful that must be. A new study from Southern California adds another burden to teen popularity: tobacco addiction. Researchers polling 1,950 mainly Hispanic 9th and 10th graders found that kids were more likely to smoke if their peers ranked them as “popular.” And I thought the only thing my Coke-bottle glasses could protect me from was flying pebbles!
In Short...
Don’t you hate how it takes you forever to build a spiel for parents on a given topic? I’ve been working on my asthma-action-plan patter for years now, and I’ve gotten to where I can review the stoplights, the controller and rescue medicines, the spacer and mask, the school medication form, and the flu vaccine in under 17 minutes, if I speed-talk like I’m giving the lease requirements in a car ad.
Now, thanks to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, I’m going to have to add another five minutes on growth restriction from inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). It appears the earlier data demonstrating that the initial decrease in height velocity is only temporary is just plain wrong. (Admit it. You knew it was too good to be true.) It turns out kids on chronic ICS lose a centimeter of adult height on average, which means that not only will I have to talk about the risks and benefits of ICS in greater detail, I’ll have to explain the whole metric system! It could be worse. At least I’m not up in Brooklyn tying to find the perfect craft beer to pair with a Moon Pie.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
As a native Southerner, I have to say that Brooklynites have officially taken this whole Southern chic trend too far. I thought it was kind of cool when Williamsburg restaurants like Pies ‘N’ Thighs popularized cheese grits. I took mild umbrage when Park Slope hipsters started wearing trucker caps ironically (How would y’all like it if smirking truck drivers began sporting porkpie hats and goatees?). But now Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighborhood has tornados?! I’m sorry, but it’s my birthright to huddle in terror on the bathroom floor, and y’all can’t have it! I don’t know just what we Southerners are going to do about it, but I can tell you there’s some angry talk down here among the regulars at Bubba’s Bagels, Espresso, and Cannoli Hut.
Round Midnight
As a parent I wonder, more than anything else, “How will I guarantee lifetime employment for my child’s future psychotherapist?” This week I was perplexed to learn that letting my infant cry at night probably didn’t do the trick. According to a new Australian study of infant sleep advice, those of us who hoped to scar our children for life by allowing them to cry some at bedtime will need to dig a little deeper. The results may especially shock proponents of attachment parenting, the theory that an infant’s future mental health is best ensured by a tight hug and a jumbo bottle of Super Glue.
The Australians took 326 7-month-olds with sleep problems and taught half of their parents evidence-based sleep interventions. Parents in the intervention group used either “controlled comforting,” in which they waited a little longer each night to check on their crying infants, or “camping out,” in which, as I understand it, they built a fire and ate s’mores. By contrast, parents in the control group received a firm pat on the shoulder and a sympathetic expression.
Earlier studies had already demonstrated that the sleep interventions improved both infant sleep and maternal depression. The new study followed up parents and children at 6 years, using an extensive battery of mental health tests to prove that yeah, the kids had no hard feelings, and the parents had gotten over their guilt. Researchers do not report whether parents ever lost the excess weight from the s’mores.
Point and Clique
In high school it’s easy to resent the “cool kids,” at least if you’re not one of them (ahem). But popularity comes with its down sides, and not just the stress of deciding whose awesome car to take to that amazing party where you’ll totally make out with that other super-hot person, although I can only imagine how stressful that must be. A new study from Southern California adds another burden to teen popularity: tobacco addiction. Researchers polling 1,950 mainly Hispanic 9th and 10th graders found that kids were more likely to smoke if their peers ranked them as “popular.” And I thought the only thing my Coke-bottle glasses could protect me from was flying pebbles!
In Short...
Don’t you hate how it takes you forever to build a spiel for parents on a given topic? I’ve been working on my asthma-action-plan patter for years now, and I’ve gotten to where I can review the stoplights, the controller and rescue medicines, the spacer and mask, the school medication form, and the flu vaccine in under 17 minutes, if I speed-talk like I’m giving the lease requirements in a car ad.
Now, thanks to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, I’m going to have to add another five minutes on growth restriction from inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). It appears the earlier data demonstrating that the initial decrease in height velocity is only temporary is just plain wrong. (Admit it. You knew it was too good to be true.) It turns out kids on chronic ICS lose a centimeter of adult height on average, which means that not only will I have to talk about the risks and benefits of ICS in greater detail, I’ll have to explain the whole metric system! It could be worse. At least I’m not up in Brooklyn tying to find the perfect craft beer to pair with a Moon Pie.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
As a native Southerner, I have to say that Brooklynites have officially taken this whole Southern chic trend too far. I thought it was kind of cool when Williamsburg restaurants like Pies ‘N’ Thighs popularized cheese grits. I took mild umbrage when Park Slope hipsters started wearing trucker caps ironically (How would y’all like it if smirking truck drivers began sporting porkpie hats and goatees?). But now Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighborhood has tornados?! I’m sorry, but it’s my birthright to huddle in terror on the bathroom floor, and y’all can’t have it! I don’t know just what we Southerners are going to do about it, but I can tell you there’s some angry talk down here among the regulars at Bubba’s Bagels, Espresso, and Cannoli Hut.
Round Midnight
As a parent I wonder, more than anything else, “How will I guarantee lifetime employment for my child’s future psychotherapist?” This week I was perplexed to learn that letting my infant cry at night probably didn’t do the trick. According to a new Australian study of infant sleep advice, those of us who hoped to scar our children for life by allowing them to cry some at bedtime will need to dig a little deeper. The results may especially shock proponents of attachment parenting, the theory that an infant’s future mental health is best ensured by a tight hug and a jumbo bottle of Super Glue.
The Australians took 326 7-month-olds with sleep problems and taught half of their parents evidence-based sleep interventions. Parents in the intervention group used either “controlled comforting,” in which they waited a little longer each night to check on their crying infants, or “camping out,” in which, as I understand it, they built a fire and ate s’mores. By contrast, parents in the control group received a firm pat on the shoulder and a sympathetic expression.
Earlier studies had already demonstrated that the sleep interventions improved both infant sleep and maternal depression. The new study followed up parents and children at 6 years, using an extensive battery of mental health tests to prove that yeah, the kids had no hard feelings, and the parents had gotten over their guilt. Researchers do not report whether parents ever lost the excess weight from the s’mores.
Point and Clique
In high school it’s easy to resent the “cool kids,” at least if you’re not one of them (ahem). But popularity comes with its down sides, and not just the stress of deciding whose awesome car to take to that amazing party where you’ll totally make out with that other super-hot person, although I can only imagine how stressful that must be. A new study from Southern California adds another burden to teen popularity: tobacco addiction. Researchers polling 1,950 mainly Hispanic 9th and 10th graders found that kids were more likely to smoke if their peers ranked them as “popular.” And I thought the only thing my Coke-bottle glasses could protect me from was flying pebbles!
In Short...
Don’t you hate how it takes you forever to build a spiel for parents on a given topic? I’ve been working on my asthma-action-plan patter for years now, and I’ve gotten to where I can review the stoplights, the controller and rescue medicines, the spacer and mask, the school medication form, and the flu vaccine in under 17 minutes, if I speed-talk like I’m giving the lease requirements in a car ad.
