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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).