Now, thanks to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, I’m going to have to add another five minutes on growth restriction from inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). It appears the earlier data demonstrating that the initial decrease in height velocity is only temporary is just plain wrong. (Admit it. You knew it was too good to be true.) It turns out kids on chronic ICS lose a centimeter of adult height on average, which means that not only will I have to talk about the risks and benefits of ICS in greater detail, I’ll have to explain the whole metric system! It could be worse. At least I’m not up in Brooklyn tying to find the perfect craft beer to pair with a Moon Pie.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
The Emperor's Old Clothes
I discovered Abercrombie & Fitch when my daughter, now nearly 13, was an infant. What grabbed my attention was a wall-sized poster of a young man who, as best I could tell from the photograph, was completely nude. I rushed inside to see if I could buy that kind of nakedness and, if so, how much it would cost, because he had exactly the killer abs I wanted! Sadly, they only sold flannel shirts which, for $75, could cover my post-residency paunch so that people might assume I had also bought the abs but was just too humble to flaunt them. I passed on the shirt, and then I uttered a little prayer: “Please, Lord, let consumers lose interest in this retailer before my little girl grows old enough to want to shop there, or at their down-market affiliate, Hollister.” Amen.
Smoking Gun
There’s no way, in a million years, you’d ever guess the latest scientific finding on why children exposed to cigarette smoke in the home tend to get more asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia. You’re more likely to guess why people remain fascinated with Snooki, or how the Oogieloves movie got green-lighted. Okay, I’ll just tell you: they don’t cough enough. That’s right, according to a new study out of Philadelphia, children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) cough too little, not too much, at least when they’re not sick, which they are, often.
“How,” I hear you asking, “do you know if someone coughs enough?” I wondered the same thing, but fortunately the Methods section is clear: you make them inhale purified habanero peppers (capsaicin). Apparently pepper gas is irritating to the lungs, but if you breathe secondhand smoke day and night, you become less sensitive to this and other irritants, an adaptation that proves quite useful for those who live in regions with frequent jalapeño wildfires, but is not so good if you’re trying to fight off viruses, bacteria, or environmental pollutants. The researchers felt their findings might also explain why children of smokers are more likely to take up smoking themselves, being less sensitive to the lungs’ way of telling the brain, “Either you’re trying to kill us, or someone has torched the Taqueria!”
A Perfect Fit
How many times as a parent have you wondered, “Is this behavior normal?” Wouldn’t you feel relieved if only someone could just tell you, “No, it’s not. It may be an early sign of a psychiatric or developmental disorder.” Now, thanks to an article in this month’s Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, we have a better idea of what’s normal for childhood tantrums and when it’s a whole other candy aisle. After surveying parents of 1,500 preschoolers, researchers determined that while nearly 84% of children aged 3 to 5 years have periodic tantrums, only 8.6% had an outburst every day.
Most tantrums resulted from the routine challenges and disappointments of daily life, like having to take a nap, losing a toy to a playmate, or contemplating that we’re unlikely to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East. Researchers point out that inexplicable, violent, or unusually frequent tantrums are more likely to signal the presence of underlying psychopathology and, if unchecked, may lead to a career in Congress.
Good Shot
With all the bad news about Bisphenol A, aging male gametes, and pesticides, you’ve got to wonder if there’s anything out there any more that doesn’t cause birth defects! As it turns out, there is: flu vaccine. The largest-ever study of women receiving influenza vaccine during pregnancy found that not only did the vaccine not increase rates of congenital malformations, women who received the vaccine had lower rates of preterm birth, stillbirth, and neonatal death. To me these data make vaccinating pregnant women against the flu a complete no-brainer, a high-stakes win-win for mom and baby, but I have no doubt that somewhere on the Internet at this very moment someone is posting scare stories about the flu vaccine that will lead a certain number of mothers to choose preterm delivery, stillbirth, and neonatal death over a quick shot in the arm. To make myself feel better, I’m going to take my daughter shopping at one of those popular stores where the models all wear clothes, lots of them.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
I discovered Abercrombie & Fitch when my daughter, now nearly 13, was an infant. What grabbed my attention was a wall-sized poster of a young man who, as best I could tell from the photograph, was completely nude. I rushed inside to see if I could buy that kind of nakedness and, if so, how much it would cost, because he had exactly the killer abs I wanted! Sadly, they only sold flannel shirts which, for $75, could cover my post-residency paunch so that people might assume I had also bought the abs but was just too humble to flaunt them. I passed on the shirt, and then I uttered a little prayer: “Please, Lord, let consumers lose interest in this retailer before my little girl grows old enough to want to shop there, or at their down-market affiliate, Hollister.” Amen.
Smoking Gun
There’s no way, in a million years, you’d ever guess the latest scientific finding on why children exposed to cigarette smoke in the home tend to get more asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia. You’re more likely to guess why people remain fascinated with Snooki, or how the Oogieloves movie got green-lighted. Okay, I’ll just tell you: they don’t cough enough. That’s right, according to a new study out of Philadelphia, children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) cough too little, not too much, at least when they’re not sick, which they are, often.
“How,” I hear you asking, “do you know if someone coughs enough?” I wondered the same thing, but fortunately the Methods section is clear: you make them inhale purified habanero peppers (capsaicin). Apparently pepper gas is irritating to the lungs, but if you breathe secondhand smoke day and night, you become less sensitive to this and other irritants, an adaptation that proves quite useful for those who live in regions with frequent jalapeño wildfires, but is not so good if you’re trying to fight off viruses, bacteria, or environmental pollutants. The researchers felt their findings might also explain why children of smokers are more likely to take up smoking themselves, being less sensitive to the lungs’ way of telling the brain, “Either you’re trying to kill us, or someone has torched the Taqueria!”
A Perfect Fit
How many times as a parent have you wondered, “Is this behavior normal?” Wouldn’t you feel relieved if only someone could just tell you, “No, it’s not. It may be an early sign of a psychiatric or developmental disorder.” Now, thanks to an article in this month’s Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, we have a better idea of what’s normal for childhood tantrums and when it’s a whole other candy aisle. After surveying parents of 1,500 preschoolers, researchers determined that while nearly 84% of children aged 3 to 5 years have periodic tantrums, only 8.6% had an outburst every day.
Most tantrums resulted from the routine challenges and disappointments of daily life, like having to take a nap, losing a toy to a playmate, or contemplating that we’re unlikely to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East. Researchers point out that inexplicable, violent, or unusually frequent tantrums are more likely to signal the presence of underlying psychopathology and, if unchecked, may lead to a career in Congress.
Good Shot
With all the bad news about Bisphenol A, aging male gametes, and pesticides, you’ve got to wonder if there’s anything out there any more that doesn’t cause birth defects! As it turns out, there is: flu vaccine. The largest-ever study of women receiving influenza vaccine during pregnancy found that not only did the vaccine not increase rates of congenital malformations, women who received the vaccine had lower rates of preterm birth, stillbirth, and neonatal death. To me these data make vaccinating pregnant women against the flu a complete no-brainer, a high-stakes win-win for mom and baby, but I have no doubt that somewhere on the Internet at this very moment someone is posting scare stories about the flu vaccine that will lead a certain number of mothers to choose preterm delivery, stillbirth, and neonatal death over a quick shot in the arm. To make myself feel better, I’m going to take my daughter shopping at one of those popular stores where the models all wear clothes, lots of them.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
I discovered Abercrombie & Fitch when my daughter, now nearly 13, was an infant. What grabbed my attention was a wall-sized poster of a young man who, as best I could tell from the photograph, was completely nude. I rushed inside to see if I could buy that kind of nakedness and, if so, how much it would cost, because he had exactly the killer abs I wanted! Sadly, they only sold flannel shirts which, for $75, could cover my post-residency paunch so that people might assume I had also bought the abs but was just too humble to flaunt them. I passed on the shirt, and then I uttered a little prayer: “Please, Lord, let consumers lose interest in this retailer before my little girl grows old enough to want to shop there, or at their down-market affiliate, Hollister.” Amen.
Smoking Gun
There’s no way, in a million years, you’d ever guess the latest scientific finding on why children exposed to cigarette smoke in the home tend to get more asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia. You’re more likely to guess why people remain fascinated with Snooki, or how the Oogieloves movie got green-lighted. Okay, I’ll just tell you: they don’t cough enough. That’s right, according to a new study out of Philadelphia, children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) cough too little, not too much, at least when they’re not sick, which they are, often.
“How,” I hear you asking, “do you know if someone coughs enough?” I wondered the same thing, but fortunately the Methods section is clear: you make them inhale purified habanero peppers (capsaicin). Apparently pepper gas is irritating to the lungs, but if you breathe secondhand smoke day and night, you become less sensitive to this and other irritants, an adaptation that proves quite useful for those who live in regions with frequent jalapeño wildfires, but is not so good if you’re trying to fight off viruses, bacteria, or environmental pollutants. The researchers felt their findings might also explain why children of smokers are more likely to take up smoking themselves, being less sensitive to the lungs’ way of telling the brain, “Either you’re trying to kill us, or someone has torched the Taqueria!”
A Perfect Fit
How many times as a parent have you wondered, “Is this behavior normal?” Wouldn’t you feel relieved if only someone could just tell you, “No, it’s not. It may be an early sign of a psychiatric or developmental disorder.” Now, thanks to an article in this month’s Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, we have a better idea of what’s normal for childhood tantrums and when it’s a whole other candy aisle. After surveying parents of 1,500 preschoolers, researchers determined that while nearly 84% of children aged 3 to 5 years have periodic tantrums, only 8.6% had an outburst every day.
Most tantrums resulted from the routine challenges and disappointments of daily life, like having to take a nap, losing a toy to a playmate, or contemplating that we’re unlikely to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East. Researchers point out that inexplicable, violent, or unusually frequent tantrums are more likely to signal the presence of underlying psychopathology and, if unchecked, may lead to a career in Congress.
Good Shot
With all the bad news about Bisphenol A, aging male gametes, and pesticides, you’ve got to wonder if there’s anything out there any more that doesn’t cause birth defects! As it turns out, there is: flu vaccine. The largest-ever study of women receiving influenza vaccine during pregnancy found that not only did the vaccine not increase rates of congenital malformations, women who received the vaccine had lower rates of preterm birth, stillbirth, and neonatal death. To me these data make vaccinating pregnant women against the flu a complete no-brainer, a high-stakes win-win for mom and baby, but I have no doubt that somewhere on the Internet at this very moment someone is posting scare stories about the flu vaccine that will lead a certain number of mothers to choose preterm delivery, stillbirth, and neonatal death over a quick shot in the arm. To make myself feel better, I’m going to take my daughter shopping at one of those popular stores where the models all wear clothes, lots of them.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
Man, steel, seeks magical relationship...
As a child, there were many things I hoped I might live to see, almost none of which have come to pass. There are still no colonies on the moon. The only flying car in production is really just a single-engine prop with folded up wings. My mother has yet to be wrong about something. But now the wait is over, at least if you, like me, have been waiting since sixth grade to see Superman and Wonder Woman get it on!
Thanks to DC Comics publisher and artist Jim Lee, we will finally understand the real meaning of the words “power couple.” Of course I’m sure it will be very exciting for the first few years, when it’s all invisible jet getaways and counter-rotating the Earth for a do-over, but I hope to keep reading until the issue where Wonder Woman lassos Superman and forces him to tell the truth about why he won’t just once pick up his cape and put it in the Laundry Basket Of Solitude!
The Kindest Cut?
The biggest story in pediatrics this week has got to be the American Academy of Pediatrics' revised policy statement on infant circumcision. The last such statement, from 1999, can be summed up as follows: “Meh.” Coming down squarely in favor of not coming down on any side, the statement’s wishiness was matched only by its washiness. Not so the new policy, which declares loudly and strongly that the medical benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks, not so much as to make it a generally recommended thing, but enough that at least payers should cover the procedure if parents, after weighing all the variables in light of their own culturally-specific values, want it done.
Anti-circumcision activists (or “inactivists” as they call themselves) were quick to respond, protesting in front of the offices of the AAP’s California Chapter 1 in San Rafael and, at one point, bursting into the office to accuse pediatricians of genital mutilation and human rights abuses and also to get a refill on Folger’s Crystals with non-dairy creamer. While I do perform circumcisions, I have always secretly enjoyed the antics of the inactivists at AAP meetings, where they consistently field a small, dedicated team of protesters. With the meeting in New Orleans this year, I really can’t wait to see their booth, just to check out the swag!
What Would You Say
Do you ever wonder if the cello rental fee is really worth it, given that your son seems less of a Yo Yo Ma and more of a Yo Yo? A new study in the Journal Of Neuroscience suggests that kids who take music lessons even for a few years grow up to be better listeners. The study was not designed to address my most pressing question: “How soon does it work?” Ideally I’d sit my son down at the piano, show him Chopsticks, and then tell him to go clean up his room. Since it may take years to get my answer, I’m just going to start singing all my instructions to my kids, based on the greatest hits of the 1990s. There’s “U Can’t Touch This...Dessert Until You Clear The Table,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit...So Please Bring Me Your Laundry,” and “Unbelievable...That You Have Not Yet Finished Your Homework.”
Men Get A Break
When you think of Iceland, you probably think of the singer Björk, volcanoes like Eyjafjallajökull, and, uh, Björk. But Iceland is also home to Decode Genetics, the high-tech firm whose chief executive, Dr. Kari Stefansson, continues to mine the island nation’s extensive genetic database for blockbuster medical discoveries. Last week Stefansson, publishing in Nature, made a major leap forward in understanding the pathology of conditions like autism and schizophrenia in two words: old sperm.
That’s right, as men age it appears we collect more than ear hair and NASCAR bobbleheads; we collect mutations in our sperm, which we then pass on to our offspring. Where women transmit an average of 15 mutations regardless of what age they get pregnant, men’s rapidly dividing sperm rack up an average of two mutations a year, rising from 25 genetic misspellings at age 20 to over 65 by age 40. Future research will be directed at determining whether these errors stem more from failing to ask directions or from throwing away the instruction manual. A word to Wonder Woman: Superman was born in 1932, just saying.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
As a child, there were many things I hoped I might live to see, almost none of which have come to pass. There are still no colonies on the moon. The only flying car in production is really just a single-engine prop with folded up wings. My mother has yet to be wrong about something. But now the wait is over, at least if you, like me, have been waiting since sixth grade to see Superman and Wonder Woman get it on!
Thanks to DC Comics publisher and artist Jim Lee, we will finally understand the real meaning of the words “power couple.” Of course I’m sure it will be very exciting for the first few years, when it’s all invisible jet getaways and counter-rotating the Earth for a do-over, but I hope to keep reading until the issue where Wonder Woman lassos Superman and forces him to tell the truth about why he won’t just once pick up his cape and put it in the Laundry Basket Of Solitude!
The Kindest Cut?
The biggest story in pediatrics this week has got to be the American Academy of Pediatrics' revised policy statement on infant circumcision. The last such statement, from 1999, can be summed up as follows: “Meh.” Coming down squarely in favor of not coming down on any side, the statement’s wishiness was matched only by its washiness. Not so the new policy, which declares loudly and strongly that the medical benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks, not so much as to make it a generally recommended thing, but enough that at least payers should cover the procedure if parents, after weighing all the variables in light of their own culturally-specific values, want it done.
Anti-circumcision activists (or “inactivists” as they call themselves) were quick to respond, protesting in front of the offices of the AAP’s California Chapter 1 in San Rafael and, at one point, bursting into the office to accuse pediatricians of genital mutilation and human rights abuses and also to get a refill on Folger’s Crystals with non-dairy creamer. While I do perform circumcisions, I have always secretly enjoyed the antics of the inactivists at AAP meetings, where they consistently field a small, dedicated team of protesters. With the meeting in New Orleans this year, I really can’t wait to see their booth, just to check out the swag!
What Would You Say
Do you ever wonder if the cello rental fee is really worth it, given that your son seems less of a Yo Yo Ma and more of a Yo Yo? A new study in the Journal Of Neuroscience suggests that kids who take music lessons even for a few years grow up to be better listeners. The study was not designed to address my most pressing question: “How soon does it work?” Ideally I’d sit my son down at the piano, show him Chopsticks, and then tell him to go clean up his room. Since it may take years to get my answer, I’m just going to start singing all my instructions to my kids, based on the greatest hits of the 1990s. There’s “U Can’t Touch This...Dessert Until You Clear The Table,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit...So Please Bring Me Your Laundry,” and “Unbelievable...That You Have Not Yet Finished Your Homework.”
Men Get A Break
When you think of Iceland, you probably think of the singer Björk, volcanoes like Eyjafjallajökull, and, uh, Björk. But Iceland is also home to Decode Genetics, the high-tech firm whose chief executive, Dr. Kari Stefansson, continues to mine the island nation’s extensive genetic database for blockbuster medical discoveries. Last week Stefansson, publishing in Nature, made a major leap forward in understanding the pathology of conditions like autism and schizophrenia in two words: old sperm.
That’s right, as men age it appears we collect more than ear hair and NASCAR bobbleheads; we collect mutations in our sperm, which we then pass on to our offspring. Where women transmit an average of 15 mutations regardless of what age they get pregnant, men’s rapidly dividing sperm rack up an average of two mutations a year, rising from 25 genetic misspellings at age 20 to over 65 by age 40. Future research will be directed at determining whether these errors stem more from failing to ask directions or from throwing away the instruction manual. A word to Wonder Woman: Superman was born in 1932, just saying.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
As a child, there were many things I hoped I might live to see, almost none of which have come to pass. There are still no colonies on the moon. The only flying car in production is really just a single-engine prop with folded up wings. My mother has yet to be wrong about something. But now the wait is over, at least if you, like me, have been waiting since sixth grade to see Superman and Wonder Woman get it on!
Thanks to DC Comics publisher and artist Jim Lee, we will finally understand the real meaning of the words “power couple.” Of course I’m sure it will be very exciting for the first few years, when it’s all invisible jet getaways and counter-rotating the Earth for a do-over, but I hope to keep reading until the issue where Wonder Woman lassos Superman and forces him to tell the truth about why he won’t just once pick up his cape and put it in the Laundry Basket Of Solitude!
The Kindest Cut?
The biggest story in pediatrics this week has got to be the American Academy of Pediatrics' revised policy statement on infant circumcision. The last such statement, from 1999, can be summed up as follows: “Meh.” Coming down squarely in favor of not coming down on any side, the statement’s wishiness was matched only by its washiness. Not so the new policy, which declares loudly and strongly that the medical benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks, not so much as to make it a generally recommended thing, but enough that at least payers should cover the procedure if parents, after weighing all the variables in light of their own culturally-specific values, want it done.
Anti-circumcision activists (or “inactivists” as they call themselves) were quick to respond, protesting in front of the offices of the AAP’s California Chapter 1 in San Rafael and, at one point, bursting into the office to accuse pediatricians of genital mutilation and human rights abuses and also to get a refill on Folger’s Crystals with non-dairy creamer. While I do perform circumcisions, I have always secretly enjoyed the antics of the inactivists at AAP meetings, where they consistently field a small, dedicated team of protesters. With the meeting in New Orleans this year, I really can’t wait to see their booth, just to check out the swag!
What Would You Say
Do you ever wonder if the cello rental fee is really worth it, given that your son seems less of a Yo Yo Ma and more of a Yo Yo? A new study in the Journal Of Neuroscience suggests that kids who take music lessons even for a few years grow up to be better listeners. The study was not designed to address my most pressing question: “How soon does it work?” Ideally I’d sit my son down at the piano, show him Chopsticks, and then tell him to go clean up his room. Since it may take years to get my answer, I’m just going to start singing all my instructions to my kids, based on the greatest hits of the 1990s. There’s “U Can’t Touch This...Dessert Until You Clear The Table,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit...So Please Bring Me Your Laundry,” and “Unbelievable...That You Have Not Yet Finished Your Homework.”
Men Get A Break
When you think of Iceland, you probably think of the singer Björk, volcanoes like Eyjafjallajökull, and, uh, Björk. But Iceland is also home to Decode Genetics, the high-tech firm whose chief executive, Dr. Kari Stefansson, continues to mine the island nation’s extensive genetic database for blockbuster medical discoveries. Last week Stefansson, publishing in Nature, made a major leap forward in understanding the pathology of conditions like autism and schizophrenia in two words: old sperm.
That’s right, as men age it appears we collect more than ear hair and NASCAR bobbleheads; we collect mutations in our sperm, which we then pass on to our offspring. Where women transmit an average of 15 mutations regardless of what age they get pregnant, men’s rapidly dividing sperm rack up an average of two mutations a year, rising from 25 genetic misspellings at age 20 to over 65 by age 40. Future research will be directed at determining whether these errors stem more from failing to ask directions or from throwing away the instruction manual. A word to Wonder Woman: Superman was born in 1932, just saying.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
Double Hockey Sticks
Officials at Prague High School in Oklahoma are finally taking a principled stand against the degradation of civility in our culture by denying 2012 class valedictorian Kaitlin Nootbaar her diploma. Nootbaar reportedly substituted for the word “heck” in her graduation speech, referring to her confusion about her possible plans for the future. Now, until she submits a written letter of apology, she will not be able to do those things you can do only if you have a physical copy of your high school diploma, like frame your high school diploma. Fortunately, Nootbaar already has a full scholarship to college, allowing her to still pursue such promising career options as rap lyricist, talk radio host, and Dante scholar.
Gimme a “D”
While the cure for the common cold remains elusive, a group of researchers from Harvard has gone a long way toward finding effective prevention. How far have they gone? To Ulan Bator, Mongolia, the place they deemed best for finding lots of kids deficient in vitamin D due to a climate so unforgiving that even people who’ve lived there all their lives don’t want to go outside. There they found that supplementing children’s diets with a mere 300 IU of vitamin D a day (3/4 the current US recommendation) was enough to cut the incidence of viral upper respiratory infections in half.
While most American children live in places with more sunlight than Mongolia, Americans’ vitamin D levels can be just as low, since any home in the US can be transformed into a mini-Ulan Bator simply by adding a video game console. Most American children require supplemental vitamins to get adequate quantities of vitamin D. Dietary sources do exist, but many are not popular, at least with my kids, including sardines, liver, and cod liver oil (combining all the goodness of sardines and liver in one teaspoon!). If there’s any dietary vitamin D source likely to stave off colds in my kids, it’s margarine. Just in case, I’ll be giving them supplements this winter, but honestly I hope they don’t tell their classmates. I just can’t sit through another 15 minutes of Perfect Attendance awards this year.
One Wafer-thin Mint?
Can one marshmallow make a difference in obesity? Apparently it can if it was used in the famous Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. The study, so influential it served as a plot point in The Five Year Engagement, correlated preschoolers’ ability to hold off eating a marshmallow in return for a second one with their subsequent success in school and beyond. Researchers publishing in the Journal Of Pediatrics wondered if performance in the original experiment, conducted between 1968 and 1974, might predict adult BMI.
They did not report on whether the original experimental subjects are sick and tired of providing personal information to scientists and just wished they’d had a stomach bug the day they were offered that first pillowy treat. They did report that subjects’ ability to delay gratification in preschool correlated with a lower adult BMI. My take-away from these data is that, since I never really enjoyed marshmallows, I will be massively successful and live forever. Researchers suggested that parents who want to teach their children to delay gratification encourage them to participate in activities like martial arts, games like “Mother May I,” and trips to the Department Of Motor Vehicles.
A Pox On None Of Your Houses
It seems that when The Vaccine Conversation comes up, parents I talk with often get stuck on varicella. What, after all, is so bad about kids having chicken pox? That’s when I like to pull up my shirt and show them the scars I have from the two weeks I spent bedridden at age 14 drinking chicken broth and watching Gilligan’s Island reruns, but some parents tell me this “freaks them out,” and that I’m “over-sharing.” So instead I remind them that varicella infection can and does lead to hospitalizations and even deaths. Now the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) has released a new analysis of how well the varicella vaccine is doing at preventing those things, although they leave out the scars left by wound infections and overdosing on Bob Denver.
In the decade between 2000 and 2010 varicella cases dropped by 80%, from 43 cases per 100,000 population to a mere nine. Even better, 2010 saw only four deaths from varicella, none in vaccinated patients. I don't know whether these data will slow online sales of varicella-laden lollipops but I sure hope so, or I might have to pull up my shirt on You Tube. Will it work? To quote one promising Oklahoma valedictorian, “How the hell do I know?”
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
Officials at Prague High School in Oklahoma are finally taking a principled stand against the degradation of civility in our culture by denying 2012 class valedictorian Kaitlin Nootbaar her diploma. Nootbaar reportedly substituted for the word “heck” in her graduation speech, referring to her confusion about her possible plans for the future. Now, until she submits a written letter of apology, she will not be able to do those things you can do only if you have a physical copy of your high school diploma, like frame your high school diploma. Fortunately, Nootbaar already has a full scholarship to college, allowing her to still pursue such promising career options as rap lyricist, talk radio host, and Dante scholar.
Gimme a “D”
While the cure for the common cold remains elusive, a group of researchers from Harvard has gone a long way toward finding effective prevention. How far have they gone? To Ulan Bator, Mongolia, the place they deemed best for finding lots of kids deficient in vitamin D due to a climate so unforgiving that even people who’ve lived there all their lives don’t want to go outside. There they found that supplementing children’s diets with a mere 300 IU of vitamin D a day (3/4 the current US recommendation) was enough to cut the incidence of viral upper respiratory infections in half.
While most American children live in places with more sunlight than Mongolia, Americans’ vitamin D levels can be just as low, since any home in the US can be transformed into a mini-Ulan Bator simply by adding a video game console. Most American children require supplemental vitamins to get adequate quantities of vitamin D. Dietary sources do exist, but many are not popular, at least with my kids, including sardines, liver, and cod liver oil (combining all the goodness of sardines and liver in one teaspoon!). If there’s any dietary vitamin D source likely to stave off colds in my kids, it’s margarine. Just in case, I’ll be giving them supplements this winter, but honestly I hope they don’t tell their classmates. I just can’t sit through another 15 minutes of Perfect Attendance awards this year.
One Wafer-thin Mint?
Can one marshmallow make a difference in obesity? Apparently it can if it was used in the famous Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. The study, so influential it served as a plot point in The Five Year Engagement, correlated preschoolers’ ability to hold off eating a marshmallow in return for a second one with their subsequent success in school and beyond. Researchers publishing in the Journal Of Pediatrics wondered if performance in the original experiment, conducted between 1968 and 1974, might predict adult BMI.
They did not report on whether the original experimental subjects are sick and tired of providing personal information to scientists and just wished they’d had a stomach bug the day they were offered that first pillowy treat. They did report that subjects’ ability to delay gratification in preschool correlated with a lower adult BMI. My take-away from these data is that, since I never really enjoyed marshmallows, I will be massively successful and live forever. Researchers suggested that parents who want to teach their children to delay gratification encourage them to participate in activities like martial arts, games like “Mother May I,” and trips to the Department Of Motor Vehicles.
A Pox On None Of Your Houses
It seems that when The Vaccine Conversation comes up, parents I talk with often get stuck on varicella. What, after all, is so bad about kids having chicken pox? That’s when I like to pull up my shirt and show them the scars I have from the two weeks I spent bedridden at age 14 drinking chicken broth and watching Gilligan’s Island reruns, but some parents tell me this “freaks them out,” and that I’m “over-sharing.” So instead I remind them that varicella infection can and does lead to hospitalizations and even deaths. Now the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) has released a new analysis of how well the varicella vaccine is doing at preventing those things, although they leave out the scars left by wound infections and overdosing on Bob Denver.
In the decade between 2000 and 2010 varicella cases dropped by 80%, from 43 cases per 100,000 population to a mere nine. Even better, 2010 saw only four deaths from varicella, none in vaccinated patients. I don't know whether these data will slow online sales of varicella-laden lollipops but I sure hope so, or I might have to pull up my shirt on You Tube. Will it work? To quote one promising Oklahoma valedictorian, “How the hell do I know?”
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
Officials at Prague High School in Oklahoma are finally taking a principled stand against the degradation of civility in our culture by denying 2012 class valedictorian Kaitlin Nootbaar her diploma. Nootbaar reportedly substituted for the word “heck” in her graduation speech, referring to her confusion about her possible plans for the future. Now, until she submits a written letter of apology, she will not be able to do those things you can do only if you have a physical copy of your high school diploma, like frame your high school diploma. Fortunately, Nootbaar already has a full scholarship to college, allowing her to still pursue such promising career options as rap lyricist, talk radio host, and Dante scholar.
Gimme a “D”
While the cure for the common cold remains elusive, a group of researchers from Harvard has gone a long way toward finding effective prevention. How far have they gone? To Ulan Bator, Mongolia, the place they deemed best for finding lots of kids deficient in vitamin D due to a climate so unforgiving that even people who’ve lived there all their lives don’t want to go outside. There they found that supplementing children’s diets with a mere 300 IU of vitamin D a day (3/4 the current US recommendation) was enough to cut the incidence of viral upper respiratory infections in half.
While most American children live in places with more sunlight than Mongolia, Americans’ vitamin D levels can be just as low, since any home in the US can be transformed into a mini-Ulan Bator simply by adding a video game console. Most American children require supplemental vitamins to get adequate quantities of vitamin D. Dietary sources do exist, but many are not popular, at least with my kids, including sardines, liver, and cod liver oil (combining all the goodness of sardines and liver in one teaspoon!). If there’s any dietary vitamin D source likely to stave off colds in my kids, it’s margarine. Just in case, I’ll be giving them supplements this winter, but honestly I hope they don’t tell their classmates. I just can’t sit through another 15 minutes of Perfect Attendance awards this year.
One Wafer-thin Mint?
Can one marshmallow make a difference in obesity? Apparently it can if it was used in the famous Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. The study, so influential it served as a plot point in The Five Year Engagement, correlated preschoolers’ ability to hold off eating a marshmallow in return for a second one with their subsequent success in school and beyond. Researchers publishing in the Journal Of Pediatrics wondered if performance in the original experiment, conducted between 1968 and 1974, might predict adult BMI.
They did not report on whether the original experimental subjects are sick and tired of providing personal information to scientists and just wished they’d had a stomach bug the day they were offered that first pillowy treat. They did report that subjects’ ability to delay gratification in preschool correlated with a lower adult BMI. My take-away from these data is that, since I never really enjoyed marshmallows, I will be massively successful and live forever. Researchers suggested that parents who want to teach their children to delay gratification encourage them to participate in activities like martial arts, games like “Mother May I,” and trips to the Department Of Motor Vehicles.
A Pox On None Of Your Houses
It seems that when The Vaccine Conversation comes up, parents I talk with often get stuck on varicella. What, after all, is so bad about kids having chicken pox? That’s when I like to pull up my shirt and show them the scars I have from the two weeks I spent bedridden at age 14 drinking chicken broth and watching Gilligan’s Island reruns, but some parents tell me this “freaks them out,” and that I’m “over-sharing.” So instead I remind them that varicella infection can and does lead to hospitalizations and even deaths. Now the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) has released a new analysis of how well the varicella vaccine is doing at preventing those things, although they leave out the scars left by wound infections and overdosing on Bob Denver.
In the decade between 2000 and 2010 varicella cases dropped by 80%, from 43 cases per 100,000 population to a mere nine. Even better, 2010 saw only four deaths from varicella, none in vaccinated patients. I don't know whether these data will slow online sales of varicella-laden lollipops but I sure hope so, or I might have to pull up my shirt on You Tube. Will it work? To quote one promising Oklahoma valedictorian, “How the hell do I know?”
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro (AAP Publishing 2012).
See Ya Later ...
There’s really only one way to teach people that it’s not a good idea to stick your hand in an alligator’s mouth. I can hear you thinking, “Is that something people have to be taught?” to which I answer, “Do you watch YouTube?” Yes, dedicated alligator trainers like Daniel Beck of “The Kachunga and The Alligator Show” travel to places like the Ohio State Fair to help people understand how to behave should one of these noble, misunderstood creatures one day appear in their wading pool. Last week, Mr. Beck got his point across a little too well, nearly losing his arm in the process. I’ve considered putting on a similar show myself, but with sloths.
Would You Like Fries With That?
This week’s biggest pediatric story is the finding that kids in states that regulate the availability of junk food in schools are less obese than kids in states that consider tortilla chips a vegetable. I can hear you thinking, “They got a grant for this?” to which I answer, “How long have you been reading this blog?” Some less rigorous studies favored by junk food lobbyists questioned whether kids even ate enough at school to make a difference. So researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the National Cancer Institute decided to use the Westlaw legal database to rank states’ regulation of “competitive” (read “junk”) foods in schools and then to cross-reference those data with actual height and weight records on 6300 students in 40 states.
The results showed a strong correlation between the strength and consistency of states’ food regulations and the obesity of their students. What do the authors mean by “strength”? It turns out some states’ laws are very specific about the nutritional content of foods to be sold to students, while others simply suggest that foods be “healthy,” a criterion that pretty much any food can meet when compared to, say, starvation. By “consistency” they mean that some states have strong regulations in place for younger children, but the rules relax as kids get older, since everyone knows that teenagers cannot gain weight from washing down cheese doodles with a 20-ounce soda.
The authors do not identify states by name for legal reasons, but you can research your own state’s laws, or, faster, just walk into the nearest high school and check out the vending machines. Do they sell stuff that’s orange, crunchy, and not carrots? If so, you have two choices: call your state representative about changing the law, or call your broker about investing in that mobile cath lab.
Bedbugs
Speaking of the obvious, we’ve known for a long time that kids who watch more violent television shows don’t sleep so well. But no study has ever proven that just because a child watches The Walking Dead at bedtime instead of Dora The Explorer there’s not some other unrelated reason he wakes up at midnight screaming about zombies. Until now.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis’ team at Seattle Children’s actually went into people’s homes to teach them to substitute educational and prosocial media (Curious George, Sesame Street) for the more violent media their preschoolers had been watching (Ben 10, Meet The Press). Then they followed up on children’s sleep behaviors for 18 months, demonstrating that kids who watched less violent TV shows indeed slept better. With this question settled, future studies are expected to determine whether old episodes of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood can be used for procedural sedation.
Pests aside
Boys can get a bad rap for not being sensitive, and I think it’s totally unfair. Did I burn ants with a magnifying glass when I was a kid? Well, yes. But I held a tiny little funeral for each and every one. A new study shows that boys are more sensitive than girls, at least when it comes to prenatal pesticide exposure. Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is an organophosphate bug-killer known to delay development and decrease working memory in children exposed to the chemical in utero. A Columbia University-based research team attempted to determine whether a nurturing home environment might attenuate some of the damage attributed to CPF.
The good news is ... wait, there is no good news. No amount of nurturing, defined as parental attentiveness, displays of physical affection, encouragement of delayed gratification, limit-setting, and mother’s ability to control her negative reactions, was able to restore baseline brain function in CPF-exposed children. But boys did respond marginally better than girls to such measures, for what it’s worth. My advice is that if you’re pregnant with a boy and you have bugs in your house, tell them they’d better get out now, or one day you’re going to give your boy a really big magnifying glass. But seriously, don’t encourage that sort of behavior. It’s a short step from ants to alligators.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill's first book, Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro will be available starting in April 2012 from AAP Publishing.
There’s really only one way to teach people that it’s not a good idea to stick your hand in an alligator’s mouth. I can hear you thinking, “Is that something people have to be taught?” to which I answer, “Do you watch YouTube?” Yes, dedicated alligator trainers like Daniel Beck of “The Kachunga and The Alligator Show” travel to places like the Ohio State Fair to help people understand how to behave should one of these noble, misunderstood creatures one day appear in their wading pool. Last week, Mr. Beck got his point across a little too well, nearly losing his arm in the process. I’ve considered putting on a similar show myself, but with sloths.
Would You Like Fries With That?
This week’s biggest pediatric story is the finding that kids in states that regulate the availability of junk food in schools are less obese than kids in states that consider tortilla chips a vegetable. I can hear you thinking, “They got a grant for this?” to which I answer, “How long have you been reading this blog?” Some less rigorous studies favored by junk food lobbyists questioned whether kids even ate enough at school to make a difference. So researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the National Cancer Institute decided to use the Westlaw legal database to rank states’ regulation of “competitive” (read “junk”) foods in schools and then to cross-reference those data with actual height and weight records on 6300 students in 40 states.
The results showed a strong correlation between the strength and consistency of states’ food regulations and the obesity of their students. What do the authors mean by “strength”? It turns out some states’ laws are very specific about the nutritional content of foods to be sold to students, while others simply suggest that foods be “healthy,” a criterion that pretty much any food can meet when compared to, say, starvation. By “consistency” they mean that some states have strong regulations in place for younger children, but the rules relax as kids get older, since everyone knows that teenagers cannot gain weight from washing down cheese doodles with a 20-ounce soda.
The authors do not identify states by name for legal reasons, but you can research your own state’s laws, or, faster, just walk into the nearest high school and check out the vending machines. Do they sell stuff that’s orange, crunchy, and not carrots? If so, you have two choices: call your state representative about changing the law, or call your broker about investing in that mobile cath lab.
Bedbugs
Speaking of the obvious, we’ve known for a long time that kids who watch more violent television shows don’t sleep so well. But no study has ever proven that just because a child watches The Walking Dead at bedtime instead of Dora The Explorer there’s not some other unrelated reason he wakes up at midnight screaming about zombies. Until now.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis’ team at Seattle Children’s actually went into people’s homes to teach them to substitute educational and prosocial media (Curious George, Sesame Street) for the more violent media their preschoolers had been watching (Ben 10, Meet The Press). Then they followed up on children’s sleep behaviors for 18 months, demonstrating that kids who watched less violent TV shows indeed slept better. With this question settled, future studies are expected to determine whether old episodes of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood can be used for procedural sedation.
Pests aside
Boys can get a bad rap for not being sensitive, and I think it’s totally unfair. Did I burn ants with a magnifying glass when I was a kid? Well, yes. But I held a tiny little funeral for each and every one. A new study shows that boys are more sensitive than girls, at least when it comes to prenatal pesticide exposure. Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is an organophosphate bug-killer known to delay development and decrease working memory in children exposed to the chemical in utero. A Columbia University-based research team attempted to determine whether a nurturing home environment might attenuate some of the damage attributed to CPF.
The good news is ... wait, there is no good news. No amount of nurturing, defined as parental attentiveness, displays of physical affection, encouragement of delayed gratification, limit-setting, and mother’s ability to control her negative reactions, was able to restore baseline brain function in CPF-exposed children. But boys did respond marginally better than girls to such measures, for what it’s worth. My advice is that if you’re pregnant with a boy and you have bugs in your house, tell them they’d better get out now, or one day you’re going to give your boy a really big magnifying glass. But seriously, don’t encourage that sort of behavior. It’s a short step from ants to alligators.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill's first book, Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro will be available starting in April 2012 from AAP Publishing.
There’s really only one way to teach people that it’s not a good idea to stick your hand in an alligator’s mouth. I can hear you thinking, “Is that something people have to be taught?” to which I answer, “Do you watch YouTube?” Yes, dedicated alligator trainers like Daniel Beck of “The Kachunga and The Alligator Show” travel to places like the Ohio State Fair to help people understand how to behave should one of these noble, misunderstood creatures one day appear in their wading pool. Last week, Mr. Beck got his point across a little too well, nearly losing his arm in the process. I’ve considered putting on a similar show myself, but with sloths.
Would You Like Fries With That?
This week’s biggest pediatric story is the finding that kids in states that regulate the availability of junk food in schools are less obese than kids in states that consider tortilla chips a vegetable. I can hear you thinking, “They got a grant for this?” to which I answer, “How long have you been reading this blog?” Some less rigorous studies favored by junk food lobbyists questioned whether kids even ate enough at school to make a difference. So researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the National Cancer Institute decided to use the Westlaw legal database to rank states’ regulation of “competitive” (read “junk”) foods in schools and then to cross-reference those data with actual height and weight records on 6300 students in 40 states.
The results showed a strong correlation between the strength and consistency of states’ food regulations and the obesity of their students. What do the authors mean by “strength”? It turns out some states’ laws are very specific about the nutritional content of foods to be sold to students, while others simply suggest that foods be “healthy,” a criterion that pretty much any food can meet when compared to, say, starvation. By “consistency” they mean that some states have strong regulations in place for younger children, but the rules relax as kids get older, since everyone knows that teenagers cannot gain weight from washing down cheese doodles with a 20-ounce soda.
The authors do not identify states by name for legal reasons, but you can research your own state’s laws, or, faster, just walk into the nearest high school and check out the vending machines. Do they sell stuff that’s orange, crunchy, and not carrots? If so, you have two choices: call your state representative about changing the law, or call your broker about investing in that mobile cath lab.
Bedbugs
Speaking of the obvious, we’ve known for a long time that kids who watch more violent television shows don’t sleep so well. But no study has ever proven that just because a child watches The Walking Dead at bedtime instead of Dora The Explorer there’s not some other unrelated reason he wakes up at midnight screaming about zombies. Until now.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis’ team at Seattle Children’s actually went into people’s homes to teach them to substitute educational and prosocial media (Curious George, Sesame Street) for the more violent media their preschoolers had been watching (Ben 10, Meet The Press). Then they followed up on children’s sleep behaviors for 18 months, demonstrating that kids who watched less violent TV shows indeed slept better. With this question settled, future studies are expected to determine whether old episodes of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood can be used for procedural sedation.
Pests aside
Boys can get a bad rap for not being sensitive, and I think it’s totally unfair. Did I burn ants with a magnifying glass when I was a kid? Well, yes. But I held a tiny little funeral for each and every one. A new study shows that boys are more sensitive than girls, at least when it comes to prenatal pesticide exposure. Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is an organophosphate bug-killer known to delay development and decrease working memory in children exposed to the chemical in utero. A Columbia University-based research team attempted to determine whether a nurturing home environment might attenuate some of the damage attributed to CPF.
The good news is ... wait, there is no good news. No amount of nurturing, defined as parental attentiveness, displays of physical affection, encouragement of delayed gratification, limit-setting, and mother’s ability to control her negative reactions, was able to restore baseline brain function in CPF-exposed children. But boys did respond marginally better than girls to such measures, for what it’s worth. My advice is that if you’re pregnant with a boy and you have bugs in your house, tell them they’d better get out now, or one day you’re going to give your boy a really big magnifying glass. But seriously, don’t encourage that sort of behavior. It’s a short step from ants to alligators.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill's first book, Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro will be available starting in April 2012 from AAP Publishing.
Sad Science
It seems American scientists lost their mojo ever since European physicists announced July 4th that they had discovered the Higgs boson. The low morale was even evident Sunday when NASA’s Curiosity rover executed a perfect landing on the surface of the Mars with the assistance of a giant parachute, a jet pack, and Tom Cruise in a black cat-suit (that last part was top-secret).
Allen Chen, the deputy head of the rover’s descent and landing team at the Jet Propulsion Lab, was heard to say, “I can’t believe this. This is unbelievable!” Really? Because his team, you know, designed the landing sequence. So if you run into any scientists this week, give them a hug. Remind them how we lucked out with the Mars rover and that, while we missed the Higgs, there will always be other bosons. Unless there’s only the one. Come to think of it, stick with the hug.
How Touching
A hug is an example of what psychologists call “positive touch.” Other examples of positive touch include patting a person on the head, fist-bumping, and handing someone a $50 bill. “Negative touch,” on the other hand, includes spanking, jerking a person by the arm, or giving someone knuckles somewhere other than his hand. Psychologist Kathy Stansbury noticed that parents never exhibit negative touch with their kids when they come to her laboratory at Michigan State University, so in order to study the phenomenon she and her team staked out playgrounds and restaurants, presumably after being ejected from Toys "R" Us.
After not having witnessed a single episode of negative touch in years of lab research, Stansbury was “very surprised” to see it used by nearly a quarter of caregivers when trying to get their 3- to 5-year-old children to comply, suggesting that perhaps this was her first visit to a playground. Not all the touch her team observed was negative, however. In cases where caregivers used positive touch, children were generally faster to comply, and they skipped pouting altogether. From this study I learned that next time I take my kids out to eat and they misbehave I need to scan the restaurant for 20-year-olds with Michigan State tee shirts and clipboards.
Plan Bee
The Michigan State study may be an example of the aphorism, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” but what if you don’t even like flies? What if instead you have a child with a cough that’s keeping her awake all night? In a study co-funded by the Honey Board of Israel researchers at Tel Aviv University demonstrated that children with cough slept better when given a bedtime dose of honey as opposed to concentrated extract of dates. Given the potential side effects of pediatric cough and cold medicines, I already advise parents of children over age 1 to choose honey as a cough suppressant, but how many times have I heard, “I’ve always used concentrated date extract, and it works so well!”? I’m sold, at least until I can get my grant from the State of North Carolina to study the antitussive properties of barbecue sauce.
A Big Problem
Speaking of sugar-coating, there's a new review of 24 articles on how physicians communicate with parents about their children’s weight problems. The authors concluded that when telling parents their children are overweight or obese it’s very important we not tell them their children are “overweight” or “obese.” Parents found such terms offensive and judgmental, and parents who felt criticized were less likely to establish strong partnerships with providers.
Preferred terms included “large,” “heavy,” and “gaining too much weight.” Doctors in the study often failed to discuss weight-related issues with parents for fear of offending them, apparently with good reason. The article, which includes a number of suggestions to help providers build effective partnerships with families, can be found in the journal Pediatric Obesity, which I will heretofore call Pediatric Largeness. Weight-related issues will pose a therapeutic challenge for years to come, but if we can land a rover on Mars, I think we tackle it, as long as we can count on help from Tom Cruise.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill's first book, Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro will be available starting in April 2012 from AAP Publishing.
It seems American scientists lost their mojo ever since European physicists announced July 4th that they had discovered the Higgs boson. The low morale was even evident Sunday when NASA’s Curiosity rover executed a perfect landing on the surface of the Mars with the assistance of a giant parachute, a jet pack, and Tom Cruise in a black cat-suit (that last part was top-secret).
Allen Chen, the deputy head of the rover’s descent and landing team at the Jet Propulsion Lab, was heard to say, “I can’t believe this. This is unbelievable!” Really? Because his team, you know, designed the landing sequence. So if you run into any scientists this week, give them a hug. Remind them how we lucked out with the Mars rover and that, while we missed the Higgs, there will always be other bosons. Unless there’s only the one. Come to think of it, stick with the hug.
How Touching
A hug is an example of what psychologists call “positive touch.” Other examples of positive touch include patting a person on the head, fist-bumping, and handing someone a $50 bill. “Negative touch,” on the other hand, includes spanking, jerking a person by the arm, or giving someone knuckles somewhere other than his hand. Psychologist Kathy Stansbury noticed that parents never exhibit negative touch with their kids when they come to her laboratory at Michigan State University, so in order to study the phenomenon she and her team staked out playgrounds and restaurants, presumably after being ejected from Toys "R" Us.
After not having witnessed a single episode of negative touch in years of lab research, Stansbury was “very surprised” to see it used by nearly a quarter of caregivers when trying to get their 3- to 5-year-old children to comply, suggesting that perhaps this was her first visit to a playground. Not all the touch her team observed was negative, however. In cases where caregivers used positive touch, children were generally faster to comply, and they skipped pouting altogether. From this study I learned that next time I take my kids out to eat and they misbehave I need to scan the restaurant for 20-year-olds with Michigan State tee shirts and clipboards.
Plan Bee
The Michigan State study may be an example of the aphorism, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” but what if you don’t even like flies? What if instead you have a child with a cough that’s keeping her awake all night? In a study co-funded by the Honey Board of Israel researchers at Tel Aviv University demonstrated that children with cough slept better when given a bedtime dose of honey as opposed to concentrated extract of dates. Given the potential side effects of pediatric cough and cold medicines, I already advise parents of children over age 1 to choose honey as a cough suppressant, but how many times have I heard, “I’ve always used concentrated date extract, and it works so well!”? I’m sold, at least until I can get my grant from the State of North Carolina to study the antitussive properties of barbecue sauce.
A Big Problem
Speaking of sugar-coating, there's a new review of 24 articles on how physicians communicate with parents about their children’s weight problems. The authors concluded that when telling parents their children are overweight or obese it’s very important we not tell them their children are “overweight” or “obese.” Parents found such terms offensive and judgmental, and parents who felt criticized were less likely to establish strong partnerships with providers.
Preferred terms included “large,” “heavy,” and “gaining too much weight.” Doctors in the study often failed to discuss weight-related issues with parents for fear of offending them, apparently with good reason. The article, which includes a number of suggestions to help providers build effective partnerships with families, can be found in the journal Pediatric Obesity, which I will heretofore call Pediatric Largeness. Weight-related issues will pose a therapeutic challenge for years to come, but if we can land a rover on Mars, I think we tackle it, as long as we can count on help from Tom Cruise.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill's first book, Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro will be available starting in April 2012 from AAP Publishing.
It seems American scientists lost their mojo ever since European physicists announced July 4th that they had discovered the Higgs boson. The low morale was even evident Sunday when NASA’s Curiosity rover executed a perfect landing on the surface of the Mars with the assistance of a giant parachute, a jet pack, and Tom Cruise in a black cat-suit (that last part was top-secret).
Allen Chen, the deputy head of the rover’s descent and landing team at the Jet Propulsion Lab, was heard to say, “I can’t believe this. This is unbelievable!” Really? Because his team, you know, designed the landing sequence. So if you run into any scientists this week, give them a hug. Remind them how we lucked out with the Mars rover and that, while we missed the Higgs, there will always be other bosons. Unless there’s only the one. Come to think of it, stick with the hug.
How Touching
A hug is an example of what psychologists call “positive touch.” Other examples of positive touch include patting a person on the head, fist-bumping, and handing someone a $50 bill. “Negative touch,” on the other hand, includes spanking, jerking a person by the arm, or giving someone knuckles somewhere other than his hand. Psychologist Kathy Stansbury noticed that parents never exhibit negative touch with their kids when they come to her laboratory at Michigan State University, so in order to study the phenomenon she and her team staked out playgrounds and restaurants, presumably after being ejected from Toys "R" Us.
After not having witnessed a single episode of negative touch in years of lab research, Stansbury was “very surprised” to see it used by nearly a quarter of caregivers when trying to get their 3- to 5-year-old children to comply, suggesting that perhaps this was her first visit to a playground. Not all the touch her team observed was negative, however. In cases where caregivers used positive touch, children were generally faster to comply, and they skipped pouting altogether. From this study I learned that next time I take my kids out to eat and they misbehave I need to scan the restaurant for 20-year-olds with Michigan State tee shirts and clipboards.
Plan Bee
The Michigan State study may be an example of the aphorism, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” but what if you don’t even like flies? What if instead you have a child with a cough that’s keeping her awake all night? In a study co-funded by the Honey Board of Israel researchers at Tel Aviv University demonstrated that children with cough slept better when given a bedtime dose of honey as opposed to concentrated extract of dates. Given the potential side effects of pediatric cough and cold medicines, I already advise parents of children over age 1 to choose honey as a cough suppressant, but how many times have I heard, “I’ve always used concentrated date extract, and it works so well!”? I’m sold, at least until I can get my grant from the State of North Carolina to study the antitussive properties of barbecue sauce.
A Big Problem
Speaking of sugar-coating, there's a new review of 24 articles on how physicians communicate with parents about their children’s weight problems. The authors concluded that when telling parents their children are overweight or obese it’s very important we not tell them their children are “overweight” or “obese.” Parents found such terms offensive and judgmental, and parents who felt criticized were less likely to establish strong partnerships with providers.
Preferred terms included “large,” “heavy,” and “gaining too much weight.” Doctors in the study often failed to discuss weight-related issues with parents for fear of offending them, apparently with good reason. The article, which includes a number of suggestions to help providers build effective partnerships with families, can be found in the journal Pediatric Obesity, which I will heretofore call Pediatric Largeness. Weight-related issues will pose a therapeutic challenge for years to come, but if we can land a rover on Mars, I think we tackle it, as long as we can count on help from Tom Cruise.
David L. Hill, M.D, FAAP, is vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, NC and is an adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television and Internet outlets. Dr. Hill's first book, Dad to Dad: Parenting Like A Pro will be available starting in April 2012 from AAP Publishing.
